Chapter 516. The Whole Story (3)

The Hunter of the Other World Who Is Being Misunderstood

At this point, I'll take a brief trip down memory lane. To be exact, the days when I was active as the 1st Magic Master on my home planet, Alphauri, briefly came to mind.

[Sir ■■■ ■■■]

Because this noun that Kang Changho revealed himself to be, as I mentioned earlier, was the true name of an alien engineer.

'A considerable amount of time has passed, yet I still remember that moment vividly.'

The Chief Engineer was actually a scholar who fell into a rather peculiar category even on the planet Alphauri. At least, that was how I remembered it. A madman who had his two massive main tentacles split obscenely long... And entwined multiple blood vessels between these structures that acted like human fingers...

Yeah. He really is a madman.

Because the hands (tentacles) the other party wielded during his Alphauri days looked just like a supermassive spider web.As you can tell from the thoughts I had when I first opened my eyes on Earth, hands split into multiple branches were a somewhat disgusting element to Alphaurians.

'His tastes haven't changed a bit, then or now.'

And Kang Changho had actually used a massive body since the old days. For reference, on my home planet Alphauri, only creatures of a specific gender from the primitive era were abnormally large in volume.

Therefore, The "skin" Kang Changho favored, to use an Earth analogy, was modeled after an extinct ape. A modern person who specifically chose and went around using the appearance of an ancient monkey. By this point, you should understand why I evaluated the engineer as an eccentric.

And since my conversation partner was this strange, the small talk I shared with him in the past seems to come back to me even more vividly.

[Nice to meet you. I sincerely congratulate you on becoming the Chief Engineer!]

Yeah.

[By the way, Sir ■■■■■■■, you are a very exceptional case!]

In what way am I exceptional?

[Alphaurians who rise to high positions are married with a whopping 97% probability. But the newly appointed Engineer is single despite being quite old.]

The conversation flowing through my mind right now is Kang Changho... I mean, it's the conversation from my first meeting with the one who revealed himself to be Alphauri's Chief Engineer.

At the time, he—who possessed a truly massive body volume—had answered the casual question tossed by a slave of the planet like this:

The explanation for that is simple. It's because I am far too competent to be passed over for promotion just for being unmarried.

Anyway, even the fact that his personality is somewhat arrogant is exactly the same. Why did I not know his identity until now?

70% of the golems existing on this planet are made based on my designs.

[Oh.]

In other words, this entire southern hemisphere is being swayed by the equipment designs I developed.

[Oho.]

Then, logically, even if I am a celibate with no family to be held hostage, the higher-ups had no choice but to grant me a high position.

[I understand.]

The Chief Engineer who showed his unique confidence right from the first meeting. The other party left several impressive answers even after this. For example, when the Magic Master asked, 'Why do you choose to use such a massive body that must be inconvenient for daily life?'-

I hate it when other people come close to me.

The Chief Engineer used to answer like this.

So, if I use a giant body like a star in the ocean, others inevitably have to step back just to make normal eye contact with me.

[Aha.]

I use a body as big as a building to make everyone step backward like that.

These are opinions that a human might describe as bizarre. But excessive self-esteem is practically a racial trait of Alphaurians anyway. I had many conversations with the Chief Engineer. However, even so, I never evaluated him negatively.

Ah, right. By the way, since I've taken office as the Chief Engineer, there was something I really wanted to say to you all who have served the planet for a long time!

Rather, in my heart, he was an unchangeably good man.

I heard that you numbered Magic Masters are actually living Alphaurians; we must put an end to this inhumane technology now.

It really couldn't be helped.

To think a hero who once saved the planet has ended up in this state...

The entity holding the position commonly known as the 'Chief Engineer' put an end to my life as a slave. He gave me a lot of help, both directly and indirectly, so that I could escape to this Earth. However, his act of kindness was discovered, and he soon became a corpse.

.

.

.

.

_-

By the way, in this past life, the Chief Engineer's entire body was so red that it could be described as an 'exploded pomegranate'. But now, he was in a state where the red was entirely trapped inside a protein body closer to a flesh tone, so it was hard to believe.

Yeah.

Really.

"You're saying you are that Engineer?"

I simply couldn't make this situation feel real, so I revealed my bewilderment.

