CH 27

Idle Talk: A Wish in a Previous Life (Lean Bell Side)

My name is Misuzu… “Tsurugidake Misuzu”, 4 years old.

Today, I went to the park with my friends to play.

Then, two mothers who pushed the stroller came.

I was a little curious, so I asked them, and two mothers told me about it~.

“Ne~ Ne~, what’s their name?”

“This child is called Yumeji-kun.”

“This child is Amane-chan. Nice to meet you ~”

The child sleeping peacefully in the stroller is Yumeji-kun.

The child energetically extending her hand is Amane-chan.

I greeted the two babies with a cheerful smile.

“It’s been a long time!!”

*　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

My name is Lean Bell, people who know me often call me “Bell” but I never knew where it came from, and I was never interested.

As a war orphan, what I needed was simply the strength to live, and my name was nothing more than a symbol to represent me.

Even the profession of an adventurer is a way of life that I chose, or rather, it is the only choice I could have chosen.

I had no relatives, no money and no connections… There were very few jobs that I could do…

If nothing had happened, I would have been thrown into slavery or left to die in an alleyway, but fortunately or unfortunately, I had the ability to use “holy magic.”

In general, it is a magic that specializes in recovery and healing magic, but I do not have that kind of talent, and I specialize in the power of “destruction of evil” to put magic power into the sword and destroy evil spirits and other people who cannot be destroyed by ordinary methods. I once received the title of “Holy Swordsman” for defeating the King of the DeadLICH, at the request of the kingdom.

However, even though I am an adventurer, I always advise those who yearn to become adventurers to “You should stop”.

The money is not stable, of course, but it is absolutely life-threatening and there are no guarantees.

If you think you will benefit from getting a title, you will only get into trouble except for the rewards you get there.

The fact that my title has made me stand out from the crowd has led to one-sided jealousy and envy, and I’ve even been subjected to sudden fights to make a name and stuff.

In addition, if you’re being challenged head-on that’s okay, but it’s not uncommon to be attacked by surprise, and there have been more times than I can count with two hands when I’ve been deceived by someone I thought was a friend or someone I trusted.

Every time I did, I swung my sword.

Whether demon or human, all opponents have been drowned in a sea of blood… To survive…

One day, when I was getting tired of these bloody days, I reluctantly took on two disciples.

It was a mysterious young man and woman who happened to be attacked by a magical beast, and after saving them, they wanted to become my apprentices.

Of course, I refused at first.

However, both of them were quite persistent… In the end, I was pushed.

Some of the adventurers I knew were surprised that I had taken apprentices, saying that “it was a rare occurrence”, but I think so too.

How to say it… I couldn’t leave those two alone.

In a world where people deceive and are deceived, and even kill each other on a daily basis, these two were truly soft-hearted from the bottom of their hearts.

When negotiating for money or having a conversation, they don’t doubt the other person, they just take their word… I couldn’t stand to see them like that, and I was forced to teach them how to fight and how to live as an adventurer, as a senior adventurer.

And after two years … Both of them had grown up in their own way and were now respectable “Warrior” and “Mage”.

By that time, they had become irreplaceable to me as well.

As adventurers, we learned to be more suspicious, more scheming, more conniving, and more devious than we had been in the beginning, but we never changed our attitude of trying to protect each other.

That is… even after the guy, “Yumeji” has been chosen as a hero, not even a single piece.

For me, who has never trusted anything in the world and has lived a bloody life with only a sword, he is such a soft-hearted disciple… No, a little brother and little sister that reminded me of the heart I had forgotten since I was born.

So… When I judged that the village would surely be destroyed by the great invasion of the demon race, and when I was able to let them escape… I was deeply satisfied, the most satisfied I had ever been in my life.

That’s what I said to him when he tried to stay with me and fight… That was my greatest masterpiece last request.

[Don’t make a mistake!! It’s not this town, or us, or this world that you should protect!! It’s just your one important woman!! The duties of a brave can be done on the side!!]

“Hahaha! That was a good talk.”

“It’s true, as expected from a holy swordswoman, you have a different way of saying things~”

“As a holy swordsman, I am disqualified. I am just saying that he should put her own woman before the world, you know? In the end, I guess I’m not much of a holy swordswoman after all.”

