***
In her dream, Kiera was lying in a sickbed.
Maru was tending to her from beside, as she looked terribly pale.
Maru's face, smiling warmly, looked younger than he did now.
“Kiera. You won’t hurt anymore. And you won’t hurt ever again. Just trust me.”
“Liar. I’m going to die soon. I know that too…”
“It’s not a lie. You’ll become healthier than me. I promise.”
“Really…?”
“Yeah, really. Will you close your eyes for a moment?”
“My eyes? Okay…”
“Give me your hand too.”
“Okay…”
As she closed her eyes, she heard Lucy’s voice.
“Please open your eyes! Kiera!”
Kiera slowly opened her eyes.
Sunlight was shining into the room.
Lucy was looking down at her from the head of the bed.
“Oh, she’s awake! Kiera came to her senses!”
“I… was I lying down?”
“Yes! You got hit hard by a monster and lost consciousness. Do you remember?”
Hearing Lucy’s words, the memory of participating in Count Toledo’s monster subjugation operation flashed through Kiera’s mind.
“You were lying down for a whopping four days.”
Yoris was standing at the foot of the bed.
As if she had been reading a book until just now, she was holding a book in her hand.
“Me, for four days? No way…”
“We can’t believe it either. The hero of the world collapsing is practically unprecedented.”
“Give me some water.”
“Thirsty?”
Lucy poured water from a pitcher into a cup and used magic to cool it.
Kiera received the cup and gulped it down.
The water was cool.
But it was too cool.
After drinking it all, she shivered.
“I’m cold.”
As Kiera hugged herself, Lucy and Yoris looked at each other with surprised eyes.
“The hero feeling cold…?”
“Goodness. It seems something has indeed gone wrong.”
***
An island rising from the middle of the sea was visible before them.
“Here, the third payment. Now there’s only one left. I’ll give you that when we return.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
The tattooed young man showed the money to his companions and put it in his pocket.
Tying the money pouch with a string, he looked at Maru.
“Think you can make it back alive? That’s an extremely dangerous place.”
“I have to come back alive to pay the remaining balance.”
At Maru’s words, the tattooed young man smirked.
“I’ll come at sunset. If you’re not here, I’ll just leave.”
At his signal, the young men all stood up together, lifted the rowboat that had been overturned on the deck, and heaved it into the sea with all their might.
It was said to be dangerous to go to the coast on the ship they had taken, so Maru had to go the remaining distance alone.
“You know how to row, right?”
“It’s my first time, but I’ll give it a try.”
Maru hopped over and switched to the rowboat.
As the tattooed young man threw an oar, Maru snatched it out of the air.
“You’re not going to skip the island and follow us, are you?”
“For real, I might just do that.”
Maru and the young men burst into bright laughter.
Afterward, the young men disappeared at high speed for fear of encountering monsters, and Maru rowed toward the island, slowly approaching.
“You have finally come, Lord Velkran.”
As he gradually entered the coast, the memory of his encounter with a god came to mind.
—Rubyar Island will become a habitat for all manner of hideous monsters. For you, who lost your power due to foolish actions, it will be a most burdensome adventure.
“What if I die?”
The mouth of the giant face statue gaped open.
—Take off your clothes and enter within here.
“I-into your mouth?”
—Hurry.
Maru hastily undressed and crawled naked into the god’s mouth.
Soon the mouth closed, and after about five minutes, it opened again.
Maru came out with his face scrunched up in a frown.
It didn’t smell, but his entire body was sticky with transparent liquid.
—Spread it thoroughly into every nook and cranny of your body.
“What is this?”
—My saliva.
“Ugh.”
—As long as you do not wash it off, no one but humans will be able to see you.
Soon, Maru arrived at the coast and dragged the rowboat ashore, pulling it onto land.
Then he took out the Mirror of Truth from the back of his pants.
Since his backpack had been taken by Carlyle’s group, all he currently possessed was the mirror and a wallet.
“It’s like a jungle…”
The island was densely overgrown with vegetation.
He wondered if there would be a path, but fortunately, there was a trail used by monsters.
Heading deeper into the forest while shining the mirror around, he encountered a four-legged monster, but the creature seemed unable to recognize Maru and ambled away on its own path.
Maru let out a sigh of relief and moved his feet again.
The forest was rugged, so he always had to watch his step.
If he stepped on a small monster with sharp spines on its back, there was a risk of his identity being revealed due to bleeding.
Fortunately, as if luck had found him, he was able to easily discover Leviathan’s essence.
When he shone the Mirror of Truth at the rock before the cool waterfall, a yellow sphere was floating gently.
Maru carefully stepped on nearby rocks and moved over to grasp the sphere in his hand.
At that moment, he felt an intense power seeping into his body.
“Ugh!”
Simultaneously, his heart pounded violently and he felt pain in his chest.
“Wh-what happened. Why does it hurt!”
As if misfortune piled upon misfortune, a sudden large earthquake began.
The ground shook, and he even felt that sharp tingling in his ass like when an elevator descends at high speed.
