Chapter 39

Pax was like a giant sticky rice dumpling that had been hurled through the air, tracing a clumsy parabola across the sky.

His body, layered in folds of fat, was torn at by the wind. The instant his belt snapped, three tiers of belly fat spilled down in cascading folds like a waterfall.

As he fell, he clamped his hands over his eyes. Through the gaps between his fingers, the sky shattered into countless spinning panes of blue glass, and wisps of cloud stuck to the sweat on the tip of his nose.

When he hit the ground, there was a wet, sticky splat. As for exactly what state he was smashed into, I did not see it. Because I had already flown off with Aisha and Lilia.

If he could survive even that, then his life was absurdly tough.

I was starting to suspect that Hitogami had sent me here to save Lilia and Aisha just so I would kill Pax.

But that was fine. His original fate was to jump off a high building and fall to his death anyway. I had only helped him along a little early.

As for whether this would affect Orsted's plans, that was even less my business.

Orsted wanted to locate Laplace in advance. What did that have to do with me? By then, I would definitely have been dead long ago.

I had always looked down on Pax. For his own benefit, he threatened the relatives of his subordinates every single day.

At the drop of a hat, he would go off researching how to buy and sell slaves.

He had a little petty cleverness, but no real ability. Aside from being born into a decent family, he was worthless in every other respect.

Even if he later strove to better himself, it was only for the sake of a woman, and for that he even slaughtered his own father the king and his brothers.

Hmph. In any case, I had no good feelings toward him.

Originally, I had planned to take Lilia and Aisha and fly straight out of the Shirone royal palace.

But since he had decided to set his sights on me.

Then he could not blame me for striking back.

Amid this sort of self-comfort, I stopped flying and descended with Lilia and Aisha into a stretch of forest.

Lilia still had not recovered from the terror of flying through the sky and seeing me kill Pax.

Aisha had already run happily over to my side.

"Big brother, you're amazing! I didn't think you could not only defeat that many attendants, but even fly. I admire you so much!"

Her emotional value was maxed out, and she did not ask me why I had killed Pax either. From the looks of it, she really was a genius.

She had probably already guessed why I did not just fly away with them directly, but instead left the city after grabbing Pax before flying away. She must have seen something from that.

What a smart child.

"You're very impressive too, little girl. You're the first person I've carried while flying who recovered this quickly. Other people are shocked out of their wits while they're in the air. After landing, a lot of them can't even stand steady.

Haha, in front of someone as smart as you, I won't speak in riddles.

I was entrusted by your father to come save you. When he was in Roa, he entrusted others with searching for your whereabouts.

Your father should be waiting for you at the Adventurer Guild in Milishion, in the Millis Holy Country.

I can send you there to find him, or I can send you back to Buena Village. That depends on what you choose."

At this point, Lilia also came forward and bowed to me. She was not as clever as her daughter. The first thing she said was, "Benefactor, will killing Prince Pax like this cause any consequences?"

I did not even know how to answer her. Of course the consequences would be huge. Who knew whether Zanoba would still go to Sharia.

The later plot where Pax fought his way back from the King Dragon Kingdom was gone wholesale too.

But what did any of that have to do with me? It did not matter.

I answered her perfunctorily, "As long as the two of you keep your mouths sealed about my matters, nothing will happen.

The place where Pax died is out in the wilderness. Generally, very few people will find him.

Besides, I didn't use my real name either. Even if I get wanted, I don't believe the Shirone Kingdom can do anything to me. It's just a small country.

This country itself is riddled with crisis. I don't take them seriously at all."

I did not know whether Lilia believed my words. After she said she wanted to go to Milishion to find Paul, we continued on this journey.

We did not run into Rudy along the way, which could not help but make me wonder why it was inconsistent with what Hitogami had said.

Could it be because I had crossed the mountains to reach Shirone, saving a great deal of time on the road?

But since we had not run into him, that was a good thing too. It showed that Hitogami was not omnipotent either.

On the road, for some reason, Aisha kept clinging to me and asking me to teach her magic. I did not mind. The journey was rather boring anyway.

So I taught her in passing.

The two women traveled rather slowly on foot, so after we reached the first small town, we switched to a carriage instead.

When I was buying the carriage, Aisha said to Lilia, "Mom, Mom, I want to take Teacher Dolin as my master and study magic under him."

Lilia frowned slightly and did not agree right away. She replied, "This matter requires your father's approval. And in the future, you are supposed to become Master Rudy's maid. Have you forgotten your mission?"

"Huh? Why do I have to be his maid? I've barely even met him a few times. I want to have my own life too. I don't want to."

