Chapter 145: The Face of a Holy Warrior
Chapter 145: The Face of a Holy Warrior
Chapter 145: The Face of a Holy Warrior
“……Gah!”
“Heh heh heh heh heh heh…”
“M-my name is Shiro! Familiar of the Holy Warrior Poer! Who are you?!”
“You have failed to realize despite falling prey to such enormous arcane energy? Ask yourself, Familiar Shiro… or should I say… Pochi, hmm?”
“H-how did you know that name?! What in the world-?!”
“I am one without a name, yet my existence is known by every life in this world.”
“Wha… that… that can’t be?!”
“Oh, but it can. I am the Devil King. To you insignificant mortals, I am the bringer of despair…”
“As if I’ll let you have your way! I am the most powerful of supreme beings! I will destroy you!”
“Hmph, a Familiar without a Master is nothing but cannon fodder! Now that the Super Genius Philosopher Asley is no more, it is but a simple task to send you to your grave…”
“C-cannon fodder?! You dare call me, the Prettiest and Sweetest of Sweets, cannon fodder?!”
“What is so wrong with stating the facts, hmm? Now, the conversation has dragged on long enough. Pochi, Familiar of Super-duper Genius Philosopher Asley… if you do not surrender, I shall have you retire… FROM YOUR LIFE, FOREVER!”
“-Okay, stop!!”
“What in the blazes?! We were just getting to the good part!”
“Do you even need to ask?! What’s up with you calling me cannon fodder?!”
“Well, I mean, I thought the Devil King might say something like that! Yeah!”
“No, he won’t! He’ll probably go ‘I won’t let you bully me!’ while in fear of my presence!”
“Yeah, some Devil King that is! What, is he gonna win a fight with, cuteness?!”
“Also, what’s up with your description of yourself?! Super Genius Philosopher Asley?! Seriously?!”
“You’re one to talk! The Prettiest and Sweetest of Sweets?! Really?!”
“I don’t see anything wrong with that!”
“Neither did I for mine, then!”
“I! Wanna be! Sweets!”
“I! Wanna be! Philosopher!”
“You damned fool!”
“You damned furball!”
“What in the world made you think the Devil King would appear around Brunnera, anyway?! It’s all
B-ranked monsters in the region north of here, for crying out loud!”
“You’re the one who started asking me what we would do if we met the Devil King! So we’re doing this… image training thing!”
“Yes, and you were so into it that it turned into you just role-playing Holy Warrior instead!”
“Hey, my acting skills are too good to be considered ‘just role-playing’! Besides, you were totally enjoying it!”
“You’re one to talk, Master!”
“Well the Great Hero Asley, who had died on the way to save his friends, was supposed to be revived at the point you stopped! Would’ve been super hype to surprise the heck out of the Devil King with that moment!”
“It’s unfair that you got to hog the awesome entrance for yourself! Kill me, too!”
“I see, I see… you think it’d be better that both of us make the entrance at once, huh? Then let’s give it a try… NOT! It’s about time for the Adventurers’ Guild to free up… c’mon, let’s go.”
“Yes, sir. Time sure flies when we’re having… fun… with our role-playing.”
The more elaborate the role-play, the bigger dreams we’ll have, after all.
Once we had arrived at Brunnera, Lylia immediately left us; Giorno remarked how we might meet again ‘if fate would have it’, and then faded into the hustle and bustle of the town.
I suppose defeating one Giant Murderer wasn’t quite enough to earn their recognition, considering how Giorno had taken two, and Lylia three.
Our levels were still relatively low, and so was our knowledge of things in this era.
Fatigued from the journey, we had spent a night resting up before visiting the Adventurers’ Guild with the intention to raise our levels. Seeing how the place was so crowded, though, we had gone out for a walk all the way out here, and ended up doing the role-playing thing – with Pochi becoming the Familiar of a Holy Warrior and me playing the Devil King.
Setting and script planning had taken two hours. Then the actual play went on for five minutes before it had been stopped; the time now was mere minutes before noon. We headed back to the Adventurers’ Guild, thinking it ought to have freed up some space by now.
Sure enough, the long queue was now gone. Pochi and I were finally able to put our hands on the precious Craft Circle.
In anticipation of the final result, I distracted myself from the countless fanfares that rang up in my head. Once that was over, I invoked my Appraisal Glasses.
“…Ooh.”
????????????????????
NAME: ASLEY
TITLES: The Eternal Fool, The Polarizing, Hermit Candidate, Great Mage, Advanced Alchemist, Staff Master, Six Archmages (Tentative), Honored Teacher, Rank S, Top Student, Papa, No Guts, SS Slayer, Guardian Mage (Tentative), The Strong, The Swift, Below Familiar, Ancient Slayer, Devil King (Tentative)
LV: 131
HP: 6,091
MP: 69,999
EXP: 28,877,409
SPECIAL SKILLS:
- Attack Magic (Skilled)
- Support Magic (Skilled)
- Recovery Magic (Skilled)
- Purification (Skilled)
- Fortify Strength
- Fortify Resilience
- Tempest
- Light Body
???????????????????
