Episode 70
Episode 70
Karen, who had been asleep, opened her eyes for the first time in nearly half a year.
Her gaze turned toward the window where a cool breeze was blowing in.
Through the window, she could see a crimson sky and trees towering so high they seemed to touch it.
"Seems like quite some time has passed. About half a year...? Maybe even longer."
Truthfully, she had no objective way to know that exactly six months had passed.
However, she could tell through her body that a significant amount of time had flowed by.
She tried moving her fingers, but they trembled uncontrollably.
Her legs wouldn't move as she intended either.
'The muscles throughout my body... have weakened tremendously. Even lying down for two months wouldn't weaken me this much.'
As much as she wondered how much time had passed, she was equally curious about how she had survived.
The last thing Karen remembered was the moment her body was pierced.
Objectively speaking, it was a fatal wound that should have been impossible to survive.
Slowly, forcing out whatever strength she could muster, her arm moved.
"Ugh, ughh..."
Her barely moving arm plopped down onto her stomach.
Wriggling her fingers, she pushed aside the blanket and began touching the bare skin beneath her clothes.
The stomach that should have been full of gaping holes was smooth, without a single scar, perfectly intact.
"Did a Saintess come by or something?"
Her body had been pierced through, her organs completely destroyed.
Having used up every last drop of her aura down to the bottom without leaving any reserve, stopping the bleeding had been impossible.
So how had she survived?
Karen was certain only the owner of this house would know the answer.
"Hoo... Whoever owns this house, I hope they're a decent person. It's not like I can resist anyway."
Perhaps because her bodily injuries had been so severe, her aura had barely recovered either.
Having been unconscious, she hadn't been able to eat anything.
Aura is also energy.
To replenish that energy, she naturally needed to fill her body with energy through meals.
As she released the strength in her hand, it dropped onto the bed with a thud.
"I wonder if Mia is okay."
Right before losing consciousness, she had heard Mia's voice.
The scream that sounded like it was about to break was still vivid.
She slowly closed her eyes.
Mia had overcome numerous crises even while working as a mercenary.
With nothing she could do right now, she decided to trust her.
"She must have survived. It's Mia we're talking about, after all. Besides, this doesn't seem like the situation to be worrying about others. I hope she wasn't captured by some crazy mage?"
The room interior looked like an ordinary house.
But if someone had the ability to heal such severe wounds, it meant they were undoubtedly accomplished in some field.
Sadly, most people living in places like this among those types are weirdos.
That's when it happened.
"Ah~ that was tough. I'll rest a bit then head to the ruins."
A man's voice was heard.
A deep, low voice that sounded somewhat tired.
From the relaxed atmosphere, it was clearly the house owner.
"Hmm, it's about time she wakes up. Should I check?"
The man's footsteps grew gradually closer.
They stopped at the door, and a shadow appeared through the crack of light beneath it.
'Should I pretend to be asleep if he comes in? Or try to resist somehow...'
But the shadow moved away again.
The man was muttering to himself as if making a resolution.
"If I go in unnecessarily, I might get caught because of the scent and get scolded. I should bring her later and go in together."
From what she could roughly hear, there seemed to be someone who could scold this man.
"I should bring her quickly."
With those words, the man left the house.
Only then could Karen relax and rest easy.
*
It's already been four days since I started coming to the ruins daily to investigate the materials.
Every time I come here, I roam around inside and investigate materials with Anti's help.
I've learned a few pieces of information during this time.
First, that divine power isn't such an incredible ability after all.
'According to the books here, at best it's just condensing people's mana and slightly altering its properties.'
Apparently, the "real" gods use a different power altogether.
They tried to block the outer god's power, but it was ineffective except against true divine power.
And the fact that what the Amer Church uses now isn't true divine power.
From what I can tell, they seem to be using machines.
'They said only two people per era - the Hero and the Saintess - can use the true divine power.'
But now there are two of both Saintess and Hero.
So either something is slightly wrong or doesn't match, or one side cannot use true divine power.
'This is quite shocking too.'
Looking into it, the World Tree is also apparently a god created from the elves' faith.
Strictly speaking, it's said to be an artificial god created containing the elves' souls and wishes.
And the administrators who can use this artificial god as they please are the High Elves.
This is roughly what I've learned over these four days.
Without fail, I turn another page of the book.
"Hmm..."
Although they're research materials, I've been asking Anti about specialized magical engineering or magic circles.
As someone from commoner background who only uses physical strength, there's no way I would know such things.
"Anti, can you interpret this for me?"
"Understood. Female."
I glared briefly at Anti who still calls me "female," but her expression saying 'what's the problem?' made me decide to give up by now.
After briefly scanning and interpreting the book, Anti handed it back to me.
"It's about teleportation devices. But the combinations and magic circles are slightly different."
"How are they different? Interpret the magic circles too."
"Understood."
Anti's light flashed briefly before turning off again.
"From what I can see, it seems to be technology for dimensional travel. Not technology for folding dimensions for long-distance travel, but literally technology to go to other dimensions."
Finally found it.
The machine for dimensional travel.
"Really? Then interpret that and pass it to me. Might as well tell me the principles and magic circle composition too."
"Understood. I'll create it quickly, so please look at other books meanwhile."
"Okay, then I'll check out those over there too."
While Anti was interpreting the principles and magic circles, I finished reading the diaries nearby.
Diaries were everywhere here.
They were meticulous diaries that recorded every moment in detail, as if documenting every single action.
Even when they masturbated was recorded.
...Why would they write that?
