Weapon and Shield

I jump towards the spiral staircase and use [Roll] to charge upward. After
gaining momentum, I kick off the staircase, flying up towards Miia.
『Aro, make a foothold!』
“Got it! [Clay]!”
Two lumps of clay appear in midair. Kicking off them, I increase my speed
while obscuring my angle of approach.
I look at Miia and send in a [Dimension Claw]. However, Miia securely
defends against it with the blade of her greatsword.
By the time I get close enough to Miia, her surroundings are already bathed
in a haze of black light from [Eclipse].
No matter what it takes, I’ll defeat her here…! I swing my greatsword at
Miia.
“It’s not like I don’t want to try clashing blows with you. But unfortunately,
this is a battle to the death.”
With her defence up, she guards against my blade. The difference in ability
in our sword techniques is huge. With her devoting herself to defence, I
can’t find an opportunity to break through, no matter how much I struggle.
“Dragon-god-sama! I’ll create an opportunity with my magic…!”
As Aro is about to cast one of her magic attacks, a part of Miia’s abdomen
tears off, flying towards me as a giant pallid snake. It’s a [Thanatos Serpent]
from [Split Beast]! It seems she prepared it within her body so she could
take me by surprise. The serpent opens its mouth and flies straight towards
my chest.
『Tch…!』
I can’t evade it, so I’ve no choice but to be bitten. If I tried to evade before
attacking again, she’d be able to set up her [Eclipse] protection.
“I made an opportunity, it seems. Alright, [Death].”
『Uu…』
Should I attack, or should I withdraw? Before I can decide that, I
instinctually pull my body back. The black light of [Death] expands right in
front of me.
In that moment, the haze of black light morphs into a sphere, and covers the
thanatos’ body completely. It’s the absolute protection of [Eclipse].
“To think that you’d come attacking before coming up with a plan to deal
with [Death]. Well, you probably didn’t have any other choice.”
…Miia’s [Death] perfectly captures treant’s weak point. Treant’s HP,
defence, and regenerative power being excellent, he can only fight at his
best when he can make good use of it to receive his opponents’ attacks.
However, [Death] ignores all of his HP, defence, and regenerative power.
It’s only effective against lower ranks, but as he doesn’t have very strong
magic, his life could easily be taken away if one of those strikes him.
When she used [Death] to keep me in check, I had no choice but to pull
back. I knew she would use it, but as Miia said, I couldn’t think of any
convenient way to deal with it. I could only charge on haphazardly.
『Master-dono… I’m sorry… It’s my fault…』
Treant mumbles with regret.
『No, we still have time!』
I put strength into my greatsword, and it shines with the light of magic. If I
use [Flash that Drives Away the Darkness], I might be able to break through
the defence of even the magic bulwark of [Eclipse]. I have no choice but to
use a large swing to increase the momentum of my sword, but if it’s before
the barrage of rays appears, it shouldn’t be difficult to cut into it.
Of course, that is, if I can make it in time.
Thick rays of black light shoot out and close in on me. I sharply decrease
my altitude as I fall back.
Failing to avoid them, half of my right wing is torn off. If I had been slower
in acting, my body would have been completely consumed by the black
magic power. While I somehow restore my wing with [Autoregeneration], I
desperately make full use of my flight ability to dart around, so as to avoid
being caught by [Eclipse].
I didn’t make it in time… Treant is forced to maintain his [Undying
Regeneration] until he has only 1% of his MP left. In this state, we’ll reach
our limits while Miia does nothing but wait inside her [Eclipse].
She’ll fully recover her HP, and then will emerge once treant’s MP is
exhausted. Aro will also run out shortly as a result of [Darkness
Kaleidoscope]. Once she does, we won’t have any good solution to deal
with Miia’s inexhaustible supply of [Split Beasts].
In addition, I had one wing destroyed by [Eclipse] when I tried my sink-or-
swim assault. I’m holding it together with [Autoregeneration], but my flight
ability is still affected. It’s questionable whether I can take distance from
[Eclipse] in this state.
I didn’t have the leeway to take caution when [Eclipse] activated. However,
[Eclipse] is a powerful shield, and a weapon at the same time as well. Not
only did I let her get away with activating it at point-blank range, I received
a blow from it immediately too. This situation can only be said to be the
worst.
Miia’s combat ability is way too strong with her full stats… This battle
might be the time I’ve most keenly felt such a large difference in ability in
my life. I’m somehow fighting on thanks to treant and Aro, but even so, it
doesn’t look like I can keep going much further. It might have been
impossible from the start for me to win against Miia.
…I should run away. Miia’s speed is greater than mine, but if I charge up
the stairs with [Roll], she might not give chase. It’s a gamble, and even if by
some chance we escape, Miia will probably hunt us down.
If I flee poorly, the situation will only get worse. However, all our paths to
victory are already gone.
『Ugh…』
The [Eclipse] rays pass right in front of my eyes. As I thought, I can’t use
my right wing properly right now. I forcibly halt my movement and flip
around, changing my trajectory.
However, seizing that chance, another ray closes in from the opposite side. I
can’t evade. I can probably endure one blow using the [Perseverance of a
Champion] skill, but I won’t be able to continue after. I’ll get hit by follow-
up attacks before I can regenerate my fully burnt body.
Suddenly, treant uses his wooden roots to kick off of my body, leaping
forward. His body expands rapidly, returning to the full size of a world
treant. My field of vision is covered by his.
『I will take on this one blow, at any cost…! Master-dono, somehow,
please correct the situation in this interval…!』
The black ray of light assaults treant with no mercy. A large hole opens up
on his back, and his whole body is covered by the black light.
『Treantt!』
His body falls towards the ground. It looks like he’s still barely alive, but
even his [Undying Regeneration] restorative ability appears to have reached
its limit. The blue light coming off his body is completely gone.
『It’s just an attempt, but… I’m returning it! [Fairy Hex]!』
The falling treant opens his eyes wide. Black rays of light shoot out from
him, and hurtle towards the black [Eclipse] sphere as if to absorb it.
[Fairy Hex] is a counter skill against magic attacks.
【Characteristic Skill [Fairy Hex]】
【Whenever a direct magic attack is received, fairies living inside the tree
will return the same kind of magic.】
【Irrespective of the user’s magical strength, the returned magic will be the
same power as the received magic.】
【The magic produced by this skill has high directionality, and only targets
the attacker.】
Miia’s actual body has perfect endurance versus darkness attribute attacks.
However, the [Eclipse] bulwark isn’t like that. In addition, that bulwark
should be roughly the same kind as the rays of black light. [Dimension
Claw] didn’t show signs of penetrating it, but if it’s the [Fairy Hex] that can
maintain the same firepower, it might be able to break through even that
bulwark.
The black light continues to crash into the [Eclipse] bulwark for almost an
entire second.
Then, cracks race through the [Eclipse] bulwark, and it bursts open. The
giant frame of the thanatos is blasted back by counteracting [Eclipses], and
smacks into the wall of the tower.
Treant’s [Fairy Hex] has broken the absolute defence of [Eclipse]. Miia
hasn’t had time to heal. In addition to the damage I dealt, she spammed
[Split Beast] in order to buy time for [Eclipse]. Her HP should be quite low
now.
This is the last chance that treant has risked his life to give me.
“Dragon-god-sama, sorry. My mana is…”
『Aro, treant, you’ve done great. I’ll handle the rest.』
Right after treant, Aro’s also out of MP. This coming clash will decide who
wins.
“…To think [Eclipse] could be beaten in this way.”
Miia’s giant thanatos body trembles. Perhaps from the impact of slamming
into the wall, or from backlash of having her [Eclipse] forcibly cancelled, it
she seems to be temporarily paralysed.
『I won’t give you time, Miia!』
I send [Dimension Claws] towards her as I fly. I’ll burn through my MP
freely on this. If she gets away this time, we’ll really have no hope.
Her block is too late. Two of my slashes slashes cut into her soft human
body. As expected, she manages to block the third, but until now she’s
always reacted perfectly to my [Dimension Claws]. It goes to show how
injured she is now.
“One last straightforward clash…? Very well, I have confidence in my
sword.”
The thanatos moves, crawling along the wall. Upon gaining enough
momentum, Miia kicks off the wall to leap towards me. I see her taking a
deep breath as she readies her sword.
I watch Miia closely. She stares back at me. I clear every other thought from
my mind, and focus entirely on her.
She might be injured, but she’s still the strongest swordfighter I know. I
suspect that, if you were to compare every swordfighter throughout all of
history, Miia would compete for first or second place.
It’s taking a while for me to reach her. This must be the effect of such
complete concentration. The flow of the world feels slow.
There have been key moments in battles before when I’ve felt this. But this
is the first time I’ve felt it so keenly. I wonder if top-class swordfighters like
Miia always fight like this.
Our swords collide. I can see her blade clearly. I can feel a response. But
before I can feel relieved, a second slash comes my way. I tilt my sword,
catching the blade.
Our swords collide a third and a fourth time. I quickly come to realise that,
even though I’m swinging half on instinct, Miia is still managing to use her
intellect despite her condition, and is gradually driving me into a corner.
There is no reason to my sword. I’m just swinging based on experience and
instinct. That’s why, with each strike, my sword falls slightly behind hers,
and my position becomes slightly worse.
Miia’s swordsmanship is diminished in her thanatos state, and she’s heavily
injured. Even so, the difference between us still isn’t closed.
I can see clearly now. Miia is far stronger in her human state. It’s entirely
thanks to Aro and treant that she was forced into needing more firepower.
If I keep fighting like this, I’ll gradually be pushed out. I need to take a
gamble, even if it’s from an unfavourable position.
Immediately after our blades collide, I pretend to draw back, before punting
all my might into a thrust.
This is a gamble. It’s difficult to block the narrow footprint of a stab with a
blade. If she can deflect or evade it, then I’ll be exposing a massive opening
to her. But if she’s unable to respond, I’ll gain a massive advantage. It’s
high risk high return. I’m falling behind in a battle of skill, so I’ve no
choice but to rely on a bet like this.
Mii’s blood splatters.
A thin line is carved in her forehead. She managed to dodge. My blade was
only able to graze her.
My sword still extended, I look at Miia. She readies her sword, about to cut
through my body.
Was my gamble too simple? But the way it was going, I was going to lose.
That attack was my only chance.
I’ve borrowed so much power from Aro and treant to come this far, and yet
I’ve lost in a battle of ability.
“GuuOOOOOOOh!”
Roaring, I swing my sword. I know it will be too late. Miia isn’t soft
enough to let this opportunity fly.
But, even so, I swing with all my might. I know it won’t work out. But now
that Aro and treant have given so much to help me, I can’t roll over and
accept defeat.
Sorry… Aro, treant. In the end I wasn’t strong enough to beat her.
Miia sighs out and lowers her sword. But, I only realise that after I have
completed my swing.
Her human torso is cut cleanly in two by my sword. Her blood spurts out.
The [Blackfly Greatsword] falls from her hand.
“OOoOOOOOOOoOOOOOOoOOO!”
The six-eyed dragon roars with madness. Its many legs writhe as it falls,
eventually slamming into the floor head-first.
【Divine skill [Naraka Realm: Lv-] has been acquired.】
【Title skill [Laplace Interference Authority] has risen from level 7 to 8.】
The message resounds in my head.
“You won…!”
I shake my head in response to Aro.
『…No, she let me win.』
At the last moment, I took a bad gamble, and Miia easily avoided it. By all
means, she should have killed me then. That should have been it. But, she
intentionally overlooked the opening and allowed me to strike her.
I pick up the limp treant from the floor and heal him with [High Rest], then
walk over to Miia’s separated upper body.
The six-eyed thanatos writhes in pain as blood pours the wound in its
forehead. The movements are gradually becoming duller as it bleeds to
death. Miia lies next to it, covered in her own blood. She looks up at me
“[God of Destruction] has set in it seems. My maximum HP is high enough
that I’ll probably die before that though.”
Miia weakly raises an arm up as she speaks. I can see the tips of her fingers
crumbling away into sand.
[God of Destruction] continuously reduces the victim’s maximum HP and
MP. It was responsible for most of what killed the slime.
『You shouldn’t get [God of Destruction] just by losing your divine
skill…』
“It was set up by Laplace so that monsters powerful enough to endanger the
world wouldn’t keep appearing. Losing a divine skill causes your stats to
reduce, but God of Destruction only sets in if they’re still above a certain
value. Of course, there’s someone who’s subverting the God of Destruction
system to keep a stock of monsters though.”
She must be talking about God’s Voice. Fake divine skills have been handed
out in order to gather a huge number of Legendary monsters in this forest.
The relationship between God’s Voice and Laplace is still unclear, God’s
Voice seems to have a pattern of is trying to subvert Laplace’s restrictions.
『Miia… Didn’t you want to get outside and take revenge?』
“My God of Madness had already progressed to an irreversible state. I
could tell right away. Once you get it, there’s no turning back. It’s not some
simple status condition.”
I open my eyes wide. Then, she had already accepted that she would die in
this Ngai Forest when she jumped into the origin matter.
“The mental burden is worse than you think. Even before… Ever since
evolving to a thanatos, I haven’t been doing well. For a long time now,
nothing has stirred my heart. God of Madness and the destructive impulses
of the thanatos have been eating me from the inside. The last of my reason
and my prior sense of duty and desperation have carried me this far, but
they too are close to being crushed by God of Madness.”
That’s how bad it was… I had thought her artificial expressions was
uncanny. I had thought it was because of her hatred for God’s Voice, but it
seems that wasn’t it. The being that’s in front of me now isn’t Miia, but
rather the torn apart wisps of who Miia once was.
Even in that mental state, despite the pain, she guided us and entrusted her
hope to us. It’s clear now why she fought me. Knowing her limit was close,
she choose to give me the fifth divine skill at the cost of her life.
“Sorry for dragging you along with my selfishness. Before I gave you my
divine skill… I wanted to test your resolve and strength.”
Of course. She chose to entrust everything to me. If I were to lose to God’s
Voice, or to give up without a fight, it would all have gone to waste. Even
though she had no other choice, it’s no wonder she wanted to test me first.
But I can’t imagine I lived up to her expectations.
『Sorry, Mia… We fought you three-on-one, and still lost.』
I shouldn’t have been able to handle her initial surprise attack. I can
understand what happened now that it’s over. If she wanted to, she could
have struck at a better timing, and then kept attacking to deal a fatal wound.
She could have won right at the start. At the end too, she lowered her sword
of her own volition.
“No… It’s fine. It would be a lie to say I didn’t hope you could defeat me.
But I was also mistaken.”
『Mistaken…?』
“I pretend to be rational, but the inside of my head is always like that.”
She indicates behind herself.
“OoOOOOOO…OoOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The six-eyed dragon’s body writhes as it screams with its repulsive voice.
Drool drips from its mouths, and its claws slam against the floor again and
again.
“Ever since evolving to a thanatos, I’ve been attacked by waves of hatred
and destructive impulses. I was holding myself together with the memory of
how I used to think. That’s probably why I was acting under such a terrible
misunderstanding for so long. My objective wasn’t revenge, but to free this
world from God’s Voice. Thank you for helping me remember before I die.”
『Miia…』
“I can’t ask you to inherit my resentment now. I denied what you said
before, but you were right. Killing God’s Voice doesn’t mean anything by
itself. It’s no more than a means to an end. Don’t charge headfirst into an
unwinnable fight for something as vague and grand as preventing the
destruction of the world. You should fight in order to protect someone, and
keep that in mind as you fight..”
I can’t find the words to reply. My thoughts are too jumbled. All I can do is
bow my head.
“I’ve been trapped by destructive impulses, and I haven’t felt anything else
in a long time, but… Eating with you guys was the first fun I’ve had in
ages. I’m seriously glad you were the ones to release me from the origin
matter. Thank you for the final beautiful memory.”
Miia closes her eyes.
“…Umukahime is still alive. I know it was impossible, but I would have
liked to have seen her one last time. She’s been fighting for my sake all this
time.”
Miia says, her words falling in drops. I only told her about Umukahime’s
survival right before the battle. I thought for sure she didn’t care and was
paid no attention. But I’m glad she was bearing Umukahime in mind.
『…Thank you, Miia.』
She smiles with her usual awkward expression, her eyes still closed. Then,
at the same time as the six-eyed dragon, she stops moving.
【82950 experience points have been acquired.】
【Due to the title skill [Walking Egg: Lv -], an additional 82950 experience
points have been acquired.】【The level of [Oneiros] has risen from 145 to
150.】
【The level of [Oneiros] has reached MAX.】
【Characteristic skill [Butterfly Dream] has been acquired.】
【Evolution requirements have been met.】
Chapter 142: Eye of the Heavens
By switching appearances with Loic, I would avoid the hounding of Leila;
the groundbreaking plan, the Fake Prince Charming plan…had failed.
Also, not only did it fail, it resulted in advancing the phases of Laila, and
receiving the Eye of the Heavens.
I snapped back and tried to return the Eye of the Heavens to her, telling her
that I can’t accept such an important thing, but…
“Ah, s-sorry. Did you not like it?” (Leila)
After Leila apologized as if truly feeling bad about it…
“B-But I am really sorry. This has a special spell on it, so I can’t do
anything after I have given it.” (Leila)
She made a shocking revelation.
No, I did expect it.
It is exactly because I expected it to be an item that can’t be returned that I
tried to make Loic my scapegoat, and tried to have him take this Eye of the
Heavens.
But actually getting hit with that reality is pretty shocking.
I was freed from Leila thanks to her getting worried about my complexion
that had turned sour from the shock, but my heart had already been
completely destroyed by that point.
This isn’t something I should be saying myself, but I was so out of it that
even when I saw Sazan drinking tea without a care in the world despite
having escaped, I forgave him with just a few seconds of an iron claw.
The plan failing was purely because I was too naive, and Loic is not at fault
at all.
I wrung out the last piece of energy I had to thank him and see him off.
After that, I explained the situation to Ringo and the others who gathered
around me, worried.
“…I see. But I am a bit relieved.” (Mitsuki)
“Mitsuki…” (Souma)
Mitsuki gently placed a hand on my shoulder while I was sitting there all
dejected.
“That kind of plan that plays with the hearts of people doesn’t suit you.
What fits you are plans that are more fair and square… Plans that tease the
other party fair and square.” (Mitsuki)
“…No, I don’t think that can be fair and square though.” (Souma)
But being told this by the honest Mitsuki comforted me a bit.
When I raised my head, I saw Mitsuki’s cat ears silently saying ‘It is okay.
That’s how it should be’.
The one to speak after I got slightly back in form here was Ringo.
“…If it were me…” (Ringo)
She said this slightly apologetically even when expressionless.
“…I would probably be able to tell even if Souma were to be disguised.”
(Ringo)
That’s what you were about to say when we were discussing the plan?!
Ringo must have not believed in the success of this mission because the
disguise would have been seen through if it were her.
(…Speaking of which…) (Souma)
Leila also had the nickname Soul Eye.
I don’t know the reason why she was called that, but there might have been
a guy who had the same plan as me and failed.
The Transformation Glasses that didn’t work on normal people in the game
could be deceived here, so I might have taken that for granted which led to
this result.
“Yeah, I can see through it too. There’s way too many tells in your motions
after all.” (Mitsuki)
Mitsuki added onto this as if comboing me while I was reflecting.
“Eh?! I can’t tell at all though.” (Maki)
Maki made a shocked face at what the two said.
Even though you are supposed to be the one who has known me the
longest…
I thought this and looked at Maki slightly in disbelief, and she faced away
with a sullen expression.
“Hmph! I am not a beauty anyways, and even if we have gone shopping
together, I am so unimportant that I can’t even be the first time in your
life!” (Maki)
Why did it suddenly go there?
I can’t tell the points she gets pissed off at.
But it seems like Maki was terribly angered here, and I could tell even from
the side that she is peeved.
My long years knowing her tell me that she is disguising it as a joke, but
she is actually angry here.
…This is a pain, but it can’t be helped.
She did help me out here, so let’s just indulge her.
“But Maki, rather than being a beauty, you are more on the c-cute side…
and you are the first one I went out shopping with aside from my family.”
(Souma)
“R-Really?!” (Maki)
“I wouldn’t lie to you about this at this point in time.” (Souma)
When I responded to her, Maki’s breathing grew rough and…
“H-Hmph, then, I guess I shall forgive you.” (Maki)
She said this from a pretty high horse.
It is because she ends up like this that I don’t really like praising her too
much.
In the first place, I don’t get why it ended up with this talk about being a
