They’d chosen to teleport, in the end. Alastor sighed as he sat on his bed, wondering just what he could do to burn the few minutes he had on his hand. Maybe he could read his journal entries from his second reset? It had been ages since he’d touched those – the last time he read them was in the third reset, so it could give him some new insight into Primus’ characters and how to interact with them.

Or maybe he could look into the sidequests tab – he’d stopped going into that tab of the magical parchment after he realized completing them provided no chaos points in and of itself, and the quests were pretty boring, too. But hey, he’d never known talking to people gave him chaos points, so maybe doing those gives him chaos points too.

His thoughts were interrupted by Raven’s voice.

“Can we kill… those responsible for the orphanage in the slums too?” She asked.

Ah. She must have gained a strong dislike of the orphanage after seeing the atrocities they committed upon the kids. However, there’s not all that many responsible culprits in that orphanage – a teleportation to that place would be a waste of mana and a teleportation scroll. However, they would be pretty good targets to take out – I feel like it’d improve my reputation in front of Severine and her disciples if I propose it.

“Why not?” Alastor replied. “I’ll propose it to the Vice Head. While it may not be easy to root out the nobles behind this themselves right now – they’d definitely have anti-teleportation formations within their residences, it should be easy to destroy those who manage the orphanage. However, Raven. How will the kids survive if it’s destroyed?”

Raven flapped her mouth open and shut at his words before sighing. This was probably what she’d hesitated to ask before they’d set out on their cleanse. But the facts of the matter were, the younger kids depended on the orphanage to survive. They’d have nowhere to go if it was destroyed. While the older kids were suffering due to the orphanage, their situation wasn’t any better. They had no proper skills nor support to even try and survive.

Alastor smiled at her gently. “How about this? Once I manage to properly establish myself, which, I promise will not take too long, I will buy the orphanage or expose it. I understand that every second that ticks is a potential threat to the childrens’ safety, but it is better to save them properly than half-heartedly, right?”

Raven nodded. Her face was still scrunched up, but it had relaxed considerably compared to before.

Alastor summoned the magical parchment, his gaze immediately sticking onto his current chaos points.

Chaos Points:

37

Soul Points:

96

One more point! From a simple conversation! Raven’s a true angel! Now I have definitely got to keep my promise to her, or I’d not be able to face myself. Well, I totally could face myself, but still.

Right then, someone else teleported into his room – someone Alastor didn’t expect would… the Head Mage. Alastor blinked blankly as he looked at the Head Mage, and the Head Mage looked back blankly at him for a few seconds.

Then, the Head Mage turned to Raven, “Could you please leave us alone for a few seconds, dear Raven? I have something to discuss with our dear Chosen One.”

—

Hecate stared at the second-time hero gravely. He had to clarify something before he could let the Chosen One complete his cleanse today. He just had to.

“What is your goal, Chosen One?” He paused for a second to rephrase his words, “What is your plan for the future? Originally, I was planning to send you to some small, corrupt noble’s territory, give you however long you need to build your strength by being the resident executioner, and take things slow.”

“But I don’t intend to go slow, and that scares you.” The Chosen One summarized his concerns perfectly, a small smile present on his face.

Hecate let out a trembling breath. Yes, it scared him that the second-time hero was not going slow. That he was reaping lives so quickly, that they were seemingly dancing on his palm, that things were going so contrary to plans, he’d have to back the Chosen One fully and inevitably put himself at the suspicion of the king so early, that he might be making a huge mistake and entertaining a disaster—

“My goal is simple, Head Mage.” The second-time hero stated calmly. “It is… to do good.” His expression turned just the slightest bit misty. “I know it looks like I’m taking things too quickly to you, and perhaps I am. But it is only to do good. Do as much good as I can, save those that the world has abandoned, to make this kingdom, and then this world… a utopia.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A utopia. That word struck within the Head Mage’s very heart. A utopia. A utopia just like the First Hero – but did the second-time hero really mean it?

“If I wanted to wantonly take lives, I would.” The Chosen One continued, “You know that too. What is it, Head Mage, what is it that makes you so afraid? So cautious, so biased, so afraid of me? Just what have I done?”

The Head Mage let out a shaky breath… And then it all came spilling out of his mouth. His past, Ragnar, the sheer bloody massacre that he had witnessed, and the fact that this second-time hero was so, so similar to him. Perhaps in any other circumstances, in any other situation, he would not reveal this to the Chosen One – take such a risk. But right now, he could not see any other way. He felt utterly helpless, and this was the only way. Or perhaps he was simply deluding himself to justify his decision.

