Episode 221. Seven Stars Cultural Festival (7)

“Multiple… lives?”

Seto frowned, clutching his pierced stomach, unable to comprehend.

Multiple lives?

What kind of nonsense is that?

‘This isn’t regeneration.’

His entire body was shattered into pieces no larger than two fingers, yet he returned unscathed.

Even if he drank an entire bottle of the Holy Kingdom’s elixir, it would be impossible.

Therefore.

Not regeneration, but resurrection.

Not a human on the brink of death miraculously revived, but a corpse that had been dead for a long time rising from the grave.

And not just revived, but perfectly restored as if it had never died.

“What the… AAAAAH!”

Whoosh!

Burning Ash Fire engulfed Seto’s body.

“I won the game, so I get to ask the questions, right?”

“Guh! You… AHH!”

I approached the fallen Seto, grabbed his neck, and lifted him up.

“Guh, gah!”

Seto, with his neck gripped, let out painful groans.

His small frame made his legs dangle in the air.

“You said you knew about the Eternal Church, right?”

“Guh…”

“Don’t even think about moving. Unless you want to turn to ash.”

Whoosh!

The ash fire wrapped around Seto’s captured body.

Engulfed in the ashen flames, he bit his lip, his face pale.

“You… are you really a Candidate? No, are you even human?”

“I’m a Candidate, and I’m human.”

At least more so than someone who tries to gather unrelated people for a bomb terror for his own amusement.

“The Eternal Church, what are they?”

“Huh… I don’t really know who they are either.”

“Really?”

Whoosh!

The ash fire around Seto’s body flared violently.

“But I know Mephisto has been secretly communicating with them.”

“…Keep talking.”

This is effective.

“I don’t know why Mephisto is contacting those mysterious guys… but I do know where they’re gathering now.”

“Where?”

Seto smirked and continued.

“The Imperial Palace.”

There’s only one place on this vast continent that can be called the ‘Imperial Palace.’

‘The Imperial Palace of the Empire.’

The Empire, one of the three nations ruling the continent, is undeniably the strongest.

And the Emperor ruling that Empire, the current top-ranked hero.

‘Empress Camellia Padishah.’

That’s where she resides.

‘Empress Camellia…’

As soon as her name came to mind, I remembered an event from my past life.

The worst event that plunged the peaceful continent into the abyss of war.

‘The Camellia Assassination Incident.’

The current top-ranked hero.

With her innate blessing power, she was called the ‘Incarnation of the Seven Gods’ and boasted overwhelming majesty, yet she was found dead one morning.

There were many theories about her death, with no signs of resistance.

She took her own life.

Someone poisoned her.

The work of the Devil God’s incarnation, and so on.

Countless speculations circulated, but the culprit was never found.

‘Losing its leader overnight, the Empire began to shake.’

As a result, the previously stable relations between the three nations reached a breaking point.

‘The war between the Empire and the Republic.’

The Empire, with nowhere to direct its anger, and the Republic, seizing the chaos to reveal its ambition to swallow the Empire.

Hundreds, thousands of heroes disappeared like dew on the battlefield in the war between the two nations.

‘There’s still over five years until the assassination incident…’

Well.

Considering the previous attack by the Grand Archbishop of Beasts, I couldn’t trust the information from my past life.

The future had already become too twisted to predict.

“…Why did they go to the Imperial Palace?”

“Who knows, I don’t know either.”

“Really?”

Whoosh!

The ash fire flared up again.

“No! I really don’t know!”

Seto, with a pale face, struggled desperately.

Judging by his desperate expression, he didn’t seem to be lying.

‘This is as much as I can find out for now.’

The Beast Mask Group’s identity is the so-called ‘Eternal Church.’

And they, along with Mephisto, headed to the Imperial Palace.

‘It feels like more questions have arisen, though.’

Still, this much is a decent harvest.

At least I don’t have to search all over Valhalla City for the Beast Mask Group, whose location I didn’t even know.

‘By the way.’

I looked back at Seto, trembling in the ash fire.

‘Was the Grand Archbishop of Madness always like this?’

No one can remain fearless in the face of death.

But still, for someone with the title ‘Madness,’ isn’t this too pitiful?

“S-so, you’ve asked everything you wanted, right?”

“Yeah.”

Seto asked in a trembling voice.

I nodded and was about to ignite the ash fire.

“But hey… did you forget something?”

Seto, who had been trembling in fear just moments ago, grinned widely.

“…Forgot?”

