Episode 241
A few minutes before Frey and Lulu went upstairs.
"...Damn it."
The Pope, who had been observing the secret building from a distance together with several bishops, gritted his teeth quietly and muttered.
"It's a failure..."
At those words, the bishops' expressions instantly rotted.
"F-failure? But this operation should have been perfect..."
"Even if it's the hero's party, it would have taken a considerable amount of time to deal with all those clones. So how could it be this fast...?"
They urgently threw questions at the Pope.
"All the puppets... have been neutralized simultaneously."
"What?"
"I don't know the details. What's important is... that we have failed."
The Pope, saying so while breaking into a cold sweat.
"He said... that this operation was important..."
He grabbed his head and slumped to the ground.
- Yes, it was important.
"......!!!"
And at that moment, something appeared in the void.
"I-I see the True Sun...!"
- Skip the greetings.
Upon seeing that something appear in the void, the Pope prostrated himself with a pale, horrified expression.
The large eye that had been looking around in all directions spoke in a cold voice to him.
- Incompetent fools.
Soon fixing its gaze on the building, it extended tentacles from all directions.
"Hieeeek!"
At that, the Pope, with his usual dignified demeanor completely gone, began trembling in fear.
- If the god of this world hadn't intervened, you too would have met the same fate as these guys.
The eye that had been residing in the cult's basement, ignoring the Pope, plunged tentacles into the back of the bishops' heads, replenishing nutrients while continuing to fix its gaze on the building.
"What... do you mean by that?"
Despite being terrified, the Pope asked with a curious expression at the eye's words.
- It wasn't a coincidence but inevitability. The Star God, Sun God, and even the Moon God. The gods of this dimension have done something I wasn't aware of.
"What?"
- A new turning point has been carved into the world line.
The eye, answering the Pope's question like that.
- Convey this to the Demon God.
Sending a chilling gaze at him once more.
- Tell him not to be arrogant after borrowing my power to take the sun. There won't be a second chance.
"Y-yes! Understo..."
- The 'Star God,' the creator god of this dimension, is slowly recovering its influence.
"Yes...?"
- Using the hero's 'affection' as a bypass... it was doing something quite interesting.
Feeling his spine go cold at the anger-laden voice, the Pope, who had been bowing his head, slowly raised it at those words.
- Moreover, the Moon God has also been doing something recently. Because of that, time has become scarce. At this rate, even an outsider like me could be defeated.
The eye was blazing with burning intensity.
- Therefore... hasten the descent ceremony of the 'Prepared Child.'
"......!"
- Have the Demon God descend upon that child and end everything as quickly as possible.
"Y-yes, I underst..."
- Tell the Demon God in advance. She will personally convey it to the Demon King.
Finishing those words, the eye slowly disappeared as it closed.
- Before I go... let me give you a gift.
"A g-gift... you say?"
Looking at the Pope, whose whole body was soaked in cold sweat, it whispered like that.
- Since they broke the rules and intervened... I'm thinking of intervening myself from now on.
It was right at that moment that the core of the collapse magic prepared by the cult suddenly started going out of control.
.
- Rumble! Rumble!!
A tremendous roar echoed as the surroundings shook as if they would collapse at any moment.
- Patter, pitter-patter...
I, who had instantly run up the stairs of such a building and was running through the corridor, quietly muttered inside looking at my body still in cat state.
'...This is driving me crazy.'
This is all because of that damn alcohol.
I had expected it to some extent, but being despised by everyone as soon as I arrived at the inauguration ceremony, ignored by former servants, and even subjected to unexpected treatment by Ruby.
Even for me, there was no helping the fact that my heart was shattered to pieces.
In that situation, drinking alcohol to carry out the originally planned operation to separate Isollet from me became the root of the problem.
I thought that if I revealed today that I was part of the Demon King's army and declared I would destroy this empire, even if the strategy was completed, they would turn hostile against me again.
But the power of a completed strategy was several times greater than I expected.
To think I would hear Isollet saying she would abandon chivalry and choose the path of a heretic.
Thanks to that, in a situation where I was already quite flustered, on top of being drunk, I got hit with a knight's vow... and even got miniaturized with a scroll riding the atmosphere...
Of course, escaping from here without anyone knowing was part of my plan anyway, so I didn't resist the scroll application under mutual agreement.
The problem was the fact that I was dead drunk and the fact that when transformed into an animal, animal instincts become stronger.
Combined with the multiple penalties applied to me, receiving the correction of mental power stat slower than usual, when I came to my senses, I was licking Isollet's stomach.
