༺ The End ༻
Hello! It’s Ferloche !
I’m feeling very nervous right now!
After chasing Frey and wandering around the slave market for a while, I finally found him!
This time, I am going to scold the wicked and terrible Frey, for sure!
‘…Did I bring my diary? If I left it behind by mistake like last time, I’ll have to go through everything again.’
Wait a moment! Before scolding, I need to touch my treasure, the diary, for a while!
‘Good, I brought it this time.’
I have the diary that calms my mind, and I’ve gathered enough mana! I’m really fully prepared!
“Heup…”
While taking a deep breath with that thought, I screamed at Frey, who shamelessly had a calm expression in front of me!
“Frey!!! You wicked, terrible, treacherous, lowly, despicable, and evil person!!!”
‘…Let’s just do it like last time.’
As I poured out my feelings for Frey and declared war, Frey’s eyes shook slightly.
Good, my threat worked!
Now that it’s come to this, shall I push him a little more?
“Today, I will definitely kill you!!!”
‘…This time, I must give you a happy ending.’
After spitting out the words I always shout whenever I see Frey, I felt refreshed!
Now, I must scold Frey a lot…
“Frey! Where are you going?”
Frey is trying to run away! I have to stop him quickly!
“…Why did you come here?”
“I came to stop you! What kind of vile scheme are you planning in this place?”
Blocking Frey, who was trying to escape the hallway, I started a war of words with the evil Frey!
“…You must be sure that I’m going to do something today?”
But, somehow, I feel like I got caught up in a war of words!
Frey, how nice it would be if we fought fairly with fists…
“So… are you here to guide me to the ‘right path’?”
But why does he keep talking nonsense?
I don’t know anything difficult!
‘…You’ve always been on the right path.’
Maybe Frey doesn’t know what he’s talking about either, but he must be saying that to show off!
‘You’ve avoided the path that leads to Clana becoming a canary forever, a bad ending.’
– Click!
“Ugh?”
As I was thinking about that, suddenly, dark mana began to burst from Frey’s staff!
What, what is this? It’s too pure for black magic, but the concentration is unnecessarily strong and very annoying!
Could this be Frey’s doing to drive me away?
If so, I can’t forgive him.
How dare he use the forbidden dark magic in the empire! Using dark magic on me, a saint of the Church of the Sun, who serves the benevolent Sun God!
As expected, I need to catch Frey and beat him until he reflects…
“What, it’s… just a kid, isn’t it?”
“…..?”
I’m diligently pushing out the dark mana with holy power, but I see people approaching from far away.
“Hey kiddo, do you know what kind of place this is that you’ve entered?”
“…They look pretty suspicious, should we catch them?”
I’m not entirely sure, but considering their menacing appearance, they must be enemies!
No doubt, they’re the bad guys sent by Frey!
‘The captain of the guards will charge in first, followed by the minions launching magic missiles from behind. The remaining one will watch from the back and escape when needed.’
But, there’s no problem! I have the Blessing of the Sun God!
‘I’ve dealt with this pattern countless times; I can handle it with my eyes closed.’
Well then, shall I show off my skills a bit?
.
.
.
.
“Come at me, all of you! I can fight all day long!”
“Damn it… where did such a monster come from?”
As expected, I am strong! And cool!
Defeating the wicked villains as a hero of justice! It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I finally get to try it!
This is HQ, this is HQ…
“…Hey, this is different from our contract!”
Excitedly swinging my fists, the man commanding the villains at the back starts using his radio!
Hmm… What on earth are they talking about?
‘…Is it about time?’
– Kugwakwang!!!
“Ugh, ahh!”
Oh my goodness! The villains destroyed the walls of the floor I was on!
There won’t be any injured people, right? There shouldn’t be…
Ah, thank goodness. There are only collapsed debris, but no injured people in sight.
‘In the past, a few people would get caught up in this.’
“Everyone, scatter and approach. My guess is, that ability can’t handle multiple opponents.”
“…Ugh.”
While I’m happy that there are no injured people other than the villains knocked down by my punches, the commanding villain points out my weak spot!
This is quite troublesome.
What should I do?
‘Now is the time.’
That’s right! Since those people broke the walls, I just need to break the floor!
If I break the floor, all the people approaching me will be neutralized! Then I can easily escape!
“Huahh!!”
Pajijijijijik!!
With that judgment, I break the floor, and everyone starts flailing in midair!
Great, my plan worked… Wait a minute. In mid-air?
“Uh, ugh, ahh!”
Oh no! I just realized this is a high-rise building! At this rate, my buttocks won’t survive! This is a huge problem!
‘I won’t let things go your way from now on.’
Kwajik!!
And so, I crushed Ruby underneath me!
No, that’s not it.
Someone was crushed under my buttocks!
No, no, it seems the sun god has heard my prayers!
Somehow, I’m fine even though I fell!
Why on earth am I fine…
Ah.
The order was wrong. Ferloche.
Get your head straight.
The moment anything goes even slightly off, the devil will notice.
“There they are! Catch them!”
“Two intruders gathered in one place!”
“HQ, can you hear me? The intruders are helping each other…”
How many times do I have to hear that radio? I’m sick of it.
“Ma’am, where are you going…?”
“Don’t worry, I’m here!”
What’s wrong with me? Am I suddenly fed up?
Ferloche, this is the path you chose.
The ability you barely obtained to atone for your sins.
But now, you’re sick of it?
“In the name of Ferloche !”
You don’t have the right to say such things.
