Author's Note: Hey everybody, Ejwaxy here. I just want to say that I'm super grateful for the loads of support everybody has shown for this series so far. This chapter marks the end of the first arc of the story, with more to come. The chapter following this will be an "epilogue" for the arc before we begin the lead-up to the next. Once again, I hope you enjoy, and I appreciate all the favorites, readers, views, and comments I've been getting! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below!

 

The King's expression as he slowly turned his head to face me was filled with deceptive innocence.

"Hero, Elena? You're ok? Pierre, what are you doing here?"

However, he didn't release his grip on Amber.

"Release her or get stabbed. Now. And stop lying with such a disgusting face. I won't ask again."

I sneered at the King, angered as I pressed the knife lightly on his neck.

"I don't know what you mean, hero. Let's talk about this!"

Though the King continued to feign innocence, he released Amber's shoulder causing her to stumble back gripping it.

"I thought I said no more lies."

"I-I don't know what you mean by-!"

"I already know we're not summoned heroes."

The King froze mid-sentence, and both Elena and Amber looked at me in confusion.

"I know about everything else, too. Why don't I just go ahead and say it all from the start? Stop me if I'm wrong."

The King's innocent face turned dark as he glared at me in silence.

"Let's start with the summoning ritual, why don't we? You said you were using an ancient ritual to summon heroes from another world to support you in a war against the demons, right? That two of the Princesses died to achieve this?"

"..."

The King didn't respond.

"Y-yes, that's how you arrived here, isn't it?"

Elena spoke in the King's place, trembling and confused. My gut wrenched seeing her like this, but it was something that needed to happen if she wanted to be able to move on after this.

"Isn't that how we got here?"

Amber also seemed confused, and somewhat shaken by what the King had done. Looking at her as she clenched her shoulder in pain, some of the rage that I had been suppressing ever since I'd started having suspicions about this rose to the surface. I clenched my teeth and forced it back, showing nothing on my face.

"No, that's a lie. I told you before, didn't I, Amber? I got us here. I discovered how to move between worlds. In fact, I was monitoring this world before coming here to get confirmation that it was safe. I sensed no abnormalities leading up to us getting here. Do you know what that means?"

"..."

Once again the King remained silent, and the others waited for me in stunned suspense.

"There was never a summon ritual to begin with, was there? The two Princesses that died, that was your work. A fake summoning ritual to remove the royal heirs. If we hadn't come here, you would've gotten Elena next, isn't that right, you bastard?"

"..."

The King continued to remain silent.

"SPEAK!"

I shouted, and the "King" smiled.

"Hahaha, you know nothing."

"Father! Why would you do this!"

Elena stepped forward, but I put up my hand to stop her before she could get too close.

"Elena, this isn't your father."

"B-but that's impossible! I can see with my [Mystic Eyes] that he has the exact same soul as my father!"

"No. He's not. You see, you were pretty clever about this, weren't you? You knew that the princess would be able to tell if you'd swapped places with her father, so you needed some method to hide the fact that you'd swapped places with him."

"Stop talking if you know what's good for you, boy."

"Empty threats, if you didn't fear this knife against your neck we would all be long dead already.

Now, let's continue with the story. Four years ago, the Head Butler Pierre's family shows up dead. Claiming that the King is false, he's removed from his position and thrown out of the palace. However, he comes back routinely enough that all the guards know not to touch him when he barges in. Yet he's still not killed for repeatedly trespassing in the royal palace? Why would that be?

Simple, you needed him.

The head Butler Pierre, who was always close to the King, who knew the King the best out of anyone. His family dies mysteriously, and his personality changes just as suddenly. Then, after a while, the King's personality changes as well. He begins to buy more and more luxurious goods when he'd forsaken them in the past. He pushes for war with the demons. Now, why would he do that?

The King is not the King, and Pierre is not Pierre.

Isn't that right, King? Or should I say, Pierre?"

The King's face reddened with rage.

"Shut up!"

"At first, I couldn't tell. I knew something was up, but no matter what I did I couldn't tell what was going on with "Pierre" the former Head Butler. Something had its grip on him, but what? Then it came to me.

If you cast magic on yourself, the Princess would see it. If you cast it on the King, she would see it too. So what option is there, then?

Something small enough that the Princess wouldn't think to look at it, usually far enough away that she wouldn't see it. And whenever it did show up, it would be overshadowed by her worry for her former Head Butler.

The rat. You used the rat. You instilled an obsession for the rat in the real King's mind to make sure it was always close to him, and played off of Elena's legitimate care for you to trick her into believing you were her father.

I could tell by your eyes in the party, that smile you gave. You enjoyed watching Elena and "Pierre," how she felt guilt over his suffering. Of course, I'd already told "Pierre" to wait for me to get him by the front gate by then.

