Former Hero, Current Unemployed Liam (3)

I scrutinized the stone statue modeled after myself, my gaze thick with dissatisfaction.

"It's honestly not bad, is it?"

"The craftsmanship is good, I'll give it that."

The quality was exceptional — it didn't look handmade. But no matter how I looked at it, the chest was far too large. It was a size steeped in someone's very particular taste.

"This is Liam's doing, isn't it?"

"Correct. He likes well-endowed women."

I'd asked just in case, and that was the answer.

"It appears he egged the Sage on from the side while she was crafting it."

She was still a child, so she'd have been easy to talk into it. The problem was that it wasn't just Breni — the other kids were the same.

"Since when have you been hanging around the Hero party?"

"From the very day you went to meet Logan."

Which meant they'd been together for about six days. More than enough time to stain those innocent kids into becoming like him.

"Tell me honestly what you did."

"I did not do anything wicked."

Eluke's face tightened slightly.

"Did not every member of the Hero party originally follow and admire you?"

"They did."

I hadn't intended it, but that was just how things had ended up.

"Liam inflated those feelings. You can probably guess what state they are in now."

"Fanatics?"

"Not quite that far, but the impression is similar."

I wasn't even angry anymore. Thinking back on my Hero party days — when not a single day had passed without incident — I only felt bitter.

"From now on, you're in charge of managing them. If you have to, put a leash on them."

"Understood. While we are on the subject, I shall go see Liam."

Eluke bowed her head in greeting and returned to the earthen house. After seeing her off, I let out a long breath.

"Cheer up."

"Nothing's going my way these days."

At some point, events had started unfolding however they pleased, slipping entirely beyond my will. When had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it begun? Tracing back through my memories, I arrived at last at the day I had given Selen that mental training.

Should I have been more careful with my acting? If I hadn't left any room for us to grow close, a great many things would have been different. I probably would have smoothly accomplished my goal of having the Hero party take down the Banished Saintess, too. Compared to the twisted present, the thought left a bitter taste in my mouth.

But thinking about it now, Selen had known me far too well that day. It was strange to chalk it up to simply outstanding judgment. When she had faced Kbalt possessing Master, she had been frightened, if only for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a moment. So why, when I appeared, had she shown no tension at all — and even tried to lure me in?

"Let us move upstairs."

Dwain's sudden address pulled me from my thoughts.

"I will fill you in on what happened while you were gone."

I didn't have anything else to do, so I accepted and went up to the second floor with him.

The gloomy attic had been transformed into a bright, cheerful private room. And of course, it was pink from top to bottom. Not a single other color in sight. It was better than the bleakness from before, but I didn't particularly want to linger.

"I'm starting to hate the color pink."

"Not as much as I do."

Looking at the product of the other world's Liam's fervent love for Clitia was enough to make me dizzy.

"This is my room."

The actual homeowner didn't seem bothered in the slightest.

"Did you really need to do this to your personal space?"

"The Guardian Deity's blessing must permeate daily life."

Dwain launched into some bizarre speech with a solemn face.

"Pink is the color of a born warrior. Dressed like this, even grueling volunteer work is no problem."

"Whose idea was that?"

"A conclusion I arrived at through repeated prayer, alone."

He already looked ridiculous wearing a pink bridal gown with that barbarian-warrior face of his. And now he was lowering his own dignity even further with this nonsense.

"Imagine Ivar saying that."

"Don't ruin my memories."

"You look the same anyway."

"I still don't like it."

He'd nearly tarnished the image of Ivar, who now lived only in my memories.

"Then I shall now report on the developments thus far."

Dwain suddenly switched to formal speech and dropped to one knee. The courteous etiquette came out as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The bandit chief had vanished, and a former knight had appeared in his place.

"What's this all of a sudden?"

"I am merely paying respects to the Guardian Deity."

He had definitely hit his head when we fought.

"This is starting to feel like a cult."

Leaving this alone would be far too blasphemous. Only one sun should rise in the sky.

"Please stop calling me a god."

"Then may I address you as Guardian Saintess?"

"Call me that instead."

Both were burdensome, but I picked the lesser of two evils.

"Guardian Saintess, if it makes you uncomfortable, I shall observe the formalities only when reporting."

"Fine."

"I am humbled by your merciful heart."

Somehow I felt like I was being slowly pulled along exactly as intended. It was unsettling, but I only had a hunch, so I couldn't really call him out on it.

"First, regarding the matter of the Corpse Locust variant attack. The Sage of the Hero party treated every person who had been parasitized."

Breni really was reliable.

"No aftereffects?"

"They are all well. Thanks to the Guardian Saintess looking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠after us."

"......"

I should have just let him call me Saintess normally. A slightly belated regret.

"Every victim, myself included, has recovered enough to resume daily life. The man who is captain of the Evergreen Mercenary Group is still recuperating in the village."

"What's wrong with him?"

"I hear his bones were broken."

That was probably my fault, but I wasn't particularly sorry. He was a man of filthy everyday conduct, wasn't he? You reap what you sow.

"Next, I shall report on the current status of the Hero party."

"Go on."

Listening to him, I was getting used to the respectful treatment. Was this what they called the corruption of power? If I didn't stay sharp, I might become a cult leader without even realizing it.

"The Hero party has gone to train and work on their coordination."

"They're not going to join up with the Saintess?"

"A revelation came down to the Hero. She was told to seek out the Saintess later."

