Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Lilia
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Author Note:
It’s the second chapter of the day, so make sure not to miss the previous one.
Chapter 35 – What He Really Wanted to Convey
There was a handsome, prince-like figure with golden hair who looked like he just jumped out of a picture book.
In front of him was a black-haired, red-eyed girl with both cute and elegant charm.
Just like that, Haruto and the unconscious Mariemaia quietly confronted each other.
Dangoon was furious at the humans who were flocking to him like insects.
“Don’t get conceited, you small fries!”
The demon worked hard to devise plans and countermeasures, and finally managed to corner the Descendant of the Hero.
No matter how you looked at it, it was clear that the Descendant of the Hero was the biggest obstacle against resurrecting the Demon Lord and the Demon Lord’s agenda after he resurrected.
In that case, Dangoon was confident that he would be the one to accomplish the great task for his lord, so he had made sufficient preparations for that purpose.
However, the current situation wasn’t something that Dangoon had thought would happen.
The girl that the demon considered as one of his pawns faced Haruto, and Dangoon found himself stranded, surrounded by insignificant small fries.
“I told you not to get in my way!”
Dangoon swung his arms and scattered attacks.
His combat magic formula [Killing Star Inferno Club] was appealing for its versatility in both offense and defense.
It had the ability to attack a single or multiple targets, or provide focused or widespread defense, without switching anything. Furthermore, depending on the skill of the person using it, attack or defense could be executed through instinct, and the power would increase accordingly.
“He’s strong…!”
It was an attack that seemed random, but everything was calculated.
Even as the attacks narrowed down her field of movement, Erin never moved recklessly and continued to maintain her distance in a defensive move.
“You manipulated us and acted like a mastermind!”
“Aah, that’s right miss! Thanks for being manipulated as intended, but now you have outlived your usefulness!”
Although Haruto had said that “no, isn’t it obvious that the deceiver is at fault…” for inviting Mariemaia’s group due to Dangoon’s advice, Erin thought she was also to blame.
That was why she decided to play her part to clear her name.
“I won’t let you go to teach’!”
“You speak nonsense, miss! Let me teach you the difference in our power!”
The attacks of the two intertwined.
The very fact that the clash could be established properly showed Erin’s extraordinary ability.
Of course, it was only possible with the support of Sharon, Julietta, and others, who attacked from a distance.
“What should we do? We’re completely reliant on Erin to buy time right now.”
As Sharon set her assault spear into bombardment mode and began firing support fire, she asked Kuyumi, who hadn’t been participating in the battle.
Kuyumi, who had an unusually serious expression on her face, murmured in a dark, cold voice that was completely different from her usual voice.
“……That demon seems too obsessed with sensei.”
“Eh?”
“Since the ultimate goal of demons is to destroy humans and create a world of demons, don’t you think it would be better to just randomly shoot excessive recovery magic in the cities around once he got Mariemaia-san under his grasp?”
“……I think you shouldn’t mention that, even if you have such thoughts.”
Ignoring Sharon’s slightly disgusted reaction, Kuyumi stared at the angry demon.
“Because he has fought with sensei and lost against him over and over, he always prepared something new for their next encounter… and I think it ended up changing his priorities.”
“……Is that what you mean by obsessed?”
“I think his earlier attack is specifically adjusted to deal with sensei.”
Kuyumi said that and started running.
It was right at the moment that Erin blocked the close range attack with her sword and was blown away.
“How slippery, it’s annoying to deal with an assassin who won’t fight upfront!”
As the demon flailed his arms, he formed a magical net to prevent Kuyumi from escaping as she leapt.
However, Kuyumi curled and slipped through the net, then deployed her wire anchor to restrain Dangoon’s limbs.
“Toys like this won’t stop me!”
Just as it was about to be torn apart, Dangoon was staggered by the support fire from Sharon, Alphas, and Julietta.
Despite being hit directly, not only did he not bleed a single drop, but not a single scratch was seen on his skin.
From the moment the injury occurred, it was regenerated by the healing power supplied by Mariemaia.
It was an unreasonable power── however,
“Ahah♡ as expected, that excessive recovery magic can only be used by Mariemaia-san’s body, not this old man’s body♡”
“……Gh!”