Now, what exactly it was that you cast on the rat I don't know. But I'm willing to bet something interesting will happen if we kill it."

I sneered at the "King" before me as Elena turned trembling to the rat that rested in "Pierre's" hands.

"I-I'll check. With smaller creatures like this, it takes more focus..."

Elena squinted as she approached the rat, then back away a step, her hand flying to her mouth in shock.

"T-this is... a relay point for a spell? What is this magic? Why did you do this?"

She looked back at the King with hurt eyes and began to chant again. A similar fireball to before quickly appeared in her hands.

"Ah behn feyr."

It flew out accurately and sent the rat flying while burning to a crisp as it squealed inhumanly, changing shape into a thrashing, black, slug-like creature as it did so. After an instant, the creature hit the wall and fell to the floor, motionless.

The change after that was immediate.

The figure of the King before me began to change and warp into a man with flowing, shoulder-length silver hair as the "Pierre" we once knew grew larger and changed into a more emaciated and dirty version of the handsome King before.

The man with flowing silver hair met my eyes with his own as he glared at me.

A silver beard adorned his face that sported few wrinkles, and piercing silver eyes gazed at me through a vicious frown.

"What, angry?"

Pierre suddenly stopped glaring and smirked at me.

"So you've caught me, what now? Will you kill me?"

I looked at him dead in the eyes and smiled.

"Elena... Elena, my daughter, is that you?"

The King cried out behind me as he clutched onto his daughter, the both of them crying.

"You killed your family, right? To remove anybody that would realize the fake you was fake? How could you do that?"

"That's simple, they meant nothing to me to begin with. I was merely here to accomplish a mission."

"Who sent you? It wasn't the demons, I doubt a war with the humans would be beneficial to them since it would cause deaths on their side too. Why would you want to control the royal family and force them to fight the demons?"

"Don't delve into matters you can't understand, boy. Will you kill me or not?"

"..."

Listening to the crying behind me, and glanced ahead at Amber who looked at Pierre with disgust and hurt. She seemed like she couldn't fathom the pain and suffering he'd caused others. Tears were pooling in the corners of her eyes.

"Swallow this. It's a tracker. It'll make it so that you can never escape us, never surprise us if you try something again."

I pulled out the small rubber ball I'd had in my pocket, a "tracker" that would keep us safe, and put it up to Pierres mouth, who obediently swallowed it. However, I didn't remove my knife from his neck.

"Go, everyone. We're done here."

Amber nodded her head, as did Elena and the King, who was now more self aware. The rags that had covered his body barely fit him now, and he limped as he made his way out of the room.

"Don't follow us, get far away from here."

I moved the knife away from Pierre's throat and shoved him away before leaving the room and joining the others.

"Why did you leave him alive? To give kindness to a man like that..."

I shook my head as-.

"You idiot! Did you honestly think I wouldn't come kill you now?!"

The figure of Pierre had changed to a hulking green monster with a pig snout, a garbled voice, and large tusks. Along his arms were sets of three neon orange stripes, and his rippling muscles tensed and released as he barreled towards us in the hall, cackling.

"I wasn't being kind. I just wanted him further away from us so that it would get messy."

The rubber ball, something I'd been fixated on since I'd first held my suspicions.

It was no normal rubber ball, nor was it a "tracker".

During inter-dimensional travel using my method, there was a period where one was assaulted by high amounts of energy of all types. To keep the body safe in this situation, a device was needed to absorb this energy instead of the human body.

Of course, such a device would need to be close on hand to ensure that that much energy didn't get released, and was gradually siphoned away instead in a safe manner.

Of course, in small and continuous quantities, it was harmless.

However, what would happen to it if the energy release was interrupted. For example, if the structure was placed in an unfriendly environment like the inside of a stomach?

Key word: boom.

BOOOOOM!

A large explosion sent dust flying everywhere as a sizable hole about the size of a truck appeared in the palace halls. The ground shook for an instant, and everyone began to cough as the dust flew towards us.

"Did you really think I'd let you live, idiot? I've been waiting to do that for a long time..."

I turned back around towards Elena as she looked back in awe.

"Ah. Sorry about the castle..." 

The King just chuckled, though.

"For my savior, this much is certainly acceptable."

[Due to the solving of a conspiracy, qualifications to earn Unique Skill: Investigation have been met.]

[Unique Skill: Investigation Lv. 1 is acquired...]

[Due to abnormal intelligence status, both intelligence-based skills Investigation and Tinkering merge...]

[Unique Skill: Sherlock Lv. 1 is acquired as a result of merging]

[!@#?]

[Unique Skill: Sherlock Lv. 1 transitions to Unique Skill: Sherlock and Moriarty Lv. 1 as a result of ???]

[Unique Monster defeated...]

[No rewards gained, must destroy monster's real body to gain rewards]

I sighed as my eyes scanned through the notifications.

It seemed like this was far from over.