Reincarnated Hero System - Chapter 1167 - 1167: A Day Off

A few hours after his trip to Dragondune, once the others in his party had returned to their respective homes via Trains or Waypoints, Evan stepped into the familiar expanse of unending whiteness that was Artemisia’s domain.

Glancing around, he raised an eyebrow, then shook his head with a sigh.

‘I didn’t notice it the other times I came here, but now that I can perceive law energy, I realise just how saturated this place is with it. And it’s not just law energy…’

Though his physical body didn’t have the facilities for that, Evan sensed on a spiritual level that the space was filled with an unnatural concentration of cosmic energy.

Ignoring that, he turned his gaze to the goddess seated at the lone desk in the centre of the infinite white, a holographic star map in front of her as she moved her hands busily, tapping icons and checking items off a list.

“What is it, Evan? I’m quite busy.”

She spoke the moment his gaze fell on her, and without wasting time, Evan went straight to the reasons he was here.

“I have questions about ‘Aidos’. Why didn’t you tell me that ‘she’ was incapacitated?”

“It was unnecessary,” Artemisia replied curtly, and Evan raised an eyebrow.

“‘Unnecessary’ for me to know that the being holding the item key to a large part of my plans to defend your home world from being invaded by your bestie’s kid is incapacitated? Make it make sense.”

Artemisia was silent for a moment, then sighed before answering.

“Because the circumstances behind that incapacitation are such that discovering them would distract you from those same plans. Even I don’t have full confirmation on what happened.

However, I do know that no damage was done to the Planet’s Consciousness and ‘she’ will resume full function before you need to use whatever it is you gave her besides that World Tree Seed.”

As she said this, Artemisia dismissed the holographic map and looked up at Evan.

“Is that all you came for?”

“No,” Evan replied. “I came to ask about my Earth V body. I need its human factors to balance this one.”

A glint of light flashed in Artemisia’s eyes as she scanned him, nodded silently, and then asked,

“Would you like to completely fuse with it?”

“I can’t just extract enough human factors to boost this body to ‘Arch-Human’?” Evan shot back.

“No. It’s NOT that convenient.”

“Bummer,” Evan muttered, rubbing his chin as he considered his options. “Guess I need an Ancient-Breed Dragon scapegoat then. You have any of those lying around?”

“Obviously not.”

Artemisia rolled her eyes as she stood, adding, “I’d run a search for any mortal Ancient-Breeds you could use, but don’t expect instant results.”

“No problem. Now, can you beam Liz and me over to Earth V for the entire 15th?”

The goddess froze at Evan’s request, narrowing her eyes for a moment before asking, “Are you trying to use me as a ride for your date with your girlfriend?”

“When you put it like that, it sounds bad…”

Evan didn’t deny it in any way, and Artemisia rolled her eyes at him again.

“What? I’m putting in a lot of work for Tarse. Why can’t you do me a little favour?”

“Fine, I’ll send someone to take you. Just go already, I need to be in a meeting.”

With that, Artemisia waved her hand, creating two spatial gates—one for herself and one for Evan.

“Thanks,” Evan said, casually waving before stepping into the gate, while Artemisia headed off to meet with her vassals.

◇　◇　◇

The planet continued to spin on its axis as always, and soon the 15th day of the ninth month arrived.

That morning, Evan woke earlier than usual, turned off all his communication devices, and went ahead to make breakfast for himself and Eliza.

By the time she woke and found him in the Oak Avenue Manor’s kitchen, he had already finished and was setting the plates on the dining table.

After breakfast and a bath, Evan informed her of his plans for the day.

“So, we’re going on a day trip to a faraway place.”

“Faraway place?” Eliza repeated with a raised eyebrow, glancing at his reflection in the mirror while tying up her hair.

“Yes. Faraway. No one will be able to contact us during that time, so you can let your friends know you’ll be unreachable for the day. That was too much trouble to deal with, so I just switched everything off and threw it all in my inventory.”

Eliza sighed at his way of handling things before picking up the prototype smartphone on her desk to reply to the birthday messages from Laurene and a few others.

When she finished and set the phone down, her senses suddenly detected an immense mass of life energy appearing on the ground floor.

“! What is that?!

She almost went into battle mode, but Evan’s calm reaction to the sudden presence made her stop where she was.

“Oh, our ride’s here.”

With that, he got off the bed, turned to Eliza, and extended his hand.

“Let’s go.”

“…”

Eliza quietly took his hand, and he led her downstairs, where at the end of the grand stairs in the centre of the main hall stood a light-green-haired elven woman.

Her emerald green eyes turned to Evan the moment he appeared, and, waving casually, he spoke to her.

