Altea's Last Day
City: Altea
"It's already the last day here too. Feels like a waste of the name 'resort city' to spend the whole time working and then leave."
"It's not just a feeling. That's exactly what happened, isn't it?"
"That pig bastard dragged me into this—I'm not the bad guy here—"
Even after taking down the Evil God's fragment, Altea's public order was still a complete mess. It made sense. The Evil God had only been the spark; it wasn't the direct cause of the security breakdown. The main culprits—Vikra and the vagrants—had vanished, but that had only stopped things from getting worse. It hadn't fixed anything. The criminals tearing apart the city's safety existed separately from all that.
In the end, we spent every last minute until departure day hunting down pickpockets and muggers.
"...Sorry. I just can't walk past that kind of thing. I ended up wasting your time for nothing."
Diana let out a small snort of laughter.
"It's fine. It's not like I've only seen you do this for a day or two. And I've had more than enough of the resort city, so there's no issue."
"Thanks for saying that—"
"Besides, if you fail, you're the one who'll never see a resort city again."
"Well, since I'll be dead—"
"Compared to the mess you caused back when you were in Hello Robot mode, this is nothing."
"Was it that bad—"
"Don't even get me started. That guy had zero self-awareness about being a nuisance. He was the perfect example of a pathetic human being. That Hello Robot—or rather Helio—or rather that person who's no longer here."
"…………"
It was blatantly sarcastic, but the kind of remark that could pass for a joke. And more than anything else—
"Diana, did something good happen? You've looked cheerful ever since we took down the fragment."
"Have I?"
She touched her own cheek, then answered as if it were no big deal.
"Maybe it's because something pleasant happened?"
"...Is defeating the Evil God that satisfying?"
It seemed her hostility toward the Evil God ran deeper than I'd realized.
I should try even harder next time.
KWAANG!
"Lord Helio!"
The one who kicked the door open was a familiar face.
"I heard the news! Are you leaving today?"
"...Hey."
It was Lier and Nephure. Lier wore an exaggerated pout, while Nephure's expression carried a hint of disappointment.
"You didn't even tell us!"
"I was going to. I had to stop by the security force one last time to return what they gave me."
I couldn't just walk off with the temporary collaborator badge. I'd figured they'd be at the station anyway, so I planned to drop by on the way.
"Didn't expect you to come looking for me, though."
"Of course we did! We received so much help from you!"
"Pretty sure we received more from you two."
Without them, we wouldn't have responded in time during the theft incident. The vagrants' rampage could easily have made the Evil God's fragment even stronger, so they were basically the greatest contributors to protecting Altea.
"...Then what about me?"
"You... well, it's hard for us to find you. It'd be a shame if we didn't get to see you."
"Hmph. So you've sucked out all the sweet parts and now you have no more use for me."
"No, why are you— It's because I don't know where you live. The security force only has a physical description. They don't have your address on file."
"H-hmph!"
"Don't cut your words short just because you're embarrassed..."
Still, the fact that even Nephure was reacting like this made it clear she was quite fond of us.
"...After you finish that weird business, you'll head back to the academy, right?"
"Well, yeah. That was the promise."
At those words, Nephure and Lier exchanged glances.
"Then we'll wait for you at the academy first."
"And then we'll be your seniors!"
"Exactly. And we'll put those cheeky juniors to work."
Nephure continued with a gentle smile.
"So make sure you come back soon."
"Let's meet again in good health!"
Is this what travel connections feel like?
It felt strange to make promises about future meetings with people we'd only just met. Unfortunately, there was something they didn't know.
"By the way, since we registered and took a leave of absence, we're definitely your seniors."
"........."
"........."
"Sorry for acting all cool while saying that..."
Well, these little moments of awkwardness were part of the fun of meeting new people. We watched Lier and Nephure run off with flushed faces.
"Next stop is the tree city of Grada in the south."
"Is there a problem?"
A problem, huh. There was one thing that worried me a little.
"My sister's there right now."
* * *
"The temple carriage is pretty nice."
"It's thanks to divine protection moving it on its own. You only need to set the destination, so there's nothing better when sending passengers off."
