Chapter 445

I had an idea. Seconds after landing, the giant’s arm landed next to me. I gagged involuntarily.
“Woof.”
The cross-section of blue blood bubbling out made me nauseous just looking at it.
No matter how hungry you are, how did you eat that shitty meat in the first parallel world.
I rolled up my hand and brought it to my mouth and shouted.
“Elsia, get me a bottle, preferably a big one!”
“What? The bottle?”
“Multiple is better!”
Elsia grunted. She was confused, but she complied with the request. Almost too perfectly. The spirits who had followed Elsia set down dozens of containers from the seed vault before me.
“Whoa—we got it, will it be enough?”
“Hey, have you ever been told that you’re a burden to others?”
I looked at the containers and chuckled to myself. Each one looked like it could be used as a milk jug on a ranch. I was thinking buckets at best.
Elsia’s eyes widened.
“Uh, how did you know? The Savior used to react like that whenever I gave him a gift, and I only gave it to him because I was really grateful—.”
“What did he give you, expensive jewelry or something?”
“The last one I offered him was a gold mine, with a hundred squatter bandits as slaves, and he said it was too much for him, and it broke my heart.”
“Ah.”
I was at a loss for words. I thought I saw the shadow of my High Elf sister, the one who had been talking.
I couldn’t imagine anyone worse than Schlieffen’s dad.
He scratched the back of his head.
“——I didn’t mean anything by it, I guess there’s a demand for that kind of blind love. Anyway, just do what I say and squeeze all the blood out of this whale-shit arm.”
“Blood, blood?!”
Elsia spat out embarrassment. Instead of answering, I swung my sword. Dozens of crisscrossing slash marks carved up the white giant’s forearm. Blood gurgled from the cuts.
“Kaaaaaak!”
“We need to get it in before it loses its freshness. And give him a little of the blood. It’s the blood of these bastards that’s at the root of Father’s and Abel’s powers anyway–it’ll be a painkiller, if nothing else.”
I couldn’t guarantee it, but it would work. Because right now, in the original world, when I gave him my blood, he was even able to open his eyes and smile. Giant’s War
“Now, wait a minute, Mr. Ronan. What is going on here? Why are the giants that are supposed to appear at the time of the coming of the stars now—!”
“I’ll explain when I get back, but I don’t have time, and if I leave that thing alone, it might jump out again. Can you just summon a new elemental to ride with me, and give me a scroll to summon it?”
“Bird?”
Elsia giggled. I extended my finger and pointed to the crack in the sky.
The rift in Akasha that connected to the Bald World was sizzling like a white sand beach in midsummer.
****
Erzebeth said, taking off her glasses.
“Yep. Let’s cut this back end off.”
“What?”
I rolled my eyes, thinking, “What the hell? I was used to correcting typos, but this was the first time I’d ever been asked to rewrite an entire article.
But the editor, Erzebet, was as stubborn as a craftsman. In her hands she held the manuscript for this week’s edition.
“It’s well-written, but it’s too predictable, and it’s not really any different from the first parallel world: you go through a rift, and fried-dusted bald men fly around like grime—Ronan’s sword spurts blue blood every time he swings it—and the world of the giants only needs to be shown once in the entire story.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. You don’t believe me?”
“No, I believe you, then let’s get it out of there.”
Erzebet returned the manuscript.
I crossed out all the parts of the bald world where combat takes place.
In retrospect, it made sense. In the first world, I had Letancier, Fantasia, Orsay, and Abel to act as licorice, but this time it was just me, and the story became monotonous.
After reviewing the manuscript again, I tapped her on the shoulder.
“Good. Very good, Eri. This is why I picked you to be my editor.”
“Hmmm, you’re sure I have good taste? I like it when you take out the front.”
“I agree, the most important thing is not to get bored, as long as you don’t get off track, of course.”
“Exactly, and by the way, this manuscript reminds me—”
“Huh?”
Suddenly, Erzebet’s voice dropped.
She opened her axe eyes and spoke.
“Come to think of it, I even gave you an invitation, so why didn’t you come? Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?”
“So you’re from the other world, and my desperate apologies don’t come across in print?”
“It’s a novel. Wow, even here, you didn’t send me in and only Asel. Are you sure you didn’t go too far?”
“What do you think I’d do in Acalusia? At best, I’d waste my life ogling the asses of the maids, but aside from that, your favor was very much appreciated.”
“I can’t believe–I don’t even know what I was thinking when I gave it to you.”
Erzebet crossed her arms and growled. She didn’t say anything, so I assumed she didn’t care, but it seemed to have built up quite a bit. I felt bad, but I had no choice. I couldn’t afford to go to Acalusia.
I gently stroked her head in a soothing manner.
“I’m sorry, but it’s a really nice place. Much more than I thought it would be.”
“Hmm, sure, you’re talking like you’ve been here before, even though you haven’t even blown your nose.”
