Chapter 56

The first thing Jae did after regaining consciousness was curse.

“...Shit. I’m lost.”

The sky was beginning to darken. Winds picked up, and the synchronised waves swished for miles on end. It was only just after noon when the Scylla first appeared, so the time it took for Jae to wake up after each resurrection must be at least an hour.

“Since it’s this dark already... How many hours is it between dying and resurrecting? No, wait, what time of the year is it? If it’s Autumn or Winter, then it could be that the time isn’t as long as I think...”

...Well, it should still be around an hour, minimum. Anyway, how do I get to land from here?

He was completely stranded in the middle of the ocean. Due to the previous battle and his several deaths, Jae had no idea which way he came from or which way he was originally heading.

“I can’t fly out with only an hour time limit on Greed. And even if I used Sloth, or the currents to fly like before, then there would be no point. The sea is too vast. I’ll only get more lost if I wander around aimlessly.”

Thinking that the only option that remained was to wait for a ship to pass by, Jae sat down. It wasn’t very comfortable because of the Scylla’s tough and scaly body, but it wasn’t a big deal.

A while passed by in silence as Jae just watched over the rolling seas. Eventually, by the time the sky was already in its twilight stage, he unconsciously let out a murmur.

“...I’m hungry...”

Then, he spoke with a brightened voice.

“Oh, that reminds me.”

He got up from where he sat and started peeling off Scylla’s green scales, throwing them into the Inventory at breakneck speed. Despite each scale being about the size of a healthy child, his hands moved like lightning as if he had gone through a similar process hundreds of times before.

It was the work of the skill,「Harvesting: Creatures [Lv.MAX]」.

In the end, he had gathered almost a hundred scales before even ten minutes had passed. Of course, these weren’t all of the Scylla’s scales, but it was all Jae needed.

Once it was done and the pink inner flesh of the monster was revealed, he shrouded his hand in dense magic energy, formed it into the shape of a knife, and cut a chunk of the Scylla’s flesh out before popping it into his mouth.

He still had some seasonings and sauces left from testing out the「Essence Devourer」System before, but there was no need to use them if he was the only one eating.

Skill「Gluttony」has activated Skill「Poison Fangs」has been acquired Target’s highest essence value: Strength Devouring essence Strength increased by 5 Skill「Gluttony」has levelled up [Lv.5]→[Lv.6] Skill「Gluttony」has levelled up [Lv.6]→[Lv.7]

“5? That’s a lot. 5’s the limit on stat gain, then? And two level ups... Fuuh.”

Just goes to show how big a deal this guy was, huh? I think, if I didn’t level up Gluttony before, I wouldn’t have been able to get anything from eating this thing. It was like that with the Dragons in the Pride Dungeon, right? If I go back, what kinds of skills would I get...

A grin appeared on his face as he imagined the situation. It quickly faded, however, as Jae reminded himself that Aphy was also going to be there. That fact made him nervous, though he couldn’t say why.

In any case, eating more wouldn’t do anything special of course, so Jae simply ate until he was full―which happened to be quite a lot because of Gluttony’s side effect―before returning to a sitting position and resting.

Now, it was quite late. The night sky was glittering, full of stars, but it was so distant.

“...”

Jae gazed at the sight with a disinterested expression. Perhaps, if it was him from before he arrived in this world, he would adore the sight before him. However, as he was now, he didn’t seem to care.

Then again, if it was the previous him, perhaps the reason he would’ve enjoyed this view wasn’t because of the view itself, but something else entirely.

As if he had enough, Jae turned on his side and closed his eyes. If all he had to do here was use his brain and think, then he would rather sleep.

“―Ah, wait, fuck.”

Suddenly, he jolted back up with a swear. He forgot about something important.

“I didn’t get the weapons back, did I? Where are they?”

After searching desperately, Jae managed to locate and retrieve the Death God’s scythe from the water. It was only thanks to the powerful magical energy they emitted. About an hour later, he then found the greatsword at the ocean floor just beside where the Scylla’s dead body sat.

Following all that, he grew tired. And so, after placing the weapons back into the Inventory, Jae decided to sleep.

The Emperor, Felix, sipped elegantly on his drink; a cup of rich tea with ingredients so extraordinarily scarce that they are commonly regarded as mere myths. They came together to form a drink so finely brewed that it was renowned as the Empire’s most extravagant beverage.

In fact, despite being almost priceless, it was something so incredible that no one other than the Emperor himself can afford it.

Placing his expensive cup gently back down on the ornate, ceramic coaster, the Emperor turned his gaze to the man sitting across the table from him with a nervous expression.

“Hero. You will not drink?”

“Ye-Yes, Your Majesty.”

Of course, the ‘Hero’ the Emperor mentioned―it was Chris. Chris, after being called out by the Emperor, grabbed the handle of his own cup with trembling hands and brought it to his lips.

