Heaven's Secrets Revealed
—Nngh, nnnngh…!
The Upper Class monster, the Black Tiger, realized it could not move so much as a single muscle and began to whimper. No matter how hard it strained, its body would not budge. Considering it routinely dragged around monster corpses several times its own weight, this was simply impossible.
Rainia approached the immobilized Black Tiger, casually drew her sword, and drove it into the creature's vital point.
"Hmm… so this is about the level of it."
Nine tails swaying behind her, Rainia flexed her hands as if she had gotten a rough feel for the power.
After consuming the elixir in the Archmage's dungeon, Rainia had gained a new ability. It was not something that could be obtained through training or study.
Like a newborn fawn walking on four legs, or a fledgling tumbling from a cliff and taking flight without ever having been taught — simply by virtue of having tails, she had awakened to this power.
Fox Arts.
The specialty of the fox clan: the ability to bewitch and control others.
"Amazing! Rainia, at this level we won't even need a vanguard anymore!"
"Yeah. Good thing we didn't lose our leader."
"…It's not that impressive yet. I can tell I still need more training."
Flustered and blushing, Rainia played it modest. But the truth was that after awakening the potential of the fox clan, her skills had improved tremendously.
If one considered her alone, she had likely reached the level of a Highest Class adventurer. And if that was the case, she had taken one step closer to Evan…
"…Let's keep hunting. This time I'll take on two at once — that okay?"
"Of course!"
"If things go south, we'll ditch the leader and run."
"No, I said we'd fight together to the end…"
After visiting the church, Evan had grown up a little. He had managed to grasp, to some degree, a concept that could not quite be described as mere responsibility.
And that sense of responsibility soon manifested as a certain distance from other people — the way most children do when they decide they have become adults.
"Ohohoho~! I heard a rumor that the Sword Saint is here! Sword Saint! Are you present!"
"That's me."
"Sword Saint! I shall specially offer you the opportunity to become the master of our Montblanc Trading Company! By marrying me!"
Evan looked at the woman who had suddenly confessed to him. A woman with charming, lustrous golden hair. She had a voluptuous figure, and her looks were more than adequate.
If the old Evan had received this confession, he would have floundered in confusion, then simply nodded and accepted it.
But the adult he was now was different.
"I'm sorry. I don't feel that way yet."
"A-are you saying I'm not good enough!?"
"No, you're beautiful enough. But… I just don't feel any sincerity from you right now."
The woman before him did not seem to truly love him so much as she was trying to marry him out of a sense of duty or responsibility — to further prosper her trading company.
Unfortunately, he could not connect with someone who wanted to marry out of that kind of responsibility. He was an adult now. He could not let other people get married out of mere obligation.
Having rejected the confession while sipping hot milk, Evan struck what he considered his coolest pose and became thoroughly absorbed in his own image.
Evelyn Montblanc, the merchant who had confessed to him, flushed red at the sight and quickly snapped open her fan to cover her mouth.
"O-oh, I will never forget what happened today! I will make sure you regret this!"
Even after Evelyn left those parting words and vanished, Evan continued posing while sipping his hot milk — then stuck out his tongue and swallowed hard.
"Ssss— damn, that's hot…"
He had gulped it down while striking a pose and completely burned his tongue. He immediately asked the waitress for ice water, then cooled his tongue with the ice she brought, tears welling in his eyes.
Rebecca, who had brought the ice water, burst into giggles at the sight of Evan with his cheeks puffed full of ice.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fime."
"That's why you shouldn't force yourself…"
Evan silently cooled his tongue. Rebecca gazed at him with the fond affection one might reserve for a little brother, then carefully sat down beside him and spoke.
"Evan, why did you reject her earlier?"
"Who?"
"The lady of the Montblanc Trading Company. If you'd joined her, you could have had the whole world in your hands."
"…Rebecca, did she bribe you?"
"What? No, no! How could a guild employee… I'm just telling you the facts as they are. The Montblanc Trading Company is extremely famous."
The great trading company run by its proprietress, Evelyn Montblanc. A colossal organization that stretched beyond the kingdom to the entire world.
According to rumor, the taxes Montblanc paid in a single year easily exceeded hundreds of millions of Elso. If they got their hands on a strategic weapon like Evan, there was no telling what they might accomplish.
"If you belonged to them, they'd surely become a mega-corporation spanning the entire world, beyond just one nation…"
"Should I run after her right now and beg her to take me?"
"That wouldn't be so bad either?"
"I was joking."
Crunching ice between his teeth with a sly grin, Evan looked at Rebecca and asked.
"Rebecca. I'm a special person. Did you know that?"
"Of course you're special, Evan…"
"I only knew it in words. I only truly realized it recently."
He had realized he was a being incomparable to ordinary people only recently, when he had entered the dungeon with the White Wolf party.
Every other party member had prepared a will before entering the dungeon, yet he had not even considered the possibility of dying.
And the other party members had not particularly thought about it either. Meaning they assumed that of course he would survive.
"I'm different from other people. Money that others spend a lifetime trying to earn, I can make in an instant if I put my mind to it. Things other people can't say or do for fear of consequences — I can do them freely."
And that was because—
"I'm the Sword Saint."
Because he was a superhuman, superior to others.
A superhuman does not care about the gazes of ordinary people. Just as a goblin saving up a bit of money can never become the equal of a dragon.
He does not cling just because a trading company makes a bit of money.
"Well— put simply, it's like this. A trading company can be replaced. I can't. Something like that?"
But Rebecca, being an ordinary person, mostly failed to understand what Evan meant or intended.
At the same time, being an ordinary person, she deployed the skill of laughing it off even without understanding.
"You're amazing."
Evan took another sip of milk.
And burned his tongue again.
Long ago, people believed they could predict the future by reading the energy of the heavens, and in this age where magic and sorcery actually existed, that belief had proven thoroughly reasonable.
Kiara, head of Gyeongguk-gyeongseong — one corner of Nine Lives — was the foremost devotee of that ancient faith.
"—Something has changed."
The heavens were moving. As if something had intervened to push the clouds aside, in a manner and direction that should not have been possible.
Reading the heavenly energy that had shifted so, Kiara slightly furrowed her brow. She had realized that this heavenly energy did not bode well for their future.
"Why?"
Those who could move the heavens were vanishingly few. Superhumans who had broken through their limits through talent and effort.
Swordmasters, archmages, psychics, enlightened monks — those were the ones.
And of course, she had never earned the enmity of such people. More precisely, she had worked hard not to.
"Someone's prank… or an unknown cause?"
Naturally, reading the heavens and knowing the future did not mean one could control everything. Superhumans were not beings that could be controlled so easily.
There even existed superhumans who would fly into a rage for no reason other than that someone had dared try to control them. Considering such cases, what had befallen them now was closer to simple bad luck.
"We should prepare so that we can bring that out if necessary."
"—M-my lady! It's an emergency!"
"…What is it?"
Frowning at the subordinate who entered without permission, Kiara pressed the sweat-drenched man.
Gasping for breath, the subordinate handed over a magic crystal. Taking it, Kiara tilted her head in confusion, then activated the crystal.
"—This is…"
"It was sent by a member who went up to the city recently."
"Which city?"
"The city of adventurers."
"I see."
Crack—!
Crushing the crystal in her grip, Kiara fixed the subordinate with blazing eyes.
"Bring her in. By any means necessary."
Inside the shattered crystal was the image of Rainia, her nine tails swaying gracefully.