Chapter 263
Chapter 263
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 263
Chapter Title: Hero
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"Ha... ha..."
[Don't misunderstand, Hero! I wasn't keeping watch over you! I heard you sobbing, so I came by for a moment, and there you were, calling out for me over and over...]
"Forget about that..."
I had said some harsh words to the Saintess when we parted ways.
It was still... hard to forgive her for putting Master in mortal danger, but I'd ultimately managed to save her somehow.
And most crucially, the contract between her and me had been broken.
All thanks to the Heavenly Demon.
"...Things just ended up like this."
A big part of why the sharp edge of my feelings toward her had dulled was this.
The contract that had been a massive source of stress up until then had unexpectedly shattered.
In the end, it made me look like the one who'd scammed her, so it felt off for me to keep raging about it.
She'd given everything she had, and I'd returned nothing, so honestly, by the situation alone, I was the bad guy.
...And thinking about how I'd come crying back to her now made my face burn hot.
[Oh, come on. I'm just happy that you're coming to me like this, Hero.]
"..."
Setting aside her impure motives, she was so devoted that I couldn't really complain.
It felt like she was aiming for me to cross over out of guilt.
...Still, I couldn't let my guard down.
Her devotion was limited to me alone.
Just think about that contract where she'd held Dang Ayoung's life hostage...
[Th-that was really because the situation was urgent, and I had no choice! Time kept passing, and you showed no sign of coming over... From my position, it was a moment you couldn't refuse, not knowing when you'd return...]
"...Sigh."
Well, that contract had been nullified anyway, so I couldn't say much more.
"...But come to think of it, you're being awfully meek."
[About what?]
"I figured you'd throw a fit since the contract's broken and you can't drag me over anymore."
[Oh, no, it's fine. I already vented about that three days ago by smashing five rooms in the temple.]
'She vented with violence?!'
She seemed further from saintly by the day...
[Why don't you believe me! Do I look like some violent woman to you?!]
"Hmm..."
[You need to take a joke as a joke! I've felt this way for a while now, but you believe people way too easily, Hero!]
"...I've heard that one before."
But setting that aside, I wasn't convinced the Saintess was far from violence.
She was a war hero, after all.
And sometimes, scary sides of her peeked through...
[Just go ahead and leave already!]
"Sorry, I won't tease anymore."
Either way, what she offered was what we needed right now, so I swallowed my pride.
[Well, you're not new to acting like this, Hero. So, what you want now is advice on handling this situation, right?]
"...That's part of it, but..."
...I wanted to talk.
With someone who could understand.
[Hmm... I knew she was odd, but this is worse than I imagined. It's natural that a mortal reaching near-transcendent heights defies common sense, but...]
"..."
I knew this was rude to say,
but she scared me.
She hadn't harmed me yet—in fact, she'd mostly been good to me—but being near her made my body tremble on its own.
-Shiver shiver shiver
Above all, those eyes of hers I'd seen back then wouldn't leave my mind.
It was like a wedding day today, but
I didn't have the confidence to meet her gaze from now on.
"Am I... a bad person...?"
[...]
"No... thinking about it, including the Saintess, I've always been like this. I just take and never give back."
I'd received countless things from other women,
but what I'd given them was meager courtesy compared to their feelings for me. And this body of mine, which I could indulge in whenever.
"Why... do I even exist?"
I knew.
If I hadn't come to the martial world, my fate would've been to go to the Saintess's world and live as a stud horse.
If I had to measure my worth... it was closer to that.
Like that incident at the coronation.
Not one or two, but countless gazes instantly drowning in lust.
That was no normal situation.
Pretty, handsome, cute—I could buy that,
but all unified in raw, lascivious lust? Even if this face appealed to women, it didn't explain that.
"Tell me. What the hell... is this body for?"
I needed to know now.
I was tired of struggling blindly, not knowing why.
Even if I lived on, I had to know...
why I was living like this.
[You're quite resolute this time.]
"...Until now, I lacked the reason... or the courage to ask."
I'd vaguely suspected.
I... probably didn't have an ordinary role in this world.
From coming from another world, everything around me was far from normal,
but the weight of it felt heavier than I imagined, so I'd deliberately looked away.
People sometimes want to flee heavy truths.
[So... you're prepared now?]
"...Yes."
[You won't regret asking just because you found out?]
......Honestly, no.
But...
"...I still want to know."
Even if I regretted it, I wanted to know.
So tell me.
"...What kind of person was I in that world?"
About my past that I could no longer remember.
The world changing like this feels like ages ago now.
Our world was close to what you'd call a fantasy world in the Hero's world.
Advanced scientific civilization like you described wasn't widespread... It was a world full of swords and magic.
It wasn't perfectly peaceful—wars broke out often—but not to the point of endless conflict for decades or centuries.
Yes. That day came suddenly.
Truly out of nowhere. In our world, the dead began to rise and move.
The countless accumulated deaths stirred from deep underground, starting to strangle the living.
Shamefully, we couldn't pinpoint the cause quickly.
Foolishly, only after the living turned on each other did we realize it was the living dead. The birth of the Transcendent of Death.
By then, much time had passed, but the survivors banded together late to resist.
We scraped every available force and began our struggle to survive.
And that's when you, the Hero, arrived.
I heard the gods made a deal.
They'd send a capable hero from Earth in exchange for a few things we had that they wanted.
Our goddess accepted, and soon after, the Hero came to us.
And that's when we learned.
The contract was a scam.
They did send a person, but the Hero back then... was far from what we expected.
He was more like someone unwittingly sold off, unaware himself.
Since it was a deal between gods, we couldn't know the details, but... the Hero was too weak to throw into our war.
We couldn't send him back, nor was our situation good enough to spare him, so we agonized over what to do when
the Hero reached out to us first.
Though half-deceived, he'd contracted with Earth's god, so he willingly offered to fight.
And... at that time, every single person was precious to us,
so despite feeling truly sorry, we couldn't refuse his hand.
But sending that frail Hero straight to the battlefield would've been no different from killing him,
so that day, I shared my life with the Hero.
I gave half my power to raise his level in one go, but if one died, both would—a sacred contract we rarely used.
Everyone tried to stop me, but I couldn't send the Hero unprepared into battle.
It was atonement for dragging him into our mess without consent and my duty as the goddess's saintess.
And unexpectedly, the Hero synergized well with my power, quickly rising as a pillar of the alliance.
What followed is a clichéd tale.
The Hero ultimately succeeded in piercing the Transcendent of Death's unbeating heart with his holy sword, but at the cost of a fatal wound.
Worried his death would kill me too, the Hero declared the contract complete at that moment and returned to his original world, Earth.
He likely breathed his last upon returning, but given his achievements, reincarnation on Earth wouldn't have been hard.
And the problem the Hero foresaw began after that.