NAME: POCHI
TITLES: Advanced Familiar, The Powerful, Wolf Saint, Watchwolf, Mage, One Who Requires, Earplugs, Godparent, Sweet Tooth, The One Raised by the Fool, The Swift, The Strong, Ancient Slayer, Sweets (Tentative)
LV: 147
HP: 13,122
MP: 3,842
EXP: 41,705,318
SPECIAL SKILLS:
- Breath Attack (Zenith)
- Air Claw
- Gigantification
- Tempest
- Fortify Strength
- Light Body
- Fortify Resilience
- Attack magic (Elementary)
- Support Magic (Intermediate)
- Recovery Magic (Elementary)
????????????????????
I’m actually turning into the Devil King…
The weird thing aside, the growth rates of my HP and MP were quite remarkable after I had gone past level 100.
Could this be the power of God at work? No wonder the difference was so great compared to our original time.
“I’m actually turning into sweets!”
“H-hey, my glasses! When’d you even-?!”
Seeing Pochi wear my glasses without permission, I reached to snatch them back – and realized that something was different with my body.
“Whoa?! I feel light as a feather!”
“Leveling up by the dozens at once will give you that feeling, yes. Keep in mind that things have been easy since Giorno and Lylia have been helping us raise our levels up to now. We won’t have them around from now on, though, we’ve got to trudge our way through by ourselves!”
Quite rare to hear Pochi take things seriously, but, well, she was right.
Giorno had said that he would head back to Sodom after he finished up his businesses here, so it would indeed be a long time until we meet again, if at all, if fate wouldn’t have it that way.
“Hey~~ don’t hog him to yourself!”
“What? If you’re going to complain, why don’t you go find someone else? I’m obviously the prettier one, right, my boy?”
“Hahahahaha, no catfighting around here, you two~~”
If it was by God’s will that we had been brought to this era, then I wonder, what should we be doing?
We hadn’t received any instruction from the Divine Messenger. Perhaps it would be safe to assume that the original order, ‘devoting myself to my studies,’ still held true.
“Now, I’m not THAT small!”
“Are you saying that you have nothing but size, hmm~~?”
“Shut up! You’re one to talk, having a washboard for your chest!”
“Hahahaha, your sizes don’t matter! I’ll always be your hero!”
As things stood, we currently could get stronger only while in this era.
So what I’m thinking of for now is to level up as much as possible, while also searching for the formula of the Limit Breakthrough Craft Circle, or at least its details, to bring back to our future.
It’s a lot to take on, but our experiences in this era will surely prove to be useful down the line.
“Oh, Lil’ G~~ You’re so sweet~~”
“Really, I just can’t get enough of you!”
“Hahahaha, I don’t know about that… Maybe we’ll have to wait for tonight to be sure, hmm?”
“Yeesh…”
“You naughty boy…”
I mustn’t turn around. If I do, the idealistic image I have of a Holy Warrior will crumble to pieces.
These three voices I had been hearing for a while now… I was sure that one among them was someone I knew… but I had a feeling that I mustn’t look.
My assumption was that the three included ‘small,’ ‘sizable,’ and ‘that guy.’ I’d never expected him to be the kind to start drinking at the Adventurers’ Guild in the middle of the day.
When the conversation behind us started to escalate, Pochi covered her face with her paws and bolted right out of the Guild.
‘We won’t have them around from now on,’ huh? Who said that, again? I’ll remember to slap Pochi’s tail as punishment later. Yeah, it’s gonna feel real good.
Anyways, we still have a week’s worth of spending money left, so there’s no need to overwork ourselves with the quests.
Hunting monsters in the region should be more than enough for us to get by while we plan our next move. All right, let’s do that.
For now, though, I just… have to walk away… and excuse myself from the Guild-
“Well well, if it isn’t my man Poer!”
My clothes do stand out quite a bit in this era, so… I suppose it was just a matter of time until we were found again.
I turned around in an awkward motion to see Giorno there, conversing in a topic I wasn’t versed in at all.
Fortunately, he only grinned and energetically waved to me. I answered him with a strained smile and waved while trying to keep my hands from shaking. Giorno, without saying anything, proceeded to point to one corner of the bulletin board.
What is it…? Oh, there’s a peculiar request paper stuck there.
Could it be that he was recommending a good quest for me?
Assuming that, I bowed lightly to thank Giorno before walking up to the board.
This particular one was spaced quite far away from the rest. Chances were that it had been ignored for a long time. From how old the paper looked, it was likely untouched for at least a year now.
I have a bad feeling about this. If it’s a job no one wanted to do, then it’s probably not something I’d like to try, either.
From what I had been, the difficulty level here in Brunnera was close to that of future Beilanea. However, just as Giorno had said before, I had seen almost no one dressed like a mage around here.
The fact that this job had been left open for so long meant that either it was exceedingly difficult, or exceedingly not worth it. Now, let’s see here…
????????????????????
JOB DESCRIPTION: Tutor of the Arcane Arts for Bright Fulbright, Eldest Son of House Fulbright.
REQUIREMENTS:
– ONE: The candidate must be an adventurer of rank A or greater.
– TWO: The candidate must be male.
– THREE: The candidate must not be homosexual.
REWARD: Payment upon successful term completion
REMARKS: The candidate will be interviewed to gauge his eligibility by June Fulbright, Eldest Daughter of House Fulbright
????????????????????