Chapter 102

After Hector stepped back with an impressed expression, Demona stepped forward this time.

Roan instinctively thought, ‘Are these jerks taking turns to torment me?’

Well, come to think of it, they always did.

“This won’t do! Everyone, stop!”

“What’s wrong, Demona?”

His friends stopped walking in response to Demona’s words.

Demona spoke with an incredibly serious expression.

“Why else! Let’s offer a prayer of gratitude to Roan’s parents! We prayed when we picked up the Black Knight’s egg, and they seem to have been helping us even better since then.”

“As expected of Demona!”

“The Wycronon family knows proper manners!”

“Gratitude…!”

His friends nodded heavily as if they hadn’t thought of it, and gathered in a circle following Demona.

In the blink of an eye, Roan found himself standing in the center of the circle of friends.

“No, there’s no need to go that far…”

Since doing this in the middle of the road was quite eye-catching, Roan tried to stop his friends.

— Hey, look at that.

— Hik, isn’t that Darc? What is he doing?

— He must have told his friends to worship him…

But it was already too late.

The passing students pointed at Roan and his friends, looking at them as if they were ridiculous.

…Even in Roan’s eyes, it was indeed ridiculous.

Roan bit his lower lip and glared at them.

It meant they should shut up and keep walking if they weren’t going to save him.

— S-Should we pray together too?

— Forget it! What if Darc tells us to join his gang because of that!

— Hieek, I don’t want to get beaten half to death and then subjected to healing holy magic!

As soon as they made eye contact with Roan, the students were startled and scattered in all directions.

“Thank you for taking care of us while you look after Roan. You may take some of the food I eat…”

“…Demona, isn’t that prayer a bit strange?”

“As long as the meaning gets across~”

In the midst of that, the prayer led by Demona ended.

Sion, in particular, as befitted a Saintess candidate, prayed so sincerely with her immense holy power stats that she almost radiated light.

‘To think she would even use a benediction for a prayer like this.’

A benediction was a prayer offered by consuming holy power. Unlike a general prayer, it had the official effect of truly touching the soul and invoking blessings.

Since it wasn’t something one could offer just because they wanted to, it was a moment that showed a glimpse of Sion’s talent.

‘I offer my gratitude to those who always support and protect Darc.’

The content of Sion’s benediction was roughly like this.

While Roan was looking at Sion with a lukewarm expression.

Sion, having finished her prayer, raised her head refreshingly.

‘Offering a benediction after a long time makes me feel good!’

A benediction coming from the heart had this kind of side effect.

Sion faced Roan with a gratified expression.

But at that moment, she was startled.

“E-Ehh!”

“What’s wrong, Sion?”

As Sion backed away a step in surprise, Rafia watched her with concern.

“T-There, next to Roan…”

“Next to Roan?”

Rafia followed Sion’s gaze, but there was nothing there.

But Sion’s eyes could clearly see them.

Two tiny lights circling slowly, yet vividly, around Roan!

Furthermore, the aura felt from the lights was so incredibly holy that tears ran down Sion’s cheeks before she knew it.

‘It was… it was really true!’

Sion on her part reflected on her past of doubting Roan.

Roan’s parents were indeed staying by his side and telling him everything!

Besides, wasn’t Roan staring at her awkwardly, like a teenage girl whose long-hidden secret had just been exposed?

That expression confirmed everything.

…Or so Sion thoroughly misunderstood.

‘What’s wrong with her?’

Roan looked with strange eyes at Sion, who was crying tears of emotion as if she had just experienced a miracle all on her own.

There had to be a reason to make a fuss.

Praying among themselves and reacting like that while staring at empty space was closer to being cringe than making a fuss.

Hummm—

Just then, False Divinity and the Librarian of the Restricted Archives vibrated faintly.

‘Huh?’

Roan reacted as if asking why the two of them were suddenly stepping up.

Haha, it’s been a while since we felt a sincere benediction, so we couldn’t help ourselves.

She is a very warm child, brother!

Only then did Roan think he knew why Sion was acting that way all of a sudden.

It seemed the two authorities that reacted to Sion’s benediction had revealed their presence to her eyes.

Sion must have mistakenly assumed they were Roan’s real parents.

And of all things, the count was exactly two.

‘Well, this is actually better.’

Roan spoke to Sion, not caring either way.

“I don’t know why you’re doing that, but I believe in you, Sion.”

At that, Sion could no longer hold it in. Large teardrops rolled down her face as her eyes went wide, and she even covered her mouth.

Then, she nodded repeatedly.

“I will. I’ll believe in Darc from now on too…”

Roan, making the absolute most of even a minor (?) misunderstanding!

“What’s up with you two? Roan, why do you exclude me and only believe in Sion?”

Just then, Demona squeezed between them and spoke with a grumpy face.

Roan stared at Demona in disbelief.

“Do I have no one else to trust that I would trust you?”

“Heeing, you’re mean…”

Demona also seemed to agree that asking him to trust her was a bit too much, so she made a crying face but accepted it.

And Demona would definitely be perfectly fine again in no time anyway.

“Wow! Once the divine beasts are born, let’s have a holy war! A holy war!”

‘Even considering that, she recovers too fast.’

Roan thought that if one lived like Demona, life would be very easy even for a black mage.

Of course, now that a holy war was mentioned, there was no way Hector would miss out.

“Great! Huff, huff! If a divine beast is born, I can do a holy war too!”

