Chapter 190 – Storm and eclipse

The ‘Super Sense’ Gotouta Kaoru leaving a note behind and vanishing was a shock to the ‘Sylphid’ Misa Anderson and ‘Odin’ Akira Hazamada.

But although it was a painful truth to face for the ‘Chronos’ Junpei Murakami, it wasn’t a surprise.

“After all, it actually seems possible for us to live decent lives in this backwards world,” he muttered.

Through steady training while holding back the magic they had learned in their previous lives and doing their best not to use their cheat-like abilities, Murakami and his companions had all successfully become C-class adventurers.

As their reincarnated bodies were in their mid-teenage years, they did draw some attention for being such young C-class adventurers, but not to the point of suspicion. However, because they had kept changing locations from town to town, they had not drawn too much attention to themselves… though this was also because they had been specifically careful to not draw attention to themselves by showing off their real abilities.

Even in this city, the only ones who knew that they were C-class adventurers were Guild employees and a few of the adventurers.

Though they had to be careful, they had become C-class adventurers because even if it became known that they were skilled with magic or possessed Unique Skills (cheat-like abilities), nobody would be suspicious if they were C-class.

C-class adventurers were those who had taken a step towards being B-class adventurers, who were like superhumans from the perspective of adventurers that were D-class and below. Thus, people who became aware of Murakami and his companions’ skills would assume that this was how they had become C-class adventurers at such a young age.

Also, as C-class adventurers, they had access to higher-quality information than those of D-class and below. Making connections at information brokers in cities would be easier.

And most importantly, they would earn enough to buy the equipment that they wanted.

The staves in this world were inferior in technology to those in Origin. It was unrealistic to expect functional and lightweight magical media like the military staves of Origin, which were built into gloves or wristwatches.

But in this world, there were monster materials and magical metals that did not exist in Origin. Thus, there was equipment and Magic Items that were impressive even in the eyes of Murakami and his companions.

However, purchasing these would require enough money to live a comfortable lifestyle in this world.

“I’m sure she felt content with continuing life like this, thinking that it isn’t worth it to cross a dangerous bridge to try to be reincarnated back on Earth,” said Murakami.

With a C-class adventurer’s income, they could live lives that were plenty comfortable even from their point of view. Murakami knew that Kaoru had chosen living a decent life in this world over Rodcorte’s reward.

And unlike when they had infiltrated the Eighth Guidance, Murakami and his companions were nothing more than average adventurers in terms of societal position. Their location was geographically open, so the fact that she could easily escape if she wanted to was likely one of the reasons she had done so.

Akira clicked his tongue in frustration. “Does she intend to spend her whole life in this world risking her life fighting monsters while quivering in fear of us and Vandalieu? Is she stupid?”

“Maybe she let her emotions get the better of her. Maybe she found a man. Not that it changes the fact that she betrayed us,” said Misa.

“Murakami-san, are you sure we shouldn’t chase after her? It’d be bad if she got captured and then blabbed about us to Vandalieu to try and convince him to spare her,” said Akira.

But Murakami had no intention of chasing Kaoru.

“There’s no point in chasing her. Kaoru made preparations in advance and chose this timing to make her escape. With that being the case, she’s probably not in this city anymore, so it would take time to catch up to her,” he said. “And what would we do after capturing her?”

“What would we do, well… We wouldn’t be able to kill her so easily,” Akira muttered.

“Of course not,” said Murakami. “From an outsider’s perspective, Kaoru simply left her adventurer party. It’s not something to be praised, but if we killed her over it, we’d become the fugitives… Even if we wanted to kill her without it being noticed, it would be a pain to make all the preparations and then actually fight her.”

On top of that, Kaoru’s cheat-like ability was Super Sense. It could be simply described as sharpened senses, but her senses were sharpened to the point that it was as if she had extra-sensory perception. It would be impossible to approach her without being detected by her ears and nose… Ghost of the Eighth Guidance had done so with his unique invisibility, but Murakami and his companions didn’t have that.

