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Volume 11 Chapter 326

Guess It’s Time to Head Back

　

　The will of the World Tree rushes into me. My will left my body, as if being pushed out.

　I wonder if this is what an out-of-body relationship is like?

　I was able to check the face that belonged to my body for the first time.

　Ah, so that’s what it looks like……

　So Sarion was originally a body procured by the Evil God’s curse, and the World Tree’s will was imbued into it.

　My body had taken the form of a butler who I was familiar with.

　With that being said, the World Tree’s willpower toward this vessel was too powerful, and the body itself was not all that strong. However, it could drive back the level of a demon without any issues, and once Sylph wakes up, there won’t be any problems remaining.

　There’s Dairon as well with Hakoku.

　So everything should be fine.

　My will began to disappear.

　One’s will disappearing means to die.

　But I’m not scared of death this time.

　The World Tree did promise it would protect elves, and I already know that Dairon can build Alheim. Dairon will lend Hakoku to numerous heroes as his son, Sairos, takes on management and eventually will hand it over to the future me.

　I did everything that I could.

　Now, time to return.

　Gotta give that Evil God a good punch.

　──＊＊＊──

　The curse known as Cycle of Rebirth was now broken.

　That means I had managed to die six times.

　Very good.

　I had been right about to punch the Evil God when I had accidentally stepped on the Cycle of Rebirth curse that the god had set up.

　And I was now back in that instant.

　And that god was now right in front of me, so──

「Gufuh！！？」

　I just ended up punching that Evil God in the face.

「Ah-」

　No!!

　The attempt just now was no good. Erase it!

　My will had flown away for just an instant, due to the effects of the curse.

　So there wasn’t any power in that punch.

　The Evil God flew back and got lodged in the wall of the temple, but my anger wasn’t going to be satiated with only this. If you count the first rebirth, you might as well say I’ve been killed by the Evil God seven times.

　But with the amount of power just now, it wouldn’t even qualify for one of those deaths.

「Y-You bastard……Do you know what you did, huh? You laid a hand on me, a god」

　The Evil God’s body disappeared from the wall it had been embedded in, appearing right in front of me.

　As I’d expect from a god. Of course a punch of that level would hardly deal any damage.

「Don’t think you’ll make it back alive with this one!!」

　The Evil God reached toward me. The second his hand was about to reach me, I got away from the Evil God, retreating to where Tina and the others were.

　By donning the Lightning Speed Robe, I was now able to move about just as fast as Shiro, the swiftest of the Divine Beasts. The Evil God’s attacks weren’t even as fast as the Beastman Leo, let alone Shiro, so there was no way his attacks would hit me.

「Haruto-sama. You have fulfilled your objective. S-Shall we……run?」

　Tina asked me. She must think I’m satisfied since I got to punch the Evil God.

「Haru-nii. If we’re running, shouldn’t we beat that guy up a bit more so that he doesn’t chase after us?」

「I agree with Akari-san. We should pluck off his arms and legs so that he can’t move. This is Jashin’s payment for foolishly choosing to lay a hand on Danna-sama」

　Akari and Shitori were ready to kill.

　Shitori especially has that dangerous look.

　She had always referred to her biological parent as『Jashin-sama』. Now, this same girl was dropping the “sama” honorific and emitting enough bloodlust at the Evil God to rock the temple.

　Of course I don’t intend to go straight back home with such a paltry punch.

　I also have no intention of yielding my revenge to Akari or Shitori.

「I actually caught on his curse right before I punched him」

「Eh-!? A-Are you all right?」

「Yep. It’s nothing now」

「But a curse……Haru-nii, you have Fixed Status, right？」

「Seems like it was some kind of curse specifically designed to blow away my will. And then I died six times there」

　Now, while this didn’t hold true for all six times necessarily, dying was still definitely something scary for me.

「S-Six times!?……Danna-sama. It is indeed appropriate for us to to destroy Jashin here and now」

「Shitori, wait. That’s something I should do」

　I halted Shitori as she was about to leap at the Evil God.

　I’m happy to know that you can get angry on my behalf, but hitting the Evil God is my job.

　I began walking to the Evil God while emitting the maximum amount of mana. Now I was clad in several hundred times the amount of mana that I had originally enveloped myself in when I had originally approached the Evil God before being flung into the past with the Cycle of Rebirth curse.

「You three, wait over there for a little bit. I’m going to give this guy one more punch first」

　Pinpointed by Shitori’s bloodlust, the Evil God was unable to move.