beauty or not, and forgiving or not forgiving.
“Moreover…
“Uhm, Souma-san!” (Ina)
“Eh, Ina…?” (Souma)
One trouble gone, another in.
I turned at the voice that came from my side this time, and Ina was looking
up at me as if she were a chick waiting to be fed.
What are you expecting from me here?
“W-Wait! We have deviated from the main topic! This isn’t the time to be
doing this!” (Souma)
I raised my voice in order to reset this chaos.
This is mostly just an excuse to slip away from this topic, but it is true that
we can’t be lenient here.
(Or more like, why was I keeping up with this charade until now?!)
(Souma)
I reprimanded myself.
Even though I should be dealing with things quickly at a time like this, I
have been delayed greatly here.
My brain that had stopped working from the shock of the plan failing has
finally begun spinning again.
“Mitsuki! Can you tell where Leila is right now?” (Souma)
Just like how Leila has the Eye of the Heavens, we also have the Explorer
Ring of Mitsuki.
Moreover, the Explorer Ring is several steps more convenient than the Eye
of the Heavens.
We still have a means of victory here.
“…At the center of the capital…slightly north. It doesn’t seem like she is
moving.” (Mitsuki)
“North? Her house?” (Souma)
Learning that my last hope had been linked with the response of Mitsuki, I
sighed in relief.
“We are leaving this house immediately for now!” (Souma)
I don’t know how it works, but it seems like search items can tell you the
distance and direction of the other party.
On top of that, Mitsuki has cheat levels of space awareness and the ability
to tell the distance between others, so she can tell the location of the other
party by calculating the buildings, but I doubt Leila can pull off something
like that.
Even if she were to know that I am staying somewhere south of the capital,
she shouldn’t know yet which building it is.
She would be able to tell in no time that we live here if she were to ask
others, but I don’t want to risk it if there’s the chance that it hasn’t been
discovered yet.
I hurriedly left the mansion and carefully think of a plan.
(I have to do something about this Eye of the Heavens…) (Souma)
But getting rid of this thing that has the indestructible trait and also returns
to you after a set period of time once you throw it away is close to
impossible.
I tried slashing it with Shiranui, clinging to that little hope there was, but it
didn’t even scratch it.
If it had been before the patch, things would have been more simple.
When there’s too many items left on the field, the items will disappear
beginning from the first one that was placed there.
If you take advantage of this, you could get rid of as many indestructible
items, so I could have gotten rid of the Eye of the Heavens just by readying
a lot of trash items.
But that was fixed with a patch, and it is now not possible to dispose of the
items that have the indestructible trait.
It might have been because there were a lot of complaints about event items
disappearing especially with the Mysterious Scrap of Paper. And so, they
had to deal with it seriously despite being Nekomimi Neko.
That in itself is great, but I couldn’t help cursing at the diligent response of
the staff here.
“Sazan!” (Souma)
“W-What?! J-Just saying, but I actually did this for your sake and—”
(Sazan)
I cut off Sazan, who was running his mouth with excuses again while
scared, and I gave him the Eye of the Heavens.
“You can use teleport magic, right? For now, can you please teleport to the
furthest location you can and leave it there?” (Souma)
“…That’s fine with me, but can you write off what happened with this?”
(Sazan)
Sazan peeked at me from within his mask as he asked this.
Looks like he is feeling bad in his own way about not helping me.
“Okay. Let’s do that.” (Souma)
When I said this, Sazan’s voice turned cheerful in one go.
“T-Then, it is okay for me to live in this cursed mansion where the bizarre
live in, right?!” (Sazan)
“You…do you want to live here or not?” (Souma)
Sazan is from the party of Alex, but I do think of him as an honorary
member at least.
I don’t have any issues with him using the mansion.
“Also, I can have free mea—I mean, I can participate in the dark feasting of
sacrifices?!” (Sazan)
“Don’t say it as if we are doing weird rituals every night! Well, I don’t
really mind doing that much.” (Souma)
It is super obvious here that he is trying to freeload in the house, but that
was pretty much the case already anyways, and I don’t have any intention
of throwing him away.
This is an emergency, so I don’t mind accepting this mu—
“Then, while at it, can you give me the gloves that are darker than the
darkest night and blessed by the shadows which I borrowed from you bef
—” (Sazan)
“That’s a no! Or more like, give those gloves back to me already!”
(Souma)
When I shouted, Sazan jumped and hurriedly snatched away the Eye of the
Heavens and began to teleport.
Once the chant ended, Sazan disappeared.
“We can buy some time with this.” (Souma)
He didn’t give me back the Fingerless Gloves again, but this is not a
situation where I can be bothered by that.
The Eye of the Heavens will return to me in 6 hours.
This is simply delaying the inevitable.
We can notice her approach with Mitsuki, but when Leila enters the Death
Stalker phase, she apparently can pursue the player 24/7.
I would like to sleep at night and I don’t want to live a life where I have to
be on edge the whole time.
Of course, I could just steer clear from women, but my party is composed
of women, so that’s impossible.
Even if so, parting from my comrades and living alone with Leila is out of
the question.
(…Then, what do I do?) (Souma)
It really goes back to destroying the Eye of the Heavens somehow, or
moving to a remote island at a distant sea where she wouldn’t be able to get
to even if she were to know about my location with the Eye of the
Heavens.
But a place like that…
“…No, there’s one!!” (Souma)
That’s when a certain event showed up in my head.
(If it is that…it should be possible?) (Souma)
I checked several times in my head to see if there’s anything I am missing
here, and then nodded internally, feeling confident about this one.
I tighten my fist and look at Mitsuki who is shaking her cat ears in worry.
“Mitsuki, I want to reach the castle without meeting Leila. Can I count on
you to guide me?” (Souma)
“…Looks like you have thought of something.” (Mitsuki)
Mitsuki said this happily.
I nodded confidently as if to answer this.
“Yeah, I remembered a good place to take shelter in. Going to the castle is
just a preparation for this, and we will head there after that. We won’t be
able to return for a while, so the decision is yours whether you want to
follow me or not.” (Souma)
The forgetful knight captain that’s at the castle, Spark Hawk.
I remembered that there’s a quest that’s triggered from a few words of his.
“A shelter that we won’t be able to return from for a while and an
uninhabited island, huh. If we are to move away from human civilization,
we will need to take the proper preparations—” (Mitsuki)
I cut off the words of Mitsuki and answered.
“No, the place we are going to be heading to can be reached in just a few
minutes on foot from the capital. The Aken Residence. A normal house that
we will be heading to after notifying in advance about a ring theft!”
(Souma)
The mystery quest that is triggered from the words of the knight captain:
Ring of the Aken Family.
I will bet my chips on this!!
“Spark Hawk-san!”
Finding a person inside the castle is no trouble with the ring of Mitsuki.
I once again felt how fearsome search items are as I found the knight
captain Spark Hawk-san and spoke to him.
Spark Hawk turned back with elegant movements and long hair fluttering
which stands out even from afar.
“Oh? And here I was wondering who it was. If it isn’t the Hero-dono—”
(Hawk)
“I am sorry! There’s something I would like to ask. Is that okay?” (Souma)
I felt bad doing this in our first meeting, but I went for the meat of the
matter immediately.
“O-Okay, I don’t really mind. But if it is something too complicated…”
(Hawk)
“It is a simple question that can be answered with a yes or no.” (Souma)
“That’s great then. What is it?” (Hawk)
It seems like he was surprised by the sudden situation, but as expected of
the knight captain-sama, he agreed with a refreshing answer.
I don’t want to be close to Leila for long, and I would feel bad for taking
too much time away from this person.
I took out the Seal Neko Master Swordsman Medal out and a feather pen,
and said this in one breath.
“Spark Hawk-san, you have seen a crest with a similar form before,
moreover, you have been requested assistance by the owner of this crest,
but you are so busy you can’t go, so you thought that it would be fine to
pass the letter onto the knight you trust who you have told the password
‘wild rose’ to, and sent that person to the proprietor, but the high quality
feather pen you always use has broken, so you wanted to buy a new one at
the item shop, right?” (Souma)
The answer of Spark Hawk-san was obviously yes.
He went ‘so this is the Hero-dono that defeated even the Demon Lord, huh’
as he properly wrote the letter while drawing cold sweat.
“Good grief. Why is it that you can’t act normal?” (Mitsuki)
Mitsuki was baffled at the back, but I would like you to spare me on this
one.
I myself am aware that I am doing a pretty forceful shortcut here.
But this current situation where I am bringing along 4 girls would lead me
straight to death if it were to be found out by Leila.
Just thinking about when Leila will notice this puts me on edge.
After receiving the letter, we gave our thanks to a decent degree, and left
the castle quickly.
We head to the outside of the city just like that and explain the situation to
our comrades.
“The quest we are about to do is a quest to obtain a required item for the
Sealed Dungeon where the fragment of the Evil God is sealed at.” (Souma)
It is not like all games end once you defeat the last boss.
You could even say that, in RPGs, it is more often than not that there will be
extra content that’s harder than the last dungeon. Basically a hidden
dungeon for the avid gamers.
This obviously also exists in Nekomimi Neko which is one of the recent
RPGs.
The Hidden Dungeon: the Sealed Magic Dungeon.
It is a dungeon that is underground of the Sealed Lands that are close to
Lamurick, and it is an extra dungeon for after you clear Nekomimi Neko.
But this created a new legend in Nekomimi Neko.
Even after several months, there wasn’t a single person from the group that
cleared the game the fastest who had entered this secret dungeon.
The first obstacle was the severe lack of information.
Not even the entrance of the Sealed Magic Dungeon had been found after
around 3 days since people who cleared the game began appearing.
It was only after the very few testimonies from NPCs that players learned
you have to interact with the relief of the Evil God at the Sealed Lands after
clearing the game in order to open the path. But you can’t reach the Sealed
Magic Dungeon with just that alone.
There’s a big door with 10 openings underground (by the way, there’s the
Master Torches at both sides of that door), and it wouldn’t open unless you
place the correct items in them.
It is a warp door, so you can’t use Infinite Mirage Prison to jump it, so you
could only go through it the normal way.
Fortunately, one of the items necessary to open that door had been
discovered soon after.
The Sunshine Pyroxene, which is the drop item of the Demon Lord, fits
right into the circular hole at the center of the door.
The problem is the 9 holes in the surroundings.
Judging from the size of the holes, it was discovered that the Sealed Neko
Master Swordsman Medal you get in the conferral of honors event was one
of them, so it was now clear that you have to use crest type items, but there
wasn’t any player who had gathered 9 crests at that point in time.
Nekomimi Neko has a massive repertoire of items, and there’s also a lot of
them that are completely useless, so the items that you don’t know its use of
are naturally going to be lower in the priority list.
Even if you wanted to begin gathering things now, at that time, if you were
to leave items on the field -even if they were valuable- they would easily
disappear, and there was even an event where you had to choose between
the crest or a different item, so there were many cases where it would be
impossible to collect all the crests once you cleared the game.
However, there’s no way the guys that stayed with Nekomimi Neko for so
long would falter at just this degree of adversity.
The fastest players had gathered 9 crests by 4 days of having found the
entrance of the dungeon.
—But even when they set all of them up, the door didn’t open.
They thought at first that that was fake, but players who gathered the same
crests began uploading videos of them setting the items in the holes and the
suspicions were cleared.
And then, someone on the net said: “Could it be that the position of the
crests is wrong?”
That was a shocking statement.
It is not because it was wrong.
It is because it sounded right that everyone was speechless.
You might think it is simple to place only 9 crests in the correct place, but
they are all shaped the same way, and they are 9 in total.
The amount of combinations is the factorial of 9.
In other words, 362,880 combinations.
It goes over the amount of combinations that you can just place randomly
and get the right answer.
Learning about this, the Nekomimi Neko players desperately searched for
hints.
The places where the crests were obtained at, places where there might be a
connection with the Evil God, knowledgeable people, books that might
have a connection; every single thing that might lead to something.
…However, there was no information regarding the order of the crests.
There was someone who even went directly to the company as a last resort
to ask about this.
But, at that time, the reception window was on the verge of bursting due to
the bug reports and complaints that were pushing hard.
A trivial matter like not being able to enter a hidden dungeon which
couldn’t be called a bug…there’s no way the company would pay any mind
to it.
And then, 1 week passed without any progress and…
They finally steeled themselves for a despairing fight.
—A round-robin of switching crests.
A total of 360,000 combinations with only a little over 10 who had
completed the game at that time.
They didn’t falter even in the face of a difference of more than the tens of
thousands.
They first arranged their personal numbers, and made it so that their
combinations would be 9 numbers.
They then made a thread in the bulletin board for the sole sake of
exchanging info, and would do extremely thorough division of work.
On top of that, volunteers would then update the progress on an exclusive
page in the Wiki using that info to make sure there’s no duplicates.
Many Nekomimi Neko players would watch these guys changing the crests
single-mindedly over and over, and called them Lockpickers with respect
and admiration.
In the frontlines of the bulletin board, the Lockpickers would go:
‘341256789-341598762 were misses. Take over’, ‘Taking over. Leave the
3416 deviations to me’, and ‘From what I see in the Wiki, the 791 series,
7913 to 7915 have holes, so can someone do those?’, ‘Reserving until
791386542’, ‘Can’t be helped. I will do 7914 to 7915’, and ‘563 derivations
are all done!!’, ‘W-What?! You conquered the 3 digit numbers on your
own?!!’, ‘That’s my way of life!! Praise me!! Worship me!!’, ‘Thanks! With
this, we can fight for 1 more yea—no, I wouldn’t want to do this for one
more year’. And so, it was lively with a whole lot of conversations that your
average person wouldn’t understand at all.
By the way, I wasn’t in the team of the fastest, but I caught up in the
middle, and joined in as one of the Lockpickers.
I took around 2 weeks and crushed 8491 to 8496 alone which I am a bit
proud of.
And then, after around 4 weeks since this all began…there was this post in
the bulletin board.
“I did it! It opened! It opened! It opened! 796285341! It is 796285341!”
It was the historical moment where the tenacity of the Lockpickers had
broken through the unreasonableness of Nekomimi Neko.
All the players that participated in this lockpicking were elated by this, and
smiles showed in the faces of all Nekomimi Neko players as if that
happiness spread.
Even the controversial heroine debate between the Shermia Faction and the
Mitsuki Faction, that are said to never see each other in the eye even if
racism were to disappear from the world, had forgotten about their
differences at this happy news, and we were all in a festive mood.
…That’s right!
This grand discovery united the hearts of all Nekomimi Neko players
around the world into one!!
“And in this way, they entered the hidden dungeon with great delight and…
were massacred by the Hidden Slime that looks completely the same as a
Stray Slime. Even that is a good memory now……Hm? What were we
talking about again?” (Souma)
I tilted my head and the cold gazes of my comrades stabbed me.
“R-Right, that! The quest we are about to be undertaking! Yeah, I
remember, I remember! It is okay!” (Souma)
I hurriedly tried to play it off.
“…Souma-san.” (Ina)
Ina passed the point of being baffled and let out a sad voice, and this
flustered me more.
The tendency was there since long before, but after the Fake Prince
Charming operation, I feel like the gazes of Mitsuki and the others have
been getting more painful lately.
It is as if they are looking at a hopeless guy from the bottom of their hearts,
or as if they were looking at the weirdest guy in the world.
In order for my comrades to also learn about my self-evaluation of being
the most sane of all Nekomimi Neko players, I feel like I should show them
my normal side here, or things might turn bad.
“A-Anyways, the quest we are about to do will get us 1 of the 9 crests.”
(Souma)
You only get the Sunshine Pyroxene and Sealed Neko Master Swordsman
Medal after clearing the game, but most of the other crests can be obtained
from mid game and onwards.
This Aken Family Ring is also one of those crests. Because this quest
begins once you show 1 of the 9 crests to Spark Hawk, it isn’t impossible to
begin the quest right after arriving at the capital at the earliest.
“That’s why this quest is made in a way that even low level characters can
clear it, and there’s no battle in the first place. But once we arrive at the
residence, it is safe to assume an event will begin immediately…in other
words, an incident.
Because of this, please be prepared to not be able to leave the Aken
residence for a while.” (Souma)
I looked at everyone for confirmation, and there wasn’t anyone who said
they wanted to go back.
I am thankful for that.
Maki asked me while I was sinking within those thoughts.
“Speaking of which, you were talking about mystery novels and stuff like
that before, right? Then, putting it in a smart guy way, it would be a closed
circle**?!” (Maki) <TLN: It refers to a situation in which for a given crime
(usually a murder), there is a quickly established, limited number of
suspects, each with credible means, motive, and opportunity.>
Leaving aside whether it sounds intelligent, I listened to the words of Maki
and…
“…Well, yeah.” (Souma)
“Fumu, a closed circle…huh.” (Sazan)
Me and, for some reason, Sazan reacted and nodded.
I don’t know what Maki imagined from there, but she began talking rapidly
which is uncharacteristic of her.
“T-Then, it is that! A suspicious western-style house covered in ivy. A
bridge that collapsed from a clearly suspicious accident. The dodgy
bespectacled mistress laughing bewitchingly. Twins that you can’t tell the
difference aside from their hair. A butler whose tone is so gentle that it
instead makes their japanese weird. A maid so beautiful it instead makes
you suspect her relationship with the lord of the residence. And then, the
lord of the household who is wearing a suspicious mask!!” (Maki)
Maki let her imagination run wild.
“There’s way too many suspicious people!” (Souma)
“Y-You idiot! I already filled the role of the masked one!!” (Sazan)
Sazan and I retorted once again.
“I see. Sorry, Sazan-chan.” (Maki)
“Don’t add -chan to me!” (Sazan)
Maki only apologized to Sazan for some reason, and Sazan got even more
enraged.
Leaving that aside, let’s continue explaining.
“It is true that we would be isolated, but it is not because of a blizzard or a
bridge, but because of magic.” (Souma)
“Speaking of which, the Aken family… It is barrier magic, right?”
(Mitsuki)
I nod my head at the conclusion of Mitsuki, who is knowledgeable of the
families.
“Yeah. The people of the Aken family have the setting…no, a history of
them specializing in barrier magic for generations.
Not only you won’t be able to go in or out from the mansion. There’s a ring
there protected by barrier magic.
The quest this time is to please protect that ring since there was an advance
notice that there will be a theft.” (Souma)
The moment I said that, Maki tilted forward.
“I actually read quite a lot of mystery novels! It means we are going to be
the detectives here, right?! Uuh! My hands are itching!” (Maki)
Mitsuki’s cat ears also flap and show fighting spirit as if stirred by the
excited Maki.
“If we are going to be searching for the culprit, it would be the turn for my
Explorer Ring to shine. If we have a grasp of everyone’s location, it would
be impossible to escape without me noticing. I personally pity the culprit.”
(Mitsuki)
Ina and Sazan also speak as if chiming in.
“I-I also was good at finding the hidden sweets of mom!” (Ina)
“Hmph. No one can escape from my Evil Eye!” (Sazan)
It seems like even the Bear showed its hand out from inside the bag
probably because it didn’t want to be left out.
Everyone is pretty hyped up here.
…Yeah.
There’s little in terms of a reward if the culprit is caught beforehand, so I
planned on intentionally having them succeed in stealing it, and then cheat
them out from the event item while getting the favor of the lord of the
mansion, but I will read the room here and not say it.
Leaving aside the fact that I know the truth of this, it would be better for
everyone else to challenge this without knowing about it. That way, there
won’t be unnecessary suspicions on us.
“…Souma…are you okay?” (Ringo)
Ringo rubbed my back, worried about me breaking out in a cold sweat on
my own here, but her kindness is a bit painful right now.
And then, after 20 minutes of high tension marchwe safely arrived at the
Aken residence, and we were safely trapped in it.
Hundreds Years After I Was Called
[Just Corpse], I've Become
Strongest Undead When I Woke
Up - Chapter 102
「Your Majesty, we received news from the vanguard squad of General
Gribear. Their force has already occupied the majority of harbor city. It will
be occupied before the arrival of our main force.」
「Hah, naturally. It is just a small country, after all. Those guys alone are
plenty enough.」

