Chapter 962 - 19: Hero, Demon King, Gods

Chapter 962: Chapter 19: Hero, Demon King, Gods

On the sidewalk.

The two of them walked forward in silence.

Miss Brave stayed silent like that for quite a long while.

"Um... I really need to thank you for what you did before, Mr. Gu Mo." Finally, as if she’d steeled herself for something, she took a deep breath, then turned her head to break the silence, speaking in a very serious tone, and at the same time explaining what she’d originally been thinking—

"I’m sorry it’s taken me until now to say thank you. It’s mainly because my job has only just settled down over these past few days... I was actually thinking of formally visiting you in a few days to properly thank you."

This wasn’t her trying to make excuses for herself; it really was what she sincerely intended.

She wanted to properly say thank you, because she was truly grateful to this kind-hearted landlord. As the Hero who saved the Ante Yisula World, a living Saint, Amilia was not the type who didn’t know how to repay kindness. Naturally, she kept this sort of thing firmly in mind.

After all, if he hadn’t offered his help, she figured she would have faced huge trouble—just thinking about it felt like the kind of trouble that could kill you. Especially now that she was basically familiar with this Otherworld’s rules of survival, and very clear on what it really meant to try and survive in this kind of modern city, she felt this all the more deeply.

"It’s really nothing, you don’t need to keep dwelling on it. Besides, didn’t you help me out back then too, Miss Amilia..."

The young man beside her looked ahead with great interest, seemingly keeping his eyes fixed on the baseball field in front of them. His gaze roamed the field thoughtfully, as if searching for something, and when he heard her, he just waved it off casually, answering in a laid-back tone.

This was, in essence, a pre-arranged "equivalent exchange."

It was just that the girl on the other side had no awareness of that at all.

Without that "equivalence," the later "exchange" would never have happened, because Miss Brave would never lightly accept help from a stranger, and would instinctively maintain a basic distance and vigilance toward him... Is this a setup? Is this a trap? She would definitely, instinctively, suspect as much.

Kindness that suddenly appears, and for no reason at all—how could that possibly make sense!

After all, Amilia’s rise to power hadn’t been completely smooth sailing, free of setbacks. And the schemes she faced weren’t only from the Demon Race on the other side, but came from her own kind as well. Plenty of humans hated her existence more than Demons did, and were desperate to kill her.

A farmer’s daughter, setting foot on the road of vengeance...

Born lowly, yet acknowledged by the Holy Sword...

Her name, as a Hero, resounded across the continent, as she continuously gained great fame and authority...

You could say that Amilia’s emergence brought hope and dawn to the masses of the Ante Yisula World, but it also made her a thorn in the side and a nail in the flesh of many people. Compared to the enemy across the border, they hated the Hero’s existence even more, and naturally were constantly resorting to underhanded tricks.

Plots that looked kind on the surface but were actually full of calculation, and almost always aimed directly at her—Amilia had run into them more than once or twice... Even someone slow on the uptake, after seeing this same pattern so many times, ought to develop some resistance to it and keep the necessary level of vigilance.

However—

There are no people you can’t "run a routine" on; there are only routines that aren’t good enough.

If your routine doesn’t work on someone, it only proves you haven’t found the right method to prescribe the right medicine.

—Thus speaks Master of the Mind · King of Lies · Spiritual Ability User · Trickster · God of Deceit, Mr. Gu Ru.

So the Hero probably never imagined that she had, without realizing it, paid the "equivalent" in advance and then, instinctively, accepted the subsequent "exchange"... She’d unconsciously accepted that subconscious notion and felt that she had, in fact, helped him out.

In that case, it suddenly seemed that accepting his help in return didn’t carry much psychological burden.

This was why she hadn’t rejected or resisted, and hadn’t maintained the most basic vigilance—she herself wasn’t even aware of it... In the end, mental inertia always exists; Miss Brave was no exception, and she was affected by it.

"Going by that, that day really was our lucky day, huh..."

Amilia had no idea about any of this. She just thought it over and felt that might really be the case, so she couldn’t help cracking a small joke, her mood clearly lifting.

Fortunately, she’d been wandering around aimlessly that day, just roaming without a goal, and happened to run into the landlord being bullied by a bunch of little punks. Then she’d stepped in, unable to stand by and watch injustice... She helped the landlord, and also helped herself—only that group of punks got the short end of the stick.

She had no idea whether, with injuries piled on injuries, they’d been discharged from the hospital yet.

"Oh right, there’s one more thing, Mr. Gu Mo..."

After a slight pause, Amilia seemed to recall something at this point. She looked a bit embarrassed; she sneaked a glance at the young man beside her, and said, "The name I’m using now is ’Yuuzawa Emi’..."

"Hm?"

