"If I hadn't had this body, that blast would've blown me to bits... though I guess that was only a matter of time anyway."
I managed to deflect what felt like the woman's self-destructive explosion upward using wind magic, but I couldn't block it alone. It was only with Mom and Dad's help that we somehow made it through without a scratch. No damage had spread to our immediate surroundings or behind us, but in every other direction, buildings had collapsed over a considerable area. If the magic had failed to reduce the blast, the destruction could have spread over an area twice as wide or more.
However, the greatest loss for me was...
"Tenma, it looks like we've used up too much of our power."
"We wanted to stay with you a little longer, but it seems this is as far as we go."
It was Mom and Dad reaching their limit. Blocking the blast had drained the vast majority of their strength, and they could no longer fight alongside us. Their bodies were slowly becoming translucent.
"It's a shame we won't be able to see this through to the end, but we'd only be a burden from here on. Celia and I will return to where we came from."
"Tenma, this is our real goodbye. It's sad and lonely, but just getting to see you one more time, to fight alongside you, and to redo the farewell we couldn't make back then—that alone makes us happy."
"Mom... Dad..."
Maybe it was heartless, but I couldn't shed a single tear. However, Dad looked at me and said:
"That's fine. You still have work to do. You can grieve after that's over."
"That's right. Just don't forget to leave sweets as an offering once everything is said and done. If we have any lingering regrets, it's that we won't get to eat the sweets you made, Tenma, and that we won't be around to help raise our grandchildren."
"Indeed. Well, we'll just have to make Merlin spoil them on our behalf! So, Tenma—you know where that woman is fleeing to?"
"That would be the Great Old Forest, without a doubt."
"Exactly. It's like an animal retreating to its den. She's probably gotten quite far ahead by now, but at your current speed, Tenma, you should be able to catch up before she disappears into the forest."
"And if we consider the time she needs to fully recover, there's a chance she might make stops along the way."
Knowing her, she'd try to reclaim as much of the zombies' power as she could during her escape. That very behavior was what had led to this situation in the first place. Normally, someone like that would make a beeline straight back to safety, but she probably wasn't in a calm state of mind right now—and if she believed she'd gotten the better of us, it wouldn't be surprising for her to take detours. Besides, there was no telling when another human with a body suited to achieving her goals would appear, so it made sense for her to try and recover as quickly as possible.
"I hate to see you go, but I'm heading out."
"Take care."
"Hey! Do your best!"
Even if I died, I might not be able to meet the two of them again in the afterlife. Besides, there were apparently limits on what kind of path I could tread after death—not the same as ordinary people.
To be honest, I wanted to stay here with Mom and Dad until they faded away. But the two of them would never allow that. So I'd do what they asked and nothing more. I believed that was the greatest act of filial piety I could offer right now.
"Kukuri Village is in this direction… Hmm? Looks like she really did take a detour. Her course has shifted a bit."
When I pushed my search ability to its absolute limit, I was startled to find I could sense all the way from Seigen to roughly halfway into the Great Old Forest. As a bonus, I could even pinpoint the exact location of the woman I was targeting.
"Well, she managed to fool even the gods, so if she goes all-out at hiding herself, there's a real chance I could lose track of her. No harm in hurrying."
Muttering that to myself, I activated my flight magic and found myself soaring at dozens of times my normal speed. This had to be an effect of having become a Demigod.
"So this is the power of a Demigod… No wonder she could appear and disappear on me so effortlessly."
Of course, just because we were both Demigods didn't mean our stats were anywhere close. In terms of sheer Demigod experience, the gap between us was overwhelming—but in raw momentum, I had the edge.
"Give it everything you've got, partner!"
Gripping Kogarumaru—one of the things that momentum brought into being—I set off in pursuit of the former God of Death.
Celia's Side
"She's gone, hasn't she?"
"Yeah. Well, we should head out too. Looks like we still have some time left."
Ricardo said that, then glanced around, spotted the old couple, and pulled me along as he approached.
"Hey! Merlin, Din! Sounds like Tenma was quite a handful for you… Ah, you still can't hear me, huh?"
