Chapter 93

The monster seems to have been wiped out.

If it were the original power that the monster possessed, it wouldn’t have died from Evan’s attack; however, since it had been sealed for a long time by a past hero party and had weakened due to my divine power, it seems like it was cut down by Evan’s awakened skill.

Well, yeah…

I had been thinking what would happen if we couldn’t even subdue it and had to retreat as we were, so it was a stroke of good fortune that we were saved.

If we had been defeated in the fight against the monster and had to retreat, that retreat time, as well as the time we would have to fight again to subdue the monster… to be precise, until we subdue the stronger monster, we would have had to remain hidden inside.

I didn’t want that at all, no matter what.

Though I’ve gotten used to the smell here, it was still disgusting and unpleasant.

It is a creature’s innards, so it would be more unusual if there weren’t any smells… but if I had to stay in this disguise until then, it would only get worse as new friends would continually enter.

Who is this new friend, you ask?

Who else… obviously, they would be the friends that this fellow might have eaten.

It doesn’t seem likely that it would bother eating the human corpses sprawled on the ground, so wouldn’t a huge monster come in, chewed up, into the disguise?

Thinking about such things, I felt that it was far better to get out like this right now.

Yes, of course.

More than that…

“Do I… smell?”

I feel awkward saying this, but while I have gotten used to the smell from being inside for so long, I think it must smell really bad to others; yet Evan seemed completely unfazed.

Moreover, this guy is even hugging me.

I might be accustomed to the disgusting smell, so it doesn’t bother me too much…

“Is it okay? Sniff sniff…”

It must smell.

Well… what can I do if he wants to smell it?

More importantly, I want to rest a bit.

I had been continuously expelling divine power to make the subjugation of the monster easier, and it was really tiring.

I felt that I needed to take a break soon.

“Should I take a little nap…?”

After all this effort in weakening the monster inside its body, I figured I would be forgiven for resting a bit.

Thinking that, I quietly closed my eyes.

If something happens, I’m sure I’ll wake up by myself, I thought.

*

“Aria…!”

Hearing someone calling my name, I used the divine power that had mostly recovered to assess my surroundings, and it seemed that this place was a hospital room.

And the one calling me was…

“Stella…?”

It was Stella.

Next to her were Uriel and Evan, as well as Principal Argen and Duke Valencia, with Lucia… it seemed that all the people who knew me had gathered together and were worried about me.

Well… there really wasn’t a need to be that worried.

It’s hard to say this to those who fought hard for me, but I actually felt like I was halfway enjoying a trip… while ordinary people would have suffered the pain of their bodies melting in real time, I had felt nothing but a warm pleasure before coming out.

Well… the smell was indeed unpleasant, so it wasn’t completely enjoyable.

“[I’m fine, so don’t worry.]”

I said that to mean they should really not worry, but it didn’t seem like anyone believed me.

Ehh, tsk… if I say it myself, wouldn’t they believe it more?

“I’m just relieved… I was worried we might not be able to save you…”

Stella said that and let out a sigh of relief.

And…

“But we… did defeat one of the Demon King Army’s executives, right?!”

“Well… that’s true.”

Argen replied, still in disbelief.

Well… since it was she who sealed that monster, it seemed she hadn’t anticipated it would be subjugated like this at all.

“I thought we would at best just continue to seal it.”

See? She really didn’t expect to subdue it.

“Right! And Evan was really amazing!”

“Ugh…”

“It felt like a real hero had appeared, just like in a storybook~”

Seeing Uriel genuinely praise Evan made me start to feel curious.

What skill did he use to subdue that monster?

If it was Evan who came inside the disguise himself to save me, then he must have delivered the final blow to the monster, which means he must have used his skills as a hero to defeat it.

Putting aside whether Evan could even have subjugated the monster with his current skill level, I couldn’t help but be curious about what skill he used to subdue it.

“[I want to know that too!]”

“Ah! That’s right. I should tell the Saintess first~”

“Exactly, exactly~”

Stella and Uriel came closer to me as if they had thought of something interesting.

“Hey, wait a moment, you guys…?!”

Evan urgently tried to intervene, but the two of them had already pushed him out, saying that men shouldn’t interrupt when women are talking.

Hmm, I wanted to see Evan fidgeting, but that’s a shame.

“Hehe, then shall I explain what happened?”

“Ahh… thinking that everything rests on my shoulders makes me nervous…”

Huh.

What are they talking about all of a sudden?

Besides, I couldn’t understand at all what Uriel was saying.

Nervous thinking everything rests on her shoulders?

“[Did Evan say that?]”

“Hyah! N-no! Umm…”

“[???]”

What’s wrong with her?

Uriel, sounding genuinely flustered, stammered for a moment before finally nodding, agreeing that it was indeed something Evan had said.

Hmm…

Evan…

‘No more of this middle school syndrome… hmmm…’

No, but seriously, saying something like “I get nervous thinking that everything rests on my hands” after becoming a hero is just too much, isn’t it?

I thought I would have to try my best to correct that if he says something like that again.

Honestly, how much would the other girls around him be turned off by that.

As a fellow man, I found it unappealing, so if he’s going around acting all middle school syndrome like that, how could women be attracted to him?

I thought the spell of being infatuated would surely wear off with such behavior, even for someone who had feelings for him.

Anyway…

In any case, I listened to the two of them explain what had just happened.

Though their explanation was a little filled with personal interest and not entirely accurate, they assured me that all of it had definitely happened.

There was no way they would lie to me…

‘Aside from the lines Evan said when he saved me…’

I didn’t think Evan would say that…

I imagined that these two must have been on some kind of drug, throwing out lines that felt straight out of a romantic fantasy while saving me, and it was obvious they had embellished it with their unique feminine imagination.

As far as I knew, the only one who had approached and hugged me directly to save me was Evan.

‘Wait… did they say he cried when he saved me?’

I wasn’t sure if that was true or not.

I thought it would be better to ask.

No way… could Evan be a mama’s boy?

It would be hard to believe he cried about being swallowed and saved when he knew he wouldn’t die.

For now, aside from other things, one thing is certain: Evan has successfully awakened.

That’s for sure.

For one, unlike before, I could sense a strong divine power emanating from Evan’s body, and while I’m not sure if his hair or eye colors had changed, I couldn’t help but believe it at the point where he defeated the monster.

After all, there’s no way he could have come directly to take me out without awakening his powers as a hero, right?

Honestly, it did look cool the way he cleaved the monster in half and came inside to rescue me.

It was befitting of the name hero, I suppose.

However… there was…

One problem that remained.

‘Saying he saw his future self…?’

When I heard the explanation about the moment of awakening, I couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

The effect of the necklace of experience that I know holds the thoughts of the previous hero, but a man who looked like his future self appeared to teach him skills as a hero; it raised questions.

Since this might sound strange if I explained its effects in detail, I had roughly talked about it helping with the awakening, so I was somewhat relieved.

Was there another effect that I didn’t know about?

‘Not sure…’

I really don’t know.

I think I need to ask Evan directly about this part.