Chapter 61
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Quasi-Executive Baal (5)
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Intense pain accompanies.
*Remaining time: 0 seconds
The duration of {Life and Death Resolve} had passed.
And then... the one minute that followed—a span so short one might call it brief...
But the penalty that brought unimaginable agony finally came to an end...
'I... made it...'
Even after the penalty, for several more minutes...
I barely clung to my consciousness, which threatened to slip away time and again from the lingering aftereffects of the pain.
With great effort, I dragged my heavy body upright.
Yet... even as I tried to take a step,
My gait wobbled uncontrollably...
My mind, already exhausted beyond measure,
Shredded to the point where collapsing on the spot wouldn't be strange at all...
Seemed to constantly resist my every attempt to move.
Even so, I pressed on...
To head to the chairman's office,
I began staggering forward on unsteady feet.
'Not yet...'
Not yet...
This wasn't the time to lose consciousness.
Not yet...
There was still work to be done...
Everything wasn't over just yet...
{Approaching Crisis - Quasi-Executive Baal} has been cleared.
- Isabel Helm has been saved.
- Bosses {Devil's Puppet - Isabel Helm} and {Mindless Monster - Baal} have been permanently deleted.
{Quasi-Executive Baal} has been cleared.
Baal, professor of alchemy at the academy.
His true identity was...
A quasi-executive of the evil god-worshipping cult, Ixion!
Cheers to you for brilliantly thwarting his plans!
But beware!
You might have stirred the abyss.
Divinity +15Intelligence +5
And so,
As if everything was truly over... right on cue, the two translucent windows announcing the quest clear and achievement popped up before my eyes.
I swiped them away...
And resumed staggering onward.
[Isabel Helm returns with the chairman to attend the remaining Founding Week...]
'Who... decided that...'
After clearing the Quasi-Executive Baal quest,
If I succeeded in saving Isabel...
Then, to handle the aftermath, she returns with Eris, who came back.
After a check-up confirms no anomalies in her body, Isabel heads off to attend the remaining Founding Week.
The Founding Week...
That gathering of all nobles,
Even with the massive kidnapping incident,
Was so valuable that any noble house member with no issues had to attend...
However...
Founding Week no longer mattered.
I didn't want to send Isabel Helm there anymore.
I hoped the child who escaped her nightmare...
Would never have to return to one.
So, with ragged determination, I clung to my fraying mind...
Creak—
Finally reaching the chairman's office, I pushed open the door...
There, as if their conversation had wrapped up,
Two figures sat sipping tea lightly, seemingly waiting for me.
After that,
As I stood there gripping the door to the chairman's office, Eris spoke.
"You're here? I figured you'd pass out like last time."
"You don't have to tell me... I'm already a wreck..."
"Huh? Back to formal speech? Casual's fine, you know."
And...
Hearing my weary complaint that I was already a wreck, Eris,
Unlike during {Life and Death Resolve}, pointed out my return to polite speech first.
'Ah...'
Come to think of it,
When I used {Life and Death Resolve}...
I remembered using casual speech with Eris after everything ended.
But... it wasn't intentional.
The influence of {Life and Death Resolve} was just stronger than I thought...
The skill description for becoming the {Hero of the Destroyed World}.
True to that description,
Using {Life and Death Resolve} changed everything—even casual habits...
Down to the smallest detail, into a thoroughly different being.
Personality was no exception.
Of course, I knew from the first test that personality changed...
'Stronger than I thought...'
Far stronger than expected.
Killing Baal without a second thought...
No matter how villainous, he was still human...
Making him vanish felt natural, as if the concept of polite speech was erased...
Casual words spilling out as if it were obvious...
The constant feeling that everything was insignificant...
All of it felt utterly normal, like it had always been that way.
So, resolving to use {Life and Death Resolve} more cautiously in front of others from now on...
I opened my mouth to continue the conversation with Eris.
"Just... felt like it then. Anyway, have you told her everything?"
"Yeah, I've said it all."