“Not wrong~! You’re the biggest idiot because chose to stay here ~”

“Something like that…”

It’s strange, because I was so wary of him and didn’t trust him, even though he was in the same business like me… The adventurers and village vigilantes who remained on the battlefield, including myself, laughed until the end.

Even though we are about to die.

For friends, for family, for lovers, for strangers… I had to wallow and die to slow down the oncoming pack of monsters, even if only for a minute or a second… All of us were fighting with weapons in our hands with high spirits.

“Bell! Next time, let’s have a drink together! With everyone!”　

“Hahaha!! Then I’ll buy you a drink too! I’ll make you drink till you collapse!!”

Stabbed, bitten, and cut by a pack of demon beasts… Fellow workers, tavern masters, and vigilance committee of dads fall in a pool of blood… Everyone was laughing to the end… And I’m just like them… We are happy.

“Then get ready and wait for me!! I’ll be there soo~on !!”

・

・

・

… When I realized it, I was in the light.

The left hand… can move… rather than…

I’m pretty sure I got blown up by a guy who called himself the “Demon King”…

The same goes for the scars on my body that I was too lazy to count.

Obviously, the wounds on my body were too severe to be saved… None of them are on me right now.

Not even the half-broken longsword that I had been holding until the end.

… I felt myself floating in such light, and I understood.

“Aa~… I’m dead.”

The voice was suddenly heard without any sign.

But… There was no evil in the voice, and even though it suddenly stepped in front of me, I naturally listened back without being wary.

“I am Goddess Aisia… The one who controls the reason of this world. And irresponsibly, entrusting the light and darkness of the world to two, a boy and a girl whom I call from another world… What shameless person I am.”

“!? You are a goddess? You’re the one who brought Yumeji and Amane in from the other world… T-That’s right! Those kids!!?”

I looked around in panic and suddenly a light began to gather in front of me and a beautiful silver-haired woman in white robes appeared.

The expression on her face is so divine and melancholy that one naturally assumes that she is a goddess and that this is true.

“No worries… They succeeded in evacuating the village without a single casualty, thanks to the heroic efforts of you and your brave men.”

“I-I see… that’s more than anything…”

I was relieved from the bottom of my heart.

That was my only regret… If this doesn’t save those two, the most important people, it will be a death loss.

“This time… I dragged you into my selfish scheme… Really… I’m sorry…”

When I was relieved, the goddess bowed her head more apologetically and spoke, and I panicked from the bottom of my heart.

The goddess, Aisia, the supreme goddess who controls the world’s logic, bows to me, a mere adventurer!?

“W-Wait a minute, Goddess !? God doesn’t bow to humans, and even to non-godly people like me !?”

I hurried to insist, but the goddess bowed her head more deeply… She was about to go down on her knees and I rushed to stop her.

“No! It was a mistake for someone like me to be a god in the first place!! At least, at least I apologize… I hope you curse me, who is sinful and unforgivable!”

“I told you to stop! I don’t know what you’re so full of guilt about!?”

After that, there was a little bit of an argument for a while.

The goddess who governs the world’s reason, she is an absolute god in the world I have lived in, and she is the most widely worshipped… In fact, the person I saw looked like an ordinary girl who was overwhelmed with work and struggling to keep up.

Speaking of God, God is a merciless, arrogant being who can treat human life like dust… I thought that way.

According to her, the goddess Aisia is a “mediator of the world” and should not be allowed to interfere with the world.

However, now that a “Demon King” has been born among the demon race, a factor that disturbs the “mediation of the world,” the goddess has no choice but to intervene.

But even if God’s interference in the world is a measure against the “Demon King”, it must be kept to a minimum. If not, there’s no telling how much of “a backlash” God’s interference will cause…

“In a certain world, all the continents have sunk because of God’s active intervention …”

“…So the least you could do was to bring those kids in?”

They were summoned from another world without any privileges, and were recognized as heroes without permission. I was thinking of complaining about their situation, but when I asked her about it, she said… I don’t want to cuss too much.

It would have been different if she had said something like “the mission of the brave” in a great way.

This goddess… Her guilt is so high that she’s a little worried she’ll get down on her knees to pull it off when she encounters those kids.

It’s okay to apologize, but you need to do it with a little more dignity…

.

.

“Hope for the next life? You’re asking me that?”

