Editing Skill Tree Goddess:Volume1 Chapter4

==Chapter 4: When You Get Down to It Humans Really Are the Worst==

===Part 1===

Gilbezos had no more reason to stay in Temple City Aeropremise, but the Sky Territory was in fact up in the sky. Leaving and then returning sounded like a huge pain. He wanted to do everything he could here while he was here.

So he used the Time Measurement skill used by chefs to nap for exactly 180 minutes until it was night.

“Hee hee hee. Oh, Gilbezos. You really shouldn’t rush head first into that mass of wriggling tentacles. See? Now it’s swallowed you whole. But it is so cute how your feet kick around like that★ Mutter, mutter.”

“What in the world is happening in her dream? …Hey, wake up, Lady Seliphenia. We need to get started.”

That goddess could give someone an internal clock skill, but she couldn’t wake up on her own? Yet she hadn’t had any trouble accompanying him when he walked up a vertical castle wall.

He left the inn with the 18-looking goddess. He snuck into the temple that’s usual security was down thanks to all the confusion of the priest’s fall, the loss of their goddess, the destruction of the barrier, and the damage to the temple.

Magic wasn’t the only kind of skill. Skills included things like a thief’s lock picking as well.

“Oh, so you’re opening all the chests in the completed dungeon before you leave the area? That is indeed the standard for adventurers.”

“No, stop trying to tempt me onto a wicked path.”

…Not that what he was doing was all that righteous.

Gilbezos wasn’t trying to steal anything as concrete as money. He wanted information.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you afraid of the dark. The sleepiness doesn’t seem to be getting to you either.”

“Because I’m not a kid.”

“Oh, no! Your goddess is just sooooo scared of the dark★”

“Get off! That wasn’t remotely convincing, so stop grabbing at me!”

While moving through the dark, he pushed a statue, stepped on a floor switch, slid a monument to the side…and there it was. The small room he found contained exactly what he expected.

“I knew he’d have a place like this if he was doing all that scheming in such a large temple.”

“Bookcases full of parchment on every wall? That’s way too much for a secret account book.”

“They’re confession records. Those confessions are supposed to be held in the utmost confidence, but here we have records for them all.”

The short boy sighed.

Confession was the act of secretly telling the clergy about your sins or problems so the believer may be freed from their suffering and their sins erased. And yet the priest at this temple was secretly writing it all down without permission. He had even been underlining different confessions in red or blue to classify them by importance.

“That means he could easily gather blackmail material on everyone in the city. He was collecting scandals like this so he could bend people to his will. He has the city’s VIPs do his bidding like this and, if any lone wolf citizen resists him, he can reveal some choice information to ruin them.”

However, there was little point in making another attack on the priest after he was nearly turned into a star by the mama dragon’s scattershot breath. Gilbezos had said he wanted information. And by relying on this immoral little room, he was in no position to badmouth others.

“Who do you want dirt on, Gilbezos? I recommend a restaurant owner’s daughter. Fidget, fidget.”

“I want info on Brave Liar.”

“…Do you have any evidence he was ever in this city?”

“Nope,” readily admitted Gilbezos. “But as large as the kingdom is, everyone has heard of this religious city, right? During a time of great calamity, the priest will have been sent out to a battlefield or disaster site as a military chaplain. So that would have given him a lot more chance to contact the famous heroes and warriors fighting on the front line than if he stayed at home.”

However, the records were extensive. And there might not be any on Brave Liar. After locating the bookshelf with confessions taken on the battlefield, Gilbezos checked through them to find a lot by other people.

These were the confessions of veteran heroes and warriors. The records appeared to be from the time of the National Survival War in which one of the Demon Lord’s right-hand men, known as the Three Aides, was slain. They were all about things the temple would consider sins and must not ever be made public. A surprising number of them were confessions of fear concerning upcoming battles. Maybe that just showed those famous people were still human. Or so Gilbezos thought, but the actual confessions were a little different.

''“These monsters can speak, which makes it so hard to fight them. Is there no magic to deafen my ears?”

''“I saw a cyclops try and fail to call out to one of his own kind. I wonder if he had a crush? I pains me to think we have to attack them soon.”

''“Is it really right for us humans to enter a cerberus’s den and slay her when she is only trying to protect her children?”

Apparently the boy wasn’t the only one who questioned these things.

“The National Survival War, hm? I don’t know what it was like then since I wasn’t in the capital at the time, but I’ve heard the monsters made it pretty close to the city.”

“That was a rather unusual war because the humans overcame their disadvantage by calling in a bunch of summoners and tamers so they too could send monsters out to fight. The presence of ''monsters on their side'' may have led to a lot of the humans on the front line beginning to empathize with them.”

Gilbezos recalled Knight Saezuri saying her targets were all human. That had simply terrified him at the time, but looking back on it now, maybe that was easier on her conscience.

Because she was fighting humans for the misdeeds they had committed instead of attacking monsters just for being monsters.

''“He has done nothing wrong. In fact, I asked him to do it. Because I have trouble feeling needed if I’m not being harmed.”

“…”

“Boy, this really isn’t the kind of material you should be poring through like this. It’s depressing.”

“I know that.”

