Chapter 170
A few months later.
"Damn it. Damn it! Shit!"
"How vulgar."
"Hell! Hell! Heeell!"
"Shut up."
"……."
"At least I don't have to hear pig-slaughtering screams, so that's somewhat better."
"I agree with that."
Rumble. Rumble.
A black-haired man sitting in the carriage, gazing at the scenery outside.
Callius made Junis, who kept spewing curses, shut her mouth.
Beside him were two saints. And he himself was riding together in the carriage.
The reasons were as follows.
First, he had taken Ailee as a hostage.
Second, he had brought Junis and the beastmen tribe under his control.
Therefore, Callius had no choice but to head toward Carpe.
'A new settlement for the beastmen is needed.'
The hostage saint had to be in Carpe to extract proper political gains from the Empire.
And it was necessary to find a place for Junis and the beastmen serving the Shield to settle anew.
Ablefix was already under the Empire's influence, making it impossible to live there anymore.
The destination of the carriage was the northern part of Carpe. Jaibarsh.
Originally, to safely head from Ablefix to Carpe, one needed to detour north, and doing so made the closest location the northern part of Carpe.
The territory of Jervain among the Four Great Noble Houses.
It was also Jaibarsh.
'The North is also in my hands.'
The only place in Carpe vast enough to take in over a thousand beastmen without restrictions was the North.
Moreover, beastmen were resistant to cold, making adaptation easy.
The North itself had such cold and harsh weather that despite its vast land, there weren't many territory residents.
Their numbers had decreased further due to the recent war, so the beastmen as new workers would be firepower to slightly melt the northern snowfields.
And in the North.
'I also need to check if Valterus's Tears are growing well.'
The holy ground located at the bottom of the Sunken Forest.
He needed to check on the Valterus's Tears growing in Fatalite's holy ground, and he also wanted to further strengthen the divine power using the statues of saints brought from this Lactus's Garden.
Lactus's Garden was being made into a holy ground by the Empire's saints becoming sacred stones themselves.
Therefore, Callius had stuffed all of them into his subspace, which would probably be beneficial for Valterus's Tears.
'Or I could use them elsewhere.'
Even without such reasons, he had to pass through the North.
Until now, he had left it alone for various reasons, but Callius was nevertheless the legitimate heir of the North and the one who would become its master.
'I wonder if Bernard is doing well.'
The current lord.
Elberton would be fine on his own.
He didn't know if Emily was still in Caladi or had returned to the North.
"I heard the North is the Count's hometown. It's been quite a while since your last visit, hasn't it?"
"……That's right."
It felt like not much time had passed, but already about three years had flowed by.
Three years since leaving the North.
A total of six years since setting foot in this world.
A considerable time had passed since setting out on the pilgrimage, and time was spent organizing the new insights and sword gained from Ablefix.
And the rewards, while the travel time to the North took quite a while, so it had already been that long.
Memories felt anew.
'The first three years were truly difficult.'
No quests appeared whatsoever, and he had no choice but to grow stronger solely through divine grace.
He had to find hidden pieces little by little to increase his power, and had no choice but to learn one by one how to survive in this desolate world. Recalling old times anew, Bernard's sly face came to mind.
"That old man. I wonder if he's still alive."
"You seem to be enjoying yourself."
"Do I?"
"Yes. Your expression looks comfortable."
"That must be your illusion."
Having spent only a few months together, she made quite a comfortable appearance and expression for a hostage.
Though Junis still only spewed curses.
"Is it true you really have no memories?"
"Yes. Other than my name being Ailee, there's nothing I remember."
Callius said no more.
He didn't bother mentioning that there was a child between her and himself before she lost her memories.
Her relationship with him.
The current state of the country.
Looking at the complex correlations.
Telling her such inside stories seemed like it would only make things more uncomfortable.
'A saint of an enemy nation. That's easier.'
Even for Emily, telling her now that she had a mother would only cause confusion.
When the very person who was her mother had no memories of it.
"I'm not sure……."
It seemed like he needed to think about it more carefully.
"What are you saying?"
"Never mind."
Waving his hand as if annoyed, Callius crossed his legs.
Even that appearance was so dignified and noble that Ailee's mouth corners unknowingly curved upward.
Then Junis, looking at that sight with rotten mackerel eyes as if finding it ridiculous.
"Callius."
"What."
"Your attitude toward hostages is poor. Shouldn't you at least tie their limbs and put a muzzle on them so they can't even relieve themselves freely? Giving too many human rights to Empire bastards is also a sin against the continent."
"You certainly put effort into your nonsense."
"Look at you. Who would think you're a hostage? Being transported in a soft carriage without a single restraint on your limbs. It's not like you're of royal blood!"
Here they go again.
If left alone, the two would argue all day, which gave him quite a headache. Of course, at first, he had restrained the saint as Junis had said.
