Chapter 44
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Monster Parade (5)
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Inside what appeared to be a ruined mansion.
A man covered in purple runes all over his body stared blankly at the ceiling before speaking.
"......The connection has been severed."
This man was the leader of the cultists worshiping the Evil God of Greed, the one who called himself an Apostle.
The man had taken note of one particular follower.
A devotee who had commanded large numbers of monsters for over ten years.
A man who had boasted that he would unleash a Monster Parade with them and offer up masses of sacrifices to their god.
The plan itself wasn't bad, so he'd lent the power of the Evil God to establish the link.
The sooner the sacrifices were offered, the better, so once the signal came and contact was made, he planned to move out with his followers and perform the ritual right away.
A few days after receiving word that preparations were complete, the connection had snapped like this.
That could only mean the devotee leading the plan had lost his life.
"Who the hell did this?"
He'd even seen the monsters the man had bragged about before.
It wasn't a plan that should have failed easily.
Whatever it was, any organization or person capable of taking down that level of force was likely to become an obstacle later on.
'I need to investigate.'
Everything had to proceed smoothly to achieve what their god desired.
The cultists serving the Evil God of Greed began to move.
After taking down the cultist who orchestrated the Monster Parade, I'd gained a new perk along with boosts to my physical abilities and mana.
So, before the others arrived, I checked myself over lightly, and the results showed my strength could now output about twice as much at maximum.
And that was without any change in my usual muscle mass.
As for mana, my maximum capacity had increased by about 1.5 times, but the real surprise was the recovery speed.
Compared to the increase in total mana, the recovery amount had grown even more, nearly doubling the previous rate.
'At this rate, I could spam mid-tier spells over 20 times in a row without issue.'
I was thrilled with the new perk, Unyielding Spirit, but the fundamental stat boosts were a huge gain too.
By the time I finished checking, my siblings—who had finished bathing—came rushing over to me.
"Big bro! Big bro! Big bro!"
"Where's that cultist?"
"Did the priest already take him away?"
"Yeah, the priest carted him off before you guys got here. Even just the body might give the experts some clues."
"Oh, got it!"
"Today was so much fun!"
"We hunted monsters and saved people!"
"Right? Feels good saving the people as royals, doesn't it?"
I ruffled their heads, and they beamed innocently.
"Yeah!"
"But I'm hungry!"
"Let's eat, bro!"
"We'll eat once everyone's back. We all worked hard together."
"Got it!"
Once the rest returned, we held a grand feast in the mansion.
Since everyone had headed out to stop the Monster Parade, I'd asked the head chef in advance to prepare hearty, energy-restoring meals for our return.
And so we celebrated blocking the Monster Parade together with a party.
"Mikel! E-eat up! You did amazing today!"
-Kuruuuk!
Amelin fed Mikel the premium meat she'd prepared for him, beaming with joy.
"Sir Hulan's skills are as sharp as ever."
"Captain Gillek's secret techniques are still as fierce as ever."
Gillek and Hulan praised each other's prowess.
The other knights were enjoying the festive mood in much the same way.
"At that moment, our lord showed no openings, unleashing magic to sweep away the swarming monsters in one go! Then, with movements like a gale, he swung his sword..."
"Grr! Yeah! What happened next, Tenka?!"
Tenka was excitedly recounting my feats from right beside me to Kirigumo and the other servants.
"Hey, Ridel! When are you gonna get closer to big bro?"
"Doesn't big bro seem kinda different lately?"
"What do you think? What do you think?!"
My siblings suddenly bombarded Ridel with questions.
"Even if Master Aren has changed from his usual self, our bond grows closer every single day."
Ridel handled it smoothly and deflected.
That evening.
Before drifting off to sleep, I thought to myself.
'Getting stronger is great, but rooting out the Evil God Cult in advance sounds pretty good too.'
In Savior of the World, if you traced evil to its source, it always led back to the Evil Gods.
And the cultists worshiping those Evil Gods had been stirring up all sorts of incidents and playing with people's lives even before the event where my brother, the 13th Prince Laguna, would die.
Kirigumo and Tenka were prime examples, and this Monster Parade incident was no different.
The ones serving the Evil God of Jealousy had ruined Kirigumo and his daughter's lives out of inferiority, while the guy who seemed to be from the Evil God of Greed cult had even unleashed a Monster Parade.
