Chapter 128
Morning arrived.
The festival had ended, and the streets were quiet without much of a crowd.
Of course, the whole street reeked of alcohol, but there were no traces of anyone having vomited, so it wasn’t a big problem.
It was just a street after the festival.
Now that the festival was over, it was time to greet a new morning.
“Did you all drink too much yesterday? Why does everyone look like that?”
“…No, we didn’t.”
The party gathered for breakfast all wore grim expressions.
They had certainly drank enough to get Lucius drunk, so I understood that the hangover was substantial.
But still, beyond that…
‘What’s going on?’
I had set everything up yesterday, creating perfect opportunities, yet they were all radiating a subtle animosity toward me?
Ah.
I see.
‘It’s because I’m the only one feeling fine.’
The woman who got wasted and couldn’t even fix herself up appeared before me, while another woman (anyway) looked perfectly primped.
It was only natural to feel jealousy, even if I didn’t want to.
‘But I can’t help with the drinking.’
It was fine to overindulge in the festivities, but no matter how many attractions there were in Belselphia, one had to know how to hold back when it came to alcohol.
Otherwise, alcohol leads to major accidents.
For me, it was better not to drink since my body can’t handle it.
“Are you guys able to go out today? Should we rest another day?”
“…No. Let’s leave today. We can head out in the afternoon.”
“Good idea. I asked Celcius, and the timing works out perfectly.”
“Timing?”
“Yeah. You guys seem unable to think straight right now, so it’s better to talk in person later.”
“This state that we’re in…”
Rosmas pulled at her face and glared at me through her fingers.
The pupils peeking through her fingers were sunken like the depths of the ocean and sent a chill down my spine for no reason.
“…What’s wrong? Didn’t you have fun yesterday?”
“No, we had fun… I got closer to Lucius.”
“But… Haa, never mind.”
Yan seemed about to snap at me but bit her lower lip and swallowed her words.
I was genuinely curious about what she wanted to say, but my instincts were telling me.
It was just stirring up trouble.
“I’m back.”
“Ah, welcome back, Lucius. Did you finish your training well?”
“Yeah. Yan, on your cheek.”
“Ah… Huh.”
Lucius… is familiar?
“What’s this? Did you decide to drop the formalities?”
“Yeah. Just between us. Ah, but Master…”
“I can’t do that. I’m at least 500 years older than you. But Rosmas is fine?”
“It’s okay! If you think about it in human terms, I’m just at the age of becoming an adult!”
“Oh, I see.”
The moment Lucius came back, the group that had been wearing sour expressions instantly turned into girls.
I had no idea what had happened last night, but seeing them exuding the scent of femininity like this made me think…
“Hmm…”
My genius-like intuition was telling me.
‘Something happened.’
They definitely did something.
Seeing all three of them in such a bad state, they must have schemed and acted together.
Especially when the hero feels most relaxed and free on ‘the last day of the festival after defeating the Demon King’.
Since Lucius had even gotten drunk, it would have been really easy to pull off.
‘Or not.’
Did I approach this too maturely?
It didn’t seem likely that these three scheming women would target an innocent and naive guy like Lucius.
‘Maybe they felt guilty about trying to take advantage of him and, in the end, just ended up sharing a light kiss or something.’
The desire to act might have folded over naturally, and it might have just ended there.
‘But I can’t just ask directly.’
If only there were a vampire around, maybe I could confirm things, but unfortunately, I had no means to verify such things.
If they soared through the night sky together during last night’s festival, did Lucius come to me afterward?
‘Well done, excellent! You’ve truly grown as a hero!’
If I were right, Lucius must be here to boast about his achievements.
And here I was, wearing a wedding dress and gawking at the night sky (or sea) while spouting nonsense, so Lucius might have felt disappointed after all.
– Master! Finally, I did it!
– Oh, yes! Well done, Lucius! You’ve finally made it!
– Yes! And I did it with all three of them!
– A 3-to-1 start…?! Well done, Lucius! You’re a true hero!
If that’s true…
‘Now we’ve formed a close bond like that of blood relations.’
Finally, the hero’s harem party has truly been established.
Now that the relationship between the hero and his companions has become a close one based on love, there’s no way Lucius’s party would betray him.
‘If things get dangerous, I can step in. I’m the one who tidies up in the middle.’
Unless we encountered some crazed version like the former Wind Hero, at the very least, I could manage the mental states of the other party members as I pleased.
‘If anyone feels left out, I can create an event right away.’
As a member of numerous hero parties, I had connected countless couples in those parties.
– What?! The nun and the porter are retiring from marriage…?!
– I, um, I guess it happened… I’m sorry, Hero. I’ll live my life with this man from now on.
– Then what about our party?! What about the healer?!
– Don’t shout…!! And don’t even think of touching my girl!
– Heh…!
Through traveling and struggling together, emotional bonds formed, resulting in many hero parties collapsing as I retired key members of their parties into marriage.
