Ch 120 – Louis Crawford—The Delusional Hero

*** (A Few Weeks After the Negotiation in the Holy Kingdom)

Inside the royal capital of the Pendragon Kingdom, there lies a certain building that holds a certain room, and inside it were nine figures with powerful auras. A black-clothed swordsman, a lich, a fiery young maiden, an elegant lady, a tracksuit-wearing boy, a young girl that wore military clothes, a smug maid girl, a humanoid slime, and a downtrodden green-haired man.

"Shijou, reports on your current affairs regarding the rival restaurant of yours," Kilt said, ignoring the despair-filled aura of Louis.

"Sigh, it's getting worse. Nature's Garden is getting more and more popular no matter what I do. They are already spreading throughout the kingdom, and some are already opening in the other kingdoms, namely Tyburg, Arfel, Lorfal…" Shijou Yukiko said, listing out a list of kingdom names for a good while before finally stopping.

"At this rate, Otherworld Restaurant would be dethroned as the number one restaurant chain in the entire world," Shijou sighed, before shaking her head to show how it was pretty much impossible to stop Nature's Garden's rise in the world of food and cuisine.

'Nature's Garden, a restaurant that appeared from nowhere and gained popularity at an increasingly rapid rate. Their food is great, the service is great, everything is basically perfect about it. Its owner and creator, Silvy, is a previous C-Rank adventurer who turned into a chef after a certain incident in an S-Rank Dungeon. From Honda's reports, her cooking skill was from Lute Stolas' teachings. Sigh, it's like everything that Lute Stolas touches becomes a thorn in our sides, especially now that Kira Stolas is part of the Holy Church, the influence of the Magic Kingdom is only spreading the more time passes.' Kilt thought, before shaking his head and focusing back on the meeting.

"Mmm. Anastasia, have you succeeded in gaining access to the Akashic System," Kilt asked, his head then turned towards Anastasia Melokva who shook her head.

"No, it was an utter failure. No matter what I do, gaining access was basically impossible. For example, turning a user of the system into my slave made the Akashic System suddenly fail, or…" Anastasia Melokva explained, listing out a series of examples and each one made Lute all the more fearsome.

"Don?" Kilt asked.

"Null," Don Will Dead responded, indicating that his experiments with the Akashic System were all failures.

"Roro?" Kilt asked.

"Even after eating a user of the system, no results were produced," Roro Sendiger reported with his soft voice.

"It seems like Lute Stolas has put a lot of countermeasures from letting his technology leak out to the outside world," Kilt muttered in a foreboding tone, his eyes closed for a moment to calm himself down and spoke once more.

"Don, reports of the Magic Kingdom," Kilt said.

Nodding his head, Don Will Dead raised his arm, creating a floating screen in front of the nine as they all looked at it with interest.

"In the past few weeks, the Magic Kingdom has experienced a boom in its overall strength. From more land being conquered each passing day, the rapid creation of buildings through magic being now a common thing, tens of spells being constructed each passing day which is continuously getting recorded through my cheat…" Don Will Dead reported.

With the current state of the Magic Kingdom, its overall might has increased by two folds already. There was more land being taken, and the average strength of the people inside it is growing at a ferocious and terrifying rate through the aid of cheap dragon hearts and dragon meat, meaning not only mages could grow, but also fighters. In fact, the percentage of fighters in the kingdom has been growing each passing day, meaning its previous weak point of having no fighters might be dealt with soon.

More and more people got interested in becoming researchers of the arcane path, boosting the technology of the kingdom. From more runes being used, more magical equipment to aid the common people, and a wide variety of food being created, it was basically a paradise on Terra.

When one joins the kingdom, they'll gain access to a library of knowledge beyond their wildest dreams, gain access to resources previously thought to be mythical in rarity for a couple of silver coins, magical equipment is also cheap, everything about it made it the greatest current kingdom to probably exist in the entire history of the world.

"At this rate, it would perhaps reach the same strength as the Pendragon Kingdom in only a few years. Perhaps even faster as it would attract experts from all over the world to join it. Just the sheer worth of having dragon meat be dirt cheap would make anyone want to live in it, but the immense worth the Akashic System holds would mean countless people all over the world would flock to it," Don Will Dead explained, causing the aura in the room to turn heavier.

"But… That's not the most worrying thing. The thing we should worry the most about is him," Don Will Dead said, the screen then showed Lute, Raiden, and Kira.

"A single Lute Stolas is troublesome enough, but then we have his family members. Raiden Stolas, a kid who can run absurdly fast, faster than Lute's fearsome one kilometer per second speed. Perhaps we'll die by that kid's hands before we can even think. And then we have Kira Stolas, the wielder of the fragment of God, a weapon at perhaps a level higher than Excalibur. Not only that, but he also has complete magic immunity, the ability of creation…" Don Will Dead explained further, listing out the trio's monstrous abilities one by one.

Any one of them can be considered to be as strong as the Reincarnates, and now there were three of them who were on the same level as Lute Stolas.

"And also, I've noticed a worrying factor about Lute Stolas," Don Will Dead said, looking back at Kilt to wait for his word.

"Go on," Kilt said.

"Lute Stolas… has infinite mana," Don Will Dead said with a voice that stated what he has just said was a matter of fact.

