#063 Farewell
#063 Farewell
"...Fine."
Rosemas made up her mind.
She had wanted to avoid using her trump card if at all possible, but in the end there was no choice but to use that method.
"If I'm going to beat the witch, I have no choice but to draw Arthur's attention better than she does."
She would defeat the witch.
Right now she was being pushed back badly, but in the end, the one who wins last is the true victor.
Just think of the war between humanity and the Demon King Army.
Humanity had been driven to the brink of annihilation, and most of the elves had been enslaved or forcibly absorbed into the Demon King Army's territory, but wasn't the master of the continent now the Human Alliance?
In the end, the one who laughs last wins.
No matter how much ground she conceded to the witch now, as long as Rosemas achieved final victory, everything happening now would end as nothing more than a momentary hiccup.
"Arthur, there's somewhere I'd like us to go for a moment."
"Will it take long?"
"No. We can be back quickly. The witch did say she'd need a little time while she's out...!!"
Right.
Even if this time had been made for her by an 'enemy,' she couldn't afford to waste it.
"Follow me, Arthur."
Rosemas led Lucius somewhere.
It was a familiar place to Lucius—the place where he had bought his sword—the elven smithy.
"Huh? What brings you..."
"Please give Lucius a sword and a set of Guardians of the Forest attire for me."
"......What?"
Fergus, a blacksmith worn down by the human world but still an elf through and through, could only stand there helplessly at the words of this brazen customer who had barged in without warning.
-I'll tell Mother.
"......."
Rosemas Tervation.
For Fergus, worn down by the human world, the fact that Rosemas was 'royalty' was all she could fixate on.
"...Haha, customer. The goods we sell are..."
"Here."
Thud!
Rosemas set a pouch of jewels down in front of Fergus.
At the sight of so many jewels that one might wonder whether they should have been brought in a chest, Fergus licked her lips.
"Rosemas, where did those come from?"
"They say a sandworm swallowed some unscrupulous merchant's house. He probably made his money through unsavory means. The merchant begged people around him for help in tears, but none of the merchant company people helped him."
"......."
Lucius could say nothing.
"Customer, we do have guardian attire inside, but..."
"Give me that. Arthur, will you wait just a moment?"
Rosemas disappeared into the room.
Lucius gazed at the heaped pile of jewels, tilting his head to the side, and waited in silence.
"Ah, Arthur...?"
Rosemas emerged after changing clothes.
A breastplate that left her abdomen fully exposed.
A skirt that revealed everything below her thighs.
And a robe draped lightly over it.
The outfit, with white, gold, and green harmonizing beautifully overall, was the kind of attire that would draw any man's eye—
"It suits you."
"......."
Lucius's voice was utterly flat.
* * *
Before leaving.
I hid myself among the crowds for a moment, then waited for a lull in foot traffic and arranged a place to meet Bareness.
"...Witch?"
"Shh."
Bareness was in her bedroom.
She had taken a room at an inn operated by the Adventurers' Guild, and she was greatly flustered when I suddenly appeared.
"...You don't seem to be a fake."
"What would you have done if I were?"
"I would have cut you down."
Bareness was already gripping her Holy Sword in her hand. Dressed in white silk sleepwear, she looked quite startled by my appearance in the dead of night.
"...What brings you here?"
"I wanted to say a brief goodbye before leaving."
"Goodbye? No—you're leaving?"
"Yes. I'm going to pursue Acedia's trail."
I briefly laid out our plan.
"Backtracing the mana left in the Dimensional Gate's Magic Circle...? That's impossible. Something like that..."
"You say it's impossible too. I'm glad I asked."
It seemed the magic for backtracing Dimensional Gates had been lost over the five hundred years.
"I can do it. I am the Crimson Mage, after all. I've been weakened for certain reasons at the moment, but I was once a Grand Mage whom even Demon Kings feared."
"What in the..."
"Here."
I pulled off the knit top I was wearing in one motion.
Bareness was flustered at first, but when she saw my chest—the area over my heart—her expression hardened.
"Right now I'm nothing more than a living creature barely moving by the power of mana. Practically the same as an undead."
"Ah, ahh..."
"I broke the seal and came out to defeat the Demon King. Right now..."
Swish.
Bareness put away her Holy Sword in an instant.
The cluster of light shot toward her neck in a flash and transformed into a necklace—a golden chain set with a red gem.
'Oh-ho.'
So that's how it is.
This one chose to transform into a gold necklace.
"I'm sorry, Witch. Not knowing your circumstances, I pushed the teachings of the Azure Moon Goddess on you..."
"No. You haven't done anything wrong. You didn't know. I'd been thinking I should tell you someday, and now I'm telling you like this."
That the Azure Moon Goddess's blessing does not work on me.
That the proselytizing you directed at me means nothing to me.
