Chapter 89

It became quite long.

It's about twice the usual length <(_ _)>

In front of Jiba's eyes, the heroes and special forces were collapsing. Behind them, Zangren was kneeling, but—

A super-sized ice spear, as large as a single giant, was above his head.

It seemed to have gathered all the snow from the national commercial guild and the snow that was still falling. The snow had stopped for a moment, allowing even Jiba, who couldn't use spirit magic, to understand that Zangren had gathered the snow.

And, as if to assert his last defiance, he released it at the moment of his fall.

Without even grazing Jiba's cheek, the super-sized ice spear flew straight past, drawing a beautiful parabola and disappearing into the snowy night.

Soon, the snow began to accumulate again.

When Jiba turned his gaze, there was not a single person standing, let alone moving.

Human bones and beast bones were scattered everywhere, mixed with the snow.

Maranova, the center of the national commercial guild, where the treasure was stolen, was silent and dejected.

The discovery of the looted national commercial guild and the report of the hero's absence had already arrived.

Maranova had lost to the notorious thief Skeleton without a trace of dignity.

This fact was undeniable, and a sense of defeat hung over the city. The defense forces and the remaining residents were exhausted, and they fell into a powerless sleep, maintaining only the minimum vigilance to prevent looting.

The only consolation was that the notorious thief Skeleton, who had succeeded in the theft, would not appear again that night.

Unaware of Maranova's state, Ryuji woke up.

A refreshing feeling, as if the fatigue had left his body. There was no pain, no cold, only a sense of well-being.

But the moment Ryuji thought he was having a pleasant morning for the first time in a long while, he noticed the skeleton wrapped in multiple layers of cloth behind him.

Ryuji jumped up, adjusted his posture, and instinctively tried to use 'Invisible Hand' as he recalled the situation—

"—It's useless. You're dead."

Jiba slowly turned around.

While inwardly cursing that he had finally started to talk nonsense, Ryuji subtly glanced behind him, looking for a way to escape.

"You're a persistent one, coming out without doing anything."

Ryuji glanced at his feet and tried to make a run for it. But—

His corpse was at his feet.

Pinned to the roof of the church's spire, a long white spear made of bone had pierced his heart. The spear was half red with blood, and pieces of his heart and clothes were scattered. While it was said that decapitation or complete destruction of the heart was necessary to prevent healing, the attack was thorough.

In addition to the bone spear, the church's symbol, the cross sword, was also impaled.

"Y-You're kidding. Me, dead?!"

"At this moment, you are nothing more than a spirit reacting to my 'Necromantic Negotiation.' You don't have a body, but you're the same as Iru, who is impaled in your corpse."

"—Bullshit! Damn it!"

Ryuji aligned his spirit body with his own corpse.

"Come back, come back, come back!"

Jiba looked down at Ryuji with cold, dark eye sockets.

"Come back..."

Ryuji stopped shouting and looked down dejectedly.

"Finally understood, have you? What a pitiful man."

"…Why did I die? No, it must have been poison…"

Recalling his state just before losing consciousness, Ryuji muttered, but Jiba denied it.

"Indeed, it was poison, but I didn't use it. I didn't think it would work on you anyway."

Ryuji looked up at Jiba with a puzzled expression.

"Kurando released the poison. I just impaled you with Iru."

"Zangren…? Nonsense, why, how…"

Hearing a name he had never expected, Ryuji showed his surprise.

The national commercial guild was flying, but Gajiaji, who was holding the chain, was hovering, and there was nothing suspicious. The poison was not carried by the wind, and it wasn't raining.

"How did you get past my blessing…?"

"—Snow."

"Huh? Snow, you say. Nonsense, how…? …I see, you were asked by him to use the poison. That bastard, he teamed up with High Skeleton… Damn, damn, damn. For a mere janitor to rise so high…!"

"I didn't directly lend a hand."

But Zangren, who looked down on him, didn't believe it and continued to mutter curses.

Jiba wanted to know the information about the hero, called a hero, for future purposes. But it seemed he wouldn't be able to get anything from this.

At that moment, the hero in front of him said something outrageous.

"—He's a hero too."

Jiba couldn't believe his ears.

"It's not a lie. He was summoned as a hero just like us, due to an experiment by a princess named Alice. But just before he was summoned, he had his blessing stolen by Hayato and fled somewhere. That's why Albaum doesn't know about him, and he's a taboo among us."

Ryuji had never thought about the summoners.

Therefore, he had no hesitation in exposing Albaum's weakness, where many summoners gathered, to Jiba, who was hostile to Albaum. If he was dead, he had nothing but hatred for Hayato, Albaum, and Zangren.

