Chapter 86
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「Would you like to join us, son-in-law?」
Sensei invites me.
However, I—
「No, I’ll pass this time. You probably have a lot to catch up on with her.」
Hearing my response, Sensei puts her hand on her chin and hums, 「Hmm.」
「What’s with that reaction?」
I narrow my eyes at her, as usual. Sensei sighs, looking somewhat sad.
「There’s a lot I need to discuss with you, son-in-law. Perhaps another time soon.」
With that, Sensei leaves the room.
Whenever she contacts Purume, Angie’s guardian, the conversation inevitably turns to that topic.
It’s become an unbearable ordeal.
But that’s not the only reason I declined Sensei’s invitation.
Aside from the Hero’s party, there aren’t many people in this world who have known about my existence since I was summoned here. Purume is one of those few.
That’s precisely why I didn’t want to meet her.
This world is still harsh for me.
That’s why I can’t help but be skeptical.
I worry that even she, who has been so kind to me, might reject my very existence.
If that becomes reality, I’ll have to endure pain once again.
○○○
After our discussion and lunch with Anon and the others, we immediately begin preparations for the Fog extermination. Or rather, Anon and his team have already started moving.
They’ve already assigned several parties with skilled Detection ability users to search for and eliminate the Fog.
They’ve also made arrangements for dozens of simple huts to be built, deciding where to place them. They’re just waiting for Sensei’s confirmation on the details.
In the end, all they need from me is my combat strength.
Smart people are always like this…!
What do they think we muscle-brains are?!
While mentally complaining like this, I’m aware that I lean towards the muscle-brain side, so I hardly say anything about the party formation for the Fog extermination.
The basic rule for forming parties this time is very simple. Each party must have at least four members, with one person who has the Detection skill to sense the Fog’s presence.
I leave all these troublesome matters to them and immerse myself in playing with the Eagle Dragon (it’s always the same dragon) that has helped me many times before. I mutter to myself, 「Animals are so nice,」 and 「There, there, good boy,」 as I pet it.
After a while, as I’m feeding Bourbon (that’s what I named it) some monster meat (safety-checked) from my magic bag and teaching it tricks like 「shake」 and 「more」 in the dragon stables, Anon discovers me.
He smiles wryly and asks, 「What in the world are you doing?」 But then he requests, 「I’d like you to help eliminate the Fog, just like everyone else, during the period before the Sealed Dungeon appears.」
After further discussions with Anon, Saga, and the others, my party is decided.
The members are me, Milo Assaultbody (the son of Saga, the Berserga mercenary group leader, who for some reason has taken a liking to me recently), and Diete, a young mage girl also from Berserga. That makes three of us.
It’s my first time meeting Diete — apparently, mages are rare in Berserga, which is known for being a group of muscle-brains. But Saga and Camus vouch for her exceptional skills.
I see, indeed, Diete is a petite girl with braided hair and glasses, looking every bit the stereotypical class president. If she weren’t talented, something would be wrong.
By the way, in this party, Milo is the one with the Detection skill. That makes sense too. Milo does have a wild animal vibe to him.
You might be wondering why we ended up with a three-person party right after explaining that parties should have a minimum of four people. I wondered about that too.
They told me, 「You’ll be fine on your own.」
Well, I guess that’s how it is.
Getting back on track, the three of us immediately set out to search for and eliminate the Fog. It’s a joint effort that also serves as a chance for us to get to know each other better.
Surprisingly, we do encounter some Fog.
We only encounter it once, and there are only three of them. It’s not that many. But since I was optimistically thinking we might not find any at all, it reaffirms their existence for me.
Fortunately, Milo and Diete can handle it easily without me even joining the battle… Wait, doesn’t that mean I didn’t do anything at all?!
「Big bro, Big bro, I did it!」 Milo boasts to me about his accomplishment, while Diete watches from even further back with a somewhat skeptical look. I praise them both as we resume our search, but we don’t encounter any more Fog during this extermination mission.
When we return to Ash’s mansion, we disband and each return to our rooms.
By that time, the sky, which was already dark to begin with, has completely set, and night has fallen.
○○○
That night, I have a dream.
But it’s too vivid to be just a dream, too fragmented to be merely vivid, too intense to be just fragmented, and too hazy to be simply intense.
A beautiful woman — an elf — Purume, shouts.
「Fall back and regroup the battle line!」
Following her command, many knights and mages who have fallen into panic retreat from the front lines.
Purume leaps out alone to buy time for the reorganization of the battle situation in the face of the oncoming ×××.
Using chanting abbreviation, blue flames ignite on both of her arms.
She slices the all-devouring ××× in half with her blue hand blade — the Blue Hand. The cut is engulfed in blue flames. Even as the ××× continues its advance unabated, Purume shoots out the blue flames from both hands like lasers, kicking upward with her blue flame-covered leg — the Blue Leg — at the ××× that tries to grab her, and steps back a bit.
With the soldiers still unable to escape their panic behind her — in a protective stance — Purume faces off against ○○○.
She rallies them, 「I’ll hold out until those two arrive! They’ll surely break through this situation!」
It’s truly a herculean effort.
She unleashes blue flames. She slashes with her Blue Hand.
She instantly reduces to ashes a particularly strong ××× that attempts to breach the crumbling defensive line with an exceptionally powerful blue flame.
Her struggle continues. She maintains the battle line.
Finally, high-level magic rains down like a storm from the reorganized mage unit.
The first-class magician corps led by Honest, numerous clans, and the Arcana Knights pour all their strength into destroying the ×××, not sparing a glance elsewhere.
Purume, the central figure, is at the pinnacle of humanity in every aspect — martial arts, magic, combat techniques, and strategy.
And yet—
The scene changes.
Purume has lost an arm.
She’s breathing heavily, her shoulders heaving.
The battle line has long since collapsed.
There’s a young adventurer boy who couldn’t escape in time.
Purume pushes him away.
She desperately resists ○○○ to buy time for him to escape.
After making sure he’s gone, she smiles.
「Angie—」
That’s her last word.
She’s swallowed by the ×××.
Even so, in her final moment, she pours every last bit of her life force into a dazzling blue light, spectacularly scattering everything around her.
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