A girl replied as she stood on the deck of the ship advancing without
hindrance.
The human continent was right before her eyes, and they would arrive in
less than an hour.

「Kukuku, those human must be trembling in fear upon witnessing the

power of our beatfolk right now.」

The name of the girl who showed a belligerent smile as her silver hair was
fluttering in the air by the sea breeze was Meriadel.
She was also the one who broke the nonaggression treaty between human
and beastfolk that had been kept for a long time. In short, she was the Beast
King herself. [TL: Meriadel was referring herself with “オレ” (ore) instead
of watashi.]

Her appearance was that of a beauty in her twenties.

Despite her rather muscular body, it belonged to a sporty and slender type—
definitely not the kind of body that one would imagine from a battle junkie.
But there was no doubt that she was the strongest warrior of the beastfolk.

She, who was born in the tiger beastfolk clan—a group that supported going
to war—had ascended to the pinnacle of her own clan at the tender age of
15. From then on, she proceeded to swallow the other clans with her power,
forming a large force.

And finally, a few years ago, she defeated the previous beast king, whose
strength was among the strongest, and took the throne as the newly
crowned.

Thus, she became the supreme ruler of the continent, but that wasn’t enough
to satisfy her growing appetite for battle.
For that reason, she set her sights on the human continent where humans
resided.

A long time ago, the ancestors of the beastfolk crossed the sea to invade the
human continent which was rich in natural resources, but all of their
attempts were met with failure.
Moreover, those who got exhausted by repeated mobilization ended up
facing the threat of humans invading their continent.

Thus, their ancestors had no choice but to apologize to the human and sign
a nonaggression treaty for both sides.

Ever since then, the successive generations of beast kings protected the
treaty, but―
「Those humans were just small fries. What’s so scary about them? The
reason for the failure of the invasion is the sea that separates the two
continents. Since the ship-making technology was really poor back then,
our ancestors had to give up everything just to cross the sea.」

The Beast King spoke with a ferocious voice.

「But it won’t be a problem anymore. We made sturdy ships that won’t

break by mere storms. Thanks to that, we can increase the number of troops
and supplies too. And now, it’s time to fulfill our ancestor’s wish.」

At that moment…
Her surroundings became noisy.

She frowned, wondering about the cause of the uproar and suddenly raised
her face upon detecting an extremely terrifying pressure swooping down
from the sky.

「What the hell… are they?」

She saw the shadow of two streamlined giant lizards.

Their shadows grew bigger and bigger as they approached the ship. One
after another, the beastfolk with sharp intuition were trembling like
newborn calves.

A chill ran down into the Beast King’s spine as she took a combat stance
while looking at the sky.
「Tch, this ain’t a joke… Why the hell did those two dangerous monsters
choose to attack us?」

And not to mention it happened when the important invasion on another

continent was just around the corner.
She hoped that the two monsters were only passing by.

And yet, her hopes were dashed. Soon enough, the two monsters were close
enough for her to see their identities.

She confirmed that it was none other than two dragons.

And obviously, they were not any average dragons.

Each of them was a giant dragon with a total length that exceeded fifty
meters.

The mere flap of their giant wings was enough to create a local storm on the
surface of the sea. The sea surge was enough to shake the ship.

Moreover, the beastfolk who were exposed to the gargantuan amount of

magical power released by the two were starting to vomit one after another.

And the most baffling thing about them was the fact that both dragons were
clearly from different lineages. One had shiny golden scales that reflected
the sunlight, while the other had jet-black scales that seemed darker than
night.
Normally speaking, two dragons of different species wouldn’t form a group.
…Even more so for extremely powerful ones like the two before her.
Even the fact that they were flying side-by-side was against commonsense.

『This one.』
『Hm, not bad.』

And for some reason, the two dragons descended right in front of the beast
king and looked at her as if appraising her value.

「…Who’re you?」

The Beast King had no idea about the intention of the two dragons, so her
fur stood on end.
The next moment, the golden dragon opened her mouth and then fired her
lightning breath.

「?!」

The Beast King kicked the deck immediately, jumping in the air to dodge
the breath attack.
The breath attack landed straight on the deck along with an explosive
sound.

Although the ship was sturdy and reinforced with bulky metal, it melted
immediately.
The beastfolk onboard were electrocuted by the lightning. The Beast King
landed on another nearby ship, baring her fangs at the two dragons.

「WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SUDDENLY ATTACKING OUT OF

NOWHERE… DRAGONS?! DON’T THINK THAT WE WON’T FIGHT
BACK! KILL THEM!!」

And then, she called her comrade.

「LET’S GO!! WE’RE GOING TO KILL THEM BEFORE THOSE

HUMANS! THEY MIGHT BE DRAGONS, BUT THEY’RE NOTHING
BEFORE US!!」
「「「UWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!」」」

Thus, the two dragons clashed with the beastfolk on the open sea.
Vol. 1 - Ch. 34
Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer
A month had already passed since then.
Tenji had successfully returned to his lectures at school and was beginning
to enjoy his student life very well.

The first day back at school, Tenji was immediately confronted by Aika
Asagiri's wailing and crying as soon as he entered the classroom, but his
classmates managed to soothe her.

Asagiri had also been told by the Japan Explorer Engineers Association not
to tell anyone else that Tenji had been left behind, and while she cried, she
tried not to mention it.

But she cried over and over again, and later on rumors started to circulate
that they were dating.
Asagiri was a popular girl in her class because of her good looks. Tenji
managed to clear up the misunderstanding.

Incidentally, he didn't tell anyone other than his teacher about the
Awakening of his Calling. And, since he was in first year of high school, at
the stage of learning the surface of being an explorer, he didn't make a
weird scene at school.
Tenji, Asagiri, and Rui had taken only three days off from school, and they
had also attended the funeral ceremony for the eight regular members of the
Chariot who had passed away.

The explorers were accustomed to attending, but for Tenji, Asagiri, and Rui,
it was the first funeral for a professional explorer.

They all decided to attend the funeral on Godou-san’s request. This time, all
three of them were not outsiders.
[After the funeral, we had to participate in a guild ceremony called the
Chariot Way of Farewell. Chariot's Way was not a traditional ceremony of
sharing grief like a funeral, but a farewell ceremony where we would offer a
drink and send them off like an explorer.]

The place was a luxurious one, renting out an office building owned by the
Chariot.

Apparently, death is so personal to the explorers that it is better for them to

act cheerful rather than sober, so that they can maintain their state of mind
in the future.
And so, the chariot-style farewell party was over. Afterwards, Godou-san
took all the explorers who had participated in that raid to a luxurious
barbecue.

Tenji had been told in advance, and from there his sister Maharu was
allowed to join them.

It was called the "party for the hard work" and was held by Godou to make
all of them feel good about their hard work. Of course, everything was
bought by Godou, and Tenji and Maharu ate the high-quality meat without
guilt or mercy.

The two siblings would later be called "waller-eaters" by Chariot, but

Godou paid for everything with a smile on his face.
“I’m home.”
Tenji, the wallet eater, came home from school.

The poor siblings have a little more money to spend on food because they
got 6 million yen before. Therefore, their complexion is better than before
and they look somewhat happy.
“Big brother, I got you a package that came in the mail!”
As Tenji was taking off his shoes at the entrance, he heard Maharu's voice
like that from the living room.
Hearing those words, Tenji's expression brightened all at once. There was
only one thing Tenji could remember about the "package" arriving.

The sound of thumping, hurried footsteps echoed through the house, and
Tenji opened the living room door with great vigor.
“Where are you?”
“What's wrong, big brother? You're in such a hurry.”
“...The package?”
"Oh, it's on my desk. What's that? It was huge."
While receiving a painful look from Maharu, who asked him what in the
world he had bought, Tenji found a very large package on his desk.

He quickly takes a pair of scissors from the stationery case and cuts into the
duct tape.
“What are you so excited about? What did you buy when you're poor?"
“Don't be so stingy. Godou-san told me to buy this for those five million
yen, so I had no choice."
"Godou-san?"
Maharu snuggled her shoulder against her brother's and peered into the
cardboard box with Tenji.

Just as Tenji finished cutting with the scissors and opened the cardboard by
force.

There, although wrapped in foam and bubble wrap, was a certain item that
Tenji had obtained through the school. It was a neat package.
"Geez.” Maharu shouts after seeing the package.
“I love it! Finally, my brother got his weapons and suit, and of course he got
them at a discount through the school!"
Tenji sniffed as if he were bragging to his sister and slowly removed his
weapons and suit from the box.
As for weapons, he had bought a cheap fifth grade iron sword so that he
could disguise himself as a [Swordsman].
Even though it is a fifth grade, it costs no less than 100,000 yen, so it was a
painful expense for the Amagi siblings.

It looked similar to a Western sword, and there were almost no decorations

or special metals. But it is still powerful and sharp enough to fight monsters
up to the fourth-grade level.

And then there was an inner suit which he always wanted.

This was the kind of equipment that any professional explorer would wear,
and Tenji had bought a blue-colored, fourth-grade inner suit.

Normally, it would have cost 50,000 or 100,000 yen more to buy all these
items. But that's where Nippon Explorers High School comes in.

If students ask their teachers, they can get them wholesale from the
association at a discount. It is a kind of right for the students.

Tenji had made full use of it and bought it at the lowest price. Of course,
this was the price after negotiating over and over again. The poor siblings
have a bargaining technique that is second to none.
However, when she saw it, Maharu's eyes lost their sparkle.
"Ehhh? You're being unfair! You'll have to buy one for me when I get to
high school too!"
“Your big brother earned it by himself. When you can earn your own
money, you'll buy one too."
"Ehhh? Stingy big brother."
Having said that, Maharu would definitely force her brother to buy her a
suit.

Partly because of his character of being kind to his sister, but more
importantly because he didn't want her to have a life as an explorer like
himself, where she would regret not having a suit.
Unlike Tenji, Maharu has a special ability called "Scorching Sun" which is
a unique ability. For some reason, it is currently sealed with a certain item,
but once it is unsealed, Maharu's talent will be terrifying. As an older
brother, Tenji cannot help but have high hopes for his younger sister's
future.
"Oh, by the way, big brother. I found a ham sent from Inagaki-san's house
again. Really, what did you do?"
“Again? Rich people really like to send food, don't they? But, well, I
appreciate it because it helps me save money on food.”
Inagaki meaning of course, was sent by Inagaki Rui.

Rui is in the same class as him, but he could not willingly talk to Tenji
himself because the association forbade him to tell others about it.

However, he makes an effort to invite Tenji to make up with him every time
they have a gym class or a moving class, so he is seen as a good guy for the
girls around him.

Because of this, Tenji had come to be able to forgive Rui, little by little.
“Is it possible that my brother is popular at school?"
“I'm just a regular student.”
“Well, Maharu can eat a lot, so anything is fine with me.”
Maharu hummed happily as she roughly opened the two gifts.

As soon as she saw it, she immediately reached for the citrus jelly and
gobbled it up.

Tenji looked at him and thought that since she was growing up, she could
eat more.
“Okay, I'll have to work harder."
Tenji muttered as he stared at the weapon.
The month that Mizuhashi had said was about to pass.

The press and mass media had already switched to other information, and
there was almost no more talk about the Ochanomizu Dungeon, Godou-san,
or the three students from the Explorers High School who were involved.

[For a while, there was a lot of talk in the high school about the application
not being approved, but recently I've started to hear a few people say that
their applications have been approved.]
[Even if I got more money than I could afford from Godou-san, it would
only be a temporary solution.]

After all, Tenji must continue to dive in dungeons as a luggage carrier, or as

a provisional explorer who has awakened to his fifth-grade calling as a
"swordsman”.
However, the Tenji of today is different from the Tenji of the past.
But He's an aspiring explorer with a special calling, the Hell Beast
Summoning.

It seems that he has not yet reached his full potential, but this can mean that
he has only been able to demonstrate a fraction of his abilities in his calling.

Finally, this is where Tenji's real growth begins.

