Chapter 177: You’re Not Going Off Alone Again (1)
Unlike the other side of the portal where chaos presumably erupted, the place Aisha’s group have moved to was an ordinary forest. There was a sun in the sky above with clear sky and not a cloud in sight.
They must be within Orcus, yet the scenery was so idle that one wouldn’t even recognize it as Orcus unless someone told them. It looked completely unrelated to the tragedy they had just experienced.
“What in the world…”
Azar collapsed on the ground and looked around him with hollow eyes. He could see Aisha, sitting down dumbfounded looking as dazed as himself. Abel, standing with a wretched and distorted face…
And Michael standing his ground indifferently. Azar shot up from where he sat with his eyes flaring up. He grabbed Michael by the collar.
“You deceitful bastard!”
Michael winced and grabbed onto Azar’s hand on his collar.
“I didn’t see it coming either.”
“Shoot! What kind of saying is that?! You should have stopped him! You should have held him back!”
Azar’s bloodshot eyes were tearful as if tears would roll off them at any minute.
Michael pushed away his fist with a tired look in his eyes.
“What am I, a god? I’ve only let him go since he said he would be saying goodbye to you. I’m surprised myself. He didn’t look like the kind to sacrifice himself for others.”
“You little!”
“Hagh…”
“Mother!”
In an instant, Michael’s surprised eyes headed behind Azar’s back. Aisha, who was sprawled on the ground with a blank face, started retching, her face in tears.
“Are you, are you alright?”
“What’s wrong?”
Aisha was continuing to throw up clear saliva on the ground, slapping away Abel and Michael’s arms.
“Huu…”
Azar silently stared at her sobbing out loud with her forehead to the ground full of tear marks.
She never wanted any sacrifices. She must probably be feeling rage and betrayal, the kind that Azar was feeling himself. He gnashed his teeth. His nails dug into his palms inside his fist, but he couldn’t even feel pain.
“Grand priest.”
Azar called Michael with a low voice.
“The thing that created this hell,”
“…”
“You said we can revert everything as long as we kill Gaionia, right?”
“Probably.”
Azar charged at Michael once again as he was rising with a tired expression on his face.
With a fearsome expression, Azar grabbed onto his collar out right and spoke through chewed lips.
“Don’t just blabber vaguely and give it to me straight. We just need to kill that punk, right?”
“All souls will be liberated. I can say that with certainty.”
“…”
Azar fell silent for a while, then walked over to Aisha and pulled her up by the arm.
Aisha, drawn up by Azar’s arm like a limp paper doll, had empty eyes.
“Get a hold of yourself. We must all survive. Even just for the sake of that poor punk who got dragged in without any sin.”
“…”
“He died in your place, Duchess, as well as the Grand priest’s. So repay it. Whatever you have to do.”
Aisha stared into Azar’s eyes quietly, then started shaking as she sealed her lips tight.
Then she gave a nod and spoke.
“I will. I can…I can do this.”
“Let’s go. Lead the way.”
After raising Aisha up, Azar said to Michael.
Though their faces had no trace of hope, they continued walking.
They had no time to stay frozen in despair.
***
Sometime after the portal was closed, I sensed a certain amount of mana returning to me. The nullification I have casted on Roxa.
That amount of mana returning to me meant his death.
‘In the end…’
The future without Roxa would unfold just the same.
It only took an instant for that small hope to turn to despair.
We would probably meet Gaionia. Hades would attempt to kill him and fail, and end up dead.
Perhaps, just as Azar said, the method to pay my debts to Roxa, who had died, and save everyone might lie with me.
If we fail to kill Gaionia, I would have to kneel before him and beg at least.
“It’s ‘Mundus,’” Michael muttered after walking around and seeing the surroundings for a bit.
Azar turned to look at him with sharp eyes.
“…Mundus?”
“The world within Orcus from the holy scriptures. It’s where humans who have repented and were finally promised reincarnation gather and live.”
Hearing his words, I looked around the bustling surroundings with dazed eyes.
Like he said, unlike the gates we have passed before that might as well be a true hell, this place looked so ordinary and peaceful that it was hard to tell whether we were in Orcus, or the original world.
Though the portal opened inside the forest with only a few people walking by, we came across a city as bustling as the imperial capital once we moved out a little.
I felt a little caught off-guard. I never knew Orcus would look like this.
And to top it off…
“There is no limit to using mana. we are not inside a ‘trial.’”
“Yes, there’s probably no more trials. They say this place, Mundus is a gathering of souls qualified to be reincarnated, and also the place closest to Gaionia.”
