Ch.882Waiting Time

From that day on, I secluded myself in the hermitage provided by the Small Forest, completely immersed in training.

Waiting for the day when the Celestial Demon Palace would attack the Small Forest.

It probably wouldn’t take long.

The forest keeper of Small Forest, Diarma, said they would guide Persiella toward the Small Forest themselves.

So, all I needed to do was continue alternating between training and rest until that moment arrived.

So that when the opportunity finally came, I could seize my objective in one go.

—-

I had two goals.

To eliminate the fifth apostle who would be a constant threat if left alive, and to bring down the leader of the Celestial Demon Palace to stop the Holy-Demonic War itself.

Once Persiella, the overwhelmingly powerful one, disappeared, the righteous and demonic factions would regain their balance of power.

If they continued fighting in such a state, both sides would only face mutual destruction, so unless their leaders were empty-headed, both factions would have no choice but to stop fighting and choose a truce.

Just as the First Holy-Demonic War had fizzled out that way.

‘…Yes, this is the best plan.’

Quickly deal with the Celestial Demon and the 5th Apostle, hand over the credit to the righteous faction, and swiftly withdraw to return home.

No matter how much I thought about it, there was no better method.

My purpose wasn’t to annihilate the demonic Dragonborn or anything like that, but to kill the apostle who was the root cause of the war and minimize the number of casualties.

If they fought until one side was destroyed, there would be massive casualties whether in victory or defeat. That would ultimately only benefit Feyrus and the apostles.

The apostle’s goal was to harvest countless deaths to break Heaven’s Wall.

Whether enemy or ally, as long as many died, they could achieve their purpose.

So I had to choose a method that would result in as few deaths as possible, whether enemy or ally.

…What about the Ka’har? Didn’t I try to annihilate them all?

Well, that was unavoidable.

Unlike the Dragonborn who would choose a truce if the war situation became ambiguous, the Ka’har were stubborn enough to keep attacking unless they were on the brink of death.

Moreover, their leaders were all mortal enemies with me… or more precisely, with Hersella.

If our powers were in equilibrium, they wouldn’t maintain a cold war state but would consider it worth waging a full-scale war, bringing all their forces to attack.

They were the kind who would target me and the west until the end unless I beat them to the point where they couldn’t even breathe.

At least, that’s what I thought.

That’s why I couldn’t help but be surprised by Mersin’s proposal for a three-year truce.

It was a concept difficult for them to come up with.

…Anyway, for that reason, I decided to join the righteous Dragonborn group alone to eliminate Bernard and Persiella.

I was a bit concerned that Persiella was the sister of Dragon King Cylude…

But well, if she died during battle with the righteous Dragonborn, they couldn’t really complain.

The fact that she and the Dragon King were siblings was top-secret information known only to the core executives of the Celestial Demon Palace.

So if I firmly denied knowing, what could they do?

If they made a big issue of it, it would only lead to a scandal that the Dragon King tried to oppress the righteous Dragonborn using his thugs.

If Persiella didn’t die but escaped and started bringing in palace forces, there could be some problems, but otherwise, there was no need to worry.

—-

[Hmm… the best plan, you say…]

The voice in my head sighed lightly with suspicion.

‘Is there a problem?’

[As you know, your “best plans” rarely work out properly. I don’t think this time will be any different.]

As always, it was a terrible slander.

Saying my plans rarely work out properly. What a baseless accusation.

True, plans often went awry, but still, two or three times out of ten, they succeeded more or less as planned.

A 20-30% success rate is an incredibly high figure.

In mobile games from my original world, people would easily spend millions of won when the gacha probability increased from 0.4% to 1.4%, calling it a great deal.

A probability nearly twenty times that is practically divine.

‘Well… if I’m unlucky, the plan might go a bit wrong, but I can always improvise to fill in the gaps. That’s what I’ve always done, right?’

I tapped the hilt of Durandal, answering with more confidence than before.

‘Trust me. Even if Lena is an exception, Nigel and Jahan believed in me after seeing “that,” saying I couldn’t possibly lose.’

When this operation was first proposed, several retainers, including Nigel, expressed deep concern or outright opposition, saying it was too dangerous.

The Dragon Kingdom in civil war—how could they send me alone to such a dangerous place?

However, convincing them wasn’t difficult. There was no need for lengthy persuasion.

‘No matter how strong Persiella is, would she be as strong as the evil god’s arm we fought? Don’t worry. There’s nothing I can’t cut now.’

All I had to do was take those who opposed out of concern for my safety outdoors and swing my sword toward the sky.

【 Defying Fate – Heaven Slash 】

Under the sky split in half revealing starlight.

Nigel and the other retainers looked at me with a mixture of infinite trust and awe, completely setting aside their concerns for my safety.

That’s right.

After the Battle of Ordos, I spent entire days locked in the training ground, alternating between training and sleep, and finally managed to perfectly embody the power of severance.

To a level where I could use it in actual combat against enemies of my caliber.