"That can't be, that can't be... He isn't a bug like you... He was a good-natured person, an owner of a noble personality..."

However, Kang Changho, contrary to this, maintained a calm attitude.

"Hmm?"

The blue-purple-haired man shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean by what you just said. My personality is exactly the same, then and now."

"Wh-what."

"Of course, I'm a living creature too, so it would be a lie to say there have been no changes at all during this time. But if you were thinking of me as some kind of saintly image..."

_-

"Well, wouldn't that just be some level of glorification happening in your brain while you were chewing over the memories of receiving help by yourself?"

It was a valid point. Therefore, unable to refute the part about his personality, I hurriedly brought up another topic.

"B-but Engineer. You definitely should have been ex... executed. How are you standing in front of my eyes right now?"

For reference, it had now been revealed that the other party wasn't a man in his 30s, but an Alphaurian exactly like me. So I decided to omit formal speech all the more.

"Ah, that?"

When I questioned him with sharp, informal speech, Kang Changho conversely nodded leisurely and spoke.

"That's actually because I didn't die at the hands of the executioner back then."

Another shocking piece of news, one after another.

"What?"

"Lemming. You probably think you are the first discoverer of reincarnation magic."

_-

"But think carefully. Our home planet originally had laws regarding soul transfer too."

I widened my eyes and shouted.

"Then you! Don't tell me you used that outdated technique to mess with your own soul?"

"And I activated the spell right before my spine was ripped out from torture."

Hahaha.

Earthlings probably wouldn't know just how absurd the story Kang Changho just brought up with a laugh was. As he said, Alphauri definitely had a traditional soul escape spell. However, it was a very sloppy and incomplete logic. Above all, the fact that you couldn't directly choose the destination the escaped soul would reach was extremely fatal.

"He's a lunatic!"

If you just randomly point a finger at the vast night sky, what are the odds that a planet capable of sustaining life would be at the end of it? The success rate of the reincarnation magic Kang Changho attempted settling down properly matches that exact analogy...

It truly was an attempt you couldn't call sane. I opened my mouth wide and pointed out with a trembling voice.

"Doing something like that... is no different from just committing suicide!"

But Kang Changho's tone was still confident.

"Does one worry about things like probability when making the final gamble of their life? Regardless, the reincarnation was a success, so I am quite satisfied with my choice back then."

At this point, regardless of the state of his physical body's frontal lobe, it seems perfectly fine to call the other guy a psychopath.

"Then without even knowing that... I was eagerly eyeing another person's corpse!"

"What?"

"Since Kang Chang-ho is an S-rank Hunter, his body is objectively strong. I was planning to take it and use it once he died..."

"Ah~ Hahaha. I see."

Kang Changho let out a hearty laugh, then nodded his head, saying he had been doing the same.

"We really were greedily eyeing each other strangely without knowing anything. Well, if we're both Alphaurins, we'd have similar eyes for these things."

Just where did things start getting twisted?

"To reveal it now, yes. Actually, I was also following you around all this time to snatch that identity named Kim Giryeo."

The blue-purple-haired homeowner soon explained.

It seemed Kang Changho's abnormal behavior all this time followed a mechanism roughly like this.

[① Huh? This guy seems to have a growing body, I want to make it a spare when he dies. ② There are too many variables to wait for a natural death. Let's create some constraints. ③ But after making a contract and watching him, the target is too nice, so I start feeling a guilty conscience. ④ Dammit, let's just give up.]

Kang Changho... lacked any drive for self-improvement in the first place.

"So the skill-stealing technique was just an excuse to naturally secure the corpse."

Thinking of it that way, it also explained why Kang Changho easily changed sides at Japan's threat during the [Kagoshima Black Dragon Raid].

Why?

Because even if his protection target died, it truly wouldn't have mattered to him. Furthermore, with the revelation that the other party was a fellow alien compatriot, there were many other questions resolved besides that. Living detached from human society?

Such behavior was, of course, due to the peculiarity of the other party being a newly formed Earthling. He had a complex personality, responding violently to humans' actions while, on the other hand, also showing a lukewarm attitude. But thinking about it now, this was all because Kang Changho was an alien lifeform.

'I have an attachment to mammals, but there's no law saying every Alphaurin has to be just like me.'

