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Volume 11 Chapter 318

The First Time

　

「By the way, killing yourself will not count for the total amount of deaths」

「Really？」

　Apparently suicide is not an option.

　Then does that mean all I can do is get killed by someone else or die by illness or natural causes？

　It wouldn’t count as suicide if I were to ask someone to『please kill me』, would it?

　The difficulty might be quite high for this one.

「Also, while this is the cycle of death and rebirth, ye do not necessarily go through each path in sequential order. What ye reincarnate into after death is random」

　R-Random?

　So, I might turn into something else other than human!?

「Uhh……Soryu-sama, sorry. I, don’t really know anything about reincarnation or the six paths or whatever.」

「The cycle of death and rebirth was formerly a concept introduced to us from your world, Haruto. In this world, these six paths do not even exist」

　So reincarnation and the six paths were both concepts from my previous world.

　AhhーYou know what, I do remember seeing a movie trailer about a protagonist who repeats life in order to escape from the cycle.

「While the six paths do not exist in this world, the evil god, finding that concept to be interesting, imitated it in his own way and made the『Curse of the Circle of Life』」

　The six paths apparently refer to six『worlds of confusion』, which are the world of Hell (naraka), the world of hungry ghosts (preta), the world of animals (tiryagyoni), the world of warlike demigods (asura), the world of human beings (manushya), and the world of gods or celestial beings (deva).

　They say that true cycling involves aiming for the escape from reincarnation as you go about the six paths. By the way, you can only escape when you’re in the human realm.

「The curse that has been cast on ye is one that requires ye to die six times in order to return to the location, time, and body that you were previously in. Do you understand so far？」

「Yes. I’m fine! By the way, as far as asking someone to kill me goes……」

「That probably will not be an issue. The only thing that would not count would be ye causing your own death directly」

「Is that so. Ah, how might I check how many more times I have to die? ？」

　I would need to make sure that I died each time without any complications.

I would admittedly find it painful to die several times if it didn’t add up to anything.

「Ye will know the remaining times if ye look at your status board. It is on there」

　It is!?

「S-Status Open!!」

　I look at the status board.

　Status：Curse (Cycles：Six More)

「……For real?」

　It was actually on there.

　Incidentlally, all the other categories besides『Status』were corrupted and I can’t read them.

「The flesh of the blue dragon your consciousness is currently a part of was born forcefully from the curse」

　Apparently, such a body doesn’t normally exist.

　That’s why the majority of the categories on the status board had gone awry.

「It has been several thousand years since I saw a colored dragon, so I must admit that my spirits were rising……」

　It would seem that the dragon’s units were still very limited ten thousand years ago at this time.

　I kind of felt sorry about that.

「Ahh. No, I am not blaming ye or anything. The evil god is the cause of all this, after al」

「Thank you for saying that」

「Nay, ye are a victim in this too. I am sure that humans would find it difficult to experience death so many times in a row」

　Yeah, if that ain’t the truth.

　Even experiencing death once is enough for it to become trauma.

　Having to die six times and whatnot……

　Once I make it back into my previous body, I think I will be justified in adding seven times greater power to that punch that I’m reserving for the evil god. That is reasonable, right？

　Alright, let’s go with that！

　That was now decided.

「Soryu-sama. Thank you for teaching me so many things」

「Nay, this was nothing. Besides, my descendants in the future will be your──oh, I had better not say anything more on that part」

　Umm, what was that he said about descendants？

　I am quite curious as to how he planned to continue that sentence……

「Well, just think of it as that I wish to help ye. Please, feel free to rely on me」

　I’m curious about why he is so quick to come to my aid, but it reassures me to know that I can rely on the Ancestral Dragon, who sees everything that has been transpiring.

「In one of your upcoming lives, the time will come where ye will need my mana. If ye wish to visit me, place your hands on the ground and call me」

　The Ancestral Dragon said he would transport me all the way over here to the demon world.

　Incidentally, the mana he would be lending me was the same kind of mana that was stolen when I had first met him.

「Understood. I will count on you when that time comes, then」

「Aye」

「Also, I’m terribly sorry about asking this, but──」

　I’d really rather not ask for this, but…

「Aye. I understand」

　While this was a body forcibly created by curses, I now have one of the world’s strongest colored-dragon bodies.

　Poison is no threat to them, nor do they get sick.

　Their lifespan is over a thousand years.

　In order to die in such a state, I would have no choice but to ask the Ancestral Dragon to help me out.

「All right, then, I will do it immediately if that is fine with you？」

「……Yes」

　The Ancestral Dragon poised his gigantic talons above my head.

　I’m scared……

　Ever since my status became〘Fixed〙, I haven’t received any damage.

　I haven’t felt the fear of death like this in a long time.

「You can do it, Haruto」

　And the Ancestral Dragon’s talons were brought downward.