Episode 033.
[—The savior is.]
Who in the world had stopped the dreadful catastrophe even the Empire’s superhumans feared?
As everyone’s gazes gathered, petals drifted through the air, and the final bud bloomed.
[Tanas—.]
“……!!”
In an instant, silence descended.
The golden name engraved clearly atop the flower bud, without so much as a single letter out of place.
Tanas.
The “Flower of Ananta” must have bloomed its buds not only here in the Kingdom of Ersha, but in every place touched by divine power—each nation’s temples, the Empire’s sanctuaries, and beyond.
And that name, which they themselves had branded only recently as a rapist, the murderer of an imperial princess, and a pawn of the demon race before driving him out,
was now being praised beneath Ananta’s name as the “Savior of the Continent.”
It was only a matter of time before the common people learned of this.
Among the kingdom’s upper echelon,
only Helena Ronain gave a faint laugh, as if she had known it would be so.
“Ta…nas…?”
Dmitri’s magic staff slipped from his hand and rolled across the floor. The hero beside him was no different.
Only the Hero Dario, as if he still had not grasped the situation, spat out nonsense.
“Th-there must be some kind of mistake. How could a useless hero like that stop the Nightmare of Invium? This makes no sense!”
“Dario… How about you finally try fixing that vulgar habit of speaking first without passing anything through your brain?”
Dmitri adjusted his glasses and snapped coldly.
“This is the Flower of Ananta, a divine authority. There can be no mistake. Rather… you should pray that it was not the useless Tanas, but some unrelated third party with the same name.”
“Hero, isn’t that even more of a problem? That would mean an unknown powerhouse exists within the kingdom!”
“In my opinion…”
As the high-ranking figures began throwing out their guesses, a commotion broke out in an instant.
“…At least that is a relief. That we announced his innocence in time. If we had been even a little later, we might have become sinners who ignored the will of the gods.”
At someone’s murmur, everyone nodded in tacit agreement.
The royal family and the church hurriedly brought order to the hall.
“The rest of you, please return for now.”
“Ah! Heroes, this way!”
The high nobles departed, and under the strict escort of the Holy Knights, the hero parties made their way to the conference room deeper inside the church.
They needed to urgently discuss this matter.
Shoooook—!
Deep within the corridor, a blue portal opened, and a messenger burst out.
“Urgent news!! Urgent news!!”
At the sudden intrusion, the high priest frowned and shouted.
“What is the meaning of this! Acting so undignified in the presence of honored guests!”
“I-I apologize, High Priest… But this is an enormous matter… An oracle, an oracle has descended!”
“What? An oracle?”
“An oracle, after the Flower of Ananta?”
The surrounding heroes each spoke up as well.
The high priest snorted and pointed at Seria.
“What absurd nonsense are you spouting! An oracle? Sir Seria is right here, perfectly present! Are you looking down on Sir Seria because she is a saintess candidate?!”
“Not at all! It is an oracle just received personally by the Empire’s Saintess of Autumn! I saw it clearly with my own eyes!”
At the messenger’s aggrieved cry, everyone’s gaze turned to one place.
As if demanding she say something.
“…….”
The pink-haired girl trembled.
************
“Kieeeeeeeek!!!”
I slowly sheathed Barsha’s sword.
One strike.
With a single strike, I cut off the creature’s final struggle.
Around the monster, faint plum blossoms, looking as though they would vanish at any moment, bloomed.
“…….”
If it had been in perfect condition, that would have been one thing, but dealing with a creature already on the verge of death was as easy as eating cold porridge.
Soon, I carefully lifted the unconscious Prisia in my arms and looked around.
“Tanas!”
“Sir Tanas!”
From far away, Gran and the priestess came running with relief mingled in their expressions.
“Y-you crazy bastard! You were alive!”
“What’s with the fuss… Were you worried?”
“Worried? As if. I knew you obviously wouldn’t die!”
“Sir Gran was very worried. Earlier, I even saw some tears…”
I turned my head as if I had not heard and went over to Gareth.
“Old man.”
“…Brat.”
Gareth, carrying his sleeping granddaughter, held a black hourglass in one hand and gave a faint laugh.
“That wouldn’t happen to be…?”
A highest-grade artifact that triggered a magical self-destruction using the user’s life as collateral…
Come to think of it, the necklace Gareth had been wearing was now around Ellen’s neck.
I could guess.
He had intended to perish together with the monster of Invium.
“What did you teach your disciple?”
“Just swordsmanship.”
“…….”
No one seemed to believe me, but it did not matter.
“By the way, to think this monster bastard would revive again…”
“Truly. If Sir Tanas had not been here, things might have turned dire.”
Gareth grinned.
“It will not happen again.”
“How did you know?”
You do not even have intent.
“Instinct. …In any case, you and your disciple have accomplished something great.”
Gran and the priestess began talking about the [Ten-Thousand-Li Fragrance of Plum Blossoms] Prisia had shown.
They said thousands of flowers had bloomed in full and burned the monster away.
I gently stroked the sleeping Prisia’s head.
What a commendable girl.
To think she had manifested her mental image by imbuing it with intent.
“You worked hard.”
Perhaps she heard my voice.
A faint smile spread across the lips of the sleeping Prisia.
Now it was time to finish it.
I approached the monster of Invium and pulled the mana stone from its core.