「W-What is this! Just what in the world are you fiends!?!?」

「Well, I did introduce myself, yes? But well, I guess in effect it’s been a month in my time since I met you, so how about I give another self introduction?」

　I sealed his teleportation abilities with highly dense mana so that he wouldn’t be able to escape.

「I am Haruto. Haruto Elnor. I used to be an Otherworlder known as Haruto Saijo, but once I was killed by you, Jashin-sama, I ended up being reincarnated in this world」

　One step at a time, with certainty.

　I slowly made my way to where the Evil God was.

「If I add the Cycle of Rebirth curse that you placed on me and the six times I died there, I have been killed by you for a total of seven times. So──」

「H-Hold on! How can this be!? How is it that a human can cloak themselves in so much mana!?」

「It is all thanks to your curse, sir」

　I don’t really have to explain the whole fixed status curse, right?

「I was only able to amass and use this much mana thanks to you, sir」

　With the effects that my solidified status curse gave me, I had essentially infinite mana and could obliterate the Evil God in one hit.

「D-Don’t come any closer! Don’t you dare come any closer!!」

　The Evil God shot magic bullets at me.

　And the bullets did make contact with me, but──

「W-Why? Why don’t my attacks work!?!?」

　Of course I didn’t receive any damage.

「It is thanks to you that I do not take any damage from attacks, sir」

　The Sea God, the Dragon God, the Shikigami, none of their attacks had worked on me.

　Apparently among the same Four Great Gods, the Sea God was the strongest. So if I could nullify that god’s attacks, there was no way the Evil God’s ordinary attacks would work on me.

「D-Damn it! What’s up with this!? How is it that not a single curse of mine is working!?」

　I was now walking among the many trap curses that I had not stomped on the first time, crushing them as I continued on my path. Of course I won’t make the same mistake as last time. Among these traps included ones that warp the surrounding area to another location. I would simply use Writing of the Gods to intercept the curses and delete them.

「It is thanks to you that I was able to develop resistance to poison, paralysis, curses, and many other things, sir」

　I knew now that everything other than teleportation curses wouldn’t work on me, so I stepped on all of these on purpose and dismantled them.

「It was thanks to you that I was able to attain so many friends, sir」

　Luke, Luna, Lifa, Yoko, Mai, Mei, Meldi, Ryushin, Ryuka. I was able to meet everyone because I was a sage. Due to being stuck at Level 1, I couldn’t use anything besides the lowest tier magic, but with the traits that come with being a sage, I could use a variety of magic. In addition, I was able to combine said magic together and attain the qualifications to enter Ifrus Magic Academy.

「The one who gave me kind parents, reliable older brothers, and cute older sisters, was you」

　My father, mother, Cain, Leon, and Sharul.

　I love everyone in my family.

　Thanks to the Evil God reincarnating me into this family called Silvalei.

「And me being able to even have my own household, Elnor, was all thanks to──not you, actually. Sorry」

　Yeah. This is a little different. It’s mainly thanks to my father. It’s because he prepared the magic academy and mansion for me. And of course Tina saving up living expenses for me played a big part.

　Thanks to my father and Tina, as well as the headmaster Ruano letting outsiders into the academy, I was able to wed Seira, Elmia, Hakua, Kikyo, Shitori, and Akari, bringing them into the Elnor house.

「My friends and brother-in-law also got their own families」

　Luke had Riel.

　Ryushin had a bride named Hinata.

「Getting friendly with divine beasts was……luck, I guess？」

　Shiro entering the Elnor house to live was merely because she was sleeping next to my old house. I simply happened to wake her up there and then Tina just so happened to be making her trademark curry that Shiro just so happened to take a great liking to.

「I also registered with the adventurer’s guild. My rank isn’t rising anytime soon, but it’s still quite fun to be an adventurer」

　We’re currently D Rank adventurers. Once we get to C Rank we’ll be able to make a clan. Then we should call Sari and Lilia over to begin clan activities. I’m also looking forward to clan competitions, mhm.

「I’ve also had the privilege of becoming acquainted with the nobles and royalty of every country. There are even some countries where I became the owner, y’know?」

　Occasionally the king of Glendale would bring along Cain whenever he would come to eat Tina’s food. Ever since Sylph became part of my family, the elf king would bring along Sarion and consult us about various things. The country I owned, Bestie, would often have requests from the beast king Leo for opportunities to train the beast king soldiers, and so I would go every two weeks to spend time with them.

「Being able to enter the divine realm like this was also thanks to you」

　It was precisely because of my infinite mana reserves that I was able to use divine letters to get here.