Just like the old days, Ricardo raised a hand casually and spoke to them—but the two couldn't hear his voice. It probably had something to do with the fact that we existed as familiars of Tenma, who was a Demigod. Well, the two of us could hear them, and they could at least lip-read imperfectly, so it wasn't like there was no way to communicate at all.
"Shiromaru's gotten big! Slarin hasn't changed a bit though… Just kidding. I know you don't have to force yourself to get bigger."
The two of them seemed to pick up on what I was saying not from my lip movements but from my expressions and demeanor, so they understood to some degree. That was actually what had led to the problem—Slarin had pushed herself trying to grow larger despite being seriously drained of energy, and I'd had to hurriedly stop her.
What caught my attention when I turned to Shiromaru was that his parents were nowhere to be seen. It seemed they'd exhausted their power before we had and had already headed back.
"So, you're Jin. Tenma seems to have been causing you trouble, so I wanted to sit down and share a drink with you at least once."
Jin couldn't seem to read lips and was struggling to understand, but when my uncle relayed the message on my behalf, he repeatedly bowed his head in an apologetic manner.
"Uncle. Please thank Mark, Martha, and everyone else who looked after Tenma on our behalf."
"Ah… I understand."
My uncle made the promise with tears welling up in his eyes.
"Well then, sorry to cut this short, but we still have somewhere to be, so this is goodbye."
When Ricardo said that, the two of them made gestures as if to stop us, but quickly pulled their hands back.
"Very well. Go on. At the speed you lot can manage now, the Royal Capital will be there before you know it?"
"It was wonderful to see you one last time. Celia, Ricardo."
After exchanging our farewells with the three of them, we stroked Slarin's and Shiromaru's heads and then took to the sky, heading in the direction of the Royal Capital.
It was quite a long distance to the Royal Capital, but for us, who had become beings called spirits, it wasn't much at all. Before exhausting our power, we arrived at the Royal Capital—more precisely, at Maria and Alex-sama's location. In terms of time, it was perhaps a few dozen seconds. It was an incredible speed, but it consumed power proportionally, so the time we could remain here would be very short.
"Alex is over there."
"Maria's over there."
The two people we were looking for were in separate locations. Alex-sama was gathered with important figures of the country like Caesar-sama for a meeting, while Maria was in another room with Caesar-sama's wife.
"Then, shall we head out?"
"Yes. I'll leave Alex-sama's side to you."
Saying that, I parted ways with Ricardo and moved close to Maria, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. Then—
"Oh? This is…"
"Maria?"
"You!"
Only the consciousness of the two had been brought to a different location. Apparently, this was a space designed for beings close to God to speak with their intended partners—the same kind of place Tenma had visited on several occasions.
"Alex!"
"Maria!"
When I called out to the two confused figures, they both turned toward us simultaneously, struck speechless with shock.
We approached the pair—or rather, Ricardo charged straight up to Lord Alex's face,
"Ha!"
"Gufh!"
For some reason, he drove a fist straight into his gut. Lord Alex doubled over from the unexpected blow, but when Maria saw that—
"It really is Celia! And Ricardo too!"
Convinced we were the real deal, she left the suffering Lord Alex completely behind and dashed over to me.
"Well, I'm glad you realized, but… is it okay to just leave Lord Alex like that?"
"Actually, if Ricardo hadn't done that, I never would have gotten close enough to figure out you weren't fakes!"
With that, she threw her arms around me.
"Ugh… w-well, yes, that punch was definitely Ricardo's signature move… Take this!"
"Guh! Heh… you've gotten old, Alex. Not what you used to be."
While Maria clung to me in delight, the two of them were off confirming their friendship in their own special way.
"I mean, Lord Alex is nearly ten years older physically, so it's only natural he'd show his age… but couldn't they find some other way to do this?"
"It's pointless to tell those two. They've always been like that. If anything, if I ever saw them standing around politely bowing and greeting each other, I'd feel sick to my stomach."
"You're probably right."
After Ricardo and Lord Alex had finished reaffirming their bond the way only they knew how, the four of us each shared our own stories, catching up however we pleased.
