The Ruins of Erin

I took the ruins guard request for one simple reason: Wouldn’t pulling a few night shifts and getting promoted quickly be fucking sweet? Plus, it’s a ruin, so there might be some decent material for a paper! That was roughly the logic I used.

The receptionist’s explanation had carried a lot of weight too. “The interior of the ruins has already been fully investigated by a Gold-class adventurer team. They said there are no dangerous elements inside.” While other guild bastards were busy racking up achievements by clearing out the newly discovered dungeon, the Audumla side had clearly swept the ruins like they were searching for lice. If they still concluded there was nothing there, it had to be ridiculously safe. The parties sent ahead of us had probably gone in with high hopes of finding something, only to reconfirm that it was a hopeless ruin and come back empty-handed. The only ones I felt sorry for were the poor Gold-class adventurer parties suffering in that shithole. Just imagining their gloomy return made tears well up in my eyes.

“Hehe. They’ll probably be hungry, so I should buy some snacks to take.”

In truth, I wasn’t sad at all. If they’d actually found something in the ruins, I wouldn’t have gotten this sweet gig.

I packed my bag with everything I’d need to kill time, fully utilizing the experience I’d gained pulling guard duty as a squad leader back in the military. I also threw in some camping supplies. It was a shame this world didn’t have coffee.

“Hey, Dorka. I’ll be back tomorrow and eating free breakfast the day after, so save my portion for me.”

“We start charging after one o’clock in the afternoon, customer.”

“You son of a bitch, Dorka.”

After exchanging those warm greetings, I left the inn.

This time the guild had determined there wasn’t much risk of running into monsters, so a Bronze-class senior hadn’t been assigned as party leader. It would probably be some other noob like me. We were to assemble at two and reach the site by four. Four people guarding the ruins for twenty-four hours, then swap with the next shift and head back. With four of us, we could rotate night watch and still get some sleep. Wasn’t this just the perfect sweet deal?

—Whoosh!

With the request time approaching, I sprinted to the assembly point. This time it was at the city’s north gate. When I arrived, I spotted a familiar face.

“Wait, isn’t that Miss Francesca?”

“Ah! Mister Nord! Hello!”

Despite her small stature, she had long limbs and bouncy breasts. It was Francesca, the half-dwarf thief wearing a gray hood.

“Yes, hello. We meet again after just one day.”

“Hehe. Right? Did you sleep well last night? I went to bed before the sun even set, so I only woke up this morning.”

“Really? I woke up in the afternoon. Looks like I win.”

“Pfft. That counts as winning?”

“Of course. I spent the whole day productively with a deep sleep. Then I woke up, washed, and came straight to work… Who’s that next to you?”

Standing beside Francesca was a middle-aged man who was half-bald. He looked like a typical neighborhood uncle if you ignored the gut, but I could tell at a glance he was a priest from the robes he wore.

“Nice to meet you. I am Paragon Pomona, priest of the Goddess of Abundance.”

“I’m Nord. Pleasure to work with you.”

The Goddess of Abundance was mainly worshipped in Romania as a deity of agriculture. Her followers specialized in healing and recovery. When they joined the temple, they all took the surname Pomona. They treated each other like siblings or something. I had no idea why nuns and priests became adventurers, but I’d seen a few of these adventurer-priests during my time at Carmine University. I wasn’t particularly curious about their reasons. Probably just short on cash, I figured.

“I’m the party leader today, so I arrived first! Though the last member still hasn’t shown up!”

“Thank goodness I’m not last.”

We exchanged some light greetings and I took my place beside them. The clock tower showed five minutes until assembly time. That remaining time flew by until only one minute was left, and the last person still hadn’t arrived.

“…They’re not coming,” Francesca muttered gloomily.

Yeah, fuck. This was exactly how noob adventurers operated. Honestly, yesterday’s party had been the weird one.

“Being late is most displeasing. The Goddess of Abundance has said that the lazy and those who do not understand the value of time cannot bear the fruits they desire. Though lower adventurers may waste every day, they should at least possess a minimum of conscience, effort, and the proper mindset—”

One guy was late and another was preaching right next to me. Fuck, we hadn’t even started and I was already tired.

“Oh. Looks like everyone’s already gathered.”

