Chapter 31
Chapter 31
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Demigod (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Reward.
It was truly a beautiful word, one that never failed to make the heart flutter no matter how many times you heard it.
"What's the reward?"
At Yuri's question, brimming with excitement, Johan replied with his hands clasped behind his back, looking rather arrogant.
"You want to know?"
"Yeah!"
"You really want to know?"
"Yes!"
"Alright. If you want to know that badly, I suppose I should tell you. Hahaha."
No sooner had Johan burst into delighted laughter than a pure white energy erupted from beneath his feet.
'What’s this?'
Yuri had seen it before.
The white clouds that had appeared when Johan obliterated the cliff.
It was his avatar.
Rumble-rumble.
In an instant, Johan's avatar enveloped Yuri's feet and lifted her up.
Caught off guard, Yuri found herself standing on Johan's avatar.
Curiosity overpowered her bewilderment.
'Oh? What's this? Pretty amazing.'
It looked like fluffy white clouds at a glance.
But the sensation through her soles felt like sticky mud.
'This is like glue. My feet are sticking right to it... Huh? They really are stuck?'
The sticky, clinging feeling wasn't her imagination.
Yuri's feet were adhered to the white clouds.
No, more precisely, the white clouds were gripping her feet tightly.
No matter how hard she struggled, they wouldn't let go.
"Old man, what's this? Why's it doing that?"
To Yuri's question, Johan gave an utterly unrelated answer.
"Those who form an avatar are currently called Masters. But before the current classifications, the realm of manifesting an avatar was called the Entering Divinity stage, said to hold the potential to become a god as a human."
"...What the hell are you talking about?"
"And those who reach the Entering Divinity stage were called demigods."
"Ah, whatever. Just get this off me?"
"Watch closely. If you solve that homework, you too could become a demigod, even if only halfway. That's the reward you stand to gain."
Johan spouted nonsense that Yuri couldn't make heads or tails of.
Just as she was about to snap at him in irritation.
Crackle.
"Huh?"
A strange sound rang out, and yellow lightning flashed within the white clouds.
The yellow lightning didn't harm Yuri at all.
Crackle-crackle.
But the lightning branched out in streaks, instantly engulfing the entire white cloud.
And then.
Rumble-rumble-roar.
The cloud carrying Johan and Yuri shot straight up at an astonishing speed.
"......?!'
The sudden turn of events.
Her heart pounded in shock, but the overwhelming pressure crushed her, leaving her unable to even scream.
The ascent only stopped when that endlessly long river looked like a thick tree branch below.
"Wh-what is this?!"
Even with Yuri's guts of steel, her legs trembled at the sight beneath her from that insane height.
And knowing the clouds holding her up could vanish any second, it was a miracle she didn't wet herself right there.
But Johan, the culprit behind this mess, was utterly nonchalant.
Beyond nonchalant, he was strolling lightly across the clouds with his hands behind his back.
Johan flashed Yuri a smile.
"Hang in there."
"...Huh?"
Whoosh.
Before Yuri could utter her dazed response, the clouds flashed with lightning and shot forward like an arrow.
"Argh!"
Johan stood calmly with hands behind his back, but Yuri's upper body whipped back violently.
If the clouds hadn't held her feet, she'd have tumbled off.
"Eeek!"
At the ferocious speed, Yuri barely straightened her upper body, but the wind pressure kept her eyes shut and stole her breath.
'Flow... I need to grasp the air flow!'
Staying like this would suffocate her to death.
Yuri desperately adjusted the air currents swirling around her.
Only then could she breathe and open her eyes.
The first thing she saw was Johan's back, hands still clasped behind him.
With a bit of leeway now, she took in the scenery whipping past below.
Her eyes naturally widened.
'People... can fly through the sky?!"
They said those who reached cloud-walking could tread the air, but this was beyond walking.
Only now did she understand Johan's earlier words.
'Form an avatar, and even halfway, you become a god?'
Blowing away a cliff like it was nothing, freely soaring through the skies.
Someone with such power could truly be called a god, right?
But that was Yuri's hasty judgment.
Swoosh.
Johan, hands behind his back, slowly turned his head.
Heh.
He was grinning.
A mocking smirk, as if to say this was nothing for a demigod.
Yuri felt an inexplicable unease.
At the same time, Johan said something, but the roaring wind drowned it out completely.
She could only guess from his lip movements.
'So......'
Pucker-pucker.
Yuri's eyes narrowed as she watched his mouth.
'Let's fly like crazy......'
Yuri stammered out the interpretation and finally nailed it.
'...Zoom-zoom?'
As the translation sank in, Yuri's face drained of color.
"W-wait a sec!"
She thrust out her hand desperately, but it didn't reach Johan.
He was already facing forward.
And the white clouds carrying them accelerated sharply.
Whoosh!
They broke the sound barrier in an instant.
Boom!
Leaving a disc-shaped shockwave, the white zoom-zoom clouds charged straight ahead.
