『Warning! Severe scenario deviation detected.』
Scenario deviation correction procedures will now begin.』
『Error! This action falls under [Authorized Authority].
This action will be replaced with Plausibility Adjustment.』
『Target: Protagonist 「Leon Brave」
Action: Disposition will be adjusted.』
***
“I’m bored…”
The mischievous eyes beneath her mane of blue hair drooped listlessly.
A girl like the fickle sea breeze of early autumn.
The Reincarnated Thief, Rosaria, grumbled.
“Diana, isn’t there anything fun to do?”
Rosaria shook her head, sending her hair whipping into the girl beside her. The girl immediately scowled.
“Rosaria, get your hair out of my face and try acting like an adult for once.”
Curly green hair reminiscent of fresh leaves framed a pair of sharp brown eyes that gleamed with irritation.
A girl like a thornbush beneath the scorching heat of midsummer.
The Reincarnated Divine Archer, Diana.
“An adult? I’m seventeen, you know? I’m still just a little baby.”
“For a forty-five-year-old spinster, you sure run that mouth of yours…”
“Hey, subtract seventeen from that! I died when I was twenty-eight, remember? You’re the one pushing past thirty, you old hag. You’re literally the ‘oldest’ one here!”
“Want me to put another hole in that mouth of yours…?!”
As always, Rosaria and Diana immediately began bickering.
Frey, sitting beside them, merely smiled as if this were the most ordinary scene in the world.
“It’s so peaceful. A hundred years ago, I never could’ve imagined this.”
Silver hair scattered a mysterious sheen as it swayed, and her luminous white eyes curved gently with her smile.
A girl like the first days of spring, when snow still covered the ground but winter had begun to melt away.
The Reincarnated Saintess, Frey.
Reincarnation a hundred years later.
A reunion with her old party.
All of this was surely a blessing bestowed upon them by the Goddess Deuslute.
It was practically a reward for surviving the hell of their previous lives.
“…Yeah. This is the peace we barely managed to win back. Yeah…”
Leon, who seemed strangely uneasy, let out a reluctant sigh.
“It must be the Goddess rewarding us…”
“Are you all right? You haven’t looked very well lately.”
“Hm? Oh, no. I’m fine. I just have a lot on my mind.”
Several troublesome incidents had erupted recently, but their daily lives hadn’t changed all that much.
Even Leon being chosen as the Hero after defeating those demons last time hadn’t made much of a difference.
“Frey, is the Theocracy still summoning you?”
“Yes. At this point, even I’m starting to get sick of it.”
The Theocracy had repeatedly demanded that Leon answer their summons, but they had ignored every single one.
Circe had warned them that the Theocracy was acting suspiciously and told them not to respond.
‘Circe’s never been wrong about this kind of thing…’
“Oh, right. Where did Circe go?”
“She stopped by the faculty office for a moment, but she’s taking longer than I expected.”
As they waited for their next class to begin,
“That piece of trash from Class F caused another incident.”
They heard yet another rumor about the infamous Ex spreading among a group of students some distance away.
They were noble girls who hadn’t managed to become part of the Imperial Princess’s circle.
“I heard he suddenly lost his temper and blew up his own classroom.”
“Apparently he was fooling around with two innocent girls and caused some kind of accident.”
“He really thinks he can act like some deranged delinquent just because the Imperial Princess favors him. And he’s only a commoner…”
The rumors were obviously malicious.
Still, the incident had been caused by a commoner from Class F, a class filled with the academy’s worst failures.
Whatever his intentions had been, it was only natural that people would look at the situation unfavorably.
Rosaria and Diana joined in as well.
“I never liked that bastard from the start. What if he’s actually Demonkin or a demon or something?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. There’s even that weird rumor that he used aura and mana at the same time recently. Even if he really is a demon…”
『Plausibility Adjustment complete.』
“Rosaria. Diana. That’s enough. Shut your mouths.”
The two immediately fell silent at the sudden, severe rebuke.
Leon had spoken in a voice filled with anger.
“Don’t ever badmouth someone behind their back in front of me again. You know that isn’t right.”
“Urk…”
“…Okay.”
The sudden chill in the air silenced the Hero Party.
The other students, however, did not fall silent.
