Chapter 157: At the Destination

Having subjugated Venom Beat and the Demon, we were discussing what to do next.

“Since we subjugated Venom Beat too, there’s no longer any worry about the Rotten Earth expanding further.”

“Yes, we also subjugated the Demon who was scheming a conspiracy, so we can finally relax.”

“All that’s left is to purify the Rotten Earth that spread far and wide, and all our problems will be solved.”

“Even though we subjugated Venom Beat, purification is still necessary?”

Liliera, who thought everything was over with the defeat of Venom Beat, tilts her head.

“Yes. While the erosion of the Rotten Earth itself was caused by Venom Beat, the remaining poisonous swamp itself stays. If we don’t purify it, other poisonous monsters will make it their home.”

“I see, it would also be bad if, by any chance, those Venom Beat eggs remained.”

Liliera nods in understanding.

“Exactly.”

The Venom Beat eggs the Demon was trying to hatch had their nutrient supply cut off by our purification and died out.

But there is a possibility that Venom Beat eggs still remain in the unpurified lands.

If that happens, there’s a danger that mutant Venom Beats will cause an uproar in the world once again.

That’s why the Rotten Earth must be completely purified.

“Heeey, Big Brooo!”

Just then, Jairo and the others came running while raising their voices.

“I suddenly felt an incredible magic power, did something happen?”

Apparently, Jairo sensed the aftermath of the battle with Venom Beat and rushed over in a panic.

“It’s okay. It’s already over.”

“Seriously!?”

When I announced that the battle had already ended, Jairo groaned in frustration.

“Dammit! And here I thought I’d finally get to fight alongside Big Bro!”

“Sorry, sorry. Next time, I’ll make sure to leave some enemies for you.”

“Promise me, Big Bro!”

“No, that’s not something you say with the casualness of leaving leftovers for someone.”

Mina mutters with an exasperated look.

“Oh my? Is the battle already over?”

From behind them, Lady Idola also shows her face.

“So, what were you fighting this time?”

“Yeah, yeah! Tell us, Big Bro!”

“Yeah, actually…”

I explain the outline of the incident that occurred here to Jairo and the others.

“…So, you mean Big Bro defeated the cause of the Rotten Earth!?”

“Or rather, a Demon was involved in an incident again!?”

“That’s how it is.”

“By the way, the Demon‘s corpse is over here.”

“Uooh!? Seriously! Does that mean Liliera-neesan seriously defeated a Demon all by herself!?”

“Fufu, well, I suppose so.”

Answering that, Liliera looks a bit boastful.

“Kyuu!”

Without missing a beat, Mofumofu tries to gnaw on the Demon‘s wings, but I stop him.

“Kyu kyuu!?”

No, it’s no good giving me that ‘Why are you getting in my way’ look.

“You can’t do that, it’s Liliera‘s prey.”

“Kyuuuu~… Tch!”

With a ‘Can’t be helped’ vibe, Mofumofu kicked the Demon‘s head and headed toward the Giant Poison Centipede buried in the ground.

Well, I suppose that one is fine.

“Dammit! I wanted to fight a Demon one-on-one too!”

“With your ability, the tables would be turned on you.”

“That’s not true! The current me could totally take him!”

“My, my, to defeat a legendary Demon, Liliera is amazing.”

“…Dora, isn’t that reaction a bit too light?”

Jairo looks perplexed at Lady Idola, who raised a heartwarming voice while looking at the subjugated Demon.

This relaxed reaction, as expected of a princess.

“But Rex is truly amazing. The problem of the Rotten Earth is an issue that not only the surrounding countries but even the church has been racking their brains over. This is definitely worthy of a medal. Every country will compete to welcome Rex as a noble.”

Just as I was thinking that, Lady Idola brought up something outrageous.

“Umm, well, could you keep this a secret? I’m not good at standing out, and besides, the reason I could defeat Venom Beat was thanks to the ancient people weakening it with a special seal. If not for that, I would have struggled quite a bit.”

“I don’t think that’s the case.”

“Coincidence, I think so too.”

No, no, you two, it really wasn’t just my power alone.

“But well, I understand how Rex feels. You guys are Me… my precious friends, after all. If you say you don’t want to do that, I will respect your wishes. I am very much indebted to you, anyway.”

