Ch.783Finally found it?

After that, for a while, Hersella kept nagging me nervously, asking if it was really okay to make such a dangerous promise to grant any wish so lightly.

What did she say? Something about what if Demian demanded my chastity? It was an absurd thing to say.

Both the crazy talk about Demian being a tree-hugger and the nonsense about him coveting my body as a wish.

I understand that she’s at an age where she’s interested in such things… but still, why is she spouting fantasies like some animal in heat?

‘What a silly worry. Demian would never make such a wish, and even if he did, there’s no way I’d grant such nonsense.’

If I granted that kind of wish, Millia would go berserk and kill us both before killing herself.

[So you were lying again?]

‘What lie? I said I’d grant wishes “within my power,” not that I’d fulfill any wish whatsoever.’

So even if Demian went crazy and demanded such a thing as a wish, I could just refuse by saying it’s beyond what I can grant.

‘You and Demian are both so short-sighted not to realize that.’

I mocked their stupidity as I lay down in my sleeping bag and tried to sleep.

[No, if a man who has overpowered you demands such a thing, do you really think you can escape with mere wordplay—]

‘……’

I thought I heard Hersella grumbling something, but I fell asleep immediately after lying down, so I couldn’t hear it properly.

[Sigh… I should just stop talking. You’re such an immature girl it’s infuriating.]

Well, it was probably just pointless complaints anyway.

—-

Four days passed like that.

Even in the snow-covered wilderness with blizzards, I somehow managed to recall my memories and headed toward the place where I had found the holy sword.

Demian questioned whether we could actually find the holy sword this way.

Well, I wasn’t systematically searching an area before moving to another location, but just moving forward all day while occasionally changing direction, so it’s natural he’d be suspicious.

“Um, Haschal. I was wondering…”

“What?”

“Do you already know where the holy sword is?”

It was a reasonable question. My behavior looked less like someone searching for a missing object and more like someone heading toward a clear destination.

“No. I’m just going by intuition.”

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

No one in this world, not even Rotholandus, knew the exact location of the holy sword, so it would be extremely suspicious if I knew it.

I couldn’t lie and say Rotholandus told me.

Demian might believe it, but Hersella, who was listening in my head at the time, would immediately know it was a lie.

“…Intuition?”

Demian asked incredulously. His face clearly said, “Are we really wandering around this mountain range based on nothing but unfounded intuition?”

“Yes, for days now my intuition has been telling me. That this path is the right one. That we should keep going.”

It wasn’t a lie.

I knew the general path, but I couldn’t be certain if the landscape I was seeing now matched the one in my memory, so I was proceeding with the belief that this was the right way.

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

“There’s no way we can find it like this…”

Demian looked at me with disbelieving eyes and sighed deeply.

He looked like a pirate who had been sailing the vast ocean following a treasure map, only to realize the captain had been holding the map upside down when they were about to run out of food.

Like he was about to stage a mutiny, make the captain pay, and then throw the useless captain overboard.

“No, listen. I said intuition, but do you really think I’d be doing this with absolutely no basis and just a vague feeling?”

“Then what?”

“Think about it. Despite appearances, I’m a descendant of the Great’s Twelve Knights and a saint of the goddess Astraea.”

[Proof that this world has gone mad.]

Hersella snickered.

[Though I must give you credit for one thing. Saying “despite appearances” shows you’ve developed at least an ant’s teardrop of conscience. You’re becoming human, well done.]

And you’re not human at all.

‘What are you saying? Self-proclaimed Heavenly Devil who spends all day having lewd fantasies.’

[W-what did you say…!]

Ignoring Hersella who started sputtering at my counterattack, I turned to Demian and continued what I was trying to say.

“When a saint with the blood of the Twelve Knights is searching for a holy sword, do you really think the intuition I’m feeling is just a baseless illusion? I don’t think so.”

“…Are you saying you received some kind of revelation?”

I shrugged lightly and tapped my stigmata with my finger.

“Maybe. People claim divine will has been fulfilled just because a dangling cross ornament fell, so if revelations are such vague and unclear phenomena, perhaps this intuition could also be a form of revelation.”

This wasn’t a lie either. I only said it might be a revelation, not that I had definitely received one.

“If that’s the case… let’s keep going for now.”

“Of course we should.”

Of course, Demian, being a person of this world, seemed to believe that the revelation was certain since someone bearing the stigmata said so.

—-

Two days later, we finally found a clue to locate the holy sword.

It wasn’t me who found it.

I had merely brought Demian to a place near the holy sword, but I couldn’t find the exact entrance and was wandering around the snow field.

It was Demian, not me, who found the clue to the holy sword.

“This feeling, what is it…?”

As expected of the hero destined to be the owner of the holy sword. As we got closer to the holy sword, Demian began to feel a strange attraction that he couldn’t properly explain himself.

The revelation and intuition I had used as an excuse had become reality.

From then on, it wasn’t me leading Demian, but Demian guiding me. Following the increasingly strong pounding of his heart as we got closer to the holy sword, like a male drawn to a female’s pheromones.

After crossing several mountains, passing through a cave that cut through the middle of a peak, and descending a crevasse cliff created by digging into the middle of a snowfield, we finally reached our destination after half a day.

The bottom of a deep, deep ravine. A massive frozen lake surrounded by cliffs on all sides.

[Indeed, it does seem like something could be here.]

Hersella let out a quiet exclamation of admiration. Well, it was understandable. Even at a glance, it looked far from an ordinary lake.

Towering cliffs blocked the sun, casting pitch-black shadows over the lake, but the frozen surface of the still lake was nonetheless shining brightly.

Blue radiance reminiscent of a nuclear reactor core, and white streaks of light that penetrated and rotated between the blue light. It was evidence that some unusual force was at work, not a natural phenomenon.

—-

“You think it’s down there?”

I stood on the ice of the lake, pointing down, asking for confirmation. It looked exactly like the scene in my memory, but I still needed to make a final check.

“Yes. I’m certain. I feel like I need to dive in right now.”

Demian nodded and answered. I burst out laughing at his reckless comparison.

“You’d freeze to death if you did.”

Even with werebeast leather and my flames maintaining body temperature, there are limits. Exposure to a blizzard might be manageable, but being soaked in ice water would cause death by hypothermia before the heat could warm the body.

“That’s true… This is troublesome. But somehow I need to get down there.”

Demian couldn’t hide his perplexed expression.

His fidgeting was comically similar to a puppy that urgently needed a bathroom.

“Don’t worry about that. Professor Haschal always has the answer.”

I smiled and gently pushed Demian back, then looked down at the ice while lightly massaging my shoulder.

“Spread your wings and hover for a bit.”

“Answer? What exactly are you planning to do…?”

Demian asked anxiously.

Planning to do? Anyone listening would think I’m always causing trouble.

“What am I planning? This.”

I widened my stance, lowered my posture, and pulled back my tightly clenched right fist, aiming at the water’s surface.

– Crrrack…

As divine blood’s strength combined with superhuman prowess, a noise like grinding rocks reverberated through my arm.

“If ice water is the problem—”

I wrapped Karma flames around my right arm, awakening the power of Murder Karma and the flame rune.

– Whoooosh

Tremendous heat compressed into my fist distorted the air. Like holding a black sun.

The ice beneath my feet melted from the heat, creating fierce steam.

In the storm of mist-like steam, with a black sun wrapped around my right hand,

“Haschal, wait, just wait!”

“—then we just need to drain the water, right?”

With a grin, I drove my fist down toward the water’s surface.

The Murder Karma flames, capable of vaporizing even steel, pierced through the blue lake like a meteor.