That didn't sound ordinary. As far as I knew, this was the first time She had ever issued an order to delay a meeting with a companion.

"You don't know why?"

"Even the Hero does not know the details. The Church has shown no particular movement either."

Was it related to the revelation telling them to stay away from me? There was no way to know for now.

"Moving on."

"Ah — what happened to the pureblood vampire who came to make contact with you?"

Of the two vampires who had been controlled by the variants, I had left one alive. Now I needed to extract information.

"I was just about to address that. I have already made her obedient, so there is no need for you to expend any effort."

A pureblood submitting to a turned vampire. He definitely hadn't used ordinary methods.

"What did you do?"

Even as I asked, I was afraid to hear the answer.

"I left only the head."

"......"

That was not the face of a man telling a joke.

"You need not worry. A pureblood can survive with only a neck."

"I know that. But you're a volunteer organization now."

"Neutralizing a pureblood vampire is also part of volunteer work."

He explained it by comparing the task to removing an invasive species, so I just let out a laugh.

"Didn't you say the pureblood was your benefactor?"

"That is why I severed the neck as courteously as possible."

I realized that picking at every little thing would only exhaust me.

"Where is she now?"

"She will come if I call."

"You said only the head was left."

"When I told them it was for the Guardian Saintess, the Hero party put their abilities to work as I requested."

Dwain's lips curled up with pride as he stained one hand blood-red.

"She is completely subordinate to me."

Before long, the sound of someone climbing the stairs could be heard, and a vampire entered the room. Silver hair, vivid crimson eyes. I had been too caught up in the urgency of the situation back then to notice — she was a woman. She looked perfectly fine. The head, at least. Everything below the neck had been replaced with a body of teal-colored Aura.

"Allow me to introduce her. Aura-based artificial-body vampire, Aren10."

I pressed my face against the cool crown of Logan's head. The chaos in my mind settled at once.

"That's the Great Warrior's Aura. The Sage's magic and the Guardian's spirit arts are woven in as well."

The result of three powers combined with exquisite precision. Each of their talents, concentrated into a horrific form. Wasn't this too wretched a state to have been made by the Hero party?

The other world's Liam was the culprit. That bastard had ruined those kids.

"Where is the Hero party right now?"

"Shall I guide you?"

"Let's go."

I intended to put things back the way they were, before it was too late.

The earthen house on the outskirts of the volunteer brigade. Left alone, Liam lay on the bed, sunk in deep thought.

Strange.

Breniaketra. The Dragon Tongue used as the Sage's name was far too ominous to simply let pass.

Together, it became a command to turn the entire world to cinders. A perfect sentence, with no room for a divided reading. Highly inappropriate as a name for a young dragon.

Who had given her that name? It was not the master of the Purple Magic Tower, at least. Dragon Tongue could only be learned by standing face to face with an adult dragon. The Sage was still young, so she would not know. Which meant the culprits were the parent dragons who had abandoned her in front of the Magic Tower and fled.

They had supposedly erased her memories before discarding her. If that was true, it meant they had deliberately left behind a single sentence of Dragon Tongue. It did not make sense, no matter how he turned it over.

The fact that the Sage's face looked familiar was puzzling as well. Suspicions tangled and knotted over one another. He closed his eyes and quietly set his thoughts in order — and as he did, a memory from the past, long buried in oblivion, suddenly surfaced.

...A revelation.

They had never met in person. She had been one of the countless seeds of evil the Goddess had shown him in a dream.

A Gold Dragon destined to be stained by darkness. The Goddess had even shown him the form of the dragon transformed into a human through body-alteration magic, and told him to kill her.

But the Sun of this world had chosen her as the Sage and placed her in the Hero party. Why had such a difference occurred?

As Liam turned it over, a thought flashed through his mind, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and he bolted upright.

The Goddess has changed, too.

Two Suns that were no longer the same. It was not an absurd imagination. The two Clitias who had split to opposite extremes were already proving the possibility, were they not?

Which one had drifted further from her original self? The truth was all too obvious. It was the Goddess of this world — the only world in which the Hero party had failed to defeat the Demon King, and been defeated instead.

He had his answer. But the suspicions still had not vanished.

Good and evil. It was still unclear which direction She had gone. And if She had become a twisted being — how would Clitia react, upon learning that the sunlight she had yearned for all this time had grown vicious?

She'd fall apart...

Just thinking about it made his chest tight.

"I have returned."

Liam placed a hand on the shoulder of Eluke, who had come back at just the right moment.

"What is the matter?"

"Let's find a way to secretly investigate the area around the Demon King's Castle."

The clue that would resolve every question lay on the day this world's Hero party had fallen to the Demon King.

"What is this."

I covered my burning face. It was hard to keep my eyes open.

"Unni, we made this!"

At another village entrance, situated in the opposite direction from where the earthen house stood, a statue of Clitia roughly three times the size of the one at headquarters towered over the road.

"Why did you make this."

"Please take a good look."

At Selen's gesture, fire erupted from the statue's mouth. Pink light flashed fiercely from both eyes.

"We made it to protect the village. Isn't it magnificent?"

Watching them huddled together celebrating, all I could do was sigh. Logan was clicking her tongue beside me as well.

"Should you not give them a sharp word?"

I was already wanting to.

"Do you think the Goddess chose you so you could go around playing pranks?"

At those ice-cold words — meant to freeze even the affection they held toward me — Selen's expression hardened.

"Unni, we worked so hard..."

"Enough. All four of you, follow me."

A second round of mental training was in order.