Are you a God?

In a certain room of a certain palace, a black haired boy, who looked approximately around 17 years of age, was sleeping comfortably in a soft bed. Beside him, a few physicians were discussing about the boy’s condition. They had already treated him and he seemed to survive. In other words, their operation of successful. But the reason why the physicians were still concerned about the boy is because he is still not conscious even after two days after the operation was performed.

There were rumors going around that he was asleep because at night, few of the servants had hear him snore. But according to the physicians, that was not possible. Although, the longest a person had ever slept was 11 days and 25 minutes, that was just an exception. And exceptions are not to be generalised.

While the boy was asleep, another black haired boy was training in one corner of the palace. He could be seen doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups,100 squats, sprinting 10 km everyday. Does this boy seriously thinks that he could become that famous bald OP character? Anyways, he was desperately trying to train his body. Why would he not though? Although, mana makes one’s body as well as inner strength stronger, one should not always depend on mana. Because the increase in inner strength as well as physical strength is temporary. No matter how much mana one has, it will deplete one day. That’s why the Heroes must learn to convert the mana to energy and store it in their dantian. Then, the energy stored in the dantian will gradually increase one’s inner strength as well as physical strength permanently.

Ren was exactly trying to do that. After training for four and half years, he was finally at his limits. He was doing push-ups and could be seen gritting his teeth.

Thump!

“Why? Is my body’s potential only this much? And where is my willpower that I always love to brag about??”, Ren asked himself.

Ren gave up on thinking about training and decided to visit Xie. Ren knows that Xie is actually conscious and is sleeping, as the rumor says. After the operation, when the physicians left the room where Xie is present, Ren visited the room to check his friend's condition. Xie was yawning when Ren entered the room so the former was caught. Just when Ren was about to ask questions, Xie told him, “Go back for now. I will explain everything the next time you visit me.”

Ren walked upto the door of the room where Xie was sleeping. He knocked the door, then called himself an idiot and went inside the room. The room was clean and it gave a holy feeling. At the centre of the room was a white luxurious bed upon which Xie was sound asleep. Ren walked upto the bed and slapped his head.

“Owch. You became strong.”, Xie woke up.from the pain from his head.

“Heh, of course. I trained my body like a madman for 2 days.”, Ren said with a proud look.

“I can see that. But that’s not enough. Although, you have got the fruits of your hard work, it won’t last long. You know that, right?”, Xie asked.

Ren dropped his shoulders and seemed disappointed. Although, he thinks that he isn’t interested in becoming strong, he is a perfectionist in nature. Whenever he does something, he makes sure that he will get to the peak of the work he is doing. In this case, it was becoming strong.

“I know. But for now, I can only do this….but how do you know this?!”, Ren suddenly realized that Xie should not know this. The instructors had explained him and his classmates about the working of this world. But, Xie was not present that time.

“Don’t mind small details. Anyways, do you even want to know why I stabbed myself?”, Xie said as he shrugged his shoulders.

Ren’s eyes narrowed. He wanted to know the ‘small details’ but didn’t bother about it much because his “priorities comes first”.

“Alright. Tell me.”

“Ok. Here it goes...but where do I start from?”

“...Why did you stab yourself?”

“You already know what happened in the hall, right?”, Xie asked.

“Yes. I do. That you offended the priestess by being rude to her”, Ren said. Ren heard from his classmates.

“Yes. But before I answer your question, there is something you should know. Don’t ask me how I know this, or else I will stop answering your questions.”, Xie said seriously.

Ren was a bit perplexed about this but decided to follow Xie.

“Fine. What is it?”

“You already know that the priestess and more of half of the knights are demons, right?”, Xie asked straightforwardly.

“Yes. What about it? Do you want to say that they are the bad guys and are just playing the role of good guys? I also thought it. Reuken obviously defeated the Demon King for humans to dominate the world. But here it is, the world is ruled by the demons. What an irony. But well, it doesn’t matter because the demons are not causing havoc like they used to. And besides, the only thing I care about is to go home. ”, Ren said as rolled his eyes.

One can’t judge a book by it’s cover. Even though Ren looks stupid and playful, he is surprisingly cunning when he needs to be. Ren already did he studies about the world in the first day he came to this world.

“Bingo! You might think that I am just making a hypothesis. But listen to me. Latisha is the Demon King.”, Xie said seriously.

“Ok. I understand.”, Ren mechanically nodded his head and said.

Xie didn’t seem satisfied with his expression and continued,”I am serious about this. The aura from Latisha is too powerful to just be a priestess.”

“I wonder~ Then who is the ‘Demon king’ from your story?”

“I don’t know.”, Xie replied seriously.

Ren sighed and asked,”Ok. But what does it have to do with you stabbing yourself?”

“You should have already heard that I committed a ‘crime worthy of death’, right?”

