Nidome no Yuusha

That day, every single denizen of Elmia was fraught with tension.

And who could blame them? The research institute that was the town’s pride had exploded into fire and rubble, and when they went to douse the flames, swarms of undead started gushing out from the wreckage.

Undead, that is, a type of monster that couldn’t at all be called a living creature, were quite an unknown to the gathering onlookers, which escalated their panic.

Then again, the loud explosion did rouse most of the townspeople from their sleep, and along with the clergymen who specialized in Holy or Light magic, the resident adventurers and guards also aided in swiftly bringing the situation under control. To that end, the total souls lost that night turned out to be surprisingly low despite the severity of the disaster.

Relatively speaking, other than the magic tool research institute, Elmia’s infrastructure hadn’t suffered much damage at all. But it would’ve been quite a different story had many people died.

Once the chaos had settled down, those in charge of Elmia’s governance rushed to the fief lord’s manor, demanding to know why they’d been absent all throughout the turmoil. But of course, the lord and his wife hadn’t returned from the capital in a long time.

Their daughter, Yumis, was supposed to be the acting lord in her father’s place, but when they checked her private mansion, neither she nor any of her servants could be found. The residence had been left completely and utterly vacant.

Elmia as a whole had become very busy. From sending reports to the capital and requesting aid, to treating the wounded, purifying the blighted ruins of the institute, every able body was kept busy.

Some days after,

The fact that the explosion occurred at the very institute that Yumis had been in charge of.

The fact that swarms of undead had crawled out from within.

The fact that their acting lord and governor, Yumis, had disappeared and was nowhere to be found.

Those 3 facts had been circulated to practically all the townsfolk.

The story went as such: Our acting lord Yumis had gone mad with her research, dealing in illegal human experimentation. This foolishness had angered God, and so the Lord sent down judgment, vanquishing the sinful institute and letting loose all the victims that had been made undead as a warning to all. The reason why Yumis had disappeared with all her servants was because she’d used even them in her experiments, herself having died in the initial explosion. ƒ𝗿e𝘦𝚠𝗲𝚋n𝚘ν𝙚𝗹.𝑐o𝙢

There were other theories, such as Yumis being brainwashed, Yumis being a devilkin, one of her Magic Tools going berserk, et cetera. Rumors, conjectures and theories were flung about everywhere.

☆

I’d gone and spread a wide range of rumors here and there and once I’d come back to town a few days later, I caught ear of a whole smorgasbord of new ones.

Nope, can’t beat the human imagination.

I had a good laugh over the one where ‘Yumis was replaced by a devilkin doppelganger who killed the original one.’

And after doing a once over on the town that was still out of sorts, we decided to leave for good.

We spent the next 4 days over at Shuria’s old village.

The teleportation spell could only last so long, it had stopped when no more mana was left over so technically, we hadn’t teleported all the undead here.

I figured we could let them fester here and eventually make their way to Elmia on their own, but this was still Shuria’s birthplace. We couldn’t just leave it like this.

The three of us spent a few days getting rid of all the undead, and currently, we were standing right at the center of the long ruined village.

“It’s so strange. 3 years was all it took to ruin it so badly…”

Shuria’s village had been assaulted by Yumis’ soldiers. They’d pillaged and devastated the place so thoroughly that it was hard to believe what laid before us used to be an ordinary, peaceful village.

It actually looked just like how I remembered it from my first run, when I had come here years later from now.

No, maybe it was worse now, since by a few years, the deathly mana would’ve dissipated more.

“The negative mana from undead really speeds up deterioration after all.”

“So then, eventually, this grave marker will be be gone too, won’t it?” f𝓇𝘦e𝑤𝘦𝚋𝒏૦ѵℯ𝒍.c𝐨𝒎

Here at the center of the once village, we’d erected a single grave marker. Nobody was actually buried underneath and purple flowers had bloomed sparsely around the memorial.

These were the same flowers Shuria had grown when she once lived here.

Shuria herself was crouching down in front of the grave marker, and looked back and up towards me as she replied.

