Chapter 131

“Anyway, is that it?”

“Ah, wait! Wait a moment! There must be something else. Let me think, I mean… ah!!!”

Disis, who had been frantically wracking her brain, raised her index finger as if she had finally found something she was confident in.

“Truly! There is something truly great!!”

I picked at my ear and narrowed my eyes.

“Hmm, I’m not really expecting much.”

“No, this time it’s for real. You saw the gate in my castle, right?”

“The one that lets you go anywhere on the Western Continent? Well, it wouldn’t be bad to have, but my main stage is the Northern Continent, so…”

“That thing! It can be used outside the Western Continent too!”

“…Hmm?”

She continued with a triumphant look on her face.

“Because of the distance, I can’t scatter exits everywhere like I do on the Western Continent, but… I can create one or two entrances on other continents! Isn’t that the help you need most right now?”

“You mean… I can create a permanent gate leading to Bordeaux Island at any location I want on the Northern Continent?”

“Yes. Though I’ll have to reduce the number of gates on the Western Continent accordingly.”

“I’m not planning on throwing monsters through them like you did, so that doesn’t matter. Anyway, that means…”

I can open a “Door to Anywhere”… no, a “Door to Any Continent” right in my manor in Seol? All while using an island the size of Greenland as my personal retreat?

“…That is a bit tempting.”

“How about it? Deal?”

“…Fine. Deal.”

“Yes! I don’t have to be kicked out!!”

I watched Disis hopping around with joy and let out a sigh of relief internally.

Whew. At least I managed to collect some rent. I was worried she’d just lie down and tell me to cut her open if I tried to evict her.

Sis, reading my thoughts, gave me a thumbs up. It seemed she approved.

Right. Honestly, neither Sis nor I actually knew how to kick them out. Even if she had just refused, I would have ended up letting them stay anyway.

Of course, if I really wanted them gone, I could just kill them… but I couldn’t bring myself to do that just for the sake of a quiet life, could I?

Besides, I was actually looking forward to the changes their presence would bring to my imagery.

Bel looked down at the rejoicing Disis and gave a meaningful smile.

“Since it’s come to this, let’s give the ones capable of combat a quota for hunting mobs. The progress will be much faster than just the two of us.”

“Ooh, that’s a great idea.”

“Um… what are you two talking about?”

“Huh? It’s nothing. We were just discussing how people are free to enter, but leaving is a different story. …Anyway, Chun-sim.”¹

“Pardon? Chun-sim? My name is Disis. Little Disis.”

“I know. Chun-sim.”

“No, my name is…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. You’ll get used to this one soon enough.”

Having settled (?) things inside my imagery, I returned to reality.

“Hmm…”

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the devastated island.

Particularly the area where Disis and I had clashed—if there was a hell on earth, this was surely it.

The cracked earth, the collapsed mountains, and the craters nearly a kilometer deep were one thing… but the most serious issue was the suspicious “colors” staining the surroundings—no, the very space itself—in a garish hue.

“Wow, mana pollution… I guess it’s only natural since such immense powers collided. If I leave this alone, all sorts of weird things will start crawling out.”

I pondered for a moment before a good idea struck me.

“Hmm. Do I really need to handle this myself? I’m going to have a direct gate to the manor anyway, so I’ll just call my magic slave… I mean, my magic technician, and have her clean it up. She’s a mage; she’ll figure it out.”

It certainly wouldn’t be easy, but… as usual, if I put in an “Angel Coin,” she’ll probably move like an angel and get it done. If that’s not enough, I’ll just give her a bit more for her trouble.

“At least… the monster corpses are all gone.”

As a note, some monsters vanish upon death while others leave corpses; the monsters in this Demon Territory seem to be the former. I could have been stuck watching tens of thousands of monster carcasses rot away… which would have been truly unfortunate.

Next, I saw my clone standing guard over me.

Since it was inevitably affected by my own condition, it was on the verge of dissipating… but it was still sufficient to guard me for an hour or two.

And finally, I saw the ladies of the group, who were hovering at a distance, unable to approach because of that very clone.

I let out a soft chuckle and spoke to the clone.

“Good work.”

The clone gave a slight nod as if it understood and scattered into the air.

I stood up and walked toward the girls who were looking awkward, but I suddenly stopped in my tracks.

“…Hm? What’s this?”

For some reason, I feel incredible.

