There was once an otherworldly hero… One that attempted to save a world he'd come to love.
It was such a simple story.
A true Hero's Journey…
The only problem about it was that the individual summoned possessed quite a unique disposition.
Most summoned to a fantasy world would be drawn into the mysticism of culture and physics.
They'd be more than happy to learn about 'Magic'.
However, their 'Brave', Alex Stuman, showed no surprise when he first started to learn Magecraft.
He took things in as they came along…
Time went by in a flash, and… the overly powerful Brave managed to beat the Beast King by himself.
His initial 'comrades' having went back to governing the kingdoms of humanity by his rule.
Things were supposed to have been achieved perfectly. It wasn't like he'd made any mistakes.
'Beasts' in this realm we're considered bringers of disaster. Their existence was feared by humanity.
Of course, the Brave quickly came to realise that this was all classism and discrimination at play.
However, he wasn't interested in changing the world. His thoughts only focused on saving it.
Upholding justice and moral values, while passing it along to others in hopes that they'd outgrow it.
That was his greatest mistake…
After defeating the Beast King, his 'companions' didn't even say goodbye before sending him off.
His great intelligence didn't need to see the world to know what had after he'd been 'un-summoned'.
He'd screwed up big time.
But he couldn't understand where he went wrong.
After being brought back to the exact same time and spot he'd been summoned from, it took some time for him to digest his past. However, like the Living Supercomputer he was, he bounced back.
He was different in the fact that he still had his powers and techniques, but pretty much the same.
The former life of Simon Rainglow, the high schooler named Alex, went back to his friend.
He told him absolutely everything.
"So… you're telling me you were summoned into another world and managed to save it?" Ronald inquired on disbelief. He seemed to think his good buddy had gotten too tired of life or something.
Looking at him like the former Brave turned weird.
"I know what you're thinking, but you don't have to believe me. Think of it like a thought experiment."
"Alright." The delinquent found that easier to digest compared to believing his buddy got 'Summoned'.
"I saved another world. Got a band of companions together… A Samurai, Sage, Rogue, and Saint. After I'd learnt their techniques and became a paladin, I sent them back to manage the kingdom."
"So did you save the world in the end?"
"…Yes."
"Then what's the problem?" The delinquent put his legs on a desk and laid back while listening to him.
"It's just… I wonder if the world needed saving in the first place." The eccentric scratched his ear.
"How so?"
"Beasts weren't exactly threatening the world at large. They were just threatening humanity."
"Which might as well be the world." Although Ronald didn't have the context, he imagined it.
He then thought of something and continued:
"Was there animal girls among these 'Beasts'?"
"Yeah…"
"Did humans do slavery?"
"As you could expect."
"Then why didn't you abolish slavery while you were there?" These words struck the eccentric.
"…It was a useful tool." The expressionless face couldn't hide how he was avoiding eye-contact.
"Weren't you summoned as a Hero?"
"I was summoned as a 'Grand Hero'."
"Yeah, meaning you had both the riches and influence to crack down on the slavery ordeal."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because bad guys do slavery!!!" The delinquent felt like he was talking to brick wall all of a sudden.
"…Depends on how you look at it."
"Explain, you piece of shit. You suck at this thought experiment thing." He held a milk carton and drank.
"Beasts are an entirely different species of people altogether. It's not the same as regular racism."
"Your point?"
"You eat chicken all the time and know what we do to our pets in the current day. What's so bad now?"
"My pet cat isn't fuckable, but an anthropomorphic cat girl with big tits would be right up my alley."
"…Huh?"
"Moe cuteness is justice!"
"…" The face of the former Brave dramatically shifted after hearing such an absurd line of logic.
Alex wasn't sure whether to feel repulsed or at awe towards his friend showing such insane reasoning.
Was this because the guy was an Anime Otaku?
"Then you could buy them and create a slave harem." Even though he could've dismissed this criticism, the former Brave felt the need to justify himself in front of his friend. He HAD TO explain!
"That's not the same~! Ask Melody. She'd be able to tell you how they'd fucking hate me if I did that."
"…" He turned his head to look at a girl who was sitting alone in the empty classroom, their own vice class president. Though Alex, had a hard time asking her if his morals were grey on account of…
…well… her being an enigma.
She suddenly started to hang out with them out of nowhere and plastering herself by his side strongly.
"Did you have fun there?" She asked, and Ronald turned around to look at her like she was an idiot.
"He's joking about the Isekai part."
"I didn't ask you." The girl who DID have glasses asked the one others referred as 'Four Eyes'.
"…It was a fun little thought experiment." He tried to hammer down that fact to make it less awkward.
The Living Supercomputer felt unnerved whenever she gazed at him. This was despite their closeness.
"Hey, what about my question?!" Ronald interrupted them, which made the vice prez sigh:
"He's right. I wouldn't like my 'owner'."
"Then that settles it. You haven't 'saved' the world unless cat girls and cute princesses are on good terms with each other. That's probably why you're feeling unsettled." Ron had hit the nail on the head.
Alex would forever be unable to get those nonsensical words out of his rational thoughts.
Because he knew the meaning behind those words.
After he'd properly reflected, the former Brave became depressed the more regret filled his heart.
He'd believed that the origin of his 'Holy Attribute' was justice. To execute those threatening balance.
But now, he'd learnt of true righteousness….
…and how it was the flip side of the coin.
Virtue was a result of fighting against sins, but justice was a social construct agreed on by the many. It forced a morally grey world to be split between black and white. Where one must punish.
You are reading story The Otome Game’s Extra at novel35.com
To not punish those threatening what was perceived to be the 'balance' was considered evil…
…but to not punish sins was to be inhumane.
It was similar to the time he'd once rested at an Inn when he was first starting his journey as a Brave.