The signs were already beginning to show.
Lv20 and the boss battle!
The battle against <Night goblin> went well, if we omitted the blunder in
the beginning.
As I expected, the addition of a strong companion motivates others. With
Every passing boss battle, Lulu and Celia are becoming more and more
proficient at using their skills.
Huh, you mean Celestine? Butler is already a pro. How should I say, do
butlers enjoy battling? Just how the heck is she so agile in evading or
defense when she doesn't have any corresponding skill and her attacks are
also nothing to scoff off. She can even manage to smile.
Ugh, let's leave the Celestine case for later.
Next, Ester is also getting better in fighting as she makes sure to not go
overboard. Even more so when she isn't using any of her 3rd order tree
skills. That's just way too OP for a mere beginner-mid grade dungeon.
Though her STR has already passed the 400 mark so there's also a chance
for the situation to go haywire again with lower skills if handled poorly and
drown the boss in special effects quickly, so it's quite a difficult pattern.
I guess the habit of [Going full power finding the opportunity] may have a
bit too much ingrained in her body.
A boon due to my training method. You can do it, Ester!
After 10 such rounds, Lulu party has finally reached Lv20 and unlocked
their 2nd order tree.
That's where I and Ester will take our leave, leaving the stage to the three.
With their 2nd order tree unlocked, it should be much easier for them to
fight.
That being said, a tree is very important and it's to be slowly and carefully
selected while enjoying the process.
I have asked them to just use a bit of SP and activate 2 or 3 available skills
while leaving the rest to later when we return back. Unlocking a plethora of
them at once without understanding what will be useful for you and which
one you really need will leave you in confusion simply.
So relatively, I just taught everyone what they need for now and have them
activate minimum necessary skills.
This will make their battle with <Night goblin> proceed smoothly.
"Huh? Where did Ester onee-san go?"
"Ester? I have asked her to pick up <magic grass>"
<Magic grass> is a valuable material you can pick up in the <Grassland
dungeon>.
It was just the right timing since Hannah also requested to collect them. Not
to say her role here is over now and with nothing left to do, I have asked
Ester on her trip to collect them with <Kind shovel>.
By the way, I didn't go with her since I have the role of re-popping the boss
and also to supervise and heal them if necessary.
"Making the best use of everything" is the motto of players in <Dungeon
Activity>.
"We're off then!"
"See you later!"
"Do your best!"
My role this round is to be healer, healing them with <Aura heal> whenever
anyone's HP goes down.
The role of tank and attacker has been divided between them.
They begin with Lulu running right in front of 4 goblins.
"Come on! <Hero is here>!"
This is Lulu's taunt skill.
Soon, a phantom of Hero Lulu's wearing a cloak manifested for a moment
and took a pose of holding one handed sword high in the sky which made
her the target of goblins.
I don't know what it was but that was awfully cute.
"I will ask her to show me again later. <Spirit summoning>! <Elemental
Lance>!"
"Gobu!?"
Celia mutters in daze when she sees Lulu's new skill effect. I also have the
exact same thought.
Celia summoned the <Fire spirit> and shot down the <Sword goblin> with
intermediate magic <Lance>. A magic resembling Hannah's <Fire Lance>
fired from <Fire spirit> and splendidly hit a score on the <Sword goblin>.
"My turn. <High roundhouse kick>!"
"Goaah!?"
Celestine, who was quietly standing beside the Lulu without anyone
noticing, launched a high kick on the sword goblin, sending it flying. Ohh,
that high kick was so cool. But her movement is so dangerous. She jumped
in between the space of the goblin and its sword in the blink of an eye.
"Lulu too! <Rapid Sword skill>! <Charm sword>! <Heart Charm>!"
"Gobugobu!"
"Gobugobu!?"
Lulu's opponents were two goblins.
She increases the number of rotations with <Rapid Sword Skills> to shorten
the cooldown of sword skills and snatch away the offensive ability with
<Charm sword>, and take even more power from them by following <Heart
Charm>.
It's just <Heart Charm> is a ranged debuff, and not an attack skill, so the
order of activation is opposite of what it should have been.
It's a waste of extra damage if not activated in the beginning. Let's correct
her later.
One of the goblins slashed by <Charm sword> was slightly knocked back
and fell down while the goblin in okay condition smashed its fist towards
Lulu. However what followed was only a click sound. The fist that should
have been a hit wasn't effective at all.
That was the working of passive skill <A Hero must be calm>. HP did go
down though.
Well, the goblin has its offensive ability lowered so it should be nothing
more than a mosquito's bite. Since Lulu's VIT is already high to begin with
and coupled with the fact that princess category jobs also have excellent
defensive power, it was absolutely ineffective in the truest sense.
She also heals her MP with <Hero rise in the crisis>, a unique skill
unlocked from 2nd order tree. MP is the source of power for a hero.
There begins the Lulu's Counterattack.
"<Quick Spinning>!"
"<Gobu>!?"
She blows away both the goblins at once using an AOE attack with herself
as the centre.
"<Elemental Arrow>!" <Elemental bullet>!"
"<Straight punch>!"
Seems like goblins can no longer be a sparring partner for them. <Sword
goblin> was also turned into a wretched figure by Celestine and Celia.
Once all the goblins vanished, the main course, <Night goblin>, began to
move.
"<Hero is here>! <Heart charm>!"
"<Elemental Lance>!"
"Gobaaa!"
The battle begins with the preemptive strike from Lulu's taunt and debuff
skill. Celia <Lance> attack follows right after Lulu's attack but it was
avoided.
"<Charm sword>!"
"<Gobaaa>!"
Just as Lulu leaps down and piled up the debuffs with <Charm sword>,
<Night goblin> swung down its sword at Lulu.
"Lu, luluuu!"
Celia's scream reverberated inside the boss room. A gargantuan goblin
riding a wolf brandishing its sword was an outrageously dangerous scene
from a bystander perspective. But,
"Hoho, tis not even a scratch! <Point Sword>! <Charm Point Sword>!"
"Gobaa!?"
The defensive debuff attack <Point Sword> and
<Night goblin> who seems stunned and roared as if to say, what, wasn't it
sure hit!? received a direct hit from the <Charm Point Sword>, a debuff
attack that lowers down both attack and defense unlocked in the second
order tree and another defense debuff skill <Point Sword> from totally fine
Lulu.
<Charm point Sword> is the superior version of <Point Sword> and
<Charm Sword>. It's a strong skill.
"<Straight punch>! <Triple backhand punch>! <High roundhouse kick>!"
Seeing boss's defense rapidly dwindling down, Celestine also closed in and
launched her offensive.
<Night goblin>'s stopped on its track from receiving too many attacks.
"Now stop here. <Elemental javelin>! <Elemental Lance>!"
"Gobu! Goaaaaa!!!!"
<Night goblin> shrieked, receiving the magic attacks from Celia who found
an opening. That's a lot of damage.
However, <Night goblin> didn't stop and launched his offensive and
vigorously brandished its sword at Lulu.
"I'm not going to lose! <Charm Sword>! <Charm point Sword>!"
Lulu also slashed down with her sword without backing down.
I feel like I have seen this scene somewhere else. Oops, Lulu's HP is
quickly going down. Nothing less from boss attacks, it's not easy to tank
them.
MP has recovered almost fully but,
"<Aura heal>!"
"Uwaa! I didn't think I already received so much damage!? Time for urgent
evasion <Quick escape>!"
"Gobu!?"
Lulu flustered from receiving the sudden heal and quickly get away from
the boss.
<Quick escape>, an emergency evasion skill. Users escape by rolling
backwards.
<Night goblin> looks confused from losing its tiny target, Lulu. Seems like
the gargantuan goblin couldn't see the tiny movements.
Oh, a chance.
"Now! <Elemental Javelin>! <Elemental Lance>! <Elemental bullet>
<Elemental arrow>!"
"<Straight punch>! <Triple backhand punch>! <High roundhouse kick>!"
"Gobuuu!?"
Celia and Celestine didn't waste any time to let <Night goblin> recover
from the confusion and Immediately launched their full frontal assault. It
didn't take long before the HP of the boss emptied before sinking into the
blinding special effect.
I needed to help them a bit but seeing their battle, I think they wouldn't even
need that bit of help anymore.
Anyway, the result of three battles against <Night goblin> -- Victory.
The time mage’s strong new game ~
I returned to the past to rewrite it
as the world’s strongest – Chapter
28 – A promise from younger days
“Sniff… Sniff… I’m sorry, big brother Chrom.”
Labrys cried while sitting on the ground.
In front of her stood a boy, who frantically tried to get her to stop.
…This was something Labrys remembered from when she was a child.
A dream from when she got lost in the woods and was attacked by a
monster.
Labrys had been praised as a prodigy with the sword from a very young
age, but when a monster appeared in front of her, all she could do was
tremble before it.
And the person who came to her rescue was none other than the weak
Chrom.
“Labrys, it’s all right. I’m here.”
He was weaker than anyone, and more scared than anyone, but he had the
same kind smile on his face he always had.
He stood against the monster with no hope of winning, just to protect
Labrys.
“…I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
He lost a lot of blood.
When it looked like he could die, it was scarier than the monster.
In the end, although his body was left covered with wounds, he managed to
drive away the monster.
But Labrys was still crying.
“L-Labrys… The monster’s gone…! See? I’m fine. Stop crying…”
“Sniff… Big brother Chrom… Dying…”
“H-hum… What do I do…”
The boy looked at Labrys, but could do nothing but panic.
“I-I know.”
He placed his hand on her head.
“…Eh?”
“Mister Sirius does this a lot when I cry.”
He pat her head.
It fell nice and warm, and for some reason his hand made her feel calmer.
“…I’m sorry, I worried you because I’m so weak. It was scary uh? If I was
stronger… Then you wouldn’t have to cry like this…”
‘No, I’m weak’, is what Labrys wanted to say, but it got muffled by her
sobbing.
“…I don’t think I can stay with you forever because I’m so weak. I’ll
probably be too weak to even protect people anyway. But still, I promise.”
“…P-promise?”
“Yes.”
The boy nodded and raised his little finger.
“When you cry, I’ll be there to save you. And one day I’ll be so strong that
you don’t even have to cry.”
The boy smiled, with his ragged, wounded face.
“So… Smile, Labrys.”
Labrys put her little finger around the boy’s.
Surely he didn’t remember this promise anymore, but to Labrys, it was still
something she held close to her heart…
“…Uu…”
It was then that Labrys woke up.
Her mind felt very hazy.
She felt chilly, and there was a damp, chemical smell in the air.
She tried to move, but found her wrists were bound above her head.
(That’s right… I was kidnapped.)
She remembered the attack of the first-class mages, but had no idea how
much time passed since then.
She figured they hadn’t done anything to her yet, since there weren’t really
any wounds on her body.
But since they took away her sword, which she also used to cast spells, she
couldn’t really use magic.
(What… Are they after?)
She squinted and looked around.
It was dark, but her eyes were getting used to it.
(This is…)
The stone walls without windows, the chemical smell, the bubbling
sounds…
She reached the conclusion that she was probably in some sort of
underground laboratory of the Sorcerer Association.
She wondered if she was actually inside a dungeon, since this underground
place was so spacious, but what really caught her eye in this room were the
many pale blue lights.
…No…
(W-what is this…?)
She almost yelled, but managed to hold it back.
It was something she definitely was not supposed to see.
(Are all these… Cultivation tanks?)
The lights were coming from the lines of cylindrical cultivation tanks.
She couldn’t tell how many there were, but she could tell there were
probably hundreds or thousands.
In these tanks was luminous pale blue cultivation fluid, and as for what was
being cultivated…
(…Monsters!)
They seemed to be infant monsters, curled like embryos.
The tubes coming out of these cultivation tanks extended to a giant magic
stone in the middle of the room, that appeared to be almost like a heart.
That magic stone was most likely the nucleus of this dungeon. The energy
source of the dungeon, which absorbed magic energy from magic veins
underground.
(Are they… Using this dungeon’s magic energy to make monsters?)
That kind of research was very clearly taboo.
What would happen if all these monsters were released?
…Stampede…”
That word crossed Labrys’ mind.
(Wait, was yesterday’s stampede…)
That was when she heard multiple footsteps coming from between the
cultivation tanks.
“…!”
It was the same group of first-class mages that attacked her.
They wore the same robes, hid their faces with the same masks, and held
the same staves.
But there were fewer of them this time, and she didn’t see the crest of the
twelve sages.
As long as they were around, escape would be impossible.
“Now, ‘vessels’…”
It was with these words that Labrys noticed some people to her right.
They appeared to also be people from the Sorcerer Association. They wore
the same robes as the first-class mages and masks, and were lined in a row.
But unlike Labrys, they weren’t restrained. It was as though they were there
voluntarily.
“Rejoice, for you are very fortunate. You may be able to become the second
demon king.”
One of the first-class mages stepped forward, and spoke pretentiously.
“Surely you all know. A demon king appears once every few centuries, and
is a calamity that becomes a turning point in history. Our plan is to create
man-made demon kings, and to carry on with our ‘demon king
transformation project’, we use…”
The mage shook a syringe in his hand.
“These demon king cells.”
Rolling inside this syringe was a pale blue liquid, like the one in the
cultivation tanks.
It was like a tiny cultivation tank.
A chill ran down Labrys’ spine as she imagined what it could be used for.
“In this syringe, we have ‘demon king cells’ taken from the fossilized
original demon king, Ancestral Dragon Verboros. The ancestral dragon had
a special function as demon king, 《Level Up》… Basically, a being that
takes in these cells evolves, and the ones compatible with them have the
potential to even become demon kings.”
Labrys could hear the ecstatic breathing coming from the people lined-up
next to her.
(W-what’s with these people…?)
It was like she wandered into a meeting of an evil cult.
She couldn’t understand, and it was all very off-putting.
“Eliminate inferior beings who cannot use magic well, and let the world be
ruled by evolved humans and demon kings. That is our ideal new world.
Well then everyone, shall we begin the evolution of this world?”
Said the mage, before injecting the mage furthest to the right on the neck.
This person suddenly burst.
“…Eh?”
Blood flew everywhere, and stained the walls.
The reaction was delayed, but a second later, the robe and mask the mage
was wearing fell to the ground.
“It seems this one was not compatible. Next.”
“…Wha…”
A person died. That person burst.
But no one there seemed to care.
The first-class mages, the people lined-up… Everyone sounded ecstatic.
(W-what is going on…)
The next person in line was injected, and a moist sounding explosion
echoed throughout the room.
“Next.”
Another person was injected, and another person exploded.
“Next.”
Another person was injected, and another person burst.
“Next.”
Another person was injected, and another person burst.
“Next.”
The syringe kept getting closer and closer to Labrys.
Seven more people. Six. Five…
“…N-no…”
She felt she was losing her mind.
The smell of blood made her gag, and she felt gastric juices in her throat.
(A-at this rate… I’m going to be killed.)
But even if she tried to escape, it was not like the restraints binding her
arms were simple restraints. They were very secure due to magic.
Labrys had no way of undoing them, since she could barely even use magic
in this state.
But still, if she didn’t run… She would be killed.
(N-no…!)
Labrys struggled and struggled, but then…
“Next.”
The voice came from right in front of her.
She fearfully looked up, and saw…
“…Ah…”
The syringe was in front of her.
There was no one left to her right, save for robes and pools of blood
covering the floor.
“…This is the last one? It’s hard to find good vessels.”
“But this one caught Mister Cradle’s eye.”
“I wanted a pawn from the association to become demon king, but I guess it
can’t be helped.”
The mages whispered as they crept towards Labrys.
“N-no… Stop…”
Labrys said with a shaking voice.
“Why are you making that face? You act as though… We are some sort of
evil secret organization.”
Said a mage while chuckling.
“Rejoice. This is a happy moment for you.”
Labrys couldn’t see the mage’s face through the mask, but that didn’t sound
like a joke.
This mage clearly believed every word.
“Hey, stop struggling. I can’t inject you well like this.”
“S-someone help…”
“Ah? No one will. He’s dead already.”
“…Eh?”
Labrys didn’t understand exactly what that meant, but felt it sounded
ominous, and somehow knew she didn’t want to hear any more.
Still, the mage continued, as though purposefully deepening her despair.
“The rumored ‘hero’ came to this base alone. I hear he did well considering
he was alone… But he was still only human. Sadly, he was no match for
us.”
“…‘Hero’.”
She figured they were probably talking about that boy that looked like
Chrom.
If that person chose to attack the mages’ base right at this time, that surely
meant…
(…Was it to save me?)
Only one person would do that.
“When you cry, I’ll be there to save you.”
He was weaker than anyone, but kinder than anyone.
He always came to her rescue when she cried.
And now… He was dead.
“You’re.. Lying…”
Every bit of strength Labrys still had, left her body.
The mage holding the syringe saw this as an opportunity to strike.
“Uu…”
The needle stabbed Labrys’ white nape, but she didn’t have the strength to
resist.
“Become a demon king, or die… Those are the two reactions to demon king
cells. What will it be? Aren’t you excited?”
“…N-no…”
Demon king.
The name of a calamity that would go down in history.
If she didn’t become one, she would die, and she was shown more than
enough proof of this fact.
But if she did become a demon king… The people she loved, the town she
loved… It all raced through Labrys’ mind.
All of that would be destroyed, and she hated that even more.
“Rejoice. I’m sure you can become the second demon king.”
The mage put his finger on the plunger, to slowly inject the demon king
cells.
“…Help.”
Labrys mumbled to no one.
That day, when she was too weak to do anything besides sobbing… She
decided she would be strong.
She wanted to be strong enough to never cry again, and never need to be
saved again.
If she cried, he would come to her rescue. And he would fight, and get hurt
a lot.
She didn’t want that, but couldn’t stop it anymore.
“…Help me… Big brother Chrom.”
A tear fell from Labrys’ eye, and when that transparent tear hit the floor…
“Gehaa!?”
The mages were all blown away, as if there was an explosion.
They slammed into cultivation tanks, and limply fell to the ground.
“…Eh?”
It all happened in a second.
It was so fast, that she couldn’t tell what was going on.
But before she knew it, a boy stood in front of her.
He took the hood covering his face off his head.
Although his back was turned, there was no mistaking who he was.
“Labrys.”
The boy turned around, and his kind smile was like a ray of sunshine.
“It’s all right. I’m here.”
Chapter 99 – Bernardo Arch
“…Lana, Lana!”
“Nn… nnnn!”
Oswald wakes Lana, who was asleep with her hands and feet bound and her
mouth covered.
“Shh! I’m here to help you. Let’s get out of here.”
“Puha! Oh, thank God… You’re big brother’s son.“
“Be quiet. They’re in the next room!”
“Hush!”
She covered her mouth exaggeratedly and waited for Oswald to cut the rope
around her legs with a knife.
“Just… a little more….”
“……”
He moved the knife hastily but carefully, to avoid hurting Lana.
“…the number of kids increased.”
A thick, muffled voice came out from the door.
“What?!”
Oswald, soaked in sweat, bounced up with his back to Lana, glaring at the
men.
“……”
“Hey, hey, that’s Gerald’s son….. What the hell is going on?”
There were several men holding swords dripping with blood. There were a
dozen men, if you counted those behind.
Oswald could not win.
As Gerald’s son, Oswald has had his fair share of action, but he was still a
child.
Oswald was not as good as Gerald was in his childhood.
“…Enough, enough. Kill them both together.”
“……”
“Hic….”
With his son here, Gerald won’t spare them even if they gave Oswald back
to him quietly.
The two frightened children were approached by the cronies.
“…….”
“I’m sorry, Lana. It’s my fault…. But…”
Oswald was determined to protect Lana, who was clutching his leg, so he
grabbed his knife again.
“You’re out of luck, kid. –Good-bye.“
A man raised his sword.
At that moment, the window next beside him shattered.
“–”
“Gah…!?“
Something like a small arrow shot out from the shadow and pierced the
neck of the man who was about to slash at Oswald.
“…Do you need anything from my children?“
The man who stood up asked in a cold voice.
His current demeanor was a complete contrast to the soft atmosphere he
normally had.
“…Bernardo Arch.”
He was being confronted by a group of underworld gangsters with a sharp,
deadly look on their faces.
“Grandfather!“
“Be- Beru Ji…..”
“Sorry to keep you waiting. We’re almost done. Gerald will be here soon.”
The conversation between the children and Bernardo raised the eyebrows of
the boss of the organization.
“Damn it…! We’ve got to do this. Gather as many men as possible! We’re
gonna take out Gerald and all of them!“
“Are you serious…?”
“If Gerald’s coming, that’s the only way for us to survive! If we kill him,
we’ll be in control! We’ll have the entertainment district in our hands!!”
The allure of power gave momentum to his men, who had been frightened.
“….Uraa!”
“Ha!”
He ducked and dodged the sword thrust and fired a palm strike to the side
of the attacker’s face.
“Kah, ko…”
“I’m no match for Gerald, but I can deal with you all easily.”
He told the head of the organization without even glancing at the man who
had collapsed.
“….Hey! What the hell are you doing! Surround him and kill him!“
The organization’s members rushed towards Bernardo at the sound of his
yell.
“What the hell?“
“Goh?!”
But he was good enough to open his own dojo.
So, even if he was old in age, even if his sword was out of reach and even if
he was outnumbered.
He was steadily closing in on the boss.
“Damn! Where are the reinforcements?“
As he checked the number of men around him, he suddenly spotted two
eyesores.
“…Hey, at least take care of the kids first.”
“I’ll do it.”
At the boss’s order, a burly man stepped forward and headed towards
Oswald and the others.
“……!“
Without much emotion, the man stepped up to the easy job and brandished
a cheap… mass-produced sword.
“Duh!“
“–”
Bernardo, who turned around, made a quick decision.
There was no hesitation.
Hidden in the sleeves of his hands were two dark weapons.
Hidden crossbows.
One was used during his entry.
Now, it was time to use the other.
“What? Gah!“
A small arrow pierces the man’s face as he swung his sword at Oswald and
Lana.
“Oh, Grandpa!“
“Beru Ji-”
Lana’s cry of joy was broken by the sound of Bernardo’s voice calling out
to her.
“Are you all right?”
“……”
His usual smile.
Bernardo’s gentle expression illuminated by the moonlight.
From his belly pierced a blade that gleamed—– under the moonlight.
“Grandpa!!”
Oswald wailed.
Bernardo’s fighting style was calculative.
Even though he was a martial arts master, Bernardo was an ordinary man.
He could not afford to give his opponents too much leeway, especially
when there were multiple of them. He gained a last-minute advantage by
adapting to his opponent’s movements and positions.
His strategy was something that needed constant and steady effort from
him.
He moved so that his back would not be exposed, sometimes used desks
and chairs to reduce the number of opponents he had, so that he would not
have to take all of his opponents at once.
But if the wheels of his carefully manipulated game get a little out of
gear….
“Gg….. ngh!“
“Ji?!”
He threw a roundhouse kick at the man who pierced his abdomen.
It was powerful.
It was not the kind of force that was wielded by a man who was carefully
calculating his remaining strength, but the kind of force that a man
squeezed out…. when he wanted to use every last ounce of his strength in
the time he had left.
“Beru Ji… Beru Ji…”
Tears streamed down Lana’s face.
They kept dripping, no matter how many times she wiped them away.
“……”
He was speechless.
The pale Oswald just wanted all this to be a dream.
“HAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”
With no energy left to evade, Bernardo was hit by slash after slash.
Warm, raw blood splashed.
“Hu, hu, hu…”
“What the hell is this guy….?! Why aren’t you dying……?!“
But with each wound, Bernardo’s strength grew.
Steadily, but certainly.
He burnt what little life he had left and turned it into power.
“Damn… Come on, you bastards! Don’t be afraid…!”
The door blew open.
All eyes turned towards that direction.
“……”
“Oh… Gerald-kun… My son’s here….”
Bernardo let go and collapsed at the arrival of Gerald, who had the bodies
of the organization’s men in both hands.
“……”
“……”
A look was exchanged.
A look of entrustment.
A look that passed a duty on.
No words were spoken, and their eyes only met for a second.
“……!“
“Gaaaah!“

Chapter 186: The Moth’s Power

“Bring it!”
“Keeeeeeeeee!”

