Chapter 783

After that, for a while, Hersela kept getting all worked up, saying things like, “How can you so casually promise to grant any wish? That’s dangerous!”

What did I say? Then she went on, “What if Damien demands your chastity? What would you do?” What a ridiculous thing to say.

And then there was that nonsense about Damien being a tree hugger or that he’d lust after me as a wish. Sure, I get that at my age, I’m supposed to be interested in that kind of stuff, but come on, why are you only spouting delusional fantasies like some horny beast?

“Worrying is just part of life. Damien would never make such a wish, and even if he did, there’s no way I’d grant it, right?”

If I granted a wish like that, Milia would probably go berserk, kill both of us, and then herself.

[Did you lie again?]

“Lie? I said I’d grant a wish if it was within my power, not that I’d fulfill any wish, no matter what. So even if Damien suddenly lost his mind and asked for something like that, I’d just say it’s not a wish I can grant and wiggle out of it.”

“Honestly, you and Damien are both so short-sighted.”

I laughed at their lack of brains, teased them a bit, and then lay down in my sleeping bag to sleep.

[No way, if a man who defeated you demanded such a thing, you think you could just brush it off with wordplay—]

“…….”

I thought I heard Hersela grumbling about something, but as soon as I lay down, sleep hit me like a tidal wave, so I didn’t catch it properly.

[Sigh… I should just stop talking. You’re so immature, it’s infuriating.]

Well, it was probably just useless complaints anyway.

—

Four days passed.

I trudged through the snowstorm, trying to recall my memories as I headed toward the place where I’d found the Holy Sword.

Damien was skeptical, wondering if this was really the way to find the Holy Sword.

Well, of course, he’d be suspicious. I wasn’t searching every nook and cranny like a normal search operation. Instead, I was just changing directions and moving forward all day, so it was only natural he’d have doubts.

“Hey, Ha-shal-leur. Just wondering…”

“What?”

“Do you already know where the Holy Sword is?”

It was a fair question. My actions looked less like searching for something lost and more like heading straight for a specific destination.

“No. I’m just going by gut feeling.”

Of course, I couldn’t say I knew exactly where it was, so I gave my usual half-truth answer.

No one in this world knew the exact location of the Holy Sword, not even Rotholandus. If I said I knew, it’d look way too suspicious.

I couldn’t lie and say Rotholandus told me. Damien might believe it, but Hersela, who was in my head at the time, would immediately know it was a lie.

“…Gut feeling?”

Damien looked at me like I was crazy. Like, are you seriously wandering around this mountain range based on nothing but a hunch?

“Yeah, for the past few days, my gut’s been telling me this is the right path. So we’re just gonna keep going.”

It wasn’t a lie.

I knew the general direction, but I couldn’t be sure if the scenery I was seeing matched my memories, so I was just going with the flow.

So, saying I was going by gut feeling wasn’t exactly a lie, right?

“There’s no way you can find it like that…”

Damien sighed deeply, looking at me with disbelief. He had the face of a pirate who’d been sailing the open seas following a treasure map, only to realize the captain had been holding the map upside down when the food ran out.

You know, the kind of face that makes you want to mutiny and throw the captain overboard.

“Listen, just because I said it’s a gut feeling doesn’t mean I’m wandering around with no basis, okay?”

“Then what?”

“Think about it. I’m the descendant of the Twelve Knights and the Saintess of Goddess Astraea, right?”

[Proof that the world’s gone mad.]

Hersela chuckled.

[But I’ll give you credit for this one. Saying ‘even though I look like this’ shows you’ve got at least a drop of conscience. You’ve grown, kid.]

You’re the one who hasn’t grown.

“What are you talking about? You’re the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon who spends all day having lewd fantasies.”

[W-what…!]

Ignoring Hersela’s flustered reaction, I turned back to Damien and continued.

“The Saintess, who carries the blood of the Twelve Knights, is searching for the Holy Sword. Do you really think the intuition I’m feeling is just a baseless delusion? I don’t think so.”

“…So you’re saying you’ve received a revelation?”

I shrugged and tapped the Holy Mark on my chest.

“Maybe. People say a falling cross decoration is a sign of God’s will, so if revelations are that vague and ambiguous, maybe this intuition is a kind of revelation too?”

That wasn’t a lie either. I just said it might be a revelation, not that I’d definitely received one.

“Well then… let’s keep going.”

“Of course.”

Naturally, Damien, being a human of this world, believed it was a revelation just because someone with a Holy Mark said so.

—

Two days later, we finally found a clue to the Holy Sword.

It wasn’t me who found it.

I’d just brought Damien close to the location, but since I couldn’t find the exact entrance, we’d been wandering the snowfield.

It was Damien who found the clue.

“This feeling… what is it?”

As expected of the hero destined to wield the Holy Sword. As we got closer, Damien started feeling a strange pull he couldn’t explain.

It was like the revelation and intuition I’d mentioned had become real.

From then on, it wasn’t me leading Damien, but Damien guiding me. The closer we got to the Holy Sword, the stronger the pull became, like a male drawn by a female’s pheromones.

After crossing several mountains, passing through a cave in the middle of a peak, and descending a crevasse formed by rolling rocks, we finally arrived.

At the bottom of a deep, deep canyon. A massive frozen lake surrounded by cliffs.

[Definitely, there’s something here.]

Hersela murmured in awe. Well, it made sense. It didn’t look like an ordinary lake.

The towering cliffs blocked the sun, casting a pitch-black shadow over the lake, but the frozen surface still glowed brightly.

A blue light reminiscent of a reactor core, with white streaks of light swirling through it. It was clear something unnatural was at work.

—

“Is it down there?”

I stepped onto the ice sheet of the lake and pointed below, asking for confirmation. It looked exactly like the scenery in my memory, but I still needed to double-check.

“Yeah. Definitely. I feel like I should dive in right now.”

Damien nodded as he answered. I couldn’t help but laugh at his reckless analogy.

“You’d freeze to death.”

Even with the Beastmen’s fur and my flames keeping us warm, there’s a limit. If we got soaked in icy water, we’d freeze to death before we could even warm up.

“That’s true… This is tricky. We need to get down there somehow.”

Damien looked genuinely troubled.

His fidgeting was oddly comical, like a dog desperate to find a bathroom.

“Don’t worry about it. Professor Ha-shal-leur always has the answers.”

I chuckled and gently pushed Damien back, then looked down at the ice sheet and shrugged.

“Stay floating for a bit.”

“Answers? What are you planning to do…?”

Damien asked nervously.

What do you mean, “planning”? People will think I’m always causing trouble.

“What am I planning? This.”

I spread my legs, lowered my stance, and pulled back my clenched right fist, aiming it at the water’s surface.

– Drdrrdrdrd…

The Strength of Divine Blood and the feats of a superhuman combined, creating a noise like a mountain being split apart.

“If the icy water’s the problem—”

I awakened the Life Force Technique and the Rune of Fire, wrapping my right arm in flames.

– Goooooo

An immense heat compressed into my fist, distorting the air. It was like holding a black sun.

The ice sheet beneath my feet melted from the heat, sending up a fierce steam.

In the storm of steam, with a black sun in my right hand,

“Ha-shal-leur, wait, wait!”

“—then we’ll just drain the water, right?”

I grinned and slammed my fist into the water.

The Life Force Flame, hot enough to vaporize steel, pierced the blue lake like a meteor.