Right on the dot at two o’clock, the last party member appeared before us. It was a woman carrying a shield and short spear on her back. She had blonde hair and an energetic expression that gave off slight athletic-girl vibes. Her gear was a practical full set of leather armor, and she was tall for a woman. But what the fuck? This bitch was also carrying a short spear and shield. Was she Gentric grandpa’s alt character?

The priest Paragon, who had been yapping nonstop beside me, frowned at her appearance.

“You’re the adventurers here for the ruins guard duty, right? I’m Est Valcas. Let’s all do our best together today.”

“Hmm… If you’re late to assembly, shouldn’t you at least apologize?”

“Huh? Isn’t it exactly on time? Sorry. I should’ve come a bit earlier.”

Est surprisingly apologized right away. Even so, Paragon looked like he wanted to keep lecturing, but Francesca stopped him.

“She arrived exactly on time, so it’s not really being late. Couldn’t you let it slide for my sake, Mister Paragon?”

“…Very well. I’m sorry. I was indeed a bit oversensitive.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

It was a good mediation. Honestly, if we’d let that priest keep preaching, I had no idea how much longer it would’ve gone on.

“It takes about an hour to reach the ruins from here. There aren’t many monsters, so it shouldn’t be dangerous.”

Francesca ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠said as she took out a map and unfolded it.

“Then let’s get going. I’ll take the lead.”

And so we left the city and headed for the ruins.

After traveling for quite a while, we arrived at a cave deep inside the forest. Surprisingly, we hadn’t encountered a single monster on the way. The security team here was doing a damn good job. Sargadis public order was seriously solid.

“This is the place.”

The cave was indeed in a hard-to-find location. The narrow entrance was hidden by bushes, so most people would’ve walked right past it. We entered the cave immediately upon arrival.

Drip… Drip…

Water droplets fell from the stalactites on the ceiling. Just as I’d been told beforehand, the cave walls were covered in hieroglyphs from the entrance onward. The sight was so eerie it felt almost insane. Est rubbed her arms as if getting goosebumps.

“Ugh, fuck. Aren’t these guys crazy? What kind of creepy shit is this to carve inside a cave?”

“I-it is a bit scary… We won’t get cursed, right?”

Francesca lowered her gaze anxiously. She didn’t say it out loud, but honestly, I was scared shitless too. I was probably the most scared person here.

“Fuuuuuuck……”

Because out of everyone present, I was the only one who could decipher the picture-like characters densely carved into the walls.

The meaning of those characters was roughly this:

“I’m gonna lose my fucking mind!!”

“Everyone, calm down. I sense no evil magic,” Paragon said, tapping the floor with his stone staff.

“A Gold-class adventurer team already came to explore, didn’t they? Steel your hearts and hold firm conviction in your chest, and these mere phrases will look no different from childish scribbles.”

“Your legs are shaking like crazy though.”

“Shut up.”

Anyway, we proceeded forward at half the speed we’d had before. What a bunch of scaredy-cat noobs. Meanwhile, as an archaeologist with actual ruins exploration experience, I was gradually getting used to it.

“Ack! Miss Est, stop pushing! Are you the only one who’s scared?!”

“I didn’t push you! Besides, this is safe, right?”

Est asked while firmly guarding my back. The creepy atmosphere inside the cave had me on edge too, so I played along with her.

“It should be. Ruins left abandoned inside caves usually don’t amount to much.”

“Really? Why?”

Est’s face brightened as if she’d been thrown a lifeline from hell. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The other two also looked at me.

“Think about it. To us it’s a ruin, but to the people who originally built it, it was just a construction project they were commissioned to do.”

“Oh, that makes sense too?”

“Exactly. To people from two thousand years ago, a ruin from two thousand years ago was a building ‘that still needed to be built.’ Why would they construct something in a place where no one would come? If it was an impressive building, they’d build it somewhere with lots of foot traffic like a city and show it off.”

“Couldn’t they have wanted to hide the ruin?”

“Who knows? Is this really the kind of ruin that would require deliberate concealment?”

I recalled the history of the Sargadis region that I’d researched while at Carmine University.

“Sargadis has a long history and plenty of ruins, but it wasn’t part of any ancient civilization’s territory. Prosperous civilizations usually leave records in history, but there are no known records of any in Sargadis. The chances of this being an important ruin are low.”