“Hah!”

“Keeepee!”

Huh? Isn’t the Emperor Moth weaker than I thought?

It would be tricky if it flew and attacked me
unilaterally, but since I clipped its wings, it can’t fly.
The only way this thing attacks is poison, lasers and
wings. It is not difficult to avoid or defend against it.
“Ki!!!”
After cutting off all six of its legs so that it could not
move, it slammed its wings into the ground and
floated 10 meters in the air. It would have been better
if I had not slashed all of its legs and driven it into
the ground.
“Keeeeeeeee!!!”

Then it flapped its wings and released countless wind

blades at me. It would have been troublesome if all of
them had come toward me, but they were shooting in
all directions. So, because they were dispersed, only
about 10 at most would come to me with one flap of
wings. I could have easily slashed that many.
“Kiiiiii………”

It’s trying its best to fly, but it’s not flying on chipped
wings. It is falling slowly and steadily.
I jumped up to put a stop to it by dropping its head,
just in time for the wind blade to break off.
“Zero-niisama! The mysterious monster has
vanished!”
Almost at the same time as Sophie’s voice, the
crisis high speed detection reacted from directly
above. I wonder how Sophie can sense magic
hundreds of meters ahead…. I don’t care about that,
I want to get away from this place right now, but
 since I’m in the air, I can’t move. Intuitively, I used
lightning shrink, which is an evolutionary step
beyond shrink. Unlike shrinking skill, this one
could move in the air. I hurried back to the ground
and tried to keep my distance, but from the reaction
of the Crisis High-Speed detection, there wasn’t
enough time to avoid it completely. So I hurriedly
used the Raiden armor to increase my defenses.
“MIEEEEE!!!!!”

Then, me and Emperor Moss received an invisible

attack from the mysterious monster that suddenly
appeared directly above us.
“Zero-niisama!”

I was blown away, but was able to passively stand

quickly. The Emperor Moth was just in a straight line
between the mysterious monster and me, which
mitigated the power of the attack. Perhaps that is why
the damage was minimal for a strong reaction to the
crisis high-speed detection. Well, if I hadn’t moved
from that spot, I would have been trapped under the
Emperor Moth and the mysterious monster….
Incidentally, the Emperor Moth that served as my
shield was crushed to the ground.
“Are you alright!”
“Yeah, no problem.”
Sophie was the first to arrive at my position. Looking
at the mysterious monster again, it looks like a black
cicada. But it’s about 20 meters in size.
“What was that attack?”

“I think it’s a shockwave.”

That’s Sophie for you. I only asked her just in case,

but she gave me an answer.
“Keeeeeeee…!”

“Eh?”

I thought I heard some sort of a desperate voice, but

then I saw the Emperor Moth being eaten by the
cicada. Huh? Did cicadas have fangs that ferocious? I
mean, was there such a proper mouth to begin with?
“……”
The cicada finished eating the entire giant emperor
moth in about five bites. As I was waiting to see what
it would do, the figure became transparent as it
looked toward the spirit tree.
“Lightning contraction!”

“Zero-niisama! Wait!”

Hearing Sophie’s words to stop me, I ignored them

and headed for the cicada’s vicinity with the lightning
contraction. It would be bad if I couldn’t see this guy
now. I would lose sight of it since it was not near the
spirit tree. I have a high-speed crisis detection, but
the elves are open to one-sided attacks.
“Raiden double enchantment.”

I hastily changed the lightning enchantment to a

Raiden enchantment. Then the cicada broke the
invisibility.
“Ha…?”

The cicada then unleashed a poison exactly the same

as that of Emperor Moth. After blocking all of them,
it now released lasers from its antennae. Next, it
released countless blades of wind.
“Hey…!”

After that, he was about to become invisible again as

if nothing had happened.
“Hey! You! Wait!”

This guy, of all people… has what I wanted… no!

He’s got some ongoing predatory skills I want! Why
can’t I and why did the cicada get it! You think I’m
less than a cicada! I’m going to kill this guy for
sure!!!!!!!!!!! And then get those skills for myself!
“Damn it!”
However, the speed of invisibility was faster than I
had expected and It completely disappeared as I lost
sight of it. Exhaling a sigh, I swung my raised sword
down vigorously as if I was taking it out on the eight
ball.
“Mhmm…”

“Hmm?”

Then, the cicada which had been invisible appeared

in front of me. Incidentally, the sword I swung down
did not hit the cicada. The cicada and I both froze and
stared at each other for a few seconds.
“Mie…”

Then the cicada began to become invisible again as if

nothing had happened.
“I won’t let you!”

I waved my sword as before and the invisibility was

lifted. I don’t know if this invisibility is magic or not,
but it seems to be done by using magic power. That’s
why my magic slash can cancel it with an evolved
magic slash!
Come to think of it, why didn’t the cicada fly away
as soon as it became invisible? If It had done so, I
wouldn’t have been forced to disarm it in this way
and it didn’t use invisibility when it fell, when it
 was eating the Emperor Moth, or when it used the
Emperor Moth’s magic. Apparently, invisibility has
a weakness…
“Mi!”

“Oh no you don’t!”

As I was thinking about how to attack the cicada, it

suddenly flew away. I hurriedly prepared my magic
and released it. By the way, the magic I released was
the well-known Thunder Burst. However, it was
more than twice as powerful than before because it
had changed to thunderbolt magic. It consumed a lot
of magic power…
“Mi……”

The cicada got hit by the magic and fell. However,

there was no sign of any particular damage, just a
little smoke coming out of its body. I guess this is
like it was startled by the magic and came down
without flying. Perhaps it acquired its magic defense
from the Emperor Moth…?
“Ha!”

While on the ground, I must slash off its wings like

with the Emperor Moth to make it unable to fly. If
magic doesn’t work, I’ll have to use swords to make
it unable to fly. I slashed at the cicada with two
swords.
“Meeeee!!!!!”

“Gaha…”

But that shockwave was released. This time, there

was no monster to shield me, so I was hit directly.
“Ugh!”

Then I was blown away and hit the spirit tree and
stopped. Oh shit…the spirit tree was dented.
“Hey! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine…..”
I said this to Elira, trying to be strong, but honestly, I
can’t say I’m okay. As soon as I could, I increased
the output of the Raiden armour as much as I could.
And then, I put it on my sword as well and used my
sword as a shield to protect myself. Even so, the next
shockwave seemed to shake my internal organs. Not
sure, but I feel it was stronger than the shockwave
earlier. In addition, I think the bones in my arms are
broken. But the injury was not so bad that I needed
an elixir, so I drank a HP potion. If it’s just a broken
bone, this will heal it.
“Zero-niisama!”
Sophie rushed over to me.
“Sophie, what should we do to take down that
cicada…”
“Come on, let’s run away together.”

“What, huh?”

If only we could do something about that

shockwave… I tried to ask Sophie about her strategy,
but I got a response I had not expected.
“Our opponent was Emperor Moth. Now that it has
been killed, our role is over.”
“Hey…”

“That thing is definitely stronger than the Emperor

Moth. And since it has absorbed its abilities, it’s
completely upward compatible with the Emperor
Moth. There’s no need to force ourselves to deal with
such an opponent.”
“…there’s a chance that spirit magic won’t work on
that cicada, you know?”
It also likely took away the Emperor Moth’s spirit
magic disabling properties.
“So what?”

“…You think the elves will win if we run?”

I didn’t realize it, but I wanted to believe that there
were some conditions that would be disadvantageous
because of our presence. I wanted her to say that the
elves alone could win. I wanted her to say that we
would escape so that they could win.
“I don’t know if we can win.”
“Sophie!”

I threw the two swords to the ground and grabbed

Sophie by the shoulders.
“I didn’t say anything wrong. Running away from a
monster when your life is in danger…that’s a normal
thing to do. I didn’t say anything wrong, did I?”
“Maybe it’s not wrong…maybe it is! But it’s
definitely not the right answer either!”
As an adventurer, that answer may not be wrong. But
it is wrong in this situation.
“I…even I know this isn’t the best answer! But I
don’t care what happens to the elves if it means my
brother might die!”
“Elves…?”

“That’s right! I don’t care how many elves who see

you as nothing more than a vessel for the spirit king
die…”
Pa!
“Eh?”

“I can still forgive you for saying you’d rather an elf

die than me. That’s a personal viewpoint. But to say
you don’t care how many elves die is unforgivable,
even for Sophie.”
I slapped Sophie to cut her off. Of course, I went
easy on her because she was using enchantments and
thunder armor. But Sophie’s cheeks were red.
“You don’t know, do you? You were saved, protected
and trained only because you made a contract with
the Spirit King, right? If you didn’t have a
contract…”
“I know that.”

“Eh…?”

Even before I evolved, I had the skill of mind-reading

from the title “heart to heart,” so I know that kind of
thing. I understand it.
“ Yug and Zeal are part of me. They just bought my
ability and took care of me. That’s all.”
In this world, it’s common everywhere to be bought
and raised for power. I’m just one example.
“But…!”
“I don’t know what kind of thoughts were in the back
of her mind to save me from dying, bring me to the
village, train me and save me again from the demon
tribe’s attack. But I think I should at least repay her
for her help. There’s no way I would run away from
the opportunity to return the favor just for the sake of
self-preservation.”
“a, ah…”

Sophie slowly sat down on her knees with tears in her

eyes.
“Elira, Emily, Tiya and Judy, I don’t think I can do
this on my own, so will you help me get rid of the
cicada?”
“If you tell me to run away, I’ll help you on my
own.”
“Please let me help you!”

“Tiya will take care of it.”

“We’ll definitely take it down!”

With that said, the four of them headed toward the

cicada, which began to try to fly. The cicada was
walking while I was talking to Sophie, but it didn’t
fly or attack. After the first shockwave, it didn’t
move, just eating the Emperor Moth. Even though it
would have been safer to carry it to a safe place and
then eat it or grab it and eat it in the air. Is there any
recoil after the shockwave?
“…Sophie, I’d fight with you too if I could.”
“………”
I approached Sophie, but there was no change at all
from her seated and prone position.
“Even if we can’t fight together, I want you to take
shelter in a safe place.”
With that said, I picked up my sword too and then
headed toward the cicada where the four of them
were.
“…niisan rejected me…then I’m already…..”

“I knew it! Spirit magic doesn’t work!”

“This is bad!”

When we arrived at the cicada’s position, Elira was

the first to say so. Even though I had expected this, it
is still troublesome that the spirit magic is ineffective.
“Zero kun.”

“What!”

I ended up answering Yug’s question with a forceful

answer. Four people were now attacking the cicada
with their magic. I’m in charge of disarming it the
moment it’s about to become invisible. I don’t want
to get hit by a shockwave, so it’s a hit-and-run tactic.
“Why don’t you use us, Zero-kun? 』\

“Why? Because spirit magic doesn’t work.”

If spirit magic doesn’t work, there is no point in

using Yug or Zeal.
“Zero, you don’t have any skills in spirit magic right
now, do you? 』\
“Oh! That’s right! 』\

My spirit magic had evolved into spirit user. Maybe

spirit user could work.
“Zeal!”

“I’m on it! Thunder Dragon!”

I immediately gave half of my magic power to Zeal

to materialize. That left me almost empty of magic
power, so I immediately drank an MP potion while
watching Zeal’s magic.
“Mimmyeeeeeeee!”

Zeal’s thunder dragon hit the Cicada, who had no

intention of avoiding it at all, whether he thought it
was spirit magic or not. Then the cicada started
screaming, turned over and began flapping its wings
and flailing about. But that was not enough to make
Zeal’s thunder dragon leave. Apparently, if you’re a
spirit user, it works because it’s not spirit magic. In a
manner of speaking, the spirit user seems to be of the
magic lineage. Since its magic resistance is
abnormally high, the cicada will not die from this
thunder dragon. However, this means that if it’s not
spirit descent. Then we might be able to fight a close
battle.
“Why is it that only your spirit magic works!”

“Mine isn’t spirit magic, I’m a spirit user!”

“”Spirit user!””

The three of them, except for Elira, are surprised, but

what do they know about spirit users? I’d like to talk
to them when we’re done exterminating the cicada.
“Tsuku! taku!”

The cicada seemed to really want to do something

about the thunder dragon and released a shockwave.
This time, the shockwave was not omni-directional,
but rather concentrated on a single point. With a
single blow, Zeal’s thunder dragon disappeared and
the one-pointed shockwave hit us one by one. Even
though it was a single point of concentration, it was
as big as a person, so we had a hard time avoiding it.
I was able to avoid it with my high-speed crisis
detection.
“Ha ha…”

“Kuh…”

“Aah…”

“Goha…”

No one but me was able to evade. Each of them were

blown away. I’m worried and want to go to the four
of them, but after the shockwave, there is a recoil…I
think. So I, who can use the spirits, have to fight the
Cicada while I still can.
◆◇◆◇◇◇◆◆◆
Sophia’s Point of View
My brother rejected me and left me. This time I
understood. Until now, I thought my brother needed
me. But it was the other way around; I really needed
him.
Then I thought about why he rejected me. Because
monsters appeared, because my ideas were different
from his and because of the elves….
I have one dead skill among all the skills I have
acquired through evolution. That skill is a magic
skill, but I can’t use it. Not because it’s weak in
effect, but because I can’t use it in the first place. But
I was fine with that. I wasn’t particularly driven to
use it. But because of my naivete, my brother
rejected me. I’ll use this to get the demons, the
elves…everything that stands in our way …….
I used that magic and combined it with spatial magic.
I lost more than half of the magic power I had
accumulated for nearly half a year because I was
forced to use magic I shouldn’t have been able to use.
“I never thought this mistress would be called into
this world. Was it you who summoned this mistress?”
(TN: She’s speaking in a very ancient way, the word
translated as ‘mistress’ could also be translated as
‘concubine’ but I felt that sounded weird in English).
Clash! After the sound of a black crack in the space,
the crack widened and two women appeared. The one
who spoke as soon as she appeared was a beautiful
girl with twin-tailed silver hair, round red eyes, about
130 cm tall and wearing a black cajolery outfit with
two pairs of bat-like wings on her back. Next to her
was a silver-eyed, expressionless maid with ponytails
and hair the opposite color of the first beautiful girl’s
eyes and hair.
The magic I used along with spatial magic was devil
(Akuma) magic. This is probably a devil version of
spirit magic. I don’t know of a devil version of a
place like the spirit tree for elves, nor do I know of a
magic circle that summons devils. So I forced myself
to invoke it in conjunction with spatial magic.
“The Lord’s wish was… ah! Kill that little boy…
guffaw!”
“…I don’t know if you were joking or not and I’m not
interested, but next time I’ll kill you.”
She started joking around while looking at my
brother who was fighting, so I made her grovel with
gravity magic. These guys will be useful, so I’ll
forgive their outburst to my brother just once. But the
next time you say it, I won’t forgive you.
“Disrespectful.”

“What? Do you want to be friends with the ground as

much as this one?”
The maid outfit said so and moved to stop my magic.
If I decide she’s not useful, I’ll kill her immediately.
It doesn’t matter if I kill the two of them at worst, it
will be an experience.
“It’s fine…it’s fine.”

“Yes.”

But before that could happen, the Kajuloli stopped

the one in the maid outfit.
“You still have so much magic left in you after
forcibly summoning this mistress…. Good, make a
pact! Name this mistress!”
After releasing the gravity spell, the Kajuloli stood
up, patted her clothes to remove the dirt, and then
said so with her chest, which she didn’t have, out.
Since she seemed to listen to me properly, I decided
to give her a name.
“Dia and Shifa.”

“I am Dia from this day forward!”

“I am very glad to hear that. I will call myself Shifa.”

I named the Kajuloli Dia and the maid outfit Shifa,

and I made a pact with the devil.
“Demonic possession.”

“You can’t just sign a contract and suddenly use two

of us at the same time…!”
I had seen the flow of magic in my brother’s descent
from the spirits, so I know how to do it. When I tried
to do that with a demon, these words came out
naturally.
“Ku…”

Suddenly using two devils at the same time seems

pretty tough, even for me. Due to the sudden increase
in status, I can’t move my body as much as I would
like. I tried to use magic, but I couldn’t use it well.
But after a while, I will get used to it and be able to
move. I still have a lot of magic power, so there is no
problem.
“Wait a little longer… Zero-niisama.”