Even if they chased her and found her with the intention of silencing her, it was highly likely that they would be detected first. A very meticulous plan would be needed.

“And think about it. She should be trying to escape from Vandalieu as well. He won’t find her that easily,” Murakami added.

“Now that you mention it… I’m sure Rodcorte would warn us if she was intending to change sides like Kanako and the others, so maybe we don’t need to worry about her,” said Misa.

Murakami felt a twinge of irritation at hearing Misa mention Rodcorte’s name. After all, Rodcorte should have known that Kaoru intended to escape from his group.

Despite that, no warning had come, which meant that he had either not paid enough attention to Kaoru and let her intentions slip past him, or assumed that her absence would not have any negative consequences on what Murakami’s group was trying to achieve.

Maybe he thought that warning us wouldn’t change anything. Once she decided to escape there’d be no convincing her, so maybe he thought it would be better for her to disappear without a fuss before any trouble occurred, Murakami thought.

Murakami didn’t have the power to alter people’s memories and bend their wills. The chance of persuading Kaoru through words alone was slim, so perhaps Rodcorte had thought that this was better than creating conflict that could result in bloodshed and deaths, which would need them to start over.

It’s times like these when I wish I had Kanako’s ability, but… there’s no point in wishing for things I don’t have, Murakami thought, turning his thoughts away from pointless ifs and back to reality.

“It’s unfortunate that Kaoru’s not here anymore, but our plan to kill Vandalieu hasn’t changed,” he declared to his two remaining companions. “We’ll have to think about how to fill the gap that she’s left, but things will work out as long as you guys stay. I’ll be counting on you.”

“Yeah, leave it to us. I’ll prove to you that I’m different from how I was in my previous life,” said Akira.

“We’ll make up for our mistakes on Origin in this life,” said Misa.

Murakami nodded, knowing that he would have big problems if any more of his allies left. “We’ll kill that bastard Vandalieu, cut ties with this screwed-up world and redo our lives in another one. We’ll be the ones laughing at Kaoru and the others.”

Though Rodcorte had not said anything yet, Murakami had a feeling that the world of Lambda was becoming more and more dangerous.

The recent rumors he had heard at the Adventurers’ Guild… The Demon King’s fragments rampaging out of control, the appearance of high-Rank monsters that had never existed before. At the same time, adventurers and knights had been chosen by gods, receiving divine protections and Artifacts that had been safeguarded by churches.

Among the rumors were cases where adventurers and soldiers had directly been descended upon by the spirit clones of gods and granted divine protections and Artifacts during the middle of Demon King fragment or monster rampages.

No matter how one thought of it, this couldn’t be normal. Unlike most of the people in this world, Murakami didn’t trust the gods much and had a twisted mind. He could only imagine that the gods had caused these incidents themselves and had them resolved by individuals they had selected beforehand to raise them as heroes.

As for why the gods would do such a thing… it was probably because they needed heroes in large numbers.

And if they need to go so far to prepare heroes, then that means that this world is in danger.

There was no world more dangerous than one where heroes were needed.

One of the factors causing the world to become more dangerous was undoubtedly Vandalieu, but… Murakami couldn’t imagine that everything would be resolved just by killing Vandalieu.

It would be best to leave this troublesome, difficult-to-live-in world as soon as possible.

Under a night sky lit by a bright moon and stars, Schneider and his companions had reached the meeting point with the hopeful Talosheim immigrants, after having led them through the nation of Marmuke.

“We’ve got more people with us than the last time we made contact. Do you think it’ll be alright?” Schneider murmured.

“… Who knows,” Dalton muttered back. “Apparently he told the messenger, ‘Please bring however many you have, whether it’s a thousand or two thousand.’”

“How can you just accept a thousand people all at once…?” the Dwarf woman Merdin whispered from behind them.

In this world, a thousand people would be the population of a small city; it would not be simple to accept such a number of people.

Of course, Schneider and his companions had intended to limit the number of hopeful immigrants to a hundred or so. And more than half of those one hundred immigrants were supposed to simply observe Talosheim and report its conditions back to their hidden villages.