The contents of Chris’ cup was obviously not the same as the Emperor’s, but it was still not something he would be able to afford more than three cups of even if he worked every day for fifty years―and that was as the so-called Hero. It was a drink about as costly as the price of the bounty on Jae’s head, in fact.

His anxiousness was not due to the price of the drink. Nor was it wholly due to being seated at the same table as the Emperor; that was only part of it. No, the core reason for Chris’ unease was the responsibility of the opportunity.

Chris was briefed beforehand on why he was invited to the Imperial Palace. In short, it was to hire him. Firstly, he could be a personal bodyguard for the Imperial Princess, Priscilla, who was Emperor Felix’s younger sister. Alternatively, he could marry the Princess.

This was not something Chris particularly wanted to do, as he already had his hands full looking after numerous others. As for the marriage part, Chris’ heart was already taken by another woman; namely, the ex-Princess Eleanor, who had fallen from grace.

The second option was to be a commander or captain in the Imperial Army. This, again, was not something Chris really wanted to be a part of, as it would mean less time with those he cared about.

The third option was something of a different nature, however.

“So. Chris, was it? I would like you to operate as a public figure.”

“What does that mean?”, he asked.

“It’s rather simple. You, as the Hero, will do acts fitting that role. This way, you gain a positive public image. The Hero helps the people in times of need and will act as an idolised figure that boosts morale as well as being a trump card on display, meaning that just maintaining a high popularity and fame level for the Hero will exhibit the Empire’s confidence to the rest of the world.”

As the Emperor’s voice gracefully flowed out, Chris quickly became flustered.

“...I see.”

Chris didn’t get most of it, but he was afraid to admit that. Though he used to be quite intelligent, perhaps the long period of deluding himself dulled his wits a bit. The Emperor didn’t seem to care whether or not Chris understood as he continued.

“This may include deploying you on various battlefields to raise the morale of soldiers and to disparage the enemy. Of course, you will be properly compensated the more of a positive influence you have on the field.”

“Understood... What about the others?”

At Chris’ words, the Emperor expression went unchanged―at least, on the surface.

“By ‘others’ you mean the refugees, I presume? Well, of course, there are currently no plans that involve the dogs who begged us for their lives.”

Quietly gritting his teeth, Chris then asked the Emperor.

“Your Majesty, would you please consider recruiting some of my friends as well? I can personally vouch for their ability.”

Placing a hand softly on his chin, the Emperor stared at Chris for a few seconds, who gulped. After about a dozen seconds of silence passed by, he put on a friendly smile.

“If that is what the Hero says, then it must be true. However, although I cannot refuse a personal request from the Hero, I must judge with my own eyes before entrusting a job to them. Return to your companions and bring them to me.”

“Yes, thank you, Your Majesty.”, after speaking with an expression that portrayed his relief, Chris continued after a moment of stillness.

“...And... I will do my best as the Hero of the Empire. I swear on my Title as Hero.”

At his words, the corners of Emperor Felix’s mouth curled up ever so faintly.

―He had just acquired the Empire’s first ‘Hero’.

“...Huh? Oh, a ship! Finally.”

Jae only had to wait about a day before he could see a boat approach his location from over the horizon. It didn’t look like the same ship he was on before, so Jae assumed it was a separate one that came from Fansch.

“Hmmm... Huh? No, wait, why are they turning around?”

As he looked at the ship from a few kilometres away with skills like「Vision Enhancement」and magic reinforcement, Jae could make out that the people aboard were panicking at something. He jumped up to his feet in shock upon realising the crew were frantically running about and trying to turn the ship around.

Why!?

Suddenly, though, he caught a glimpse of someone looking at him through a device similar to a telescope. A few minutes after that, and the crew seemed to have calmed down.

Jae sighed in relief when the boat continued to sail in his direction.

...I thought I’d have to board the ship through force. But, it’s fine if they let me on as a guard or something.

It took just over ten minutes for the ship to arrive at Jae and the Scylla’s carcass. As it approached closer and closer, more of the crew came to the edge of the deck to see what was going on, and so by the time it arrived, everyone was staring at Jae with bewildered faces.

The boat quickly slowed to a halt. An older-looking man with a large and deep scar running from his left temple to his right shoulder was the first to speak, and as he was a Demon, both of his horns were shattered.

“Oi, laddie. Did you do this?”, he spoke in a rough tone, gesturing towards the dead body of the Scylla on which Jae stood proudly.

Jae replied bluntly, “Yep. Are you heading to the Southern Continent? Can I come along?”

The man presumed to be the captain of the ship glanced at the sheer size of the Scylla’s body. It was like an iceberg as the majority of it was hidden underwater, but that didn’t reduce how big it was.