There were many moments during the earlier exchange that he should have used the excessive recovery magic.
Kuyumi and Julietta didn’t actively participate in the battle in order to evacuate their comrades, but,
“Now I know that you can’t use it, we can buy as much time as it takes～”
The veins on Dangoon’s forehead bulged outwards upon hearing that.
“I have no time to waste on you guys, who aren’t Haruto…!”
“……I told you that I will defffffinitely not let you pass, didn’t I?”
Erin readied her sword and stood up next to Kuyumi.
In the face of these seemingly insignificant beings, Dangoon unleashed a storm of destruction in his rage.
◇
I could sense there was a fierce battle going on behind me.
I opened my mouth and spoke quietly to Mariemaia.
“……Mariemaia.”
In an instant, her right hand raised toward me and the organs inside my body were destroyed.
“Guh…!”
I hurriedly used the Hero’s Sword to slash my right shoulder and abdomen, causing the healing power to flow there.
There was no light in her eyes.
It seemed she just thought of me as an enemy that needed to be destroyed.
“Listen to me, Mariemaia.”
Realizing that excessive recovery wouldn’t work, she used a normal magic attack.
That said, perhaps because she didn’t use those types of magic on a normal basis, its effect was lowered.
They pierced my body with a thud and blood gushed out.
No, I guess it wasn’t that the effect was lowered.
It was more like the power was forcibly increased using an inexhaustible amount of magic power, causing her control to drop as a result.
“……Gh, I’m sorry, please let me apologize!”
I screamed desperately as pain blurred my vision.
“I, I never seriously thought about you, how you felt, and how you would think about my decision!”
The attack suddenly stopped for a few seconds.
“I made an unconditional assumption because it was you. I ended up writing off things as superficial because I thought that you would be just fine as long as I did everything for your sake!”
“…………”
The attacks were no longer continuous but became sporadic.
Blood dripped with each blow. My body automatically healed itself due to the passive skill.
I closed the distance one agonizing step at a time, dragging a trail of blood across the floor behind me.
“I was scared to face you…! I hated the idea of ever disappointing you…! Even though I’m the one who scouted you, it really turned me into the worst kind of person…!”
It was because she was my favorite.
For that reason alone, just because of that, I had always supported her and never felt bad about things I did for her sake.
I wanted to believe I was like that. But that wasn’t actually the case.
“I, actually.”
My words wouldn’t come out.
“I…”
I was scared to say what I really felt and what I really needed to say.
“I────”
But I already decided to stop trying to just accept and pretend things were over.
“──The truth is, I’ve always, always been jealous of you!”
It sounded so pitiful that I surprised myself.
“You have the power and the qualification to defeat the Demon Lord that I don’t have… but I couldn’t accept myself being jealous of you, even by choice…!”
Even though words couldn’t come out at first-
Once I started talking, the words just flew out one after another, like a stone rolling down a hill.
“It would be fine if I could kill the Demon Lord, it would be fine if I could save the world! That would be more efficient, there would be less sacrifice, and I wouldn’t have to get you involved! But it didn’t work that way, and all I did was get irritated at the current situation, which was the worst when it came to efficiency, and tried my best to hold back from directing blame at you, but deep down, I was jealous of you…!”
Before I knew it, her attacks stopped, and she was staring at me with blank eyes.
From my perspective, I was at least more qualified to kill the Demon Lord more than she was.
Of course, if one looked across the whole world, there might be someone more qualified than I was.
However, at the very least, that person shouldn’t be Mariemaia.
It was because I felt sorry that she had to suffer such a fate.
It was because it was weird of her to bear such a fate when even I couldn’t.
……How arrogant it sounded, once it was put into words.
But that was what I always thought.
No matter how hard I tried, no matter how strong I became, I couldn’t get it, yet she got it simply by being born as the protagonist.
Because of that, the people I failed to save! The people who got trampled! The people I failed to reach in time!
I picked up all of that as my own responsibility and carried it on my own.
I wanted Mariemaia to awaken quickly, save the world, and free me.
I was convinced that if Mariemaia failed to awaken, it would be because of the irregular existence known as me.
I felt like I was going crazy every day.