“Could it be a temple of heretic black mages?”

“Nah. Both our senior adventurers and the priest right here didn’t sense any evil magic, so what’s there to worry about?”

“Sorry. To be honest, I was half bluffing earlier.”

“I really wished you’d take that secret to your grave, you know.”

Fucking priest bastard.

“Oh, thank goodness. There’s light coming from the end of the cave?”

Est had somehow ended up behind me again.

Light? Why would there be light coming from inside the cave?

I found it strange but kept going, and soon understood why. The inner part of the cave had a completely collapsed ceiling. Sunlight was pouring in from above, illuminating the interior.

“Ah, the ceiling must have collapsed and that’s how the ruin was discovered,” Francesca said, pointing deeper inside.

Sure enough, the ruin inside was completely covered in sand. Fresh grass and vegetation had grown over it, suggesting the ground above had completely given way.

“For real? What if it collapses again while we’re inside?”

“Um… The geological structure looks solid, so it should be fine.”

“If the half-dwarf party leader says so, I suppose we can trust it.”

“Hehe. I’m only half, though.”

While listening to my party members chat, I observed the interior. The ruin’s structure was unusual. There were several large stone monuments in the center, surrounded by crudely erected square stone pillars. Nearly half the pillars had collapsed.

Looks exactly like some ruined dolmen.

No, not just dolmens—I had a memory of seeing something similar to this somewhere. Not in this world’s foreign lands, but back on Earth where I used to live.

“I’ll lay out the mat. Hehe. Should we make a campfire right in the middle of the ruins too?”

“Don’t even think about it. You’d end up penniless paying for the damages later.”

“Before worrying about responsibility, shouldn’t we avoid damaging it in the first place…?”

The other party members began laying out their spots in one corner of the ruin while chatting. Even the placement of the mat sparked various opinions.

“We don’t know if anyone might come in from the cave. Let’s position ourselves where we can watch the entrance. Ah, but if the ceiling falls the height would be lethal anyway, so maybe we can ignore that?”

“That’s a good point, but if we sit facing the entrance directly, anyone who gets shot with an arrow from inside would die.”

“I don’t want to die.”

“Me neither.”

“Damn it. Are you three ganging up to shoot down my opinion?”

Our party laid out the mat in one corner and completely unpacked our luggage. Carrying bags around didn’t increase combat power anyway. As long as we didn’t let go of our weapons, we’d be fine.

“Alright, that’s done. I’m gonna go look around the ruins.”

After spreading the mat on flat ground, she slapped it once and headed toward the ruins. She was faster than me, the actual archaeologist. She must have an incredible thirst for knowledge. I felt like asking if she wanted to become a graduate student.

“I’m going to look around too. What about you two?”

“I’ll pass. My age is catching up to me; walking has made me tired.”

“I’ll just prepare the campfire. Could you two gather some firewood together later?”

“Sure. We’ll be back.”

Left in the lurch, I followed Est to look at the ruins. She was examining them with surprisingly serious eyes. I was a bit impressed by how focused she was.

“Are you interested in history?”

“Huh? No way. I’m looking to see if there’s anything worth money.”

“Of course.”

Adventurers, am I right? Since I wasn’t all that different when you got down to it, I understood perfectly. I’d only gotten my archaeology master’s degree because I needed it; I didn’t actually have much interest in this world’s history.

—Rustle.

I looked up at the ridiculously large stone monument. Three characters were carved into it. Their meanings were, respectively: human. beast. transformation.

…Humans turn into beasts? Is that what it means?

Was this place Yharnam instead of Sargadis? I had no idea what it was supposed to mean.

And why the hell are they using hieroglyphs anyway?

This region of Britannia had used the other-world version of the alphabet since ancient times. Among the surrounding nations, the only one that used hieroglyphs was Narmer-Nile. Hieroglyphs were an extremely primitive form of writing. Naturally, nations that used them tended to have deep histories. On Earth, China and Egypt were prime examples. But Britannia didn’t have that kind of history. This really did seem to be the ruins of a very ancient primitive tribe. A relic from the time when humanity went “ooga booga.” It was probably their own unique language used only for a short period that didn’t even make it into the historical record.

“Tsk.”