“...Lookin’ at ya now, I don’t think any one of us could stop ya if that’s what ya wanted?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be good were I to simply force my way onto your ship, would it? I doubt you’d take me to where I wanted to go anyway if I did that.”

“Hm... This is the legendary Trickster Queen of the Sea... Laddie, just how’d ya take such a monster down unscathed?”

The captain appeared to know his stuff since he could tell the mangled monster was a Scylla merely by looking at the human torso attached. Jae looked down at himself, belatedly realising that his skin was practically spotless. Though his clothes were far too destroyed in comparison that it looked completely mismatched.

“Well, y’know... It died. I can’t say how.”

“Hm. That’s expected. If your destination is also Laquada, then I’d be glad to have such a powerful bodyguard for the rest of the journey.”

Jae smiled and leapt onto the boat. The crew almost entirely looked at him puzzledly before being called by the captain who turned to face them.

“Men! Harvest that creature to maximum capacity!”, he commanded while pointing at the Scylla. Jae raised his eyebrows.

Right, it’s a legendary monster. Its materials are bound to be incredibly valuable, huh? Well, I’ve already got plenty of scales and meat in the Inventory if I need some immediate funds in the future.

As the men jumped off the ship one-by-one and began to fully harvest the Scylla’s materials, the captain only told one line to Jae.

“Judging by the sheer size of the thing, it’ll take about 2-3 days if we work at it consistently before we run out of storage. Sorry laddie, but you’ll have to wait ‘til then before we continue towards Laquada.”

There were more or less 30 crew members aboard this reasonably-sized ship. If all of them had the skill「Harvesting: Creatures」raised to a high level, then it was understandable how it would take less than three days to harvest such a big monster.

In the meantime, however, there was nothing much for him to do, so Jae decided to help out.

It would probably be for the best to try and get to Nazar and Bailey as soon as possible.

“If it will reduce the waiting time, I can help.”

“Hm... Seein’ what you’ve already done, it seems your proficiency at harvesting is even better than my men. How bizarre for such a youthful man. Alright, go ahead.”

Jae nodded, having gotten permission from the captain to assist in the harvesting. He immediately jumped down to where the crew were and showed them how he did it, as they seemed to be struggling a bit with peeling such large scales.

The captain stared at Jae with a thoughtful expression.

“...With his help, it should reduce the harvesting time to about a day and a half.”

Satisfied with the sudden windfall, he thought God had blessed him on this day. The captain was certainly pleased with the large influx of valuable goods he abruptly obtained, but did not ask the stranger he welcomed aboard any questions―there was no need to risk it, and he wouldn’t gain anything from asking questions anyway.

The future was looking bright indeed.

This is what the captain thought, and his instincts were telling him the same.

The captain was not the only one anticipating a bright future, however. There are many others in the world who are looking forward with optimistic expressions.

One of those people was Amelia, who, along with Ryan, Nicolas, and Kaitlyn, had just arrived at a large and wealthy-seeming inn called the ‘Den of the Southern Devil’. Nicolas suggested it, which was why they decided to stay there, but he hasn’t mentioned why yet.

The receptionist―a young, pretty Demon lady―recited the price of the group of four’s stay for two nights at the inn with a bright smile on her face.

“That will be a total of 80 silver coins for two nights’ stay, please.”

Hearing the receptionist’s words, Amelia turned to Kaitlyn and relayed what she said.

“Kait, she says the price is 80 silver coins. Do we have that available?”

“80...!? God, this is expensive...”, Kaitlyn muttered as she handed over a bag of silver coins to Amelia, who in turn gave it to the receptionist.

Then, Nicolas interjected.

“Well, it’s quite cheap actually. I’ve seen inns with prices that rise above one gold coin per person. So, considering the size of this one, we’re pretty lucky that it’s not even a gold coin for the four of us.”

Kaitlyn only scoffed at him, however.

“What on earth are you on about? That’s roughly a third of our current total funds, you know?”

“Uh... What? There’s no way, right?”

“Idiot. Look.”

*jingle~*

Kaitlyn pulled out a coin pouch and waved it around in front of Nicolas’ face, letting out the sound of coins clanging around. Ryan interrupted the two of them just as a dumbfounded expression was put on by Nicolas.

“Come on. Move your fat asses to the room already.”

The group closed the door upon entering the room. They ordered a single room for four adults instead of two separate rooms for the girls and boys because it was much cheaper to get one room, and they simply didn’t have the available funds for such things.

“Ooh, the beds are quite nice.”, Nicolas smiled in satisfaction as he jumped on one of the beds. Kaitlyn’s words followed.

“They better be. It’s 10 silver coins per person for each night.”

“Why are you so stingy?”

“Get off my back. If only we had the money to get separate rooms, I wouldn’t have to look at your face.”

