Chapter 62: Mr. Witness! Please help

Chapter 62: Mr. Witness! Please help

The light of intelligence faded from the eyes of the female priest as she shared a deep kiss with me, proof that her memory had completed disappeared under Black-Box's effect. But that state didn't last for long—her eyes returned to normal as a green light filled them. Her attitude, however, took a 180 turn.

"Master, I await your orders."

A mechanical voice without the cute-acting, oh how pleasing it was to hear. And it wasn't only her attitude and personality that had changed either.

▷Race: Old Human

▷Level: 1

▷Job: Slave(EXP 50%)

▷Skills: Blessing(Z)

▷Condition: Oblivion, Administration, Subordination, Holy Sword

She had been reduced to a lowly slave from a noble female priest. Having become an imbecile from the total loss of her memories and powerlessly fallen under the Holy Sword's control, she was no longer able to maintain her former Job. She had changed from a person to a loyal tool. The term slave was not at all wrong or excessive.

But something happened when I had been musing on how to make use of her.

Psss...

The body of the female priest, who had been quietly on standby, crumbled into pieces like sand, disappearing as if melting into the world like the corpse of a monster that had become EXP.

It wasn't my doing.

"What's going on...?"

What of the Holy Sword which had become one with the female priest? Its fate didn't differ by much.

Crack-!

A crack appeared in the body of the sword before it shattered like glass; however, it wasn't like even the power of the female priest subordinated by the Holy Sword had disappeared as well.

▷Race: Human

▷Level: 1

▷Job: Pope(Divinity=Propagandism↑)

▷Skills: Divinity(Z) Blessing(Z) (C)

▷Condition: Training

It had been absorbed by me in its entirety. I had opened up the second transcendental domain in a moment of bewilderment.

"I thought the next would be Dark Energy, though."

My Job had advanced a bit and turned into that of a religious leader. It didn't stir my interest as its Job perk was a level lower than a Saint. Propagandism? It was a lower version of Fabrication, no matter how you looked at it. Didn't propagandism naturally follow fabrication?

Peek: Have you finished?

'Miss Trainee Teacher. Where did you go off to before coming now? This pure Hero over here nearly ended up eaten by a starved married woman, you know?'

Flustered: I'm sorry. There are lesson contents which I can't involve myself in with the status of a trainee teacher. I'm glad that you seem to have completed it safely!

'... That so?'

The teaching staff who had shifted everything over to a trainee teacher had interfered for the first time. Although they hadn't popped out during the training, they silenced the mouth of the trainee teacher who had been providing me bits of information. I couldn't take this lightly.

Hero of Origin(Senior 1).

Black-Box.

There was a need to investigate into these two things in detail. When putting together the story told by the female priest, who had disappeared leaving only Blessing(Z), it seemed that Senior 1 had escaped from the world of Fantasia. I had to find out the method he used. It was extremely likely that the clue to doing so lay in the forbidden power said to be stolen from Senior 1 and Black-Box.

"For the first time I can see dreams and hopes in this fantasy world!"

Drrr-

An exit opened up in the spot where Senior 1's statue had been erected. The treacherous guide had died, and there was nothing written saying that the path was the way out, but I didn't feel it would lead to another strange training.

I made my way out of the Cave of Training without regrets.

*

*

*

"Welcome, Sir Hero!"

The moment I stepped back into the world, after defeating a married woman who had attempted to take the virtuous Hero off the market, Lanuvel greeted me while playing cute.

My fist had almost shot forward out of automatic reflex.

"What's with the honorific all of a sudden?"

The hussy who had always talked without respect and called me her brother, despite not sharing a single drop of blood, had reverted to how she was originally. Indeed, this was the Lanuvel that I knew. But wasn't she supposed to be a little sister this time around in the 6th Playthrough?

Lanuvel proceeded to speak as she pointed at the Holy Sword hung by her belt.

"Elder Brother is the chosen Hero, after all. According to the Holy Sword auntie, a Hero needs to be able to cut down even family if it's for the sake of world peace. That's why I judged that I can't remain as an adorable little sister like I am now, because you can't cut down an adorable little sister!"

"Hmm... that so?"

Why did she think that I wouldn't be able to cut her down? If it was for my graduation, I could carry out the deed whenever; it didn't matter one bit whether she was a little sister or companion. I had told her to obediently wait outside the Cave of Training, yet she had been doing something truly useless.

'Or if not that...'