“Yes. But you were also forgiven.”

“Heh...think about it. What would have happened if I did nothing after I was ‘forgiven’. They would have used this ‘crime’ as an excuse to bound me. It would be wrong to say that ‘they don’t they don’t want me to die’ but rather ‘they don’t me to die for now’. What guarantee do you have that I won’t be betrayed after we defeated the ‘demon king’. It often happens in novels.”

“That makes no sense. How will they betray you? Even this world has some laws.”

“That’s the problem. Do you think I have committed a crime which can be excused by the law? They can always say that I am punishable by law and can’t be excused since it will be written in records. I am touched by such righteousness”

“Ahh...but do they have a reason to do so? And I don’t think that I as well as our classmates will keep quiet about you being punished.”

“The reason is a bit complicated. But it is as you said, you and our classmates won’t be quiet about it. But that is provided that they have enough power to not be quiet about it. Anyways, even if I explained to you about it, you will not understand even half of it.”

Ren, this time, is very confused. Although, he didn’t fully believe what Xie is saying, he can’t help but think that there might be the possibility

“Ahh….but then again, why did you stab yourself?”

“I stabbed myself in order to ‘purify my sins’. I don’t think I need to explain further, right?”

“No, I got it.”

Ren now was completely clear about why Xie stabbed himself. But now, he worried about another thing.

“Xie, what should we do if what you said is the truth?”

“That’s simple.”, Xie smirked.as he continued. “We must get strong. What else can we do?”

“....”

“....”, Xie kept smirking.

“Stop smirking, idiot. Even, I know that the only way to avoid it is to get strong. But how exactly? I have a feeling that we eventually become strong enough to at least defeat the knights, but is that enough?”

“Of course not. You are so narrow-minded. The ‘Demon King’ is at least stronger than Latisha. And Latisha is...believe me...strong enough to rule this world by her own.”

“But how do you know th-”, Ren was about to ask the forbidden question.

“That’s because I am stronger than Latisha.”Xie said seriously.

But Ren did’nt buy his serious look and said,” I understand”

Xie pouted and said, “Look at this then ”as he lifted his hand up and pointed his palm to a closed window. Suddenly, green colored gas-like flames started gathering at the palm of his hands and it formed an oval-structure which was rotating anti-clockwise. It looked like it would jump out of his palm at any moment. Xie, then released the green flame from his palm in the direction of the window.

Smash!

The glasses of the window broke without any pieces remaining.

The green oval flame then went up to the sky.

Boom! Badaboom! Blam!

An earth shaking explosion occurred in the sky. The explosion’s magnitude can be compared to an earthquake of 9.0 magnitude.

From the sound of the explosion, several 5-star mages from the hall came out. Even Latisha who was first to come out has an ashen and a confused face. The crowd was in a huge uproar. This is the possibly the biggest explosion they had ever seen in their life.

“Oh Lord! The Demon King finally woke up from his sleep”, said an old woman who was selling vegetables. The one who made this explosion indeed woke from sleep.

“Now, the only one who can save us from this disaster is the Goddess herself…”, said another civilian.

“Heh...isn’t this beautiful?”, Xie asked Ren while admiring his explosion.

“...”

Brother...there were other ways to prove that you are indeed stronger than the priestess…And beautiful? I have created a new hypothesis.

“Aren’t you the Demon King?”

“Don’t compare me to those small fries.”, Xie arrogantly said

Grand Hall of the Reuken Palace

“Priestess, could it be that it was the Demon King?”, a SSS-ranked adventurer asked.

“No, even the Demon King doesn’t have that much capability to create an explosion of that magnitude.”, the priestess answered as she looked at the other members present in the hall who were seated in a round table.

“Then, who could it be?? Could it possibly be done by a being from higher dimension?”, a 5-star ranked mage asked.

“That’s the most possible answer.”, the Leader of the Knights order said.

“But I don’t think we did anything to provoke them!”, the baldy knight said.

“Everyone. Please calm down. Whoever it was, We would get the answer very soon. We are going to research about the explosion. We might be absent for few months.”, the priestess said.(She referred to herself as ‘We’)

The priestess then disappeared in smoke.

“This meeting turned out to be fruitless.”, the King of the Alzemann Kingdom said while sighing.

On the same day, Xie revealed that he was unconscious. The physicians were finally relieved to see that there was nothing wrong with Xie. He later found out that all of his classmates, excluding Ren, already left for their journey with their party members allotted by the Knights Order. Xie and Ren, being late, didn’t get a single party member. So, they left for the palace on their own.

While the two of them were travelling in a cart, Ren asked,”Can you at least tell me one thing?”

“It depends on the ‘thing’.”, Xie replied.

“Are you a God?”, Ren asked seriously.

Xie suddenly laughed out loud and said,”I wonder~”