Since he had snuck in, his time was limited. It was time to leave. There had been some valuable information in there, but he hadn’t found anything on Brave Liar himself.

“Any luck?”

“Yes. Just knowing that Brave Liar fought in the National Survival War is enough.”

He had seen a lot. He couldn’t be certain, but he was pretty sure he was right.

Gilbezos slipped out of the temple.

“Come to think of it, this temple might capture a new Saint. What are you going to do about that?”

“The door to that room of secret blackmail material is never closing again. Because I broke the mechanism when we left.”

“…”

“There’s no hiding it from the city’s people anymore. Oh, no. How is the temple going to get rebuilt now?”

Back in his room in the Queen Size inn, he gathered his things and napped until morning.

“I can hear the temple crumbling already. Anyway, it’s about time I searched out Brave Liar.”

“That means heading down to the surface, right? What about the exorbitant cost?”

…Oh, right? What about that? His guild reward was meant to come from the corrupt priest, so that wasn’t happening anymore. He still needed to pay for the ad crane that was so expensive it was known as entertainment for aristocrats.

Gilbezos heard a flapping sound from overhead.

It came from Yuileen, the SS-class Uroboros-form dragon. She had a small figure on her back. It looked like they weren’t interested in staying in Sunset Autumn Skyland. They apparently intended to move elsewhere to get a fresh start.

“There’s an idea. We can’t pay the absurd price for an ad crane, but we can hitch a ride on the back of our mama dragon friend, can’t we? And I’ll be nice enough to ignore what a certain silly goddess said.”

“Hee hee hee. My, how fun. That’s the perfect idea, boy. If you ignore the fact that an SS-rank dragon has no seats, railings, lifelines, or safety belts★”

“…”

===Part 2===

Gyahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!?

===Part 3===

It turned into a death-defying trip.

She was 50 metora. Gilbezos never knew it was possible for a ride to be ''too'' big. On that enormous mama dragon’s back, tiny Gilbezos had nowhere to grab onto, so he had no choice but to spread his arms and legs and cling to her so the wind didn’t carry him away! He actually was torn away a few times and thrown into the sky, but the kind mama dragon made sure to catch him each time!!

“Wow, the Saint is something else… She’s laughing in delight while this thrill ride makes loop-the-loops.”

“Where can you feel safer than on your mother’s back?”

Was that how it worked?

She apparently couldn’t speak human language, but with one exception: the word “mama”. She must have worked hard to learn it.

The bearded man, Penelope, and the others were shouting something up from the Sky Territory, but there was no need to listen. Gilbezos had forgiven them, so he was fine with them paying the exorbitant fee to head on down themselves.

Afterwards, Yuileen flew off with the little Saint on her back. Gilbezos seriously doubted they would ever be caught again.

He found himself in a field on the outskirts of the capital. For now, he decided to walk back to the kingdom’s largest city.

…It was long time since he paid Shirayuri a visit. He hadn’t seen the 10-year-old since leaving her behind in the village of pillagers that was after the high elves, so he wanted to make sure she was all right.

“Huh?”

He found a smaller child instead. Gilbezos spotted a 9-year-old boy in a crowd in the capital. Wasn’t that Sismond Johnson, friend of the high elves? But he had lived in that forest village, so what was he doing in the capital?

“Have you seen my sister?”

“Whoa!?”

Someone else popped out from the crowd. It was Saezuri Ferslona, leader of the Undine Knights, one of the kingdom’s five elite fighting forces.

“We destroyed the criminal village of Needspart and rescued whichever villagers we determined to be innocent…but I saw no sign of my sister who I was certain had been there. She is free to disagree with me, but the problem is her troublesome tendency to run away instead of discussing it with me. She must be rotten to the core. When I find that foolish sister, I will spank her until her butt swells to twice its size.”

…Oh, so that village was arrested as a whole.

Well, this was the physically powerful meathead knight who said her targets were all human. That village had been disturbing the kingdom’s order, so it had seemed unlikely it would be left alone for long.

However, it would have been cruel indeed to hand over the 10-year-old sister to the 17-year-old sister when she was so worked up, so Gilbezos replied with some polite niceties and began his own search for Shirayuri with only the goddess for company.

“Do you know where she is, Little Girl Hunter?”

“I seriously hope there isn’t a skill with that name.”

When seriously trying to avoid her sister, Shirayuri wouldn’t place her shop in an unknown back alley. That was the same as hiding your spare key in your mailbox. So the short boy checked an area one street off of the main street where small shops were crammed so tightly into a decently sized plaza they looked like a solid wall. …Yes, it was best to hide in plain sight. The Necessities Emporium was hidden there, camouflaged among the other shops.

“Wahh…. G-Gilbezoooos.”

“There, there.”

She seemed more afraid of her sister than the village of pillagers. He gave her a hug to help her calm down.

She had brought back the bag and bicycle he had left in the village inn, so he gave her another hug.

Gilbezos felt great relief as he perused the wide variety of wares available at the Necessities Emporium. It had been too long. Maybe crops didn’t grow well on the chilly Sky Territory, but the Cure Herbs had been a sad sight to see… Maybe it was best to replenish his consumable items before battling Brave Liar. Magic skills were convenient, but they could be sealed away by a status effect.