From what I had heard, the teaching staff couldn't interfere in the middle of lessons; however, couldn't they do so indirectly like how Professor Morals had ceaselessly nagged at me?

Lanuvel's sudden change in attitude... there was always the possible that the teaching staff had deemed a 'cute little sister' had no effect on me and so persuaded her into changing. And the most suspicious thing right now?

"Holy Sword 3 said those things?"

"Yes, Sir Hero."

"... I see. I hold big expectations for you from now on as well."

I looked back on my journey. If I didn't have Holy Sword 2, then I would have had no choice but to take hold of Holy Sword 3 and would have had to listen to her advice all day long, and that position perfectly coincided with that of Professor Morals—it couldn't be passed off as a simple coincidence, the reason being that I had experienced too much contrivery disguised as coincidence in this barbaric world.

Just like what was happening now.

"YuYuuu-!"

"Gasp! It's Orcs! There's a lot of them!"

"Somebody please help~!"

"BuBu...!"

"Bastards! Not the women!"

I heard an auditory hallucination from beyond the dense forest.

There was no way it was real.

"Sir Hero! I hear voices calling for help!"

Lanuvel hopped up and down in impatience, set aflame with justice; however, her rear end which swayed left and right was honest—she was bursting with the desire to try out the Sage's Staff.

"Lanuvel. You must have heard wrong."

The screams and cries of people and Orcs coming from the east grew louder.

'Hm. I suddenly feel like going west.'

"You're saying there's a problem with Lanuvel's ears?!"

"Yes. Let's think about it calmly—as the king's personal territory, this an area prohibited for civilians. There are guards deployed everywhere, and the standard of monsters that appear is extremely low since this is a hunting ground for royalty. It's impossible for people so pathetic as to ask help from a third party to come here."

"Y-you do have a point, but..."

Rustle-Rustle.

At that moment, I heard the sound of footsteps over grass, followed by the plaintive cry of a young lady.

"Please help!"

It was an idiotic woman who had entered the hunting ground wearing a fluttering dress and a pair of high heels, and she was being chased by a gentlemanly-looking Orc.

"NuNu...!"

The Orc grabbed hold of the young lady's wrist that was as thin as a twig, and pulled her right over in a manly manner.

"Kyah?!"

Only those with courage could obtain a beauty—the young lady frantically attempted resistance, but was forced into the Orc's embrace.

'May you share beautiful love from now on...'

"Yah!"

"KuKu~?!"

Lanuvel's cute-acting cry and the Orc's sorrowful scream sounded out almost simultaneously; the magical arrow that was shot out from the golden orb at the end of the Sage's Staff made its mark on the Orc's head.

Thump.

A hole opened up in its head, the Orc tumbled over backward.

What sin was love...?

"Sir Hero! I took care of the Orc!"

The Level 200 Magician was delighted at having killed a Level 20 Orc. One who bullies the weak should know to be embarrassed.

"Tsk-tsk, poor Orc fellow. Curse your fate of being born weaker than a girl that plays cute."

"How come?!"

Ignoring Lanuvel who failed to realize her wrong as usual, I approached the young lady who was still sitting weakly on the grass trembling violently. Confirming her Status which would make simple work of identifying was a given.

▷Race: Human

▷Level: 15

▷Job: Princess(National Power=Charm↑)

▷Skills: Coquetry(C) Charm(D) Sociability(E) Magic(F)

▷Condition: Fear, Uneasy

Perhaps it was only too natural that the gorgeously dressed young lady, who had entered a prohibited area where only royalty and the likes could go, was a princess. For starters, she wasn't in my memories. It seemed right to interpret this as that she had died before I travelled over to the northern continent in the 1st Playthrough.

"What a hassle."

After entrusting the princess, who failed to regain her senses, to Lanuvel, I simultaneously activated all the Skills I had recovered upon finishing the training.

Fwooosh-

A storm began to brew with me at the center.

The Cave of Training wasn't simply made for the sole purpose of screwing over the Hero.

It was a training that squeezed everything out of you under unfavorable conditions without the Skills and Job perk that you had taken granted for and relied on until now. Although I had cleared almost all the rooms with ease using Divinity(Z), it was true that it grew slightly difficult as I drew near the Graduate's Room. Very slightly.

Unyielding(F)→Unyielding(D)

Conquest(F)→Conquest(E)

Ardor(F)→Ardor(E)

I obtained a large number of Skills which I weren't able to see after the 1st Playthrough, which was a truly hard experience as I didn't have a grasp of things. I had developed these Skills in succession in accordance to the extreme situations I was driven into, and my existing Skills had all improved as well.