“The bomb, the bomb! Did you forget about it?”

Seto looked at me and burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! Even if I die, I wanted to see it explode at least once!!!”

“……”

Right.

I thought something was off.

“Was acting scared all part of the plan?”

“Exactly! Do you know how worried I was that you might kill me right away?”

Seto smiled brightly and roughly moved his foot.

Sssss!

As soon as Seto moved, the ash fire engulfing him fiercely burned his body.

“AAAH! Hot! Hot! Hot! It’s hoooot!”

Even as his body burned, Seto jumped up and down, laughing maniacally.

“Ahahahaha!”

What could be so amusing?

Seto looked at me with a bright smile.

“Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed in you.”

“…Disappointed?”

“Yeah! I thought you were a real ‘hero’!”

Seto made a gun shape with his hand and pointed it at his head.

“Remember the game we played before? You pulled the trigger five times on your own head! To protect your comrades!”

Seto, as if recalling that day, clasped his hands together and continued.

“I thought then! Ah, I’ve finally met a real hero! Someone who doesn’t care about their own life, who can sacrifice for others until the moment of death!”

But.

“But… the reason you could pull the trigger then wasn’t because you were a real hero.”

It was because you had the ability to come back to life that you could pull the trigger without hesitation.

“You’re just a common… fake that can be found anywhere.”

Just someone with multiple lives.

Pretending to be noble, but in the end, revealing your ugly nature, busy looking out for yourself.

“As proof.”

Seto looked at the Central Plaza, where the festival was in full swing.

Candidates, expecting fireworks, gathered with happy smiles.

“You didn’t save those people and pointed your sword at me, right?”

Seto, with a torn smile, looked at me.

“Dale, do you come back to life even if you die?”

But hey.

“Even if your life isn’t just one, what about others?”

He spread his arms wide and smiled brightly.

“Now! It’s time for the fireworks!!!”

Along with the echoing laughter.

“Boom!!!”

A massive explosion in the Central Plaza…

“Huh?”

Didn’t happen.

“What, what’s going on? Why isn’t it exploding?”

Seto, with a panicked expression, looked around.

Looking at him, I stifled a chuckle.

Then.

Ding.

The alarm sounded on the Hero Watch.

[Candidate Dale. All bombs planted in the Central Plaza have been found and removed.]

“Thank you.”

[We’ll send support right away.]

“No, it’s fine. It’s almost over here.”

After ending the call, I leisurely walked towards the frozen Seto.

“…How?”

Seto blinked, unable to comprehend the situation.

“With Insight’s Blessing, you shouldn’t have been able to track the bombs, right?”

“Right.”

Under ‘normal’ circumstances, that is.

“What the hell did you do?”

“You know, Insight’s Blessing’s effect amplifies when you drink the opponent’s bodily fluids.”

“…Bodily fluids?”

“Yeah, like… your ‘blood.'”

I pointed at the blood flowing in Seto’s body.

“W-wait! When did the spider drink my blood?!”

“Don’t you remember? The sword I threw grazed your side.”

“……!”

Seto’s eyes widened as he frantically turned his head.

Not long after the battle started.

The sword that grazed his side and flew away was nowhere to be seen.

“The reason I didn’t try to save the people in the Central Plaza was that there was no need to save them in the first place.”

“You…”

“And what? You could pull the trigger because you can come back to life?”

I smirked and grabbed Seto’s head with my hand.

“Have you ever died and come back to life?”

“……”

“Of course not.”

I slowly concentrated magic power in the hand gripping Seto’s head.

“Want to experience it?”

“…What.”

“There’s a mental magic that allows you to share memories.”

Of course, you can’t forcibly extract the opponent’s memories.

Only the caster’s own memories can be shared.

And even then, only fragmented pieces of memories.

But.

That was enough for now.

“W-wait…!”

Before the horrified Seto could step back.

A strange memory flowed into his mind.

“Ah.”

The memory of his head being cut off.

The memory of his limbs being crushed.

The memory of his eyeballs being gouged out while still alive.

The memory of his jaw being torn off.

The memory of being split from the crown to the groin.

The memory of his intestines spilling out from his torn side.

Broken bones, torn flesh. Gushing blood.

And.

“Ugh, ah.”

In the midst of countless deaths.

The memory of ‘coming back to life.’

“AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!”

Seto grabbed his head and convulsed as if having a seizure.

I looked down at Seto, writhing with his eyes rolled back, and smirked.

“How was it?”

Think you can pull the trigger now?