So don't think about trying to convert me from now on.
"Still, even if what we believe in is different, our goal of saving people is the same, right?"
"...Yes!"
The effect of baring my upper body once was truly remarkable.
Bareness, whose favorability toward me had already risen before, now had her favorability and trust soaring to the heavens because I had revealed my true identity.
A hero and comrade who had saved the city together.
"Thanks to you, Bareness, we were able to defeat the monstrous bird. Lucius helped too, but without your strength it would certainly have been difficult. Bareness, thank you so much."
"Witch..."
"But I can't keep relying on your help forever. Bareness, if you ever face something hard and painful, call for me. I'll help you anytime."
"Witch...!!"
What a Holy Sword Hero needs most is a pillar by their side—someone they can trust and entrust themselves to, or someone they can lean on when they are mentally struggling and breaking down.
"Of course, the Azure Moon Goddess will be by your side, but if you ever need human warmth, come find me. If it's you, Bareness, I'll hold you anytime."
A Hero forms a 'party' partly to fill the abilities they lack when facing Demonfolk alone, but also to overcome the mental exhaustion of fighting alone through their comrades.
"Ah, of course, not real warmth—I mean, I'd just warm you with mana..."
"That's more than enough."
Bareness buried her face in my chest.
"It seems I keep receiving so much from you. Thank you so much, Witch."
"Don't mention it. ...Bareness."
I pressed my forehead against Bareness's and reached toward her necklace.
Bareness flinched for an instant, but I closed my eyes and offered a prayer toward her.
"May the flame of the Holy Spirit that brightens the night sky be with you on the path ahead."
"!!"
Bareness's eyes went wide.
I lightly pressed my lips to her necklace, then stroked Bareness's hair and put some distance between us.
"I look forward to working with you from now on, Flame Hero."
"You..."
Thump.
Bareness collapsed.
I laid her down properly on the bed, then rubbed her necklace gem against a Mana Stone I had prepared in advance.
Whoosh.
"...This is payment for the awakening."
The Mana Stone, which had seemed empty inside, filled with crimson energy in an instant.
I drew just a tiny bit of the Holy Sword's near-infinite power into the Mana Stone—like scooping a single cup from a reservoir.
"...In exchange, I'll be taking that 'thing' you don't yet know about."
Because that was the price for releasing the 'seal' dwelling in Bareness's Holy Sword by one more stage.
'I can't let talent like this slip away.'
A Hero who performs this brilliantly with a Flame Holy Sword released only to the 'first stage'?
If not for the Azure Moon Goddess issue, she'd be someone I'd genuinely want to put in Lucius's party.
But.
The protagonist of Lucius's party is Lucius.
If Bareness joined, attention would surely shift to her, and Lucius would be pushed out of the spotlight.
"Sleep well, Hero."
And for my sake, swing that Flame Holy Sword.
With the Flame Holy Sword, 'Flamberge,' made even stronger through the second-stage seal release, burn that bastard Zepar to death.
I prayed for Bareness and left her room with teleportation magic.
* * *
Midnight.
The promised 'tomorrow' had arrived.
In terms of hours, a full day had not yet passed, but by the calendar it was unmistakably the promised tomorrow, so it was time to leave.
"It looks like you're both ready."
Both Lucius and Rosemas had changed noticeably.
If Lucius had gone from a rookie adventurer to looking like a veteran mercenary, Rosemas was now outfitted in the typical elven guardian attire one would see in the forest.
"Lucius, it seems you went to see Morgen, and Rosemas, you went to see that elven blacksmith?"
"That's right, Master."
"...I'm not an official guardian, but it was a gift. How do I look...?"
"Cute and pretty."
Though looking at it is hell for me.
At the sight of the elven guardian uniform that hadn't changed in five hundred years, memories of fierce battles in the forest came back to me, and I felt phantom pains stabbing all over my body.
"Then I'll begin the backtrace... Found it."
"...Pardon?"
"You found it... already?"
"Of course."
I pointed at the lake.
"The Dimensional Gate may have unfolded over the lake, but the traces of mana scattered around it are easy to locate."
I was once the Great Demon King.
One who stood at the pinnacle of magic.
No matter how much human magic had advanced over five hundred years, it could not compare to the 'strongest mage' of the 'era when magic was most advanced.'
"Back then, if you couldn't figure these things out quickly, people died in droves."
"Ah..."
"That won't happen now, and even if something like that did happen, we'd have to make sure it doesn't. Now then, shall we head over?"
I spread out a map.
"We could cross over directly to the coordinates we found, but that might drop us right into the enemy's stronghold. Let's move to a nearby city instead."
"Where is it?"
"Hmm... It's a bit far, but you may have heard of it, Lucius."
It wasn't very far from the Holy Sword Village.
"The County of Odron."