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Translator: Barnnn
“Ah, he’s awake!”
When Asley regained consciousness, the first thing he saw was the Team Silver mansion in Eddo — specifically the ceiling of his own room.
Then he felt a soft touch under the back of his head — it was the belly of his Familiar, Pochi.
And on his left hand, a warm sensation — the gentle hands of his very first student, Lina.
Likewise on his right hand — the strong, worrying grip of his second student, Tifa.
Now wide awake, Asley promptly sat up.
“–!! Is everyone here!?”
No one was surprised by the impatience in Asley’s tone — because they knew that Asley’s words came out of his concern for his comrades.
As he sat up, he saw many familiar faces in front of him.
Pochi, Lina, Tifa, Bruce, Betty, Fuyu, Idéa, Midors, and Irene stood in the room, watching over Asley’s recovery.
“Hey, you’re finally awake, man?”
As Bruce spoke to him, Asley asked again,
“Is everyone here!? Are they all right!?”
“Hey, calm down, man. Some adventurers and Silver General members got done in, but Team Silver didn’t suffer any losses — and only a few got hurt badly.”
“Really!?”
“Really. You want the details, you gotta hear it from Miss Irene over there.”
Bruce pointed at Irene behind him with his thumb.
“Don’t rest easy just yet,” Irene proceeded to say. “Our side DID suffer some casualties — just no one you know personally. If Argent was here, he’d already punched you at least once by now, you know.”
“Ah, right… Sorry.”
“……It’s fine. You’ve already done so much to help humanity — that kind of insensitive slip-up won’t get you in any trouble. And if Argent does try to punch you, I’ll be the first one to punch him back.”
“Ah-huh…? T-thank you, I guess?”
Irene’s reaction was so unexpectedly good that Asley felt it was anticlimactic.
“Besides, Bruce did say that some of us got hurt badly, didn’t he?”
Asley promptly turned to Bruce.
Bruce scratched his cheek and looked up at the room’s ceiling.
“Well, yeah… I didn’t say no one got hurt, you know.”
“Well, who did get hurt, then!? What happened!?”
“Blazer and Ryan… Cleath targeted Natsu specifically, so Blazer went in to save her and got stabbed in the gut. And Ryan got an arm cut off when he covered for Adolf. Big ol’ Tūs patched both of them right up though, so they’re perfectly safe now. They’re with the kids right now… And, well, since Reyna just married Ryan, I don’t see her leaving his side anytime soon.”
“I see… Huh? Reyna did WHAT!?”
“Man, you really gotta be so loud!? She just proposed to him in the heat of the moment! Like, while holding his arm that just got cut off, even!”
“Really!? And they got married just like that!?”
Asley asked back, unable to process what Bruce had just told him.
Bruce nodded, and to his side, Betty chuckled and proceeded to say,
“It sure was a moment, let me tell you — When she thought he’d die, she started screaming something like, she’d never marry anyone but him! Even Ryan himself was shocked. That was in the middle of a battle, but hey, I couldn’t help but smile, you know? And that got Cleath SUPER pissed, too.”
“What the hell… W-wait, by the way, where’s Haruhana!? I don’t see her here!”
“Oh yeah, Haruhana. She also got targeted by Cleath, but luckily, she had people protecting her.”
“So she’s safe, right!?”
“Yeah, she is… But the guys who protected her weren’t so lucky, I guess…”
“Wait, what!?”
“Remember what I said about there being casualties? Yeah, I was talking about them,” Bruce said, giving an honest response to Asley’s confusion.
“I gotta admit, she’s just about the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, you know? That means she’s got a LOT of admirers, of course — and a whole bunch of adventurer guys who wanted to look cool for her to see, well, they faced off against Cleath to keep her safe. Even Cleath was surprised to see that. It was like a surprise attack, really, and eventually, Cleath had no choice but to retreat. And then some of them just wouldn’t let him go, and got themselves killed while giving chase. Those ones just didn’t know when to quit, so I’d say they didn’t have anyone to blame but themselves, but… Haruhana is safe thanks to them, so she’s gone to mourn them.”
“I see…”
“I hope that clears up your worries now,” Irene said. “You better say something to cheer her up when she gets back. There’s just one more notable injury worth mentioning… actually, maybe I shouldn’t mention him…”
“W-wait, there’s more!?”
Despite Asley’s repeated questions, Irene explained to him without a single complaint,
“I mean, he’s technically not a part of Team Silver, so…”
“Huh!? Who is it, then!?”
“…Me.”
The voice came from Asley’s right, at Tifa’s side where Tarawo would usually be.
“……Wait, you’re Tarawo?”
“W-what, are you THAT surprised to see me!? Surely this new look of mine is not THAT strange, Asley!”
For a moment, Asley had mistaken Tarawo for someone else because the latter had lost most of the hair on the back of his head, neck, and topline.
“Uh… what the hell happened to you?”