'If things had gone as original, countless villages would have just seen it as a disaster and vanished.'
If I hadn't had my perks, I probably wouldn't have known and just sat idle.
Even with my siblings visiting, I rarely left the mansion anyway.
'I've got some real power now. So if I proactively hunt down traces of the Evil God Cult and take them out first...'
More people could be saved, earning me more salvation rewards and making me stronger.
Above all, it raised the chances of preventing the Evil Gods' involvement in Laguna's death.
'I need to gather more intel on the Evil God Cult.'
I also figured I should check if there was anyone I could save right now.
And the next day.
I gave Kirigumo a mission.
"Kirigumo, I need you to gather some information."
"Tell me what kind, Your Highness! This Kirigumo Kazuki will pull out all the stops to find it!"
"I need info on the Evil God Cult. Places where they've shown up recently, or anywhere suspicious."
The moment he heard that, Kirigumo started trembling.
"This Kirigumo Kazuki... tears of emotion are blurring my vision!"
He was genuinely crying.
"The mastermind behind yesterday's Monster Parade! You've been stirred to action by the Evil God Cult's atrocities, haven't you, Your Highness?!"
"That's a big part of it. If we hadn't stepped in... that village would definitely have been wiped out. And other villages could have suffered the same. So I want to do whatever I can to prevent it from happening again."
"Understood! Then I'll head out to investigate right now!"
"I'll handle contacting the temple, so you check through the guild."
"As you command! Tenka!"
"Yes, Father!"
"This father must leave the mansion briefly on His Highness's orders to gather information! I entrust His Highness to you in my stead!"
"Understood! Your daughter will serve our lord in your place as well!"
"I trust you, my daughter!"
With that exchange done, Kirigumo left the mansion to collect intel.
My siblings, who had been poking at Honeyfluff, asked.
"Bro, you're going after the Evil God Cult guys?"
"Won't they get annoyed and come bother us if we poke around?"
"What if our other siblings notice?"
"Could happen. But... we can't just sit back and watch, right?"
Taking down the Evil God Cult would save people along the way and make me stronger.
That might make my other siblings wary over the throne, but... whatever, I could just keep proving through actions that I had no interest and wouldn't get involved.
'Father doesn't want the throne either, so he's not the type to force me into the succession fight.'
"Seriously, bro, you're too nice for your own good."
"But with how strong bro is now, I'm not worried."
"Yeah, yeah! Oh, bro! Our spirits have something to say!"
"The spirits have something to tell me?"
"Come out!"
My siblings summoned their high spirits.
"[It's finally time.]"
"[Thank you for fulfilling our request, Contractor.]"
"[As expected, you're the only one we can rely on!]"
What request had them thanking my siblings the instant they were summoned?
"[Aren Eldiad.]"
"[With us.]"
"[Won't you form a second contract?]"
"A second contract?"
Raki explained as I looked puzzled.
"You saw it, bro—me summoning other spirits too. It's the same thing!"
Raki did summon multiple combat spirits besides his first one, Zenoss.
"But why with me?"
"They say you've got serious spirit mage talent now!"
"And since you're our bro, they want you to call them if you need help!"
"They say this chance won't come again!"
"But what if I summon them and you can't when you want to?"
"Oh, you don't know about that, bro."
"Second contracts just split off a portion of the spirit's power as an avatar—it's not the main body!"
"That's why it costs more mana than a first contract!"
"There are tons of spirit mages who'd kill for that!"
"I see."
I knew full well the power of my siblings' high spirits from facing them in the game.
They had some seriously annoying patterns as enemies.
If those spirits became my allies, of course I'd welcome it.
"Honeyfluff, looks like you've got some new friends?"
[Honey? Honey!]
Honeyfluff seemed happy about the new companions too.
"Alright, how does a second contract work? Same as the first?"
"Yep! Just touch the spirit and channel your mana!"
"While we're at it, we wanna do a second contract with Honeyfluff too!"
"Honeyfluff is so fluffy and soft!"
"Cool, wanna try second contracts with each other then?"
"Yeah? Honeyfluff, you okay with that?"
[Honey!]
"Honeyfluff says yes."
"Yay!"
And so I formed second contracts with my siblings' spirits, while they formed one with Honeyfluff.