The Undying King, summarized

Wild Grylls

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom.

The kingdom was poor, but it had a kind king and happy subjects.

The kind king worked hard for his people, and the people always smiled, knowing how much he did for them.

But one day, bad men invaded and began tormenting the people.

The king loved peace, so he tried talking to the bad men. But what do you think happened?

The bad men ignored the king's pleas and tormented his people even more!

Angered, the king asked his remaining subjects to help defeat the bad men.

The people knew how kind their king was, so they gladly joined forces.

Together, the king and his people defeated the bad men. But oh, no!

An even worse man appeared among them!

The worse man was so strong that even the kind king struggled to defeat him.

Still, the king refused to give up and fought to protect his people.

The people, too, fought for their kind king without sparing their bodies.

Eventually, the king and his people defeated the even worse man.

Having defeated the bad men, the king and his people all went off to dreamland together, dreaming of a happy future.

Thinking of the day when they would all smile together...

That's basically it, right?

└Heavenly Demon You have a talent for fairy tales.

└Sword Masta Yeah. Aren't all the old gruesome fairy tales like that?

└Allfather Hohoho. The Undying King would have coughed up blood if he read this.

└Wild Grylls He's already dead, so I doubt he'll be coughing up blood lol

└Wow. Comparing it to what happened actually gives me chills lmao

└The parts about not sparing their bodies and going off to dreamland are scary...

└He was a kind king from the undead's perspective lmaooo

└For real, an exemplary ruler of the undead lol

The forum was in an uproar over the contents of the books I'd posted.

The Undying King, the Vulcan Kingdom, the Holy Kingdom—none of that crap mattered to me.

What mattered was the survival information. I didn't care about some hidden truth.

'All this chatter on the forum won't accomplish anything anyway.'

Even if this spilled over into the real world, I didn't care.

There was exactly one circumstance in which I would: after I escaped the Forest of Four Seasons.

However much of a fuss this Holy Kingdom made, it couldn't affect me in the sliiightest.

'It might upset the admin a little, though.'

The Holy Kingdom was a nation devoted to a god, and the admin was a devout believer.

Having a truth that shook that nation's very foundations dropped out in the open would probably make the admin uncomfortable.

If I was asked to delete the posts, I'd gladly do it.

The information had already spread everywhere, and I'd given the books to Allfather.

All I had to do was sit quietly and watch. I wasn't interested in anything involving the Undying King.

'Who knows if anyone will even believe it.'

Unless Allfather publicly revealed the books, news originating from the forum would be hard to trust.

It would also depend on the Holy Kingdom's usual reputation.

If it had a bad reputation, this would cause trouble. If it had a good one, people would dismiss it as nonsense.

'Groups, as opposed to individuals, nearly always have something shady going on.'

Just as stagnant water goes foul, people gathered together were bound to rot.

Even with good intentions, corruption was inevitable over time.

Without bringing in fresh blood, keeping an organization clean would be difficult.

'Well, that's the same everywhere.'

It was a problem for that country's people to sort out themselves.

Stuck here in the Forest of Four Seasons, I had even less reason to get involved.

I watched criticisms and denunciations of the Holy Kingdom begin filling the forum, then silently closed it.

It looked like it would take a little longer before anyone deciphered the survival sections I wanted.

'Anyway, this means there's at least a small chance of other survivors...'

The remains I'd found this time told me something: there was a good chance of finding more human bodies somewhere in this forest.

Unlike the remains I suspected the owlbear had eaten, some, like the books' owner, had stayed intact.

'People much stronger than me would have survived longer.'

The owner of the books had been the Vulcan Kingdom's last scribe.

A scribe was more a person of letters than a warrior.

They might have grown stronger while living in the Forest of Four Seasons, like me, but unfortunately, they wouldn't have been able to use the forum.

Even I couldn't have guaranteed my survival without it, so that was a huge difference.

'I'd better search caves and places like that thoroughly from now on.'

There was no time to build a cabin in the Forest of Four Seasons, so most people would have made their homes in caves.

'Other races must have come in here too, not just humans, right?'

If I was really lucky, I might even meet someone.

Demons and elves in particular had a much higher baseline than other races.

They could easily produce magic that humans had to rack their brains to learn.

Even without the forum, magic would give them a huge survival advantage.

'I'm a dumbass by this world's standards, so magic's out of the question for me.'

I'd given up on magic ages ago. They were describing fire in terms of physics or something.

The moment I heard it involved math, I gave up without hesitation.

I'd rather work my magic with brute force.

'If there really is another survivor...'

The mere presence of another person would be comforting. Until now, I'd thought I was alone.

Would I be able to find signs of anyone? It felt like I had a small new goal.

If escaping was the ultimate goal, finding traces of survivors was a smaller one along the way.

'Didn't they say most people who entered the Forest of Four Seasons were criminals?'

Criminals sent in after having their eyes gouged out as a severe punishment.

Or criminals whose horrifying crimes left them no place in society.

Or, failing that, explorers who came in out of reckless bravado, and so on.

Of course, the odds of meeting them would be very slim.

They said the Forest of Four Seasons was the size of a small country.

'Still, I can't give up.'

It felt like I had a new source of hope. The hope that, with luck, I could meet someone.

I let out a long breath and stood.

'I should spend this time doing more training.'

There was still time before dinner. Practicing swordsmanship was better than moping around.

I picked up my sword and shield and worked, little by little, on my weaknesses.

'I don't care who it is. I just hope someone's alive.'

It was a very small wish.

* * *

Kadir was a man who wanted to know everything in the world.