I presumed Kang Changho probably had no particular liking for the furry beasts of this planet. To Alphaurins, Earthlings were weak creatures no different from 'hamsters' in both strength and intelligence.

But Kang Changho didn't particularly like mammals, nor did he have a taste for respecting them. No one would genuinely get furious over a tiny rat nibbling on their skin. So that man brushed off most situations with a smooth laugh, but since he was full of pride as a higher lifeform, he seemingly used force in situations where humanity, so to speak, 'tried to climb over his head.'

Additionally, his desperate avoidance of the Guild Master of the [Kages Tower] was probably because, given an Alphaurin's personality, he couldn't bow his head to the other party anyway, so he kept his distance completely.

Having grasped the hidden truth, I felt into shock on my own. But at that moment, my compatriot, met again after a very long time, took up the thread of conversation anew. Kang Changho had said he only saw me as a spare body, but as time passed, he also felt something was off.

[① Huh? But why is this hunter named Giryeo so exceptionally strong? ② Could he be a genuine Magic Scholar just like me? ③ Having such doubts, I conducted various experiments over time. However, to assume the other party was a modern Alphaurin, his personality was somewhat strange, so while I was just feeling confused... ④ Confirmed the shape of his soul in front of the transparent fish.]

This was the sequence of past events Kang Changho had experienced so far.

"For reference, just looking at the shape of the soul, it's just a regular Alphaurin. So I couldn't figure out the caster's identity solely from that silhouette."

_-

"But synthesizing the information I had gathered up to now, the answer that you were Lemming was quickly derived."

"What kind of information was that..."

"To skillfully wield magic in this completely different environment called Earth, one has to be at least at the level of an Archmage. But as you know, the folks called Alphaurins mostly have eccentric personalities, and-"

"A certain Engineer falls into the top 1% of that, so that says it all."

"And this was also a real problem of that planet. Among the high-ranking mystery users called Archmages, there was remarkably only a single one from a lowly background."

"How did you notice that I was of lowly birth?"

"For example, because of the... frivolous expressions you sometimes use."

"Like 'you son of a bitch' or something?"

"...For someone from an elite class like me, even if the corpse knows such words, there is a strong tendency to deliberately avoid using them."

I had grasped the general outline of his actions, but there were still many parts I didn't understand.

"Oh, and stabbing you, Lemming, with a dagger and inviting you to a place like this was also a type of identity verification method."

"Was it not a test of patience?"

"But since I'm worried you, an Archmage, might retaliate, I'll keep the restraints on until this conversation is finished. Please just sit there a little while longer."

"What kind of crappy invitation is this?"

After a brief moment of idle chatter, a question immediately followed.

"No, anyway, no matter how much I think about it, I still don't get this. Even so, I took you, the Engineer, until the appearance of the [Misaligned Corpse] gate to accurately notice the existence of an Archmage like me?"

"You're asking about that part again, as expected."

When I spoke in a puzzled tone, the alien engineer paused for a few seconds. And he moved his no-longer-red body to eventually form a sentence.

"Of course, there is a reason for that."

I'm sure there is.

"There are really quite a lot of reasons. Originally, if I had properly encountered the structurally perfect spell formula handled by a genius like you even just once..."

"Hmm?"

"I would have immediately guessed the caster's identity, if only because of the artistry of that magic."

Could this perhaps be a sarcastic remark directed at me, who is currently tied up? However, surprisingly, Kang Changho seemed to have brought up his previous statement seriously.

"Lemming, you can rest assured for now. At least as far as I know, the two of us are the only Alphaurins who have succeeded in reincarnating."

He forced out his next words with difficulty, tension in his eyebrows.

"But even though I came to Earth just like you, my basic circumstances are completely different from yours."

"What do you mean?"

"As mentioned earlier, I underwent interstellar travel using a magic that hadn't been properly established."

"Ah."

"So the resulting 'unpleasant side effects' are actually quite numerous."

_-

"To use an analogy, my situation is like having half-destroyed my spaceship while crash-landing on this planet. While you could say you're the only one showing off excellent flying skills."

Crash-landing.

Then just what kind of unfortunate problem was the pilot known as the Chief Engineer currently experiencing?