Epilogue
Satou here. Work is important and all, but I think it’s equally important to take breaks, if not even more so. It’s only by getting enough rest and relaxation that you can tackle your next job with the best performance possible. In other words, it’s vital to enjoy vacations to the fullest whenever you can.
“Good work, everyone. Looks like we beat it.”
When I relayed this to everyone, I heard exclamations of relief through our still-connected “Tactical Talk.”
I changed my title from “God Slayer” back to “True Hero.”
“Mew? Mew-mew-meeew?”
“Tama, what’s the matter, sir?”
Don’t tell me…
I looked up at the sky and saw a small section that had cracked to let out intense light.
My “Light Intensity Adjustment” skill revealed what was within the blazing brightness.
As soon as I saw it, I relaxed my guard.
I recognized those crimson and vermillion lights.
When the light subsided somewhat, Arisa murmured in wonder.
“Are those the goddesses’ true forms, do you think?”
“Most likely.”
At the center of each light was a perpetually shifting geometric pattern.
That must be what gods looked like to the mortal realm.
“I’ll be right back.”
I used “Flashrunning” to approach the gods.
The red dragon and yellow dragon that had been circling around in the sky gave them a wide berth, gazing at the light from afar.
I realized on my way there that I was still disguised as Nanashi the Hero. It was too late for that now, so I just kept going.
{Hero} {Filth} {Where}
{Request} {Filth} {Subjugation}
The goddesses sent words directly into my head, using a sort of compressed language that held multiple meanings. Come to think of it, it was like this when we first interacted with Parion, too.
This must be different from the “Hallowed Language: Compressed” skill I got, since it was no different now from when I didn’t have the skill before.
“If you’re referring to the Discordant One that was within the man called Bazan, I just defeated it.”
{Taboo} {Filth} {Name}
{Unbelievable} {Filth} {Destroyed}
The goddess girls peppered me with surprised-sounding words.
Honestly, it was difficult to hold a conversation like this.
“Since there’s no longer an enemy that needs defeating, would you be willing to return to your vessels by any chance?”
{Approval}
A single drop of light separated from each shining mass, coming to rest in the statues that had been drawn up from the ground.
As I watched, the statues turned to flesh and took on the familiar shape of the goddess girls.
“Guilty!”
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?! Have a little modesty, remember?!”
Mia and Arisa flew off the handle at the sight of the naked goddesses.
Noticing that the sky had darkened a little, I looked up and saw that the goddesses’ true forms had vanished from above. They must have returned to the divine realm.
“Well done. The world is saved. I praise thy efforts, mortals.”
“’Tis not sealed but destroyed. The power of the dragons?”
While Urion congratulated us, Karion seemed skeptical.
Somehow, they were clothed all of a sudden.
“We all worked together to destroy them.”
“I see…”
While I used my “Fabrication” skill to gloss things over, the red dragon and yellow dragon stuck their noses in front of me impatiently.
“<Gods, remove the filth.>”
“<Gods, purify my child at once.>”
The dragons held out their eggs, which were pinched delicately between their claws, no longer pulsating in Bazan’s wings.
Looking at them like this, I thought the eggs seemed strangely small.
“Thou art insolent, dragons. Thou shalt take the proper attitude when requesting a favor. Karion says so, too.”
“I did not. ’Tis foolishness to expect manners from dragons. Thou shalt remove the filth, Urion. The very thought of a dragon corrupted by filth repulses me.”
“I concur, Karion. I shall remove the filth.”
Crimson light gathered around Urion’s hand, and she sent the light into the eggs.
The dark stains faded from the eggs under the light. The corruption must have been cleansed.
“GWROW, GWROW, GWLOROOOOOUNN!”
“YWROW, YWROW, YWLOROOOOOUN!”
The red and yellow dragons roared with joy.
“Dragon song.”
I heard Mia’s voice.
“Master, look! On the ground!”
At Arisa’s prompting, I looked down to see that the blackened ground was turning back into its original earthen color, and vivid greenery was sprouting from the soil.