In other words, to a level where I could manifest and wield the power of severance while my Tale of Heros, Defying Fate, was active.

And thus I obtained it.

The ultimate cutting technique that combined Defying Fate’s time compression, void’s long-range attack, and severance’s spatial cutting to slice through even beyond the clouds.

Heaven Slash.

With my current power, I could only manage it once, but that one strike was enough to convince the opposition.

[Hah, well done, very well done indeed.]

Hersella let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.

[In my view, you should bow three times a day in the direction where my mother sleeps.]

‘Bow?’

[Yes. Isn’t it thanks to the power residing in my mother’s sword and the battle with ancestors brought by her remains that you can use that technique? Without learning the technique to cut through space through that, it would have been impossible.]

…Hmm.

I wanted to refute but couldn’t. Hersella’s words were facts without any exaggeration.

[Therefore, shouldn’t you rightfully express gratitude and respect to my mother? For the rest of your life.]

‘…Well, if you insist.’

I felt a bit disgruntled, but I nodded without objection.

I had certainly received a lot of help from this “Imelia’s bloodline” all this time, so it wouldn’t hurt to bow a few times.

—-

Anyway, for that reason, I continued my training in seclusion.

“Urrrgh!”

Sometimes lifting boulder-sized rocks with pure strength to further train my body,

– Kiiiiing!

Or repeatedly manifesting and withdrawing the power of severance as quickly as possible to reduce the time it takes to manifest it by even 0.1 seconds.

Perhaps due to the serene atmosphere unique to mountain hermitages, it was a surprisingly peaceful time despite the fierce battle ahead.

…There was just one thing I was dissatisfied with.

“Astika, I have brought your breakfast.”

The Dragonborn who had guided me to the hermitage brought me carefully prepared food three times a day at mealtimes.

Perhaps because it was a diet worthy of being presented to a foreign queen, there weren’t many dishes, but the quality of the cooking itself was surprisingly excellent.

The taste was quite good too.

The problem was…

“…Vegetables again?”

I looked down at the surprisingly green-filled table and grumbled.

Perhaps because a sigh escaped involuntarily, the Dragonborn who brought the food fidgeted uncomfortably and bowed his head in apology.

“Um… I’m sorry. Our Small Forest prohibits fire-cooking, so… obtaining meat is…”

That’s right.

These Small Forest Dragonborn, surprisingly, did not eat any meat at all and lived only on vegetarian food!

When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke, wondering what kind of lizard-grazing nonsense this was, but they really did eat only vegetables for days on end.

And even then, they avoided strong-smelling vegetables like garlic or green onions, serving only bland greens.

Suddenly eating only vegetables three meals a day, I felt like I was going crazy thinking about meat.

Even if it wasn’t a wild animal or livestock but a Werebeast, I felt like I could roast one alive and tear into it right now.

They were trying to take care of me as a state guest by selecting the best vegetables, but they were still just vegetables.

People need to eat meat. Meat, not plants.

Really, eating only plants makes your mind go strange!

I’ve met several such people before, and most of them lived spewing endless anger toward everything in the world.

…Ah, is that why these guys live on vegetarian food?

Ferocity and violence are the essence of Dragonborn.

So, when they go crazy from not eating meat, do they become gentle and compassionate instead?

It was a surprisingly plausible theory for something I came up with.

======[ Persiella ]======

“Small Forest is insulting me?”

At the Celestial Demon Palace’s frontline base.

Persiella, sitting on the dragon throne in her temporary quarters, showed interest in her subordinate’s report and asked for details.

“Yes! It’s truly outrageous, but they said… well… that…”

The Dragonborn who came to report hesitated to speak, as if the insult was too blasphemous to relay directly.

“Hmph.”

Persiella let out a light snort, as if asking why he was being so cautious.

Of course, since a mask covered her face, all the kneeling reporter could see was a cold gaze devoid of emotion.

“Speak. I won’t mind whatever they said.”

“…Yes! I will report!”

The Dragonborn bowed his head deeply and reported the exact words of the ‘Small Forest’ as he had heard them.

“They said, ‘Is that Celestial trash from the Demonic Path still unable to come to her senses after being beaten like a dog and retreating? How pathetically womanlike to take out her frustrations on the weak.'”

Indeed, it was a statement that would make any subordinate wary of their lord’s reaction.

Did Persiella know? Even this statement had been censored of several insults.

In reality, it contained insults three or four times more severe than what was reported.

“Ha, interesting. Very interesting. Have those grass-eating bald ones finally lost their minds? I understand. You may go now.”

Persiella stroked her mask and let out a hollow laugh before dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

The kneeling Dragonborn jumped up, paid his respects, and darted out of the Celestial Demon’s quarters.

“Hehe. Interesting. Very interesting…”

Left alone, Persiella leaned back on her dragon throne with a soft laugh.

‘A provocation in this situation… what could have happened to them?’

She pondered the reason why Small Forest would openly provoke her.