Epilogue
Given the seriousness of the situation, everyone present couldn’t help but stare dumbfounded at Grimm’s decision to purify Gadalkand along with herself.
It’s been several days since the day Grimm was summoned to Zenarith’s side.
I’m at a particular spot, kneeling and offering a small prayer.
Here in this little cavern where moonlight spills in from a hole in the ceiling.
At the deepest part of the cavern is a small altar dedicated to the dark god Zenarith.
And upon that altar rests Grimm’s body.
Leaving Alice to take care of the fallout from the Undead Festival, I brought Grimm’s body here in the hopes of resurrecting her, offering prayers each day. However…
“I wonder if it’s actually the end this time.”
None of the items placed as offerings show any sign of vanishing.
Which means there’s not enough sentimental items here to bring Grimm back.
Countless people offered their sentimental objects in gratitude for Grimm’s efforts during the Undead Festival, but…
It seems her suicidal prayer means Grimm has been permanently sent to Zenarith’s side.
Since we pledged we’d get married if we were both single a decade from now, I suppose it makes me her fiancé of sorts.
“I guess this is a case of tempting fate, too…”
The fact that she had so carefully cherished the contract I signed must have doomed Grimm.
…At that moment, I notice something around Grimm’s neck.
It’s the necklace I tried to take back after finding out it was a marriage proposal.
Oh, right. I remember being turned off by how happy she was when I gave it to her…
I guess I’ll bury her with it.
After making that decision, I reach over, removing the necklace when—
The necklace vanishes in a flash of light.
“…That’s not my fault, right? I didn’t do anything bad.”
I reflexively make my excuses, but obviously there’s no one here to respond.
As if triggered by that one event, the other sentimental items around me start vanishing in bursts of light.
Oh, hey, this is…
“Hey, Grimm, I see you’re finally up.”
“…This is the second time. The second time I’ve woken up to see you next to me, Commander…”
That’s right. I sat here waiting the first time we resurrected Grimm after meeting her.
“Should we go on a date next?”
Grimm smiles happily at my quip.
“I’ll pass. For some reason, I was dreaming about getting yelled at by some weird hysterical woman… She kept asking me how many times I intended to repeat the same mistake, and that while it was fortunate the festival went smoothly, I need to get my act together…”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the actual Zenarith. She’s angry that you keep killing yourself in spite of being undead.”
I guess my words are particularly funny to Grimm, because she seems to be holding back a fit of laughter.
“Heh, don’t be silly. Undead don’t kill themselves. You always say the oddest things, Commander… I guess I lost conscious when I spent so much of my energy on cleansing Gadalkand. But still, you didn’t need to bring me here. It’s not like I was dead or anything.”
“I hate to break it to you, but you were. Things were so bad, it took a pile of offerings to get you up again.”
Grimm can no longer hold back her laughter and breaks into a giggle fit.
“All right, all right. If you say so. Tsk, tsk, Commander, always joking…… Huh?”
Not believing a word I say, Grimm suddenly presses her hand to her collar.
“Huh? W-wait, what’s going on? It’s gone! Gone! ”
“Nah, you’ve got plenty. It’s just that Snow’s are huge.”
“Shush! I’m not talking about that! I mean, sure, I’ve got plenty, but… Never mind that! The necklace you gave me is gone, Commander!”
Grimm searches frantically, tears welling up in her eyes.
“Oh, that? Yeah, it vanished when you came back to life.”
“No waaaaaay! So wait, I was actually dead?!”
That’s what I’ve been saying the whole time.
“W-wait, you mean…? I actually removed my own blessing?! Right after showing off like that?”
“Yup. After making a big show of it, you killed yourself.”
“Nooooooooooooo!” Grimm suddenly breaks down in tears. “The Undead Festival was a disaster with all those things going wrong, but to top it all off with such an embarrassing display…! Ohhh, Lord Zenarith, the necklace! Please give me back my necklace!”
“H-hold on! That’s the god you worship! You’ll get punished and die again!”
I hurriedly stop Grimm as she starts hitting the little altar dedicated to Zenarith.
“B-but—but—but it was the engagement necklace you gave me…!”
“I’ll buy you something else, okay? Oh, and just for the record, in my country, we have engagement rings instead.”
Grimm looks up at me tearfully. “Th-then a ring…”
“Earrings, okay?”