Even though it was something I had been thinking about since I was born as Haruto, I could barely endure it.
“……I thought you could handle it, that’s why I YEETed you. It really was necessary to YEET you out of the party, I can swear on that. But I never cared how you felt and thought about it, all I cared about was sending you off… no, that wasn’t it, I just wanted to run away from you…! I felt pathetic just being with you…! I thought you would eventually understand once things went well, that was all I was thinking…!”
No matter how strong I became, I couldn’t kill the Demon Lord.
Just getting better at swinging a stick wouldn’t save the world.
It was because I knew it would be different for Mariemaia.
I found her, raised her, and prayed that she would save the world.
I continued doing that for so long── yet until the end, I couldn’t let go of my jealousy toward her.
Because that was the original game scenario, I thought the world would be saved if things went according to that.
That was why I told myself that my role was over and comforted myself with the idea that I had accomplished something.
“I was using how I liked you as a shield and didn’t even try to look at you as a person! I’m really the worst, so much so that I shouldn’t complain even if I get killed for that…!”
I was reflected in those deep red eyes.
She silently held her right hand up toward me.
Did my words really reach her?
“……Mariemaia, you don’t have to forgive me. You can kill me here if that’s the conclusion you reach. But while this might sound like a lie, please believe me. I really believe in your power from the bottom of my heart. And even now, I still think of you as my best comrade.”
Immediately after saying that.
Mariemaia quietly closed her eyes and also held her left hand up.
…………？
What was this? She took a pose like she was trying to measure the width of a window without a measuring tape.
“It’s the pose of someone waiting for a hug.”
What did she just say?
“Eh…”
“But it seems it’s no good to just wait.”
Mariemaia stepped in and gently embraced me.
A warm, unfathomable, mysterious feeling instantly covered my whole body.
All the wounds I had weren’t just healed, but it was as if they never happened.
It was an outrageous output of power.
It was clear that she had the entire area under her control.
Meanwhile, all the sounds of battle behind me stopped.
Perhaps they couldn’t understand what they were seeing. I was the one who didn’t understand it the most, though.
Well, there was a certain someone who shouted “Now!” and deployed wires, though. 1
“……Haruto-san just has to keep quiet about useless things.”
“Mariemaia, your consciousness…”
“Because the person I admired said something so pathetic, I couldn’t bear to keep listening and ended up waking up.”
After rubbing her cheek against my chest, she looked up at me.
It was my first time looking at her from this distance and angle, and more than anything-
Although there was no way that was the case, but…
It felt like both Mariemaia and I were looking directly at each other’s faces for the first time.
“I guess Haruto-san is also human.”
“……Of course I am.”
“Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry, I think… I’m the one who made a mistake first.”
As I tried to say, ‘there’s nothing for you to apologize for,’ she smiled and put a finger on my lips.
“I also felt like I was bound by the belief that you wouldn’t make mistakes and that you were always right. That’s why I thought I had to discipline myself even more strictly so that someday I would be able to return to your side…”
“……That’s not true. I definitely made mistakes, and the recent one is particularly terrible.”
When I directly talked to Mariemaia, I could tell my overly sensitive nerves began to calm down.
I poured out everything and she heard them all.
Yet the fact she still embraced me despite that, might be why I was feeling so comforted.
“But when you YEETed me from the party, I really had a hard time, you know! Did you have any idea how anxious and lonely I was…”
“Uuh… I’m really sorry. I thought it was okay for you to be like that as long as the purpose was achieved, but that’s not an excuse.”
“You’re always bad at explaining things! You tend to suddenly laugh in a strange way! Then you sometimes speak rapidly about something incomprehensible! It makes it hard for us to go along with plans we were supposed to fit in well for some reason!”
She suddenly hurled abuse in full course, and I was half in tears.
“Uuh… you’re exactly right. There’s no need for you to forgive me, just say whatever you like.”
“Yes, I will defffffffffffffinitely not forgive you. That’s why… Ah, wait a minute.”
She was still embracing me all this time.
Mariemaia’s cheeks flushed a little and moved away, and then her expression became serious.
“……Haruto-san, please listen to my confession as well.”
“Eh?”
Mariemaia’s expression became dark and muttered softly.