The feeling of emptiness from ascending to and then falling from the Seat of Transcendence is still there, but regardless of that, my body is overflowing with power.

Wondering what was going on, I lightly thrust my hand forward, and bang! the air exploded.

“…!”

With that light strike alone, I easily realized the current state of my body.

…The performance of my physical body has improved drastically. In terms of physical ability alone, I’m nearly at the Master level. But why? Is it an aftereffect of ascending to the Potestates rank?

No, that doesn’t make sense. If that were the case, I should have been in this state the moment I sealed Shia.

I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head.

Well, whatever. I’ll get an answer if I ask Bel or Sis later. More importantly, for now…

“What are you all flinching for?”

At my words, Chel stepped forward and asked cautiously.

“Um… you are Sword God Orabeoni, right?”

“Wow! She spoke informally to the Mister-nim! She’s going to get divine punishment!”

“Sword God-nim. Unlike that rude Guild Master, I have never once spoken informally to you since the first time we met. You know that, right?”

“Hey, you traitors…!”

I scratched my head while looking at them.

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Forget it and just come over here. It’s not like I’m some kind of plague.”

“The… but… still…”

“Don’t worry about it; just treat me like you always do. And stop with those weird titles like ‘Mister-nim’ or whatever.”

“…Orabeoni. Can I really treat you like normal?”

“I told you to, didn’t I?”

Seeing the grin on my face, the group finally burst into a chatter and lunged toward me.

“Yesss! Mister!!”

“Um, please explain exactly what happened based on the five W’s and one H… Ah, is it okay if I record this?”

“Orabeoni! Did you really descend from the heavens!? Five pairs of wings makes you a Mid-tier God, right? Does this mean I have a Martial God for a brother now?”

“Wait. Wait. Hold on a second. The person in the back can’t follow the conversation at all. Imagine how absurd this must seem from her perspective.”

At my interjection, a blue-haired elf finally shuffled forward hesitantly.

“Um… M-Martial G-God-nim…?”

“Just call me Sword God.”

“No, but… how could someone like me possibly dare…”

“It seems you regained consciousness quite early. How much did you see?”

“F-from the part where the War God-nim s-swept away all the monsters…”

“Ah, I see. No wonder you’re reacting like this. Anyway, nice to meet you. My name is Go Geom-shin(Sword God). You’re Kelly, right?”

“Ye-yes… I’m K-Kelly. But… um, Chel unnie. Are we really allowed to do this? I feel like I’m going crazy. This person is a God. A God! The kind from the celestial heavens mentioned in the scriptures. Is it really okay to be this rude to him…?”

I couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile.

I guess even the notorious Kelly has no choice but to become humble in the presence of a God (?).

Watching her unfamiliar behavior… my heart throbbed for a second as I remembered the old version (?) of Kelly who had scattered into light right before my eyes just moments ago.

…Actually, no, it doesn’t throb. She’s living just fine inside me, after all.

Moving on. Anyway, I forced the four of them to sit on the ground and served them a hand-cooked meal to break the awkward atmosphere.

“Here, eat up. Eat.”

“Wow! I’m going to brag to everyone that a God fed me!”

“Who are you going to brag to? You don’t even have friends.”

“Oh, shut up. Seriously, Chel unnie, you have a real talent for killing the mood.”

“Photos. Photos. I have to take some. Stew made by a God. No, rather than a photo, should I collect a sample?”

“No, Chel unnie… please, I told you I’m losing my mind! Why is everyone so calm!?”

“Now, now, that’s enough.”

I calmed the rowdy atmosphere with a wave of my hand and spoke.

“Listen while you eat. I know you have a lot of questions… but answering them one by one would take forever, so I’ll give you a simple summary.”

As we ate, I began to weave my pre-prepared scenario—watering it down just enough to be believable.

“Wait… so Orabeoni didn’t descend from heaven, but is a hero from another world?”

“I’ve never even been to heaven. Maybe space, but not heaven.”

“Aww…”

“‘Aww’ my foot. Elizabeth, stop being so ignorant. To be born as a human and rise above the Potestates rank, not just as a mere transcendent… if you knew how staggering an achievement that was, you’d want to sew your mouth shut.”

“Uh… Ailet unnie, why are you being so unlike yourself? You don’t have to get that worked up…”

“How can I not be worked up? You know Emperor Bridget, who appears at least once in every scripture, right?”

“The Millennium Emperor? The one they say was the greatest person since this world of Kion was opened?”