"Smart driving that succeeded earlier than modern times... As expected, fantasy really is unfair."
"...Stories from that other world are hard for me to understand."
Whatever the reason, an automatic carriage that didn't even need a driver was an incredibly convenient way to travel. The only flaw was that it could only be used on main roads, but since every destination on the Pilgrimage was a major city, that wasn't an issue.
"Sure aren't many people around."
"The road from the academy to the resort city was unusually strange, that's all."
Considering it was an official main road, the emptiness was striking. Still, it was clean, well-maintained, and free of any disturbances—just what you'd expect from a main highway.
"As you know, that's only true for the main roads."
"I figured. Even the resort city route turned into chaos once you went inside."
There had been incidents even on that short stretch, so naturally the much longer road between the resort city and the tree city would have even more.
Normally I'd have gone off the road to start helping people, but—
Boom.
"Ah, this is tricky."
The wind wrapped around my hand burst apart.
The carriage had only been moving for a little while, yet this was already the tenth time.
"Thanks to that, it's nice and cool. My hair's a mess, but don't worry about it."
"Then I won't."
"...Ah, now I'm annoyed."
"Uh oh. Mad dog incoming."
"Ahem."
As you can see, I was struggling to control the new technique I'd acquired.
"I can wrap it when I want to, at least."
Whiiiir.
Once again, I coiled the wind around both hands.
I didn't understand the principle. I could only do it by feel.
Unfortunately, unlike Lightning Step—which I'd grasped and started using instantly—I barely understood Wind Hand at all.
"To think I'm not a genius."
"Could it be that because you're a genius, even a technique with such poor compatibility succeeded in soul wrapping?"
"I don't listen to unfavorable comments."
"...Maybe I should have kept more distance after all."
Boom.
I hadn't meant to cut Diana off, but the wind in my hand exploded again. Eleventh failure.
"There aren't any kids in mortal danger along this main road like last time, right?"
"There might be people I haven't seen, but... yes."
And this was also why I hadn't gone off the main road. If there were people in life-threatening danger like the herb-gathering sisters, of course I'd help. But apparently this area only had relatively mild quests.
Maybe because the repeat quests disappeared, it feels like there aren't as many incidents as I expected.
"Well, we're progressing faster than in previous rounds, so we might have missed some events."
"It's a shame we can't check each one individually."
Boom.
"...When it's this out of control."
Gathering the wind was purely in the realm of sensation. The problem was that I'd only recently gained this sense, so even without focusing, the wind kept gathering and exploding at my fingertips.
With that last explosion, the automatic detonation count had reached thirty-two.
"I'll have to keep training until I get this under control."
What was truly unfortunate was that I couldn't even get advice in the current situation.
"You're the first person to ever obtain Wind Hand, after all. Since this is my first time seeing it too, I can't offer any guidance."
"Is that your way of saying I should be grateful I'm not dead?"
"Isn't that obvious? Honestly, from my perspective you're like a kid goat that keels over at the slightest push..."
"After seeing these solid muscles, you can still say that?"
"Kyaa~"
When I thrust my bulging biceps forward, Diana pretended to cover her eyes while reaching out to touch them.
Squeeze, squeeze.
"...Aren't you enjoying that a bit too much?"
"This is also one of the joys of regression life."
"Pretty sure you'd enjoy it even without the regression."
"Helio."
She called my name, which was rare. Her voice was extremely serious.
"Yeah, I'm listening. Go ahead."
I tensed up as well.
"There isn't a single man who dislikes women with big breasts, right?"
"Ah, yeah... well..."
It was too direct to say out loud, but no one would deny it.
"In the same way, there isn't a single woman who dislikes men with good muscles."
"........."
Then I guess I'll take the compliment.
"But you set the mood just to say that?"
"Yes. Because it's an important point."
"......Want to go back ten years? Back when you were a fairy-like archduchess and I was a pitiful genius."
"But that was me too, wasn't it?"
"Still, I want to go back. To that time."
With a sigh, I turned my attention back to controlling the wind hand.
"Wait. By that logic, isn't what you're doing right now the same as touching a woman's breasts?"
"I don't listen to unfavorable comments."
It was a very sly response.