If anything, they seemed to take the Hero Party’s silence as agreement and only grew more enthusiastic with their insults and baseless rumors.
“I can’t just sit here and listen to this.”
“Wait, Leon. Calm down…!”
Leon rose from his seat.
Frey sensed where this was going and tried to stop him, but Leon was already walking toward the girls who were still gossiping.
The girls stopped talking when they noticed Leon had suddenly approached them. Unlike his usual self, there was a distinctly unpleasant look on his face.
One particularly strong-willed noble girl failed to read the mood and spoke up anyway.
“Well, what an honor… If it isn’t Leon Brave, the Hero chosen by the Goddess herself. What brings you to me-”
WHAM-!!!
“Eeeek-!!”
A sudden scream rang through the first-year Class A classroom.
Leon had punched the girl straight in the face.
“I-It hurts…”
Tears burst from her eyes at the pain throbbing through her face, but Leon merely looked down at her coldly.
“How long are you going to keep tearing people down with nothing but baseless rumors?”
“A-Ahh… Why? Why are you…?”
“Do you really think acting like this is going to fix that rotten personality of yours?”
“I-It was just a rumor…”
“I haven’t heard a single good thing come out of your mouth for the past month. If all you’re ever going to do is sit around insulting people, then you might as well…!”
His fist came down again.
“Leon, what the hell are you doing?”
CLANG-!
His fist struck a barrier that had appeared in midair and rebounded away.
Someone had cast defensive magic at exactly the right moment.
Straight purple hair and vicious black eyes.
A girl like the cutting wind of an Arctic winter beneath a curtain of aurora.
The Reincarnated Sage, Circe.
“Circe, what are you…”
“What am I doing? What the hell are you doing? You think beating the crap out of a kid because she said some nasty things is the right thing to do?”
Circe stepped in front of Leon, shielding the girl behind her.
Leon frowned at the reprimand before answering.
“Someone has to step forward and correct what’s wrong. If we ignore behavior like this, it’ll only turn into a bigger problem later.”
“Get a grip, Leon! This isn’t the Demon Realm! This is an academy in the Empire! They’re just students! They’re kids!”
“…”
“What is wrong with you lately? You were quiet for a while, so why are you suddenly starting this crap again?!”
Circe had noticed something strange about Leon recently.
These days, he had become obsessed with correcting anything he considered wrong.
Doing what was right.
Upholding justice.
Again and again, he had started taking reckless action in the name of those ideals.
‘This is exactly why I hurried back…!’
Until now, Circe had always been there to stop him.
Yet the moment she left him alone for a little while, this happened.
“Go cool your damn head somewhere!”
Circe left Leon where he was and turned around to examine the injured girl’s face.
Leon had hit her so mercilessly that there was a fracture in her facial bone.
Circe immediately healed the injury with magic.
“I know it hurts, but bear with it. And here’s some advice…”
Circe quietly whispered into the girl’s ear.
“Ex has the Imperial Princess’s favor. I’m sure you understand what it means to insult someone under her protection.”
“Hic…”
“Watch your mouth. Unless you want to get hit by something a lot worse than a fist next time.”
Sure enough, Beatrice was watching the commotion from a distance with an indifferent expression.
The moment the noble girl’s now-healed eyes met the Imperial Princess’s gaze, all the color drained from her face and she hurriedly nodded.
After finishing the treatment, Circe returned to the Hero Party.
Leon had crossed his arms and closed his eyes, struggling to suppress his anger.
Everyone else was nervously watching both him and Circe.
Circe sighed once, then spoke to Leon.
“Leon, we need to talk.”
“Sorry, Circe. There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Do you even realize how strange you’ve been acting lately?”
At those words, Leon opened his eyes and looked up at her.
“There’s nothing strange about me. I’m perfectly fine. I always have been.”
“Are you hearing yourself right now? Look around you! Look at the way these kids are staring at you! They think you’ve completely lost your mind!”
The students were watching Leon with fear in their eyes.
Faced with all those stares, Leon simply closed his eyes again.
“Correcting what is wrong is always painful. They’re simply too young to understand that yet.”
“You seriously think that makes any sense…?! Haa…”
Circe stopped herself.
She didn’t even have the energy to waste on arguing anymore.