The Chosen One let him speak, looking at him with a gentle, non-judging expression. It was only after Hecate finished speaking and let out a tired sigh did he take a pensive expression.

It was only after a few seconds did the second-time hero finally speak. “Would you believe me if I said that, while souls are indeed an integral part of my development process, I only really need ten to twenty thousand souls to reach the peak of the strength this world has to offer in all aspects? I could become an archmage, an archwarrior, and also enhance any missing aspects with a few more thousand souls.”

Hecate blinked blankly – at first that seemed like a big number, but the current demon realm was in the hundreds of thousands. Of course, this was if he counted the civilians and those innocent living in the demon realm too, but…. Hecate was a selfish man. He’d rather prefer the Chosen One devouring the demon realms’ civilians than the human realms’.

“And besides,” the Chosen One continued, “I truly desire to maintain a positive reputation – not only does it enrich my strength due to…” he paused, seemingly pondering about something. Perhaps he was hesitant to reveal his ability to me, Hecate mused, especially after how pointlessly suspicious I am being of him. “My holy attributes, but it is also nice to be able to help the people and be liked and viewed upon positively, because…”

The second-time hero looked endlessly exhausted all of a sudden, “I am just a human, in the end, Hecate. Can I call you that?” He looked up for approval, and Hecate nodded, “I am just a human, Hecate. I truly am. Please, believe me. I am not some monster that popped out of an abyss, nor do I seek to massacre endlessly. Am I callous? I am, I’ve become very callous, but I do not revel in suffering. I do not wish to end the world, like Ragnar. I wish to better this world.”

Hecate felt his breath hitch.

The Chosen One stood up from his bed, walking up to Hecate and holding him by his shoulders. “Please, trust me.” He beseeched, “Give me a chance.”

The Head Mage let out a shaky breath, looking into the second-time hero’s eyes. The second-time hero held his gaze firmly with Hecate’s, a peaceful smile on his face. It felt like time itself froze for them in that moment as the Head Mage tried to dig as deep as he could into those black eyes, trying to ascertain whether this was the truth, whether he could trust this man, whether his paranoia was simply that – paranoia.

And finally, time flowed once more, and his barriers collapsed. Hecate felt his shoulders slouch as he nodded. “I understand, Chosen One—”

“No.” The Chosen One interrupted, “Alastor. My name is Alastor, Hecate. Please, call me by my name.”

Hecate felt his heart warm at those words of the Chosen One’s, and he nodded. “Okay, Alastor. I trust you. I do.”

Alastor smiled and nodded at that, before continuing, “As for my plans… I do not know. However, I like your idea of infiltrating a noble house… Which noble house do you think would be suitable for me to reap a lot of lives from? Also, how do you think it would be if I were to overthrow a corrupt noble?”

Hecate gasped lightly as the implications of Alastor’s questions began flitting through his mind… And at the end of them all, only a single noble house’s name was left in his mind: Enaj, the border dukedom, the one who single handedly ran many of the underground organizations in Deidamia, a brutal place where all the knights had committed at least a few murders. As an added benefit, the dukedom is right next to the border of the United Monster Front, a long desert where monsters ran afoul—

“Wait.” Hecate paused, “Do monsters also count as souls for you, Ch– Alastor?”

Alastor blinked as he seemingly thought through his question. “It depends. What level of sentience are we talking about here?”

Tilting his head, Hecate pondered about it for a few seconds, “That depends, yes. Some of them are quite intelligent even though they are controlled by their base desires, while some of them are outright monsters.”

“Mhm,” Alastor nodded, “It would certainly be something worth experimenting, though my hunch is that most of them would not count as souls – of course, unless I somehow manage to grant them an increased amount of sentience before killing them.”

Hecate shuddered at that thought, and perhaps Alastor noticed his discomfort, for he smiled kindly, “Don’t worry about it too much. I’ll find a way. I do not want to take innocent human lives – I will only take the lives of those I deem to have crossed some very severe boundaries. Hell, I have a way to see what sins a person has committed – so no matter what noble territory you send me to, I’ll only kill those that are unworthy to live.”

“Enaj will be a perfect fit for you, Alastor.” Hecate declared with excitement. “A perfect fit.”

Alastor’s eyes glinted in recognition, which did not surprise Hecate – the second-time hero seemed to know about everything. “It would be, wouldn’t it? A perfect corrupt noble to overthrow, too.”

Both Hecate and Alastor grinned evilly.