“Any recommendations?”

“Every last thing I have on sale.”

…Did she have an item that made you grow taller? A fast-acting one? Shirayuri made sure to drink milk on a daily basis, but looking at her that appeared to be a healthy habit but not one that provided immediate growth.

“So you say you’re going to find Brave Liar? Do you know where his hideout is or something?”

“Searching him out isn’t the only option.”

===Part 4===

The time had come to bring the fight to Brave Liar.

That night, after making his final preparations in his inn room, Gilbezos started toward the door.

But Goddess Seliphenia called out to him.

She didn’t seem to be joking for once.

“I have something to say.”

“What is it?”

“I feel I need to point this out since you may have forgotten, but you are under no ''obligation'' to do anything. You are not the Hero or Demon Lord tasked with determining the fate of the world.”

He was just a person.

He had a lot of skills, but that didn’t give him any kind of official status.

“So if you can’t reach Brave Liar’s level and you know you will die if you fight him, you do have ''the right'' to choose not to fight. Just like anyone else.”

“But…”

“If you don’t do it, someone else will. So it’s fine.” The 18-looking goddess spoke decisively. “And if no one does it, then that’s what they call destiny. Brave Liar didn’t hesitate to cut down the king and he will probably continue killing VIPs like that, so the world will trend downwards from here, but that’s all. There is no divine guarantee this world will always be the best possible world, so things will change for better and for worse. You are not obligated to bear that responsibility yourself.”

He hadn’t been ordered to defeat the Demon Lord.

He hadn’t even been told to visit some village and acquire a valuable item there.

This was all something Gilbezos had decided for himself. Nothing was threatening his life here other than his own personal rules. So there was nothing to stop him from cheating those rules if he wanted to.

''But that was exactly why he couldn’t.

“Are you kidding me, Lady Seliphenia?”

“…”

He didn’t need to say much. It was true he could do whatever he wanted if if he was free to do anything and possessed only rights rather than obligations. But he couldn’t. That was why Gilbezos looked to his own good will and morals – those things that sounded silly when said aloud but everyone had to some extent.

“I’m free, so I can just abandon my promises? It’s no responsibility of mine whatever happens to the world? You must be joking. That’s not freedom at all. It’s just bondage.”

The goddess slowly inhaled and exhaled.

She was hesitant to flip over this trump card.

The breath was like a ritual to prepare herself to touch it.

“Listen. Before you gained your current name, when your life in another world came to an end, you said something.”

He didn’t know about this.

Gilbezos Overridge had no memory of his past life. He didn’t know anything at all about his previous life – not his name or even his sex or age. So he had no way of knowing if this was true.

But he doubted it was a lie.

The goddess likely knew him on a deeper level than he did himself. And that goddess now gave the answer.

“ ‘If there is ''something more'' after this…I’m through keeping my head down and giving up.’ ”

So Goddess Seliphenia carried that message to him.

The current boy didn’t know what had happened in his past life.

Not even how it had ended.

But he had spoken those words on the verge of death.

And some power that chose to act as a god had provided thorough support in response.

But now that was threatening Gilbezos’s life.

If he could avoid danger, stop fighting, and become a Villager A who only discussed the latest news in this world of limitless possibilities, then he could avoid this fight. But he had instead steered himself straight toward disaster. Even though he had intended to live a happy life.

Viewing Gilbezos now, the young woman who always stood by his side asked a question with the expression of a lost child on the verge of tears.

“My role is to support you, so I can’t stop you from doing this. I can’t force you to resist and give up at the very end. But your life may come to an end today. I did my very best…but how did you like this life?”

In the end, that was everything for the goddess.

There was no great problem in this world. She wasn’t trying to achieve some lofty accomplishment by guiding Gilbezos. She had only wanted to provide a second chance for a life that ended too soon.

Gilbezos recalled the exhilaration he had felt when he promised to help that 9-year-old boy wracked with guilt and helped the trapped high elves escape from the forest. He had felt so alive when he stormed the temple with the mama dragon who was fighting to rescue her abducted child.



He had made a promise.

So he couldn’t back out now.



…This was likely a subconscious obsession that came from ''a failure to stick to his promises'' in his past life. In this world awash with swords and sorcery, he had reclaimed something he had given up on and let go of at some point.

So Gilbezos Overridge answered with a small smile.

“I’m satisfied.”

But he couldn’t let it end yet. There were still people he hadn’t saved. He had made a promise with the king. He had promised to stop Brave Liar, the rogue hero, and to prevent the creation of a kingdom or world that would accept death in the face of adversity.

He had made a promise. So he couldn’t back out now.

He wanted to be the kind of person who could stick to that principle. Who could say it with conviction.

Gilbezos Overridge threw open the door and took his first step outside.

===Part 5===

“I will return… I will make a glorious comeback…”

Someone muttered to themselves in the darkness.

It was the priest.

He had no idea how he had left the Sky Territory and been thrown to the surface. But he had been fortunate. He had lost the Saint, the barrier, and everything else, but he only had to rebuild his power and fortune. But first he needed a starting point. He decided to start by doing this vast kingdom a favor to establish some social status for himself.