I clicked my tongue. A ruin from this far back wasn’t great material for a paper. Unlike Earth, archaeology here focused heavily on a few once-prosperous ancient civilizations. Even if this really was a trace left by primitive people, the academic world probably wouldn’t care much. Back on Earth it would’ve been “A Paleolithic site discovered in our country!” and caused a stir, but here relics that didn’t make money got little attention.

I don’t have the equipment to analyze it properly anyway… I should at least copy down the characters.

There were multiple stone monuments. I found the one with the string of characters that had been posted at the adventurer guild and copied it into my notebook. I could look into it later at the library or university.

Bird, prey, perform ritual, enjoyable, winter, hunt…

It felt like a fairly useless record. It seemed to just document the daily lives of the people who used these characters. Like how a record found near the pyramid turned out to be a worker’s excuse note for skipping work.

“What’s that? Why are you copying it?”

Est came over after apparently finding nothing worthwhile.

“Just in case. I might see similar characters while working as an adventurer later. Then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I can compare them with this notebook.”

“Oh, smart. Should I copy some too?”

“Do you have a notebook?”

“Just give me one sheet.”

“Thank you, customer. Ten sheets cost one copper.”

“One copper?! What a scam artist! Forget it. I’m not doing it.”

When Est yelled, I chuckled.

“Just kidding. Want to borrow a pen too?”

“I said forget it. I was joking too. I can’t even write.”

Est laced her fingers behind her head and returned to our spot. Her personality heated up and cooled down just as quickly.

—Scratch scratch.

Left alone among the stone piles, I copied every single one of the central monuments. Since they were pictorial, it took time. Only after I’d copied the contents of all the monuments did I head back. Or rather, I tried to.

—Flash!

“…What was that?”

Something had gleamed from beneath the central stone monument. It was the root section buried in sand.

…Should I dig?

—Glance.

I looked up at the monument. The one that could crush me to death was already leaning backward. Digging at its base wouldn’t make it fall toward me and turn me into a yellow pork cutlet.

After confirming that, I knelt in front of the monument and crouched down.

Scrape— Scrape—.

I dug out the sandy part beneath the monument. I’d thought there might be something valuable, but what was at the base was, surprisingly, more characters.

“…The fuck?”

It was a familiar script. Ogham Script. An almost unused writing system in the current era—the script of the Ulster people.

Why is this appearing here?

The characters carved into the monument were extremely primitive, looking like nothing more than ordinary knife marks. It would be easy to imagine them as the kind of notches someone stranded on a deserted island would make on a tree to count the days.

I could easily guess why the Gold-class adventurer team had overlooked it. Under a rock covered in unusual hieroglyphs, there were these knife marks. They were also faded with age and half-buried. Even if they had noticed, they probably thought it was just some scratch and moved on. If I hadn’t known Ogham Script, I never would’ve imagined it was writing either. It looked completely different from the hieroglyphs above.

This… isn’t this a jackpot?

I felt my heart pounding. The ancient civilization of Erin from Ulster was a prime example of an unprofitable ancient civilization, but it was still more than enough material for a master’s thesis. Ulster characters found in an ancient ruin in Britannia!

Fuck, I can totally write a three-part banger paper with this!

If I borrowed 21st-century YouTube storytelling techniques, I could even turn this material into a full-length epic! This paper topic is mine!

Ecstatic, I was about to dig at the base of the monument like a dog playing in dirt when—

“What are you doing?”

“Aaaagh!!”

“Kyaa?!”

The voice that suddenly spoke from behind without any presence nearly scared me to death. It was Francesca standing next to me. She must have gotten curious after seeing me playing dog-digging-a-hole and approached the monument.

“S-sorry. Did I startle you by suddenly talking?”

With her hood off, Francesca apologized. Her hair was the familiar black I knew, but her blue eyes gave her a mysterious impression. I clutched my chest and shook my head.

“I-it’s fine. I was just surprised for a moment. There were strange scratches under this monument, so I was digging to check them out.”

“Strange scratches…? Oh? They look oddly shaped, don’t they?”

Now that part of the characters had been revealed, Francesca seemed to realize they weren’t ordinary scratches. I rubbed my hands together and said,

“They caught my eye, so I got curious. They’re pretty interesting.”

“Hehe. I see. I like old stories like this too.”

