Resolution And The Next Problem

When I returned to the room at the inn, Adolf was standing right in front of me in stunned silence. The moment I appeared, Adolf collapsed onto his backside as if his legs had given out, and with a face like he had just seen a ghost, he scooted backward while still sitting on the floor.

However, he soon hit the wall of the room and his face twisted with fear.

“W-What the hell are you…!?”

Just seeing that expression on his face eased my anger a little. But there was no way I could forgive him for something this small. He was going to experience all the pain and suffering Rebecca had endured.

“Adolf, I despise you from the bottom of my heart. I can’t even forgive myself for ever having been your companion.”

Adolf opened his mouth as if he wanted to argue back after hearing my words, but it seemed fear robbed him of his voice. He just kept staring at me while trembling violently, as if looking at a monster.

I hurled the ominous purple sphere toward him… and the moment it struck Adolf’s body, a deep thudding impact echoed throughout the room, sounding as though it resonated from deep within the stomach, and Adolf’s body bounced slightly.

With a dull thud, Adolf collapsed onto the floor and stopped moving. It looked like he had lost consciousness.

Across Adolf’s body were wounds similar to the ones Rebecca had earlier.

“Lady Seremees, it’s finished.”

“Yes, I saw it. Rebecca wants to go over there.”

“Understood. I’ll go get her.”

After that, things became quite busy. I returned to Adolf’s room together with Rebecca and treated only the visible injuries on Adolf before calling for the soldiers.

The reason I healed him was so that no one could accuse me of going beyond self-defense and attacking him excessively.

Then several hours passed while the soldiers questioned us. During that time Adolf woke up and tried to fabricate all kinds of lies to pin the blame on me, but with testimony from the inn staff and evidence like the letter, Adolf was judged to be guilty.

Adolf’s punishment had yet to be decided, but it seemed likely that he would not be released from prison for quite some time, and even after his release his movements would be restricted and he would remain under surveillance for several years.

With that, Rebecca probably wouldn’t be attacked again.

“Luca, thank you so much for saving me.”

“No. This happened because of me. If anything, I’m sorry it took me so long to save you.”

“That’s not true. I was really happy, and you looked so cool. I always believed Luca would come save me.”

Faced with Rebecca’s pure gaze, I felt a little uncomfortable and ended up looking away slightly.

“…Thanks for believing in me. From now on, if anything happens, I’ll definitely come help you.”

“Yeah, I believe you. I’ll help you too.”

“Just don’t push yourself too hard.”

“That might be difficult… when it comes to helping Luca. So please don’t get into anything dangerous.”

I laughed and nodded at Rebecca’s words as she said them with a smile. Then that day, after escorting Rebecca home, I returned to the inn.

When I got back to the inn and lay down on the bed from exhaustion, I noticed that the sword that should normally be beside the bed wasn’t there.

Come to think of it, I defeated Adolf using Temporary Peace, so I never used my sword.

I could get it in the morning… but I didn’t want something to happen during the night, so I might as well go retrieve it from the Divine Domain.

When I activated Divine Domain Interference and descended into the pavilion, Lady Seremees wasn’t sitting on her usual sofa. Instead, she was staring intently at the water mirror.

“Lady Seremees, what’s wrong?”

“…Luca, you came.”

“Yes. I forgot my sword, so I thought I’d come back to get it. But you look worried…”

Seeing the Goddess of Peace, Lady Seremees, wearing such an expression made me uneasy, as if something terrible was about to happen. She then called me over to the water mirror.

“What is it showing… huh? Which dungeon is this?”

“It’s the dungeon near the Royal Capital where only ants appear.”

What appeared there were various kinds of ant-type monsters filling the corridor of a cave-type dungeon completely. Small Ants, Poison Ants… even Big Ants in massive numbers.

This was clearly abnormal. Could it be… a Stampede?

A Stampede is a rare phenomenon where monsters overflow from a dungeon in massive numbers. When that happens, nearby cities disappear. Depending on the scale, even a country can fall.

“L-Lady Seremees, how large… do you think this one is?”

“I still don’t know. I usually observe the state of the world through this water mirror to check if any major problems are occurring, but I only just discovered this. However, judging from what I’m seeing… it will likely become extremely large in scale.”

If a Stampede of that scale occurred, the Royal Capital would be finished… and there are people important to me in the Royal Capital. So many people living their lives happily there.

“How long until they overflow from the dungeon?”

“…Several days. Two days at the earliest.”

“Two days… that’s… Is there any way to stop a Stampede?”

At my words, Lady Seremees wore a troubled expression, but she nodded.