“Hee…hee hee.”

He was headed to Abandoned Castle Brunst.

The Succubus Queen, one of the Demon Lord’s right-hand men, known as the Three Aides, had once resided in that frontline base. The fact that the monsters had approached that close to the capital had turned the National Survival War into a truly chaotic conflict.

He had been there as an unarmed military chaplain, so he knew something had been hidden here.

“The king is dead. The throne sits empty. A royal funeral requires the Three Treasures chosen by the king himself, but one of those is missing. Yes, I know the Royal Banner was lost.”

He knew because he had stolen and hidden it himself.

During the confusion of the National Survival War, information had been all over the place, giving him a chance to swipe that royal treasure.

“Once I ‘discover’ it, I will be a national hero. Everyone will have no choice but to thank me! A-and that should provide me enough of a foothold for a comeback. I already know how to produce Saint’s Jewels. If I can mass produce them, so many of those foolish humans will be dying to get their hands on that very practical mirac-”

“What, do you think you’re so smart you’re guaranteed to succeed if you’re willing to trample others in the process?”

“!?”

The priest heard a deep voice.

He spun around, but he failed to realize someone would only speak to him first if a surprise attack wasn’t necessary – if they were confident they could kill a weakling like him whenever and however they pleased.

“Honestly, you’re a ridiculous bastard through and through. ‘Corrupt’ doesn’t come close to covering it.”

The man had long red hair and pitch black armor.

The priest recognized him. He was the Hero who had achieved more than any other during the National Survival War.

He was the embodiment of killing who had directly slain even the Succubus Queen.

A jelly girl stood at his side. Her branching chains rattled as she made nervous ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’ and glanced over at the Hero, but that was unlikely to stay her master’s deadly blade.

Dazed, the priest spoke his name.

Because the young man resting an enormous hammer on his shoulder was someone he recognized.

“Brave…Liar?”

“Are you ready? I’ll bring an end to your life. Really, it’s a wonder someone hasn’t already killed scum like you.”



“I know what you mean.”



Someone else was here too.

Gilbezos Override emerged from behind a pillar along with the goddess.

“But the thing is, that doesn’t mean it’s ''actually'' okay to kill him, Brave Liar.”

===Part 6===

Gilbezos Override and Brave Liar faced each other.

Finally.

He had finally made it this far.

“An ambush? No, did you guide me here?”

“The National Survival War.”

“…”

“You fought in the war when the Demon Lord’s aide was killed, right? I saw that in the blackmail material collected by that nasty priest. And everyone who fought in that war was plagued by doubt and fear. They had seen how the monsters experienced the same emotions we do, so they wondered if those monsters really were villains deserving of death. …If that mood permeated the entire battlefield, then you must have wondered the same thing.”

The collared jelly girl by his side was an odd thing. If he truly detested monsters, he wouldn’t keep one around even as a slave. The fact that he kept her by his side at all times was a sign of how important she was to him.

So it was the opposite.

“It’s wrong to call you the Hero who turned on humanity,” declared the short boy. “It’s better to say you’re the Hero who ''grew to understand the monsters too well and could no longer fight them''. That’s who Brave Liar is.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because you cheated and took the easy way out when it came to that jelly girl too,” said the goddess.

“I know your violence toward her doesn’t come from hate.”

The air strained with danger.

“She has an unusual disposition. She’s happiest when some scumbag is hitting her and she grows emotionally unstable when she goes too long without that sort of treatment. Maybe you don’t actually want to do it, but sometimes you have no choice but to give her a ''tranquilizer''.”

When he thought about it, the thick collar around the jelly girl’s neck didn’t really make sense. As a jelly monster whose slime body could change form at will, that did nothing to bind her. That meant the slime girl was wearing the collar by choice.

And while she called him “master”…could it have a different meaning here?



''“He has done nothing wrong. In fact, I asked him to do it. Because I have trouble feeling needed if I’m not being harmed.”



That hidden room in the temple hadn’t had any record of Brave Liar himself. Perhaps he wasn’t the kind of person who felt the need for confession.

However, that didn’t mean there hadn’t been anything at all about him.

A great many people had fought in the National Survival War, so a lot would have seen Brave Liar up close at the time.

…And confession wasn’t just for talking about yourself. Hiding something you unintentionally saw also counted as a sin, so the acts of other people would also be confessed at the temple.

“Ultimately, you really were a Hero to the end.”

He had simply changed which side he was protecting and which side he was directing his sword at. He was wielding his weapon and ultimate skills to protect the weak, not for personal gain.

The traitorous Hero, Brave Liar, fought to protect the monsters who could only tremble in fear as they were attacked without question.

“The National Survival War, huh?” said Brave Liar. “Cut that Hero crap. You say there was doubt and fear among the humans there? Don’t make me laugh. They may have said all that, but they just went on killing. That was a war of goddamn murderers who refused to stop killing. Maybe this is like visiting their graves… This time it reminded me of old times and I reacted too strongly.”

“I see. So you played a part in history. Then did you see these ruins when they were still intact?”