“Well, it should be fine. There aren’t any more undead here so the bad mana should disappear a lot faster.”

“I see, thank you.”

She replied, currently dressed in a sort of short kimono. The outfit had a classy flower pattern, with colors ranging from deep purple to a stark crimson. It suited her, accentuating her natural charm. In Japan, I guess we’d call it a miniskirt furisode, since the kimono had those extended sleeves.

She’d also done up her hair into a side ponytail, holding it with a flower shaped hair pin.

We’d taken the liberty to pillage this stuff from Yumis’ place, and the clothes had a mana activated barrier enchantment on them.

They also had Easy Removal, Automatic Size Adjustment, Heat Retention and Mask Recognition (Human). That last one would serve to disguise Shuria as a typical looking human girl, even from people who knew her and her old appearance.

It essentially worked like Minnalis’ illusion spell.

The Elmias must’ve developed this sort of magic tool to sneak into beastkin or demihuman territory unnoticed.

The Japanese fashion did stick out, but it was a lot better than sticking out as a dark skinned elf, so we ended up taking this. Shuria wasn’t going to be facing much in terms of close combat, but for the off chance an enemy gets close, the kimono boasted more defense than even plate mail.

Minnalis and I had also picked out some new gear. Good thing Yumis’ family ruled the place, they had storerooms full of all the good stuff just gathering dust.

The equipment from the old man from the weapons shop wasn’t bad per se, but the quality was clearly better in a fief lord’s stash.

But then… Out of all the pieces of equipment available to her, Minnalis went and chose this frilly maid uniform.

Her rabbit ears poked out from behind the headpiece and her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail.

The whole thing was fluffed out and frilly, while the chest area was made to accentuate size and also focus the attention towards the cleavage.

I must admit, the designer for this outfit did an excellent job balancing both the image of cleanliness, and the erotic appeal of a maid uniform that drives men’s hearts wild.

And of course it wasn’t simple clothing. An appraisal revealed Increased Defense, Increased Agility, Extra Mana, Augmented Stealth, Augmented Perception, Flexible Garbs, Transform Attire and Heat Retention, which all summed up to me being unable to refuse another flashy outfit. But why all this for a maid uniform? Who knows.

This one also had better defense than your average plate armor, and there wasn’t anything that was better either, so in the end, I reluctantly accepted letting her have it.

Both Shuria’s and Minnalis’ new clothing turned out pretty strange in a fantasy meta sense. Like bikini armors, one of the so called 7 wonders of fantasy, they exist, so there was no helping it.

And yeah, I’d seen lots of women donning such risque defensive apparel on my first run, got used to them even. But how they were somehow better than full body plate, I just didn’t get.

As for myself, I picked out a new set of leather armor that looked well enough.

There was higher grade stuff, but I was okay with this. I didn’t rely on armor much anyway.

Plus, the rest of the men’s armors were all highly ornamented plate mail that just screamed nobility. The weight was one thing, but I flatly refuse to use anything that might deter my movement.

“Ok then, shall we set off?”

“Yes, let’s. I’m all done paying my respects.”

Shuria nodded with her reply to Minnalis after quietly standing up from her squat.

“… …”

“There something wrong, Minnalis?”

“No, it’s just, I know this may be rude to Shuria, but seeing this place somewhat reminded me of my old village, you see… I was just thinking how I wanted to turn that place, still infested with walking garbage, into a much worse hell than here. It, well, how should I say this, really fires me up.”

She had on a face that expressed equal parts apology for the offense and joy in vengeful fantasy.

The corners of her lips had raised a pinch, giving her expression that slight tinge of darkness.

“Fufufu, I don’t mind at all. What I treasure is this place and the people who once lived here, only those. I know you don’t mean to see the people important to me in the same way as the filth you mentioned,”

So Minnalis-san, Shuria continued.

“I’m sure your own revenge will be a sight to see. And of course, you can fully count on my assistance.”

She declared this smiling in that seductively deadly smile of hers.

Ahh, such a beautiful, reliable pair of accomplices I have.