By the time I finished buying the carriage, the two of them had ended their conversation and did not continue the earlier topic.

After leaving Shirone, we kept heading south, passing through the Kingdom of Kikar and the Kingdom of Sanakia. At last, we arrived in the King Dragon Kingdom.

I wore my hood the whole way and kept an eye out to see whether any other countries had posted Shirone's bounty on me.

But not a single country had put one up. Even Shirone's nominal ally, and in reality its suzerain, the King Dragon Kingdom, had no bounty for me.

I did not know whether Shirone had never issued a bounty for me at all, or whether Shirone had no way to issue wanted bounties in countries outside its borders.

Eastern Port was the closest harbor connecting the King Dragon Kingdom to the Millis Continent. Taking a ship from Eastern Port, it took a week to reach Western Port on the Millis Continent.

After arriving at Western Port, we traveled east for another two months before finally reaching Milishion, the capital of the Millis Holy Country.

As the capital of the Millis Holy Country, Milishion had Lake Gran situated in the center of the city, with a pure-white royal palace built in the middle of the lake.

The capital was surrounded by a barrier formed by seven tall towers, protecting the city from disasters and disease. At the same time, it was also where the Adventurer Guild headquarters was located.

Only at a time like this did Aisha act like a child, shouting and crying out at the scenery along the roadside.

We planned to find an inn first, leave our luggage and carriage there, then go to the Adventurer Guild to look for Paul.

But when we entered the inn, a fight was taking place inside.

A man with a face full of beard, his features haggard and covered in wrinkles, was holding a boy of around ten-something by the collar with one hand, lifting him into the air.

What was going on? The man's face looked somewhat familiar. It looked a little like Paul's face, the one I had seen in Roa back then.

But he was way too old. Only four years had passed. Was Paul this old?

By the man's leg, a little girl about the same size as Aisha was crying as she hugged his leg, constantly shouting, "Don't hit Brother, don't hit Brother."

Then I saw the woman beside me, Lilia, rush forward as well. She hugged the man and shouted, "Master, please let go! Don't hit Young Master Rudeus!"

What? How did this turn into Paul hitting Rudy? This scene was completely different from what I remembered.

Once the man came back to his senses and saw Lilia and Aisha, he lost focus for a moment and put Rudy down.

Then, crying, he pulled Lilia into his arms.

In the end, I learned that Paul had been searching for his family all this time, and four years of searching had stretched his mind taut. Countless disappointments had left his emotions numb, until in the end he could only use alcohol to anesthetize himself.

After seeing Rudy and Norn, he had originally been extremely happy, as if he had been given a new life.

But after meeting and chatting with Rudy's group, Rudy had questioned the presence of Vera in Paul's party. He questioned whether his father had spent these past few years lost in drunken dreams and a dead man's stupor, sinking hopelessly into the gentle land of bikini female warriors. That was what ultimately led to the father-son brawl.

The one who told me all this was a Dwarf, Talhand. Beside him stood an elf and a blue-haired girl.

They were Elinalise and Roxy Migurdia, who had met Rudy on the Demon Continent.

Their group had encountered Rudeus on the Demon Continent. At the time, there had also been a bald man accompanying Rudy. But when they took a ship at Port of Wind, because the fare for the Superd Race was too high—

And since Rudy had already met suitable companions, the bald man, Ruijerd, returned to the Demon Continent and left Rudy's group.

In the end, Rudy arrived in Milishion together with Norn, Elinalise, Roxy, and Talhand.

Because they had not smuggled Ruijerd, Rudy did not go to the Great Forest.

But it seemed that because this time Rudy had brought Norn, who had been transferred to the Demon Continent with him, the journey had been extremely difficult.

Norn's physical constitution basically could not compare to Eris's.

A normal journey that usually took five days took them twice as long.

But they were also lucky enough to run into Elinalise's group.

Oh, right. I saw Geese in Paul's party. Although he had not gone to the Demon Continent with Elinalise and the others, he had stayed by Paul's side the whole time.

I wondered whether Hitogami had contacted him this time.

After greeting everyone in Rudy's party and Paul's party, we began drinking to our hearts' content in the bar on the first floor of the inn. After all, it was a day of reunion. How could there be no wine and fine food?

As for Rudy's family, of course they went upstairs to deal with their internal family conflicts.

While drinking freely with Elinalise and the others, I explained once again why I had saved Aisha and Lilia. Paul had asked me to help near Roa before, so I had kept an eye out for the names, and after I happened to run into them, I saved them.

In any case, back in Roa, Paul had indeed asked me to search for his wife and child.