She came over and crouched beside me. With her small build, she looked even tinier like that.

“I’ll help you dig. It looks fun.”

“Oh, would you?”

I didn’t refuse the kind offer. Even as a kid, playing with girls had always felt more like winning at life than digging in the dirt alone. Back then the boys who got jealous would make fun of me, but now there was no one to do that.

—Crunch crunch.

The two of us combined our strength and dug through the sand for a while. Eventually, the full string of characters on the monument was revealed.

“Ah, looks like that’s the end.”

“Yeah. Seems so.”

I read the fully excavated characters with my eyes. Francesca watched me with a curious gaze. But I was too focused on deciphering the script to pay much attention to her stare. The text written in ancient Ulster language was that interesting.

That was the end. As expected of something written by an ancient person, the content was quite fragmented. Some characters in the middle were damaged and unreadable. And only the last line was written in strangely shaped wedge characters. As far as I knew, it wasn’t UlsterOgham Script.

I unconsciously pronounced it while translating the text into Britannian.

“…Pray to the Sky God (yáǵeswō deiwōm dyēus)?”

At that moment—

“Huh?”

I felt something inside my body moving at incredible speed. It was as if the blood vessels connected to my right hand from my heart had swollen to five times their normal size! It felt extremely similar to the “sensation of handling mana” I’d only read about in books.

“Something… something’s happening!”

“N-Nord?”

Francesca pointed at my shoulder in confusion. Since even she could see it, I naturally noticed the change happening to my body too.

Shwaak— Shwaak— Shwaak—.

My right hand was glowing with a fluorescent green color! Soft-looking mana with a viscous quality ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had wrapped around my arm.

Wondering what the hell this was, I poked at the green mana covering my arm.

—Squishy.

The grass-colored mana enveloping my arm could actually be touched. It had a squishy texture similar to touching animal hide. The sensation was so enchanting that I couldn’t help but scream.

“My arm got wrapped in cat paw pads!!”

“W-what did you do?!”

Francesca and I jumped up in a panic!

“I recited the incantation and my right arm turned into a paw pad! Nord has become a Twinkle Animal Human!”

“I-is this magic?! Are you a mage, Nord?!”

“I don’t know! Was I a mage? I never imagined it!”

What the hell is this? No, seriously, what is happening?

Unable to solve the mystery, I frantically waved around my now mint-colored arm. Fuck, why does it still have normal sensation in my arm?!

Just as I was losing my mind over this unexpected situation—

—Someone spoke. Misfortune always comes in layers, they say.

“Uwaaagh!! Fuck! Goblins!!”

Whether I was confused or not, the situation grew even worse. The priest Paragon, who until now had seemed the least likely to curse in this group, let out a string of profanities. And it was completely unavoidable—because a horde of green monsters had suddenly appeared right next to Paragon and Est, who had been lounging on the mat.

“Kyaaak!! (Food!!)”

“Kyaaak!! (Nest!!)”

It was language I could translate. It meant they were creatures with the intelligence to use language and communicate through it. What had appeared inside the cave were goblins!

“Hey! Party leader and the foreigner!! Stop standing there blankly and come help!!”

Est shouted urgently. There were that many goblins that had appeared. Goblins weren’t particularly strong monsters. They were small and counted among the weaker ones. But these bastards fully utilized their intelligence to wield language and each carried a crude stone tool in their hands. Their basic physical abilities were also superior to those of advanced rats like kobolds. Roughly elementary-school-student-level physical power! That was by no means something to take lightly. Anyone who had suffered through holidays dealing with their nephews would never underestimate a child’s power. And these goblins had that kind of power plus weapons. Knowing they were weak, they also moved in groups. And we were outnumbered. This was seriously dangerous!

“Twenty elementary-schoolers armed with kitchen knives!”

Can you imagine how terrifying that is? Elementary-schoolers were truly merciless and selfish creatures. The green elementary-schoolers of this world were no different. Just two people facing that many would get absolutely wrecked in an instant!

Knowing this, Est and Paragon abandoned the mat and luggage and retreated with only their weapons!

“Don’t fall back, hold the entrance!”

“Easy for you to say!! Look at the difference in numbers!!”

But if we ran out into open space we’d get surrounded and die! Still, I couldn’t ask them to hold the entrance until they got stabbed to death by kitchen knives either!

