Trail, after hearing my pre-regression story, spoke in disbelief.
[Idria said it best, who the hell are you?]
‘Don’t start with that nonsense.’
In any case, the space I created, one unaffected by Idria’s authority must be safer than anywhere else in the world, perhaps even safer than the underground vault beneath the Imperial Palace.
When I used this technique in Raynus Territory, there was resistance, like sawing through a thick plank of wood.
But this time,
Ssshhk.
The space cut like paper, as if I were slicing through silk.
‘Ah… why am I so strong?’
[True, but why does it sound so irritating when you say it?]I widened the rift with my sword.
Ophelia and the party members who had never seen this technique before, stood frozen, mouths agape in disbelief.
I turned to Ophelia and said lightly,
“Please step in… though I guess that sounds a bit strange?”
“Ah, no, it’s fine. But, how does time flow in there?”
“Basically the same. You are worried that if I take too long to defeat the Demon King, your natural lifespan will run out, right?”
Ophelia nodded.
I made my tone deliberately casual.
“The Demon King didn’t steal your time. That’s not within her domain.”
“Well… time belongs to the Celestial God, after all.”
Hm. I was aiming that at Trail, but whatever.
“She only reshaped your body into an old woman’s. Your real age is still young, you don’t need to worry about never seeing David again.”
Ophelia looked visibly relieved.
Then Neril spoke up.
“Wanna get some sleep?”
“Huh?”
“You shouldn’t be left all alone for years in that dark, empty space.”
Ah.
Why didn’t I think of that?
Neril glanced at me with a grin.
“You are not very delicate, Mide.”
“A bit, yeah.”
“That’s why we make a good team.”
“……”
“I can make up for your lack of subtlety.”
“Yeah… that’s how I took it, too.”
With a sigh, Neril turned to Ophelia.
“You will wear yourself out sitting in that dull world alone. The little Adwin might be able to help.”
Adwin nodded.
“I’ll put your soul to sleep, if you are okay with it.”
“Yes, please do.”
“Leave it to me.”
“I trust you. You remind me a lot of myself when I was young.”
“Ah… heh. Thank you. Miss.”
That wasn’t a compliment.
Soon, Adwin chanted a spell.
Ophelia’s eyes slowly closed.
She fell asleep quietly in David’s arms.
Leaving these final words behind:
“I hope that when I next open my eyes, it’s still in your arms.”
Idria sensed the purification ritual and quickly severed her link with Ophelia.
Every time, disgusting. She despised that celestial power.
Based on experience, she judged the purification should have ended by now.
She tried to reconnect with Ophelia.
“……?”
But the link wouldn’t form.
It was as if Ophelia no longer existed in the world.
‘What… what is this?’
There shouldn’t be anywhere in the world that could so completely sever a connection, except maybe beneath the Imperial Capital.
No, there was one more.
‘My authority…?’
Mide had split space in Raynus Territory.
He had shattered one of her lies then.
For a moment, something flared inside her.
‘If he split my space, then I will…’
She raised her hand, ready to snap her fingers.
But stopped at the last moment.
Tremble.
She stared at her own hand.
It was shaking.
‘Huh? What is this?’
Why was her hand trembling?
This had never happened before.
Then Kaeld’s voice rang out.
“What’s this? You look scared.”
Idria touched her face.
She tilted her head, puzzled.
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Scared of who?”
“How would I know? But if I had to guess…”
He gave her a crooked smile.
“Did Mide get to you?”
“Haha.”
Kaeld was bracing for the intense pain he knew was coming.
But Idria didn’t even seem angry.
Instead, her eyes glimmered with interest.
“Ah. So this is what fear feels like.”
“……”
“Fascinating. I have lived for so long, and yet this is the first time I have felt this.”
“Hey.”
“Bion Kunze killed me countless times, but I never once felt fear from him. Do you know why?”
Kaeld didn’t answer.
He realized the question wasn’t really directed at him.
“Because I knew I’d revive soon enough. The world is always overflowing with lies. I would die to Bion, but I would come back. It was almost like the will of the Celestial God.”
“……”
“But now, I feel fear toward Mide. You parasitic worm, do you know what that means?”
“No clue.”
“Of course not. Worms don’t have brains.”
Still.
Idria stopped pacing.
She gazed silently at the ceiling of the cave.
“That man… he could truly kill me. In every sense. With no chance of resurrection.”
“……!”
“I will have to risk my life too, then.”
She then noticed Kaeld’s expression was deeply grim.
She smiled faintly.
“Don’t make that face. Nothing’s changed. No matter how powerful Mide is, once the oracle is delivered to you, even he won’t be able to reverse it.”
A formal announcement was issued from Dronoar Territory.
Count Acaine first detailed the strange incidents that had occurred there.
Insect-like parasites had taken control of human bodies, one had burrowed into his own son.
A landslide of these creatures occurred, and many citizens nearly became victims.
But…
Thanks to the Hero Mide and his companions, the territory had survived unscathed.
The announcement also declared that the current generation’s Demon King was Idria, the Demon King of Lies and Deception, and that Kaeld was merely her puppet.
I spoke to Trail.
‘Pull up the map.’
[Hold on.]
Soon, a map of the continent appeared on the screen.
I immediately compared my fame with Kaeld’s.
<Accumulated Fame – Mide Mohan: 123,760>
<Accumulated Fame – Kaeld Wake: 35,170>
With Dronoar switching sides from the Kaeld faction, his fame had dropped again, it used to be over 40,000.
Now it was nearly four times the gap.
But I couldn’t get complacent.
A fake oracle could still overturn even that massive difference.
Then Trail spoke.
[Hey, I have been thinking.]