Now that I thought about it, the black dragon made some strange plants grow with a song, too.
“The dragon’s song is good. Karion says so, too.”
“I concur, Urion. ’Tis healing the ground without need for divine power.”
The goddess girls nodded at each other, satisfied with their entirely practical assessment.
Evidently unbothered by the goddesses’ motives, the dragons promptly flew away far off into the sky.
The goddess girls began walking without a second glance at the dragons.
“Where are they going, I wonder?”
“To check on the seal, maybe?”
Sure enough, the goddess girls headed to the ruins of the temple and began their descent.
The rest of my group teleported down to join us.
“Miasma.”
“Indeed,” Karion responded to Mia’s murmured remark. “The filth from within the Godstrial Prison is leaking out.”
“If left unchecked, it could corrupt the world.”
“What?! That sounds really bad!”
“Thou shalt understand the meaning of a god’s words.”
Karion sighed.
“Arisa, Karion said ‘if left unchecked.’”
“Indeed. Thou art listening properly.”
Karion gave a small nod.
“You mean you can reseal it, then?”
“Aye. That is why we came. Let the work commence.”
Urion glowed crimson with divine power coursing through her veins, and Karion followed suit, her body bathed in vermillion light.
“Domain Settings.”
The goddess girls raised both hands, and their light overflowed and consecrated the room.
“Seal.”
The crimson and vermillion light took the shape of the gods’ holy seal and burned itself into the floor of the seal room.
“So now it’ll be fine unless the seal gets broken again?”
“Be not afraid. We shall delete the sealed space from the divine realm. Karion says so, too.”
“I did not. That used a little too much divine power. Let us entrust that job to Garleon or Heraluon.”
As she spoke, Karion swayed a little.
Urion supported her, and we moved to the space where the Zaicuon Central Temple sanctuary had been.
Oh, right. I have to ask the goddess girls something before they go back to the divine realm.
“If the Evil God’s Prison in Parion Province or one of the other sealed spaces gets exposed, like the Godstrial Prison here did, would we be able to ask the gods for help?”
“Be not afraid. ’Tis impossible. Karion says so, too.”
“I did not. Thou shalt explain a little more clearly, Urion.”
Urion gave a beleaguered sigh at Karion’s prompting, then went on.
“Very well. Humans can never undo a god’s seal, as long as that god’s power does not weaken. The seal here was broken only because of Zaicuon’s foolishness. Karion says so, too.”
“I concur, Urion. Zaicuon is a fool.”
Goddess Zaicuon was getting dissed on her own turf.
Their reasons raised more questions, but there was something else I had to clarify first.
“There may still be other ‘impurities’—vestiges of the Evil God’s Spawn that yet remain on this continent. If someone were to use them, wouldn’t that be a threat even to a god’s seal?”
“Nay. But thou shalt destroy any ‘impurities’ thou might find.”
Karion dismissed my concerns shortly. If she says it’s fine, I guess I can’t complain.
I was tempted to ask about Zaicuon while I was at it, but then Karion tripped and fell toward me, so I had to hurry and catch her. Urion seemed to be having trouble walking, too.
“We are nearly out of divine power. Thou shalt carry these vessels to the temple. Karion says so, too.”
“I concur, Urion. ’Tis all I can do to maintain consciousness.”
Since they really did seem to be in a bad way, I carried the goddess girls to the sanctuary.
“Thanks to thy service, we have cleansed one source of impurity. Here is thy reward. Thou shalt be grateful and offer us pious prayers.”
As I held her, Urion produced a ruby-like stone called a “scarlet law stone” in her hand.
I recognized it as the same gemstone that decorated the Sacred Treasure Urirulave, the “Scale that Weighs Sins.” I accepted it as she shoved it into my palm.
“Here.”
Karion barely seemed able to speak as she dropped a vermillion stone into my hand.
Hers was smaller than Urion’s stone. It was a “wise spring stone,” like the ones that decorated her Sacred Treasure in Kalisork: the Book of Wisdom Karisefel.