‘That was all my doing.’
If I were to challenge the Demon King and get killed, it would be better to instead raise the global birth rate while creating future taxpayers for the world.
After all, even heroes wielding the Holy Sword were defeated by the Demon Lord Belphegor; how much worse could it be for ordinary hero parties?
Now, all I had to do was ensure that such events wouldn’t happen within our party.
“But, Sage.”
“Yes?”
“Why is your hair blue?”
“Oh, this?”
Because I absorbed the power of Leviathan.
“…Image change?”
“Suddenly?”
“Suddenly? This is all for maintaining life, you know.”
Crunch.
I took a big bite of perfectly grilled fish steak and put it in my mouth.
“Thanks to Celcius’s blessing, I’ve started to experience at least a bit of taste in food.”
“Taste…?”
“Yeah. Just one type, though.”
“What is it?”
“Sweet.”
It’s all due to Leviathan’s influence.
Since Leviathan’s trait is that of a ‘predator’, when she was in human form, she must have paid significant attention to taste just to enjoy eating rather than just gulping everything down.
“Celcius provided such a blessing…?”
“We’re a party here to defeat the Demon King. It helped with taking care of those Demon Lords messing around in the Intermediate Realm. Nothing special.”
Of course, publicly I’d lie and say it’s Celcius’s blessing, and since she had matched her story with mine, it was only logical for her to claim she had granted me the blessing.
But honestly, what significance does that hold?
“I can’t taste salty, sour, or bitter. It all just tastes sweet to me, no matter what I eat.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. But instead, everything I eat gets converted into magical power. Food scraps get incinerated in my stomach with fire magic.”
Everyone flinched in surprise.
“…Oh. Was that not a conversation to have while eating?”
“Um, Sage?”
“What?”
“Could you explain that to us in detail?”
The expressions of the three women were serious.
“Oh. Celcius just called for me for a moment. I’ll step out for a bit.”
Lucius suddenly left his seat, and I was unexpectedly left alone with the three women.
“Sage, is that magic something we could use as well?”
“What are the side effects?”
“…It’s not really side effects, it just drastically reduces the frequency of regular excretion…”
After the meal.
I unexpectedly found myself lecturing the three on magic.
*
After finishing my preparations.
Our party arrived at Celcius’s palace and stood in front of her throne.
“Hero Arthur Lucius. Elf Rosmas Terbeician. Human Droniel Odrone. Saintess Yan Diere. And Sage Bel. You five have done your utmost for Belselphia. I, Celcius, on behalf of Belselphia, and as one of the seven celestial bodies of nature in the Intermediate Realm, express my heartfelt gratitude.”
Seeing Celcius, dressed up formally and speaking so seriously, made me feel oddly melancholic.
“You will all part ways now, and you likely won’t meet for quite some time. Sage Bel can communicate with me through the Spirit Device Celcius, but for the others, this might be the last time.”
Saaah.
Celcius’s body began to shimmer and change.
Her masculine form transformed into a feminine one, revealing her true appearance as she calmly looked down.
“May the blessings of water be with you on your futures. As the Water Spirit and the source of all water in this world, Celcius sincerely thanks you for your efforts, and I have prepared a gift for you.”
Suddenly, speaking in formalities, Celcius gestured, and something resembling a bubble approached us.
“This is…?”
“An egg?”
An enormous egg, about the size of a human head.
It wasn’t too heavy, but the amount of magic energy felt emanating from within was quite substantial.
“That is the core of a Kraken; the Kraken known as Gguk-guk.”
“Yikes…?!”
“When the fuel runs out, you’ll need to refill it with new magical power, but at least this core should last you two months for your journey… as long as you’re sailing.”
That giant Kraken we had fought, Gguk-guk’s core.
Although I thought it got destroyed when Leviathan rampaged, it seems the core existed separately.
“While you were resting, the excellent mechanics of Belselphia crafted a special item based on the body of the Kraken for you to use.”
“A special… item?”
“Yes.”
Snap.
As Celcius snapped her fingers, the Kraken’s body, which had merely been an ornament beyond the window, began to split in half.
What emerged was a form resembling a gigantic Kraken with wings.
Though it was hard to describe without legs, it looked like a whale flying around.
“This is the All-Weather Mobile Fortress. It’s produced by the finest artisans of Belselphia, the Mercedes Mill. You don’t need to know the formal name; you’ll have to name that fortress yourselves.”
“That… size…?”
“Think of it as a four-story building flying in the air. If there’s enough magic, it can operate as a submarine, an airplane, and perhaps… no, it would be rude to say more than that.”
Celcius handed me the Kraken’s core.
“This is the key to operating that mobile fortress. You are the captain of that fortress… ship.”
“…Wait a moment. Are you telling me to pilot that thing?”
“Yes.”
“Celcius.”
I briefly handed the core to Lucius.
“I love you.”
I pulled Celcius into a tight embrace.
“This is the best gift!!”