But as Schneider and his companions went around the hidden villages, there were many that were in more desperate situations than they had first thought. Many of the inhabitants insisted that they would be content with living in deserts or wastelands as long as adventurers would not disturb them.

There were even Ghouls that learned for the first time from Schneider and his companions that they were members of a race created by Vida.

Having transported all of these people by using Teleportation, the numbers had grown to this point.

“Well, it can’t be helped. The other hidden villages didn’t have that much spare food or space either, so we couldn’t have them take the rest in,” said Lissana.

“And each of the races created by Vida have different biological functions. Even if it were temporary, forcing them to live in the same community as other races that they are not accustomed to would certainly cause trouble,” added Zod. “If there is not enough food in Talosheim, then there is the option of offering food from Item Boxes. Of course, since we are having my lady and child protected, we would not want to burden Talosheim any more than we already are, but… it cannot be helped.”

“Come to think of it, are Rachel and Sieg inside the carriage?” asked Schneider.

“Yes, we are letting them rest, of course. They are very important, after all,” said Zod.

Rachel was the woman at the center of Emperor Marshukzarl’s secret plan; he had impregnated her, had her memories altered and then sent to the Storm of Tyranny. Sieg was the baby who had been born as a result, bearing Marshukzarl’s blood.

As for why Zod referred to them as his ‘lady and child’… they really were. Those who knew that he was a Pure-breed Vampire were surprised by this, however. The Dark Elf elder and the elders of the other races created by Vida had opened their eyes wide in shock, having thought that Vampires typically did not feel a desire to create families.

Zod was said to have been surprised in turn, saying, “Is that how Vampires are?”

He had been sealed away during the battle between Vida and Alda a hundred thousand years ago, and had only been unsealed by Schneider and his companions a few years ago. Thus, to him, it felt like it had only been a little over a hundred years since he was transformed from a human to a Vampire. As Vampires were immortal, this was not a particularly long period of time. Thus, it seemed that Zod was not aware of the detailed changes to his biology such as a decrease in sexual desire.

On top of that, after the world was laid to waste by the Demon King Guduranis a hundred thousand years ago, he had been busy with restoring the world and creating nations for the new races. Now, after joining the Storm of Tyranny, he had been focused on how much the times had changed since he was last conscious. Thus, he’d had no time to think about such things.

There was no particularly special reason that Zod had become married to Rachel. He had simply happened to have many opportunities to talk to Rachel, and their personalities had been compatible. They had become married as a result of that mutual attraction. Once married, it was only natural for the wife to desire her husband, and it was only reasonable that the husband responded to those desires.

Through these events, Zod had become Sieg’s stepfather and given Rachel a second child who was now growing in her womb.

Considering all these events, one could suspect this was all a part of the emperor’s conspiracy – perhaps, after Rachel’s memories were erased by Marshukzarl’s subordinates, she had been brainwashed with a command to get close to the members of the Storm of Tyranny.

But Zod was not bothered by this idea. If thinking that way was overthinking, then there was no point in thinking it. And even if it were true, it would be foolish to deny his feelings of love over the conspiracy of an emperor who would lose his throne in less than ten years.

“I will repeat this once more – my wife is very important. We must still keep that incident a secret,” said Zod.

The truth was still being concealed from Rachel and the young Sieg.

“I know. I can imagine that any child of yours could probably survive a Dragon stepping on it, but that doesn’t apply for Rachel. But I’ve already told Vandalieu everything,” said Schneider.

Indeed, the truth about Rachel and Sieg could not be kept from Vandalieu, the ruler of the nation that they were about to immigrate to.

If they did, it could spark a war in the future. If it was a royal or noble figure in an ordinary nation, then Schneider wouldn’t feel the need to reveal everything, but Vandalieu was the Holy Son of Vida, the goddess that he worshipped… someone who had interacted with the goddess directly.

Schneider had decided that it was best to reveal everything honestly and gain Vandalieu’s trust rather than keep things a secret.

“Of course, I am prepared…