“… … Can’t be falling behind now.”

I’ve killed Yumis. The honey of revenge I yearned for all this time, it was sweet, just so sweet.

But, I wanted more, needed more.

She was but the first. And she won’t be the only.

Deeper and deeper despair.

Harsher and harsher brutality.

Crueler and crueler agony.

“Goshujin-sama? Is something the matter?”

“Kaito-sama, you’re grinning.”

“I-It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

My lips naturally curved into a smile.

All to sate my undying vengeance.

My once lit flame of revenge hungered ravenously, it was restless for more.

The scum of the earth was yet aplenty.

They had no idea of the hell we walked on as they drank and laughed.

“Mmh, great weather today. Ah, I just got a good one. We put them in a room, bone dry and scorching hot. Then, we wait till they’re parched and dried up to the point of death, and once they reach the absolute limit, we give them a pitcher full of crystal clear nothing.”

“Goshujin-sama, might I suggest handing them a jug of poison, letting them know it’s poison of course. It could be a test of how long they can resist.”

“Ah, then I’d like to suggest placing a bucket of pig feces in the room. They would slowly get used to the stench and once they can’t bear it anymore, they’d happily…”

The sun was beaming high in the clear blue sky.

Another good day for sweet revenge.

“Gyarrhhoooooooo!!!”

And then,

From far up high, a huge shadow passed over us.

“―!!” x 3

All three of us looked up instantly. That piercing roar accompanied by that colossal mass of mana. A massive creature with deep red scales and wings.

A creature that reigns supreme in most any fantasy world.

―― ―― Dragon.

“Wait, that’s…”

“Goshujin-sama?” “Kaito-sama?”

Minnalis and Shuria were making dubious expressions at me, but I had no time for that.

“Guren…”

As it approached closer, I could make out more of its features.

Guren was the name of the small Blaze Dragon I always saw with Leticia. He’d almost always stay in his dragon pup form and lazed around on top of Leticia’s head or on her shoulder.

“―!!”

I couldn’t just stand there anymore. I used Sky Walk and went after the red dragon.

“Gyaruo?”

“Ah…”

And then, when I was at a position where I stood face to face with Guren, I’d finally returned to my senses.

What was I trying to achieve with this?

Guren stared at me suspiciously, likely finding it odd why I was suddenly here.

This dragon wasn’t supposed to meet Leticia until some time later.

This guy would never forgive me if it knew that I’d once failed to save Leticia after all the times she’d saved me.

“Gyaru!!”

“―!!”

It looked like Guren judged me as an annoyance, and started taking in a breath, fire gathering in its maw.

He was getting ready to use his trademark breath skill.

But on the other hand, I didn’t want to harm Guren at all, so all I could do in this situation was take as many defensive measures as I could. And in that moment,

“Gyaruu!?”

“Wha!?”

A powerful light burst out from within my chest.

The blinding light caused my vision to see only white, and I felt something leaving my body.

“Huh, what just…”

It felt as if I lost something very important.

And that something, that light went towards Guren, and got itself absorbed into his body.

“Gyah!? Gyaruu!?”

“W-what’s wrong…?”

I had no idea what was happening right now. And neither did Guren from the looks of it.

After that, Guren let out a low growl while staring at me for a few seconds. Then, he whipped around his tail, covered in scales tough enough to repel even mythril blades, in an attempt to swat me out of the sky.

“Ukh!?”

I’d instantly instantiated a 【Soulblade of Origin】 to protect myself, but the sheer weight and momentum of the scaled appendage knocked me off and away from the foothold I’d made in the air.

I managed to steady myself and safely crash landed, but the situation itself was pretty bad.

Blocking that last attack numbed both my arms and I’d need at least a few more seconds before I could recover.

But the dragon didn’t strike me in my weakened state. Guren only let out a snort of what looked like disappointment, and then flew off.

“… … …”

“Goshujin-sama!!” “Kaito-sama!!”

Minnalis and Shuria were running over to me, worried.

As for me, I just stared at the sky where the dragon was speeding away.