I set aside the last diary I read and took out the next one.
"Was the last diary I read about dimensional travel theory? It was filled with writing but it was too difficult."
Numbers and incomprehensible formulas filled the diary, so I passed it to the Dragon Emperor.
The method of passing it was simple.
'Dragon Emperor-nim.'
By focusing mana on my hand and calling her in my mind, I could communicate with her.
— Why are you calling? Did you find something again?
'I found the principles and magic circles for the dimensional travel machine. I'll send you the original along with the interpretation once it's complete.'
— Really? You've been coming daily recently and making quite progress.
'Any progress on your end, Dragon Emperor-nim?'
— A little. I roughly understand what approach they used. But I don't have a proper method to attempt it, so I'm just doing theoretical calculations.
'Okay. I'll let you know if I discover anything else.'
— Yeah, good work.
Right after finishing the conversation with the Dragon Emperor and opening the diary again,
My body suddenly lifted into the air.
"Kyaaaah!"
With a youthful scream, my body was embraced in warm arms.
Followed by Aron's voice.
"What were you looking at so intently? Did you find some new clue?"
"Uh, huh? No. I was just reading some content Anti found for me. She's interpreting the principles and magic circles right now."
"Really? Then should we finish investigating for today and head back? It's already evening."
"Already? Then I guess we should head back soon."
My heart pounded as if malfunctioning.
Dimensional travel was ultimately the last resort to abandon Aron and escape.
Though there was no way my conversation with the Dragon Emperor could be heard, I was still nervous.
"By the way, why are you investigating this so diligently? It doesn't look very interesting. Mia doesn't really like this kind of stuff."
"Just doing it because I'm bored. I don't have much to do normally anyway."
"Really? You're not... having any strange thoughts, are you?"
At Aron's question, I tensed up and asked back.
"Wh-what strange thoughts? What strange thoughts could I have in ancient ruins?"
As I answered with a trembling voice, Aron came close and spoke by my ear.
"Like a means to defeat me? You've been picking fights first every day recently and ended up getting counterattacked. You're not planning revenge, are you?"
I laughed while brushing off Aron's nonsense.
"It's a secret. I'll tell you when I find out."
At my playful smile, Aron smiled as if he had figured something out.
At times like this, I can only be grateful for his infinite trust and perceptiveness.
"So let's just hurry back. I'm hungry. Anti looks like she wants to rest soon too."
Anti, who had been looking at me with eyes full of dissatisfaction, answered.
"Female. It's not good to monopolize the excellent Aron's seed. For the development of humanity and my curiosity, please share a portion."
"Hmph, Aron said he's not into you. Give up."
"That cannot be. Aron once subdued me and filled me with his semen for three days straight."
"...Is that true?"
When I glared at Aron and asked, he realized something was wrong and started running at full speed.
Carried in his arms like that, we left the ruins.
Forcing a laugh, he changed the subject.
"Should we eat World Tree fruit for dinner? The elves gave me one this time. It's super sweet and delicious, let's eat it together."
"If it's delicious, I might consider forgiving you."
Though I wasn't really angry, I put on a pouty expression to secure an advantageous position.
And Aron ran home at full speed.
We arrived home at an unimaginably fast speed.
As soon as we arrived home, I habitually headed to the room.
"I'll go check on unni and come back. Keep cooking. I'll help soon too."
"Okay, then I'll prepare griffin meat today."
"Okay. Are you making it fried?"
"I was going to make steak, but you prefer fried? Should I change to fried?"
I shook my head side to side.
"I was just curious what you were making. Then I'll go check and come back."
I opened the door and entered the room where Karen unni was sleeping.
*
As the door opened again, Karen became tense.
This time two people entered.
The man from before and this time another woman entered with him.
'Whoever they are... I'll pretend to sleep, wait for the right moment, subdue them, and gain the upper hand.'
Karen quietly lay pretending to sleep, waiting for her opponent.
All her nerves tensed to use her aura in an instant.
After waiting a bit, the door opened and footsteps were heard.
Unlike the man's footsteps from before, these were much lighter and quicker.
"...Still not awake? When will she wake up?"
Surprisingly, the female voice was full of concern.
Plus, it was strangely familiar.
'Mia's voice sounds much more mature. If our Mia had eaten well and grown properly, she would have had a voice like this.'
Briefly thinking of Mia, she composed herself again.
Meanwhile, the woman had approached right in front of her.
The opportunity was right now.
"Hup!"
Karen quickly rose up, concentrated aura only on her fingertips, wrapped her arms around the woman's neck, and brought her hand edge to the throat.
With the skill built up from experience, she expertly took position behind her opponent and spoke coldly.
"Release me right now. If not, I'll kill you."
As expected, the woman who offered her neck was trembling.
Karen felt slightly sorry but didn't release her.
"Quickly! Move quickly!"
"Uh, unni... you're awakeee..."
But the response that came back was somewhat strange.
The word "unni" and a voice dripping with longing rather than fear-induced crying.
Only then did Karen move to see the face of the woman she was subduing.
"Mia?"
She was crying loudly, face covered in tears and snot.
Though she had matured in various ways, Karen immediately recognized her as Mia.
Even though she had grown up, to Karen she still seemed young.
"Mia! You're okay!"
As the tension released, Karen leaned her body against Mia's and laughed.
"Thank goodness! You're alive!"
"Waaaah! Unniiii..."
Watching Karen hugging and rejoicing, and Mia holding her and crying like a fool, Aron thought.
Hmm, what should I do about this.
He was simply at a loss.