“This castle was ruled by the Succubus Queen – Empusa Venolia of the Three Aides. Her Sexy Panties Succubus Ninja Arts was one hell of a dangerous special attack that hits your entire party with eight to ten status effects at once.”

…Um, was the veteran Hero really saying this right now?

Although his tone of voice suggested he was thinking about an old friend, not a hated enemy.

“Anyway, knowing why you do what you do meant I could predict where you would be. Or let me provide some bait I knew you would go for. I mean, this corrupt priest tore apart the bonds between an SS-rank dragon and the human Saint so he could profit. You wanted his life so badly, didn’t you?”

“You mean you knew?”

“Yeah, and I used him as bait. I rolled the priest up, stuffed him in a bag, and carried him down to the surface.”

Gilbezos answered with no hesitation or guilt.

He knew how dangerous his situation was. He was in a similar position.

He had abandoned guild jobs more than once. He had helped the high elves escape and he had restored the bonds between dragon mother and Saint daughter. Now that he had done it himself, he knew helping out nonhumans wasn’t all that difficult. So that wasn’t where the line between good and evil lay.

“But that priest aside…”

“Right. Brave Liar, protector of monsters, had no reason to attack that king.”

“This entire huge kingdom feasts on monsters. Whether they call it defense, hunting, materials collection, skill farming, or level grinding, the kingdom’s economy is built on it. And that piece of shit is the architect of it all! He was the one collecting all the money!!!”

So that was it.

…That selfless king had sold his castle piece by piece to feed the hungry he had never met and hidden what he was doing instead of boasting, so it seemed unlikely he would approve of anything as foolish and evil as enslaving high elves and setting up an isolated girl as a Saint to profit off of her life. But Brave Liar only saw him as the very center of the great contraption taking so many lives.

The Hero was a special job meant to defeat the Demon Lord to bring peace to the world.

Killing the guy at the top would change everything.

That was the basic idea. So if the Hero drew a line between human and monster and switched which side he considered good and evil, it was obvious who Brave Liar would choose as his first target.

He had defeated who he saw as the Demon Lord. And had it changed the world?

“Surely you understand,” asked Brave Liar.

“Understand what?”

“That goddess there. If she’s the real deal, then you too are guarded by a nonhuman being. I approve. You make use of what you can and repay them by opening your heart to them. Trust is born from little things like that. You don’t waste time on worrying who’s human, who’s a monster, or who’s a goddess. And am I supposed to sit idly by while some shitheads call it ‘cheating’ or ‘unfair’ and try to take it all away?”

“You have a point. I don’t like the idea of a future where all the high elves are enslaved and I’d prefer it if the mommy dragon and the Saint could keep their happy smiles forever.”

“In that case, we’ve got nothing to fight about. You’re already on my side.”

Gilbezos Overridge sighed.

And he spoke.



“Not so fast. Get away from me, you creepy justice freak.”



The air froze.

That was fine. Gilbezos refused to hang his head in silence with this guy.

…''This is how you’re supposed to use your rights, goddess.

“It’s true I saved the high elves. And I fought alongside the mommy dragon. But I never said that had somehow convinced me it’s okay to slaughter humans you don’t like en masse. We took different paths to reach this point. You were playing easy mode where you could just swing your weapon around and kill whoever you liked. I was playing on ultra hard mode where you have to settle it without killing anyone, not even your enemy. Those two difficulty levels are nothing alike. All you did was rush toward the ending. You made tons of mistakes and lost so many points. Your score was pathetically low and you didn’t even follow any personal rules in your playthrough, so don’t you dare act like we’re the same.”

“Damn you…”

“I’m not just saying this. I really haven’t killed this priest no matter how much he pisses me off. My way couldn’t be more different from your way with all its careless mistakes.”

This had nothing to do with skills.

His LAW, level, job, and other practical stats were unchanged.

But this was undeniably a strength Gilbezos had and Brave Liar did not.

“You listen to the nonhuman? You’ve poured all of your strength into protecting them? Get off your high horse, Brave Liar. All you’ve done is make the monsters’ situation worse. By choosing to kill, you’ve settled on the absurd conclusion that ''the only way to ensure peace for the monsters is to take humans lives''!! Can’t you see that you’ve become more violent than the monsters!!?”

“Nonsense. You’re not even worth laughing at. What, you’re mad I’ve decided to think for myself? When did a single human ever even try to listen to what we had to say!? You think I should hold peaceful talks, decide on new rules, and arrive at a compromise that brings about a new understanding between us? I’m sick of hearing that. Don’t act like you have any idea what’s ''really, truly'' happened, you damn brat!!!”

This was never going to end with them getting along.

It had all been set up so they could settle things once and for all.

…''No shirking responsibility, Brave Liar. I’m not going to forget you killed the king.

Gilbezos Overridge briefly pictured the deceased king in his mind.

Then he forcefully drew the sword at his hip.

It was time to keep his promise.

===Part 7===

Brave Liar’s weapon was a giant hammer, but it was only meant for an initial, surprise attack. He must have decided it wouldn’t be much use when they were facing each other like this. He drew the thin sword from the long handle and threw away the hammer.

Gilbezos had already drawn his sword.