“I’ve been there.”
I looked Erzebet up and down. As a grown woman, she had changed enough to make me wonder if she was the same Adrian I’d seen in the parallel world. Her face and body had been refined to a fine point. The fact that she liked women could be placed in the triple tragedy of Imperial manhood.
Erzebet said.
“Not that joke again—but I don’t know where you had your research done, but I’m surprised you found this.”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Acalusia definitely had a maid named Liz, she was a good cleaner and had very nice legs, and she and I were quite close, but she was taken away when the Empire hunted down Nebula Clazier.”
“How did he catch it? I couldn’t have caught it without some luck.”
“Jaifa dragged me away, saying her intuition was never wrong—my mother, no, my patriarch, tried to protest, but within a day it turned out she was a fanatic.”
“—Huh.”
Sigh. It was Zaifa’s gut instinct that caught Liz when even I almost missed her.
So that’s what happened.
As I nodded in agreement, Erzebet clenched her fist.
“Well, have a great week. Thank you for listening to me.”
“You’re welcome. Be careful.”
“Neng. Don’t mind me, I’m just going to have a little chat with Adeshan~”
We exchanged pleasantries and parted ways.
I sat down at my desk and looked at the lighter manuscript. It was definitely better cut. When I think about what’s the biggest cause of traffic jams, it turns out that being nitpicky isn’t always a good thing.
I twirled the fountain pen and hovered the nib over the area I wanted to continue writing.
“Well. So—.”
****
“Kaaaaaaaahhhh-!!!”
The giant fell with eight wings, spraying eight streams of blood. He was king of the giants, ruler of the bald world. With all his wings severed, he watched helplessly as the source of his race became a beacon before the wind.
The falling one stretched out his arms and screamed.
“Stop, stop!”
“Fuck you.”
It was not worth listening to. With a sweep of his sword, a red line drew across the source. The source lost its grip and exploded like a shattering glass, scattering.
It was the end of a three-day journey.
“O king—!”
“Aaah, aaah.”
“Cattle—perish.”
The bodies of the bald men who had surrounded the area were disintegrating into particles. The temple to the Source offered a bird’s-eye view of this strange world.
Suddenly, the pain that had been stagnant for three days came rushing back.
“Ugh.”
I clutched my chest. From head to toe, there was no place that didn’t hurt. No matter how many times I’d raided the Bald World and traveled the fastest route to the source, the balds were a formidable foe.
I succeeded in destroying the Source only after I had consumed all ten of the Wind Elemental Summoning Scrolls Elsia had given me. All ten were wonderful creatures.
“Share a hard-boiled egg in hell among yourselves.”
A success was a success, after all. I pointed my middle finger at the sky.
Hundreds of millions of beams of light flew into the far reaches of space. Each one was a soul that had been captured by the Bald Race. I saw them off, wielding a sword instead of a hand.
The needle on my mana tracker, which had stopped, pointed down at my feet.
“Oh?”
I looked down and couldn’t see it. That’s too far away.
Without hesitation, I leapt from the shrine. The leather of my face pulled back, revealing a ground that looked like it had been dusted with bones. Thousands of meters below, in the wilderness, stood a man with white hair.
“Found.”
The corners of his mouth turned up. His eyes, gazing up at the light-filled sky, were bloodshot like a man who had been beaten in his sleep.
And for good reason. The grand ambitions envisioned over thousands of years were being dismantled in real time.
Legions of giants that disintegrate into particles of light.
The scream of a terminus from a race that thought itself invincible.
The man, who had been stunned for a long time, muttered something about pissing himself.
“—— What the hell is going on here?”
Abel, our thinking man’s Abel, never found Akasha (the son of a bitch had moved on to another world), so I switched targets on day two.
Abel periodically comes to lobby Bald World for the arrival of the stars, and the timing was perfect. I thought I’d be waiting much longer, but I was lucky.
“Utscha.”
He swung his sword behind his back and there was an explosion. I accelerated once more and landed behind Abel like a red thunderbolt. He heard the sound and looked back at me.
“Hmm?”
“Hi. Uncle.”
He chuckled and waved his hand. Sensing the strange atmosphere, Abel placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
It wasn’t the way to treat someone whose dreams had been stolen, but I was so happy to see him that I couldn’t stop smiling.
“Atonement—is it?”
I spun the sword around and struck the ground.
I don’t want to go overboard, so I’ll just stop here. Took 15 seconds.
It took me a moment to break Abel’s sword, cut off both his arms, and shove the hilt into his back. With no source and no Akasha mark metal armor, Abel was no match for me.
The tears that wouldn’t come out even if I cut my arm into dozens of pieces flowed without resistance in the final stage.
“Crack! Kaaaak! Kaaaaaah!”
The screams were pitiful. I lost everything and returned to the original world with a wailing Abel on my shoulder. By the way, the magic circle for my return was drawn with a knife in my ass.