was brittle.As I descended onto the fortress after bringing down Goleth,
“――The Head of the enemy got taken down! Raise the shouts of victory!”
UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Under the orders of the mustached knight, the knights of the fortress thrusted their weapons towards the sky and shouted victoriously.
The mercenaries, who were desperately trying to climb up the fortress before, now scrambled to run away.
Their backs were showered by arrows and spells from the fortress.
“You’ve done well, Edgar-kun! But don’t do anything reckless like that in the future, okay?”
“Ai!”
Julia-kaasan said this, then started the chant for a spell while hugging me.
“――卜・∨・∨・卜・卜・λ・λ(Flame! Become a whirlwind that burns away everything!)――《Fire Storm》!”
There it is, 《Fire Storm》!
As expected, an accurate decision based on the circ.u.mstances.
《Fire Storm》 struck on the vanguard of the group of escaping mercenaries.
A storm of fire suddenly appeared from the direction they were running towards, so the mercenaries are falling into chaos.
“――I said, I will not let a single one of you escape, right?”
Mom had a wide grin on while saying this.
Scary as h.e.l.l.
“――My wife took down the Head of the enemy! Brave warriors of Ranzrack Fortress, now is the time to show the spirit of a knight! Everyone, chaaaaarge!”
Before I noticed, dad took the lead of a cavalry unit and mounted an a.s.sault against the disordered mercenaries to doubly make sure.
The mercenaries are taken down without anything that can be called resistance.
At any rate, the mercenaries are very brittle, most likely Goleth used his ability and fear to unify the mercenaries.
As the battle before showed, there is a minimum casualty count to a.s.sault a fortress no matter what.
It should be appropriate to a.s.sume that Goleth with that 《The Evil G.o.d’s Curse of Calamity》 thing bound them with fear.
But Goleth died.
Of course they start running.
There is no way a mercenary would serve as a rear guard in this circ.u.mstance.
――The battle is over.
“….huh? Edgar-kun?”
Julia-kaasan’s voice feels distant.
“Sleepy-time, huh. Still a baby after all~”
Her voice feels even more distant.
“My Lady, it was a superb display of fighting prowess.”
It’s dark so it’s hard to see, but it seems it’s the mustached knight.
…..I want to [Appraise] him too, but …… I’m sleepy.
“――Also the child of you two. Looking at his sleeping face like this, the fierce G.o.d like efforts of his from before are hard to believe.”
…hn? Sleepy….? Why am I [sleepy]?
“Those knights who saw the fight from nearby think that calling Edgar-dono a baby is too disrespectful, so some of them said that calling him Baby Scarlet would be fitting.”[1]
No good, I can’t think anymore.
“….Baby…..rlet, that……ick name….might……”
My consciousness is fading away.
When I came to, I was in a familiar s.p.a.ce.
The vacuum of s.p.a.ce where Marquekt is visible below, it should be clear if I describe it this way.
Yes, after I was stabbed by the slasher and it turned out I would be reincarnated in another world, this is where I met the G.o.ddess that time.
The G.o.ddess simply appeared from nowhere at all.
“――The one you dropped in the lake was this Golden [Enchant Magic]? Or maybe this Silver [Toughness]?”
To the G.o.ddess, who acted out some unknown scene as the first thing after meeting,
“Did your personality change in the short while since our last meeting?”
“You meanie. Even though this is our first meeting in a long time.”
“You say a long time, but …. wasn’t it about 20 days?”
Between waking up after reincarnating and the battle of Ranzrack Fortress, about that many days should have pa.s.sed.
But the G.o.ddess shook her head.
“To be precise, 1 year 4 month and 20 days.”
“1 year 4 month? …ah, counting from the conception.”
It was 1 year 4 month and 20 days ago when Alfred-tousan and Julia-kaasan did the XX, and I was conceived.
10 month after that, Julia-kaasan gave birth to me, then 6 months after birth was the point in time when I regained my consciousness as a reincarnated person.
And after that, 20 days have pa.s.sed until the battle of Ranzrack Fortress
“Then, that means I didn’t steal the body of a previously existing fetus, right?”
“Of course that is right. I would like you to trust more in the power of the G.o.d that governs the endless cycle of death and rebirth.”
“Well, sorry about that. I thought it should be alright if you are the one handling it, but ….”
I suddenly realized.
I can speak normally now, right?
In a panic, I look over my body, but my body is still a baby.
“….so, what is with this situation exactly? I didn’t die, right?”
The G.o.ddess nodded.
“Of course. Your current state is called 『Growth Sleep』”
“Growth sleep?”
“Right. When it’s time for a level up, the people of Marquekt are a.s.saulted by a desperate need for sleep, then enter a state of deep sleep, called 『Growth Sleep』. With this Growth Sleep, they adapt their body to the newfound power brought by the level up.”
“In other words, since my level went up, my body demanded sleep to cope with it.”
“Not quite right. You reach a state where you can level up, then after experiencing the Growth Sleep, your level goes up as a result.”
“….I don’t understand the difference.”
