Chapter 1445.1

Anyone who fought with their life on the line must come to accept that they, too, might someday die a brutal death.

“Uwaaahhh! No! No!”

That’s simply how life works. It’s just that people didn’t talk about those dark realities much, especially not around children. That was why the group of fledgling mercenary kids, who only ever chased dreams, didn’t think they’d ever face that kind of fate.

They were only even exposed to the light in the world, and that was all they ever learned to expect.

Rinne returned to the group carrying a small, crystal-like object emitting strange mana. “Lord Davey. Retrieval complete.”

“Hmm. From what I can tell, this thing didn't originally have such a function. Still, it looks like some fairly powerful force was altered and corrupted by something.”

Although the crystal's power had been corrupted, Davey concluded that its original form must've possessed immense power while remaining as pure as a blank slate.

The corruption that turned the monsters into mutants was likely energy imbued by some other force which was assimilated, only to become twisted.

“Baron,” Davey called out.

Baron couldn't stop screaming, as if he'd gone mad. “No... No! Calix! Vera!”

Sighing, Davey walked over to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, hoisting him up and bringing him to eye level. They locked eyes, and he solemnly repeated, “Baron.”

The boy shook, thrashing about and shouting, “Let go... Let go!”

Davey did as requested, and he crawled back, tears streaming down his face. He chanted, “I, an unworthy servant, pray to the Great Transcendent Will. Please grant me the power to heal the bodies of these poor souls...”

He had resorted to attempting a low-level healing spell. While he indeed had holy power, his skill in handling it was severely lacking.

Unlike other types of magic, holy magic had no concept of circles. Therefore, theoretically, he would be able to use higher-level magic as long as his proficiency, comprehension, and holy power backed him up.

That was what made miracles possible.

Yet, none of those idealistic strokes of luck and happenstance pertained to Baron’s pitiful situation.

Davey frowned and grabbed Baron by the collar again, chiding, “Hey! Stop it. Are you trying to desecrate the corpses?”

The boy just continued bursting with tears, shrieking, “What else can I do?! My friends are dead! How can I just stand by when my friends who were like family to me since childhood are dead?!”

After shouting that, he eventually dropped his head and softly said, “If I had just tried a little harder to stop them, none of this would’ve happened...”

Terrible powerlessness. Guilt. Neither of them was a good emotion for a priest to harbor.

However, Davey understood Baron’s feelings. His past self might’ve felt sorry for the boy, yet as a father, the emotions he felt were bitterness and a strange kind of anger.

They were kids with no talent, yet dared to throw themselves into such danger and get themselves killed.

He began to think that perhaps the problem was that he'd simply let them go when the only enemies they were strong enough to handle were pitiful red mice. Even though they had been total strangers, they did share a meal, after all. In hindsight, he thought he could’ve at least cast a small buff on them.

“They're already dead,” Davey solemnly declared to the boy. “Their souls have moved on to the River of Reincarnation, so this is pointless. You’re only struggling and making things worse for everyone, even their memories.”

While Davey technically could summon their souls back for a moment or two, he chose not to. That would be nothing like a return to life. It would be wrong. Some wounds needed to be allowed to heal naturally, not disturbing the flow.

Alas, the boy was incapable of understanding such a thing at that moment. The loss was far too devastating. He shoved Davey away and prepared to continue his attempts, insisting, “It's not too late!”

Thump!

In the end, Davey was left with the only option of knocking him out and letting time heal the wounds no spells could remedy.

* * *

The sole survivor among the three mercenaries opened his eyes at dawn, silently staring up at the ceiling as he recalled what happened.

He had been unconscious for days, likely dehydrated and starving. He slowly sat up, then immediately let out a weary sigh.

Davey’s voice quickly cut in to remind him, “You need to drink and get something substantial in your stomach.”

The boy simply stayed silent, implying he wouldn't eat, and looked mentally broken.

Davey lifted a hand and motioned toward two corpses that lay on an old cart near the abandoned village, covered with straw to preserve what little dignity remained. “Their bodies are over there.”

“They... they really died, didn't they...” Baron hollowly muttered with a blank look on his face.

“They did,” Davey confirmed.

“If I... If I had only stopped them properly...”

Baron fell back into self-condemnation.

From what Davey could tell, the boy’s two companions had gotten caught up in their own momentum after handling a number of red mice. Emboldened by the victory, they’d immediately rushed off to tackle a more challenging subjugation quest. That led them to the cave where they lost their lives.