‘Yeah?’
[Why don’t you be the one to make a declaration? Say something like “Idria is plotting to make a fake oracle.”]
‘……’
[That way, when she does issue one, it won’t matter, it will already be discredited.]
I gave a short laugh.
‘Sometimes I think you really don’t get what the Celestial God means to people on this continent.’
[Huh?]
‘The moment any hero publicly claims a divine oracle is fake, their reputation will plummet. Ninety-nine percent of the population believes the Celestial God is perfect, and that no Demon King could ever fake a divine message.’
[……]
‘The people might doubt everything else, but not the oracle. Because doubting that means doubting the Celestial God Himself.’
Trail swallowed hard.
[Funny. I have started to doubt the Celestial God, thanks to you.]
‘That’s a good sign. Always keep your mind flexible.’
[Says the guy who used to make massive donations to the temple!]
‘Sometimes I wonder if I should go back and reclaim all that money. If I had just saved those donations, I could have retired ages ago.’
I spoke gently, trying to ease Trail’s worry.
‘Anyway, don’t stress too much. I have got a plan.’
[What plan?]
‘I will just receive an oracle of my own.’
Trail went quiet for a moment.
Clearly stunned by the perfection of my strategy.
[No, I’m speechless because it’s insane.]
‘What now?’
[You are talking about getting a divine oracle like it’s collecting a debt!]
‘If the god refuses to give one out even now, then He’s the problem, not me.’
[My point is, how’s a human supposed to receive a divine oracle?]
‘I’ll figure that out now. That’s why we came to the capital in the first place.’
Yes.
Our group had returned to the capital.
While having dinner at a modest inn, Xenia spoke up.
“I have been paying close attention to people today. The announcement from Dronoar Territory has already spread throughout the capital.”
“It’s thanks to the communication orbs. All hail Iori Otix.”
“Those things are so expensive only the rich can afford them. For the news to spread this fast, it means…”
“That everyone who heard it is going out of their way to share it. The Demon King is humanity’s common enemy, after all.”
At that, Neril took a sip of tea and added:
“Mide, your fame’s skyrocketed too.”
“I am pretty famous.”
“If you had even a hint of humility, you would be the perfect man.”
“I am pretty perfect.”
She shook her head with a sigh and continued.
“Anyway, with your fame this high, it’s only a matter of time before you get your own oracle. Once that happens, no one can deny you are the Hero. Then we head straight to kill Idria, right?”
“Ah, whoops. Forgot to mention. There won’t be any oracle.”
“…I feel like you deliberately turned your head toward me just before you spat that.”
“Yes. I did.”
“……”
“Mide, what are you talking about? Even someone like me, with zero faith, still believes in oracles!”
I calmed everyone down.
Then explained what Idria had said to me, carefully rephrased.
Of course, I left out everything about Bion Kunze. That would have taken way too long to explain.
Their expressions shifted rapidly.
Even without the full story, the shock was already intense, but what I said next turned their faces ashen.
“And Idria’s going to issue a fake oracle.”
“……!”
“She hasn’t given up on making Kaeld the Hero. With a fake oracle, she will piece things together however she wants and achieve her goal.”
“We are screwed.”
Adwin slumped in his chair.
Clutching his head, he groaned:
“Bro… anything else, maybe, but not oracles. If Idria had already issued one from the start, we wouldn’t even have gotten this far.”
True. That’s exactly how it went in the previous timeline.
Even though I knew Kaeld had sinned against over 148 million people, I never suspected he wasn’t the Hero.
The common folk wouldn’t even think to question it.
That’s how absolute the weight of an oracle, and the Celestial God’s name is.
Then Neril spoke.
“Hey, kid. Don’t despair just yet.”
“There’s nothing even your experience can fix this time.”
“Do you have a death wish?”
“…No.”
“Since the day I first met Mide, this was my biggest concern. Back then, I figured the oracle would go to Kaeld.”
I smiled warmly, remembering when I first met Neril.
She continued:
“This old worry just made its way back in a roundabout way. Think about everything Mide’s done up till now. Has any of it ever been easy?”
“……”
“So chin up, all of you. No more long faces.”
Oho.
Some color returned to everyone’s expressions.
Offense smirked and added:
“Truly, she’s a proper field commander.”
“Field commander?”
“When you were fighting the giant bug, Neril was the one coordinating everything. That purification spell, even making sure it bypassed you and Ophelia, that was her strategy.”
“I thought so… she really is amazing.”
Neril looked out the window, pretending not to care.
Then Lisel spoke.
“So what do we realistically do?”
“First, I plan to meet the emperor.”
“What?”
“Last time we didn’t part on the best terms, but it ended well enough. Since I have got a connection to the empire’s ruler, I might as well use it.”
“How do you plan to use him?”
I paused to think.
So far, there had only been two secrets that the Eye of Omniscience rated S-grade.
Me and a man named Velosian.
Even the secrets of Idria are only rated A-grade, which meant Velosian’s secret surpassed that of the Demon King of Lies.
And the place Velosian had supposedly created as a gift for the first emperor, Grade…
“We are going to the underground beneath the Imperial Palace.”
“Oh! Right, that place.”
“Whatever techniques or powers created it are beyond comprehension, maybe we can find some kind of clue there.”
Everyone nodded.
Then Xenia asked:
“But why bother meeting the emperor again? Didn’t Grade already give us access?”
“The path to the gate is still inside the palace. It’ll be heavily guarded. I don’t want to explain myself every time.”
“Ah… true.”
“So I’m going to get unrestricted access from the emperor himself.”
Something tells me I will be going back there more than once.
Read advance chapter on Patreon. Click here.
Leave a review on Novel Updates.