The goddess by Gilbezos’s side and the jelly girl with Brave Liar both slowly moved away from them. No words were exchanged, so it almost seemed planned.

With the goddess and the jelly girl gone, only the humans who traveled with a nonhuman and had reached this point by trampling on the world’s rules in order to protect the lives of others.

So were they birds of a feather?

…''No. Don’t make me laugh.

There was no signal. The Hero voiced his incantation first.

'''“Gi Bu Ri Yu (Fly away) – Mingla.”

The center of the short boy’s chest sparkled. Like a light being shined on specks of gold dust.

“!!”

Just as he jumped back, the light exploded.

Nothing had flown in there. Was it an attack that directly attacked a chosen coordinate!?

…It had been fast even for that.

Brave Liar had abbreviated the incantation so far, yet it still conveyed its meaning. He really did have more than just brute force!

“You’re still alive after the first attack? Well, so damn what!?”

Blinding light split the space. One white explosion erupted after another and Gilbezos was forced to repeatedly side step out of the way. At this point, the attacks had become a belt of light. If he stopped, he was dead, but if he kept this up, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Something raced by, skimming just off the floor.

The Hero’s sword sprang up vertically in order to slice deep into Gilbezos’s jaw.

The skyward slash was like a pillar of light.

'''“Sai Nu Ru (Slice through) – Molgzed!!”

Gilbezos somehow managed to step back at the last second.

But that extra space allowed Brave Liar to adjust his grip on his sword and twirl around on the spot.

'''“He To Sai (Spin and slash) – Mayunzlas!!!”

A circle of light around the Hero expanded to slice through everything around him at hip height. That was the most annoying height for evasion and defense!! Gilbezos scrambled down onto the ground. Was the goddess alright?

“You saw that coming!? Hah! I was sure you’d just stand there while it sliced you apart!”

“He’s not just a single overpowered attack. Basic specs really are important. He’s built those up like crazy.”

…Had Gilbezos grown enough to talk while this went on?

He was sure he would have died several times by now if he was still the way he had been back at he king’s castle.

After all, all of Brave Liar’s attacks carried the overpowered Certain Death skill. So no matter how much HP Gilbezos had left, he would die instantly if Brave Liar ''just so happened'' to get a critical hit. His marathon of effort up to that point would crumble in an instant. So he didn’t want to take even a scratch from a minor attack or warning shot.

Gilbezos used the Trap Detection skill often used by thieves to boost his danger sense and prepare for surprise attacks while he cautiously readied his sword and recalculated the distance between them.

“What’s your name?”

“Gilbezos Overridge.”

He named himself.

He had reached the point that he could name himself and face this legend as an equal.

“Do you think you have nothing to fear as long as I don’t hit you? It’ll be fun to see how far your AGI can take you.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

Also, each of Brave Liar’s attacks would probably do tens of thousands of damage. He could probably fight that SS-rank mommy dragon and win without even relying on Certain Death.

And Gilbezos realized something while he repeatedly evaded the pursuing explosions of light.

…''Doesn’t look like that Hero magic is just powerful.

There was a focus on appearances in its shaping. It was designed to strongly encourage all who saw it. Was this what the goddess had meant when she mentioned symbolism? Brave Liar’s fighting style had to be designed to be most powerful when he was leading the charge against an enemy army.

Even in this, he was the Hero.

He wasn’t just frightening.

To be blunt, Gilbezos thought his swords and sorcery skills were cool and knew these were the attacks of the most formidable enemy imaginable.

Not even the king had managed to defeat Brave Liar. Gilbezos didn’t see any way he could be a better person than the king in several areas, so there was no way he could fight on even footing with Brave Liar who had defeated the king.

Yes, that was right.

''Ordinarily, anyway.



'''Fire Type Magic – Ultimate

:'''Repeat Command

:::'''MP Drain

:::'''Power Boost for Amount of MP Consumed (Rank 9)



'''“U Ya Dei So Na Ki Ta To Te Ki Bi Ma Vu Vai Za Bu (May my crimson army march eternally) – Cilyacrega!!”

…To be clear, overpowered skills were meant to be used to defeat opponents like this who you couldn’t beat in a fair fight, right?

Brave Liar gasped. He had to be smart if hearing the magic language was enough to know what was happening.

“Wha-?”

“Don’t try to defend. That’ll only mean a slower death,” said Gilbezos with a smile.



''Blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam!!!



At 6000 blasts a minute, he aimed the point of his sword and a band of small fireballs raced out toward Brave Liar. He didn’t worry about the MP cost. Because every attack that hit would drain MP from the enemy.

Thus, the magic would continue endlessly until the enemy’s MP ran out.

Gilbezos’s skills were entirely focused on practicality. He had no interest in focusing on unnecessary decoration!!

“That looks painful, Brave Liar. Is it that bad to have your MP drained away!?”

“!!”

Relying on his AGI to evade wasn’t the only option.

He could also survive by providing a reason why Brave Liar couldn’t attack.

Adding in a way of wearing down Brave Liar’s HP would be two birds with one stone – in other words, perfection!

Recall everything you’ve built up to this point.

On that night when the king was so mercilessly killed, what had Brave Liar said as he subjected his jelly girl partner to violence?