Chapter 25: She fell ill (Part 2)

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that
the two of them were not riding alongside each other.
“………… doesn’t look like she’s sleeping.”

There, Licia’s eyes were downcast and her back

was resting against the female knight who was riding
with her. I can’t peek into her expression from here,
but I can’t stop wondering.

I couldn’t help but wonder why she was so quiet

when she came to this village to meet me.
“For now.”

I have to get ready to receive her.

After leaving the warehouse, Ren went to the
backyard and informed Mireille, who was about to do
the laundry, of Licia and the others’ visit.
 Mireille was a little surprised, but she too was used
to Licia’s visits.
” I have to go get ready, so Ren, will you go welcome
the lady?”
“Yes, of course.”

“But the beds aren’t made in the guest room yet,

well…… I’m sure they won’t mind. I’m sure she
won’t be sleeping anytime soon.”
“I think so too. Well, I’m going to go now.”

Ren replied and returned to the garden.

Even as we were doing this, Licia and her knights

were approaching the mansion, and they were already
almost at the gate.
Ren saw them and furrowed his brow.
Licia, who had appeared to be sleeping, looked as if
she was in some kind of distress.
Ren noticed the change and rushed to Weiss, who
had stopped his horse.
“Weiss-san, my mother just prepared the room for
you. First the lady…”
“I’m sorry. Thanks for your consideration.”

But Ren suddenly remembered Mireille’s words.

 The beds in the guest room are not ready yet.
That would not be convenient.
Besides the fact that it was Licia who was being
welcomed, he also wanted her to rest in the cleanest
bedding possible, since she looked ill.
This means that she cannot sleep on the bed in the
guest room.
“Please bring the young lady in, and take your time.
I’ll hurry and go talk to my mother.”
“…… sorry to trouble you.”

We have no choice but to have her rest in another

room.
After saying this, Ren returns to the mansion and
rushes around the house.
His eyes searched for Mireille, and he ran into her
in the hallway on the first floor.
In his haste, Ren tells her that Licia is not feeling
well and points out that the bed in the guest room is
not ready.

“Then we’ll have her sleep in our room,”

“No, I think my room would be better since Mom and
Dad’s room still smells a little of herbs. I would rest
in the guest room later when I’m ready.”
Fortunately, I also took into account that I had just
done some major cleaning today.
“Well, …… I understand.”

When it was decided that Ren will sleep in the

guest room instead, Weiss and the female knight
arrive.
The knight was holding Licia in her arms, with
sweat on her forehead.
Ren told Weiss about the situation and told him that
Licia could use his room.
“Thanks again. I owe you.”

“It’s all right. Please take care of the young lady

first.”
“You’ll need to change her clothes. Let me help
you.”
“…..Please don’t trouble yourself, Mireille-
dono…….”
“It’s all right. Now, since that’s decided, the men will
wait for us downstairs.”
Ren and Weiss looked at each other and watched
Mireille go into Ren’s room. They soon proceeded
down the creaking hallway, down the stairs, and into
the kitchen.
“I’m sorry,. It’s a mansion without a parlor.”

“Don’t say that. It’s a nice, warm house, isn’t it?”

First of all, he led Weiss to a chair, then brewed a

cup of tea, which was not a very good tea, and
offered it to Weiss.
“Thanks. …… and I should also tell you about the
lady’s condition.”

“That’s right However, I don’t understand why she

left Clausel even though she wasn’t feeling well.”
“Of course she wouldn’t. The young lady fell sick
about three days ago. —-“

According to Weiss, it is a disease that often affects

children who have a lot of magic in their bodies.
However, it is not always the case and is only a
probability.
It is said that once the disease is contracted, a
phenomenon similar to lifelong immunity remains,
and the same disease will never be contracted.
“Three days ago, we were in the vicinity of another
village that we were planning to visit, but I had to
rush to this village to attend to the health of the
young lady.”
“Is it Grandma Rigg, by any chance?”

“Yes. I thought it would be safer if Old Lady Rigg

were here.”
But,” Weiss continued.
“The disease is said to be an omen, but many people
are unaware of changes in their health condition since
there aren’t any signs. It was possible that the young
lady would contract the disease, but I never imagined
it would be during the course of an excursion.”
“……As expected, you can’t return to Clausel under
the present circumstances”
“The illness itself is not life-threatening, but the high
fever and headache can be aggravating, and can
compromise the immune system. Complications can
kill you, so she must rest for a while.”
The only good thing was that Ren’s village was
close by.
And there was a skilled pharmacist named
Grandma Rigg in the village.
“She will be better in two or three weeks. So I’m
sorry, but ……”
“It’s all right. Please take your time until the young
lady feels better.”
.
“……I’m grateful. Of course, please let me and the
other knights know if there is anything we can do to
help. Whether it’s hunting, carpentry, or whatever
else, we’re here to help.”
Frankly, I’d like to have help with both.
Weiss and the others would probably be more
concerned if I didn’t ask them to do anything, so I
decided to ask them to help without being rude.
There are an odd number of little boars these days,
so it would be just right.
(Speaking of which…)
When the conversation came to a close, Len
recalled a conversation from the other day.
“The other day, Viscount Givens’ knights were in this
village again.”
“Again?”

“He said he was going to help me get into the

Imperial Academy. He also said he was helping me
get into the special class.”
Weiss was surprised to hear that.
However, he immediately nodded and let out a
deep, deep sigh.
“It’s possible if It’s someone as good as you. If
Viscount Givens, who has experience as an assistant
to the Minister of Justice, is added to the mix, it can’t
be a false statement. I wish you the best of luck boy.”
“Huh?”

“Mm? What’s the matter?”

“It seems you think we’ve agreed to it, but the

Ashtons have refused.”
“What?—-Why!!?”

Weiss hit the table with a loud bang.

”How could you turn down a glorious future

when you were promised one?”
“We all love this village, and we’ve served the
Clausel family for a long time.”
That’s what Roy said and he thought so as well.
While there is a desire here to avoid Ren’s own
tragic future, the words he uttered are also true.
 Weiss was stunned to hear this thought, and sat
back in his chair with a sigh.
“I promise you.”

He looked at Ren with a mysterious expression on

his face.
“After this excursion, I will not bring the lady back
to this village.”
“—- what?”

“Besides her own wishes, I had hoped that the young

lady would receive good inspiration from the boy.
But it was all spoiled. She was spoiled by the
generosity of the Ashtons and spoiled by you boy.
…… I’ll make this the last time.”
These were convenient words for Ren, but he
wonders why so suddenly.
Ren, who continued to be perplexed, listened in
silence.
“We can’t cause you any more trouble. Even though
she is the daughter of a baron, the young lady will
understand if you give her the reason for this
incident. I will inform the master of the family.”
“Umm, what’s going on with you all of a sudden?”
“……We can’t just sit back and take it easy when
you’ve just shown us such loyalty.”
Apparently, Weiss does not like to flaunt his power
and respects the will of Ren and his family.
This may be the reason why he did not force Ren to
go with him to Clausel.
And this time, when he learned how the Ashtons
were behaving, he decided that it was time to stop
acting so spoiled.
But —-.
(…… seems a little sad, doesn’t it?)
I don’t dislike Licia’s personality, although I
wondered if I should think that myself.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t find enjoyment
when I was in contact with her.
…is that why?

When I think that this is the last time, I feel I would

regret it.
Weiss sent several knights to Clausel once Licia’s
condition was confirmed.
Of course, this was to inform them that their return
would be delayed.
 It was also three days later that Licia’s health began
to settle down.
However, her high fever and headache had not
subsided, and her body remained listless.
Still, she had recovered to the point where she was
able to speak a little and understand the situation she
was in.
“Miss. Ren-dono is here.”

“……Yes, tell him to come in.”

The time was past dusk.

Licia called Ren when she was feeling better and
waited for him to come so she could have a
conversation with him.
When the knight opened the door, Ren and Licia ,
who was lying on the bed, looked at each other.
(…… her cheeks are still bright red)
Licia was lying on the bed, and Ren noticed her
pale face and somewhat weak appearance.
“Ren-dono, As I’ve told you before , it’s not a disease
that can be passed on to others so rest assured”
“Yes. I’m fine.”

“I’ll be outside, so please call me if you need me.”

 The baroness, a saint, and the son of a knight who
serves the baron’s family were left one-on-one.
Ren had always thought that aristocrats were very
wary of the company between men and women.
He was puzzled by the meaning of being left alone
in the room, but considering their age, it was
probably more insolent to think something could
happen.
(I’m sure that’s the case.)
After convincing himself of this, Ren approached
the bed where Licia was.
“—-I’m sorry. “

When she saw Ren standing next to the bed, she

apologized at the outset.
She bows her head once, and when she raises it, her
eyes are slightly moist with tears.
She had a sad look on her face that conveyed her
regret, unworthiness, and apology.
Her appearance was different from before, and her
voice was gravelly and unreliable.
She was about to bow to Ren, but he hurried to stop
her.
“I don’t need an apology! So please stop bowing!”
 She didn’t stop even after he stopped her.
So Ren, feeling disrespectful, reached out with both
hands and placed them on her shoulders.
(……really hot…….)
At this point, he was surprised by Licia’s high body
temperature, but relieved that she had stopped and let
go of her hand.
“I —-“

‘I’m fine. My father and mother aren’t bothering

me.”
By the way, Ren had heard from Weiss that Licia
was growing apologetic.
She was strongly remorseful for having rented a bed
and fallen ill as soon as she arrived, even though she
had come to this village of her own free will.
I am sure she is feeling sorry for me now.
“You still look —- ill, but I’m relieved to see that you
seem to be getting a little better.”
Ren sat down in the round chair beside his bed,
saying a few words to change the subject.
(By the looks of things, I wonder if she called me
over just to apologize.)
If so, we have nothing more to talk about.
 But I felt it would be impolite to leave so soon after
arriving.
Ren, who had no intention of staying long with Licia,
who was still not in her best form, began to think of
just the right topic to talk about.
“I’m sorry about Viscount Givens, too. I know I have
caused you a lot of trouble.”
Licia opened her mouth and spoke again, this time
with an apology.
“…… I’m sure you’ve heard from Weiss already, but
this time it was also an outing for us to show our
intentions to Viscount Givens.”
(No, he didn’t.)
“So we were going to visit more villages than usual,
and we were also going to take a detour from this
village back to Clausel. We were going to let people
know that Clausel is united by having me, a ……
saint, tour the territory.”
This was about as far as the Clausel family, a
neutralist family with no close relatives, was able to
go.
The Clausel family, which is neutral and has no close
relatives, could only do so much.
 Even if it was a weak resistance, it was not really
a resistance at all.
“Even though it was supposed to be that …… really, I
hate …… feeling so pathetic.”
Licia hugged her knees, her shoulders shaking
slightly.
Her muffled voice began to be laced with sobs.
“I never even beat you ……. at this rate, I’m just a
little girl who caused trouble.”
‘A spar is just that, a spar. If we had fought seriously,
it might have been me who would have lost.”
“…… You’re comforting me, aren’t you? But now I’m
only ruining my late mother’s reputation.”
Ren learned for the first time the fact that Licia’s
mother had died.
At least that should have been after Ren was born.
(Then it would have been natural for her father to
visit Clausel, but she had no memory of him ever
leaving the mansion.)
I tried to recall my memories from when I was a
baby, but I still had no memory of Roy leaving this
village.
 Licia sees Ren’s profile, secretly thinking, and
realizes.
“When Clausel went into mourning, my father
informed the knight in charge of villages, like your
father, that they didn’t need to bother showing up.”
“……How did you know what I was thinking?”

“Somehow. You’re surprisingly easy to understand.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized in an embarrassed tone.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Licia continued.
“I heard that when my mother found out I was a saint,
she was so happy she jumped up and down. I’m told
she said on the day she died of her illness that I was
going to be an amazing person.”
Licia looked proud as she spoke of her mother.
‘I’ve only seen my mother’s face in portraits, and I
don’t know her voice. But every time I put on that
outfit and fought, I felt like my mother was cheering
me on.”
“Are you talking about the outfit you wore when we
sparred?”
“Yes. Mother was born into a family of knights who
worked at the imperial castle, so she often wore that
kind of clothing from a young age.”
It was a memento, so to speak.

For Licia, it was the perfect attire for a spar since

it helped her get motivated
“—- but it was all a bit empty.”

Ren felt that he understood the mind of Licia a little

better now.

She had been called a saint and had high

expectations of her, and in addition to her desire to
live up to those expectations, she also had strong
feelings for her late mother.
She therefore found great significance in
confronting the boy, Ren.
At the Clausel mansion, she was sometimes told
that she was not putting in effort by not training with
anyone other than Weiss, but this was the flip side of
her ambition and impatience at not being able to fight
with someone stronger than herself.
“But don’t worry. I won’t bother the Ashtons
anymore.”
“…………”
“I’ve talked to Weiss. I’m really, really sorry that I’ve
made things so hectic for you so many times. I will
apologize to your parents later.”
After all, this girl is noble.
Knowing the fact that her thirst for growth was not
for herself, but for her late mother and everyone who
expects it of her, Ren had to think so too.
However, it’s hard to watch Licia now.
She is pure, as pure as silver without a single
speck.
I think that’s why.
“—-The next time you’re here, please bring me a
magic tool to make fire. Of course, if you have any
surplus, that would be fine.”
Ren, who thought to himself, “What am I talking
about?”, did not want to see Licia’s grief any longer.
“What do you mean?”

Licia looked up.

Her eyes were red and swollen from crying.
“I thought it would be useful to have a magical tool
that could make fire in the earthen floor,”
“But… I’m saying….. Next time…..!”

“I meant the next time you’re here.”

“Look..! I’m saying I wouldn’t come because I don’t
want to be a nuisance!”
Naturally, Licia was puzzled.
“Besides, you’ve……been avoiding my presence,
haven’t …… you?”
(…… can’t deny that.)
“If that’s the case, it means I’m a nuisance.”

“I’ve had a lot of thoughts about it, but I want you to

think about it, ojou-sama”.
“…… what?”

“I think that any person would be perplexed if they

were asked to spar with someone who came out of
the blue…….”
That’s not the best reason, but it’s also what I really
think.
Licia did not expect to be scolded in this situation,
and she stiffened as she stared up at Ren.
Ren, on the other hand, looks at Licia and smiles.
It was a gentle, mature smile that unintentionally
made Licia feel like she could rely on him.
“Don’t you think so too, Miss?”

“…… think so.”

“I’m glad you agree. Next time, if you could contact
me in advance whenever possible, that would be fine.
Also, I’m never going to leave this village, so please
don’t forget that. I’ll be happy to accommodate you
as long as it’s within the village.”
After saying this, Ren got up from his round chair.
“I’ve talked a little too much. I’m afraid It will
worsen your condition so I’ll be leaving now”
“Wait, wait! What you just said, are you really…..?

“Yes, but let’s talk about this another time. I think it

would be better to talk about it slowly after you get
better.”
Ren started walking and headed for the door.
Licia almost reached for his back, but held back,
while feeling eager to do so.
Ren turned around in front of the door and was
about to leave.
Just before he did so, Licia remembered.
“I’m sorry but can I borrow a pen and ink
later……? I’d like to write a letter to my father.”
Apparently, she had paper and envelopes.
Ren started to go towards an old desk in a corner of
the room.
 But Licia told him, “Not today,” and he decided to
just tell her where he kept his pen and ink, just in
case.
“There’s an accessory box on the desk with my pens.
You can use it anytime you want.”
“…… Oh, thanks.”

“No problem. Then I’ll take my leave.”

With one last smile, Ren headed for the door,

turned to face Licia, and bowed.
Licia, who had been watching him helplessly, found
herself continuing to stare at the door after he was
gone.
“……Why was I staring at the door?”

The question escapes her mouth and she collapses

onto her bed.
Before she knew it, her head, which had been
tormented by a burning hot, splitting headache,
seemed to have calmed down a bit.
“Someone.”

She called for her personal guard knight, who was

probably outside the room.
She asked the knight to call Weiss, who soon
arrived.
“What can I do for you miss?”
“I have a favor to ask, Weiss. Actually—-.”

The task was to defeat the monsters.

When Licia and her group came to the village, they
had also seen an unusual outbreak of little boars in
the forest.
She hoped that if Weiss and the knights could help,
they would be able to thwart many of the outbreaks.
“I’m supposed to escort you 、、、, but 、、 are you
sure ?”
“You’re not needed right now right? Even if you’re
not there, I still go out, and even in Clausel I have
my own escort when I go out to town. It’s the same
thing.”
“That’s certainly true, but ……”

“There are plenty of other knights, so it doesn’t really

matter if you leave for a bit. I’m only sleeping
anyway, and I want you to go and work for the
Ashtons.”
Naturally, Licia wanted to do her part.
Never before had she felt so resentful about being
so sick and immobile. Weiss, who had caught that
thought, was struck by Licia’s growth.
“I will do my utmost to extend our gratitude to the
Ashton family.”
Finally, he readily agreed and decided to comply
with Licia’s request.
He then leaves Ren’s room with a look of
satisfaction on his face.

She remains alone in the silent room.

Licia, unable to fall asleep due to a slight feeling of
loneliness, sits up in bed.
She then turns her attention to Ren’s desk.
“I guess I’ll borrow the pen now……”

She would have preferred to sleep, but she was not

sleepy by any means.
So she thought she’d try to write a letter to avoid
being overwhelmed.
She tried to stand up, straining her body.
But she still felt unsteady on her feet.
But she was feeling better than she expected, so she
took out a piece of letter paper from her bag and got
to her feet.
She went to the desk Ren usually uses and looked
for the accessory box.
 However, there were two accessory boxes she
found.
One was in a corner of the desk, and the other was
on a shelf attached to the desk.

“I wonder which one it is …….”

Licia was not feeling well and could not make
normal judgments.
Normally, she would have easily guessed that the
one on the desk should be the one prepared for her,
but this time, in a daze, she reached for the small
container on the shelf.
Perhaps it was because the accessory box stood
out.
It was covered with melted paint, but it caught her
eye in a strange way.
When she picked it up, the paint which had been
dry, cracked with a sound.
It seemed to have spent the winter in storage and
had become brittle due to the difference in
temperature.
Licia found it in the open accessory box.
“…… this could it be?”
I’m sure it belongs to me, I thought I had lost it.
The first time she came to Ren’s village, somehow it
should have disappeared somewhere, but it was
stored in the house.
“……Hmmm, right.”

Licia is calmly tormented by many emotions.

