"... Well... do you have anything to say?"

I was being lectured by Rei.

How did this happen?

Well it turns out that after I cast that huge magic power into the sky, a part of the palace was wiped out.

I got so scared thinking that I could kill someone.

I used the "invisibility" skill to check for injuries.

I almost had a heart attack when I saw it... or I had one, but since this body is not human the heart attack could have happened and I didn't feel it.

I was thinking of committing seppuku just like the samurai when I heard that all this was caused by a monster.

I stayed all day at the palace gathering information.

As night fell I heard how the palace would raise taxes to repair the castle.

Then when almost everyone went to sleep, I knocked out some guards and used my powers to rebuild the place.

After that I hid for three days in the forest, the knights were looking for traces of possible accomplices.

I got so scared that I looked like a bear in its cave.

After three days I came out and walking I ended up arriving at the place where Rei, Ange-chan and I separated.

There I found him angry with me.

When I was about to greet him he kicked me.

"You're such a jerk!"

Obviously the kick didn't work, he got hurt himself.

"It hurts!"

He hopped back and forth jumping up and down.

Sorry, I said in my head.

After he stopped jumping he looked me in the eye.

"I was in trouble because of you, I couldn't use half of the cheat skills. If you're done playing come back here."

He pointed to the blue stone where I was for several years inside.

Without spending a second I said to him.

"Fuck you. I'm not going back in there, I finally have a body; I have legs, I can talk and raise my arms."

"I'm not going back in there."

I stuck my tongue out at him and got mad at him.

Rei got angry too.

"I almost died from not being able to use all your powers! You must come back in here or else I'll be killed with the next lunatic that comes out."

"I refuse!"

"Don't be foolish!"

I turned around, I was so angry.

We almost looked like a couple fighting, how repulsive it was to imagine.

"You don't understand how I feel after years of being inside! Years of not being able to do anything else than watch you enjoying life!"

"I can finally be free, I can finally walk, I'm not going to let anyone steal my happiness, not even you!"

He turned to the side, my words were effective.

"I understand, you were always complaining, but. what do you want me to do?"

"I told you I almost died, if not for the fact that I had help, and then your strange attack you launched, my parents-in-law would have died. without a doubt I need you to be by my side so I can fight with all my power!"

That sentence might have won over a girl if it was one, but it will have no effect.

"Besides, how are you going to walk in the capital, huh?"

"You look like quite the monster, they're going to hunt you down if they see you."

I realized there that he was right.

They will kill me if they see me.

But this body isn't human, there's nothing I can do, unless...

I turned around and said to Rei.

"I have an idea."

"Which one?"

I told him that and then showed him my idea.

◇◇◇

Once Norden's handover to Darius was finished, a treaty of not only peace, but also an alliance was signed.

It is called, the Royal Alliance, made up of four nations.

Brune, Norden, Gabino and the Principality of Frazier which is still recognized by other countries as a nation despite being reintegrated into the kingdom.

The Royal Alliance, also called the Noble Alliance, has the purpose of protecting each other in any situation of danger that one of them may go through.

Darius finished shaking hands with the officials of Gabino and the principality who came, including the king.

After leaving the royal hall, he met Rei who was holding a gift in his hand.

"Here, for the trip."

"Thank you. What is it?"

"Typical food from here, I commissioned a merchant to bring the best snacks for the trip."

"Thank you, I appreciate this."

"So... you got your country back already, did you?"

Darius laughed at that bad joke.

"Yes, with this my homeland can begin to improve and repair itself since it got its flag back."

"Certainly accomplishing something without the need for war shows that politics will be necessary for the future, hopefully we can live in an age where war is erased."

"I highly doubt that exists, but it's worth dreaming about."

Darius extended his hand to Rei.

"Despite the fact that we started off with a bad encounter, I appreciate everything you did for me. Your help was more than needed, I truly appreciate it Rei."

Rei seemed to blush at the sound of being thanked.

He extended his hand to him as well and they gave each other a firm shake.

"By the way, you met my brother-in-law the prince didn't you?"

"Yes."

"What do you think of him?"

"He has potential to be a good king and warrior."

"Hah? I thought you'd say he's a softy, so I don't respect him."

"You know, I think you should improve your vocabulary a bit when it comes to the crown."

*Laughs*

The two started laughing again, a great friendship was born out of a misunderstanding.

After releasing his hands, Darius walked straight to his escorts.

He stopped to say something to Rei.

"By the way."

"...?"

"Next time you're in trouble don't hesitate to call me, I'll help you out, friends are for a reason."

"...!"

Hearing the word friends, Rei felt something strange, for some reason he thought to Kurono when he heard that word.

After Darius left with his escorts to return to his nation, Rei left the palace.