To Ryuji, it didn't matter if the information leak made the heroes' position worse or if Zangren was dragged into political struggles.

He had been involved in the absurd situation of being summoned in the fall of his senior year of high school, showed his strength, earned money, and lived by his own power. He had gathered money and power to avoid being at the mercy of a country that would openly use him while kidnapping him. Unlike those who were swayed by the name of hero and lived in a lukewarm world, he had honed his skills to the point where he could survive without the name of hero. He didn't care about the others; it was their own responsibility.

He thought so, but Ryuji was dead.

Moreover, he was killed by Zangren, whom he looked down upon. Whether it was a lie or the truth, it didn't matter to Ryuji anymore. But he didn't want to die in vain.

Ryuji exposed Zangren to Jiba out of such resentment.

Jiba was surprised by the sudden appearance of a troublesome hero in Albaum and the unclear identity of Zangren.

Of course, he immediately saw through Ryuji's intentions.

To shake Albaum with the truth about the heroes.

The fact that the most powerful hero had stolen the 'blessing' of others. The fact that Albaum, the Church of Sandra, and other heroes had hidden this. The fact that the royal family of Albaum had kidnapped (summoned) heroes through inhumane means, and the government had hidden it and used it politically. The fact that the Church of Sandra, which had recognized the heroes, was also involved.

Spreading this information alone would be enough to plunge the Mid continent into chaos.

But Jiba looked at Ryuji with a cold eye.

"…A pitiful man."

"Heh, you're in the same boat, aren't you?"

"There's no reason to believe the ravings of a dead man."

"Heh, a thief's hypocrisy, is that what you're saying? A terrorist like you talking about pride and honor? Ha, you hypocrite."

<I will keep the fact that you are a hero secret until it becomes public.>

Jiba chose his words carefully and restated it with 'True Words.'

When using 'True Words,' one cannot lie. If one lies, the 'True Words' immediately lose their power, and Jiba would lose his means of negotiation in 'Necromantic Negotiation.' This was true even if it was a 'vow' to himself.

In this world, the longer-lived races tend to value pride. While this is just a tendency, living a long life in good health by adhering to principles is not an unreasonable idea.

The bone people were no exception.

Return kindness with kindness, and return enmity with enmity.

If Jiba ignored this and used Zangren, he would have no face to show his fellow bone people.

Indeed, Jiba was a thief in the Mid continent and a bloodless terrorist.

However, Jiba was also a human being, a person with a heart.

It was impossible to continue fighting if everyone was an enemy. He needed the support and understanding of those he protected. There was no meaning in fighting as the notorious thief Skeleton without anyone to protect, and he would eventually be stuck without supporters.

Zangren was one of those people, an important neighbor.

Even without fully understanding the details, Jiba didn't change his way of interacting with Zangren when he learned he was a bone person. Zangren had created a place of solace, the 'Mansion.' In the Mid continent, where Zangren had no friends, he was one of the few people with whom he had shared his heart.

Moreover, Zangren would have allowed himself to be used without saying anything.

But he had deliberately stood up for himself and asked for help.

Jiba couldn't ignore that heart.

While the translation ability allows understanding of the meaning of words, Ryuji didn't know the meaning of the 'True Words' Jiba used. Moreover, he would never understand the relationship and spirituality between Zangren and Jiba.

"Damn it! What's a useless janitor like that worth?"

"You were more foolish than Kurando. Stop whining, it's annoying."

"I didn't lose to a coward who resorted to a monster."

"…Indeed, even if you poison a lion, it's not called brave."

"Just a coward."

"—But a lion that eats a rabbit without knowing it's a poison rabbit is just a fool. No one calls a rabbit cowardly. That fool is you."

"…You—"

"Ah, I'll tell you one thing."

With a face distorted by humiliation and anger, Jiba said to Ryuji.

"—The reward for disposing of you is a drawing by Zangren."

Ryuji was momentarily stunned, unable to understand the meaning of the words.

"Fortunately, this is a church. No matter how much you fear and lament the loss of your will, you won't become undead."

Jiba retrieved only Iru from Ryuji's corpse and then casually jumped off the church's spire and disappeared.

At that moment, Ryuji's entire body slowly began to fade, but he didn't notice.

More importantly, he finally understood the meaning of Jiba's words.

"Drawing, you say? Was I set up by a janitor like that for something like that? …Damn, damn, damn."

The humiliation distorted his vision.

But suddenly, his will began to fade.

His thoughts were disappearing somewhere.

Ryuji couldn't remember what he had been thinking about just a moment ago. He felt irritated by someone.

Shaken by the loss, he began to tremble.

Looking down, he saw that his entire body was fading.

His thoughts were disappearing as soon as he thought them.

His body was disappearing from his feet.

"Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn,