“Marius, aren’t you clearly stronger?”
Auraniess eyed him accusingly.
Marius silently averted his gaze, only to be outmaneuvered by the Demon Lord.
He averted his eyes again, and was outmaneuvered once more.
There was no escaping Auraniess.
“Perhaps,”
Marius admitted, resigned.
“I got stronger fighting you,”
“Is that so? Then, a rematch!”
Marius replied to Auraniess’s enthusiastic challenge.
“I knew you’d say that. But, I refuse.”
Auraniess stumbled forward.
“Wh-why?! You promised we’d have a rematch!”
To the pouting Auraniess, Marius gestured downwards with his finger.
“If you and I were to fight again, this is what would happen.”
What was once called the Farmia Continent had literally vanished.
“Can your ‘Gae Bolg’ withstand that?”
“Grrr… No way.”
Auraniess grumbled regretfully, admitting the truth.
“When the strength of your ‘Gae Bolg’ increases further, I’ll consider a rematch,”
Marius said with an exceptionally arrogant tone.
He could have used Banish all along, but he chose not to.
It might have been less powerful before he became a Saint, but that didn’t guarantee the Taliant Continent would have remained intact.
Furthermore, he judged that this approach would be more effective against Auraniess.
“Alright! I’ll train like crazy! Get ready, and I’ll be back!”
“Killing other living beings is forbidden,”
Marius cautioned, and Auraniess recoiled.
“Wha-what?! H-how am I supposed to train?”
“…Just train hard, I guess,”
Perhaps realizing how unconvincing his own response was, Auraniess was not satisfied.
“D-don’t mess with me—!”
His desperate cry echoed through the sky.
The reason Marius and his companions were delayed in their return was due to Auraniess’s antics. However, those who later learned the truth simply brushed it off, saying, “Yeah, yeah, just a lover’s spat.”
“Has the rain stopped?”
“The wind, and the thunder too…”
It was difficult to determine who noticed first.
A large portion of the world had been submerged, but when one of the survivors realized it and cried out, others followed suit, and commotion spread.
“Did we win…?”
Someone asked with trepidation, but everyone simply exchanged glances, offering neither confirmation nor denial.
“We won.”
Asteria was the first to declare it definitively.
The Evil God’s attacks should not have ceased unless the Evil God itself was defeated.
The fact that they stopped was the best proof.
“Marius defeated the Evil God.”
She declared again, this time with a triumphant shout, and cheers erupted from various places.
However, Asteria herself felt no inclination to join in.
(How did he win…? Kuro can’t have reached the Autonomous Region yet, and the Black Staff of Demon Extermination shouldn’t be that easy to make…)
Though she didn’t show it on her face, she was slightly disoriented by astonishment and confusion.
According to her calculations, humanity should have been pushed to the very brink of destruction.
Truly, this man Marius was beyond the norm.
(I was truly foolish.)
She was aghast at her own shallow attempt to exploit Marius’s power.
Her present safety was due to Marius’s goodwill.
It wasn’t for her own sake, but for the sake of the people she governed.
Her preferred type of partner was a man beyond her “calculations,” and Marius fit that description perfectly.
(Though it’s impossible now.)
For a fleeting moment, she felt regret, then switched her mindset.
She was the King of Hordia, a position that affected the lives of many of her subjects.
Moreover, having shed so much blood thus far, how could she possibly enter into a marriage with a man she favored?
(Although, it’s no longer necessary.)
Asteria’s goal was the vanquishing of the Evil God and its followers. With that effectively achieved, there was no longer any need to shed blood unnecessarily.
She had actually devised a way to feign being “controlled by the Evil God’s agents,” but she knew Marius would see through it, and she had no intention of turning away from her own actions.
She intended to carry the weight of those she had caused to die.
While those who were killed, or their surviving families, might not find it acceptable.
The eastern part of the Taliant Continent, the Tuban Autonomous Region.
Here too, the certainty of Tindalos’s defeat brought forth cheers from all directions.
As if in response to the people’s joy, a blue sky and two suns appeared.
“Look at the sky! It seems Lord Nyarla is blessing our future,”
A bard proclaimed.
Though his expression was not particularly original for his profession, it resonated sincerely in the hearts of the people.
“It’s true. Hooray for Lord Marius!”
When someone shouted this, cries of “Banzai!” spread to the surroundings.
“Hooray for Lord Marius!”
Within minutes, it had spread to one region, and people in other areas, hearing it from afar, began to imitate it.
Before long, the entire Tuban territory was filled with “Banzai!” cheers.
“Something amazing is happening.”
Remika and Aina, at the lord’s mansion, widened their eyes.
“It’s only natural, given our Master,”
Zofi puffed out her chest proudly. Barra, who looked on with regret at the slight sway, and Lovisa, who glared with a hint of hostility, nonetheless agreed.
In their minds, “Because it’s Marius” held absolute persuasive power.
“…Um, it’s finished.”
Isabella, who had been tasked by Marius to craft equipment, hesitantly spoke to the group of women.
She held a black staff in her right hand, but her expression was somewhat dejected.
“Um, what exactly is my position…?”
She had worked hard to complete it for the sake of humanity, only to find that the Evil God had already been defeated.
It was understandable that Isabella might feel like crying, wondering what she had worked so hard for.
“Isn’t it a joyous occasion that our Master will become even stronger?”
Zofi said, and all the women, except Isabella, agreed in unison.
However, a sense of resignation could be seen in some of their expressions.
“For what purpose would he become stronger than this? And where is he going…?”
Isabella retorted, but she didn’t voice her thoughts aloud, muttering them to herself.
She felt it would be futile to say anything.
Emma placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Though unspoken, her gesture seemed to say, “That’s the right way to feel.”
When Marius and Auraniess returned, an enthusiastic atmosphere greeted them.
“Tonight, we feast!”
“First, let’s restore the damage,”
Marius doused the people who were eagerly preparing to celebrate with cold water.
His true feeling was that he was quite tired of parties after experiencing so many.
“Focusing on reconstruction first shows you’ve truly become a lord,”
Lovisa said, as if it were her own accomplishment, and Barra and the others also expressed their admiration. Marius felt an uncomfortable feeling.
“Stop throwing parties for every little thing…”
Marius tried to make a point, but he knew it would likely be forgotten immediately.
Even without Asteria’s “calculations,” he could predict that much.
He understood that the frequent parties thrown by the higher-ups stimulated the economy, but Marius felt there were limits to everything.
Restoration work, while necessary, was fortunately not dire in the Tuban Autonomous Region.
The water level had only reached about the ankles of adult men.
Had the defeat of Tindalos been delayed, it would undoubtedly have led to a far greater catastrophe.
Instead, there were more damages caused by lightning strikes, being blown away by the wind, or destruction from flying debris.
(Something feels off.)
As Marius looked around, he felt a strange sense of unease.
Perhaps because the calamities were caused by the Evil God’s power, the damage felt different from what he remembered in his original world.
He couldn’t explain precisely how it differed; it was a vague, intuitive feeling.
However, this was not the time for nitpicking.
He gathered those who had lost their homes and distributed food.
The people warmed themselves by the fires and found some solace in eating and drinking water.
Unfortunately, the Tuban territory had not emerged unscathed with zero casualties, but the smiles of many were still preserved.
And to have been able to achieve that, Marius felt a mixture of happiness and pride.
However, the incessant “praise for Marius” he heard everywhere was overwhelming.
It brought a complex expression to his face, a mix of embarrassment, shyness, and guilt, beyond any simple description.
Resignedly, he donned his hood as usual.
While the faces of the people were not entirely bright, none were utterly dejected either.
Perhaps it was because the greatest threat to humanity, the Evil God, had been eliminated, unlike after the invasion of the demon army.
“We’ve relied on you so much, Lord Marius, but now you won’t have to fight anymore, right?!”
Hearing a girl about ten years old say this cheerfully, Marius felt a tear well up in his eye.
Perhaps it was because he realized that despite being courted by power-hungry individuals for his strength or engaging in mutually beneficial relationships, there were still people who genuinely worried about him.
(I thought I was a pretty dry person…)
He wondered about this.
He only recalled shedding a perfunctory tear when his parents died.
Perhaps it was because he now cherished his current life so dearly.
Ultimately, despite never revealing his true identity, he had married, become a lord, and was now hailed as a hero.
It was something unimaginable in his previous world.
(Come to think of it, what happened to them?)
He suddenly remembered his friends with whom he used to play, whom he had left behind.
While he didn’t feel strong emotions for the girls he had only recently met, he had known his male friends for several years.
He strongly felt he had done something he shouldn’t have.
(It’s not my fault they died, though.)
He also felt sorry for his guild members.
Of course, it wasn’t uncommon for players in an online game to suddenly log out.
The biggest question was why he was suddenly recalling the past now.
He couldn’t hide his bewilderment, as he had tried to accept it as something unchangeable and had always tried to push it away.
(Is it because I defeated Tindalos?)
With the defeat of the existence called the Evil God, there was a sense of closure.
Perhaps that had awakened the suppressed sentimentality.
“Marius—”
His wives called his name from afar, waving.
“I’m coming now!”
He replied loudly, stood up, and started walking.
Perhaps the story of Marius von Tubant was just beginning.
He thought so.
…That night, Marius had a white dream.