The goddess girls must have crystallized their remaining divine power to give to me.
> Title Acquired: Blessing: Goddess Karion
> Title Acquired: Blessing: Goddess Urion
> Title Acquired: Favored by Urion
> Title Acquired: Mark of Karion
> Title Acquired: Mark of Urion
If I remembered right, those last two were what Tenion described as being given to someone who has passed a god’s trial.
I guess defeating a Discordant One counted as a trial, then.
“Farewell, human child. Thou shalt return these vessels to our temples. Karion says so, too.”
“I did not. But thou must indeed deliver our vessels.”
Faint light spilled out of the goddess girls’ bodies and vanished into the sky.
I put their statues, which were in different poses from before, away in Storage.
“Shall we get going, too, then?”
We helped a little with the cleanup in Pialork Kingdom before taking our leave.
Just as the goddess girls requested, we anonymously delivered their statues back to Urion and Karion Central Temple. I later heard through the grapevine that the statues that the goddesses had possessed were officially treated as holy relics.
Good thing I delivered them anonymously. I might’ve gotten stuck being treated like a saint.
“Hey, Master. Are you sure you don’t want to stop by Aubehr Republic?”
Arisa sipped out of a glass with tropical fruit wedges on the rim.
Since I felt like we’d overworked ourselves a little, we were now on a vacation in Garlelork City, the city of water in the Garleon Alliance.
I got us rooms in a high-class hotel with a private beach, so we didn’t even have to worry about noise.
“Shoooom?”
“Pochi can run on water, too, s—blublubub…”
“Pochiii?”
Tama and Pochi were running around on the calm surface of the sea, until a mischievous fish whacked Pochi in the face and she plunged into the water.
Good thing I was holding onto the egg belt while she played.
“Retrieve.”
Splish.
On a quiet word from Mia, who was splashing around peacefully with a dolphin floatie, the tiny undines that were supporting her dolphin underwater controlled the waves and carried Pochi back to the surface.
“Phwaaah, sir.”
“You okiiie?”
“Pochi is fine, sir! Thank you, Mia and Mr. Undies, sir.”
“Mm.”
Splish.
The mini undines nodded along with Mia.
“Master, we completed a castle, I report.”
“It’s our best work yet.”
Nana, clad in a bold bikini, and Lulu, wearing an adorable swimsuit, grabbed me and led me down the beach.
I took care not to react to the soft and squishy sensations against both my arms.
If the iron pair got tipped off, they’d react right away no matter where they were.
“What kind of castle did you… Whoa!” I exclaimed despite myself.
The sandcastle Lulu and Nana made was the real deal—roughly ten feet tall.
Standing nearby with a shovel in hand, Liza wiped her brow, looking satisfied. She must have helped gather a big supply of sand. No doubt she turned it into some kind of training exercise.
“Young masteeer!”
The bald head of the former Phantom Thief Pippin came bobbing toward us from the castle.
How he found us here, when I didn’t even tell him in Pialork Kingdom that we were going to Garlelork City, I have no idea.
“I came to hold up my end of the bargain.”
Pippin held up a bottle of alcohol. Next to him was the lovely young Serena, the former sage’s student.
Although she’d been mortally injured in Pialork Kingdom and entered a state of suspended animation, she appeared to have revived safely thanks to her Unique Skill Safety Hibernation.
I led them to our summer house by the beach.
“Erm… ‘Young master,’ is it? I apologize for the trouble my fellow students caused before.”
Serena bowed her head so deeply that her forehead nearly bashed into the table.
“I’m sorry, too. I didn’t mean to drag you into that mess.”
“It’s fine. Besides, Lord Kuro agreed to take care of some things for me to make up for it.”
I was using this as an excuse to bring the transformation expert Mr. Joppentelle and the other researchers in Kalisork City all the way to the royal capital of Shiga Kingdom. Once I talked to the manager of the Echigoya Company and got everything ready for them there, I was planning to transport them myself.