“Let’s see, take a look at your status for a bit.”
As the G.o.ddess said, I used [Appraise] on myself.
《Edgar Chrebl (Viscount Chrebl’s fourth son, n.o.ble of Santamana Kingdom, 《Baby Scarlet》
Level 1/31 (Level up standby state)
MP 752/752
Condition Growth Sleep
Skills
[No Fatigue] –
[Appraisal] 9 (MAX)
[Database] –
•Master cla.s.s
[Mana Control] 4
[Letterless Invocation] 5
•General
[Fire Magic] 1
[Wind Magic] 1
[Light Magic] 1
[Telekinesis Magic] 9 (MAX)
[Simultaneous Invocation] 9 (MAX)
《G.o.ddess of Virtue’s Blessing》
Certainly the ‘Level up standby state’ is there, but …. 31?
Also, what the h.e.l.l is that 《Baby Scarlet》?
“You defeated many mercenaries with Goleth, an Apostle of the Evil G.o.d, on the top of the list. Moreover, as level 1. Of course it would go up at least that much.”
The G.o.ddess says.
“That’s right, I wanted to ask about that. 《The Evil G.o.d’s Curse of Calamity》 was it? What on earth it that?”
“There is nothing more than what you’ve found out with [Appraise]. The Evil G.o.d contacts people who are fitting and grants them various kinds of powers in exchange for a part of their lifespan. As expected, since it’s gained by exchanging their lifespan, its effect can only be described as powerful. Since the same extreme piling up of abilities can’t be done with a Blessing on the Virtue side it’s really troubling.”
‘It is really good that you defeated him’, the G.o.ddess said.
“He is different from the what’s-his-name slasher, right?”
“Kizaki Tooru, right. But then, in this life he was probably given a different name. Yes, that is right. The Apostle this time is an entirely different matter from Kizaki. The fact that you happened upon it was also by chance.”
“You didn’t set it up for it to happen this way, right?”
“I don’t have that kind of power. Since the one who governs fate is a different G.o.d. The only things I can do are in the domain of souls.”
“The domain of souls…..?”
“Reincarnation and the bestowal of skills.”
“Why are skills related to souls?”
“To explain that, first I need to talk about what skills are.”
“Please, by all means!”
I vigorously asked the G.o.ddess.
I can hear about what skills are from the G.o.ddess that governs skills, you know?
The G.o.ddess started talking after clearing her throat with surprisingly cute ‘ehen’.
“――first, what do you understand about skills?”
“Isn’t it a certificate that proves ‘I have learned this kind of technique or magic!’, or something like that?”
“No”
The G.o.ddess brought over a whiteboard for newscasters from absolutely nowhere, and hit its surface with a board marker’s back end, making a kotsu kotsu sound.
“Skills are in fact rewards from the G.o.ds.”
“Rewards?”
I got confused by that unexpected word.
“In proportion to the degree of acquisition of expertise, from the G.o.ds ―― well, mainly from me, a power of G.o.d is granted. This power of G.o.d and the person’s own polished expertise harmonize together and make what is known as a Skill.”
“The power of G.o.d…..”
“We simply call it 「Power」, but if it’s difficult to understand, then let’s see…. right, you can call it a Gift.”
In other words,
Skill = that person’s expertise + Gift
is what it comes down to.
“If you ask for what reason are we doing this, then the answer is obviously to enable people to oppose monsters and the Evil G.o.d. People with only their expertise and inborn physical abilities are no match for monsters in any way, not to mention the Evil G.o.d. Therefore, we send people Gifts, raise their expertise and physical abilities, and have them gain the ability to fight monsters.”
People acquire 「Skills」 after receiving Gifts based on their expertise,
Skills and Status Points are cataloged in something called 「Status」, which can be viewed by Skills such as [Appraise], and it is something like a report card from the G.o.ds (as the G.o.ddess explained).
“But if you can do that, why not send much more Gifts and strengthen the people?”
“If we could do that then would be no need for these troubles. To begin with, do you know where the G.o.ds’ power come from that is used in those Gifts?”
“Used in Gifts….”
In short, where does that power come from that should be granted in times of level up?
If that’s the case――
“….experience points!”
“There you have it. Well, in this world there is no such concept as『Experience Points』, but rather the power of the Evil G.o.d that is enclosed in the Statuses of monsters and villainous people is released when they are defeated, something like that. At any rate, if a monster or villainous person is defeated, a part of the power from their Statuses circles back to me. With my power, I purify that power of the Evil G.o.d that has circled back to me and I share a part of it as a Gift with the one that defeated that being.”
Conversely, if the Evil G.o.d side defeats someone from the Virtue side, then the power from their Statuses ends up absorbed by the Evil G.o.d side.
And then, with those strengthened followers they defeat the other side’s followers and take the power of their Statuses.
“Here I return to the original topic”
The G.o.ddess extended both her hands in front of me.
[Appraise].
《Gift of [Enchant Magic]》
《Gift of [Toughness]》
Uh huh, a Golden Gift and a Silver Gift.