Summoning the Sins (II)

“Hold on! Like hell we’re gonna do your bidding!”

Just as the Demon King finishes assigning us our new powers, the girl chosen for Wrath yells out, snapping the rest of us out of our surprised stupor.

“I don’t care if you’re the Demon King or whatever. I’m not gonna let you use me to commit evil. I refuse to be a pawn in your schemes!” She declares angrily.

“Yes. She’s right. Just because you summoned us here doesn’t mean we can just accept the roles you’ve placed upon us.” Sloth agrees after some thought. “I cannot speak on behalf of the others, but I for one have no intention of being an accomplice to someone trying to destroy the world. I am no criminal and I have no desire to do evil.”

“Y-yeah, that’s right. Me too.” I chime in.

“Me too. Me too. Right, everyone?” Lust does as well, before turning to the others.

However, she does not receive the resounding chorus of agreements she expected. The remaining three people all carry varying expressions of unease and uncertainty.

“But, wait guys… I agree with the sentiment, but… if we refuse to do as she says, won’t we all end up dead again?” Gluttony points out timidly.

Realization strikes all the rest of us at the same time.

Shit, she’s right. The Demon King is the one summoning us into the other world. If she chooses to cancel the summoning, we won’t end up being reincarnated. We’ll all just be corpses again.

“S-so what? I don’t care. I’d rather die than submit to a villain like you. Go ahead and kill me, but I’m gonna get a punch in before I go.” Wrath declares, rolling up her sleeve in preparation to go down fighting.

“True. If we stoop so low as to follow an obvious villain just because our lives are on the line, we would be hardly any better. That isn’t the reason I wanted to go to another world. So, we should all do what’s right and accept our natural deaths.” Pride reasons thoughtfully.

“Hold on, don’t speak on behalf of all of us. I for one don’t want to die so easily!” Envy retorts.

“What? So you’re gonna help her destroy the world? Are you crazy?” Wrath yells.

“I never said that. But I don’t wanna die either. Isn’t there some other way?” Envy responds.

As they start arguing back and forth, trading logic and insults like collectibles, Lust sighs and turns towards me.

“What do you think about all this?” She asks me.

“Umm… I don’t know…” I answer.

But that’s a lie. The truth is I do know. I know that the right thing to do is to refuse the Demon King and to accept my death.

That is definitely the correct answer. And yet, when I think about the fact that saying it will mean dying, my body freezes and the words fail to escape my throat.

Just like that, the seven of us continue to dance around the topic, unable to come to any consensus. Right before a fight seems on the verge of breaking out, the Demon King finally speaks up again.

“Hahahahaha, you all are quite entertaining to watch after all. I’m glad the seven I chose ended up being a colourful bunch.” She laughs haughtily from her throne.

“Grr… laugh at us, why don’t you?” Wrath growls at her. “Shut up, you witch! I don’t care what you say or do. No matter what I happens, I refuse to ever help you!”

“Fine by me. Do as you please.” The Demon King shrugs.

“““HUH??”””

Gasps of shock come out of all of us.

What does she mean? Didn’t she summon us here to make us do her bidding?

“You all seem to misunderstand. All I have done is give you my powers. I do not have the ability to control you or take away your free will. Whatever you do with those powers is still entirely up to you.” The Demon King explains nonchalantly.

“So you’re not gonna make us swear loyalty to you or kill us if we refuse?” Gluttony asks.

“Hah, I couldn’t even if I wanted to! What’s the point in promising something to a dead person? I won’t even be around to enforce it anyways!” The Demon King cackles.

“Then… no matter what we say, you’ll still let us be reincarnated and have another life in this other world?” Envy wonders hopefully.

“More or less. The summoning spell is already in effect and it’s going to send you to my world, whether you like it or not. Frankly, I couldn’t stop it even if I decided to. Or rather, I’m dead already so I can’t decide anything anymore. Puhaaa!”

She slaps herself on the knee in laughter as if her own death was a first-class joke.

I seriously cannot read this woman at all.