“That makes me feel a little better.”
Pippin poured a drink into my glass.
It was hard cider, a popular beverage throughout the Garleon Alliance. Apparently it was made from “ragon,” which was a fruit, not a giant monster.
“Mm, that’s good.”
“This ham is great, too.”
Serena placed a platter of ham on the table.
It was a snack popularly served with drinks in Garleon Alliance, made from Regar pigs. Pippin cut off a generous piece with a battle knife and passed it to me. Evidently the Regar pig was selectively bred from the Yaguu pigs of the Saga Empire.
“Wow, this goes great with cider.”
“Right? I discovered it when I was barhopping.”
Pippin had only brought glasses for the drinks, so we ate the ham barbarically with our hands.
“Did everything get sorted out in Pialork Kingdom?”
“Yep, after you lot left for the Aubehr Republic, we took care of some stuff. Lord Kuro gave me instructions to sell them a bunch of reconstruction materials on the cheap in exchange for letting the Echigoya Company open up some branch locations, hiring people there who lost their jobs because of the disaster and stuff like that.”
I normally would have taken care of all this in secret myself, but since Pippin happened to be there I left most of the work to him.
I figured Serena would probably help since she wanted to atone for the trouble her former friends caused.
“I can’t thank you or Lord Kuro enough. It’s only because of him that Pialork Kingdom and Parion Province aren’t going to war right now.”
“You really think that woulda happened? No one knew who Bazan really was. How would Pialork Kingdom people figure out that there was any connection to the sage?”
“No, they would have. Bazan visited Pialork Kingdom as a representative of the sage many times. Besides, he apparently made contact with people from Zaicuon Central Temple several times leading up to the incident.”
Even so, I still felt like the odds that they would have started a war over the connection to a guy who started a rebellion in Parion Province were low.
“So what are you going to do next?”
Since this didn’t seem like it was going anywhere fun, I tried changing the subject.
“I intend to chase down the other students.”
Despite the fact that I was trying to ask Pippin, it was Serena who answered.
“Are there others like Bazan and his cronies out there?”
“Bazan is the only one who was that extreme. But there are others who betrayed the cause, like Kamusim and Kelmareite. So I’m going to try to go see each of them in turn.”
“Do you know where they are?”
“Most of them are near the inland sea, but a handful of the strongest ones were dispatched to labyrinths around the world.”
Labyrinths…?
“Does that include Celivera Labyrinth?”
“No, that one wasn’t part of the investigation. Neither were the Hero’s Labyrinth in Saga Empire nor the Sacrificial Labyrinth in Yowork Kingdom. The sage was investigating the Blood-Sucking Labyrinth in the south of the Saga Empire, the Wilde Labyrinth in the Gray Ratfolk Emirate, the Illusion Labyrinth in the Weaselman Empire, the Devil’s Labyrinth in the north of Shiga Kingdom, and the Jungle Labyrinth in the south.”
Huh? What’s with the extra one?
“I’m not familiar with the Jungle Labyrinth. Was it made recently?”
“First I’ve heard of it, too. I thought there were six labyrinths in the world—seven if you count the Devil’s Labyrinth that popped up in Seiryuu City recently.”
“What? That can’t be— Oh, right. I remember hearing that there’s a popular theory in places like the Shiga Kingdom and the Saga Empire that the Jungle Labyrinth isn’t a real labyrinth, or something…?”
“Is it different from other labyrinths?”
“Unlike all the others, that one isn’t underground. It’s the only one of its kind in the world—a huge forest that became a labyrinth.”
Ah, so it’s what some games call a “field dungeon.”
“Is that really a dungeon, though?”
Pippin tilted his head.
All of the labyrinths and dungeon ruins I’ve seen so far have been underground. It would make sense if the people of this continent considered that a part of the definition of a labyrinth.
“Yes, it is. According to the sage’s research, there are several conditions required to define a labyrinth. The biggest is the existence of a dungeonmaster. The sage said that he had met one before through a collaborator he called Lord Green.”