“Thank you, Dora.”

Phew, I’m glad Lady Idola is someone who listens to reason.

As expected of the princess Meguri serves.

“Alright, then let’s resume the purification of the Rotten Earth! There’s a possibility Venom Beat’s children might have survived, so if you find any, don’t get close and fight them from a distance.”

” ” ” “Yeees!” ” ” “

“Ah, I have poison resistance thanks to the Go… to Rex, so it’s okay even if I accidentally get close.”

“Ah, Dora, that’s unfair! Big Bro, give me poison resistance too!”

“You really… this isn’t a child’s toy…”

“Mofumofu, we’re going soon too!”

“Kyu kyuu!”

Then, Mofumofu came back carrying some white lump in his mouth.

“Wait, isn’t that a Venom Beat egg!”

Surprisingly, Mofumofu brought back the Venom Beat egg I dug up from the ground earlier.

“Kyuu!”

And then Mofumofu started munching on the egg.

“Kyu~uu”

Umm, did he like the Venom Beat egg?

◆ Meguri ◆

When I was young, I was once taken by my mother to see the Rotten Earth.

It was to understand my future mission.

Pointing to the repulsive poisonous swamp that claimed the lives of those who approached, my mother said this:

“Listen well, Megurielna. In the future, you will sacrifice your life to protect the people from that hell. That is the mission you were born with.”

My mother told me strictly.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s something you tell a child.

But since I was little, I was told by my mother that giving our lives for the country and for the royal family was the mission of us who live in the shadows.

My mother was a strict person, but she was equally kind, so I harbored no feelings of resentment towards her. The same went for my father.

I understood well that he had a position to uphold and couldn’t officially acknowledge my existence.

Besides, seeing the two of them getting along when I was a child, I also properly understood that I was born out of desire.

So, I didn’t feel the need to resent them.

Because he was the kind of person who would come to see me pretending we met by chance, and give me sweets pretending he just happened to have them on him.

Because he was such a clumsy father, I also wanted to be of use.

And I also love my true older sister, who treated me—assigned to her side as a body double—like her actual little sister.

I never envied my sister, who lived as a princess knowing nothing, nor did I ever think that I should have been the princess.

As the princess’s body double, having trained to act like her, I knew very well how troublesome, suffocating, and dangerously close to peril the position of a princess was.

Because I needed to accumulate combat training as a body double, I was often able to visit the countryside where my grandfather lived, which was another reason I never felt envious of the princess’s position.

Because the memories with the friends I met there were so precious to me.

I did feel a little sorry for Norb, who would be sacrificed as collateral damage with me, though.

But it seemed Norb felt the same, and before this pilgrimage began, he said this to me:

“I am sorry. It’s because our church is so incompetent.”

Ah, what an overly earnest person, I thought; Norb was truly good-natured to that extent.

Even though Norb was completely blameless regarding the Rotten Earth.

And the same went for Baharun and the others.

Just because they didn’t have much time left to live, it didn’t mean they had any obligation to embark on a journey from which they could never return.

That’s why I resolved to at least firmly fulfill my own duty.

I thought that was the way to protect my precious people and to ensure the feelings of those sacrificing themselves alongside me wouldn’t be in vain… however.

“The temple… is gone…”

According to the stories I heard beforehand, there was supposed to be a small hill around here with a temple on top of it, but looking around, I can’t see anything resembling a hill.

There is only a massive amount of earth, as if something had collapsed.

“What is… the meaning of this?”

Upon arriving at the Rotten Earth, the Rotten Earth itself had vanished without a trace, and furthermore, the people in the neighboring villages were making a fuss about a Goddess purifying the Rotten Earth.

And when we came deep into the Rotten Earth as if guided by the mysterious light, the Temple of the Seal was nowhere to be found in the place it should have been.

“Lady Megurielna! Please look at this!”

As I stood dumbfounded, Baharun, who seemed to have found something in the soil, called out to me.

“Did you find something?”

When I went to Baharun, I saw what looked like stone remains of a building buried in the dirt.

“Most likely, this is the Temple of the Seal…”

“Does that mean this collapsed pile of dirt was the mountain where the temple stood?”

“Isn’t it a bit lacking in volume to be called a mountain?”

“True.”