Asley cut to the chase and asked Tarawo, but the latter only turned away in embarrassment.
He then turned to Tarawo’s Master, Tifa, but she also avoided answering the question.
Asley proceeded to look at everyone else for an answer, eventually stopping at Idéa and Midors…
“Dude, don’t look at me.”
“Yeah, I ain’t tellin’ you anythin’, man.”
…But of course, they also refused to answer.
Even Lina seemed reluctant to say anything.
Betty and Bruce started chuckling, and when Asley turned to them, they looked away in random directions and tried their best to suppress their laughter.
As Asley turned somewhat grumpy due to not getting the answer he wanted, the room’s door slid open.
The one who walked in was Lylia.
“Hey, Asley. You good?”
“Y-yeah, thanks, Lylia. By the way… do you happen to know how Tarawo got like this?”
“An honorable injury… but still, if I had been a little quicker, he might not have ended up like this.”
Lylia casually explained, causing Asley to tilt his head in confusion.
“Ah… Huh? Quicker? But you weren’t supposed to take part in the battle, right, Lylia?”
“She was on a separate operation, yes,” Irene answered instead.
“And by the way, you never actually told me about the Resistance’s plan, right?”
“Well, if you and Pochi knew, Lucifer would easily catch on to our real objective, so…”
“Wow. Zero trust. Wow.”
“Remember what Warren said about it being a ‘strategic move based on our understanding of both of your personalities’? He TRUSTED that you WOULD spill the beans. That’s why we decided to just not let you know.”
“…Uh, that doesn’t make me feel any better at all… And what was that separate operation about, anyway?”
“Rescue, essentially.”
Warren, the Resistance’s Adviser, appeared from behind Lylia.
“Rescue? Rescue who?”
“We have relocated the citizens of Regalia over to T’oued.”
Warren explained with a smile on his face the whole time, causing Asley to feel a chill run down his spine.
“…Wait, what?”
Asley’s understanding had not yet caught up with him.
“And we had Miss Lylia wait near the south gate of T’oued. It was because we knew that Cleath would go specifically after the people you personally know, you see.”
“You KNEW!?”
“…You did not know?”
Hearing Warren say that, Asley recalled what Warren had said the other day.
— “They don’t know who they’re playing with.”
Warren, who must have been annoyed by the Devil King Lucifer’s plan, had said something that was quite typical of someone with his nickname, Black Emperor. Remembering that, Asley was surprised that Warren had actually thought things through.
“S-so… you’ve always known that Lucifer would come here, and that Cleath would go after my friends?”
“Thanks to the help of the Adventurers’ Guild, we didn’t need an escort in Regalia at all — that was why Miss Lylia was able to stay near the south gate.”
“…And so the one stalling for time wasn’t Lucifer, but us?”
“That’s right♪”
Asley, not wanting to watch Warren smile for too long, proceeded to turn to Lylia.
“Just so you know, I saw that everyone had a good chance of surviving the battle — that’s why I didn’t directly intervene when Natsu, Adolf, Blazer, and the people who saved them were in danger. If I did, it most likely would have provoked the enemy into being more aggressive.”
Indeed, so as to not alert the enemy, the Resistance could not afford to let Cleath know about Lylia’s presence, unless she was absolutely needed to prevent the death of one of Asley’s close acquaintances.
“The same went for Haruhana and the people who did not survive, of course. But in Tifa’s case, well, things got dangerously desperate, and Tarawo had to shield her with his body… but then his transformation expired right before Cleath’s breath attack hit him. He shrunk, and the blast passed just barely over him and burned off his hair.”
“Ah, so that’s how…”
Now that he understood, Asley took another look at Tarawo’s now-bald upper half.
“T-this is so, so humiliating…”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Tifa spoke to Tarawo as the latter held his head, attempting to conceal his baldness.
“……Huh?”
“I said don’t worry about it. You don’t look bad at all — and you’ll get your fur back when you use your King Wolf form again anyway. Besides, no one’s making fun of you, right?”
Tifa uttered these words while letting out a few groans and averting her gaze from Tarawo. Tarawo himself was wide-eyed in response to Tifa’s unexpected remark.
Seeing this, Asley chuckled.
“Yeah, you’re cool, Tarawo. Even your Master said so.”
“Wha–!?”
“D-don’t put words in my mouth, Sir Asley…!”
Tifa protested, blushing and grumpy, and Asley responded with another chuckle.
“So… Lylia, you went in to help Tifa because the situation got that desperate?”
“Right. I would have gone after Cleath next, but he made sure that he always had a way out… And so, well, Weldhun and I took part in the battle from that point on. By the time the rest of the Resistance was back, Cleath had already fled the battlefield. Maybe he’s already killed by Lucifer for his failure. Heh…”
As Lylia spoke, Asley briefly froze.
It was only momentary, but no one in the room failed to notice it.