「Incidentally, this also holds true for that thing which has you tied up──」

「Mmっ!?　Nghー！　Gahhh!!」

　The Evil God was bound by strings made of glittering letters across his four limbs and mouth. This was a string that I had made using divine elemental magic. I constricted him like this so that he’d tag along with my little monologue.

「Mmmphっ！」

　Dude’s seriously glowering at me.

　Hey, it’ll be over soon.

　Behave yourself a little longer.

「Jashin-sama. I’m thankful to you, you see」

「Mm? Mwah! Muaeoh!」

「I was able to meet everyone, I was able to be undefeated in this world, and most importantly──」

　I turned around, seeing Tina looking at me worriedly.

「Thanks to you, I was able to reunite with Tina」

　The girl I first became in love with when I came to this world as the Guardian Hero. She waited for me all those one hundred years. As promised, she managed to find me.

　Tina had become so beautiful. Also, she had done so much to ensure that when I returned to this world, I would be able to live without inconvenience. I was very happy about these things.

　The Evil God did me a favor by sending me to where this amazing woman Tina was, the woman who thought of me more than anyone else. I am grateful from the bottom of my heart. That is why──

「I do want to hit you for all the times I was killed, but at the very least I am grateful to you. That’s why一 I am limiting it to ・one punch only・, alright?」

　The Evil God was already bound by the diviner elemental magic, so there was no worry of him escaping via teleportation. In order to block such attempts, I had concentrated all of the mana that had cloaked the Evil God into my right hand.

　My body had a magic cloak around it, and that cloak also had support magic effects remaining on it from when Luna cast it before I entered the divine realm. That’s why after coming here, I used all of the released mana on strengthening the right hand magic cloak.

　If I were to make it the holy element, I might risk extinguishing the Evil God, so I set it to non-elemental for now. Magic compressed with high density shook the entire space.

「Mguh!? Mgagah, mgah! Mgaaah!!」

　When he saw this, the color of fear spread its way across the Evil God’s face.

　Sorry about that.

　I have no intention of scaring you.

　I personally just wanna get one hit in.

　I’ll end it in the blink of an eye.

「Jashin-sama. From the bottom of my heart──」

　I’m putting everything into this one attack.

　The fear and grudge toward death.

　As well as──tremendous gratitude toward the Evil God.

「Thaaank you very muuuUUCH!!!」

　I put all of my power into my fist and drove it into the Evil God’s abdomen.

　The Evil God’s body easily broke through the restraints of the string made of divine magic as it blew off, piercing through the temple walls and flying off into the faraway distance──

　As I would expect from a god.

　I hit him with such force and yet he still retained his shape as he flew away. I don’t think this was enough to annihilate him. I planted quite a bit of fear in him, so he shouldn’t be returning for revenge anytime soon.

　In the case of the Evil God coming back to the human realm, I had set up a magic circle when I punched him earlier that would summon me over to that location immediately.

　So basically it was like──come if you want to come, I guess.

　I did blow away the Evil God, but I’m not feeling any self-conceit. It is after all set in stone that the baddies always power up and come back for more. That’s why from here on out, I will continue to temper the abilities of myself, my family, and my comrades.

　But for the time being──

「Ahhhー. I feel a weight off my shoulders!」

　What a refreshing day.

　I was able to carry this plan through to completion.

「Haruto-sama. Good job on fulfilling your mission.」

「Yeah. It took a while to get to this point. But Tina, I finally did it」

「Yes. I made sure to watch from start to end」

「I also watched the whole time! Haru-nii, you were so cool!!」

「Danna-sama, the same goes for me. It was truly invigorating to see Jashin fly off into the distance」

「That’s right. I will have to see to it that everyone who has been standing by hears of the Evil God’s last moments」

「Harun-nii, you straight up beat a god, but……would that make you a god, or no?」

「Nah, it wouldn’t」

　You can’t become a god just by punching one, right?

「That relieves me! So I can continue to be with Haru-nii from now on!」

　Akari exclaimed as she flung herself into my arms.

「Ah, Akari-san, that’s not fair!」

「D-Danna-sama. Me too!!」

　Tina and Shitori also embraced me.

　And so I once again thought to myself, it really is over now.

　I did everything I was supposed to. But I still have a ton of things I want to accomplish in this world. Up till now was a story of vengeance against the Evil God. From here on out, it will be a story of enjoying my life in this alternate world.

「Alright, how about we head back」

　With Tina and the others in tow, I teleport us to our family awaiting our arrival.

　Level 1 Strongest Sage 　─Fin─