“Damn. That’s true, though. Didn’t we thoroughly prepare for this? How are we almost out of funds after just over a month...?”

“It can’t be helped. There are no Adventurer Guilds in the Demon Country, so making money is hard for people like us.”

Kaitlyn was the one who answered his question as she shrugged, but Ryan added on to it.

“Nic, stop whinin’. It was necessary to spend that much to farm EXP and skills to balance the group’s Levels out.”

What he was saying was that, to level Amelia up and let her acquire useful skills, the group had used the majority of the money they saved up on things like information for the location of difficult monsters, equipment such as clothes, weapons, and potions, and even materials like mana stones that would be needed for Ryan to use runes.

“I’m sorry about that guys... A lot of money was wasted because of me.”, Amelia spoke dejectedly. It seemed she felt guilty about having a bunch of money spent on her.

“Shut up.”, Ryan suddenly told her.

He spoke rude words with his usual, rough tone. “Like I said. It was necessary for your ability to be on par with the rest of the group or otherwise you’ll just be a burden.”

Everyone went silent for a few moments upon hearing his words that could be taken the wrong way. Fortunately, Amelia didn’t take offence to it as she knew it was true after experiencing over a month in the new world.

The one to break the silence was Nicolas.

“Anyway, you guys’ll be glad to hear that I actually obtained some interesting information in this town today.”

“””Oh?”””, everyone simultaneously uttered a sound of surprise.

“Go on then.”, Ryan urged.

“Right. Well, you see, the reason I suggested this inn is because there are rumours that it is owned by a Sand Devil.”

“A what?”, Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow.

“A Sand Devil.”, Nicolas repeated himself before continuing.

“I don’t know their real name, but that is what people used to call them.”

“Used to? What does that mean?”

This time, it was Amelia who asked.

“Well, it turns out that they’re extinct. Except for one.”

Kaitlyn furrowed her brows in confusion, “...Huh? And you’re saying that the one remaining Sand Devil is the owner of this small countryside inn?”

“...Well, yeah.”

“...”

“Nic, are you fuckin’ high?”, Ryan abruptly asked with a frown.

“What--?!”

“How the hell is that useful information, you bastard?”

“I’m not finished yet!”, he yelled. Once he calmed down, Nicolas explained the entire story.

“So, about a month and a half ago, the Sand Devil―they call him the Southern Devil since he’s from the Southen Continent―was actually here, in this inn.”

“””...”””, Everyone was quiet as they listened intently to Nicolas’ words.

“When he was here, word got out that he had a human friend who also stayed in the inn. And, would you guess what? It turns out that human, who the witnesses say had a similar kind of black hair to the Demons, had the name ‘Jae’.”

“”“!?”””

Everyone aside from Nicolas sat wide-eyed with the exception of Amelia, who stood up in shock. Her heart thumped wildly and her eyes trembled with explosive emotions, but she barely managed to reign her raging feelings in and sat back down.

Still, it was difficult for her to think straight, and the blood that rushed all over her body due to her palpitating heart gave a surge of adrenaline, making it feel as if time had slowed down.

The name Jae was almost a dead giveaway, and the fact that it was a human, only gave further reason to believe that it was that Jae―the one they were looking for. However, it’s not like there will be no people in this world with the same name. Hell, it could have even been that the name was only similar in pronunciation.

Nonetheless, Amelia had a firm conviction that the man in the rumour was Jae.

The characteristic black hair, too... Since that was one of the Demons’ two primary features along with the horns, the possibility stands that it was a half-Demon and not a human at all. However, Jae also had naturally black hair thanks to his heritage―his mother was Korean.

Knowing this very well, Amelia thought the possibility was extremely high that the rumoured man was Jae. No, to her, there was no other possibility. It was him.

“Nicolas, I swear to God; if you’re lying then I’ll kill you.”, Kaitlyn spoke with an expression of clear disbelief present on her face. She seemed all kinds of emotions―shocked, elated, confused, and proud of her friend Amelia.

“Wha--No, of course not! Why the hell would I lie about this?!”, he frantically denied the accusation. It was clear to the three of them that he was certainly telling the truth.

But then, if it was true, how was he acquainted with the sole surviving Sand Devil? Truthfully, the details about that didn’t really matter, but if they could find that Sand Devil, then they might also be able to find Jae. If not, they could ask the Sand Devil for his help in locating Jae.

If the rumours were true, that is.

“You see, I already thought of that when I heard of the rumour too, so I went ahead and asked. Apparently, the Sand Devil headed towards the Demon Queen’s Castle. If we go there, I have a feeling we’ll find something big.”

Nicolas’ words shocked Amelia to her core. Demon Queen’s Castle... The group easily decided on their next destination.

It felt like she was on the verge of finally finding what she so desperately wanted.