“You just look like a bully to me! Your victim won’t listen to you anymore, so you’re just lashing out at the one who helped them move past you!” I said.

“The impudence! You shield demon! We shall bring you to a fitting end!” This guy sounded like he’d swallowed the complete works of Shakespeare, seriously.

“What have I ever done to you, anyway?” I asked, thrusting a finger at Armor. I was far more concerned about Witch in this situation, but I actually didn’t have any idea why Armor would have a problem with me. He certainly seemed to, but probably just because we didn’t really see eye to eye. We’d had very little contact, after all.

“As if you don’t know! You use your brainwashing power to impede our mighty justice!” he responded. Huh? I had to take a moment. He had jumped so many steps I was having difficulty understanding him. Just what was this guy and his “justice” attempting to achieve?

“Brainwashing? That’s what Itsuki was trying to pull with his cursed weapons. I’ve never tried that,” I eventually replied.

“Lies! You, Shield Demon, have taken over the world by brainwashing its people!” Armor ranted.

“What scum! It was bad enough having an outsider come in and start lecturing me, but now it turns out you have already taken over your own world and so are seeking to do the same here!” Miyaji cut in, jumping more than a few steps himself. I wanted to shout at him to stay silent but managed to maintain what composure I had left.

“If you call gradually achieving good things, building trust with the people, and then bringing reassurance to a nation by defeating a moron proclaiming world domination ‘brainwashing,’ then sure, that’s what I’ve been doing. However, it’s only someone like yourself who would call it that!” I retorted. This wasn’t brainwashing. It was trust! Acquired by shouldering my role as a hero and doing whatever I could to spill as little blood as possible while carrying it out. If trust was brainwashing, then anything could be brainwashing! Anything at all!

“Which is exactly why our justice shall crush your evil ambitions!” Armor declared. Exactly why . . . what? All they had done was throw in their lot with this coward and come out to crow about it when the tide turned in their favor.

“Let me ask you this one time. What is your justice?” I asked. I wasn’t expecting much of an answer.

“Our justice is to create our ideal world of peace in which evil does not exist. Therefore, we will use our strength to end all evil!” Armor replied. I was honestly surprised to discover the existence of someone who actually believed in such textbook-like dictator rhetoric. He had no idea that justice wasn’t even on his side, did he?