After that, I immediately asked if she'd told Isabel everything,
But the chairman had no interest in probing my speech further...
And gave me the answer I wanted right away.
"I'm at my limit now... so straight to the point."
Hearing what I wanted,
I too opened my mouth to get to the main issue quickly.
I truly had no strength left to hold on...
"Please let Isabel stay at the academy during Founding Week."
"Huh...? Why all of a sudden...?"
"Just... please."
And,
As Eris responded with a puzzled question to my request...
My vision was blurring more and more...
I had no strength left to endure...
Leaving only those final words of plea,
I lost all power in my body...
My vision went black as I collapsed to the floor.
A string of bewildering moments.
For Isabel Helm,
Everything since entering the chairman's office...
Was too much to process in her mind,
Bringing only confusion.
Because the first thing she heard upon entering...
"The truth is, Aden... is a regressor."
Was that Aden's true identity was a regressor...
And just moments ago,
That his appearance was from the previous loop...
The final moments before this cycle began...
Only incomprehensible tales continued—far beyond the world's common sense.
"What... does that mean...?"
"Everything's true. Think about it, it makes sense, right?"
However...
The one saying these unbelievable things was...
The academy chairman,
Who pierced through all magic and the laws of the world...
The great ancient dragon.
So the story changed.
She turned the abnormal into normal...
The only being who could see through the world...
Academy Chairman Eris was such an existence...
Thus, no matter how impossible the words...
If they came from her mouth,
They themselves became proof that made the unbelievable believable...
And from the start...
'Not just the chairman...'
More unbelievable for a mage than Aden being a regressor...
She had just witnessed something even harder to believe...
'Rune script...'
Rune script, the language of gods no one could use.
Aden wielding such grand magic casually...
Was even more unbelievable than him being a regressor.
'Dizzy...'
So,
She struggled to sort all these unbelievable facts in her mind...
But the sudden influx of information and events overloaded her head.
Just as she was slowly sipping tea with the chairman to calm down...
Creak—
The door to the chairman's office opened, breaking the silence,
And the protagonist of this tale, Aden, entered.
'A...den...?'
But somehow...
His staggering steps, as if he might collapse any moment.
His expression, barely holding on...
Told her his condition was far from fine.
"You're here? I figured you'd pass out like last time."
"You don't have to tell me... I'm already a wreck..."
The chairman conversed with him casually, as if she'd anticipated his state.
And soon—
"Please let Isabel stay at the academy during Founding Week."
'Huh...?'
A rather sudden request...
Directed at the chairman, and with that,
As if reaching his limit,
His body pitched forward without resistance.
"Whoa there..."
Seeing this,
The chairman hurriedly caught him before he hit the floor.
After that,
Carefully laying the fainted Aden on the chairman's office sofa...
The chairman turned to me and spoke.
"Academy during Founding Week, huh... Not a big deal, but..."
Her tone and gaze full of questions...
But soon...
"Well... he's a regressor, so he must have his reasons. She can stay at the academy during Founding Week."
As if it didn't matter,
With those words, she turned and stepped out of the chairman's office.
"Get him checked when he wakes up and head back together. I'll go on ahead."
Creak—
After she left those words and exited,
The academy chairman's office...
Felt as quiet as after a storm had passed.
Chairman Eris.
Leaving Isabel and the fainted Aden behind in the academy chairman's office,
She headed back to the empire's heart for the Founding Week.
' 'Please let Isabel stay at the academy during Founding Week.' '
However...
Contrary to what she'd said in the office,
Aden's request still nagged at her...
'Not a big deal, but...'
Of course...
As academy chairman and the sole dragon,
Even during Founding Week, keeping a mere marquess's daughter in the academy without issue was easy...
But...
'Helm Marquessate...'
Still...
She couldn't shake the premonition that something was amiss, unknown to her.
'Guess I should look into it...'
So,
The academy chairman...
The sole dragon...
Eris...
Sought to uncover the Helm Marquessate's situation...
A storm unlike any before...
Was about to sweep over the Helm Marquessate.