"Well... um... My real name is the one I told you before—I really am called Amilia. It’s just that using that name right now isn’t very convenient, so I gave myself another name." Miss Brave felt a bit troubled as she tried hard to explain her situation.

Back then she hadn’t thought it through, but after mulling it over, she felt she still needed to hide her real name a bit.

As the Hero who took Ante Yisula World back from the Demon King, praised as the "Saint Ante Yisula," she was naturally famous everywhere, so the name Amilia Justina was widely known, and the Demon King’s side definitely knew it too.

If it were in her original world, then of course there’d be no need to cover it up.

But in this world, carelessly using her true name would only increase the risk of exposing herself. If she still hadn’t found the Demon King yet and instead ended up being noticed by him first, that would really be a pain... the enemy hidden while she was out in the open, and on top of that in a state where she’d lost her Power—she really didn’t think she could avoid a sneak attack.

"Oh, I get it, I get it... Then from now on, in front of other people, I’ll use this new name of yours, Miss Emi?"

Gu Mo had an expression that said no one understood better than he did, nodding very calmly and going along with it.

Naturally, he wasn’t unfamiliar with this alias. The Heroic Emi, once she realized the issue, would of course come up with a name like this for herself. "Yuuzawa Emi" was just a homophone for "Heroic Emi," after all—it was a little Easter egg.

It was just that the way he showed how readily he accepted it seemed to have startled the other party a bit, making the girl fall briefly silent.

"..."

"..."

Amilia stared at him with a slightly odd look on her face, forcing out a somewhat strained smile. "Then thank you, Mr. Gu. As long as you understand..."

This development seemed a bit off. She was still racking her brains over how to come up with a reasonable excuse to explain why she’d given herself another name, and then, by the way, reasonably make her request: that the only person who knew her true name shouldn’t reveal that information in front of other people.

Yet before she’d even finished organizing her wording, the other side was already wearing a "I get it," "I totally get it" expression, very calmly accepting all of it...

Did he really get it? Or what exactly did he get?

He probably just filled in some weird scenario in his head... Sighing inwardly, Amilia felt it had to be something like that.

But that was fine—this kind of misunderstanding worked in her favor... There was no need to clear it up. Mr. Gu was just an ordinary person; best not drag him into this kind of thing.

With that thought, Amilia stopped dwelling on it. Her gaze only lingered on the young man for a moment before shifting away again. As they talked, the two of them had already arrived near the sports ground. It really was lively here, with a bustling, energetic sports atmosphere.

A ring of people was standing around, watching.

Amilia’s expression didn’t change, but she raised her guard, pushing her Perception to the limit while doing her best to conceal the Holy Power remaining in her body. At the same time she tried to search the crowd for any possible Extraordinary... One circle, two circles, three circles—nothing.

—Did I still get here too late?

—Did the other side already leave? Or are they hiding as well, and that earlier exposure was just an accident?

A faint anxiety inevitably rose in the depths of her heart, but Miss Brave forced herself to calm down, warning herself not to panic. Based on the preliminary investigation she’d done over this period, while Magic Power did indeed exist in this world, out in the open there was no such concept.

The Magic Power in this world was different from that in Ante Yisula World. It seemed to exist as some other kind of conceptual phenomenon.

In Ante Yisula World, in the broad sense Magic Power was produced by the consciousness of the world’s intelligent beings, then diffused throughout the world like air... As for Magic Power in the narrow sense, naturally it was what you got by further subdividing that base.

For example, the dark, negative emotions of humans or creatures that had taken human form would become the energy used by Demons and the Demon Race, namely "Magic Power."

Conversely, the positive emotions across the spectrum were the energy used by humans and Angels, the so‑called "Sacred Magic Qi." It had relatively strong plasticity, and because it was utterly opposed to Magic Power, this Holy Power naturally harmed Demons.

—More or less like that.

At the moment, Amilia still wasn’t sure whether this unfamiliar Otherworld had the same kind of categories, because she hadn’t yet come into contact with those hidden layers... There was clearly an objective environment of Magic Power, but ordinary civilians knew nothing about it and couldn’t make use of it.

Within people’s understanding, the concepts of Magic, Magic Power, and things like the Demon King or Demons were all just products of fantasy, something that didn’t exist in the real world.

That was what her investigation had found.

Based on this, Amilia arrived at a conclusion: perhaps the true Mysterious World was concealed beneath the surface of human society and was never meant to be exposed easily.

She calmed herself, her gaze continuing to search everywhere, and then...

It brightened slightly.

Not far from the sports ground, Kusanagi Hikotou was laughing heartily as he chatted with a handsome, androgynous young boy in front of him. The two of them seemed to be getting along very well.

He had absolutely no idea what kind of existence was standing right in front of him.