Chapter 22
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Flexible Misunderstanding (4)
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Oz, who had been nestled in my arms for quite a while, lifted her head and looked up at me.
Her large eyes, meeting mine so close up, brought an odd pressure—like I absolutely had to say something.
"That... Didn't you say you'd do something for me if I came back alive?"
"What, what?"
"No, I just thought you said something like that."
"I said I'd resent you if you didn't come back."
"Ah... I see."
Why was I feeling disappointed?
I hadn't been expecting anything in particular.
"Resentment... doesn't matter."
Especially if it was Oz's resentment—that could be pretty terrifying.
"...Idiot? What are you mumbling about?"
Honestly, I didn't even know what I was saying myself.
Was it because this was the first time I'd ever been in such close contact with a girl?
No, more than that—why was Oz still holding onto me?
I tried to gently pull away at this point, but she suddenly asked,
"What... would you want me to do?"
"Huh?"
"You must want something, that's why you said it. And your expression right now...... it looks really disappointed?"
"My expression?"
Come to think of it, Oz had this uncanny knack for reading my face.
She must have insight to match her magical talent. Though part of it was probably that I was terrible at hiding my feelings.
"Will you do it if I tell you?"
"I'll think about it."
......If I said "let's date," she'd think I was insane, right?
Yeah, that would be insane.
Time to stop advertising that I've gone over 50 years (past life included) without touching a woman.
But nothing specific came to mind.
"Nothing in particular."
"...Really?"
She fidgeted with her lips for a moment, then slipped out of my arms.
Phew.
Parovian Eldis, watching us from behind, was starting to look seriously grim.
If we'd kept at it much longer, one of his spells might've come flying our way.
Parovian must've reached his limit too, because he walked over toward us.
He gave my back a couple of pats.
...Seemed like he put a bit of force into those hands.
Ow.
"Haha, this guy...... You must be exhausted. Let's head inside first."
"Then I'll hire a coachman around here and head back home......"
"Where do you think you're going so soon? Stick around a bit longer."
"...Why?"
My guard went right up.
Was he planning some payback just because I'd hugged his granddaughter for a minute?
"Don't you have something to pick up? And once the merit awards are done in the capital, there'll be a banquet too."
The "something to pick up" Parovian mentioned was probably the heirloom-grade artifact Vinsen had owned.
I'd already retrieved Vinsen's mana stabilization research notes from his personal space.
Luckily, he hadn't thrown them out and had kept them stored away.
Most mages were like that.
Vinsen was in prison now, so I could always visit him later if I had more questions.
That left just one thing.
Handed out at the merit ceremony?
Makes sense—Parovian had said he'd make a recommendation to his superiors, so there had to be some procedure.
Parovian had once mentioned that his superior's superior was a blond Transcendent.
That implied a chain of command.
A superior to the Eldis family? Only one figure came to mind.
The Emperor.
But a Transcendent lording over the Emperor? Even hearing about it sounded like a tangled mess.
Even if they weren't interfering.
Cases like this one might count as interference...... Plenty of friction there.
'They've got their own circumstances.'
I was curious, sure, but digging too deep would just wear me out.
In the end, I decided to stay at an inn in the city we'd arrived at.
Was it because I was worn out from the long journey?
The moment I washed up with warm water and sank into the inn's fluffy bed, my consciousness plummeted.
My mind plunged into pitch darkness.
Then, suddenly, a weird sensation jolted my eyes wide open.
A blond man was standing silently beside my bed, looking down at me without a word.
"Ah, shit. You scared me!"
"What have you done?"
I threw off the blanket and propped myself up.
Rubbing my still-sleepy eyes, I thought it over.
What have I done...?
Was he talking about Philip Deran?
I answered in a hoarse voice.
"Got... lucky."
"Second time."
"What?"
"Second time I've felt like you're lucky. Makes me wonder if there's a third. Intriguing."
He said it with eyes that looked anything but intrigued.
"What if the third time I'm lucky too?"
"Who knows...... I wouldn't peg you as just some ordinarily lucky human."
An ordinary human...
To him, that was no different from an ant.
Getting treated like that was insulting, so maybe it was for the best.
But at the same time, catching a Transcendent's interest meant getting dragged into dangers way beyond what I could handle right now.
Eh, no more dealings with him anyway. No third "luck" talk coming up.
"Who was it? Who killed Philip Deran?"
"Beats me. Maybe he picked a fight with some Transcendent passing by."
"......"
"But, you sure he's dead?"
Anonymous (1) had taken the body.
So in truth, we had no idea if he was really dead. No, we were supposed to not know.
"He wouldn't abandon his fortress mid-fight with a Transcendent. Even if he fled and ditched it, he wouldn't last long."
His tone implied that abandoning his fortress was as good as death.
After leaving those words, the blond man silently stared down at me.
"......"
Nothing much to say.
The gap between a Transcendent and me was just too vast for me to claim responsibility for whatever happened.
But if I'd planned to lure Philip Deran out and get him killed anyway...... wasn't that a win?
Yet the blond man's face remained heavy and grim.
He'd said he'd create a justification for intervention.
That didn't necessarily mean killing him.
I had no clue what his exact goal was, but the current situation seemed off from whatever he'd intended.
But... what did that have to do with me?
This was the guy who'd toss us away like trash to achieve his aims.