''“My blood is pumping more than ever and you want me to leave? Go to hell. I’m in the middle of a killing. I told you to keep your mouth shut except when it’s MP draining time. You’re just getting in my way, you filthy slave.”



In other words…

“Your weakness is massive MP usage! Of course it is. You use a ton of ridiculous over-the-top Hero magic, which is going to eat up a ton of MP. That’s why you keep that jelly girl with you as a special-order MP tank!”

“Damn…you!!”

“Fire, water, wind, earth, other, light, and shadow. The light type’s weakness is other, but that’s a little too obvious. I figured you would have that covered. But not even you can fully negate every type!!”

However, the goddess hadn’t seen the convenient MP Drain skill in Brave Liar. That meant it had to be one of the equipped item skills that filled the two blank entries.

…It was similar to the HP Absorber and Enemy Turn Steal found in the ordinary shadow type tree. But those skills that stole various energies from others were likely hard to obtain in the pure and righteous light type part of the Skill Tree the Hero had developed.

MP Drain might seem more complicated and inefficient than a recovery item, but that wasn’t necessarily true if the jelly girl’s max MP was absurdly high.

“I thought you were a cruel and spoiled bastard at first, but it turns out you’re a stoic hero. But in that case, why the jelly girl? If you dislike waste, then you have to have a strategic reason to keep her around.”

You could only carry so many consumable items around. Items that healed a set amount, like 500 MP, could not fully restore you. Then there were items that recovered a percentage, like the Saint’s Jewel that restored 50% of your max HP and max MP. When you had 1000 MP versus 10000 MP, it was obvious which item would restore more. So leaving his items with the jelly girl and draining MP from his ally allowed Brave Liar to fight longer.

Also, Brave Liar had chosen her in particular to accompany him at all times. She might look frail, but there was no way she was an ordinary person.

“But that means you’ll be powerless if I steal away more MP than your partner can share! This simple brute force method is enough to reduce you to a normal person!!”

“Don’t…mess with meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

Light exploded.

Gilbezos staggered backwards. His attempt to fight it caused his body to freeze up. When the Hero attacked, the short boy took a step back to keep his distance. At the last second.

Because he stopped fighting, Gilbezos’s flame magic chain reaction vanished. The jelly girl could now share her MP to restore all the magic he had taken.

But.

As he fell back and escaped, the boy slowly spread his clenched left hand.

He held a small earring there.

It was not a piece of Gilbezos’s own equipment. That one decoration had bothered him because its purpose was unclear.

“How did you get that!?”

“Steal. It’s a real convenient skill for how far down on the Skill Tree it is!”

Recall everything you’ve built up to this point.

Before battling Balsta, a baggy-sleeved girl had mentioned something during her introduction.



''“U-um, my job is thief. You know, the kind that learns Steal and Unlock.”



That meant there was a skill used to steal items from an enemy. That could be learned through the Skill Tree.

And.

If Brave Liar’s unique skills were learned through equipped items rather than the Skill Tree, ''his skill combo would cease to function if that item were stolen from him!!

“That trash skill and some human trickery were enough to bring down my ultimate strength?”

“This isn’t about humans versus monsters. If I see a good person suffering for no good reason, I’ll lend them a hand and protect them. That’s all there is to it!!”

“And how do you define a ‘good person’!? Is someone evil if they strike back at a human after being driven to the brink of a cliff!?”

Gilbezos’s words alone weren’t enough to fully overturn Brave Liar’s claim.

Which meant Brave Liar’s logic and objective at least weren’t wrong.

Nevertheless, Gilbezos had to settle this if the Hero’s form of justice had him take the lives of his defeated foes.

Recall everything you built up to this point.



''“Besides, hero exclusive skills are extremely powerful ones that can ''only'' be used to bring about world peace. If you try to use them to satisfy your own personal desires, you’ll get locked out, so they seem kind of pointless to me.”



After exceeding 6500 LAW, Gilbezos had tested out some of the overpowered Rank 9 skills, but he had been rejected when he attempted to learn the same skills as Brave Liar. That had been Goddess Seliphenia’s explanation.

If someone could unnaturally do something they shouldn’t be able to, they had to be overcoming that issue with their skills.

But the goddess’s search hadn’t shown any such skills in Brave Liar’s Skill Tree. That meant it had to come from his final equipped item skill that the goddess couldn’t see.

A conversion skill that allowed good magic to be used for evil.

…An item had been invented that allowed humans to use monster exclusive skills. This was the same idea. Basically, the equipped item fooled the skill usage condition.

So a question.

What happened to Hero Brave Liar now that he had lost the item allowing him to cheat so badly!?

“Gah, gbwah!!”

With a muddy noise, Brave Liar coughed up a glob of blood. His hero exclusive skill could only be used to bring about world peace. The conversion skill letting him use it for evil deeds had just been stolen along with the equipped item. So now he was hit by the ordinary penalty.

“Masterrr!!”

The jelly girl rushed over, but things were different this time.

His hero exclusive skill’s usage condition had been stolen.

Sharing her MP wouldn’t be enough to save him.

And that he was penalized was proof that he had been cheating the system.

