152 – The Hero – IV
A heavy rainfall. Thunder resounding in every direction, paired with the sound of a torrential downpour.
As if to put a damper on Stella's day, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. Not only that, but since they weren't in the Great Forest yet, it ant that they'd have to make their way through the rainfall.
It wasn't really a problem since they were in carriages, plus the fact that Onii-chan, Erofu nee-chan, and both Ena and Eos were good with magic. But...
"Dammit, Rudy." Eris clicked her tongue from up ahead and said, "You didn't tell
the rain was going to be this bad."
Right. The problem was that Eris nee-chan was driving the carriage and their horse was getting spooked by the rain.
Though considering that the water outside was already halfway up the horse's leg, Stella didn't bla it.
But still. What kind of crazy weather did this world have? Arcadia's micro climates made sense because Onii-chan was Onii-chan, but for the rest of the world to be like this... Did the spaceti things ss up the weather that bad?
Stella sighed and then sat back down in her chair, idly stroking her new puppy's fur.
Since the weather took a turn for the worse, Toni and Sena (whose full nas were apparently Minitona and Tersena) had huddled up together in the center of the carriage beneath a blanket and cried themselves to sleep.
Stella had wanted to talk with them a bit more, but she decided it was better to let them rest. Especially since they had been dumbstruck at how Stella suddenly understood them.
As for Miko... The blonde-haired girl stared at Stella with her pink and blue eyes and said, "Are you tired, Stella?"
Stella shook her head. "No. Are you?"
Miko shook her head as well and said, "I'm fine." She smiled and looked out the window. "This is actually pretty exciting."
Stella gave Miko a blank stare and said, "How sheltered were you to think a thunderstorm is exciting?"
"Well." Miko frowned and said, "...I've only been out of Millishion twice. The first ti was with Miss Therese when assassins were after , and the second was when Mister Pierre showed up in my room with Miss Therese to take
away. Ah, I think your father was there too."
"...Are you the secret NPC princess that the hero has to recruit or sothing?"
"Excuse ?"
"Nothing." Stella sighed and leaned back in her chair, staring out the window.
Watching the torrential rain and water splashing past, Stella got reminded of her earliest mories. At least, her earliest mories as 'Stella.'
She absently stroked her new puppy's fur and muttered, "A hero, huh?"
She had joked about it before, but... maybe it was true? Aki always talked about stories where the main character was sent to another world after getting hit by a pickup truck. And in that world, they beca super strong and ended up being the hero to defeat the demon lord.
Considering how Stella died and her current life, she definitely fit the bill of that sort of 'hero.' But at the sa ti, it didn't make sense.
After all, there was Onii-chan.
Stella was smart. She was top of her class in her past life, and she was confident in figuring out how magic worked here if she had enough ti. She was also confident that she could create a whole new magical system.
But Onii-chan was even crazier.
He put himself down a lot and was fairly humble, but Onii-chan was an insane cheat character.
But that didn't make sense if Stella was the hero like how those two girls and the magical spirit puppy was saying.
The Sacred Beast born from the Sacred Tree would erge when the world faced a crisis. Then, it would set out alongside a hero using its great power to save the world.
It was an old story. Similar to King Arthur drawing Excalibur or those old gas with the Mana Sword.
But one part didn't fit in that story.
Stella glanced towards the other carriage and muttered, "Onii-chan..."
'...You aren't going to beco the Demon Lord I have to beat, are you?'
-RNG-
"Achoo!"
Rika rolled her eyes and handed
a handkerchief. "I told you to take better care of yourself. If you sohow die and leave
to run this kingdom by myself, I'll figure out a way to kill death and drag you back."
I took the handkerchief from Rika, wiping my nose, and then smiled. "Thanks, Rika. Love you too."
"...Should I get the marriage certificate?"
"Kidding, kidding. At least wait until I get a proper wedding ceremony for the others." I rubbed the back of my neck and said, "...Really don't want to have to figure out how to do a continental ti reversal to undo the aftermath of that cat fight."
One of the problems of having won who could destroy entire continents head over heels for you...
I shook my head and then leaned back in my chair.
After Rika sent that ssage, I made so quick arrangents and warped back to Arcadia for an ergency eting.
...Sylphy had seed a bit upset about that and pouted so more, but my loyal son threw himself on the sword for
and helped deal with his mother.
Which ant being rcilessly teased by Sylphy while his sisters... half sisters? Whatever that relationship was, Eos and Ena watched on without helping.
Either way, my family was going to continue on their way to the Great Forest while I sorted out things back in Arcadia for a bit. Hopefully they didn't mind the intense downpour. And hopefully Eri rembered to get help from Wata to get rid of the rain instead of deciding to try to recreate the Water God style to pair with her fire dragon sword technique.