Leon had entered his brick-wall stubbornness mode.
Once he got like this, he wouldn’t listen to a single word anyone said.
When it came to righteousness and justice, Leon had never once been willing to bend.
‘He’s way too different from that bastard…’
Seeing Leon act like this made her compare him to Ex despite herself.
Ex was always flexible enough to let minor provocations and petty arguments slide.
And yet, whenever something truly mattered, he absolutely refused to compromise.
At the very least, he had risked his own life to protect a girl who couldn’t even defend herself. He had never once mercilessly beaten one.
‘If Leon had even half that personality…’
Come to think of it, Ex had been in the faculty office earlier today too.
Circe had seen him handing some documents to Roxwell, the professor responsible for his class. She could vaguely remember the title written across the top.
‘It definitely said something about the Ancient Ruins…’
The Ancient Ruins were somewhere she had planned to explore eventually.
She had tried to secretly eavesdrop on their conversation, but Ex and Roxwell had quickly left together with grim expressions.
‘Knowing that bastard, he’s probably plotting something again…’
She decided not to care.
She was supposed to ignore him, just like they had agreed last time.
He was constantly running around causing one incident after another, but if she kept paying attention to him…
‘Wait. Why the hell do I have to do that?’
Who was he to order the Reincarnated Sage around however he pleased?
Especially when he was still hanging around with that little brat Lola.
So what if he’d gotten a glimpse of the future? That didn’t give him the right to tell her what she could and couldn’t do.
‘Now that I think about it, that’s ridiculous. He’s just Ex.’
And seeing Leon stubbornly digging his heels in gave Circe a very good idea.
The reason Leon was wasting his energy on this pointless stubbornness, and the reason the rest of their party had been so listless lately, was obvious.
“I knew it. We’ve all gotten soft from too much peace.”
“…Circe?”
“If we go somewhere and burn off all this excess energy, maybe everyone will get back to normal.”
Circe quickly reached a decision.
She didn’t know when that bastard was planning to visit the Ancient Ruins, but she would get there first.
She would claim all the rewards before he could, then wave them right in front of his face.
“This Saturday, let’s go clear the ‘Ancient Ruins’ again.”
If he got down on his knees and begged, maybe she’d even share.
***
After all her classes were over, Elia returned to the dormitory.
Normally, this was when she would go study in the library with Lola.
But she couldn’t do that anymore.
‘It isn’t time yet.’
She had declared a complete break with Ex.
Naturally, that meant she couldn’t approach Lola while Lola was still by his side.
‘This is the only way I can save Ms. Lola.’
Kind, innocent Lola was still being deceived by Ex.
Because of Ex, she didn’t even have any other friends.
Lola was being sacrificed to satisfy some vile hobby of his.
Elia didn’t know exactly what that hobby was, but if the Goddess herself had said so, then it had to be true.
‘Then why did Ex get so angry back then…?’
The fury he had shown when she answered his question, “Don’t you have anything to say to her?” had unquestionably been real.
‘But the Goddess said…’
“Oh, there you are after all~ I went wandering around for nothing~”
Someone opened the front door and invited herself inside without permission.
Elia had been gazing out the window at the sky, but she already knew exactly who had arrived.
“Gremory.”
“It’s ‘Hilde’ right now! Hilde Borson, daughter of a great merchant and a Tier 3 mage! Not that anyone cares~”
The girl had long black hair that seemed soaked in clinging malice, paired with relaxed, languid brown eyes.
Of course, Elia already knew her true identity.
She was the demon Gremory, a creature formed from horrific malice itself.
“If you weren’t the Goddess’s Apostle, I would’ve killed you already…”
“That’s right! I’m one of only two Apostles serving ‘Goddess Elysia,’ the very Goddess you believe in and follow, so you can’t~ The Goddess would get angry with you~”
“But you haven’t forgotten what I told you, have you?”
Elia turned toward Gremory, her expression cold and rigid.
“If you harm another innocent person, I’ll kill you. There’s no possible way the Goddess would want something like that.”
“…Heh.”
Gremory shrank back slightly beneath the condensed fury and threat radiating from Elia.
Elia was currently a 4-Star martial artist standing on the very threshold of 5-Star.
She had reached in a single week a realm that an ordinary martial artist might devote half a lifetime to attaining.