With Isollet's suspicion toward me inflated to the limit.
'...Sigh.'
And at that time, the hero's party was already around, making it quite difficult to return to human form.
Thanks to that, I had no choice but to stay in this state for a while...
'I can't keep doing this forever.'
Thinking that, I continued running through the corridor, frowning and gathering my power.
- Shaaaa...
Then, star mana began appearing around me.
It seems I can use 'Star Magic' normally even in this cat state.
- Flash...!
However, I had no intention of continuing this state. Being like this, I somehow felt my dignity as a human being being violated.
- Zzzzt...
Exerting resistance to instantly cancel the transformation, I brushed off the dust on my body and stood up from my spot.
"M-master...!!"
At that moment, a familiar sound came from behind.
"Let's go togetheeer! Together..."
The owner of the sound was Lulu, making a sorrowful voice.
"I thought I told you not to follow. Surely you didn't fail to notice..."
I didn't want her to get hurt, so with a cold expression, I was saying that when...
"........"
"What is it?"
Lulu stopped running, covered both eyes with her hands and stopped, so I tilted my head.
"That... your clothes..."
Then, she said in a small voice, looking at me through the gaps between her fingers.
"Ah."
Only then did I realize I was naked.
"H-here, here you go."
"Hmm."
Like that, receiving clothes from Lulu who was still blushing with one hand covering her eyes.
"There's no time... I'll scold you later."
Quickly putting on the clothes, I ran through the corridor together with her and started talking to Lulu.
"Tell me the survivor groups in the building right now."
"Um... that's..."
"Quickly."
When I urged in an urgent voice, she too, having been in panic, came to her senses and started speaking.
"First... the hero is in the main hall, and on the top floor, Serena and Klarna are leading survivor groups. But... at that speed..."
"Next."
Serena and Klarna being buried in the collapse of this building was originally a plan for public opinion warfare.
Of course, the cult's bomb activating completely faster than expected was entirely unexpected, which is why I intervened.
Serena would have surely calculated the time exactly, so why on earth did an error occur?
"Throughout the building... a small number of Demon King's army members are spread out."
"Those guys..."
"They're just weak-looking lower demons anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem, right?"
".....?"
The Demon King's army members don't need attention either. They're bad guys to begin with, and they're not guys who would die from just an explosion.
But did Lulu just say weak-looking lower demons? Those powerful combat executives?
"And... survivor groups are gathered in the basement. Quite a lot."
"...Tsk."
The people in the basement are precisely the reason I intervened in this situation. Originally, they were supposed to be handled by the Demon King's army, but at this rate, it would be neither one thing nor the other.
"And... a very small number of survivors are spread throughout the building. Isollet is going around finding those people."
"Couldn't escape?"
"Buried under debris... or children, it seems..."
Having heard Lulu's final report, I went up to the 2nd floor with her and gave her an order.
"You gather the people spread around and Isollet and escape from here, within 3 minutes. With the puppets you're controlling now, you can finish it sufficiently."
"...Are you doing a good deed?"
At that, she asked with a bewildered expression.
"I'm going to do something to the hero... you roughly understand what I mean, right?"
"Ah."
"Don't send people to the lobby side. I need to make an example."
Saying that, when I drew the sword that the cult's puppets following her had at their waists and made a wicked smile, she quietly smiled.
I hope Lulu doesn't become tainted with evil? I'll need to give her some character education later.
"Then, I'll be going... hmm?"
Thinking that, I was heading to the lobby when.
"W-why is the Saintess inside the building...?"
I saw Lulu looking somewhere with a puzzled expression.
"...Just leave that one be."
"What?"
I shook my head and moved my feet.
"Her being there in this darkened building must have a reason."
After finishing those words and glancing back, Lulu had a perplexed expression but soon bared her teeth and started sending the cult's puppets in all directions.
"...That guy."
Thanks to that, I avoided creating a suspicious situation by giving rescue orders to the Demon King's army, but I was still just as worried about her.
- Patter...!
However, I couldn't delay time any further, so I forcibly tore my gaze away and continued running.
- Crash!!
After kicking away the debris blocking the main hall entrance, I stepped inside.
"Frey?"
Then, Ruby, surrounded by all of Arianne's defensive magic and the youngest holy knight's shields, vomiting a lot of blood on the floor, came into view.
Looking at that appearance, the wireless transmission from Klarna I briefly heard while in cat state seems to be true.
"What is it? By any chance, did you come to take shelter?"
I was looking at her, whose complexion clearly didn't look good from continuously vomiting blood.