“I will definitely expose the hypocritical Ruby!”
But what was I thinking just now?
“I’ll kill you right here.”
“…Huh?”
Oh no, what did I just say?
Because of a careless slip of the tongue that I unknowingly let out due to my crumbling mental state.
Because of a small but fatal foolish mistake that I used to make in the past.
“What did you just say?”
Everything seems to have gone back again.
“Ferloche …”
“Shut up.”
How many more times can I turn things back?
I’m already at my limit.
My mind has already collapsed as much as it can.
If I keep going like this, it’ll definitely be too much…
‘No, it was already too long ago.’
I’m scared. I’m afraid of forgetting everything. Of becoming a completely foolish Saintess.
The feelings I have for you, the memories, the past.
And even forgetting all the sins I’ve committed, becoming a completely different person.
Every time I turn back the world, every time my mental strength is chipped away.
I’m terrified that my mind will eventually collapse to the point where I’ll even deceive the system and the devil.
But, I’ll have to endure that too.
That’s the path of atonement I chose.
The feelings I had for you, the memories, the past.
And even forgetting all the sins I’ve committed, becoming a completely different person.
Every time I turn back the world, every time my mental strength is chipped away.
I’m terrified that my mind will eventually collapse to the point where I’ll even deceive the system and the devil.
But, I’ll have to endure that too.
That’s the path of atonement I chose.
“…Huh?”
“Saint… you…”
However, at this point… sometimes, I want to break the rules.
Kugwagwagwagwang!!!
“…Huh?”
Like this, I strike the Demon King with a powerful blow filled with the sun god’s protection.
“Did you just launch a ‘preemptive strike’ on me?”
But this time, my little rebellion wasn’t very impressive.
“Thank you very much for personally removing the ‘restriction’.”
The demon king easily caught the powerful blow that I put all my strength into.
How strong is that being?
And how strong must you be, the only one who can stand against such an existence?
“Are you ready, then?”
If I had known it would come to this, I would have rather rebelled with you.
There was nothing better for maintaining my sanity.
Sigh…
I should stop throwing tantrums now.
Before the system and the devil notice this flood of emotions that started pouring out once I let it burst.
“…Retry.”
I have to turn the world back again.
.
.
.
.
“…Young master, where are you going?”
“The place where Ferloche might be.”
I’ve searched every corner of the slave market, but Ferloche is nowhere to be found.
In that case, there’s only one place left where she could be.
“Are you going underground…?”
“Yeah, there’s a cellar in the slave market. It was originally built for the staff to hide during emergencies, but it’s never actually been used.”
“But why do you think Ferloche is there?”
In response to Kania’s question, I made a gloomy expression and answered.
“I think Ferloche might like the darkness.”
“…But I thought Ferloche didn’t like the darkness?”
Without responding to Kania’s puzzled comment, I continued walking.
“…As expected, she’s here.”
After walking for a while, I began to feel Ferloche ‘s magical presence.
Uuuung…
Eventually, I found the huge shield made of mana that blocked the door to the cellar.
Creak, creak…
It’s been a long time since I drew my sword, and I began to tear the shield apart using the Hero’s Power.
It was a shield so sturdy that it couldn’t even be scratched without the Hero’s Power.
“Why did she block the cellar so tightly…?”
“I don’t know, but… it’s certain that she’s in here.”
– Clank!!
While answering Kania’s puzzled question and tearing off the rest of the shield, I wiped the sweat from my forehead and muttered.
“Why am I so tired already…”
Three penalties and one special penalty.
The special penalty didn’t originally reduce my life, and for some reason, one of the recent penalties didn’t reduce it either.
But the four penalties always took away as much of my vitality as they could.
“This is a problem.”
Is there really no way to replenish my vitality?
Although all the major events of the first year will be completed after this main quest, from the second year onwards, I will have to solve new incidents.
But, will I be able to fight like this, feeling so weak?
‘Come to think of it, Miho had breathed the vitality she had sucked from me back into me. So…’
If Miho has enough vitality, could she breathe it back into me?
‘It would have been written in the ‘Prophetic Book’ if that were possible…’
Although I thought it was impossible for a moment, I soon shook my head.
The prophecy, which had already been proven wrong in many places, shouldn’t be blindly trusted, or it would be my loss.
Regardless of the outcome, I should at least try.
If I don’t try, nothing will change.
– Creak…
Having finished thinking, I nervously held my sword and quietly opened the door.
Considering everything I’ve experienced so far.
As soon as the door was fully opened, a bomb could have exploded or undead could have poured out; such things could have easily happened.
“Ah.”
Fortunately, it was neither a bomb nor undead in the cellar, but as expected, it was Ferloche.
“………”
She was quietly praying in the midst of the pitch-black basement, where not a single ray of light entered.
“Ferloche ?”
When I called her softly, she suddenly jumped up from her seat and began approaching me.
“What’s going on…”
“Finally, finally, real success… Now, if I just finish the Third Ordeal… Ehehehe…”
Ignoring my question, Ferloche, who had been muttering something, came right in front of me.
“Hehe… He… Heuk.”
“…..?”
Suddenly, she began to sob.
“Heuuuuu… Uuuuu…”
“What, what’s wrong?”
“I was scared, so scared…”
As I stared at her blankly, she continued.
“I thought I was trapped in the darkness… that I would never be able to leave…”
Without realizing it, I began to pat her back.
“Huaaaaah…”
And as such, the third main quest was finally completed.