“When I was suddenly YEETed, it was so painful and sad. But I just couldn’t let go of my admiration for you. Even though the reason you YEETed me might have made me let go of my admiration…”
“…………!”
“I could guess a little bit of your intentions. Even so, I kept convincing myself that it would be better if it wasn’t the case.”
What’s with that?
That was nothing to apologize about.
“That’s why I want to confirm once again. It’s not that Haruto-san YEETed me-”
“I wanted you to go on a journey. I wanted you to awaken the power you couldn’t have awakened when you were with me.”
“……Is it really okay to tell me that directly?”
Mariemaia asked anxiously.
It could be said her anxiousness was her way of implying that she hadn’t achieved anything of that sort. However,
“Aah, I will tell you now so you can aim for it. I can’t bear to experience another situation where we misunderstand each other again. I’m really sorry.”
“……Gh.”
Her cheeks flushed red and she looked away.
“……To begin with, both of us just reaped what we sowed, after all.”
“Aah… Wait, is it also like that for you? Um, I think I’m the main one at fault. I’m really sorry.”
“No, you still told me in the end, just like this, right?”
Mariemaia stopped me from bowing my head and smiled.
“That’s why for me, that’s plenty enough reason to forgive everyt… well, I still hold a grudge against Dangoon-san, though…”
Well, that was obvious~
Not only did the guy infiltrate her group as a spy, he even gouged out her emotional wounds and dominated her mind to control her, so of course even Mariemaia wouldn’t be able to forgive that.
In the corner of my vision, I saw the angry demon tear off Kuyumi’s wire with his bare hands.
“Were you okay? After you were brought here…”
“That old man looked into my memories without permission, and I was really scared because of that.”
“Seriously? I’ll definitely kill him.”
“Ah, but thanks to that, I was able to trace back to him when he peeked into me, so I know where the old man’s soul stock is.”
“Seriously…?”
Such a thing was actually possible? It was the first time I heard of it.
I think I heard it was supposed to be stored in another dimension, so it’s amazing for Mariemaia to actually manage to detect it.
“That’s why maybe I could do something like this to that old man──”
“Hm? Eh, wow, amazing… as expected of Mariemaia, you’re a genius.”
“E-ehehe, I’m not that amazing…”
As I was impressed by what she whispered to me, it happened.
“No, what the hell are you two doing, bastaaaaaards!!”
The angry voice of Dangoon echoed.
It seemed he had been obstructed all this time, but was now free to act.
Immediately after, the magic spear he unleashed pierced both Mariemaia and I at once.
“Uoh.”
“Auh…”
Both of us were pierced through the abdomen, and we looked like a three colored dango that had just been taken a bite out of.
Ah, it seemed he was waiting for this moment when we let our guards down the most.
I had to give it to him, he was really good at this.
“How dare you completely ignore me!”
Still furious, he tried to launch another attack toward us.
“Teach’?! You──”
Seeing that both Mariemaia and I were in a perfect state of barbecued skewers, Erin immediately closed the gap to get Dangoon’s attention.
“You’re in the way, die!”
But without turning to Erin, he used the effect of [Killing Star Inferno Club] to form the magic power that had been converging in his arms into a blade and threw it at Erin.
Erin wouldn’t be able to make it in time to avoid it.
“No goo……?!”
Dangoon’s magic blade clearly cut Erin in half.
The guillotine-sized, crescent-shaped object pierced Erin’s abdomen.
It would be only natural for Erin’s upper body to fall off immediately.
“Erin────!”
“You bastard!”
Sharon’s high pitched scream and Kuyumi’s furious yell echoed.
But after raising their weapons, the two glanced at the collapsing Erin, did a double take, and stopped moving.
The same also happened for Alphas-kun and Julietta-san, who were about to rush in.
“Hah…? Eh? Did I see it wrong…?”
“No, I certainly saw it with my own eyes as well.”
Erin should have been pierced by the guillotine.
Erin, who had her eyes closed tightly, timidly opened her eyes.
“H-huh…? Why haven’t I died…?”
She tilted her head in confusion as she looked at her own body, which was completely intact and unharmed.