"The weather today is very nice, did you say goodbye well?"

"I did. It's none of your business."

"Huh? What's wrong."

"Could it be that it hurts to say goodbye?"

"That's none of your business!"

Rei shouted at the young man beside him.

"More importantly, this will really work."

After all, that young man was...

"Kuro."

Kurono Ichiru in his human form.

How did this happen?

◇◇◇

The moment Rei saw that a light covered Kurono, he was surprised after noticing that the glow disappeared.

Kurono's body which was taller than Rei's began to shrink.

The grotesque claws, horns and fangs they had been gone.

The red skin began to turn white and brown hair grew on certain areas of the body.

After the glow disappeared, Rei was shocked.

"Ku... ro?"

Kurono approached the small lake nearby and smiled after looking at his reflection.

"It worked!"

Kurono had used a powerful skill called "imitation" which allowed him to take on someone's appearance after knowing all of their physical characteristics.

Kurono began to cry, they were real tears, thanks to this skill, every detail of a human body was real.

After pinching his cheeks, he went to Rei and hugged him.

"Uwooooooooooh, Rei, I finally became physically human again, I'm not a real human, but at least I have a body to pretend to be one!"

Rei was speechless.

"Wait a minute!"

Rei said pulling Kurono naked away from him.

"Are you saying this is your real appearance!"

"Huh? Obviously it is. This is what I looked like before."

"You're lying!"

"Of course I'm not."

"It's a lie! Since always!"

Rei said something that mortified Kurono.

"I always thought you looked like a middle-aged, balding, bearded man with a huge belly! That's my interpretation of god!"

As if the world had shut down, Kurono simply left this world.

He then shouted at Rei after remembering that his fate was going to end like this before he died.

"You fucking idiot! Don't you ever say that again in your life! I'll kill you with my own hands if you say it!"

"Why are you getting angry? What I said was the truth, I always thought you were an old guy talking about the past."

"Do I sound like an old guy!"

"Very much so."

*Slump*

Kurono fell to the ground imitating the clichéd anime he watched.

"I can't believe it. All this time I've been an old man in your head... the future that awaited me was so terrifying that even dead, no, even in another world I was haunted, it's terrifying fate."

He mumbled with his eyes rolling.

Rei put his sweatshirt on him because he was naked.

"Whatever. Put this on and let's get you clothes on, I don't care if you don't want to come back for now, but when there's a powerful enemy I'll need you."

Kurono stood up, eyes red from crying so much.

"I already told you I won't go back inside. That's why I thought of this solution."

He raised his hand and showed a V.

"We'll be a duo, a team."

"If fighting one guy is dangerous, we'll fight the two of us together."

"That way I can help you too and I won't need to go back there, we all win."

"That answer doesn't satisfy me."

Rei commented with sulky eyes.

Kurono got angry at him.

"I don't care if you don't like it! Here I am the god and you are the messenger of god! You do what I want and I say we fight together!"

Rei clicked his tongue.

"Tch. You do what you want."

After turning around, he spat his venom at him.

"Old man."

"I told you not to say that!"

The two of them looked like little kids fighting.

◇◇◇

Rei and Kurono were in a carriage straight to the duchy, they were about to arrive.

"Will this work?"

Rei asked looking out the window, Eli and the others couldn't come thanks to the royal family's problems thanks to Klyde.

Their parents wanted her to stay with them for a while, she cried because she wanted to go with Rei.

The vacation was about to start.

Rei left early because thanks to her participation in the peace treaty with Norden and Gabino he was forgiven for the failed exams.

Inside the carriage Rei and Kurono were explaining their plan.

Once they arrived, they were greeted by Walter who wondered who the young man was next to his young master.

After seeing Rei's parents, Kurono began the plan.

"Hello! Uncle, aunt. I am Ichiru. Ichiru Kurono, nice to meet you~."

With that introduction worthy of a romantic comedy anime, Rei explained the situation.

"Emm, this guy's name is Kurono, call him Kuro."

"He's apparently a distant relative, a long time ago one of our ancestors went to the west and stayed living there."

"When I went to Gabino I found him, we fought and after talking I learned his lineage and that's how we ended up here."

Rei said it so mechanically that everyone looked confused at the situation.

In his head, Kurono was cursing him.

(Stupid Rei, I told you it wasn't like that. You should have done it in a more detailed way.)

(What do we do if they don't believe us?)

"Ah, a distant relative!"

With a cheerful expression, Rei's mother looked happy.

"Dear, didn't you say you had relatives overseas?"

"Umm, I don't remember. It's true that in the past many of my relatives left here, surely this young man must be a descendant of one of them."

Oriana who came running to greet Rei stopped to sniff Kurono.