Magic, people, history—it made no difference.

Nothing fascinated him quite like a truth shrouded in darkness.

Such a thirst for knowledge sometimes brought ruin, but who was Kadir?

The Mage King. Master of the Mage Tower. The man who had mastered all magic.

However momentous it might be, a "mere" truth was nothing more than a curiosity to him.

"Lais Kraone."

["..."]

Kadir calmly spoke a name.

The skull sitting alone before him responded.

Green light appeared in its empty eye sockets, as though it had opened its eyes.

"Do you know who that is?"

The skull Kadir was speaking with had originally been stored in a freezer.

But judging by its request to be killed, it was certainly no ordinary being.

["How do you know that name?"]

An eerie, resonant voice emanated from the skull.

It felt less like a voice produced by vocal cords than speech conveyed through thought.

Kadir—no, Allfather—spoke, unfazed by the voice that sent chills down one's spine.

"So it seems what the book says is true."

["I asked how you knew."]

When Allfather failed to give the desired answer, the skull—no, the Undying King—spoke with apparent anger.

At the same time, green energy enveloped the skull, blazing like fire.

It was the surging energy of death itself. Even with only his head remaining, the Undying King still possessed his power.

"I came across it by chance. It appears the scribe fled into the Forest of Four Seasons."

["..."]

"If you answer my questions sincerely, I will tell you where and how I obtained this information."

The energy of death enveloping the Undying King gradually faded.

It was tacit permission: he would hear him out.

Allfather smiled broadly for a moment, then grew serious and asked his question.

"Why did you conceal this truth?"

["Because our kingdom was weak, and we lost. Does that satisfy you?"]

A cynical answer, but one that cut to the heart of how the world worked.

The weak inevitably had much taken from them by the strong, and the truth was no exception.

Above all, history was written by the victors.

The records of the defeated were bound to be distorted and erased.

Allfather stroked his beard as though he finally understood.

"I've long known the Holy Kingdom was corrupt, but I never imagined it was this bad. Thanks to you, they had a change of personnel once. Does that mean what we see now is an improvement?"

["..."]

"No. They still exiled the Hero afterward... Tsk, tsk. I suppose they haven't learned their lesson yet."

No one could call the reputation of Eldorado, the Holy Kingdom, good, even as an empty compliment.

Originally, it had been driven by the conviction that it must defeat the Demon King, but that had faded with time.

What was more, demons had recently become so absorbed in sports rather than fighting that the other nations paid them no mind.

Instead, those nations took an interest in their culture and had begun to view the Demon King as simply the king of the demons.

Normally, a group that lost its purpose would disperse, but Eldorado was an entire nation.

Trying to hold it together by force naturally led to stagnation, and that stagnant water had rotted.

["Now answer my question. How did you learn of this?"]

The Undying King spoke ominously as Allfather muttered to himself.

Allfather snapped his fingers. A book appeared in his hand.

"From this. The records left by Lais Kraone, the Vulcan Kingdom's last scribe."

With a smooth motion, Allfather obligingly showed him the first page.

Despite having no eyes, the Undying King's gaze moved across the page.

The sight of his native language for the first time in so long drew a breathless "Hah" from him.

He spoke in disbelief.

["Impossible. I ordered the scribe to flee into the Forest of Four Seasons."]

"That is where it came from."

["Impossible. The Forest of Four Seasons is a labyrinth from which there is no escape."]

"That is also true. But I didn't find it myself."

Allfather briefly summarized what had happened: how Grylls had ended up in the Forest of Four Seasons and could use the forum, and how, after enduring hardship upon hardship there, he had stumbled across a body and the books.

The Undying King listened silently before speaking.

["I cannot believe it."]

"It's all true. So, what would you like to do?"

["What do you mean?"]

Allfather fluttered the pages of the book, which he had now fully deciphered, and elaborated.

"I mean, would you like to deal the Holy Kingdom a blow? I'm not particularly fond of them myself."

["..."]

"The previous Hero, who sacrificed his life to take you down, was a dear friend of mine. And he only resorted to that because he could no longer withstand the Holy Kingdom's pressure... In effect, they murdered him."

["Do as you please. But I have a condition."]

"A condition?"

Allfather raised an eyebrow.

The Undying King stared at him and made his request in a voice bordering on resignation.

["Kill me."]

"Later."

["Damn it."]

At the flat refusal, the Undying King muttered a curse.

It was mild as curses went, but considering he had been a king, it was quite strong.

"Any other requests?"

["I wish to know who found the records."]

"I told you I obtained them through the forum, didn't I?"

["Help me access this forum."]

"Don't be absurd. You are clearly..."

Allfather stopped mid-sentence. An interesting thought had suddenly occurred to him.

Ordinary undead had no sense of self. With barely any will of their own, they were closer to monsters.

The Undying King, however, was an exception. Even with all his flesh gone, he retained his sense of self perfectly.

In that case, might he be able to access the forum?

["You look like a pervert."]

"Ah. My apologies. I had an interesting thought."

["So will you help me?"]

"Of course I will."

["Even though I could reveal my whereabouts?"]

It was almost a threat. It was also a foolish question.

Allfather chuckled and made a reasonable point.

"The Undying King who terrorized the continent, stuck in a refrigerator. Who would believe that?"

["..."]

"I am certainly not releasing you. I'm simply letting you use the forum."

The Undying King pondered Allfather's words for a long time.

Finally, as though he had reached a decision, he made a request in a calm voice.

["Please kill me."]

"Later."

It was a request that stood no chance.