Lord Green—that must be the green greater demon.
Which kind of called the credibility of this story into question.
“So where are you going to go first?”
“I can skip the Illusion Labyrinth that Kelmareite was in charge of and the Jungle Labyrinth that I was headed toward. I’m planning on visiting the other students around the inland sea first, then going to the other places in order of which ones are closest.”
“Would it be possible for you to start with the Devil’s Labyrinth in Seiryuu City, then?”
“Sure. I’m happy to go by your request, even though that’s not nearly enough to repay what I owe you.”
Serena agreed without even asking my reason.
I had a lot of friends there, and most of all, it was Miss Zena’s hometown.
I put a marker on Serena so that I could come to the rescue if she got into serious trouble.
“Are you going with her, Pippin?”
“No, I’ve got an important job straight from Lord Kuro. Once we’re done opening branch locations around the inland sea, I’m gonna ask him for permission to go to Dragu Kingdom.”
“Dragu Kingdom? Why’s that?”
“I wanna return the Green Dragon’s Egg that I stole back from Bazan.”
Oh, speaking of which…
“What should we do with the White Dragon’s Egg you left with us?”
“About that… I’m honestly not sure what to do with it.”
“How do you mean?”
“As much as I’d like to return it, I don’t even know where the white dragon lives. I asked Lord Kuro, and even he and the Hero had no idea.”
Come to think of it, I remembered him asking that before we left Pialork Kingdom.
While the red and yellow dragons came to get their own eggs, the green dragon sent a priestess, and the white dragon hadn’t done anything at all. I guess different dragons have different personalities.
“I see. We’ll hang onto it until we find the white dragon, then.”
Pochi seemed pretty attached to it anyway.
“You sure? Thanks a lot.”
Pippin chugged the rest of his hard cider as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Come to think of it, we said we’d go barhopping together, but we hadn’t had much of a chance to make it happen yet. Maybe I can explore the city’s nightlife with Pippin tonight.
“I’m sorry for putting you out like this, young master. Here’s a book and an artifact we found in Bazan’s last hideout. I don’t know how useful they’ll be, but maybe they could help you deal with the dragon egg.”
Serena handed me two objects from her Item Box: a necklace called a “Dragon Cradle” with a pendant shaped like a bird’s nest, and a written record of hatching and raising a dragon from an egg.
According to the record, which was written in Dragu Kingdom, a Dragon’s Egg can be dormant for anywhere from a few years up to a hundred or more before hatching. There were also notes about the Dragon Cradle, which was described as a magic item that helped dragons safely through their hatchling period, which they would mostly spend sleeping. It was probably a Space Magic tool of some kind.
“Masteeer!”
“Satou.”
Just as we were finishing up our conversation, Arisa and Mia came running in.
“Are you done talking now? Let’s hurry up and go swimming, then! Want to join us, Pippin, Serena?”
“I’m all good. Serena, you want to entertain the young master in a swimsuit?”
“A sw-swimsuit? You want me to wear such a shameless getup?”
Serena stood up, turning bright red.
I couldn’t blame her; most people in this world wore modest one-pieces if they wore swimsuits at all. In fact, since dangerous monsters lived in the ocean, most people didn’t even think about playing on the beach.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“No, no! If my meager body can be of use to you…!”
“H-hey! Don’t start getting undressed here!”
“Not your underwear! That’s inappropriate, you know? Swimsuits are different from underwear. It’s like a uniform for swimming. If you swim in your underwear, it’ll get see-through. It’s true, you know?”
Arisa and Mia hurried to stop Serena from stripping her clothes off.
I turned away immediately, while Pippin stood there cheering with obvious amusement.
“Masteeer?”
“Over here, sir!”
Ignoring the raucous scene behind me, I headed over to the coastline where Tama and Pochi were waving to me.
We’ll spend the day swimming and work up an appetite, then have a barbecue on the beach with fresh-caught seafood.
Thus, we enjoyed a summery day at the beach with a sea of smiles.
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