“Exactly. But Elizabeth, did you know? Even that famous figure you know was only at the Archangel rank. And a being at the Potestates rank is someone that a hundred Archangel-class transcendents combined couldn’t even scratch. Do you understand now?”

“Oh, u-huh…”

“That’s enough. That’s plenty of praise. Anyway, like I said, I’m from a place called Earth. I came over because an angel from Kion asked for help.”

Chel let out an exclamation and nodded.

“It must be a truly incredible world. A world where transcendents like Orabeoni exist…”

“My ascent to the seat of Potestates wasn’t because Earth is great, but because I am great… but well, it was indeed a developed world. Metal airplanes—this world has the concept of airplanes—carrying hundreds of people for thousands of kilometers was a daily occurrence.”

“Whoa…”

“Anyway…”

I wet my lips and steered the conversation back from its detour.

Is it time to start the bluffing?

“Wait, so… your abilities were restricted when you crossed over?”

“Yeah. I can only exert my original power about once every six months. And only for a short time.”

“I see…”

Well, considering it takes about that long for the giants of the Moon, Mars, and the Sun—who contributed the most to stopping those damn chains—to recover, it wasn’t a total lie.

“Did you think I was playing some kind of ‘hidden power’ game all this time?”

At my question, Chel scratched her cheek with a guilty look.

“Well… yeah. A little bit. No, it’s not that it was wrong, but from our perspective, it felt a bit…”

“It wasn’t like that. I swear, back then, that was the best I could do.”

“Then… except for that once every six months, you’re continuously at the Master rank?”

I was about to say yes, but then I remembered my physical body, which was much better than before, and shook my head.

“No, I’m closer to a Grandmaster than a Master.”

“Ah…”

After that, I continued to layer on plausible settings for myself.

Usually, when telling lies like this, it’s better to provide a framework and let them fill in the rest with their own imagination rather than spinning a detailed yarn. It’s harder to deny a setting you’ve built yourself, even if contradictions appear.

Finally, after explaining the gate located inside the half-collapsed Demon King’s castle, I asked them.

“So, what are you all going to do now? I have friends waiting for me, so I’m planning to return to the Northern Continent immediately.”

Elizabeth shot her hand up.

“Me! I want to follow you to the Mister’s house!”

Chel looked horrified.

“What are you talking about? Don’t you know we’ve been missing for over a month? The guild members must be looking for us frantically, and you want to go where?”

“She’s right, Elizabeth. Sword God-nim said he would connect it via gate, so we should return for now and then later…”

“The point is just to let them know we’re alive, right? Then just have Snoopy carry a letter through the gate. What more do we need?”

Chel and Ailet looked at each other.

“…I see.”

“That actually makes sense. We’ve earned enough to take a break from work for a while anyway…”

“Then you unnis should stop complaining and come too! I’ve never been to the Northern Continent! Strike while the iron is hot, right now!”

“…Come to think of it, I’ve only been there once about 47 years ago.”

“For me… it’s been 23 years since my last visit.”

“Um… do I have to join in too?”

Having unintentionally ended up bringing unexpected guests home, I was momentarily troubled but soon changed my mind.

If I thought about it, most of the people currently staying at the manor started out as unexpected guests. What difference would three or four more make?

“Fine. Let’s go. Everyone, let’s go.”

“Yay~!”

And so…

Since we hadn’t set up the direct gate yet (you have to open a gate on-site), we used the help of Disis inside my imagery to jump to a sanctuary of the Lumina Order on the Northern Continent. From there, we took a portal to Central, and finally, used a teleport scroll I had purchased to move to the manor in the 3rd District of Seol East.

Total elapsed time: 1 hour and 47 minutes.

“Wow… how long has it been since I saw this sight?”

Dozens of days after realizing through my whole body that leaving home is a hardship, I had finally succeeded in returning.

A moment later.

Perhaps they had set up a barrier, because as soon as I arrived, people came swarming out of the manor.

“Sword God!”

“Sword God!!”

“Oppa!”

“Master!!”

Starting with Shia, then Sodin, Illeia, Selan, Scala. And for some reason, even the number of employees had grown significantly since I left. At that sight, Elizabeth, who was beside me, muttered:

“Holy crap. They’re all women. And every single one is a beauty.”

“…….”

“…….”

Wait, why is everyone looking at me with those eyes? I didn’t gather them, okay? I was just standing there, and they gathered on their own. I’m serious!