We had endless topics — pointless stories, tales from our student days, stories about Kukuri Village, and even things about Tenma that Maria didn't know. I was confident we could keep talking without a single pause for an entire day, but Ricardo and I simply didn't have that kind of time left.
"This space has been stretched out compared to the one Maria and the others were in, but even so, the time remaining for Ricardo and me is short. So, I'm going to talk about the important things first."
Up until then, Maria and Caesar-sama had been laughing at our silly stories, but the moment those words left my mouth, their faces flickered with a brief look of sadness before quickly shifting to serious expressions.
"First, Tenma. You may have already noticed, but Tenma carries the Blessing of multiple gods. It's probably the most in recorded history. Thanks to that, Celia and I were able to come back to help Tenma. But during the fight, the enemy's desperate struggles forced us to burn through too much power — more than we could afford — and we ended up separating from Tenma and ending up here. Well, consider it our final farewell before heading back to the afterlife."
Ricardo spoke in his usual flippant tone, but neither of them cracked so much as a smile. Instead, their faces looked like they were about to burst into tears.
"As for the enemy's boss, Tenma has her cornered right now. The fight probably isn't over yet, but there's no way Tenma will lose. Considering the distance to the Royal Capital, a report of victory should arrive within a few days."
Tenma and that woman. Overall, they were evenly matched, and factoring in experience, I'd say Tenma was at a slight disadvantage. But Tenma had something hidden — experience from a past life. That likely included battles against opponents far stronger than himself.
Even though his power had diminished compared to when he was alive, Tenma's experience of defeating the black ancient dragon — one of the strongest beings in this world — was something that woman absolutely did not possess. If she had that kind of experience, she would never have made the foolish mistake of letting her guard down repeatedly in front of her enemy. That alone tells me she was never suited for combat, either in ability or temperament.
Maria looked surprised by my confident assertion, but I couldn't go into detail about Tenma's past life, so I simply said:
"A mother's instinct for her child tells me so."
And I left it at that. If there ever came an opportunity to tell her the truth, it would probably be after Maria died and I could meet her again. I didn't know if such a future awaited us, but I couldn't help looking forward to seeing the look on Maria's face when she learned the truth about Tenma.
As I watched Ricardo and Caesar-sama bickering and continued our idle chatter, I suddenly said:
"Oh... I'm sorry. I think it's almost time."
The limit was finally closing in. I couldn't explain how I knew, but I could sense that I would vanish from this world in just a little while.
And yet, strangely, I felt no fear — not like the first time. Part of that was because this was my second disappearance, but more than that, this time had been an exception among exceptions, something miraculous. And above all, unlike the first time, I had been able to properly say goodbye to Tenma.
If Maria ever found out about that last part, she'd probably corner me with "So I'm just an afterthought?" — so I made sure not to mention it.
"I really wish I could stay until the very end, but there's one last place I need to go."
It might be a matter of whether I even had time for a single glance, but I wanted to see Tenma's wife one last time. If possible, I would have liked to see and hold my grandchildren too, but since that was impossible, I'd just have to resign myself.
"Ricardo, it's time! If we don't leave now, we won't make it!"
"Right! I know! Take care, Alex! Maria!"
"Goodbye, Maria!"
It was hurried in the end, but we said our farewells to Maria and Alex-sama and slipped out of that space.
The two of them would surely regain consciousness in their own world right after we left.
MARIA'S SIDE
"Mother-in-law, what happened!?"
"Huh? Isabella, Mizaria… why are you two so flustered? What's going on?"
"What do you mean what's going on? You stopped moving like you'd lost consciousness!"
"Oh… is that what happened…"
I felt like I'd been having a nostalgic, pleasant dream, but my thoughts wouldn't come together, as if a fog were clouding my mind.
"And then, just when we thought you'd stopped moving, you suddenly started crying… Even when sister-in-law shook your body, you wouldn't respond at all!"
"Crying… ah!"
When she said that, I touched my cheek and, sure enough, there were traces of tears just as Isabella described. And the instant I placed my hand over those tear tracks, the fog in my head cleared all at once.
