Chapter 1 — Why Are You Guys Always So Naive?

A lone girl walked through the forest of monsters, the territory of the Beast Kings. She wore her hair in a short, tomboyish cut, but there was no way she could have been trying to disguise herself as a man; her figure was indisguisably feminine.

The girl walked through the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees as if she didn't have a care in the world. Aside from the knife at her waist, she was completely unarmed and she carried no luggage. For those who knew the forest, she must have looked insane.

The forest itself wasn't particularly harsh terrain. The trees were spaced out enough to let ample light through, and the ground was flat and even. But this particular region was populated by monsters; to walk within its borders was to step into the realm of the inhuman. Ordinary civilians would be devoured in an instant. Yet she wound through the trees as if strolling through nothing more than a park.

"Why is he hiding in a place like this anyway?" she complained, as if it were all too much trouble for her to be there.

"Well, it makes more sense than people who don't want to get involved with others yet still live in cities," a voice answered the girl's complaints, despite the fact that she was entirely alone. Rather than a person, the voice had come from the knife at her hip.

"You're talking about the last guy, right? For all his complaints about not wanting to be involved with other people, he had no problem getting a mansion in the city and setting himself up as an aristocrat. I don't really understand it, but it does sound like a much easier life to me."

"This is the best place to hide, though, don't you think? People so rarely come into the forest."

"How do they survive here?"

"It's simple. Monsters won't attack those who are clearly stronger than them."

That made sense. The forest around her was overflowing with the presence of monsters, but none of them dared approach the girl.

After walking for a while, she arrived at a clearing. The first thing she noticed was the rice paddy. Golden heads of rice swayed in the breeze as far as she could see.

"The maps didn't say anything about a huge clearing like this, did they?"

"The residents must have cleared it themselves. But for the monsters of the forest to leave this place untouched, its owner must be rather powerful."

"You know that has nothing to do with it. But still, this is pretty nice. Otherworlders always need rice, right?"

Besides the rice paddy, the clearing also housed a field for cultivating crops and pens for livestock. Whoever made it must have been dead set on self-sufficiency. Of course, there was no way a place this large could be managed by one solitary person, so it was hardly surprising to see numerous workers out in the fields.

"I wonder why they're all girls. And so many elves, too...they're everywhere!" The workers were exclusively attractive young women. More than half of them were elves, but there were also a few with animal ears and even some who had bat-like wings as well.

"Must be his personal preference."

"Everyone always wants an elf bride for some reason. No clue what they see in those fake humans."

"I think you are much more beautiful, personally."

"Thanks. But moving on..." She headed for one of the nearby elven workers. "Hey, you. Is the guy in charge of this place around?"

"Huh? Umm, how did you get here?" the elf girl asked, clearly surprised by the stranger's presence. She must have thought it was impossible for outsiders to reach them so deep in the forest. There were, of course, no roads there, and there was no way to drive a vehicle through the brush.

"I walked. Why so surprised, though? Didn't you have some other visitors recently?"

"I wouldn't know. Do you have some business with the master?"

"Yeah. Business. You can call him if you want, but just telling me where he is would be fine."

"Okay, I will take you to him." Putting her work on hold, the elf guided them farther onto the plantation.

Their destination was an enormous mansion in the distance, large enough that the girl felt a guide wasn't particularly necessary.

"Hey, I know it's kind of weird for me to ask, but are you sure you're allowed to take random strangers to meet your master?"

"There's no problem," the elf replied with an easy smile. "There's no one who can harm him, after all." She must have had absolute faith in the guy.

After walking for a while, they reached the mansion. Before they could so much as knock on the door, it swung open to reveal a young man. It seemed he was already aware that someone had come to visit.

"No matter how many times you ask, I'm not going to do it. That Sage thing or whatever? I'm not interested in that kind of annoying work."

The man was Japanese. Of medium height and build, his appearance was inoffensive but unimpressive. His clothes weren't particularly fancy, but he did have a longsword at his hip.

He was a Rogue Sage. That was the name Aoi and her group had given to those who had the power to be a Sage, but refused to join them.

"Don't worry, I'm the last one who'll come and ask you. Would you mind at least hearing me out?"

