Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Saitou had a dominating presence.
He had an indescribable aura which awed Seiji.
Saitou had a low tone of voice which wasn't fierce sounding at all. In fact, there wasn't even any crest of emotions as he calmly stated his beliefs.
However, what was contained within his beliefs… If Seiji had to forcefully describe things, this was like the maw of a volcano that you couldn't see the bottom of! It was pitch-black and endlessly deep, possessing unimaginably great power, as if it would be capable of exploding and destroying everything at any moment.
Not only was Seiji awed, even Shika and Rota were awed by the forceful conviction in Saitou's words. And, Rota seemed to be far more impacted by Saitou's words than either Seiji or Shika was. Rota showed an expression of being obviously moved.
"You… you're not Saitou-san," Rota muttered. "May I ask… who you are?"
This detective by trade also noticed that the person who spoke couldn't have possibly been Saitou. Those words must have come from someone who possessed or controlled Saitou!
"You can call me 'Kanzaki'," "Saitou" responded.
Kanzaki… Seiji almost wanted to shout out loud "Finally, I've met the secret boss!"
The Revenge Alliance leader, and the person who created that black mist realm on the tournament island… Seiji greatly suspected that the person behind the incident which forced him to load was this individual!
Although Seiji didn't know why this ultimate boss suddenly took action at that time, Kanzaki had attacked without holding back right from the very start. Seiji was basically overwhelmed in just an instant, with no way to resist.
Well, this was the best proof that demon kings would only give grand speeches before attacking in games, manga, movies, and so on. Real people as major antagonists wouldn't possibly be that idiotic. If they wanted to kill someone, they would simply kill. Not only did the major antagonist not say any wasteful words, he didn't even reveal himself.
"Kanzaki-san, indeed, I'm ignorant of my family's actions. I apologize if my family has affronted you," Seiji spoke calmly. "I have no intentions of trying to whitewash my family's crimes, because I have no idea what crimes they've committed. I don't have the right to try and cover for their sins. However, I'm still a member of the Haruta Family. Even if I've been exiled, I still bear the family name, and there are relatives I view as important among them…
"At any rate, if Kanzaki-san believes that someone as half-rate as me can be useful in some way, why don't you consider cooperating with me? Due to a certain matter, I really want to win this tournament. That's why, I want to make use of any power that I can borrow."
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
Kanzaki closed his eyes and then took another deep whiff of his cigarette. He opened his eyes again after puffing all the smoke.
"That personage is considering your usefulness."
His tone changed yet again. He had returned to being Saitou.
"Saitou-san…"
"Don't ask me anything about Kanzaki-sama, because I don't know anything at all." Saitou littered by flicking the cigarette into the sea, just like last time. "I'm merely doing my job."
"Are you the only one who's doing such a 'job?'" Seiji inquired.
"I don't know." Saitou chuckled. "Harutsan, you're really courageous."
"Why do you say that?"
"Isn't that obvious? You're from the Haruta Family, yet you want to take advantage of the Revenge Alliance, and you even told your intentions directly to Kanzaki-sama…"
'You're outrageously reckless and suicidal.' That was what Saitou meant with his expression.
'Of course, I know that this is suicidal.' Seiji had a calm expression.
Technically speaking, he had basically died once already.
It was just like reaching a bad end in a video game for mysterious and unknown reasons. Seiji absolutely had to learn the identity of the Revenge Alliance leader so that he wouldn't meet a bad end again in this second timeline without even knowing why.
Seiji had already learned the important information that he was after. Everything would be worth it even if he was forced into loading back to the card game on the ship before the tournament's start yet again. But right now, it seemed that it would still be possible to continue in this timeline, so Seiji decided to stick around and continue and gather as much information as he could.
"Stop…"
Once again, he heard that same mysterious voice.
Another unsolved mystery was who this unknown woman calling out to him was.
"You want me to stop Kanzaki, is that right?" Seiji faced the sea and spoke in a low voice, "I apologize. I'm incapable of doing so."
After witnessing that black mist domain and its terrifying power, Seiji realized just how truly weak he was in the mystical society.
