Three days later, during the ceremony celebrating the completion of the New City of Ket Nya, I walked down the main thoroughfare looking for a certain person.
That being said, I knew him better than anyone. I could read what he would do in a situation like this like an open book.
When I abruptly turned around, I spotted a boy with white wings sprouting from his back, black hair, and freckles across the bridge of his nose. He was keeping tabs on me alongside Rami, a red-haired woman with matching white wings.
"Ah?!"
As the freckled boy tried to melt into the crowd, I raised a hand and called out in a casual tone.
"Hey, Tetor."
Tetor froze completely, as if bound by paralysis.
I had known he would be in the city right before the Demon King Army's assault. In all likelihood, Tetor was deeply involved with Kai Heinemann. If I couldn't convince him to grant me an audience, this attempt would end in failure just like the last.
"You've remembered everything, haven't you?"
He was clearly on his guard. With a stiff expression, he asked a question whose answer he already knew.
"Yeah. Just a little while ago."
"Then what do you want with me?"
I dropped to my knees, pressed my forehead to the dirt, and offered an apology straight from my soul.
"I am truly, deeply sorry for everything!"
"Y-Your Highness?"
Confusion crept into Tetor's voice. Keeping my head bowed to the ground, I squeezed out every word with all the strength I had left.
"I don't expect you to forgive me just because I said I'm sorry. I've betrayed you far too many times. But for a shallow, hollow man like me, this is the only way forward!"
A heavy silence lingered between us.
"In the past, you didn't even view other species—no, anyone of lower birth—as human beings. You treated me the same way despite all the time we spent together. A person's core nature doesn't simply change. I can't bring myself to believe your heart is any different."
Just as I expected, Tetor pushed me away. It was only natural. I had done more than enough to earn his contempt.
"I know that full well. It's just like you said: I'm probably still the same cowardly piece of trash deep down. But even so, right now, there's something I want to save even if it costs me this worthless damn life! That much is my absolute truth!"
"That's precisely what I can't believe! You, who sacrificed everything just to become King, are lowering yourself like this before me for the sake of monsters, the mortal enemies of the Human Race?! How could I ever accept that?!"
Tetor rattled off his objections, yet his voice carried no malice—only a strange, frantic desperation.
"Hey, you! What gives a newcomer the right to talk to him like that?!"
With a terrifying scowl, an orc tribe butcher stormed out from her shop, meat cleaver in hand.
"Yeah! Mr. Gil gave us the power to build this incredible city! Don't you dare badmouth him when you don't know a thing!"
As if answering her call, Gobuza shouted in my defense, and a chorus of angry jeers erupted from the surrounding monsters.
"..."
Tetor stared in disbelief at the scene. Then, without warning, he broke into laughter and covered his face with his right hand.
"You looked down on everyone—not just other species, but even commoners of your own Human Race, treating them worse than cattle... and now you're trusted this much by monsters? What a sick joke."
His laughter faded, dissolving into a quiet sigh.
"Yeah. It really is a joke. Honestly, I'm more surprised by it than anyone. But right now, I feel lighter and more at peace than I ever did before losing my memories."
"You found where you truly belong. Is that what you mean...?" Tetor murmured wistfully. He glanced around at the monsters glaring daggers at him, let out a deep sigh, and asked with a frosty stare, "What is it you want?"
It seemed he was finally willing to negotiate.
"I beg for an audience with Lord Kai Heinemann."
I stated my plea. I wasn't using honorifics to curry favor; the deference had simply slipped from my lips naturally.
"Good grief... How can someone change so much?" Tetor muttered wearilly, staring at me.
"I know that Great One is out at the acid lake. But with my current strength, there's no way I can reach him!"
"I suppose that's true. The entity guarding that place belongs to Master's side, far beyond the logic of this world. But Your Highness, how did you figure that out?"
Still skeptical, Tetor narrowed his eyes.
"Precognition. You know about my ability, don't you?"
I threw the question back at him to test the waters. That Great One was putting me through an ordeal and watching how it unfolded. If so, he had to be aware of my current situation.
Looking back on it now, assuming Mr. Lou was an ally of his made everything fall neatly into place. And since I had already told that person about my precognition, it was entirely natural for Tetor and the others to know about it as well.
"I suppose that makes sense. Come to think of it, clearing this game would be clearly impossible for you and the others as you are. There's no way Master wouldn't realize that. Could it be he already anticipated that I would come here? If so, is my choice here just another part of the game...?"
Tetor rested his chin in his hand, lost in thought.
"Master? Who's that? An acquaintance of Lord Ares?" Rami asked, pressing in close.
"Sorry, something's come up," Tetor replied dismissively before turning his attention back to me.
"Your Highness, your final judgment begins now. Gather your key members at the central plaza."
The final judgment. In the end, all that remained was convincing that Great One. He was a man bound by an unyielding set of personal principles. If I failed, regardless of what happened to the townsfolk, I would surely die, and this monster paradise—the New City of Ket Nya—would crumble into ruin.
"Wait, final judgment—hey, Tetor—!"
Rami demanded an explanation, panic plain on her face, but Tetor vanished like smoke, as if he had never been there at all.
I had assumed she was affiliated with Kai Heinemann as well, but apparently I was wrong.
There was too much about her words that didn't add up. In all likelihood, she wasn't a monster. She also seemed to possess a vague understanding of this whole conflict—at least far more than we did. Which meant...
"I'm going to see that Great One soon. Want to come along?"
"A Great One? Who's that supposed to be?"
Rami furrowed her brow, but she didn't seem to be playing dumb. That confirmed she had no direct involvement in this incident.
"The absolute strongest being in this world. He's remarkably generous, but when he gets angry, he's terrifying beyond measure. You'd best keep your manners in check. Not that I'm in any position to lecture you..."
He had gone so far as to serve as a Royal Guard to my elder sister—a mere human—and had even offered a truly wretched scum like me a chance under the guise of an ordeal after I insulted him. For a Transcender, his patience was impossibly vast.
Yet that mercy only applied to humanity as a whole; toward anyone who broke his rules, he was utterly cold and unyielding, no matter their identity. Crab Einstein, the vice headmaster of Babel who had bared his fangs at him on my orders, had been killed without a second thought. Crab was a wizard of immense status and power, someone who could deal with the Holy Amelia Kingdom's government on equal terms. That alone proved he didn't care in the slightest about the petty squabbles of the Human Race.
If Rami managed to truly provoke him, she wouldn't walk away unscathed.
"Fine. I'd love to see this 'absolute strongest being' for myself."
From Rami's mocking tone, she clearly didn't take my warning seriously. Well, she'd understand soon enough once she met him. Looking back, it baffled me how the old me could have ever acted so arrogant toward that Great One in the first place.
"All right, let's get going."
I urged Rami forward, and we set off.