Anger …… was strangely fleeting.
If anything, she was puzzled with sorting out the
indescribable shame, and was more concerned
about what to do with this thing she had found.
In addition, the fact that she had caused too much
trouble for Ren already, played a part in it.
When you think about it, as a woman and as a
young lady, she couldn’t discount it as just a piece of
underwear —-.
Naturally, she had her thoughts
The first thing that comes to mind is the need to
scold Ren.
After what she just said, she would never want to
take Ren to Clausel….. or threaten to take him to
Clausel because of this matter.
But it should be absolutely necessary to correct
such an action…… right.
 ’It’s not that I expect Ren to come to Clausel and
make amends on his own accord.’
Licia mocked herself for having such a devious
thought in a corner of her mind.
But she still had to tell Ren that bad things are bad.
Licia felt a twinge of shame when she thought of
the time she would have to point this out to him, but
she made up her mind.
“When I’m feeling a little better, I’ll have to have a
one-on-one talk with him.”
Licia takes only her things from the accessory box
and carries them to her bag and puts them inside.
She had already lost the desire to write the letter.
Chapter 11: The Strongest Onmyouji Master,
Getting Down
The dragon’s ride was not so bad compared to that of
the Ayakashi.
In the sky, the wind is indeed strong and it is cold
even though it’s summer.
But after all, it’s the same with Mizuchi, and you can
feel comfortable to some extent without charms.
As long as there is little shaking, that’s all that
matters.
“Well, and …”

I look at the city below with a formulaic vision.

I wonder where to land……. I guess I’d prefer to do
so outside the city walls, but it’s a long walk to the
Governor’s official residence.
Rather, it might be better to go directly to the official
residence.
There’s a big yard there, and it won’t frighten the
livestock or wagon horses.
“Can you get down inside the walls?”

“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

The dragon roars.

I don’t know if it’s yes or no, but …… probably yes.
I have a feeling that’s what it is.
“Okay, over there!”

The lighted hitogata, which had been acting as a

guide, is being lowered into the city.
The dragon neatly followed it down to altitude.
At that time.
The Shikigami that I left on the mountain captured an
unpleasant scene.
I frown.
Coming now … I think that’s what it is.
I can’t even say I’m going home now.
Well, it looks like we’ll have some time left, and it’s
enough to go to the official residence and then return
to the mountains.
I’m tired of babysitting the egg all by myself.
The dragon lowers its left wing and circles to the left,
descending into the city.
The vast official residence of the Governor gradually
approaches.
Just a few feet from the ground, the dragon spread its
wings wide and gripped the atmosphere.
The magic of atmospheric pressure is activated. The
huge body lands boldly in the garden of the
Governor’s official residence, violently scattering the
dense air that has been created.
I take a breath and look up.
I noticed.
“Ah……”
Right in front of us, on the second floor of the official
residence, was a large room with an open window.
Perhaps they were at work, but several well-dressed
people were looking at us with stunned expressions.
Documents and gold coins, which appeared to have
been on the desk, were scattered with a flourish by
the gust of wind caused by the dragon.
Wow, I’m sorry about that. ……
Hmm, is that a retinue of forest elf? That means
…… that Prince Cecilio is there, too, after all.
It was just right.
It’s a little rude, but time is short and we have no
choice.
“Excuse me for barging in, ladies and gentlemen!
I’m Seika! I’m back now!”
With the wind still blowing from the pressure
difference, I raise my voice.
“I’m in a hurry, so excuse me for being this way!
Well, to make a long story short, I’ve befriended
…… the dragon.”
Everyone was stunned and speechless.
I was a little anxious, but I told them what I wanted
to talk about anyway.
“I found out the cause of this problem! I’d like to
explain, and I apologize for the abruptness, but could
someone please come with me to the top of the
mountain? Preferably someone who can use fire
magic, it would be very helpful!”
Sure enough, there is no answer.
The prince, the forest elf, and the other humans are
all frozen at a great distance from the window.
…i’m in trouble.

Or perhaps it was indeed a bad idea to come straight

down with the dragon…….
I would like to get back soon, but I don’t know what
I came back for if I don’t at least get someone who
can help me: …….
“…… Ah.”

At that time.
One girl’s figure caught my eye.
What!, there you are.
Then she’s fine. She can handle flames as well. I
really wanted an Astilian person to come, but
everyone is scared and can’t help it.
“Ifa”

I reach out my hand toward the blonde girl.

Chapter 157: Unscheduled Visits
Tauro and Aeris hurriedly changed their clothes and
got ready. They were rushed by the messenger to the
carriage that took them to the nobles’ residential area,
where many nobles were gathered.
The two had already been to this area before when
they met with the nobles.
That’s why Tauro suddenly felt a sense of discomfort.
Count Ayanshi is a powerful noble in the Marquis of
Halagoura faction.
This area is home to a relatively large number of
middle and lower class nobles, but the higher class
nobles live in another area, in a mansion on a very
large plot of land.
Of course, there are some high ranking nobles who
also live here, but is Count Ayanshi unique among
that faction?
Well, they’ll know when they meet him.
Tauro was convinced of this and the horse-drawn
carriage took him to Count Ayanshi’s mansion.
The mansion he arrived at was quite large, but the
atmosphere was not quite what one would expect
from such a powerful man.
“Please come in, then.”

The messenger showed them the way to the mansion.

Tauro and the others were ushered inside.
The interior was simple.
Or rather, it was too simple.
When Tauro checked the flow of people in the house
with his “presence detection,” he couldn’t confirm
whether the inhibition skill was being used or not.
The escorting Kingsguard seemed to be the same and
shook his head when he saw Tauro.
There are many aristocrats who do not like to be
probed and keep people with inhibiting skills by their
side.
This may be the characteristic of a high-ranking
nobleman.
“The escorts will wait in this room.”

The messenger tried to lead the guards and Tauro to

another room.
“Oh, I will be with Miss Aeris, so please inform
Count Ayanshi.”
The messenger furrowed his brow in thought.
“Please wait a moment while I go confirm.”
He then went into the guest room alone.
After a while, the messenger returned.
“They are going to see you two, please come in.”

Tauro and Aeris entered the guest room as guided by

the messenger.
The door to the guest room was about to close.
Tauro felt a prickle of pain in his neck.
Ah, this pattern again.
Tauro looked back and saw a man standing in the
shadow of the door with a thin tube in his mouth.
Aeris was being held by the mouth and was being
choked.
Tauro’s body went slightly numb, but quickly
returned to normal.
This time it was not a poison, but a paralyzing one.
The weak effect was probably intended for Aeris.
Tauro’s “resistance to abnormalities” and the “Dark
Spirit’s Blessing (Weak),” which strengthens it,
drowned out the effect of the paralysis.
Tauro immediately drew his small sword and came at
him.
“Why won’t you fall down?”
The men were surprised at the boy.
First, Tauro slashed the arm of the man who was
pinning Aeris in a chokehold, then released her and
slashed at the man who had stuck the paralyzing
needle in him.
The man with the paralyzing needle was caught off
guard by the needle not working on Tauro, so he was
unable to respond to his movement and Tauro easily
stabbed him in the side with his small sword, causing
him to scream.
Tauro no longer looked at the man with the
paralyzing needle, but went to the man who he had
slashed first.
The man ran to the back door, holding his slashed
arm.
But Tauro’s agility was more outstanding.
In a flash, he closed the distance and thrust a small
sword into his thigh.
“It hurts!”

The man fell and crumpled to the ground in place,

clutching at the door.
Outside the noble room, the messenger man could be
heard pushing and shoving with the Kingsguard in
front of the door.
“Aeris, are you alright?”

“I’m okay. Tauro, are you alright with the needle in

your neck?”
Aeris looked at Tauro’s neck with concern.
“I’m fine.”

He replied, pulling out the needle and dumping it on

the spot to show it to her.
“It looks like the Marquise of Van Dyne sent them to
do this too…”
As he looked at the wounded men, Tauro understood
the discomfort he had been feeling.
The messenger was struggling with the guards in
front of the door, but when the door opened and
Tauro came out, he was surprised and perhaps
because of his surprise, he became unresisting and
was held back by the guards.
“It was a trap.”

Tauro reported to the Kingsguard, who entered the

room, seized the two wounded men and tied them up.
The injuries were quickly treated with potions from
Tauro and healing magic from the Kingsguard.
“I suppose this was supposed to work in conjunction
with my re-assassination.”
Tauro said to Aeris as they pushed the three criminals
into the carriage and took a breath.
“What? Tauro, were you targeted again?”

Tauro remembered something he had not yet

reported, and when he explained what had happened
with the assassin in the morning, Aeris had a mixed
expression, not knowing whether to be angry or
relieved.
A few days have passed since Tauro’s second
assassination attempt and Aeris’s kidnapping attempt.
The truth has come to light.
Among the men captured in the kidnapping attempt
were servants of the Van Dyne family who had been
hired for their inhibitory skills.
The servant’s testimony revealed that he had
deceived them in the name of Count Ayanshi.
The servant was also the one who gave the orders,
and his crew included the man who served as a
messenger, a man from the assassination guild who
used a paralyzing poison on Tauro, and a leader who
escaped and was never caught.
According to the statement of the man who served as
the instructor, there was also a carriage waiting at the
back of the mansion to carry away the kidnapped
Aeris, but they also escaped.
It seems that Tauro’s presence this time was a big
surprise to them.
The man in charge of giving instructions was only
supposed to use his inhibiting skills, but he ended up
taking on the role of strangling Aeris.
However, he blurted out that it was all a failure
because it was so unexpected.
The assassination guild man was apparently hired by
the Marquise de Van Dyne.
The fact that she hired this assassin from the
assassination guild proved that she was in touch with
the underworld.
After all, assassination guilds are the dark side of this
country.
Although it is called a guild, it is not recognized by
the government.
On the surface, this existence is “evil,” but whether
it is a “necessary evil” or an “absolute evil” may
 change the pursuit of the Marquise de Van Dyne,
depending on how it is handled.
Such information came to my knowledge through a
letter from Count Connoen, Commander of the Order
of the Kingsguard.
No matter how much she wanted to bring her own
daughter home, it was not a good reason to even use
the assassination guild to do it, so she wouldn’t be
immune from criticism if the world found out about
it.
As for Tauro’s assassination attempt, there’s no
evidence because it was against a commoner and the
perpetrator jumped to his death from the tower.
It would be difficult to pursue the case from that
direction.
Now it has created an atmosphere in which Aeris
needs a guardian to protect her properly.
The nobles would have no opposition to such an
incident that would leave evidence.
All that remained was to decide who would be the
guardian, which had been postponed.
After all, the person would be the guardian of the
daughter of the Marquise of Van Dyne, a famous
family and the guardian had to be a nobleman who
could silence the Marquise of Van Dyne….
Tauro reread the letter from Count Connoen and
sorted out all this information in his mind.
It was early afternoon.
Prince Flue informed him that he had time for a
meeting.
Normally, he would have given Tauro plenty of time
to prepare before the date, but this time it seemed to
be sudden.
So, he hurriedly prepared for the visit with Aeris.
After getting ready, they got into the carriage and
headed for the royal castle.
When they arrived at Prince Flue’s room, his first
words of concern were for Tauro.
“Tauro! I heard you were attacked twice by
assassins! Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“I’m fine, Your Highness Prince Flue. Oh, by the
way, a few days ago there was a commotion over the
kidnapping of Aeris.”
“Is that so? Aeris-san, are you all right too? Are you
hurt?”
“ Flue-sama, I was fine thanks to Tauro. Thank you
for your concern.”
Aeris bowed reverently.
“Don’t be like that, Aeris-san. You’re my friend too.
No one is watching us here, so make yourself
comfortable. Yes, I’ve called you guys here today
because of Aeris-san.”
“Is it…me?”

Aeris had no idea of what was going on, but since she
was called together with Tauro, she knew it must be
something related to Tauro.
However, she couldn’t imagine it being about her
personally.
“Yes. Aeris-san is looking for a guardian, isn’t she? It
was a topic of conversation in the royal family, so I
told them she was a friend of mine and my mother
said she would be her guardian. If the royal family
becomes her guardian, no one can complain!”
Prince Flue sniffs proudly.
Tauro did not expect this.
It’s a family affair of one noble family, he didn’t
expect the royal family to name a guardian.
Besides, Prince Flue’s mother is, of course, the wife
of His Majesty the King, the head of this country.
She’s the most favored person in the world right now
and if she were to become Aeris’s guardian, there
would be no one better.
As a nobleman in the service of the royal family,
their interests are clear, so she won’t be taken
advantage of or be vulnerable like with other nobles.
She just has to serve more than ever.
Aeris’s late father, the Marquis of Van Dyne, was
also a loyal retainer, so it was simply a matter of
following in her parent’s footsteps.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Aeris could barely respond to the offer, which she

had not expected.
“Of course. It would also be a way for the royal
family to repay the Marquis de Van Dyne for his
loyalty. This will put an end to the family feud.”
Prince Flue clapped Tauro and Aeris on the shoulder,
happy to have been able to help his friend.

Vol 6: Chapter 6 (2)

(This convocation was arranged quite quickly.)
I looked back on the past a little.
After the meeting with Cardinal Thomason, he contacted the Pope shortly
after.
Although the number is small, the church has a magic tool for long-distance
communication. And it is possible to project the faces and voices of both
parties, even though the fuel consumption is so bad that it is equivalent to
metling one gold coin per second.
The Cardinal decided to hold a world conference after discussing with the
Pope.
It is said that an agreement has been signed so that a conference can be held
if the Church proposes the conference for an emergency.
I didn’t know if every country would respond to it, but it was good that
King Geffert, who owns Valhalla, the capital of the largest nation, the Keith
Gran Federation, responded to the convocation.
Every country announced its participation one after another, except for a
few small countries.
——Why did King Geffert agree?
I wondered.
——Probably because they couldn’t obtain any more skill orbs at the Sixth
Mine.
The Cardinal said nonchalantly.
The Cardinal’s convocation notice contained the subject of not only a
decrease in the appearance rate of skill orbs, but also a hint that “the
problem can be solved”.
As a result, many representatives have gathered.
Librarian, Gnome, Beast King Race, Dwarf – these 4 races attended as
representatives of the Pledgers of the Covenant. Duke Grenjido of Kruvan
Holy Kingdom attended as the representative of the Holy Blue Human. And
Yuri-san, Asha’s older sister, attended as the representative of High Elves
from Sylvis Kingdom.
The only unknown person was the representative of the “Continental
Human”, but I had already discovered that person.
(That person… which country is he from?)

He looked like a normal human and was seated as a representative of one of

the 16 countries.
His long chestnut-colored hair was tied behind. He seemed to be in his early
30’s. His intelligent eyes blinked attentively to the explanation.
In other words, some of the “Pledgers” themselves attended as
representatives.
(As expected, Asha really isn’t here.)
Although Asha is of the royal family, she is no longer considered as part of
it. In spite of that, Asha headed to the Sylvis Kingdom, and I think that
Yuri-san is here today because of her efforts.
『——Such is the sequence of events. This matter has been carefully
considered by the Church for thousands of years, and accepts it to be
extremely credible.』
When the explanation was over, the hall fell silent.
The representatives of each country, who were expected to be hard to deal
with, seemed to be digesting the facts of “the danger of world collapse,”
“the resulting depletion of skill orbs,” and “the solution is to unify the two
worlds”.
『——May I?』
The representative of “Continental Human” raised his hand slightly.
There was a loudspeaker magic tool on the table. If you place your hand on
it, even a whisper will reach every corner of the conference hall.
『I am Holiday, the representative of the Windle Republic of Keith Gran
Federation. Can we take this convocation as a discussion about the
agreement to unite the “two worlds” and how to handle the visitors from the
“other world” that will appear?』
『That is correct.』
Cardinal Thomason replied as the representative of the Church.

『So, before we start the discussion, is it not the “Child of Disaster”

standing behind Your Eminence?』
The moment Holiday uttered those words, the whole conference hall
erupted noisily.
The nobles who were aware started to say “As expected!” or “Terrifying!”,
whereas those who weren’t started to say “Why is he behind His Eminence”
and “His Eminence is in danger”.
「…………」
In response, Cardinal Thomason raised his hand slightly.
『Please remain quiet. Cardinal, please go ahead.』
The Cardinal then started to speak with his usual strict face.
『The story that black hair and black eyes cause disasters has been passed
down since ancient times. However, it is a superstition, and the many years
of research by the Church have shown that it has no causal link to
calamities. This is clearly stated in the scriptures that are directed to the
churches of each country.』
Is that so?
Does the Church know that there is no such thing as the “Child of
Disaster”?
Actually, Cardinal Thomason asked me to return to my original hair color,
to which I refused in the beginning because it unnecessarily provokes
people.

But the Cardinal insisted and said that the Pope also knows–and I, too, was
sick of using hair dyes to disguise myself, so I decided to accept it and re-
dyed my black hair.
『I have never seen such a scripture.』
Holiday said.
『There seems to be a problem in Windle’s church. Here is a copy of it.』
As if having anticipated such a situation to arise, the Cardinal showed the
copy prepared beforehand to the representatives.
Representative Holiday representative nodded after reading it, and said:
『Nevertheless, Your Eminence, even in the Keith Gran Federation there is
a record that a black-haired, black-eyed person appeared 500 years ago and
burned a country with power beyond human limits.』
Some of the other representatives nodded in response.
『…That is dependent on that individual’s power. For example, if my heart
is gripped by evil, and I used the power of the Church to bring misfortune
to the people, would you then say, “The Pope is a disaster”?』
『I see. Her Holiness the Pope will guarantee the identity of the black-
haired, black-eyed boy over there.』
『Yes.』
The noise that erupted at this time was louder than ever.
The noise did not subside immediately, and Cardinal Thomason had to ring
the bell many times to finally get the hall to quiet down.

(Eh? What? What does that mean?)

I, personally, did not really understand the significance of that statement.
Guarantee my identity?……Is it the same as that of the Lev Magic Empire?
…No, it seems to be different.
There is also a Lev representative here, but he was looking around
helplessly.
I wish Abba, the deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau, had come.
But what I know is that the Cardinal insisted that I return to my black hair
in anticipation of this scenario.
At that moment, Her Holiness the Pope, the girl who was the lord of this
castle, raised her hand.
『Everyone, there will be a statement from Her Holiness.』
After a moment of gasps, the hall calmed down.
Her Holiness gently placed her slender white fingers on the magic tool.
『Reiji, the hero of the “Redgate Campaign”, is hereby guaranteed and
protected by the Church. Therefore, I urge every country to eliminate the
unprovoked prejudice towards black hair and black eyes.』

Her Holiness stated in full clear voice.