Remembering everything, I shot up from my chair with enough force to knock it over and burst into the hallway.
"Wait, please, Mother-in-law! Where are you going!?"
Isabella cried out in surprise just before I dashed into the hallway, but I didn't stop my feet and only shouted, "I'm going to see him!" before continuing to run. Granted, I kicked off my heels halfway through and ran barefoot, lamented my aging and deteriorating body, and was eventually caught up to by the knights escorting me, but I never stopped running toward the conference room where he was.
However, right before that conference room, I was stopped by a knight standing guard at the door—
"I'll be right back! I just need to check on something urgently!"
Right after I was stopped, the door was wrenched open from the inside, and there he was, half-dragging Caesar and Zain along with him.
"You!"
"Maria! So that means—it really wasn't just a dream!"
Even though Alex-sama hugged me right in front of everyone, I hugged him back just the same... although when I calmed down and thought about it, it was quite embarrassing to be embracing someone like that at our age, completely oblivious to our surroundings, while Caesar and the others were left standing there, unsure of what was happening.
"Ah, ahem. My apologies for the confusion. Everyone, what happened was that while I was unconscious for a brief moment earlier, I heard what seemed like a revelation. The scenery before my eyes suddenly shifted, and I found myself standing in a space that felt utterly otherworldly. There, I met Maria, who had been called in the same way, and we reunited with our dear friends and Tenma’s parents, Ricardo and Celia. There, Maria and I were told by the two that Tenma had safely escaped the clutches of the enemy’s ringleader and had turned the tables. Furthermore, they said Tenma was now pursuing the fleeing ringleader, and victory was likely just around the corner."
Hearing the word "revelation," Caesar and the others looked surprised, and their gazes turned somewhat suspicious.
"However, as you all witnessed, I was in a state similar to being asleep for only a few seconds. That raised the possibility that my own desires had subconsciously taken the form of a dream where I learned this from my friends. So, I thought: if Maria had also seen a similar dream, then it wouldn’t have been a revelation-like dream born from my wishes, but perhaps a true revelation shown by some supernatural entity. That’s why I was heading to Maria’s place to confirm this."
When he said that, Alex-sama turned his gaze toward me, so I added:
"Your Majesty is correct. I also had a similar dream, which is why I ran all the way here to confirm it with you."
As soon as I said that, everyone’s eyes simultaneously fell on my bare feet. Behind me, a guard knight, who had fallen to his knees at Alex-sama’s appearance, hurriedly placed my discarded heels neatly in front of me.
"Mother, I’d like to verify the story you’ve just told. Please wait outside for a little while."
Representing everyone, who still looked half in doubt, Caesar spoke up and, without leaving room for argument, ushered me out of the room. Well, given Caesar’s position, it was only natural he had to verify something this important. It was also a given that he couldn’t very well kick out the other person involved, so it was only right that I was the one put out. Although... I did wish he’d at least told me to wait in the next room. Is Caesar unusually flustered?
As I stood in the hallway thinking this, Zain soon came rushing out and guided me to the adjacent room, which I was grateful for, as it spared me from waiting in the corridor.
"Mother, this way."
After a while, Zain called for me, and I returned to the original room to recount the details I’d heard in the dream. However, mid-story, Caesar and Zain suddenly interjected with some old anecdotes. Not only were those stories occasionally wrong, but by pointing out the errors, I ended up having to tell the real story all over again, which made the whole process take longer than expected.
"While there are some minor differences in nuance, Your Majesty’s story largely matches... And considering it even aligns with details that only we royalty would know..."
"I believe we can conclude that the two of you are indeed my true father and mother, and that what you heard in the dream is also the truth," Caesar and Zain said.
In other words, Alex-sama and I had been suspected of being imposters.
"I told you, didn’t I? Maria and I are the real thing."
That man protested to Caesar and Zain with a somewhat sulky air, but they replied matter-of-factly, without a hint of shame:
"Even so, if someone suddenly claims to have heard a revelation, it’s only natural to suspect they’ve gone mad or are an imposter."