“Frankly, it’s not really your fault that you had such a mindset. Adventurer types always have this problem,” Davey wistfully told him. “It’s a tale as old as time, even where I’m from. ”

Nobody ever told them why something was dangerous, or what the risks were. There was no systematic instructor handbook ensuring new mercenaries—some effectively children—were adequately prepared to handle the harsh realities of the profession.

Davey couldn't expect the bubble world to have compulsory education like on Earth.

Besides, most mercenaries came from the lower class. No one would waste their time educating them, and few mercenaries would've taken such lessons to heart anyway. The profession lent itself well to the arrogant and overconfident.

“The price of recklessness is irreversible,” Davey lamented.

Tears falling from his eyes, Baron finally managed to ask him, “Why... why didn’t you...”

Davey gave him a silent look full of meaning.

‘Why didn't I tell you sooner?’

The boy bitterly smiled, understanding the implication. “Why didn't we realize it sooner? Just as we cut down and toyed with monsters, they could always do the same to us.”

“The world isn't easy for young guys like you.”

He ended up breaking down and silently crying again.

About five hours later, Baron was prepared to head down the mountain, pulling a cart containing the two bodies. Although it was a dangerous forest, he would be traveling on a safe route without monsters, so there was no need to worry about an ambush.

Still, just in case, Davey placed a small defensive spell within him with a bitter smile.

Expression still somewhat hollow, the boy made sure to turn to him and say, “Thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to recover their bodies.”

“Hey Baron.”

“Yes?”

“You have no talent as a simple supporting priest.”

“... You said that the first time you saw me.”

“I did. So, find another path instead. There are plenty you could discover a talent in.”

“I've been wondering... Who exactly are you?”

Davey let out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh. “Hah. Actually, what does it matter? Things ended up like this anyway, didn’t they?”

Davey silently watched him slowly walk away, his hollow face filled with bitterness.

Once the boy was out of sight, he turned back and remarked, “There must be a lot of kids like that in this world. Rinne, suppress your output appropriately and look around the area. If you make any big moves, they’ll catch on right away, so you have to control it well. Your power is too distinctive.”

“Order confirmed.”

Davey added, “And, just in case, if you get into a dangerous situation, you have permission to lift the restrictions.”

“If that were to occur, Rinne asserts that Lord Davey would be detected immediately. Escape would no longer be possible, capture inevitable.”

Davey pointed in the direction Baron had gone. “Can you say that after seeing what happened to those kids?”

Rinne’s head just tilted. “Lord Davey, Rinne analyzes that no being in this world can currently harm Rinne.”

“Historically, the strong usually die because they get too careless. Let this event be a reminder to ourselves that we have to be more careful.”

“Order confirmed.” Rinne flapped the wings on her back and flew up to canvass the area.

It seemed that the world contained crystals capable of corrupting the mana in the atmosphere, ultimately mutating monsters. Davey assumed that the mutated red mice and kobolds must've appeared after ordinary crystals were corrupted by that influence.

About two hours later, while he was playing with Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, Rinne returned. However, the report she gave had no notable findings. “Rinne evaluates mission performance ability lowly...”

“Haah. If you had found anything good, we could’ve gone to look at it right away and saved some time.”

Davey was on the run from Perserque, and claimed he simply needed to delay, but the situation he’d found himself in was far from reassuring. He knew her anger wouldn't just fade with time. The calmer she became, the more hurt she would feel, so he absolutely had to find something to give her before that happened.

“This won’t work. Rinne, let’s move out.”

“Lord Davey, Rinne analyzes that this forest is a safe zone.”

Davey wasn't simply staying there because it was out of the way and free of onlookers.

Throughout the Troy dimension, there were places with dense interference waves, and the abandoned village was one such place. He had cast an additional detection prevention barrier over it, as well.

“I thought about it.” A hint of bitterness crossed his smile as he continued, “I’ve been too complacent about how upset Perserque must be while I’m fleeing like this.”

* * *

Once they finished packing up all the camping gear, Davey left the village. It was a dead village with no one to send him off, but, then again, there was no one there in the first place to be leaving.

While quietly walking along the mountain path, Red Ribbon sat atop his neck, riding piggyback, and Blue Ribbon walked beside him, holding his hand tightly with her small, soft hand.

Rinne, meanwhile, moved swiftly, her eyes sparkling as she picked and tasted new fruits from all over the forest.

They walked like that for about an hour before one of the girls called out, “Dada! Over there.”

A castle, not too big but not small either, gradually came into view in the distance.

Seeing the yawning guards, it seemed there wasn't much in the area that could threaten them. What was even more surprising was that the inspection process was also extremely simple. It felt less like laziness and more like they had simply omitted complicated procedures in the interest of efficiency.

The guards greeted them with kind smiles.

“Welcome to Paranden.”