CH 96

The sound of striking iron, the sound of exploding fire. In a space filled with only these two noises and only these two tranquil sounds, I diligently swung my hammer and forged my sword. As I focused on conversing with iron, forgetting about the dripping sweat and accumulated fatigue, I suddenly heard a voice that shattered the world from a near yet distant place.

“Good evening. Ed? Are you there?”

“… Is that you, Tia? What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? That’s my question! I came all the way here to pick you up because you wouldn’t come out of the store no matter how long I waited!”

“Hmm? I see. My bad.”

Tia said, puffing out her cheeks lightly, and I casually looked outside the window. The sun was indeed setting there … Wait, The Sun is going down!!?”

“Huh, It’s a lie, right!? It’s night already!?”

“YEAH! Eh, going by your reaction, by any chance, have you even eaten lunch?”

“….Nope.”

I arrived here just before noon, and the next thing I knew, it was now. Naturally, I did not eat, and my breaks were minimal, just a quick drink of water on my way to the restroom. I still didn’t mind at all, but once I realized …, I got really hungry.

“Really you! You used to eat well before! Come on, let’s go have dinner before the stores close.”

“Y-Yeah. Let me reach a good stopping point with this and then I’ll come, just wait a little longer. …… Oww!?”

I raised my hammer again, and for some reason a fist fell on my head. I turned around, teary-eyed, and there was the face of my stern, stubborn Master, with eyes that looked like he was looking at a naughty brat.

“You idiot! There’s no “good stopping point” for a half-wit like you! Hurry and clean it up! And tomorrow, you’ll have to start all over again!”

“Gghh …., I-I understand, Master …..”

Once my master said so, there was no room for me to argue. Leaving my sword incomplete, I quickly put away my tools and bowed to my master once again.

“Well then, Master. Excuse me.”

“Hmph, be careful.”

While telling me to go home, my master apparently had no intention of stopping his job. As I left the store with a wry smile on the back of such a craftsman, Tia spoke to me once again.

“I’m sorry, did I come at a bad time?”

“No, it’s fine. If you haven’t arrived, I’d still be working all the time.”

“It’s okay to get carried away, but you have to take care of yourself, okay?”

“Yes, I’m sorry about that.”

“Good! Well, it’s Ed’s treat tonight, then. How about that place over there?”

“Nuah!? No, well, it’s fine, but… it looks rather good. Alright, let’s go.”

Tia and I went to a random restaurant together. After we had ordered some kind of meat dish that made my stomach growl, Tia started talking to me again.

“It’s the continuation from the other day, that dwarf… no, the Miner Tribe? Is he the Hero?”

“Yes, that’s right. The first time around, I did some chores in my master’s store, and when I quit, I was able to go back to my own world.”

“I see. Then what’s with the guy who called himself Hero?”

“Uh, yeah. … Look, remember that time with Waffer? You know that world where people hand-picked their own heroes? It’s the same here. There are several countries that recognize their own heroes. And one of them is him.”

“Hmmm? So, unlike with Waffer, Ed’s perception and this world’s perception are different?

“It’s not me, It’s about the perception of the God-like being who makes us go back and forth between different worlds. I was going to go with that Hero the first time, but I had a bad feeling about it, so I stayed put. I’ve never been so glad to trust my instincts as I was then. Well, maybe I would have been fine if I’d gone with him.”

“Eh, Is that so?”

I replied to Tia as I wrapped the bright red pasta that came first around my fork, thinking about the meat that I had yet to reach.

“Emphasis on “Maybe”. As I said before, I don’t know what criteria that God-like being uses to identify who is the Hero. For example, Waffer and Doben. If I had sided with Doben and moved things around, wouldn’t Doben have won that match and been chosen as the Hero?”

“It’s possible. The final was a close match.”

“Right? If we had been working with Doben when that happened, would Doben have been recognized as a Hero and would we have been able to return to our original world if we were expelled from that party? Well, there’s no way to know for sure now.”

I muttered to myself, and this time, the thick steak I had been waiting for arrived. I don’t know what kind of meat it was, but as long as it tasted good, there was no problem.

“We can’t know for sure…. Hey, are you really sure that we cannot check that?”

I was about to bite into a piece of meat that I had cut when Tia pointed her fork at me and asked.

“Hey, that’s bad manners. Or rather, We can’t do that. It’s too late for that world――”

“No, No, That’s not what I mean! Hey Ed, you can search for people and things, right? Then maybe you can find out if a person is a Hero or not?” 

“….OH!, If you put it that way, then yes.”

When she pointed this out to me, I realized that possibility for the first time. Until now, I had never thought about it because the power of the [Flagmaker] had ensured that I meet a Hero, but it was true that [Akashic Compass] could be used to determine whether or not a Hero existed under the guise of searching for his/her whereabouts.

“Well, let’s try it… but only after we go to the inn.”

“Yes. Now let’s enjoy our meal.”

Our hands and mouths began to move, which had been stopped by our conversation, and we ate our dinner in no time at all. After that, I headed to the inn Tia had reserved for us, I sat down on the bed and activated the [Akashic Compass].

“Materialize, [Akashic Compass]. What I’m looking for… nearest Hero… No no. The location of the person closest to me that fulfills the conditions for me to return to the original world by being banished.”

As if in response to my question, the image of a bearded old man working at a blacksmith’s forge appeared in an empty metal frame that appeared above my hand. It was, without a doubt, my master, Dalton.

“Ah, Dalton-san.”

I responded with a small nod to Tia’s words, who was watching from nearby.

“So my master’s reflection here means I can search for the Hero under these conditions. Then next is…the thing I’m looking for is the location of the person who’s second closest to me and fulfills the conditions for me to return to my original world by being banished.”

With this way of asking, if there was no relevant person, nothing should be reflected. With that, Tia and I held our breath to see what would happen as we stared at the [Akashic Compass]…

“…I can’t see anything”

“So, I guess that means that the only one who is applicable is Master.”

“I knew there was only one person in the world. But then, is Dalton-san going to defeat the Demon Lord?”

“No, with the way it’s going, he is probably going to make a weapon that can defeat the Demon Lord, I think? I don’t remember him making anything like that before.”

“Then, does it mean we’re going to help out this time too and make a great weapon?”

“I guess so.”

This is just my hypothesis, but I believe that a Hero recognized by God was “a person who will serve as a great catalyst for people to defeat the Demon Lord.” There were of course heroes like Alexis and Waffer who directly defeated the Demon Lord, but there were also heroes like Miguel and Rebecca who were trying to connect with the possibility of defeating the Demon Lord in the future, and heroes like Toby who were trying to prevent the Demon Lord’s resurrection.

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(…Maybe the reason I’m doing the second round is to collect the “possibility of subjugating the Demon Lord” that I missed in the first round, and to defeat the Demon Lords of all the worlds?)

Such a question suddenly came to my mind. In that case, I would say that I was in the palm of God’s hand to the point where I reunited with Tia and wished to save her. …

“?What? Suddenly staring at someone’s face.”

“… Huh, it’s nothing. Now then, Let’s get some sleep.”

“Okay, I’ll sleep over here.”

Tia said and went to one of the beds at either end of the room. This time we were sharing a room since we were planning to stay for a long time.

“Good night, Ed.”

“Yeah, good night, Tia.”

Tia crawled into bed and immediately fell asleep. Her sleeping face was so peaceful that I could picture her face in my mind as she fell into eternal sleep that day.

Ah, yeah. I was able to save this face. Then I didn’t care what God or anyone else thought. I’m just going to be me.

“Good night.”

I murmured softly once more, words that I was sure were no longer heard, and then I, too, slipped into bed and slept like a log