‘Monster. She’s a genuine monster.’
She was easily the strongest human Gremory had ever seen.
It was as though her very existence had been blessed by the world itself.
At this rate, she might eventually become even stronger than the Hero or the Demon King.
She truly was a genius in every possible sense of the word.
‘But that’s exactly what makes her worth devouring.’
There was only one problem.
She was stupid.
If Gremory took advantage of that stupidity, she could claim the body of this genius for herself.
She might surpass the Hero and Demon King.
If everything went perfectly, she might even rival ‘Him.’
‘Then I can finally crush that bastard of a brother I want dead.’
She still hated the shackles sealing away her ability to ‘lie.’
She wanted to kill the bastard who had put them on her simply because he had been ‘bored.’
So for now, she would bow her head.
She would wait until the most delicious possible moment before devouring Elia.
All so she could kill the ‘Brother’ who had cast her into the abyss.
“Don’t worry~ I haven’t hurt anyone since then~”
“You’re cleverly hiding the truth. Demon who cannot lie.”
To Elia, everything about her was simply hateful and disgusting.
“I’ll make sure the girl named Hilde, the one you killed, receives justice. So please don’t forget your place. I still need to hear the Goddess’s messages through you.”
“I haven’t forgotten anything~”
“So what is the Goddess’s message this time?”
Gremory placed the object she had brought in front of Elia.
It was an elaborately decorated longsword that looked more ceremonial than practical.
As Elia examined it, Gremory began explaining.
“It’s a weapon called ‘Soul Killer.’ If you stab someone properly with it, it destroys their soul~! Unfortunately, it doesn’t kill demons~”
“…Where did you get a weapon like this?”
“There’s this thing called a ‘Shop’ among the Goddess’s powers, right? It suddenly got added this time~ I had plenty of points left over, so I went ahead and bought it~”
“…A Shop.”
Elia knew the Shop existed as well.
But there was nothing in Elia’s Shop.
The only things she could purchase were stats.
“This is another one of the Goddess’s newly added abilities~ I received this message through my own special method~”
With a mischievous expression, Gremory shamelessly imitated the Goddess’s voice.
“‘My child~ The time has come for you to kill Ex, that heinous and wicked creature~ We’ve finally discovered the place where Ex intends to carry out his evil scheme~’”
“Stop insulting the Goddess with that ridiculous imitation and get to the point.”
Gremory smiled languidly.
“This Saturday, go to the Ancient Ruins.”
Even to Gremory, the message sounded malicious and sinister.
“Once there, stab Ex with Soul Killer and kill him.”
At that moment, Elia’s Intelligence was too low for her to realize something.
The meaning behind Gremory’s statement that Soul Killer could not kill demons.
Gremory alone had understood what that meant.
Depending on how one looked at it, perhaps the Goddess was even more wicked than a demon.
***
From early morning, Ex had been forcing his way through a dense forest, his entire body drenched in sweat.
“Whew… We’re finally here.”
With a massive pack strapped to his back, Ex wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked down at the breathtaking sight spread out before him.
Far below, surrounded by deep mountain ranges, stretched an enormous basin nearly the size of a city. At its center stood a colossal structure unmistakably shaped by artificial hands.
“Haa… C-Commoner… Is this… is this really the place?”
Lola, carrying only a light pack, struggled to catch her breath behind him.
Her luggage might have been light, but the journey here certainly hadn’t been.
They had climbed up and down several massive mountains.
For a mage lacking in physical ability, a journey like this was bound to be exhausting.
Worse, the area suffered from severe mana interference, making even support magic difficult to use.
Lola had only managed to reach this place because Ex had helped her constantly. With her ordinary physical abilities alone, there was no chance she could have made it this far.
‘Still, it’s impressive that she hasn’t complained even once.’
Ex gently took some of the weight from Lola’s luggage as he spoke.
“Yes, Young Lady. This is the place.”
Ex looked toward the destination they had finally reached.
An unknown enigma that no scholar had ever managed to decipher.
A ruin whose every secret had eluded even legendary explorers.
A place of chaos and inconsistency, born from ten thousand characters’ worth of discarded setting notes.
“This is the ‘Ancient Ruins.’”
–TL Notes–
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