"You didn't think I'd let you into this place, did you?"
Staggering and raising her head, she said with a smile, and I started approaching Ruby.
"Well... if you become my subordinate, I might consider it..."
"Shut up."
At length, I cut off her words that were still spouting nonsense.
"Hah..."
I took a deep breath and.
- Whiiiing!!
Swung the sword powerfully.
- Rumble!!!
".......!!!"
Then, Arianne's defensive magic and the holy knights' shields shattered all at once.
"You bastard..."
The Demon King, finally realizing my intention, glared at me as if to kill, while I slightly vomited blood.
"It's a small revenge, so stay there quietly."
Although my sword strike didn't take effect, the falling debris would deal quite significant damage to her.
Of course she won't die from something like that, but since she's in human state, she would feel the pain fully.
"Frey... you'll regret... hack!"
She was crawling and trying to say something, but for some reason, the Demon King collapsed, and I glanced at her.
"Time is tight."
I quickly started running toward the basement.
Now, the time had come to put a period to this damned verification ceremony.
.
- Whirring...!
"Ugh..."
Meanwhile, at that time.
"W-what should I do..."
Glare, who had led a survivor group into the basement, was breaking into a cold sweat while looking at the explosion magic core rotating in the center of the room.
"This is... not good..."
She had succeeded in leading a considerable number of people to the 1st floor using her abilities, but.
The powerful hallucination mist engulfing the entire 1st floor was something even she couldn't do anything about.
Because of that, she had decided to move all the people to the underground space, but.
The problem was that, of all things, the explosion magic core set up by the cult was in the basement.
At this rate, when the magic activated, they would be swept up by the magic core and die, not the collapsing building.
"Ugh..."
At a point when there wasn't much time left until the explosion, going to the 1st floor would be a useless death, and staying in the basement would also be a useless death.
In such a dilemma, she, with an anxious expression.
"...Gulp."
Swallowed dry saliva and approached the core.
'I'm sorry... Hero...'
Planning something close to suicide - to enter the core herself and directly emit vast magic power to neutralize the core in reverse.
'I wanted to... repay the debt...'
Feeling the warmth of the Hero with kind eyes who had patted her head sometime long ago, she slowly moved her feet.
"Everyone, please step back..."
To the survivor group approaching her with wide eyes at her behavior, she waved her hands fearing they might be harmed, closed her eyes tightly and.
"Uwaaaaah!"
Tried to charge at the core in fear, but.
- Ping!
"...Ow."
Soon blocked by something, she ended up clutching her forehead and falling on her butt for the third time today.
"Why... again..."
Thinking her butt wouldn't survive at this rate, making a crying face, she raised her head to check the existence blocking her.
- Crackle...
".....!"
She discovered a barrier filled with holy power enveloping the core, and her eyes went round.
"...It's dangerous."
Peroche, who had entered the basement at some point, was looking at her intently.
[Navigation complete]
> Arrived at the Hero!
At the same time, a notification window floated before her.
[ㅍ ]
".....Surely?"
Thanks to such an exquisite situation, she, who had been looking at Peroche for a moment and cautiously approaching.
- Shaaaaaa...
".......!"
When the entire basement was wrapped in sparkling mana, her eyes went round.
"Th-this is!"
Different from holy power, that power she had felt sometime before.
This sparkling power that felt like it was from a distant past, exactly the same as the energy that filled the underground prison in the market alley back then, was definitely the Hero's.
"H-Hero."
And then, Glare, who finally discovered that someone was standing behind Peroche.
"Hero...!!"
She reached out her hand with a sorrowful cry, but.
- Shaaaa...
"The debt..."
Soon wrapped in that sparkling power, drowsiness swept over her.
"Must be... repaid..."
She struggled to continue speaking, but eventually started slowly closing her eyes.
- Shaaaa...
The last thing she saw was the sparkling mana covering Peroche's barrier.
"This..."
And the warm touch she had felt long ago was stroking her head.
'I need to... give this...'
Glare's consciousness, muttering so inside, became completely hazy.
.
Meanwhile, at that time.
".....Ah."
Having seen the video of Frey being attacked by Ruby, wandering the building in shock before being rescued by Glare.
And then, having followed Glare's group to this place and watched all this scene from behind her.
Rosewin...
"..........."
Seeing Peroche appear and protect everyone, and at the same time the system notification that appeared saying they had arrived where the Hero was, she had no choice but to abandon the thought she had held with some hope.
[프 ]
Rosewin's consciousness, blankly staring at the window floating before her eyes, soon became hazy.