Similarly, Dangoon, who had launched the attack, also stared dumbfounded at the abnormal situation.
“No way! It certainly hit directly, why wasn’t she cut in half?!”
“It’s because humans are good at this kind of magic trick… I guess.”
I also slowly pulled out the magic spear that still stuck in my abdomen and crushed it.
Although there should be a big hole in both Mariemaia and my bodies, we were unscathed after all.
“What… what did you do, Harutoooo…?!”
“It’s not me.”
I shrugged and pointed at Mariemaia, who smiled shyly next to me.
“There’s a woman who you brought because you acknowledged her as the best healer there is right here, and our wounds healed at an abnormal speed, right? Isn’t it clear who the culprit is?”
“Um, Haruto-san, couldn’t you put it in better sounding terms?”
“Geez,” said Mariemaia as she puffed her cheeks out. She had a barrier revolving around her.
Both of our bodies were unharmed, with not even a scratch.
The magic being activated was probably ── [Saint’s End Sanctuary].
It was Mariemaia’s active skill that could be unlocked by consuming clear points obtained by finishing the game in a short time.
……It was clearly weird to have such a skill to awaken at this time but,
Well, our Mariemaia is the strongest after all! So it was all right!
“What, do, you, mean? What is this…?”
“If you need an explanation, I’ll do it. As long as we’re within this barrier, we will heal faster than we get hurt.”
It was a reconstructed system based on [Saint Dead Chorus] which used excessive recovery as an attack to destroy the body.
[Saint’s End Sanctuary] was an absolute defense skill, and it could offset damage by stocking up an excessive recovery energy amount in advance.
Considering the game system and how it had to be handled realistically, I think it ended up like this.
I think I was correct. Maybe.
……In principle, this allows one to regenerate even if they got completely vaporized by something like a laser beam, but the attack still had to come first.
In other words, it wasn’t at the level of breaking the rules of nature or anything like that.
It was a magic that created a space where it was impossible to harm the people Mariemaia had designated.
“Ah~ I’m tired.”
“…………”
Standing next to the strongest healer of the continent, or maybe the strongest in the universe, I shook my shoulders.
“Thanks, Dangoon. I learned a lot from this experience, or rather, I realized my own shortcomings and have decided to fix them from now on.”
“…………”
Perhaps he wanted to settle the matter this time.
Dangoon glared at me, shaking with humiliation.
“……Hah, fine Haruto. It’s my defeat this time, just kill me already. But don’t forget, I will someday defeat you…!”
“And when will that ‘someday’ be?”
I swung the Hero’s Sword roughly.
Dangoon, who was already convinced of his defeat, did not bother to defend, and let himself be blown away from the neck up.
──Then he regenerated in less than two seconds, standing there while blinking.
“……Hah?”
He must be confused why he was still in this place.
Mariemaia and I looked at each other and smiled lightly.
“Mariemaia and I learned something important about you.”
“Yes. From today’s experiences, we learned that it’s not a good idea to delay things until an unknown someday.”
I readied the Hero’s Sword.
“I partially applied the effect of [Saint’s End Sanctuary] on you. When you receive a fatal injury, your body will be restored, and since I know where they’re stored, you will also receive a spare soul stored in your stock in another dimension.”
“……Ha, ah?”
“You want to defeat me, right? I will grant that wish. So rather than someday, let’s settle things here and now. Rest assured, you will be regenerated immediately after you die by Mariemaia.”
Needless to say.
Doing it this way would eventually reduce the stock of his souls to zero and lead to an irreversible conclusion── a death of which he could no longer revive from.
There was only one solution.
All he needed to do was to win against me head on. I would recover when damaged, but that was just fair play, though.
“Aah, aah…”
As Dangoon understood the situation, his eyes widened, shoulders trembled, and he shook his head.
“No, way, no way… nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! S-stop, stop it! No no no no no no no no no no no no no no!! I’m still not done!! Why? My plan was supposed to be perfect, and I made the preparations properly…!”
“Feelings have to be conveyed properly after all, so receive my killing intent properly.”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
I didn’t give him time to think of any last words.
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill.
I had no idea how many souls he had stocked up── but Dangoon eventually stopped reviving and disappeared from the sight of humanity.
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