Chapter 127: Defeated and Awakened, as the Morning Sun Rises

Chapter 127: Defeated and Awakened, as the Morning Sun Rises Defeated and Awakened, as the Morning Sun Rises

* * *

When I reincarnated, I made a vow.

“This time, I’ll live a happy life!”

But you see.

For just me alone to be happy.

That’s not the happiness I seek.

What I want is...

To be happy together with my precious partner, Extra-sama!

And that could never be fulfilled in that village.

In that village, I couldn’t converse with Extra-sama.

I never want to return to a place like that again.

<E-Emiiiiii~~~~~~!!! U-Uwaaaaaaahhhh!!!>

Hey, Extra-sama, don’t cry so loudly in my head!

It’s noisy! So noisy!

<B-But, the fact that Emi cherishes me makes me so happyyyy~~~!!!>

Of course I do.

You’re the most important person to me.

That’s Extra-sama, after all.

Besides...

That Harvest God or whatever, brainwashing people to make them obedient is definitely not the act of a good entity.

I absolutely detest being under the rule of such a god.

Manipulating reincarnators’ memories seems to be a fairly standard practice, so perhaps gods don’t feel any guilt over it.

But the things Prough said also left me feeling skeptical.

I’ll point this out again – “Humans must be slaves to wheat”? What’s that about?

Isn’t the Harvest God supposed to be a deity that bestows blessings upon people?

Treating people as slaves to cultivate crops seems off, doesn’t it?

...Anyway.

My life belongs to me alone.

No matter how happy it seems, I absolutely refuse to live as someone’s mind-controlled puppet!

<Uwaaaaaahhhh!!! Emiiiii~~~~~~!!!>

Ah, come on!

Stop crying already, Extra-sama!

You’re so noisyyyy!!!

“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!! You did it, Emiiiiiii!!!!”

Ah, there was another noisy one.

Prough, who I had punched away, came running back toward me.

Smoke rose from his face as the injury instantly healed before my eyes.

“Enough playing around noowwww!!! Take thiiisss!!!”

Screaming with bloodshot eyes as he charged, Prough raised the bread overhead to slash at me!

His movement speed was tremendous, instantly closing the gap.

The golden divine power leaking from his body was on an incomparable level to before.

He was utterly serious now.

His words of “enough playing around” carried a palpable intensity.

A strike from that state would be unpleasant to take directly.

<A-Aren’t you being too calm observing this, Emi!!?>

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!”

As the distance between us rapidly shrank, I focused my concentration.

The flow of time seemed to slow down.

Ah, Prough.

As one blessed by a god, your divine power is indeed overwhelming.

Even compared to my own sizable total mana capacity, the difference is stark.

It feels as though that abundant power is gushing forth endlessly, enhancing your body to an extraordinary degree.

That bizarre technique to summon breads is also quite fearsome.U//ppTodated fr/o/m nô/v/e/lb(i)n.c(o)\/m

...But you know.

There’s one crucial element you’re sorely lacking.

“......”

I quietly let my arms hang loose in a natural stance.

However, while maintaining that posture, I focus my awareness on my right fist.

Channeling magic power into it.

Amplifying its destructive force.

Enhancing its lethality.

Imagining and strengthening the ultimate fist that can shatter anything.

At your current speed, Prough, you could likely land a bread strike whether I dodged left or right.

If I tried retreating, you’d instantly catch up and attack.

In which case, that would be the end for me.

I’d lose consciousness and get brainwashed, reverting back to village life.

No, taking an unrestrained strike could even kill me.

Right is no good, left is no good, behind is no good.

Then what should I do?

I’ll...advance forward!!

Channeling power in an instant, 【Grasshopper】!

Each time, he could feel the power surging through his body increasing!

His cells, one by one! His entire body!!

Being reforged stronger and stronger by the power of wheat...!!

“Hahahahah...hahahahahahahahah!!!”

Prough laughed.

How delightful!

This divine power coursing through his whole being!

A sense of omnipotence! Omnipotence!

With this power, with this power...!!

* * *

“Hahah, hahah...huh?!?”

When he came to, Prough found himself no longer in the glowing wheat field, but lying in the dark forest.

“A...dream...?”

He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

His hazy mind gradually awakening.

“No...not a dream...!?”

And he became aware.

Of the power surging within his body, incomparable to before!

That he had become a more fitting existence as the Harvest God’s divine child!

That he had awakened as the Wheat’s Guardian Warrior!!

“...Haah!”

As a test, he channeled power into his right palm toward a massive tree trunk growing nearby.

Just by willing it, the tree was blasted away with a thunderous boom, wheat sprouting from the disturbed earth!

“Such...such power! Truly...the power of a god...!!”

Prough laughed.

“With this power...!!”

He could expand the wheat fields further!

Fulfill the Harvest God’s desire!!

“Ah, aahh...aaaaaahh!!”

Prough hugged his trembling shoulders, overwhelmed with joy.

...However.

“Before that, there’s something I must do first...!”

The expression on Prough’s raised face was twisted grotesquely.

A wide, strained grin.

Eyes shining brilliantly.

“That girl who made a fool of me...who brought shame to the Harvest God’s honor...I must crush her utterly.”

Earlier, he had thought to awaken her to wheat’s magnificence once more and bring her back to the village...but no more.

The peculiar attachment he felt toward her for some inexplicable, nostalgic reason.

That special emotion he sensed from the moment he first laid eyes on her, beyond merely viewing her as labor.

Such feelings had completely vanished now that he obtained this new power.

He would utterly crush her, literally.

Smash her into a pulpy mess, again and again, to be used as fertilizer for the fields.

Surely, good wheat would grow from that.

Prough dashed off.

Hurrying back to where he had fought Emi earlier.

“...Huh?”

However, Prough’s objective could not be fulfilled.

For a simple reason.

Because Emi had...

Already fled while he was unconscious.

“......”

Prough simply stared blankly at the clearing in the forest – drenched in blood, trees snapped, crevices with wheat sprouting here and there.

...There was now no way for him to discern Emi’s whereabouts.

Prough had not been gifted such tracking abilities from the Harvest God.

Looking up, the faint moonlight that had illuminated the ground was now sinking below the horizon, the flowing clouds tinged orange by the rising sun’s glow.

Night had passed, and a new morning arrived once more.

Another peaceful day as a village boy was beginning again.

“...For now.”

He should return to the village.

Grow the wheat.

Turning on his heel, Prough set off back toward the village.

With each step, the murderous intent and beastly emotions that had naturally welled up during his fight with Emi faded away, seemingly absorbed elsewhere.

Until only the divine guidance remained within him.

Grow the wheat.

Bathed in the morning sunlight, sensing the beginning of another blissful day, Prough smiled faintly to himself.

His attachment had vanished, his emotions stripped away, returning him to an innocent village boy once more.

(Alright! Time to work hard in the fields again today!)

Step by step, he proceeded through the forest with a cheerful, bouncing gait.

“...Myogon, Myogoshugomyonshugoh...Myogon, Myogoshugomyonshugoh...”

Somewhere in the distance, the Myogomyogoshugo began its calls.

TL Note: Grow the wheat.