Fight the demon king until the end? That was something that didn't exist in real life.
When he met Kanna and Izawa on the island, Seiji intended to convince the two of them not to join this tournament at all. He would recommend them to surrender immediately and leave the tournament before it began.
Even if they faced severe consequences for surrendering without even fighting, that would still be better than the upcoming danger.
And after he convinced Kanna and Izawa to surrender from the tournament, Seiji would only have to worry about protecting Shika and himself and do his best to obtain final victory in the tournament.
As long as he could achieve this goal, what did it matter if he worked together with the demon king? As for the other tournament participants… even if all of them died, it wouldn't directly be because of him.
Was this cold-blooded? Indeed.
But, that was something he could do as the weak.
Seiji was no hero. Although he had some powers, he was still only a weakling compared to a powerful Spiritual Ability user like Kanzaki. Seiji could only protect himself and the people around him. He didn't have the powers to protect people he didn't even know.
There was a saying in his previous world called "Heaven destroys those who do not look out for themselves." Simplified, it was "Every man for himself."
This was actually a deeply meaningful phrase which wasn't as easily understood as telling people to be selfish. Careful consideration was required to understand the deep meanings contained within. However, the surface meaning of this phrase was too easily apparent and misunderstood, which was why this phrase became a classical negative phrase.
Seiji had his own personal understanding of this phrase which was quite difficult to explain. But at any rate, he believed that this was one of the maxims of the world, in both a positive and negative way.
That was why he wouldn't save everyone that he possibly could.
However, this didn't mean that he felt good about it.
"Brother?" Shika noticed that something was off with Seiji. She couldn't help but worry.
Seiji looked towards her.
"I'm sorry, Shikchan…"
"Eh?"
"Even though I clearly know that continuing here will be incredibly dangerous, I still want to take this risk… I've brought you into danger all so that I can be together with Natsuya. I apologize," Seiji apologized sincerely.
"Brother Seiji…" Something flashed in Shika's eyes. "Don't say that…"
"No, I have to apologize. Although you've resolved yourself for battle, I know that things are going to become worse, terribly worse up ahead. Yet, I'm still choosing to remain in the tournament and brave danger. This is unfair to you," Seiji spoke seriously.
If he was fighting by himself, then it wouldn't matter no matter how recklessly he behaved, as he had save and load. However, he had a partner with him. He absolutely couldn't allow himself to ignore her.
"It doesn't matter, because I'm Brother's Spirit-branded Retainer," Shika spoke in a gentle voice.
"Thank you." Seiji was truly grateful.
*Ding-dong~*
At this moment, a sonorous sound of a bell rang out.
Seiji was astonished to suddenly hear this!
This was the sound that he heard in the previous timeline right when his soul was attacked!
However, in this timeline, he already made preliminary negotiations with Kanzaki, the hidden boss, so why…?
*Ding-dong~* The second sound was even clearer.
But instead of his body stiffening and black mist appearing together with undead specters from his past, only a large amount of cluster amaryllis flowers appeared and bloomed.
A hazy gray-white figure appeared, floating on top of the bright flowers. She appeared to be a woman wearing a one-piece dress.
"Please… stop that person… otherwise… everyone will die…" She spoke the same words in broken succession that he heard in the previous timeline.
"Who are you? I already said that I'm incapable of doing it…"
"Yuuzou… Yoshihara…"
Yoshihara… the assassin known as "Judge"!? Seiji was astonished to hear this.
"Stop Yoshihara from doing what? It's not Kanzaki who will cause the terrible tragedy!? Could it be that Kanzaki is actually Yuuzou Yoshihara!?"
"Please…" The gray-white figure floated over to him and reached out her hands.
Seiji reflexively lifted his hands and held her hands in his own. At this moment, he suddenly felt a fire in his palm as some type of energy was injected into him!
Before he could ask what this was, the gray-white ghost disappeared.
*Ding-dong~* The sound faded into the distance.
The cluster amaryllis flowers disappeared and Seiji heard the sound of the sea wind once again.
He looked at the palm of his right hand, where a gray-white rune was slowly fading into his flesh.