I did not know whether it was because I was too handsome, or because I had more of a man's charm, but Elinalise kept trying to burrow into my arms. At the same time, Talhand also kept urging me to drink.

Bottle after bottle, I was almost too busy to keep up. In the end, I had no idea how Rudy and Paul made up, but they also came downstairs and joined the drinking party. Because I had brought back Aisha and Lilia, Paul kept toasting me.

Perhaps because I knew that if I drank too much, I could use detoxification magic to drive out the misery of a hangover, I never once thought about getting drunk.

Until the next morning.

The moment I opened my eyes, I found myself lying on a bed. The memories in my head stopped at the moment when Paul and Rudy were clinking cups with me together.

I was lying naked on the bed. In my arms lay a Long-ear Race elf as well. It gave me quite a fright. Thank goodness, thank goodness. As long as the one in my arms was not a burly Dwarf man, I could accept it.

After using detoxification magic on myself, I did not stay in bed for long. I briskly got out of bed and put on my clothes and pants.

At that moment, the Long-ear Race woman on the bed opened her beautiful phoenix eyes, her face full of smiles and radiant with spring warmth. She even threw me a flirtatious wink with her eyes.

"Little brother, you were very brave last night. Want to have a morning workout with big sister?"

Ah, I had blacked out. I had no memory of it at all. I felt like she was bluffing me.

"Sorry, ma'am, but I've forgotten everything from last night. Did we do anything together last night? I really don't remember."

The Long-ear Race elf burst out laughing.

"Little brother, are you playing hard to get? Weren't you making me call you Daddy last night? Why are you so timid now? Don't be scared, big sister doesn't need you to take responsibility. We can just stay friends."

Of course I knew she did not need me to take responsibility. It was just that she was public transport, while I only liked private cars. So I did not respond to her words. I laughed it off and went downstairs to eat.

In the first-floor dining hall, I ran into Rudy and Roxy having breakfast together. I ordered a breakfast too and joined them.

It turned out Rudy and Roxy had met on the road between Rikarisu Town and Port of Wind. After that, because Roxy wanted to check on her parents and search for other survivors from Fittoa Territory, they had passed through Dalkrasma Town together.

While in Dalkrasma Town, Rudy had also met the Great Devil Emperor Kishirika Kishirisu, who had bestowed a Demon Eye of Foresight upon him.

That meant there was a high probability Rudy should currently be under Hitogami's surveillance as well. In theory, running into Kishirika in Dalkrasma Town should have triggered information about Zenith's location. But now there was no such information.

After chatting with them for a while, most of the others came downstairs.

Because Paul had seen four of his family members in a single day, his condition had improved a lot as well. After shaving off his beard, his mental state looked better too.

At present, there was still one person from Paul's family who had not been found, and that was Paul's lawful wife, Zenith. Then came a clamorous discussion with everyone talking at once.

Although I knew where Zenith was, I did not take the initiative to join in.

After their clamorous discussion, There were currently still the Northern Continent and the Begaritt Continent that had not been searched.

So in the end, we split into groups.

I, Rudy, Roxy, and Elinalise would go to the Northern Continent together.

Rudy wanted to study at Ranoa University of Magic.

Roxy had graduated from the University of Magic herself, so she wanted to go back to the school and take a look.

Elinalise simply did not want to act together with Paul.

The remaining people would follow Paul to the Begaritt Continent to search for Zenith.

It was very similar to history, except that there was one more person, Roxy, going along. That should not have too much of an effect.

I was very curious. If Rudy had not saved Roxy's life, how would their relationship develop in the end? I was still looking forward to it.

In addition, because Norn had followed Rudy the whole way this time, she was very clingy with Rudy, so she was also coming north with us.

Aisha was following us for some unknown reason as well, and she seemed to no longer be wearing servant clothes. She had changed back into normal women's clothing.

According to Paul, the two of them and Rudy would all go to Ranoa University of Magic to study, apparently.

After the discussion ended, Paul found me alone and thanked me for helping him find Lilia and Aisha.

Actually, judging from Eris's side, Paul and I could be considered relatives too. It was just that the relation was rather distant.

He asked me to teach Aisha more magic on the road. That was truly rare. Why did he not go to Rudy or Roxy, but instead come to me?

But I did not really care. Aisha was very clever and basically learned things as soon as she was taught. Besides, on the way here, I had already taught her a lot.

Aisha was already quite old, so she probably could not learn chantless casting. What I could teach her was only those ordinary forms of Chant Magic.

After two days of preparation, we set out on the journey north.

I hoped this road would be safe and smooth all the way!