"Fine. But I can tell you right now, you won't change my mind. So say your piece and leave us alone," the man said with clear exasperation.

"First, just to make sure, you are Rikuto Saitou, correct?"

"Yup. And you're Aoi Hayanose? I'm surprised they finally bothered to send an actual Sage."

Rikuto must have been trying to surprise her by showing that he knew her identity, but for Aoi, it simply meant she didn't have to waste time introducing herself. She was well aware of what he was capable of.

"I'm here to invite you to join us, but you've heard that speech plenty of times, so I'll leave out the boring parts. This is the third time, so I'll just tell you what's different now. If you refuse this time, I'll have to kill you."

After a short pause, Rikuto burst out laughing, the laughter quickly devolving into a coughing fit. "You're gonna kill me, huh?" He finally recovered enough to respond and turned to the elf at Aoi's side. "That's a good one, don't you think, Layla? It's been a while since I've heard a good joke."

"No, it's not funny at all! You!" she snapped at Aoi. "What are you saying?! Apologize to him immediately! If you make Mr. Rikuto angry, things will get bad fast!"

"Okay, just to confirm, you plan on refusing the invitation again, correct?" Aoi asked, completely ignoring the elf. "Just remember, the moment you officially decline, we'll be enemies." She already knew what he would say, but she needed a formal answer.

"I refuse."

"I see," Aoi said with a smile. From the start, she had wanted to kill him, so it would have been unfortunate if he had suddenly changed his mind and joined them.

"Come on, now. There's no way you can kill me. You know how much stronger I am, right? God gave me the best possible power in this world."

"If we're talking pure specs, then sure, I'm definitely weaker," she confessed. She was strong enough that the monsters of the forest were afraid of her, but compared to the other Sages, she wasn't especially powerful.

"Given how this usually goes, you'll attack me regardless and I'll wipe the floor with you, but I'd appreciate it if you just gave up and left instead. A fight with no chance of losing is such a waste of time. Or...did you want to join my harem? More than half the girls here originally came to kill me, you know."

"I agree that this is all a waste of time, but it's my job."

"If you're planning on using her as a hostage, you can forget that too," Rikuto continued, glancing at Layla. "All that will do is upset me more."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'm strictly targeting you. There's no reason to get powerless bystanders involved. Which reminds me, could you step back a bit, Layla?"

The elf immediately looked at her master, and after seeing his silent nod, she complied, stepping away from the pair.

Aoi looked around her. A number of the workers had stopped what they were doing to watch, but none of them seemed especially worried. This must have been an everyday occurrence for them.

"I can't imagine this being much of a fight, but are you so confident because of your magic eyes? Fair warning: petrification and charms don't work on me."

"Ah, maybe you can't get a good grasp of my eyes' abilities because they are linked to Fate? These are Hero Killer eyes. It's a fancy name, but for the most part, all they can do is see."

"Hero Killers, huh? Are they going to be that useful against me, then?"

"Well, you're not a Hero, so no, not really."

Rikuto seemed bothered by that. Although he was trying to maintain an air of detachment, he wasn't holding onto it that well. "You realize what those girls out in the field actually are, right? They're the Beast Kings of this region, dragons incarnate, Demon Lords, and things like that." He acted as if this made him a Hero, but Aoi wasn't impressed that he'd shut himself away in the depths of the forest. She certainly wasn't prepared to consider him heroic.

"Well, arguing won't get us anywhere, so should we just get started?"

"All right, then. Don't worry, I won't punish you too badly."

Flesh-colored strands suddenly erupted from the ground around Aoi. The numerous leathery appendages were slick with some sort of liquid.

"Starting off with tentacles? That's kind of gross, don't you think?" His intention must have been to restrain her. "Just World!" Aoi activated her own power — "A Cruel World That Rewards Only Effort." The official name of the skill was a bit long, so she normally shortened it as she had just done.

"What?!" Rikuto's eyes went wide in surprise. Ignoring his spell, Aoi was walking straight towards him. The tentacles themselves had stopped moving — another set had sprung up from the ground, wrapping around and restraining the first batch.