『Ah……』
I see now.
I finally understand.
The Church intends to completely dispel the deep-rooted prejudice against
the “Child of Disaster” at this occasion. By backing me up.
Cardinal Thomasson turned half his body towards me, and gave a wink that
didn’t suit his strict face at all.
I stopped myself from bowing on the spot.
——This child, who wished to save the lives of strangers, and not just his
friends… is a child who carries a kind soul, unlike the previous “Child of
Disaster”. So it is alright. You do not have to carry this burden on your
back.
It reminded me of the Sage, who said so and stroked my head.
I am glad I continued to move forward.
I am really happy that I continued to walk on the path I believed to be right.
Thanks in due part to the people around me.
I hope that the next black-haired, black-eyed child to be born – whether
they may be a reincarnated person or not – will not suffer from prejudice or
be persecuted.
A Hero of the Past And A Revolutionary Begin to Move
★ Valhalla, the capital of the Keith Gran Federation ★

The man in front of the two stern men was even more stern.
Looking back on his life as an adventurer, Dante has seen many large men.
The same is true for Joseph, who was next to Dante. His bald head was
shiny today as well.
However–
(Gurgio… As one would expect of an adventurer who climbed to the
Mithril-rank as a shield-bearer.)
The man was so tall that even Dante had to look up at him. And the
thickness of his body was far from human.
His hair, which used to look like a bossy mane when he was an active
adventurer, is now cleanly trimmed. The numerous scars on his face, and
the glove on his left-hand prosthesis signified his experience as a veteran.
It was strange that he was wearing noble clothes instead of armor.
「——Good grief. It’s just one thing after another.」
Gurgio had Joseph and Dante sit on the sofa in the reception room.
This is an Adventurer’s guild in Valhalla. It was the guild master’s
reception room.
Dante, an active gold-rank adventurer, and Joseph, a former gold-rank
adventurer who has retired and now serving as a guild trainer, are both quite
famous in a number of places. However, their fame is completely
overshadowed by Gurgio’s.
Gurgio should be 20 years older than the two, but the presence he exudes is
as if he is still fighting on the front lines.
「Let’s take a look at the report.」
Gurgio quickly looked over the paper presented by Joseph.
Although Joseph came here as a messenger of the Achenbach Dukedom’s
Adventurer’s Guild, he had to wait a whole 10 days to meet with Gurgio.
Gurgio was extremely busy.
He did not force Joseph to wait just to show off his position. As evidence,
Gurgio was polite to both Joseph and Dante.
「I think the depletion of the Sixth Mine is a very important issue.」Joseph
said.
「That’s right. But this isn’t a matter that can be handled by adventurers.
The Duke’s army and the King’s knights should make the move.」Gurgio
said.
「…………」
「You have a look which seems to say that that much force isn’t enough. I
have never actually seen a dragon with my own two eyes. Is it really so
threatening?」
If it was the dragon which attacked the city in Achenbach Dukedom, it may
be possible for this superhuman guild master to subjugate it on his own.
Although there is a difference between active and retired adventurers, the
magic of the half-elf Crysta-la-Crysta, who was the same Mithril-rank, was
tremendous.
However, it is said that the size of the dragon in the depths of the Sixth
Mine is several times larger than that which attacked the city in the past.

「To be frank, I don’t think you can beat it unless with a gathering of
elites.」Joseph straightened his back and replied.
「Leaving aside the Duke’s army, King Geffert’s unit is no pushover. There
are four-star knights within their ranks.」Gurgio said.
「But quality is more important than numbers when fighting a dragon.」
「Yeah, they might be wiped out. And if they’re wiped out.. then it’s finally
my turn.」
Joseph’s spine froze when he saw Gurgio’s ferocious smile.
At this moment, he fully realized the difference between him and Gurgio.
The difference in power was so vast.
How long can Dante and Joseph last if they were to fight against Gurgio
here and now?
A few minutes? Or perhaps — only a few seconds?
(I thought I was quite strong myself, but I still have a long way to go…)
Dante thought to himself.
The higher your skill, the more keenly you can sense the difference with a
true master.
It is the same for adventurers. The higher your ability, the more clearly you
can sense the difference with the adventurers ranked above you.
「…Is what I’d like to say, but I have to be on standby.」
「Wha? W-Why !?」
Joseph exclaimed at Gurgio’s response that seemed anticlimactic.
「That’s why I have been busy lately. Apparently there was a notice from
the Church. To be prepared for the upcoming turmoil. From His Majesty’s
point of view, the Sixth Mine is a temporary problem – in the first place, the
mine has been inaccessible lately – and the Church’s prediction takes
precedence.」
「…………」
「Hmm, looking at your faces, you seem to know what is going on?」

「Yes, I heard from Dante over here. I think his companion reported to the
Church.」
「I see. If that’s the case, this should make it easier to understand. Bring all
your friends to Valhalla. We should have as much force as possible.」
「But why? You are here after all, Gurgio-sama.」
Dante spoke, for the first time.
「Yes. Usually, I can protect it alone.」Gurgio responded.
「…Then we’ll go to another city’s defence.」Dante said.
Gurgio shook his head in response.
「If things are really dangerous as they sound, it’s out of the question to
disperse our forces.」
Dante was surprised. Gurgio had already grasped the “fusion of the two
worlds” crisis.
「What about the guild? How will the adventurers move?」Dante asked.
「The guild can’t do anything.」
「Nothing!? Why? You already seem to understand the impending
danger.」
「Am I supposed to order them to stay in the city because something might
happen in the future? Freedom is the creed of adventurers. They’re not the
type to sit around quietly if there’s no money to be made.」
「Can’t you procure a budget?」Joseph said from the side.
「Of course we can’t, moron. Even the Sixth Mine is in a dire state.」
「Well, so why doesn’t the headquarters–」
「The guild doesn’t have enough money. So I asked the nobles here and
there, but it’s no good.」

Dante and Joseph finally learned why Gurgio was busy.

He was asking the nobles to contribute funds.
To protect the city using adventurers.
「This whole thing stinks of danger. More than any monster I’ve ever
faced.」
Gurgio, who sensed the impending crisis with a supernatural “premonition”,
and the nobles, who live in a cozy environment, have a completely different
way of responding to the crisis.
(Does that mean the Adventurer’s Guild is not going to take any measures?)
Actually, Dante had already expected this outcome before he brought this
matter to the Adventurer’s Guild.
It is difficult to bind an adventurer.
Unless you have money to make a “request” or there is a huge dragon
attacking, it is difficult to gather adventurers.
「…Gurgio-sama. I have a suggestion.」
「Hmm?」
Gurgio turned his gaze towards Dante, who raised his hand modestly.
「We can somewhat work out a certain schedule for the fusion of the world.
The problem is the invasion of monsters that will occur after that.」
「Yeah, so? It may only be a few days at most, but do you know how much
it will cost to retain all the adventurers for a few days in the Adventurers
Guild?」Gurgio said.
「Hmm, unfortunately I don’t know, but there is someone who has
calculated the approximate numbers.」
Dante recalled a brilliant boy who is also a member of his party.
When Dante stated the approximated number to Gurgio — genuine surprise
showed on his face for the first time.
「Hou… it’s not so off from the numbers I had my staff calculate for three
days and three nights. How did you calculate it?」

「Hahaha. I asked the same question, but I just couldn’t understand it.」
Dante said.
The calculation done by Reiji is the so-called “Fermi estimation”.
For those who do not know the real numbers or the actual situation, you can
guess based on some clues. On the contrary, the adventurer guild took a
long time because they had to calculate the actual numbers only after
collecting the information on the number of guilds, the number of
adventurers, and their ranks.
On the other hand, Reiji only needed to grasp the rough numbers, so it did
not take him long to calculate.
On a side note, the amount of money that was calculated was comparable to
the budget to run a small country for half a year. Reiji had already discussed
these before parting ways with Dante.
「In any case, the person who made the calculation says, “There are many
ways to retain adventurers”.」Dante said.
「That sounds like an exaggeration.」Gurgio said.
「No. Because we have spent too much time as adventurers, we are bound
by the idea that it would be difficult to retain “free” adventurers, but we can
guarantee their help with money through “request”.」
「Hmm… we, who should be “free”, are “bound” by an idea, huh. I
suppose you can look at it that way.」Gurgio said, while touching his chin.
Dante was impressed by Gurgio, who can still recognize his mistakes and
shortcomings even at his position and age. Due to that, Dante thought that
Gurgio would be able to do it. To retain the adventurers and fight an
unknown disaster. Dante saw “hope”.
「Then, let’s hear it. What kind of proposal is the “many ways” suggested
by that person?」Gurgio asked.
「Yes. Actually–」
Dante then told Gurgio about the many ways that Reiji had proposed.
Their discussions continued until late at night—Gurgio decided to cancel all
remaining appointments on that day.
It was only a few days after that that the Adventurer’s Guild started to make
big moves centered around Gurgio.
**
A bell rang.
The meeting was temporarily paused. I felt my stiff body loosen up a bit.
The Pope and the Cardinal had to consult with each other, so I was released
from my escort duty. I walked alone through the corridor of the castle
towards the waiting room.

「Reiji-kun!」
The first thing I noticed was Mimino-san, and next to her was Non-san.
Both of them were headed toward me in the corridor.
「What’s wrong, you two?」I asked.
「We were worried since you had returned to your black hair. So we
wanted to check up on you during this break time…」Mimino-san said.
I was happy that they were worried for me, but I also felt kind of uneasy.
I talked about what happened earlier. When Non-san heard that Her
Holiness the Pope would guarantee my identity, she gasped deeply. …Is it
truly that significant?
「——Oh, there you are. Reiji-kun.」
A voice called from behind. As I turned around, a smiling face came into
view.
「R-Representative Holiday!?」
It was Representative Holiday, who pointed me out earlier as the “Child of
Disaster”.
Mimino-san and Non-san both slid in front of me.
「Oh, you don’t have to be so on guard. I just want to talk to you.」he said.
「…Talk?」
「First of all, let’s reduce that hostility, okay? I am not going to harm you.
The proof of that is that I am standing alone in front of you.」
It was true that representative Holiday was standing in front of us alone.
「But there are a total of 12 people hiding in the back of the corridor and
outside the windows, though?」
Holiday was startled when I pointed that out.
The Principle of a Philosopher by
Eternal Fool “Asley” – Chapter
307, It Ends Tonight
“So… you’re suggesting that I find myself a Familiar?”
“Yes, my Lord. If you have one yourself, the people’s opinions may be
more easily influenced — in regards to the other day’s topic.”

And if I never mention it to him, he may end up not making a contract with
Tzar. Smooth sailing so far… I guess.

“Influence the people’s opinions, you say… And in addition to that, the
upper classes’ opinion toward me as well. Interesting.”
“Very well, then. We’ll be going over the Familiar Contract’s formula
today.”

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“My Lord, we’ll finally be testing out your Boundary magecrafts today.”
“Ooh, I’ve been looking forward to that.”
“Let’s try targeting Pocchie Mask over there– Huh? She’s gone– OUCH!?”
“Why’d you have to always target ME, sir!?”
“Why not!? It’s not like there’s gonna be any less of you!”
“But I’ll totally have fewer brain cells by the time you’re done with your
nonsense! Lord Sagan! Let’s target Leole Mask instead!”
“Hahaha! That’s an interesting idea.”
He sure is having fun, isn’t he?
Does he even know what will happen when his Boundary magecraft is used
on someone else?

“What’s up with your face, sir?”

“What’s up with YOUR eyes?”
“You’re not thinking that I’m the only magecraft practice target around
here, are you?”
“So you think you know everything, huh?”
“What, you think I don’t know what you’re thinking, Master!?”
“Why the hell are you even asking those questions, anyway!?”
“Because I gotta KNOW! I can’t tell what you’ll do if I don’t ask!”
“What do you mean, what I’ll do!?”
“What do you mean, you don’t know!?”
“Hexa Boundary.”
“”Whuh–?””

Suddenly, Pochi and I found ourselves inside a pale blue boundary.

“Your arguments sounded like utter nonsense, but… at least you two make
for quite a comedic duo.”
“AHH! WE’RE TRAPPED, SIR!”

There she goes again, acting all dramatic…

Well, I’m more interested in what’s happening now.
Sagan has exhibited an extraordinary aptitude for the arcane arts. One could
say that he’s got it in his instincts… no, his SOUL, even.

“How was that? Did I surprise you?”

“Amazing, my Lord! You succeeded on your first try! Isn’t that awesome,
Master!?”

Looks like Pochi doesn’t know why I’m surprised, and what Sagan was
actually talking about.

“…Master?”
“…Yes, my Lord, this is amazing. Even I can’t do something like this.”
“I know, I know! Fwahahaha!”
“Huh? Wait… aren’t you able to cast it up to the Deca level, Master?”

Heh, she still doesn’t get it.

To be sure that this was actually happening, I tried touching the surface of
the Boundary.
…Yup, this definitely is working.

“Master?”

Pochi tilted her head, seeming somewhat disturbed.

“Think about it, Pocchie Mask. Have we ever seen a mage who could trap
multiple targets within one Boundary magecraft before?”
“……AH!?”

Looks like she’s finally realized it.

“You’re right, sir! WE are trapped! Together!”

“Yeah. I can’t do this yet…”
“Wait, you CAN’T!?”
Man, why do you always gotta overreact, Pochi?

“Hehehe… Seeing that you two were getting along SO WELL, I figured I’d
lock both of you together.”
“What kind of formula did you add into it, my Lord!?”
“You have the wrong idea, Pocchie Mask — this isn’t about formulas.”
“Indeed. I did not even tamper with the magecraft formulas that I had been
taught.”

Sagan grinned, his face full of confidence.

Man, teaching him totally was worth it.
It seems that Sagan has quite an excellent understanding of how space
works. The distance between him and the target, the target’s height and
weight, and arcane energy amount — get all those variables right for both
targets, those being Pochi and me in this case, and he’ll be able to figure out
where and how to place the Boundary magecraft.
I subconsciously took off my sunglasses as I checked out the Boundary’s
surface, and seeing my face, Sagan smiled.

“You have a nice pair of eyes, Leole Mask.”

“Whoops…”

I scrambled to put my sunglasses back on.

“Full of ambition and thirst for knowledge. I’d have you as a subordinate if
I could…”
“Ahahaha…”
“Worry not — I’ll teach you the trick to it later. As the saying goes… a
good teacher promotes the growth of his students, and good students
promote the growth of their teacher! Hahaha!”

Pochi whispered to me,

“With how fast he’s going, he might turn into YOUR teacher soon,
Master.”
“…Yah, and you’ll be subject to more testing– Ouch!?”
“How about YOU be the target next time, huh!?”

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Another half-month later…

We’ve spent a full month’s worth of nighttime training with Sagan, bringing
out as much of his potential as I could — and I myself haven’t been
messing around, of course.
During the daytime, I not only hunted monsters, but also studied more
magic and magecraft.
And tonight, in what seemed to be a sudden turn of events, Sagan appeared
before us with quite a serious look in his eyes.

“Leole Mask, Pocchie Mask… it ends tonight.”

Sagan’s tense voice prompted Pochi and me to look at each other.

I never expected Sagan himself to decide the end of his training, having
always thought that God would be the one to tell us to stop.
What’s up with this… heavy ambiance, though? It doesn’t feel quite like the
‘training’ mood to me.

“In a few moments, I will depart to exterminate a monster that has been
terrorizing Regalia. Come with me — and observe.”
“…Yes, my Lord.”

Ah, so THAT is what he meant by ‘ends tonight’.

Considering Sagan’s tone, the monster he’ll be up against must be
extremely powerful.
Oh yeah, now I remember… Back when I overheard some ladies talking
about Sagan in town, they did mention a terrifying monster recently
appearing in the lake area…
This is probably the monster in question.
But then again… this place probably isn’t its natural habitat. After all, I’ve
been coming to this dried-up Regalia Lake every night, but have never
sensed anything particularly powerful around here.
And if there were any, I probably would have been targeted by now,
considering that I’d lost most of my arcane energy cap…

“If anything comes up, I’ll take care of it for you, my Lord! Eh-hem!”

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that she’s a Heavenly Beast.

With how much arcane energy she has, none of this era’s monsters would
want to get close to her. Hahaha…

“No, Pocchie Mask. Your offer is much appreciated, but I can hunt the
monster by myself.”

Hearing Sagan say that, Pochi took a glance at me.

This might be a good chance to see Sagan’s current power level in action.
I shot Pochi a look, suggesting to let Sagan do whatever he wants. In
response, Pochi nodded.
…We’ll still be helping him when and if things actually get dangerous, of
course.
“Well then, let’s get going, my Lord!”

With Pochi’s shout, we started walking west.

The ruler of the whole War Demon Nation walking down such a dangerous
path in the dead of the night… now this is someone no one would expect.
He’s a big guy, in more ways than one… Wait. Now that I think about it,
what does Vaas, the War Demon Emperor of my era, even look like?

After walking for about an hour, Pochi and I sensed a fluctuation of arcane
energy.
With every step we took, the fluctuation got more and more intense. It’s
trying to intimidate us.
Yup… this monster does look quite powerful.

“Lord Sagan, can you not simply tell us what today’s target is? It doesn’t
feel right, being left in the dark like this…”
“Don’t give me that look. You’ll know soon enough…”

From the look on his face, one would think that Sagan is perfectly calm…
but his voice suggests otherwise.
I’ve been beating Sagan into shape over the past month, so no one would be
able to tell, but he’s actually as strong as an S-Ranked adventurer — which
is pretty damn impressive for this era, but worrying for me personally…
because I did just come from a time when even the average guys were
ridiculously powerful by today’s standards.
Considering how tense Sagan is, this monster should be something out of
the ordinary.
It must be S-Ranked… or maybe even–
“…There it is.”

Sagan said, his voice shivering.

Is he scared, or actually excited?
Sagan probably doesn’t even know that himself.
Pochi, walking next to Sagan, gradually became more alert, and eventually
caught sight of the enemy in the distance.
It’s human… no, it just looks like one.
The figure, standing alone in the middle of the barren wasteland, looks just
like a person… But detect its ominous arcane energy aura for even a split-
second, and any adventurer would feel death approaching.
The monster stays immobile, clad in layers upon layers of tattered rags.
Its eyes are glowing orange and emanating an overwhelming degree of
bloodlust.
And its body is swaying around constantly — a characteristic of the undead.

“That’s the…”
“…Yes, the King of the Dead. An enemy of Regalia.”

That’s it. An SS-Ranked monster, the Living Dead King.