“Kyaaak!! (Food!!)”

“Kyaaak!! (Food!!)”

“Kyaaak!! (Food!!)”

The goblins came charging while chanting in unison. Francesca and I hurriedly ran toward our party members. Francesca had drawn her weapon and I pulled my sword from my waist.

“Fuck! My right hand feels weird!”

The arm I’d drawn the sword with was unfortunately my right one. Est gasped when she saw the arm wrapped in fluorescent mana.

“What the hell happened to your arm?! Are you a goblin too?!”

“Don’t say such horrible things! It said it wasn’t a curse!”

Since that’s what was written on the monument, I had no choice but to believe it. Becoming a green monkey Nord was too horrifying.

We gathered in one spot and formed up.

“W-we can win…. We can win…”

Francesca, holding a long one-handed hammer, muttered while trembling. I nervously chanted along with her.

“Almighty Akarat, protect me with your eternal light. Almighty Akarat, protect me with your eternal light. Almighty Akarat, protect me with your eternal li—”

“Kyaaar kyaaak!! (Give up!!)”

“Fuck!! Why does every request I take turn into this shit!!”

The excited green elementary-schoolers charged!! A chaotic, formation-be-damned, all-out sprint suspense! From that utter mess I saw the possibility of victory!

“You brats are less scary than a female mantis!!”

Not knowing the state of my right hand, I swung my sword with my left. Whoosh!! The strength I’d trained through Professor Brammaton’s PT was enough to unleash a slash with lethal power against this world’s green elementary-schoolers. However, the little shits displayed their cunning wisdom and dodged my sword. They even used the Naryatagon technique, rolling across the floor to escape my attack trajectory!

“What the fuck?!”

“Kyakak!! (Kill!!)”

The follow-up attack! A stone axe flew toward my leg! If I got hit by that, my mobility would plummet!

“Q-quiet!!”

In my panic, I couldn’t even retrieve my sword and swung my fist instead. Because of my stance, it had no power from the waist at all—it was just a weak slap using only arm strength. There was no way it could have any killing or stopping power.

—Except for the single variable that it was thrown with my ‘right arm.’

—It was an incredible impact and explosive sound.

“Gyak.”

Thud.

The goblin hit by my right arm couldn’t even let out a proper scream before dying instantly. Its skull was completely shattered, and the tremendous destructive force caused its head’s contents to spill onto the floor like melon pulp.

Splat. Drip…

“…”

The surroundings fell silent. The charging goblins were horrified at seeing their soul friend turned into melon juice, and so were my party members. Fuck, so was I.

“What the…?”

Startled, I clenched and opened my glowing green hand. It was an unbelievably powerful force. One sloppy, wild punch had sent an excited elementary-schooler into eternal sweet sleep! It was almost bear-like strength.

“…Bear?”

BOOM!!

The moment I uttered that single word, a massive electric current shot through my mind. It was definitely the kind of sixth sense that should be called ‘discovery of truth’ or ‘eureka.’ The sensation of enormous mana vessels spreading from my heart and circulating throughout my entire body! With a shiver, I realized the true nature of this power.

“Ah, I see. So I——”

A warrior who wields a bear’s strength with a human body. There was only one such warrior in the world.

“——I was Vector Man Bear all along.”

Earth’s hero, Vector Man. I had become the chosen warrior of planet Gaia, fighting for humanity’s peace!

Obviously, a selfish and pathetic guy like me couldn’t possibly be the true successor of that hero. Claiming to be Vector Man would tarnish the names of those great heroes. But at least this magic, this sorcery, held power on the same level as those great heroes.

Now I could understand the meaning of the characters drawn on the mural. Human. Beast. Transformation. The large hieroglyph containing those three meanings was a single text pointing to one truth.

——A human who has taken the power of a beast into their body.

The phrase recorded on the monument was exactly a text honoring this power!

“Then——there is only one thing I must do now.”

Even though I had awakened to my true power, my companions and I were still in danger. Although they weren’t Earth’s humanity, they were still humans fighting alongside me who loved peace. Therefore, I opened my eyes wide, twisted my limbs, and shouted.

“——Transform.”

The moment I whispered with a solemn bear-like resolve, my entire body began to glow with green light.