"Why does this guy smell just like the master?"

"See!"

Rei said very glad that Oriana had come to say it.

"She recognizes that we smell the same, meaning we're related."

Rei's eyes rolled like crazy at that lie.

His mother went straight to Kurono and hugged him.

"I don't know what kind of life you've led so far, but if you came here it means something must have happened to you."

"The Redblade family welcomes you, I hope we get along well in the future."

Her warm words made a tear roll down his cheek.

Kurono remembered that this warmth was just like his family.

(Maybe... just maybe, I ended up meeting Rei due to our families being similar.)

He thanked her.

"Yes. I'm so glad to be a part of this family."

"Wonderful, let's go inside and eat, the food is getting cold."

Kurono came in and then Rei, in a low voice said to him.

"It worked."

"So I see, but now is where our reason for staying at your house truly begins."

Rei remembered what Kurono was referring to.

Before going to eat, he went upstairs to check on Rose.

After knocking on the door, Rose allowed the arriving person to enter.

Kurono was behind him.

"Hello, Rose."

She was happy to see him, but then her smile faded as she saw Kurono behind Rei.

As he explained who he was, Rei thought.

(The reason I have Kuro as part of my family is because of this moment.)

(Rose, I will finally keep my word to give you back what's yours.)

Rei smiled as he spoke.

(The three of us will go to your home, the elf country and take back what is yours.)

(Now that Kuro is with me, you will be able to give birth in your homeland so that our child will be blessed by that tree Kuro mentioned.)

(I promise.)

◇◇◇

"Is it necessary to do this?"

Somewhere in the world, Numbers and Codes of the death goddess cult were digging a huge hole.

"I don't understand why the leader wants us to dig these holes, what do we gain by digging them?"

"Hey, don't question and just follow orders."

"I just really don't understand the reason for digging holes in these specific areas, a height of over 100 meters deep and then throwing this totem inside."

In his hands the guy held a strange dragon-like totem made of wood, they were to arrange it at the bottom and have the mouth point up.

No one understood the meaning of this, but questioning the cult leader, Azoth, was harmful.

"By all this, is it true that Regnas─ Berserk is dead?"

"They say so, Bishop Bloodman himself said that thanks to what happened in Brune's kingdom he must personally take care of the problem."

"Sometimes I wonder if we minions wouldn't be better off in charge. I just sometimes wonder."

Even with that simple conversation, the cult was mysteriously digging holes all over the world.

What was their purpose in digging?

◇◇◇

Alfoster Republic.

A young man with blond hair was apologizing.

His name was Jerome.

"I'm so sorry! Because of me, not only did we lose the whole unit, they also kidnapped Ixaba!"

He was apologizing to the highest ranking person in the base.

"Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of Nash we lost?"

Nash was the national currency of Alfoster, in Kurono's world it would be equivalent to dollars.

"Just one of them took at least 12 years to develop and 4 years to train the drivers."

"You're thinking that really─"

"What's the problem that it cost so much?"

A man walked in, he was smoking.

"I accidentally destroyed mine weeks ago, then destroyed another one by a finger mistake. Accidents happen."

The person in charge got angry.

"Benfield, get out of this, it's none of your business!"

"Besides, you're not out of trouble either, just because the president says you're vital to this war."

"You're wrong Moss, what's vital in a war is the soldiers, no matter how much you've invested in weaponry, in the end it's developed to be scrapped sooner or later."

"So are we."

The man snapped angrily.

"Fine. I'll deduct it from your retirement and the same from him, when you get to old age you'll complain to see why you get pittances!"

The two men left the place.

Jerome turned to Benfield.

"Thank you."

"There's nothing to thank, besides I really destroyed them myself."

"Huh?"

"What do you think would happen if those old men think a monster is better than a human? We would be discarded, war is really a money game, whoever spends more wins."

"That's why a slight sabotage won't do any harm."

"Isn't that treason?"

"If it was I would have left here long ago, but I grew up here and I will die here."

"Yes, this place is where I took my first breath and it will be for my last as well."

The two men were preparing in camp for the next mission.

◇◇◇

In the underworld, the goddess Ereshkigal watched the world.

"That's right, keep wreaking havoc, suffering and tragedy."

"Death is the calm to your pain, come with me, so that we may all be happy."

She raised her gaze and saw the bloody moon illuminating her skeletal and gloomy face.

"The happiness you get will be replaced by despair, but that despair is the real happiness."

"Unlike that time with him, this time I won't let you steal my happiness, Ishtar, ufufu."

The goddess smiled, watching as her plan for absolute happiness, went smoothly.

________________________

The Rebellion of the Bartolt Household Arc, Finished.

I´m the strongest Cheat Lord in the whole world! Volume 4 end.