So a place like this existed.
After death, I would immediately awaken in another body. Since I have continued to reincarnate nonstop without ever stepping foot into hell, this place was unfamiliar for me.
“Though I don’t know anything else apart from what was written in the scriptures, according to it, a ‘reincarnation gate’ opens at irregular intervals. At that time, Gaionia gathers the chosen people and punishes their sins and grants them reincarnation,” Michael muttered, glaring up at the overly peaceful-looking sky of Mundus.
Then, Azar spoke with his eyes still flaming red.
“Let’s get a move on. All we need to do is get rid of that good for nothing Gaionia or whatever.”
“Indeed, but it would be wise to mind our words here. This place is full of souls that have submitted to Gaionia in order to reincarnate, so saying something so blasphemous may get you beaten to death.” Michael smiled.
Indeed, a skinny middle-aged man passing by glanced at Azar suspiciously as he passed by.
“We should have some time to rest until the reincarnation gate opens. For now, we should all… wash up and get some rest,” Michael said, looking around at the group looking dirty and hurt all over.
***
We entered deeper into the main street and were able to put our mind at ease for once.
Mundus was just like the land of the living. There even seemed to be quite a lot of souls who didn’t even want reincarnation and seemed to be staying on in this place.
We agreed to Michael’s words that we should recover our state a little and found a decent inn, but ended up facing a practical problem.
That was, money.
Well, logically speaking, it was only natural. Hell or not, this place was ultimately a gathering of ordinary human souls.
It was no surprise that we couldn’t find ourselves a room in an inn without any money in our pocket.
“Can’t you do anything about it?”
Perhaps trying to threaten the innkeeper, Azar asked with an aggressive expression on his face.
But sadly, the owner was as big and burly as Azar was.
His fluffy grown beard on his chin and his protruding belly honestly made him look more threatening than Azar.
The owner clicked his tongue and spoke.
“What is a bunch of beggars doing…”
“No, we are just saying we could help with the work around here at least, why are you being so hardheaded about this? Don’t you have anything that requires strength? I assure you you’d get your run for the money…”
“Please, we beg you.”
Abel, who was almost kept hidden with his head lowered in the back, held Azar back and cut in.
“Argh! Shoot you startled me!”
“My mother is too exhausted and needs rest. If you have any work that would earn us money, we’ll do it.”
What the, how can you calling me mother when you seem more grown up than me?
The owner was startled and flinched, soon looking closely at Abel with his eyes narrowed.
“Ah, you’re not him. Phew…”
Not what?
Patting down his chest, the owner soon stared at Abel as if he was some madman.
That went for Michael and Azar as well. Both of them stared at Abel for a while and shook their heads.
“If you show mercy it would return to you with a great return. We have a very frail woman and children with us. If you could lend us any space to lie down our bodies, we will repay you in whichever ways.”
This time, Michael tried to earn favor through his holy Grand priest act, but the owner was still firm.
“Just what kind of ballsy move are you pulling saying you want to stay for free? If you don’t have money, give me something that’s worth money at least!”
“As you can see, we are…”
Michael’s smiling head turned to follow the owner’s gaze heading somewhere.
The owner’s gaze with one brow raised in an annoying manner, landed on the ring on the fourth finger of my left hand.
It was the last trace of Hades that he had left behind.
“Ah, this.”
I smiled and took off my ring.
“M-mother. That’s…”
Abel tried to stop me baffled, but I stopped him with an exhausted expression.
Then I said to the owner who was grinning with satisfaction as he was about to take the ring.
“Give us the best room here. And the best food, with plenty of meat in it. We would like to wash up first, so send us some hot water up first. Since this is not a collateral, return some money back to me as change.”
‘And imagine forever that you have received the ring.’
The owner’s hand, giddy as it was reaching out for the ring, suddenly dropped at the brainwash added at the end.
I put away my ring inside my inner pocket at once, and the owner leaned under the counter to get us some change, making a fuss.
Soon, the owner handed me a heavy leather pouch and led us with a beaming face.
“Follow me!”
I held onto Deborah’s hand with a tired expression and twined my arm around Abel’s.
The two of them looked flustered as they followed me.
“Let’s go.”
Michael and Azar, who stood dazed for a while soon followed behind us as well.
The two of them gave a dry smile, muttering playfully just enough for me to hear.
“…I didn’t take her to be like that, but she is a downright robber.”
“Rather than using such bad words, let’s just put it as creative economy.”