...Anyway.
I swept my gaze around the room.
My office was pretty much unchanged from when I left it. My bed was off to the side. My desk in the middle of the room with my chair behind it. Stacks of my research papers and books lying on the ground next to my desk... And a few new bookshelves to organize things.
There were also a few more minor touches here and there that were barely noticeable, but were signs that Rika used the place pretty often.
A faint scent of violets hanging in the air, a cup of fancy black and gold pens, a box of paperclips carefully sorted and stacked instead of chained up like I left them...
I shifted my gaze back to Rika, seated across the desk from .
Was it because the ti scaling was still a bit off between the Magic Continent and the outside world? Because she went to go explore so distortions? Or was it just because she was rapidly recovering her full mana potential after I helped her get her Demon Eyes under control?
Either way, Rika looked a bit different from before. She still wore a typical secretary outfit, mostly a tailored black suit and dress with heels. But she had filled out a bit more and gotten a bit taller. Her violet hair had also grown longer, and she had taken to keeping it in an intricately braided side ponytail.
If before I left she looked like a teen, she was definitely a young woman now. Though considering that she technically was centuries old and was only young because she respawned after death, maybe that shouldn't be too surprising?
But putting apart the fact that she looked more mature now due to her appearance... She definitely was giving off overworked salarywoman vibes with the dark circles under her eyes.
Seeing that made
feel a bit guilty.
Rika noticed and then waved her hand. "Don't worry about . You can't escape taking responsibility at this point anyway, so I'll keep working to keep the place afloat."
I frowned and said, "Don't die of overwork. If you do, I'm definitely going to embarrass the heck out of you and take pictures of you doing stupid baby things."
"As if I'd let that happen." Rika crossed her arms and said, "The Demon Empress has to maintain so dignity, doesn't she?"
"...Mom and Mama Lily are going to be so disappointed in
when they get back."
Rika laughed. And then she stopped and then looked towards the picture sitting on my desk. "So what do you think we should do?"
I shifted my gaze to look at the picture as well and frowned.
It was a crater sowhere in the mountains of the Magic Continent. An obscure area that was out of reach for all but the most ambitious and powerful adventurers. There, a ruined castle was shrouded by a dark miasma.
Apparently, there was also a magic formation covering the area, but that couldn't be seen in the picture.
However...
"So you're saying that the dark miasma started to show up recently and that Ruijerd recognizes it as Laplace? And that the magic formation created by Perugius to seal the Demon God away is breaking?"
Rika nodded and said, "Yes. And..." She hesitated and looked at .
I blinked. "What?"
"...Rudy. If you were offered Laplace's powers, you wouldn't take it, would you?"
"Of course not. Plus, there's nothing that guy can offer that I would want."
Not to ntion that if Laplace's powers... well, Demon God Laplace's powers. If those were the sa as that weird inverted mana I used when I was younger, it was definitely sothing to stay away from.
I had just gotten over my edgelord phase. I was *not* going to go back.
Rika stared at
and then let out a relieved smile. "...Of course you wouldn't. You aren't Magic God Laplace."
"That's right- Wait. Is now about the ti that Magic God Laplace appeared in your ti?"
Rika nodded. "No one knows exactly when... but the tifra seems to be roughly the sa."
I tapped my fingers on the side of my chair and frowned. "Now the question is if that's a fixed point in ti or if it's variable, huh?"
From Pierre's cryptic comnts about ssing with fate and divergent tilines, it seed like ti wasn't absolute. We weren't operating on world lines with fated events, at least.
Well, not absolutely fated events.
But there were still major events and common thes that seed to play out.
The tastasis event didn't happen here, but we got a spaceti rend across the world that was effectively the sa. And co to think of it, I think Rudeus ntioned that his first encounter with Dad after the incident resulted in a big fight. That still happened here.
So the events wouldn't necessarily play out the sa way in terms of detail, but the broader strokes...
"...Hey Rika." I shifted my gaze back to her and said, "What exactly was the first thing that Magic God Laplace did after he made his appearance?"
Rika frowned.
"If it's too painful, you don't have to tell ."
Rika shook her head. "No. It's not that. It's just... Now that you ntion it. I... believe that there were rumors from fleeing humans that he made a brief appearance in the Milis Continent for a while before he started conquering the Magic Continent. And if I rember right, there were rumors that Perugius appeared as well. But that man never showed his face after Magic God Laplace started gathering his forces, so... I'm not sure."
"...Yeah. Let's go fix up that seal."
I had enough potential doppelgangers running around these days between Pierre and whatever parallel alter versions of
were hiding out in distortions. I did *not* need a lookalike Demon God showing up and ruining my good na before I even had the chance to reunite with the rest of my family.
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