“Hello, Aphine. Long-time no see. ‘Prisma’ says hi.”

For a moment, the woman’s eyes seemed to widen before she asked,

“…you…remember?”

Evan nodded silently, and Eliza glanced between the two of them, wondering what exactly she meant about him remembering.

Aside from that, she realised that this woman looked exactly like one of the goddesses whose statues she had seen in churches across the continent, and the name Evan called her matched the goddess of Life she had in mind.

‘Considering Evan’s strange friendship with goddess Artemisia, it wouldn’t be too surprising if he were close with her too, would it?’

The thought passed through Eliza’s mind as she looked at Aphine, who, without another word, waved her hand and conjured a seven-ringed magic circle.

Law energy gathered and created a spatial gate, and soon after, she gestured toward it and spoke.

“I’ll open a return one in exactly 24 hours.”

Aphine then turned to Eliza and tossed something her way. When Eliza quickly caught it and looked down, she saw that it was a bracelet with a dull, purplish-gold energy swirling within the embedded gems.

Aphine threw another toward Evan, along with a familiar smartphone, and as he caught them, she added,

“For the gravity.”

“Oh, thanks,” Evan said, before turning to Eliza and taking her by the arm.

“Let’s go.”

He pulled her into the gate, and a wave of distorted light enveloped them as their bodies suddenly felt weightless. The sensation was neither cold nor warm, only a few moments of endless motion before their feet touched solid ground again.

They emerged from the spatial gate in the middle of an empty street back alleyway, the sounds of engines and people echoing from the street ahead.

Evan, still holding Eliza, guided the silent woman forward until they stepped onto the main road, where the sight before them made Eliza’s eyes widen in disbelief.

Before her stretched a world ruled by the laws of science, far more advanced than Aidos, with many high-rise buildings surrounding them in every direction.

“This…is a different world?” Eliza muttered after a moment of quiet, her gaze sweeping across the unfamiliar cityscape.

This was her first time seeing this sight, and naturally, she was astonished.

Metal boxes sped down the streets, and nearly every building stretched high into the sky. She saw trains vanishing into tunnels beneath the ground, and the people walking along the roads all held some kind of smartphone in their hands, showing just how common these devices were in this world.

“Welcome to Earth V,” Evan said, pulling Eliza along as they blended into the crowd moving down the busy streets.

As they walked, some people paused to stare at her golden-blonde hair, a colour that stood out among the darker shades of black and brown that most of those around them had.

Evan glanced at a few building signs, and when his eyes landed on one with an address, he chuckled softly and shook his head.

“Did she really send us to this country of all places?”

“…you know this place?” Eliza asked, her brows furrowed as she stared at the unfamiliar language on the signs, and Evan nodded.

“Yeah. I used to live here.”

Eliza fell silent at that, letting Evan pull her along as he navigated the streets with familiarity.

Thanks to the bracelets Aphine gave them, the difference in gravity between Aidos and Earth V wasn’t an issue, so they had no problem controlling their bodies.

But unlike the last time he was here, Evan could clearly sense the magic in the air, and Eliza could feel it too.

What puzzled her, however, was how none of the people around seemed aware of it. They had almost no magic in their bodies, making them no different from Level 1s on Aidos.

All the machines she saw ran on power sources other than magic, and even their smartphones were powered by something else entirely.

“Liz.”

“Yeah?”

“Can we stop by somewhere first? I…” Evan paused, turning toward her as he added, “I just want to see someone.”

Liz thought she caught a trace of longing in his eyes, but it disappeared so quickly that she almost doubted she had seen it at all. Almost.

“Okay,” she replied, and at that, Evan’s smile brightened before he turned toward the road and hailed a cab.

“The Wacdonalds at Sixth Street.”

Evan reached into his inventory and took out his Earth V phone that Aphine gave him, opening his bank app, which still held his balance and using it to pay for the ride.

During the ride, he opened up his inventory and took out the Akashic Page, using it to cast a translation spell which allowed Eliza to hear the words spoken in the common language of Aidos that she knew, and read written words in such a manner.

This dealt with the issue of the language barrier, and she was now able to read the signs on the billboards they passed by.

When they arrived, he led the way into the well-known burger fast-food chain with branches all across the country and ordered two double cheeseburger combos along with some ice cream for himself and Eliza.

As they waited for their order, Evan began explaining to Eliza how some things worked in this world.

“As you’ve probably noticed, the people here can’t sense magic power. They have no idea it’s around them, or at least, most of them don’t.”

“Most of them?”

The young woman raised an eyebrow, lifting her gaze from the drink menu to look at Evan, and for a moment, he seemed to hesitate before finally speaking.

“…remember the person we saw when we went to the Tower of Trials?”