Hector even exhaled hot breaths and jumped up and down along with Demona.

“Hmm…”

Roan debated whether to tell Hector the truth he didn’t know yet, but decided against it.

He felt bad throwing cold water on him when he was so happy.

Instead, there was something he had to point out.

“Hector, you haven’t forgotten the Thousand-Eyed Pitted Serpent, right?”

At that, Hector stopped jumping and immediately became sullen.

“O-Of course I remember…”

As if he remembered.

It was obvious he had clean forgotten it and would run straight to the holy war arena the moment the divine beast hatched.

‘That guy deserves to suffer a bit!’

Roan thought it was all karma.

Just think about it.

Having a holy war with a newly born divine beast or spirit beast?

If luck sided with such an atrocious guy who sent a newborn into a battlefield, that in itself would be unreasonable.

It was even more so if it was a good, gentle, and highly capable spirit beast like the Thousand-Eyed Pitted Serpent.

It looked a bit gross, but what did that matter?

By right, an intellectual should not discriminate based on appearance alone.

…Just like the Akerandir students treating Roan.

Roan glared at Hector before heading toward Elopine Hall again and spoke.

“If you don’t intend to love all divine beasts and spirit beasts equally, return the simple incubator.”

“What! Where else would you find someone who loves all spirit beasts as much as I do!”

Hector jumped up and denied it.

Since the simple incubator didn’t cost much anyway—compared to the wealth Roan possessed—taking it back by force was more of a hassle.

“…Tsk.”

As Roan set off first, his friends hurriedly followed.

Demona nudged Hector and said.

“You know, even though Roan always says he hates holy wars and spirit beasts, isn’t he actually the most sincere about them?”

“My thoughts exactly. I think he’s just shy.”

Twitch—

‘These bastards…’

As always, the biggest problem was that the people of the Empire could not distinguish holy wars from spirit beasts and divine beasts at all.

Weren’t caring for and liking a mute spirit beast completely different from a holy war that forced them to fight?

…No, there were many other problems besides that, but anyway.

***

Behind Elopine Hall.

Freshmen who saw Professor Timothy’s notice were gradually gathering.

However, they were just staring at the rugged mountain with rather helpless faces.

— Seriously, is a freshman supposed to climb a mountain like this in just the second week?

— Wasn’t the history class supposed to be theory…

It was a perfectly reasonable complaint.

But the thoughts of the friends who hung out with Roan every day were a bit different.

“Look at those guys. They’re whining that they can’t even climb this much, right?”

Demona spoke, mocking the students like the boss of a street gang.

Although she hated studying, Demona loved roaming around.

“Humph, if we told them to go to Epirim Basin, they would cry.”

Hector was no better, if not worse.

Friends speaking as if they had become hiking experts just from following Roan a few times!

The female students weren’t quite at that level, but they still seemed to think, ‘Why are they fussing over this much?’

It was thanks to having less resistance since they often heard stories of Roan visiting some mountain whenever he got a chance.

Rafia had even climbed up and down that rugged Epirim Basin with him.

“We will go first.”

“Okay, Roan.”

In any case, with Roan leading the way, his friends were the first to start climbing the mountain.

The students burned with jealousy as they watched them stride up the mountain, which didn’t even have a proper trail.

— Uh? Darc’s gang is going up!

— They didn’t even hesitate. Do those bastards like hiking that much?

Naturally, the same was true for Trian’s group.

The burly Garland, who could be called Trian’s right hand, said resentfully.

“Trian! Are we just going to let them be?”

Red sweat trickled down the back of Trian, the hippo beastman.

There were quite a few new students around him, all children of influential families who had gathered to oppose Roan and his friends.

Under these circumstances, Trian of the Lesterol family could not tuck his tail.

‘Hiking is poison to me…’

Hiking was an unsuitable activity for the bulky frame of a hippo beastman, but he tried hard not to show it.

First, Trian shook his head resolutely!

“Of course not. Let’s head up as well. Paladin aspirants, lead the way.”

“As expected of Trian! Everyone heard that, right? I’ll lead!”

Garland, from a Paladin family, began to climb the mountain, snorting vigorously.

The other Paladin aspirant students followed behind him, and the rest of the students followed them.

— Look there! Trian is moving too!

— Won’t it be easier if we follow behind them?

Since they outnumbered Roan and his friends by far, their spirits were high.

Trian, who suddenly ended up leading most of the freshmen, felt his chest swell with pride for some reason.

‘This is the power of the Lesterol family. Just you wait, Darc!’

At this rate, he felt they could stand against even that terrifying Roan to some extent.

…Though Roan himself had absolutely no interest in Trian.

But not long after they started climbing the mountain.

— Huff, puff… Did those bastards attach some sacred artifact to their legs?

— Was it made in Darc’s secret workshop?!

— The distance is growing even wider!

Even though they pursued Roan almost immediately, the gap between the two groups was steadily widening.

A hawk beastman student with good eyesight shouted.

— Those bastards are wearing hiking boots!

— What?

— No wonder their uniforms looked different; they are fully equipped with proper hiking gear!

While the other students climbed the mountain with difficulty in ordinary shoes or even stiff leather dress shoes.

Roan and his friends were climbing comfortably, wearing high-traction hiking boots, protective gear on their arms and legs, and even using hiking poles!

Trian stared with dumbfounded eyes at the receding backs of Roan and his friends.

‘J-Just how far ahead are you looking, you bastard Darc…!’