Chapter 3: Lust + Gluttony: Targeting Us, Right? (Patreon)

Splash.

Subaru Natsuki felt like he'd plunged into a lake, and there in its depths he saw scene after scene flicker past. Every one of them shared the same detail: Ton, Chin, and Kan were always there.

The locations kept shifting, but they all amounted to the same thing — one back alley after another in the royal capital, with the three of them banding together to threaten and shake down victim after victim.

There were ordinary small-time merchants, travelers who'd come to the capital alone, local townsfolk, and even the elderly and children.

To be fair, no one had ever actually died. In truth, the dagger the trio carried was purely for intimidation — they'd never once used it to actually stab anyone.

But that didn't mean they held back on violence. Whenever a victim refused to hand over their money quietly, the three would beat them down with fists and feet and a mouthful of abuse, then move on to the next target once the stolen cash ran dry.

—

With that, Subaru finally understood what the notebook's quest actually meant.

If it had just been robbery, he could've let it go — it wasn't like he had anything to lose himself. Even robbing the odd passing merchant, he could've shrugged off; whatever cash they took off someone was a drop in the bucket next to a merchant's actual wealth.

But shaking down broke people, the elderly, and children? That was too far!

Splash.

The Book of the Living closed, and Subaru's consciousness snapped back to reality. He blinked, then realized the shocks wracking his body had stopped completely.

His eyes sharpened. No amount of electricity had been able to force him to actually hurt someone — but now that he'd seen what the notebook showed him, he knew: Ton, Chin, and Kan thoroughly deserved to suffer and reflect on what they'd done.

Becoming a king had just been a throwaway line he'd scrawled while ranting about Shield Hero, sure. But now that it had become his own goal, he figured he might as well see it through — after all, it really was his own handwriting, his own words, his own target.

Shield Hero didn't matter anymore. Forget about it.

"Ghh — you little brat, don't think you're getting off easy. You — you just wait, we'll—"

The moment the shocks stopped, the trio began to come to their senses, snarling viciously — only to freeze under the murderous glare Subaru shot back at them. "Huh? Seems like you've got something backwards. From here on out, I'm the one who's going to make you regret this — and this time it's coming straight from the heart!"

The shocks couldn't force him to hit someone he didn't want to hit. But this was different now. He could forgive Ton, Chin, and Kan on his own behalf — but he had no right to forgive them on behalf of everyone else they'd hurt. So now he was going to unload every bit of that anger on their behalf, for every poor soul these three had ever robbed and beaten.

"Say what? You little punk, you really think a cheap sneak attack is gonna—gwuh!"

Fists rained down like a storm.

It was three against one, and he'd lost the shocks besides — but on one hand, Ton, Chin, and Kan were already curled up on the ground, having lost the initiative from the start. On the other hand, Subaru, fueled by righteous fury, looked so terrifyingly murderous right now that all three of them were shaking too hard to even think about fighting back.

"You gonna keep robbing people? Keep beating people up?"

"You say stop, we stop! You say don't hit people, we won't hit people!"

"Good!"

At first the trio had kept mouthing off, stubbornly refusing to admit any wrongdoing, determined to defend their time-honored careers as street thugs to the death. But as the beating went on — them curling up and scrambling, eyes swollen black and purple, blood gushing from their noses, tongues thick and slurring —

they finally broke and started begging. "Stop, stop, we get it, we were wrong, we'll never do it again, never again!"

Subaru glanced at the notebook's panel. The quest still wasn't complete. Fury surged through him instantly.

Those lying bastards — they actually dared to lie to his face?

Subaru's eyes narrowed, and he drove another punch into one of their pig-like faces. "Talk. If you were wrong, what are you gonna do about it?"

"Huh?" Ton, Chin, and Kan flinched. "Isn't saying we were wrong enough?"

"Wrong answer. Iron. Fist. Of. Sacred. Judgment!"

Bam!

Their heads spun, brains scrambled, hurry, think — keep this up and they were going to get beaten to death for real!

"W-wait, wait, I've got it!" Chin, the sharpest of the three, threw his hands up desperately. "I know, I know! We'll go apologize to every single person we've ever robbed, one by one!"

"Is that all?"

Subaru's eyes narrowed further. "What about the money?"

"The, the money..."

Chin stammered. Most of it had already been blown on drinking and partying — in fact, every time they robbed someone, they'd spent it straight on pleasure, which was exactly why they were still sleeping in the slums. If they actually had to pay it all back, how long would they have to work to cover it?

"Hm?"

Seeing Chin's reluctance, Subaru's sack-sized fist was already rearing back to fall again — which terrified the other two into elbowing Chin hard enough to make him agree on the spot.

"Okay, okay, fine, we'll apologize and we'll pay it all back, I get it, I agree, I agree to everything!"

[Ding!]

[Congratulations, Host! The road to becoming a king has only zero and the finish line — no in-between. Having taken your first successful step, you've subdued the first obstacle on that road with your innate, unrivaled Overlord's Domineering Aura. Your fist strength has increased by 70kg!]

[Diligence! Love! Satisfaction! Full stomachs! Desire! Supreme power! Let the world cheer for you, applaud for you — a brand new world is about to raise its curtain!]

Ugh...

Subaru's eye twitched. For some reason, reading that final string of words on the notebook's panel sent an inexplicable chill of nausea through him. He wanted nothing more than to get as far away from it as possible.

Fwoomph!

At that exact moment, the notebook — visible and touchable only to him, and which now followed him around on its own — suddenly began flipping through its pages in a wild frenzy, and burned through a full fifth of its total page count.

[I underestimated the Host! I misjudged the Host! I mistakenly believed the Host intended to abandon their true heart and true nature as their goal — that was an absolutely wrong reason for punishment by shock. Please, Host, accept this compensation for my error. Page-burning, activate!]

[The Essence of Kingship: A king never wavers; a king answers only to himself. From this moment forward, any attack or modification directed at the Host's soul or self-awareness will be permanently immune — unless the Host consents willingly. So long as the Host never compromises, your soul shall be the sole supreme existence, transcending all things, utterly unique and peerless — the King. Among. Kings. Is born!]

What good is that supposed to do me? Is there actually anyone out there who can attack a soul?

Subaru scratched his head and, very carefully, ventured a request. "Um, could you trade that for no more shocks instead? I think that'd honestly be better. Seriously, can we just cut the shocks?"