“More importantly, what about the seal? We have to find the seal.”

What’s important isn’t investigating the circumstances, but resealing the seal.

We decided to dig up the dirt and look for the seal.

“Good grief, I never thought I would end up playing in the dirt after coming all this way.”

“Hahaha, it brings me back to my childhood.”

“You guys, take this seriously.”

“We know, we know.”

Even while seemingly fooling around, Honorary Baron Albrea was steadily using magic to excavate a massive amount of soil.

“Lady Megurielna! This!”

When everyone gathered around Norb at his voice, we found a chunk of rock carved into a circle.

“It has a magic circle engraved in ancient characters, so this is most likely the seal.”

“But this is…”

The sealing magic circle Norb discovered had been gouged out by a large scratch.

“Lord Norb, we are not well-versed in magic, but is this alright?”

Former Count Russell and the others ask Norb if the seal is intact.

But Norb shook his head with a bitter expression.

“No, the seal is meaningless in this state. There’s no magical reaction, so it is completely broken.”

“Does that mean the seal has been broken!?”

“Most likely…”

“Princess Megurielna, what happens if the seal is broken?”

Honorary Baron Albrea asks what will happen if the seal is broken.

As the former Head Court Magician and a master of magic, he knew of the seal’s existence due to his position, but the contents of the seal were kept as top-secret royal information from him.

I remember my mother telling me that because the seal is a royal secret, a separate institution existed to research it.

“According to what I heard from my mother, if the seal is broken, the entity that created the Rotten Earth will be released. And I was taught that the deadly poison of the demon that created the Rotten Earth would spread at a terrifying speed, blanketing not only our country but the entire world.”

“What!?”

At my words, everyone raises voices of dismay.

“B-But isn’t it strange, considering that? For a broken seal, this ‘deadly poison of the demon’ isn’t overflowing, and more importantly, the Rotten Earth itself has vanished.”

Yeah, that bothered me too.

But the problem of the Rotten Earth is a major issue that has plagued the royal families and churches of various countries since long ago.

I can’t believe it would just suddenly vanish one day.

“Then, does that mean because the seal was destroyed, whatever was sealed went away somewhere?”

“No, even if we assume that’s true, it doesn’t explain why the Rotten Earth vanished. I feel the intention of a third party.”

As Norb says. The fact that the Rotten Earth completely vanished is definitely unnatural.

“Hmm, the reason completely escapes me, but for now, isn’t it a joyous occasion that the Rotten Earth is gone? Above all, it is joyous that you two did not have to be sacrificed.”

“Eh?”

“Indeed, I don’t know the reason, but it is best that the lives of the youth were not lost.”

“Thinking about it that way, this too might be the work of the mysterious Goddess. To not only purify the Rotten Earth but to also erase the cause that was sealed away… we can’t be thankful enough.”

The mysterious Goddess… huh.

But, who could it really be?

Since it was said to be a woman, it doesn’t seem to be Rex.

I thought it might be Liliera or Mina, but those two shouldn’t be able to use purification magic, and to begin with, the appearance from the eyewitness accounts doesn’t match.

Currently, it was a completely mysterious existence.

Could it really be a Goddess?

“True. We should thank the Goddess. Judging from the fact she purified the Rotten Earth, she probably isn’t a malicious entity.”

“Th-That might be so, but aren’t you all taking this a bit too lightly?”

Because everyone accepted it so easily, Norb was the one feeling bewildered.

“Hahaha, the young monk is too serious. At times like this, it’s better to take it easy. Racking your brains over things you don’t understand won’t yield any answers, after all.”

“That is also true.”

“Ah, thank the mysterious Goddess!”

” ” “Hahaha!” ” “

“Haa…”

It seems the earnest Norb was completely talked down by the three veterans.

Well actually, since the Rotten Earth is gone, it is something to be thankful for, but…

“But, my mission is gone now…”

The reason that had occupied the majority of my life up to this point had disappeared, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do anymore.

It’s true that I came here practically as a sacrifice, so it’s not like I’m not happy to survive, but there is still something unsatisfying about it.

“The Goddess… just who in the world could it be…?”

Following this, in the various countries that had been encroached upon by the Rotten Earth, the rumor that a mysterious light had purified the Rotten Earth would come to cause a massive uproar in the world.