Rikuto had gone stiff. He must have never encountered someone who was able to oppose his power before. He seemed to be hesitating over what to do next.

"I would prefer to finish this quickly, but I was told to set an example, too," said Aoi dismissively.

"Don't look down on me!" Rikuto threw his hand outward, palm facing towards her. A thick beam of light shot forth, hot enough to reduce anyone who touched it to ash. At this rate, the farm workers behind Aoi would be incinerated along with her.

Aoi mimicked Rikuto's action, opening her own palm towards him. An equal beam of light shot out of her hand, intercepting and neutralizing Rikuto's attack.

"Seems to me like you're the one who's taken hostages here," she said exasperatedly to an awestruck Rikuto. "Why are you guys always so naive? Your power was given to you. What makes you think it wasn't given to someone else as well?"

Aoi had grown tired of these exchanges. All of them were the same in the end. These people all started out timidly testing their limits, then immediately grew full of themselves, becoming arrogant enough to believe that the power was all their own. And after receiving said power without any work whatsoever on their end, they scorned those who had actually worked hard for their gifts.

"Did you also get your power from him?! Dammit! Aren't I meant to be the strongest in the world?!"

"I have no idea who you got your power from. But if a pathetic person like you can do it, I figured it would be easy enough for me, too."

"Shut up! Take this! Funeral Pyre!" He tried to activate another skill, but nothing happened. "What? Why isn't it working?! Black Centipede! Type 100! Dark Scripture! Why isn't anything happening?!" Rikuto's voice began to tremble.

"Like I said, it's just a power that someone gave you. Is it that surprising it was taken away?"

"I don't understand! I'm supposed to be stronger!" he shouted, trying to cover the fear in his voice.

"Hmm, how do I phrase this? Your Fate level is really low, so countering it with something similar or taking it away entirely is easy."

"Taking it...away?" Rikuto's face blanched. He had finally realized that the invincible power he had freely wielded up until then was gone.

"It's not hopeless, though. My power isn't completely one-sided. If your skills were something that you had built up yourself, I would lose easily." As she approached Rikuto, she drew her knife.

The young man began to laugh madly. "That's right, I still have this!" Seeing her pull the knife, he drew the sword at his hip. To some degree, the action helped him to calm down. The sword had an unnatural air about it, clearly a weapon of some power.

"Yeah, that sword's Fate level is rather high, so I can't nullify it." An instant later, Rikuto's throat was torn open. Aoi, now behind him, slid her knife out from the back of his neck. "But it doesn't really matter if the one using it is weak."

"Was it really necessary to use me?" the knife in her hand complained as Rikuto collapsed to the ground.

"Hm. Looks like his underlings didn't have much love for him," Aoi remarked. At some point, the people who had been watching the conflict had disappeared. "Well, as long as they spread the word of how gruesome his death was..."

No one could be allowed to defy the Sages. Making that clear was one of Aoi's jobs.

"Sorry to bring it up so soon after finishing this job, but we've been assigned a new one already. The targets this time are two otherworlders, Yogiri Takatou and Tomochika Dannoura. Oh, this is rare. It looks like they're Sage candidates."

The knife that Aoi held could also send and receive messages. Communicating over long distances required an enormous amount of magical energy, so it was rarely used, and its usage was sign enough of it being an emergency.

"Really? I wonder what that's about. Are Sage candidates important enough to get me involved?"

"Who knows. First, let's head to Hanabusa. The details for our mission are there."

"Jeez. They won't even give us time to catch our breath, will they?"

As Aoi complained to herself, she heard footsteps from within the mansion. "Are there still workers inside?"

She waited to see who would come out, and soon a plump young man leaped through the doorway. To Aoi's amazement, he immediately threw himself to the ground, prostrating himself as he crawled toward her.

"My name is Daimon Hanakawa! I was caught up in the machinations of this Rikuto's disgusting cheat harem and forced to live out my days here, but now that he has been slain by your hand, I am without recourse! Would you perchance assist me in some way?! Otherwise, all that remains for me is death!"

"Um...what the hell is this?"

"A rather odd creature, indeed."

Unsurprisingly, Aoi was at a total loss.