Inside, Yuri clung for dear life, controlling the air flow, terrified her skin would peel off.
She screamed while desperately manipulating the currents.
"D-don't... zoom this thing... onto anything... you crazy... old geezer! Arghhh!"
This damned zoom-zoom!
Whether from wind pressure or rage.
Yuri's cheeks flapped wildly.
* * *
Dazed, Yuri stood on the roadside, staring blankly at the harbor.
Her hair splayed like a lion's mane.
Eyes bloodshot red with burst capillaries.
Sunken cheeks and dark shadows under her eyes.
White drool crusted at her mouth.
Her appearance was utterly grotesque and pitiful.
Even on a busy thoroughfare, people gave her a wide berth, leaving an empty zone around her like a barrier.
And in stark contrast stood Johan, looking impeccably refreshed.
He nodded proudly.
"Right on time."
His utterly invigorated voice echoed in Yuri's ears.
At the same time, the hellish ordeal flashed through her mind.
'How... long was that?'
She couldn't recall the exact time.
Just that she'd clung on for dear life until the sun set and rose again.
By feel, at least a full day at that terrifying speed.
'Th-that was horrific......'
Exhausted from rowing the ferry, she'd burned through her mana just to stay alive.
Never had heaven felt so close.
The sky was dizzyingly high already; closing her eyes felt like she'd wake up in paradise.
'...Pretty sure I glimpsed heaven's gates for a sec.'
But apparently not her time yet, as Yuri safely touched down.
Near Montparche Lake, home to the Dragon's Cradle, no less.
The realization felt dreamlike.
'Worthy of being called a demigod, alright.'
Covering three months on horseback in a single day.
To ordinary eyes, that was demigod power.
'If I form an avatar... could I do it too?'
If she solved Johan's homework and forged a true avatar.
Could she wield such power?
Yuri's hand clenched into a tight fist.
Squeeze.
'This homework's a must-solve, huh?'
Today's ordeal was brutally grueling.
But it etched the reward waiting beyond—and why she had to solve it—into her soul.
'That said.'
She never wanted to relive it.
Shiver.
As the horrific memory resurfaced, making her tremble.
'Huh?'
A thought crossed her mind.
'Wait a minute?!'
Yuri whipped her head around, her voice low and gravelly.
"Old man?"
"Yeah?"
"You could come like this... so why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Johan had demigod speed for three months' travel in a day.
If he'd flown just an hour or two daily, they'd have arrived a month early and been resting by now.
To that, Johan snorted and shot back casually.
"You didn't ask."
As if it was the most obvious thing.
Yuri's conviction hardened.
'This jerk... did it on purpose.'
Told her on purpose at the last minute.
'Why?'
Why hold out?
The reason was obvious.
'Why else? To torment me!'
That rotten old man!
Yuri's last thread of reason snapped.
"...Old man."
"Yeah."
"Old man, when's the moment in life you wanted to kill someone most?"
"Why ask that outta nowhere?"
"I think... it's right now."
Shing.
Yuri drew her black sword, her eyes overflowing with rage and madness.
"For Whitey's first taste of blood to be you... heehee."
Cackling maniacally, her eyes rolled back.
She charged, swinging her beloved sword named Whitey.
"Die, you old bastard!"
* * *
A reckless assault that threw life to the wind.
But Yuri's attack on the old man failed its goal.
The target was monstrously strong for his age.
Not even grazing his clothes, Yuri paid for losing her head.
"Ow......"
Swollen cheeks like balloons, lips puffed like bee stings.
One eye bruised black and blue.
Beaten until her eyes swelled shut, Yuri blacked out briefly and woke beside a dumpster in an alley.
The stench of garbage stung her nose, and agony wracked her body.
It snapped her back to sanity; her eyes gleamed fiercely.
'Just you wait, you old fart... Think you'll stay spry till you drop dead? One day you'll hobble on a cane! Then I'll snap that rotten old man's stick in two!'
...Or maybe not fully sane yet.
Engraving her grudge to the bone, Yuri hauled herself up.
'Ugh... gonna die.'
Every inch throbbed from the thorough thrashing.
'How long was I out? Hope they haven't finished admissions already?'
After that hell, missing the Cradle would give her a fit of rage.
She staggered out of the alley.
Emerging, she was greeted by the bustling docks, thick with fishy brine.
And a spectacle that erased even her grudge.
A crisp, endless horizon.
Azure waves stretching forever, sunlight glittering like jewels.
Her first time seeing such beauty, Yuri's lips parted in awe.
"Wow......"
On arrival, she'd been too frantic and furious to notice.
Now, sane and taking it in, Montparche Lake was magnificent.
'Is this... Montparche Lake?'
The world's largest, nearly province-sized.
Crossing straight by boat took dozens of days end to end—immense.
Common knowledge she'd known, but seeing it firsthand explained why it was called the greatest lake.
'Is this really a lake? Not the sea?'
As Yuri stared blankly at the boundless blue waves.
Toot.
A heavy horn blast echoed from somewhere.