167-161 Prophecy

I woke up when I felt a gentle stroke on my head.

''Hmph, hmm?　A hermit's key?

I woke up and found myself in bed, and for some reason I was clutching the keys to the hermit.

'When did that happen?　More importantly, your eyes and ears look fine. No discomfort in your body either!

I got out of bed, and as I stretched wide once more, I remembered my battle and checked my armor and found it was nothing.

'Was that stabbing pain a curse after all?　Or was it another high-heeled wound that couldn't catch up with you?

As I was contemplating, the masters came into the room.

''Luciel, we were worried about you. I really thought your heart was going to stop beating, going to slay a demon race when you're blind over there.

'What?　Demon race?

I shudder at the fact that it wasn't the Goblin King or anything, but the fact that it was a demon race that was fighting them.

It's like if I had made a mistake, I would have died. If he hadn't done the Sanctuary Circle, would he be that strong?

''Ah. But still, to strike out with a single blow at a demon race that couldn't inflict deep wounds even though me and the war demon attacked in tandem, that's my disciple.

I could tell that my master was happy from the bottom of his heart, but considering that this person was crying after he defeated him, I thought that he might have been giving training in a terrific conflict.

''Luciel-sama, well, you are safe. Whirlwind, you have something to say properly, right?

Lionel looked relieved that I had recovered, but as soon as I turned to Master, he looked at me as if he had made up his mind.

I'm about to tell you.

Then my master suddenly sits down and gets down on his knees and apologizes to me.

This causes my thoughts to stop for a moment.

I was so shocked that I couldn't get the words out properly, so I managed to twist out only the sun and earth thing.

''.......what?''

It wasn't the master on his knees that responded to this, but Lionel, who was on his knees.

''In fact, it seems that the prophet at the guild headquarters had a prophecy foretold to him. That he would soon die protecting someone else. So he started that reckless practice by bowing down to us and keeping quiet.

The prophecies of the guild's prophets I wouldn't normally believe in, would I?

If it was that prophecy where the mines of Meratni and Grandle disappeared and the matter of dragons, spirits, demons, and reincarnated people kept happening, it was not hard to believe it.

Was the reason everyone didn't tell me about it because they were keeping quiet about it?

When I thought about it, it seemed to make sense.

It was a terrible training, sure, but it didn't get rid of the feeling that I'd pushed them to the edge.

I caused my master and then told everyone.

'You know how we've pushed Master into a mental corner, right?　Besides, I've managed to stay alive.

Since I became the master of the Adventurer's Guild branch and haven't been an adventurer for at least seven years, it's no wonder that I'm vulnerable to irregularities.

My master is the type of person who does exactly what he's supposed to do.

But even so, I was surprised when he blinded you and destroyed your eardrums. Both the people who trained him and the people who made him do it looked like he was crazy.

'This is the first time I've seen Master Luciel practicing, and I thought I caught a glimpse of the Spirit of Steel.

Immediately after Keti said her true feelings, Kefin followed up, but I could see that she was pulling back.

Maybe she wasn't trying to hold back her laughter, but was pushing back the emotion that she was crazy?

'Well, usually it's not blindfolded, not blindfolded, not eardrum-destroying, but my master has never done anything for nothing, so I decided to trust him.

When I say that, for some reason, an awkward aura flows from Master and he never makes eye contact with me.

''Master?''

But the master remained silent.

''I understand that this is a master and student relationship. But it was still too much, and all I could do was worry about it.''

I was worried, and so were the spirits.

Then the silence was broken by Nadia and Lydia, both of whom were still concerned and didn't smile at all.

It made my heart tighten a bit to let them both look at me like that.

I decided to ask them what had happened since then, noticing that Esther was not here.

'What happened after that?'

''Right now, it's only been half a day since that battle. Just before Luciel slashed, the demon race exerted its last strength and created a mixture of darkness and wind magic, creating countless small holes all over his body. Moreover, they didn't disappear and seemed to stay there forever. That wasn't enough for ordinary recovery magic, so I allowed the use of the Extra Heal that healed everything.

If I got it a little wrong, I'd be dead. The thought of it terrifies me and I decide to change the subject.

'Speaking of which, I don't see Esther?'

Esther?

It was as if the Master didn't remember Estia.

Although Lionel and the others did remember, their memories of the past few days were fuzzy.

It seemed that there was no doubt that the dark spirits had used quite a bit of power.

In such a situation, only Lydia, the spiritist, had a proper grasp of Estia.

'If it's Estia-san, she's sleeping in the next room. It seems that she has used too much of the spirit's power. She was even doing something reckless to bring in the spirit of light.''

Maybe the dark spirit implored me to take the hermit's key out of the magic bag as I was sleeping.

I was dimly aware that Forenoir was a spirit of light, but if the spirit of darkness hadn't forced me to do so, there was a good chance I still wouldn't be awake.

I didn't trust Estia, but considering that she used her power until she brought me down, I think I subconsciously looked at her through colored glasses because of the imperial slaves and the dark spirits.

I apologized in my heart to Estia and decided to thank Forenoir and the Dark Spirit properly.

I decided to ask my master about my training that ended halfway through.

'So, Master, what kind of training do you plan to do in the future?'

The opponent is me and the war demon, one on one, at the same time as all five of us remaining. I'll tell you ahead of time, the goal is not to win. The finishing touch is to watch and learn the battle between me and the war demons well, hunt the demons, and gradually increase Luciel's limit value. My goal was to make her the strongest healer... but she may already be the strongest healer, but...

Master choked for a moment, but laughed happily at that.

Could it be that he was going to call it off?　Unfortunately, I had no intention of doing that at all.

And if you can sneak in to the party as a helper, you'll be able to traverse the labyrinths with dragons in various places, right?　I was beginning to envision such a blueprint.

Even so, I didn't feel like I could win the mock battle that Master was putting together at all, but I guess I was the one he associated with when he said he would die defending someone.

If that's the case, if I'm strong enough, Master will be able to relax.

I decided to be a little more filial to my master.

''Then let's just rest for today and start training tomorrow. But Master, is Melatni's Adventurer's Guild really okay?

'Yeah. Because if there's a problem, this will tell you.

Master said and took out his Demonic Jade.

''A demon ball? But isn't that the type that has a range?''

''Yes. That's why I went to the adventurer's guild here earlier and asked if they had any messages, but it looks like the demons have been put to rest over there, so it's fine. Besides, it's only been half a month since we started training.

Half a month?　Hasn't 20 days already passed?　Because you've had over sixty meals, haven't you?

'Yeah. I was feeding him five or six meals a day along the way, which might have given him the wrong idea, but when you get less sleep, you get stressed out, so I was trying to drown that out with food.

I've never heard of such a theory?　Master?

But he didn't argue with that.

It was because he couldn't hide his surprise that his ability to detect had risen to level III in half a month.

It was spartan, after all, but apparently it was quite useful training.

Then we talked for a bit and received an invitation to dinner, but I decided to refrain from it this time.

After making sure everyone was out of the room, I opened the hermit's stables and saw that Forenoire looked tired and asleep.

I didn't know if it would have any effect, but I activated Extra Heal and Purification and closed the hermit's stables.

''With my training starting tomorrow, I will definitely get strong enough to escape from an unbeatable enemy.

With his goal clear in mind, he took out his transformation dresser from his magic bag and removed his armor before taking out the meal in his magic bag and continuing to eat until he was full.

He then took out his angel pillow and prepared to go to bed early for tomorrow, and then solidified the image of presence and magic detection.