“Yes, it’s not supposed to happen. It is normal for a person to look back on his or her life and convert the karma that he or she has accomplished directly into the next life. But you… No, you have saved the brave Yumeji. Regardless of your intentions, you risked your life to save the world, which is the work of a hero. At least… I have to reward you that much… I’m sorry… “

“A~h, I don’t blame you, so don’t cry!”

The main subject of my encounter with the goddess after my death was to hear about a “hopes for reincarnation”.

The goddess explains to me in dismay, but by the latter half of the day, she begins to cry again.

Really… it’s hard to see…

“And by you, I assume you mean the other guys too?”

“Of course. In fact, they have already left for their desired reincarnation.”

I remembered the last of my comradesidiot who had fought and died with me, and I realized that I was the last one to come here.

In other words, I must have been the last one to die.

“… By the way, may I ask what they want?”

“That’s right… Balzac-san wanted to be a girl who ran a flower shop in his next life, and Gustavo-san wanted to be a pretty princess in a small country.”

I almost swooned as the goddess read from the ledger she had somehow taken out.

Balzac is the old man who was the party’s wall, who was always on the front line with his huge, muscular, heavy shield and armor, and Gustavo was the assassin-like man who always had a creepy smile on his face and found himself slitting the throats of his enemies from behind… I never thought I’d have that desire!?

But… It’s somewhat understandable or not.

I find myself without the longsword I was supposed to be holding in my hand until the end… I think that’s the answer.

“I don’t want to spend any more… days in blood-soaked battles.”

In the end, that was my true intention.

My life has been one where I had no choice but to pick up a weapon and keep fighting in order to survive and not get killed.

I’m not going to say that I was wrong now.

If it weren’t for such a life, I wouldn’t have been able to become a teacher and a sister to Yumeji and Amane in the end.

…… But if it comes true …… without holding a sword in this hand …….

And just as I was thinking about it, the goddess Aisia smiled at me with a big smile for the first time since we met.

“I accept. Your hopes for your next life…… I, in the name of the Goddess Aisia, will make sure they come true.”

“……Eh?”

“That wish, in the original incarnation, is a bit of an exception… What you’ve accomplished as Lean Bell is tops among the 51 heroes in this world. I’ll talk to the “God of the Other Side” and the “God of Time and Space”. “

When she said that much, I realized.

I didn’t say anything, but my thoughts… My desire is conveyed to the goddess.

“My thought… Did you read my heart?”

I say, and the goddess looks apologetic again.

…… Not as much as when we first met, though.

“I’m sorry. In a case like this, I have to do that, otherwise people will shy away from their true desires…”

I’m convinced… It’s hard to believe that Balzac and Gustavo, who used to sell their stern masculinity, ever expressed their desire and true feelings to become cute.

If that’s the case… I’m the same… I can’t be too stupid.

“I understand… Definitely, that’s the next life I want…”

From the bottom of my heart, I know that the moment I said that, my body began to glow… and then gradually becomes particles and disappears.

Ah……… I see… I guess I’m done now.

The adult’s body gradually becomes smaller… and then rewinds younger… blood-soaked Lean Bell’s life, and her memories begin to rewind…

And in the last memory… Killed to protect me, a baby, from the blade of an unreasonable war… That is the scene of my father and mother…

Seeing my parents for the first time… My life as a war orphan, not knowing if I was born to be loved.

But… I was also loved, and protected, and survived.

At last it was known…

I also feel proud…… of the fact that I even died the same way.

“Then the Holy Swordswoman ………… This time …………”

The goddess’ last words were tinged with compassion and, to the end, an apology.

And I… a swordsman named Lean Bell is…　　

*

“The dream I had just now is…?”

When I woke up, the lights were already out in the restaurant.

After cleaning up, I sat down alone in my seat, and before I knew it, I seemed to have fallen asleep.

But… it was a strange dream.

Previous life? Reincarnation? Holy Swordswoman Lean Bell?? Everything should have been a dream, but it was strangely real, as if they were not dreams…

And there is knowledge in me that I should not have had before.

“What is it? This is…”

It’s as if it suddenly appeared in my mind… It was as if I remembered something that was actually there all along, but I had forgotten.

… but I was tracing memories that seemed to know but didn’t know… I felt a chill run down my spine as I realized this fact.

The two bruises on Amane-chan’s neck… Because its malicious meaning was in that knowledge.

“Triple nightmare curse!? You’re telling me it’s here too !?”