Maru realized in an instant that the island was sinking.
“Ah, God! You didn’t tell me the island would collapse!”
Clutching his painful chest, he sprinted toward the coast.
“Fuck, before this goes to shit, faster!”
It was truly desperate.
He dashed like an arrow, breaking or tearing through anything and everything in his path.
So desperate was he that he even kicked monsters blocking his way flying as he sprinted.
When he finally reached the coast, the sandy beach was already completely submerged in seawater.
Thankfully, he saw the rowboat precariously left on the land.
Maru quickly ran and leaped.
At the same time, waves crashed over him and the rowboat drifted away elsewhere.
Maru fell into the sea with a splash.
Bubbles rose.
“Urgh!”
The island was gradually disappearing into the sea.
Maru tried to resist to float up, but his strength immediately drained away.
And his chest hurt like mad.
He sank endlessly into the water, his consciousness growing hazy.
“Is this how I die…”
The water’s surface seen from underwater was beautiful, with light rippling.
The course of his life flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.
With the sensation of two hands bearing a decadent manicure embracing him tightly, Maru lost consciousness.
***
Luciela broke through the water at full speed and soared violently above the surface.
Hugging Maru’s waist, she spun round and round in the air, shaking off the water.
“Truly a man like a child. I cannot take my eyes off you for a single moment. Why on earth did you come here.”
Smiling, she flew straight toward land.
She even indulged in a mischievous fantasy of taking the unconscious Maru to her stronghold this time.
Stripping him completely naked and putting him on a leash looked like it would be fun too.
“He will surely be angry.”
A giggle escaped her.
Suddenly, scorching heat was felt from behind.
That instant, flame breath engulfed her.
She stopped flapping her wings and plummeted downward, barely avoiding it.
Rising again and looking back, she saw a wyvern chasing after her.
Its build was quite large.
At that level, it was a creature that had lived at least over a hundred years.
Luciela bared her fangs and snarled haughtily.
“Grrr, kyahng! Krr…! (Get lost, you wretch!)”
But as if it was no significant threat to the wyvern, the creature continued to shoot flame breath while flying in pursuit.
As time passed, the distance gradually narrowed, and Luciela felt the burden.
To begin with, for a succubus, shaking off a monster while carrying an adult man was too much.
Moreover, the sky was closer to the sun than the ground, so the magic protecting her body from sunlight was gradually losing its function.
Smoke began to rise little by little from her arms and legs.
“This won’t do.”
Luciela, flying above the forest, urgently looked around.
Fortunately, she spotted a group of humans riding horses and a carriage below.
She quickly descended.
***
In the cargo bed of the running carriage, a handsome blonde man in noble clothes sat sullenly.
The man’s arms were tied behind his back, and his face was bruised in places.
The bandits seated on the driver’s perch snickered.
“Today is really a jackpot.”
“Right? Who knew a prince bastard would roll in on his own two feet.”
“How can an idiot like that be a prince when I can’t?”
“Hey, you idiot. You gotta be born with the bloodline first, is that something to say?”
“What’s wrong with my family bloodline, you bastard.”
“Do you think princely bloodline falls from the sky? Huh?”
It was then.
A succubus with purple hair quickly flew in, laid the unconscious man down in the carriage’s cargo bed, and immediately flew back up.
The blonde man held captive in the cargo cried out in terror.
“Hurk! A, a devil! A devil has passed by!”
“A devil?”
“What bullshit?”
The bandits on the driver’s seat turned around.
They discovered Maru lying in the cargo bed and tilted their heads.
“What is it?”
“What’s that?”
When they casually looked up at the sky, they saw the succubus flying ahead and a huge wyvern chasing after her.
“Wow, shit, what is that……”
“Oh… a rare sight.”
After hearing the whole story from the tied-up blonde man, the bandits were delighted.
“Wow~ that was a kind succubus.”
“Never seen anything like this in my life. Did she fall for us?”
“Anyway, free money jackpot. Great to have more to sell at the slave market tomorrow. Hahaha.”
One bandit climbed over from the driver’s seat and slapped Maru’s cheeks repeatedly.
“Hey, you alive? Hey? Hey? Hey?”
“Don’t tell me he’s dead?”
“No, he’s breathing?”
“Right. Check if he got his yang drained by a succubus. If he’s a cripple who can’t function as a person, throw him away.”
“How do you check that?”
“From what I know, guys who got their yang completely sucked out by a succubus have their two balls shriveled up smaller than beans.”
“Really? Let’s see…”
The bandit groped Maru’s center through his pants.
“Oh my, sturdy. No need to worry. Both are safe. Hehe.”
The bandits’ carriage arrived at their mountain stronghold before long.
The unconscious Maru was imprisoned in a cave jail together with the blonde man.
Around that time, Maru’s heart, which had been running rapidly all day, finally regained stability and maintained calm.
In addition, his neck and back, bent from long years of porter work, straightened neatly, muscles formed all over his body, and his physique had changed more beautifully than before.