Come to think of it, the one who'd promised to tell me the truth if I made it back alive wasn't Oz.
It was this blond Transcendent.
He'd casually mentioned that if I survived, he'd reveal the ultimate goal of the evil-tainted Transcendents.
"Then now... tell me. You said you'd spill if I made it back alive."
"Wasn't your doing."
I shook my head and countered.
"Your condition was just that I make it back alive. Not that I handle it myself."
Of course, a Transcendent had no real obligation to honor a mere promise spat out in words.
But I figured he wouldn't bother nitpicking or lying outright to someone he saw as worthless as an ant.
And I was right.
"You wanted to know their goal?"
"Yeah. Why they're breaking the pact, building forces, joining hands."
I'd assumed beings like Transcendents wouldn't act rashly.
Wrong.
"Simple. They fundamentally don't want to flaunt their power."
"Flaunt their power...?"
"They became Transcendents, but it wasn't what they expected. They believe the pact they made ages ago is unfair. They see no reason to uphold it. They want to rule this world with their own hands."
"Really? Just that?"
"Why? Hoping for some grander motive?"
"Honestly... yeah. I figured the reason we all tremble in fear couldn't be something so childish."
"You never had any respect for them to begin with, did you?"
"True."
But that was because of the blond Transcendent right in front of me, not those so-called evil lords or whatever.
"Childish desire...... I'm not defending them, but it's not something you can just dismiss as childish. Sure, from your perspective, maybe—it's utterly out of reach. But what if they had the power to make it real? Would that will to dominate the world still feel like some petty emotion?"
"......"
As I mulled over his words, a question suddenly hit me about something I'd taken for granted.
"Then why that pact? Who... made it?"
"Humans made the pact. Long, long ago... an ancient human. These days, they call him the Hero."
"Hero......"
A name I'd heard somewhere before.
Never thought I'd hear it here, though.
I hadn't realized this world actually had real Heroes and Demon Kings.
A title that grand should've come up at least once or twice in Academy history class, but I drew a blank.
"It was ages ago. He's dead now. Fought a king of another race, took a mortal wound, and didn't last much longer."
A king of another race?
The only king fighting a Hero that came to mind was the Demon King.
"...So, is that king still alive?"
"The Hero sealed him personally. Somewhere deep in the northern uncharted lands—a place no one sets foot in anymore."
"...Why'd they fight?"
"Long story. Short version: the human Transcendents were fighting for their own rights. That's why human Transcendents call him the Hero."
Ah... so it wasn't some tale from this empire, but history passed down among the Transcendents themselves.
Explains why I never heard it.
Were the current Transcendents flouting the pact so freely because the Hero had been gone for so long?
No one left to enforce it?
Then, out of nowhere, the blond Transcendent tossed an unrelated question.
"Ever heard of an oracle?"
"The oracle from religion... that one?"
"Yeah. Its influence is negligible now, but there was a time when oracles held the ultimate authority."
He paused for a moment, then continued quietly.
"The last oracle, now all but forgotten...... It says a new Hero will appear in a time of chaos."
"A time of chaos......"
"Any guess why I'm bringing this up?"
His golden eyes gleamed clearly for the first time.
"Now. This is that time of chaos."
By now, the inn's lanterns were lit, and the blond Transcendent sat beside me.
"Philip Deran dying like that was a problem. It wasn't supposed to end with just him. There's a massive force backing him."
"The ones who want to rule this world, right?"
"Yes, one of them. Where was Philip Deran's ruin?"
"Northern forest......"
While tracking Philip Deran over the mountains, I'd eavesdropped on conversations between the accompanying mages a few times.
They said the northern region from the empire's perspective was insanely vast.
Mostly uncharted, with insular tribes occasionally venturing in to settle on their own.
"There's a group that uses that area as their base. A band of Transcendents belonging to something called the Moonshadow Assembly. They're all tainted by evil."
He slowly folded his fingers as he named unfamiliar places.
"Starting from Evanveil, then Duskwill, and Palewood... It's a coalition centered on forces that dominate the north."
All new names...... Wait.
"...Huh?"
Palewood?
I'd heard of Palewood.
Wasn't that the place Anonymous (2) asked me to look into? The old elven homeland, now in the hands of another race.
"Why? Something wrong?"
"...No. Tell me more."
"It's a multi-racial group. More precisely, a coalition formed by a handful of persecuted races. Their hallmark is being ruthlessly cunning and tenacious."
Palewood... The Followers of Evil there were secretly meeting with the Pale Water Tribe.
This... might not be a coincidence.
Was it really connected to Anonymous (2)?
"They're beyond control now. United with their own kind, they're swept up in frenzy—nothing else registers. They're hell-bent on blindly expanding their influence across the entire north."
Anonymous (2)... probably wasn't on their side. He didn't even know the info I had on the Followers of Evil.
So why did he want to know their movements?
Maybe they were enemies?
That would explain monitoring them.
Thinking back, Anonymous (2) had proposed a deal right from the start in the chat room.
And the first deal he brought up was intel on Palewood forest.
......Did he need help?
No, that wasn't it.
A sudden realization hit me.
As I said, Anonymous (2) didn't know why the Palewood tribe was secretly meeting other races.
If he didn't know that, he wouldn't know their ambitions for claiming the northern forests either.
Anonymous (2) might be suspicious, but he was still in the dark.
He didn't even realize if he was the one who needed help.