The monster, which had still been regenerating little by little even at this moment, spewed out black blood,
then went completely limp.
“Phew… I really thought I was going to die this time!”
“Is it over…?”
“It is not over yet.”
“What?”
From beneath the fallen monster’s heart, I pulled out a wriggling insect larva.
“This is the main body.”
A pathetic insect, to the point that it was hard to believe it had been a monster with such tenacious vitality and tremendous destructive power.
“Now then, old man. Finish it.”
Only when this thing died would the subjugation truly end.
I handed the chance for revenge over to Gareth.
It was the final courtesy I could offer to Gareth, who had grown old in a lifetime of resentment.
But after hesitating for a long while, the old man lowered the crossbow with trembling hands.
His gaze was not on the insect, but on Ellen, who slept peacefully, believing her grandfather to be the strongest in the world.
“…I have no right.”
He held the granddaughter in his arms even tighter.
“Blinded by revenge, I drove you and the young lady into the jaws of death. I am simply… satisfied that I was able to see this child again.”
It was not as though things had gone wrong because of Gareth, though.
He adjusted his hat and said,
“Brat… No, Tanas. This is thanks to you.”
A smile filled with the old man’s gratitude and acknowledgment.
I gave a calm nod and crushed the insect.
[World Event — “The Nightmare of Invium” has been permanently extinguished!]
A grand and immense voice, enough to make my head ring, resounded.
At that moment,
the world stopped.
Breaking the silence, every surrounding scene was dyed white.
The viscous blood, the quietly burning flames—all of it froze in place.
Before me, a woman with long hair that seemed embroidered with the Milky Way slowly descended.
The Goddess of Light, Aseria.
“Hero of Recovery, Tanas, you have truly worked hard.”
Her benevolent voice echoed directly in my mind.
“It must have been very difficult for you all this time. Even amid unjust false charges and solitude, you did not lose yourself and stopped a calamity of the continent. I am truly grateful, and proud of you.”
“…….”
“Tanas, I shall bestow an oracle upon you.”
“Pardon?”
She was suddenly saying she would give me an errand?
Aseria reached out and lightly touched my forehead.
Then the mana throughout my entire body began to surge wildly and refine itself.
++
[The Goddess of Light, Aseria, commends your achievement]
[Authority Unlocked: “Recovery Authority Stage 1” has been opened]
[Damaged mana circuits are being restored]
[You have gained the firm support of the fairies. If you go deep into the Great Forest…]
*
*
*
++
It was on an entirely different level from [Passive: Aura of Regeneration].
Hot divine power flowed through every blood vessel, and it felt as if my physical abilities themselves had leapt up by one stage.
However, I narrowed my eyes and asked,
“…Do you not have saintesses? If you are going to bestow an oracle, the proper course would be to give it to those children. Why appear directly before me, someone saddled with false charges?”
“Even gods cannot defy the Great Will. More than anything…”
At that, Aseria’s expression sank bitterly.
“The children of the kingdom… have not heard my voice in a long time. Blinded by desire, the mirror of their souls has grown clouded.”
“……?”
What kind of bullshit is this?
The people of the church cannot hear Aseria’s voice?
Then what was that pink-haired bitch, a saintess candidate, doing strutting around so haughtily?
It felt strange to confirm a setting different from the game.
“Tanas, I bestow an oracle upon you. The worst ruin is approaching the eastern part of the Kingdom of Ersha. Depart there without delay.”
‘Farther east from Artem? Then the Eastern Front? Ruin?’
In that instant, one event flashed through my mind.
Could it be the Death God event?
The reason monsters have been swarming abnormally,
and the reason the Demon King’s Army is ignoring the Empire and trying to secure the kingdom’s side first—
only now did every piece of the puzzle fall into place.
“Tanas, gather trustworthy comrades and extinguish the evil of the continent. If it is you, then surely…”
“Wait.”
“……?”
As if it was the first time anyone had cut her off, the Goddess Aseria looked at me with flustered eyes.
“What are the enemies I need to catch?”
“……Wicked goblins are encroaching upon that place with darkness.”
Goblins.
Inside, I did a hip-hop dance.
Thank goodness. It is Stage 1!
If it had only reached Stage 2, orc shamans and undead would have come pouring out and made things troublesome, but if it is goblins, that goes without saying.
It is not some random encounter full of variables like the monster of Invium.
If it is a standard hidden scenario, then for me, it is as easy as eating cold porridge.
If I bring the grown Prisia and Gareth along, we should be able to clear it up in an instant.
At the point where the prologue has just ended, there is no more perfect event than this.
“…Ahem! Tanas, I shall place my faith in you.”
Perhaps feeling a little awkward about being interrupted, the goddess belatedly scattered a sacred halo as if trying to regain her dignity.
Stop it. My eyes hurt.
[The blessing of the Goddess of Light, “Aseria,” dwells within your body]
At that moment,
vitality coursed through my body, my vision forcibly brightened, and now even the flow of mana became visible to my eyes.
++
*
*
*
[You have received the goddess’s recognition]
[World Event — You have defeated “The Nightmare of Invium” in the shortest time]
[Calculating—.]
[Calculating—.]
[Calculating—.]
Ding!
[Congratulations! You have accomplished an incredible achievement that almost no one could achieve!]
++
[Would you like to receive your reward now?]
[Yes / No]
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