“All right, let me spell it all out for you so there’s no more questions. Here’s how everything’s gonna go down. The seven of you are going to be summoned to different parts of the world. You will spawn in a location of my choosing and you will possess the Crest that I just granted you. It will give you immense power on the level of a true Cheat Skill, just like the ones in those stories you humans like. I’ll also give each of you a little helper that will provide you knowledge and intel on the world itself. But after that, the rest is up to you.

Use your powers for whatever you want. Do whatever you want. If you so desire, you are free to use the power to help people and be some sort of hero. Or you can go and have a peaceful life, using your power to make everything easy and convenient for yourself. Or if you’re really that rebellious, you can go ahead and just kill yourself the moment you spawn. I don’t care. I can’t control you. So do whatever you want with this second life I’ve given you. Live as you please.”

The moment she finishes her explanation, I and some others feel our chests lighten.

So we’re not just gonna be forced to do horrible, heinous acts. That’s a relief.

Still, some of us continue to be resistant.

“Hmmm… I don’t like it. I feel like I’m walking into a trap somehow…” Wrath muses grumpily.

“Indeed. You must be hiding something else from us. You said that your plan was to have us to continue your acts of evil. Letting us roam freely does not accomplish that.” Sloth reasons.

“Haah, yeah, that’s my plan. Or rather, it’s my hope. I’d love it if you guys could kick up a little terror and mayhem in my name, but I also know I can’t make you. This whole thing was just a final desperation move in my last moments before death. A complete Hail Mary, as they say in your world. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t hurt me. I’m already dead, after all. So I’m just gonna let you guys go free and hope you make me proud somehow.” She admits with an embarrassed grin.

I hate to say this about a literal Demon King, but… she’s surprisingly chill. I feel like, in different circumstances, I might actually find her to be a fun person to hang around with.

“Now then. We’re almost out of time here. The summoning is nearly done. You’ll be in the other world very soon. But before you go, allow me to say a few more things. My last words, you could say.”

She rises from her throne and stands before us all with a wise and comforting smile.

“Let me ask you this. If I were a goddess summoning you all to be heroes and defeat the Demon King, what would really change?”

“Huh?”

“Think carefully. All of you are here because you like isekai stories. You have all dreamt of being summoned or reincarnated or transported to a different world. But why is that? Was it out of an altruistic desire to save and protect people as a hero? Did you really care that much about helping imaginary people in a fictional world? Of course not. You desired it because there was something you wanted. Something you felt you could only get in another world.”

Once again, she looks at us one by one, staring deeply into our eyes as if gazing into our souls.

“You want to be happy. You want to be free.

You want to be successful. You want to take it easy.

You want to have fun. You want to be popular. You want to be accepted.

You want wealth and adventure and cool powers and great memories and a harem.

You want. You want. You want. And you want.

Those selfish desires are the core of your Fantasy.

Not some form of altruism or righteousness. Just pure selfish, self-serving, self-centred desire.

So why do you need to be a Hero to obtain those things?

What does being summoned by the Demon King instead really change?”

She speaks those words seriously and somberly as if they were her own funeral eulogy. A deep and heavy darkness seeps through them as if they were muddying my soul. And yet, I could sense something… hopeful and liberating within her voice.

“Finally, I will give you only one piece of advice before your new life begins. You’ve already died once. I won’t be around to reincarnate you again. You’re not getting a third life. So think carefully about what you really want to do in this next one. If you have any regrets from your past life, now is the time to settle them. If there’s something you’ve always wanted to do, now’s the time to do it. I’m not saying to go and recklessly waste your life away, but… don’t hold yourself back from what you really want either.

Live freely. Do as you please. Pursue your dreams. As long you do that, my will shall be fulfilled. Now go out there and have a good life!”

With that, magical circles suddenly appear beneath all of our feet. Brilliant rays of light rise up from them and begin to envelop us.

“W-wait. Demon King, I have one more question!” I cry out hastily as I’m being swallowed by the light.

There is still one more thing I have to know. One nagging suspicion that has been swimming around my mind.

“You are evil, right?” I ask her doubtfully.

In response, she simply smiles at me.

“I am. I am Evil itself.”

Just then, the shining light swallows me completely. The summoning is finally complete.

And thus, my new life in another world begins.