"I think I could manage if I fought with that prince again?"

I also had two transcendental domain Skills now, and while the prince might also have two, my Skill set granted me a far greater advantage when it came to pure combat ability. Added to this was Holy Sword 2's amplification.

"I guess I'll do a light clean up first."

I cast a divine blessing upon my body. Twice. After Divinity(Z) was amplified through Holy Sword 2, I used Blessing(Z) which was likewise boosted to cast another two divine blessings. It was a five-fold amplification in simple calculation.

A divine aura that was enhanced to the extreme swathed my body.

Tak!

I lightly flicked a finger, and the divine energy that was sent spreading throughout the entire hunting ground from me eradicated all the monsters. Race, Level, Skills, Condition... ignoring all of that, I equally gifted repose to all of hem.

Massacre(C)→Massacre(B)

I frowned upon going to the scene of the Orc attack; everywhere I looked, I saw the corpses of men who had died with torn limbs and heads. There were even signs of some of them having been eaten by the Orcs.

"Sob-sob, sob-sob..."

"Wuhhh..."

Two women who I guessed to be the princess' maids and a female knight were curled up in the middle of a road, their clothing torn apart. There must have been a mob of Orcs here right before I flicked my finger, and they must have been surrounding the three women. The expressions on their faces showed mental collapse from shock and fear.

Depressed: I feel sorry for them...

'Me too, Miss Trainee Teacher.'

From now on, these women would live out their lives carrying not only the injuries of their bodies, but also a sickness of the heart as well. Or that would be the case normally.

These women were in luck, since they had met a professional troubleshooter. To speak of my career record, I had spent over 10 years cleaning up after companions who enjoyed taking reckless action. In the process, I had even counseled many natives who would have been better off dying instead. My performance in this field gradually improved as I accumulated the know-how.

Startled: You even did therapy? Just what haven't you done before, Student Kang Han Soo...?

'Miss Trainee, don't ask questions too difficult.'

However, that was the old school method. I intended to do things swift and easy starting from today.

"You ladies over there, frightened by the oily bacon party, look into my eyes. Then those awful memories will disappear, while your injured bodies will be redeemed by my blessing."

I cleanly erased the bad memories of the women using Black-Box, while I spotlessly tidied up their dirtied bodies using Blessing.

"... Ah!"

"... Oh my!"

The woman who had been curling up while covering their breasts and private parts wore dazed looks, their faces saying they didn't know why they had been lying down on the earthen ground. Not long after, however, after realizing that they were nude and their surroundings were full of the corpses of men, they began to kick up a fuss shrieking out loud. But their expressions weren't that of despair like from before.

The case was cleanly solved without psychological counseling!

I waited for the women to change into new clothes, and before long they reunited with the princess who sluggishly made her way over with Lanuvel's support.

"Princess! Where did you go off to!"

"S-sorry."

Berated by the female knight, the princess wore an aggrieved look. Although there was a slight confusion that came with their memories being erased, that was nothing but a very minor issue.

"It's terrible. The prince has passed away."

"How could something like this happen during the first hunting..."

The women who were saved by me appeared stupefied as they looked at the corpse of a nerdy-looking youth. Apparently, the prince who was next in line to the throne had died, but that had nothing whatsoever to do with me.

It was at that moment that...

Clippity-Clop, Clippity-Clop.

A group of people on horseback came galloping over. They were comprised of elites that gave off a qualitatively different atmosphere to the dead men who were scattered about in the area.

A face that I knew was at the group's lead.

▷Race: human

▷Level: 285

▷Job: Royalty(Lineage→Dignity↑)

▷Skills: Magic(C) Magic Power(C) Sorcery(D) Evil Spirits(D) Dignity(E)...

▷Condition: Flustered

His swarthy face that resembled a sweet potato and his excellent Status coincided exactly with my memories—he was the Magic Kingdom's next king to be. His elder brother, the current king, would die at the end of his struggling against illness 3 years later, after which this man would gloriously rise to the throne under the absolute support of the citizens and nobles. I remembered that he did quite good work as well; he was quick at calculations, as becoming of a Magician, and he abided by the rule of equal exchange.

I was glad to see him after so long.

And he greeted me with gladness, too.

"Kill them all."

'What did you say, you punk?'