But when Junis saw that, she kept bothering Ailee from the side or giving her occasional beatings, so he just released her.
Originally, Ailee had also sworn to the gods that she would not flee unjustly, so the restraints were meaningless.
"I didn't call you two together to bicker like that."
He had originally kept them separated.
But now, there wasn't much left until the North.
Callius judged that it was time to hear some answers from them.
"What exactly is the Day of Beginning?"
"That again? Callius. Sometimes there are secrets you're better off not knowing. Others might not need to know, but not you."
"The reason?"
"Because you're someone who has achieved a lot. And even if you knew, nothing would change much. No meaning either. Besides, it's not something we particularly want to talk about either."
When he looked at Ailee.
She shook her head as if having similar sentiments.
"Unfortunately, I share the same sentiments as Junis. It's easier to think of it as having received a revelation."
"A revelation?"
"Yes. He told me to become a challenger as he looked at me."
Challenger.
Something he had heard before.
The Day of Beginning and Challenger.
Words that Callius had noted quite carefully.
"Challenging whom?"
At this, Ailee pointed at the sky with her delicate hands.
And then.
She pointed at the ground.
Sky and ground.
To challenge that.
Callius's frown deepened.
While he was pondering.
Junis snorted and retorted.
"Revelation my foot. Why would we receive revelations from a bastard like that."
Junis seemed to think differently.
"We're just consumables. Consumables to make this world a bit more presentable."
Then smiling viciously, she continued speaking.
"That's right. We're existences who set foot in this world because we were threatened by the gods and had to bite the bullet."
"Threatened?"
"Yeah. Threatened! I was a pitiable, noble lady possessed by evil. The evil told me. If you want to be free, challenge it. So I descended to this land."
Then Junis spread her arms and spoke piously.
"I'd call myself, an angel perhaps."
But Callius's eyes looking at her turned cold.
At the frigid gaze as if looking at filth worse than insects, Junis scrunched up her face. She felt somehow displeased.
"I'm similar. If I wanted to live a new life…… they said to challenge."
Challenge.
Callius's gaze suddenly deepened.
'The two are similar to me.'
Though they expressed it roundaboutly, they were originally people who were not of this world.
Perhaps the reason Ailee had no memories of her past days.
Was because she possessed a new body starting from the Day of Beginning. Thinking that way, everything fell into place.
'Although I haven't met that someone.'
He himself would be no different.
"Are there no other challengers besides you two?"
"Well. I don't know in detail either……."
"Don't know. Don't care."
They didn't know beyond that.
Nodding, Callius asked his final question.
"Why did you fight knowing you would die?"
He meant the battle with the undying Fallen.
Callius had seen everything.
Through the eyes of the ash knights.
Junis originally had that kind of personality.
Though her personality was trash, she didn't shirk her duties as a saint.
A saint was a saint.
She exerted herself for the world, for the gods.
As most saints did.
However.
'The current Junis is a different person.'
He didn't mean that he had subjugated her by giving her a fairy's body.
He meant the core was different.
Just like Callius himself.
"That's…… because it's a duty."
An expression as if annoyed.
Junis, revived with a new fairy body, had become a complete fairy, but her signature delinquent-like expressions and gestures remained unchanged, creating quite a dissonance.
But precisely because of that, it was easy to see through her.
"I understand roughly."
With a few questions, he could estimate their backgrounds.
First, the saints called challengers would be able to use a system similar to his own. On top of that, they would be partially dominated by the sense of duty and personality of a saint.
'Just as I was.'
But the personality and duty of a mere delinquent and a saint were incomparable.
The scale of the restraining force itself would be different.
Because of that, they could grow such power quickly, but they would probably still be under its control.
Judging from that, considering their growth speed and influence, he could tell they were receiving the system's help.
And probably.
'There's a high probability they also know that this place was originally a game world.'
Thinking that way, it was easy to figure out.
He wasn't the only player in this world.
"No great meaning."
But Callius soon lost interest.
Whether they were players or challengers.
He might not have known before, but at this point, it wasn't content he was greatly interested in.
Since what he had to do wasn't greatly different anyway.
He had survived.
And he would continue to survive.
Protecting what was beside him, he planned to live in this world together with them.
When he became Callius in this world.
He made a resolution.
That he was born anew.
That a new life had been given to him.
Making that resolution, he had survived tenaciously.
So what he had to do was the same.
'Living on.'
And finding his sword.
After that…….
"I need to see the end."
The end of the unfinished tale.
He wanted to see it with his own two eyes.
The final chapter of the story he had made.
A little while later.
The carriage came to a stop.
Callius and the saints got off the carriage and took in the northern scenery.
What came into view was a vast snowfield.
And.
"……."
Bandits surrounding the carriage.
"The North hasn't changed."
Laughing as if finding it ridiculous.
Callius drew his sword.