Alex only had a shield equipped at the time, as the first thing he'd started to learn was about magic.
Studying martial arts took time and effort.
There, he'd met a young child that was the son of the Innkeeper. A child who was loved by everyone.
The eccentric remembered promising the child he'd come back to see him when his journey ends.
…Only to come back to see a burnt down village.
The army of the Beast King had once arrived and devoured the bodies of the people living there.
And because he wasn't there, they died.
It became his biggest failure as a 'Grand Hero'.
The strongest of the Heroes that was tasked with protecting people, and the entire world as a whole.
He'd only found it an unfortunate event at the time.
Perhaps he could've brought slaves to protect the village before going, or had done things to assist.
But what he'd realised upon reflection was different. It occurred to him that the biggest problem wasn't the war, but the cycle of hatred fed by the classism deeply embedded into their bones.
He should've have done something about that…
If he'd been more like Ronald and thought less with common sense, he would've realised this sooner.
But now, everything he thought of was useless.
Maybe the world was at peace for now, but those he had put under the thumb of humanity's feudalistic society would eventually rebel. They'd end up killing much more when that happened.
It was all because of his inflexibility.
His stubbornness to walk the path others had laid down for him was what had caused this tragedy.
The 'Virtue' that had existed in his mind only worked in a black and white perspective, where the other side was undoubtedly 'Sinful'. It was what drove him to do many things to enact 'true justice'.
However, he failed to consider the world without being blinded by the illusion all had to make sense.
That because it was a fantasy world, many rules and moral values on Earth didn't exist in that place.
That he had to adapt to fit the world around him.
It was this that was his greatest error in judgement.
He had many who were willing to share their knowledge and help him change the world if he wanted to, but he didn't do that. His high and mighty thoughts of 'Holiness' blinded his eyes.
He might have been the greatest hero that had ever lived. The third 'Greatest Light' to ever live.
However, he had truly been a short-sighted person.
His intelligence now only acting as a way to make him realise the actions that presently chained him.
The regrets that would never fade away…
Alex started to become much more antisocial from that day forward. The darkness swallowing him.
The vice class prez, Melody, watched him from afar. Doing nothing to stop his mind's descent.
Out of pure desperation to forget his woes, Alex had diligently trained himself over the years.
Despite having becoming the 'Progenitor of the Holy Attribute', he has judged his own blissful ignorance as a sin. He'd lived his life in nothing but regret, only because he wasn't really a 'computer'.
He had a heart just like any other.
And was much more susceptible to strong feelings.
Just as he was on the brink of a meltdown after years had passed being unable to forget that world and entering college, he was suddenly struck with an urge to go back to that world to start anew.
That he'd be different now.
He'd throw away those pesky feelings that blinded him to the reality his role. He'd shift the extreme.
Next time, he definitely wouldn't stop himself on the account of things like society and politics.
He'd just do whatever he felt like.
This extreme shift being a basis for future tragedy.
For he had misunderstood Ronald. It wasn't like the delinquent followed a particular code, he just did stuff and suffered the consequences at times. It was much different from trying to uphold values.
Much different from artificially becoming 'virtuous'.
Perhaps someone like Ronald was weaker than his friend, but he might've successfully saved that world Alex had been summoned to if their roles had switched. It was because 'competence' wasn't the issue here. A thought that'd never cross his mind.
The eccentric went from someone with an indifferent attitude to someone who'd hollowed themselves out, unable to accept reality. His scars a testament to his doubt and blame at himself.
He'd wondered what the princess and swordswoman from back then, the Sage and Samurai… would think of him now. Would that dastardly Rogue tease him for becoming weak?
Would the Saint berate him for having lost his sense of values? Tell him to lighten up a little?
Maybe they all would've patted him on the back.
It was at this moment of this life that 'The Most Heroic Light' found himself summoned again.
Except this time he wasn't a 'Grand Hero'.
He found himself standing in front of a strange group with horns like a 'Bull Beast' sticking from his head. His meeting with them and the future he was told of only made question his role in life.
That was until Adam Graham asked for his help…
…and he responded in kind after thinking of that Innkeeper's son that had died when he was gone.
He wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.
The stormy clouds above the back garden was no longer crackling with electricity, and the protection of Gaia over Adam's fate had vanished. A natural 'Anomaly' in fate was born at that chaotic day.
Seeing that the student he taught had seemingly lost consciousness, 'Simon' turned to leave.
…Until a hand grabbed him by the ankle.
*Woosh…* *BOOM!!!*
He was thrown through the air and made a strong sound of impact upon being 'planted' into the wall.
"You think I'm a pushover…?" Something seemed to have snapped inside Solaris at that moment.
As if the tranquil face he'd tried to maintain broke.
The only thing left was irritation that furled the malice the immortal held towards the eccentric.
"Wait! Please listen to me! I just-" *Bang!* A punch traversed the distance after 'they' lunged at him.
The sound of a frenzied immortal beating his instructor black and blue with his fists resounded.
When Lucia and Hyuk came back, the latter went out to look for where the duo could be hiding.
Only to find him holding the eccentric up with a falcon claw. A very unusual scene to say the least.
"You shouldn't have done it." Hyuk listened in as Adam's hand shifted to the bastard's forehead.
"It was all for your own good." 'Simon' seemed to still be able to talk thanks to his high regeneration.
"I didn't give you consent."
"But you felt better, right?"
"That's not the point…!"
"So you lost something. You can't do big things without a bit of sacrifice, isn't this better for you?"
"You stepped all over me like I'm a pushover."
"…I'm sorry about that, but-" Hyuk stopped listening to their bickering at that point, thinking:
'Did they have a relationship like that?' The Martial King wondered 'Simon' inflicted sodomy on Adam.
A real dropping the soap type of situation.