…''I won’t let anyone say otherwise.

''That king worked so hard to help the people, so I won’t let anyone say that killing him was working towards world peace!!

“Ohhh!!”

Gilbezos adjusted his grip on his sword and charged forward. With all his might.

He shoved aside the jelly girl who looked worried about Brave Liar. So she wouldn’t be caught in the coming storm of blades and magic.

“I will protect them…”

That man did not give up his sword.

The blade shined with a pure white light as it produced a strange sizzling sound like humid air burning.

Did he consider his life secondary to the monsters he had chosen to save?

Here at least he was a terrifyingly perfect Hero.

But couldn’t he see them?

…Could he see the tears scattering from the shoved jelly girl!?

“I will protect those ordinary lives!! I am the Hero! I don’t need any other reason to choose to risk my life!!!”

The look in his eyes said he didn’t care if he was penalized. He would end this here even if it meant burning through both his MP and his HP.

Was he pushed on by the same resolve that had led him to become known as the Hero?

Meanwhile, Gilbezos was not a legendary hero. He wasn’t a half-god and he hadn’t been granted some special holy weapon. While he could obtain a variety of overpowered skills with some help from the goddess’s power, that would not eliminate his fundamental status as a normal human.

But.

Why should that mean he didn’t have the power to change the world?

Growth wasn’t just about LAW and the Skill Tree. Every one of his memories helped push the short boy onward. The people he had met, the things he had seen and heard, the items he had obtained, the incidents he had overcome – it had all helped Gilbezos Overridge grow and had transformed into a power great enough to fight against Brave Liar. And he wasn’t going to accept just being on equal footing.

Recall everything you built up to this point!!



''“If I do die, do not valorize my death. You must not create a world that accepts my fate and believes that death in the face of adversity is to be expected. …And if all of my efforts are in vain and I fail to stop him, I leave this task in your hands. I do not care how: find some way of stopping Brave Liar.”



…Yes, that’s right.

He was told to stop him. ''But he was never told to kill him or destroy him''! And the king had told him to ''not create a world that believes death in the face of adversity is to be accepted''!!

That king had cared so much for the kingdom and done everything he could, so there was no way he hadn’t noticed the problem of the Hero who could no longer fight monsters. Even on the verge of death, he had repeated the need to stop Brave Liar over worrying about his own life, so he must have been seriously worried. He must have wanted to stop, correct, and rescue the Hero who had grown weary and damaged while fighting for the kingdom!!

“Brave Liar…”

Gilbezos Overridge focused on his own sword.

He had made a promise.

So he couldn’t back out now.

“You really need to thank him. It’s that king’s kindhearted words that are going to save you!!!”



'''Status Effect Fury Magic

:'''Repeat Command

::'''Increased Odds for All Randomized Skills

:::'''Apply Magic Effect to Weapon



That combination created a 100% chance of the blood rushing to the head until the target fainted.

This one final attack would take ''only'' Brave Liar’s consciousness.

===Between the Lines 5===

Archangel: “Archangel here!”

Lesser Demon: “Lesser Demon too.”



Archangel: “Our meta talk has grown and grown until we finally reached this point! Today’s theme is the Hero who physically saved your world!”

Lesser Demon: “For us, he’s a fearsome nemesis who’s coming to destroy us all. But it doesn’t sound like the Hero belongs to a special family line or bloodline.”

Archangel: “If it was a family thing, then the Hero’s bloodline would probably end up being the royal family.”

Lesser Demon: “Looking at it literally, the Hero would be someone who displays an exceptional amount of heroism.”

Archangel: “But ‘heroism’ is not a value that can be boosted through the Skill Tree. You can boost your STR or VIT and learn powerful magic to put your mind at ease as you attempt a powerful boss battle, but that isn’t necessarily a heroic act, is it?”

Lesser Demon: “So heroism is something like an inborn talent and it isn’t something you inherit from your parents. I can see how you could end up with Hero mutants popping up all over.”

Archangel: “Since they are selfless and powerful, there was a time when the temples had a plan to artificially mass-produce heroic people.”

Lesser Demon: “Even though surgically eliminating people’s emotions so they can act like a brave hero isn’t the same thing at all.”

Archangel: “Similarly, the overpowered Rank 9 skill Instant Hypnosis won’t work either. The world’s laws seem to protest that that isn’t true heroism!”

Lesser Demon: “The goddess just really likes hotblooded people, huh?”

Archangel: “She loves younger boys and adores watching over them as they grow up.”

Lesser Demon: “The reason that special zone of the Skill Tree is locked down is because the hero exclusive skills are all so powerful that anyone who will be wielding them against an enemy needs to have a ton of heroism.”

Archangel: “Ordinary people would be too afraid to do anything like that, so they subconsciously lock themselves out.”

Lesser Demon: “But anyone with enough heroism can become a hero, which is really scary if you think about it. I mean, ‘heroism’ isn’t an inherently good or evil trait.”

Archangel: “That is where the Brave Liar name originally came from. Although how it’s used appears to have changed in the present day.”

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Skill_Tree_Goddess:Volume1 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Skill_Tree_Goddess|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Skill_Tree_Goddess:Volume1 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>