"What?!" Flare shouted, standing up in shock. Not only her, but the other Reincarantes also gasped in surprise.

Putting the screen to the next slide, it showed a video in Don Will Dead's POV of the fight between Lute and Louis. If one were to observe closely, they'll see that whenever Lute casts a spell, or use any of his mana, his mana amount would just revert back to full like always.

"Time manipulation," Anastasia Melokva muttered.

"If he can buy the attribute of Death, who can't say he can't buy the attribute of Time?" Don Will Dead added.

"Infinite Mana and a Z-Rank mage, the worst combination we could possibly have. Endless mana means he can expend his mana however he wants," Kilt muttered. Now he was seriously agonized by the situation, it was like Lute was more of a cheater than them at this point.

"Not only that, but Honda also can't loop back to the point before the fight ended, meaning…" Don Will Dead said.

"Meaning he also has a way to stop Honda from looping entirely. He can create a situation where the nine of us can permanently die," Kilt finally dropped the bombshell, causing those that were unaware to be shocked out of their minds.

"Is that true, Honda?!" Flare asked, her eyes wide as saucers.

"… Yes," Honda nodded his head. The more he listened, the more he felt disturbed by the fact that Lute might now become his enemy.

Considering they are close friends, the thought of having your friend be your enemy was a hellish thought. Just before he left for the Magic Kingdom, the two were enjoying their time with each other along with Bella, Silvy, Kira, and Raiden. But now, both Lute and Silvy are probably in danger.

"Not only that…" Don Will Dead said, before turning to look at Louis whose eyes were filled with sadness and despair.

"The ability to put a curse that doesn't allow Flare to heal Louis' penis," Anastasia Melokva completed Don Will Dead's penis {1}.

Hearing Anastasia's words, Louis' eyes widened in rage while he slammed his fist to the table. Gnashing his teeth, anger coursed through his body while he shouted, "I'm gonna kill him! I'm gonna kill that ant who dare chop off my-"

"Enough! You must realize, Louis Crawford, that you were the one that was decimated without even putting up a fight," Kilt said, intervening Louis' outburst.

"Me? Defeated? Oh, please! If I wasn't caught by surprise, I could have easily defeated that bastard!" Louis Crawford roared.

"You really think you still have the ability to defeat him?" Kilt said, his tone turning colder at Louis' arrogance. As the saying goes, an overconfident man usually dies the quickest.

"What do you mean?" Louis asked, glaring straight at Kilt.

"Have you not been listening? Infinite mana, masterful control over all forms of magic he has been in contact with in mere days, the ability to command spirits at nearly the same level as Imerda, a physical body stronger than Roro, the ability to sacrifice his lifespan while he's basically immortal. If he were to even exert a percentage of his full abilities, he could squash you like an ant and put you in eternal sleep," Kilt said.

But Louis still felt indignant. Considering he lived a life of lavish and power in this world, the mere thought that there was someone stronger than him was like someone spat directly at his face, "You really think all of that can defeat me? One spell from mine, one swing of my sword, and he's dead!"

"Oh? Really? Then can you even kill him if you can't touch him? Raiden Stolas, lowest estimated speed is 100 kilometers per second, he can very much run around the whole world in less than an hour, and you think you can do anything in that time? You'll be killed by his kid in less than a second, and you still think you can defeat him? If so, then you're truly a disgrace, Louis Crawford," Kilt said, his eyes cold and apathetic as he explained to Louis Crawford how despairing the situation truly was.

"If he can chop off your useless dick without much effort, he can surely chop off your head if he so wishes. And remember, he has the ability to let us permanently die, not even Flare can bring you back from the dead when that happens, nor could Honda loop back to prevent your death. So, you better listen you dumb retard, because right now, you have the highest chance of dying out of all of us considering you raped his childhood friend," Kilt explained, his killing intent bursting out that made the room be enveloped in a malevolent aura.

"But, but, how would I know an ant like him could become so strong?!" Louis retorted, desperate to regain his dignity.

"That's the problem with you, arrogance. This must be the karma you have built up for being so lecherous, I wouldn't mind having you die in our team. Don's pretty much a strong magic caster than you, and you're only worth is due to you having the ability to create Magic Tools. With enough study in runes and higher-quality materials, you're worth in our team might go to zero," Kilt said with a cold voice.

Louis trembled, the gravity of the situation finally dawning upon him.

'I-I'm weak? Weaker than an ant like him?' Louis' mind trembled, unable to face the reality he lives in.

Considering he lived a life without consequences when he Reincarnated into this world, the thought that his past actions would come to haunt him made his mind unable to cope with the current circumstances.

"Everyone is dismissed. We'll have another meeting again next week," Kilt said, taking one last glance at the pathetic appearance of Louis Crawford, Kilt stood up before lightly tapping on the ground, directly disappearing from the room at rapid speeds.

AN: This chapter has 2033 words.

Fucking hell, my dialogue is getting fucking good! It shows Kilt's analytical thought process, Don Will Dead's smartness, and Louis' depravity. Louis is pretty much the first character I've written that is this pathetic.

{1} - man, when I read that, I almost burst out laughing. I guess that's what you call a happy little accident. Why did he have to die!

Give me power stones.

(August 12, 2022 – 261st day of writing)