"Allowing internal discord to arise at a time like this could bring the kingdom to ruin. Even if it is Your Majesty, it’s understandable that we must exercise caution."
They both stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well, this should make it clear. The unfavorable situation has been turned on its head — we now hold the advantage."
"If what Lord Ricardo and Lady Celia say is true, then yes, the situation has certainly become favorable. However, nothing has been confirmed yet. After all, fighting is still ongoing on the eastern side of the Royal Capital."
The nobles, upon hearing that the tide had turned, seemed to grow a little excited, but Caesar warned them that it was still too early to let their guard down. Just then—
"Reporting! A red ancient dragon has appeared on the eastern side of the Royal Capital! Your Majesty, please prepare for immediate evacuation!"
Desperate news had arrived.
The council chamber erupted into chaos, and preparations were hurriedly made to evacuate the royal family, including His Majesty and myself. Amid the turmoil, Zain suggested that at minimum someone in charge needed to remain behind. Caesar volunteered to stay, but Zain insisted that the person who had raised the suggestion should be the one to remain.
The two argued back and forth over who should stay, and just then—
"Reporting! The red ancient dragon that appeared on the eastern side has been struck down by a Behemoth that joined the battle as reinforcements for the Ootori family! At the same time, an entity believed to be the Dragon King has also been defeated by Lord Namiitaro, who likewise participated in the engagement!"
Yet another report came in, once again catching everyone completely off guard.
This was exactly the kind of news that ought to be met with suspicion, but the report bore Lyle's name, and moreover, it was sealed with royal wax — something only the royal family could use — giving it far greater credibility than the first report, which had been purely verbal.
"Where is Lyle right now?!"
"Lord Lyle has reorganized his forces to the maximum extent possible, dividing them into two groups heading toward the north and the west."
Lyle had apparently entrusted the eastern front to the knights of the Neutral Faction and was personally leading the troops advancing toward the west.
"Shall we also send reinforcements from the royal castle?"
"No. We must not. If we leave the royal castle understaffed, the enemies lurking within the Royal Capital will surely move against us. Instead, we should fortify our defenses for any eventuality and ensure we are always prepared to withstand a siege. If the Behemoth and Namiitaro have sided with us, then it is the enemy who will be pressed for time!"
And so we further strengthened our defenses in preparation for the Reformist Faction — the rebel army led by Duke Dahlam.
"All that remains is for Tenma to win."
That was what Lord Alex said as he came to my side, but—
"Tenma's victory is already a foregone conclusion. After all, Celia's motherly intuition apparently told her so."
As far as I was concerned, the moment the news arrived that the red ancient dragon had been defeated, this war was decided — the kingdom would emerge victorious.
Maria Side - End
"That's Tenma's mansion, right over there."
"We made it just in time... Haha, Mark and Martha are there — so many familiar faces."
Ricardo and I flew to Tenma's mansion in a state where we could vanish at any moment, having parted ways with Maria's group. As we drew closer, we could see a large crowd gathered in the mansion's garden, and among them were Martha, Mark, and the other people from Kukuri Village. But we didn't have time left to greet Martha and the others.
We pushed through the crowd of Kukuri Village folk, trying to keep as many faces in view as we could, and found Martha and Mark near the mansion.
"Both of you — thank you for watching over Tenma in our place."
"Hopefully we'll meet again on the other side."
As we whispered those words while passing by, the two of them turned around in surprise, but they probably hadn't actually heard our voices.
"That woman must be Tenma's bride."
"Our daughter-in-law, then."
Perhaps satisfied at having caught even a single glimpse of her, the bodies of Ricardo and me had already faded to the point where our outlines were barely visible.
"There's a grandchild growing inside that belly of hers."
"Oh my — wait, this is..."
Instead of holding our grandchild, I placed a hand on our daughter-in-law's belly — and discovered something we hadn't expected. It was something that perhaps even Tenma himself hadn't noticed yet.
"They'll be in for a surprise."
"I suppose so. Well, it's certainly a joyous thing nonetheless."
"Yes. May happiness be abundant for our children and grandchildren..."
Celia Side - End