“…Okay, now that that’s outta the way,” Bruce said, “It’s about time we head back. Shouldn’t overstay our welcome, yeah, Betty?”
“Sure thing. Oh, but Lina, Tifa, and Fuyu — you three feel free to stay here. I’m sure Asley’d be happy if you stick around, too.”
“Ah– huh? O-okay!”
“”YES!!””
Bruce promptly left, with Betty following right after him. Lina, Tifa, and Fuyu blushed in response to what Betty had just said, fidgeting and casting their eyes down.
Meanwhile, Lylia took a seat on the floor in front of Asley’s mattress.
“Hmm…”
Observing Lylia’s actions, Warren chuckled and glanced at Irene. Irene, leaning against the wall, remained motionless.
The one sitting closest to Asley’s bedside, Fuyu, continued to look on at Asley with worry.
With a shrug, Ideá, Midors, and Warren also made their way to leave, but their path was intersected by a certain beautiful woman.
“Sir Asley! You are finally awake!?”
“Well, well… Here she comes.”
“C’mon, guys, let’s get going. Hahaha…”
“Yeah, sure thing.”
Warren seemed amused, while Midors and Ideá simply chuckled and hurried on their way.
Haruhana, walking into the room, beamed with joy upon seeing Asley’s face.
She ran right past Lina and sat on the mattress.
“Huh? H-Haruhana? You’re kind of blocking my view…”
“Be quiet, please.”
Haruhana’s words sliced through the air as she placed her hand on Asley’s forehead.
“Ah, good. Your fever has subsided.”
“Huh? I had a fever?”
“Yes, you did. Everyone was… and I, too, of course, was quite worried.”
Upon hearing Haruhana’s words, the rest of the people in the room froze.
[[Did she just correct herself… incorrectly!?]]
Pochi looked on at the scene, quite amused.
Lylia, perhaps infuriated by Asley’s wry smile, crossed her legs and asked,
“S-so, how did the fight go? How was the Devil King?”
Lylia herself knew that asking that was inconsiderate. However, that was what everyone wanted to know, and none of the others present in this room was willing to bring it up.
The only ones who could possibly ask that were Pochi and Lylia — the only ones here who had fought against the Devil King alongside Asley in the past — and Irene, the leader of the Resistance.
Lylia had spoken in the heat of the moment, but now that Asley was awake, that was the most important information she had to ask for. Perhaps she had brought it up too soon, but neither Pochi nor Irene had any need nor intention of pointing that out to Lylia.
Caught off guard by the question, Asley paused for a moment, then rested his head once again on Pochi’s belly.
He stared blankly at the room’s ceiling and proceeded to say,
“…He was SUPER strong…”
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
Late at night, when the moonlight illuminated the Nation of T’oued, Asley slipped out of his room and climbed up onto the roof of the mansion.
He sat down and gazed at the moon high in the sky.
Suddenly, his familiar Pochi, who had been by his side for many years, bumped into his back.
“…That hurt, you know.”
“My tummy’s rumbling…”
“Yeah, in case you haven’t noticed, it happens when you’re angry.”
“I… won’t deny that, sir.”
As Pochi spoke, she sat down next to her Master.
“……So he was super strong, sir?”
“Yeah.”
“How strong exactly?”
“I can’t even tell. It’s like we’re from different worlds.”
“It’s all right, sir. You have the Levitation spell — you can just fly there!”
“And really, that thirty percent chance you predicted? Now that I actually got to fight him, even TEN percent feels impossible…”
“It’s all right, sir. I know you won’t give up — even if your chances are one in a million!”
“Easy for you to say — everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. And really, the next time we fight, he probably won’t keep me alive like today.”
“It’s all right, sir. If you die, I’ll die too!”
“And how the hell is that supposed to be ‘all right’?”
“I said it’s all right, so it’s all right, sir!”
The two of them, instead of their usual banter, simply gazed at the moon, listened to each other, expressed their thoughts, and accepted them.
Silence fell once again, and Asley laid down on the roof.
“…We gotta be much stronger.”
“I say we still have a chance, sir…”
“Easy for you to say, furball.”
“I find your lack of faith disturbing. Fool.”
“Man, this isn’t exciting at all…”
“Well, I believe in you, Master. And everyone else does, too, I’m sure.”
“…Yeah, I know.”
Asley stood up and stared at the moon with determination. He reached his arms out as if to grab the moon with his hands.
“We gotta be much stronger.”
“I say we still have a chance, sir.”
“Time for more training, furball!”
“Bring it on, you fool!”
Asley, having been defeated by the Devil King Lucifer, had his hopes shattered and glimpsed the horrors of Hell, but the fire in his eyes never waned.
His trust in Pochi, Pochi’s trust in him; his trust in his comrades, and his comrades’ trust in him — They were what would keep his passionate soul going, no matter how many times his body was broken, no matter how many times he was trampled upon.
He was the Eternal Fool… the light of hope too foolish to know when to quit.
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