Grimm grabs hold of my arm and begins to throw a tantrum despite her age.
“F-fine, okay… Soon, all right? Soon. But hey, since the necklace is gone, the promise about getting married a decade from now is null and void, okay?”
“Excuuuuuse me?! What are you on about? Are you looking to be cursed? I’ve got a signed contract here; I’ll take you to court! …H-huh? It’s gone! The contract is gone!”
Oh, right…
“The contract vanished with your necklace. The necklace and contract must’ve been really important to you, huh?”
“Nooooooooooooo!”
A good while later…
“Hey, Six. Grimm’s finally up, eh?”
After agreeing to the marriage contract a second time and finally getting Grimm to stop crying, I run into Alice and the rest of the Kisaragi Combat Agents.
“Alice, and the Commander’s… Huh, where’s Snow and Rose?” Grimm asks.
“Snow’s locked up in the dungeon for various reasons,” Alice replies. “She’s probably getting what’s coming to her right now. As for Rose… She started saying she wants to stay at a particular old man’s house as his pet.”
“Sorry—wait. I can’t understand any of this. Can you give me the long version?”
When commanding the knights, Snow, in her rush to secure glory for herself, abandoned any pretense of maintaining order. She’s currently stewing in the dungeon after Tillis tossed her there.
Since it was Snow’s lack of communication that led to the scuffles with Tiger Man, her already-meager salary’s been docked again.
As for Rose, it looks like she’s gotten used to her life of eating and lying around at that geezer’s house and plans to live her life as Patrasche from now on.
“Forget about them for now. They’ll be back eventually. We need to focus on this damned forest.”
With that, Alice heads out to fetch a particular piece of equipment.
It’s now a little bit before dusk.
We’re about to throw the full weight of Kisaragi into finishing our fortress.
“Wh-what is it? What are we starting?”
“We’re going to build our hideout. Before, we were letting the planet’s critters have their way with us, but now we’re going to show them the full extent of our power.”
We were planning to start construction at dawn, so it’s convenient Grimm woke up before that.
It’s a good chance to show off our power.
As Grimm stares blankly, one of the agents calls out while avoiding directly entering the forest.
“Activate the Destroyer!”
With that, the heavy rumble of an engine echoes through the air.
Kisaragi’s giant multi-legged combat vehicle: the Destroyer.
A mainstay weapon developed by Lilith to fight the giant robots favored by Heroes.
Alice had been patiently repairing it since it’d suffered damage to its various pieces last time, but it’s finally operational and ready to go.
With it by our side, we have nothing to fear. Not zombies, not mokemokes.
Even pretty women that grow out of the forest can’t pierce the Destroyer’s armor.
“Target: the Cursed Forest. All right, you bastards! Time to ravage this world!” Alice calls out from the cockpit of the Destroyer.
The other agents let out a loud cheer, and so begins our settlement of the forest and construction of our hideout—
“…Sometimes you really impress me…”
Grimm sounds exasperated.
“Of course I do,” I reply, gazing up at the hideout. “I’m your commander, after all. Why wouldn’t you be?”
“But you didn’t do anything… Still, you’ve always impressed me, Commander.”
I smirk at Grimm’s teasing. “Remember this moment, Grimm. This is where our legend begins. This will be our base: the Grace Kingdom Front Fortress!”
The cheers of the assembled Combat Agents echo all around us.
As the light of dawn illuminates our brand-new fortress, it seems to respond to our cheers and then…
…the whole thing explodes spectacularly.
[Orders to Deployed Combatants]
After the Heroes staged their massive counterassault on Earth and both sides suffered heavy losses, we are currently locked in stalemate.
To overcome this impasse, we will be sending a Supreme Leader to the planet where Agent Six is dispatched to swiftly place it under our control.
Once secured, we will recall the deployed assets and concentrate our forces against the Heroes.
According to our current reports, the local competition’s forces will not pose a threat to a Supreme Leader.
We hereby order the completion of the fortress to house a Supreme Leader.
We place our faith in the plan proposed by Alice to utilize the Destroyer to settle the Cursed Forest and complete the fortress.
The Supreme Leader to be deployed will be communicated at a later date. There will be no need for regular reports from here onward.
Issued by Astaroth
P.S. We require a precise explanation on the item in the last report detailing that Agent 6 has pledged his future to a particular partner (hereafter removed).
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