Chapter 404: Vacation Before the Festival (Part 1) (Patreon)

The [Black Dragon] was completely unmoved by the Soul Teardrop's slaughter.

Perhaps it had concluded that they couldn't hurt it at all, because the enormous golden eye actually slid shut, as if it were sinking back into sleep.

He was being looked down on.

It was infuriating, but there was nothing to be done. Even with all the Strength he had now, he couldn't hurt this thing in the slightest. The gap between them was a chasm.

Tch.

Come to think of it, the Queen had fought the Black Dragon once, but she remembered nothing about it. It seemed she'd been killed in an instant, and the memory of that fight had been wiped from her entirely.

Isagi couldn't say for certain, but given how things stood, it was very likely.

He still had to keep growing stronger. His original estimate had been right after all: without at least Lv.9—no, without reaching that so-called "power of imagination," there was almost no chance of damaging the [Black Dragon].

All he could do for now was head back.

"Aren't you going to kill more of the dragons in here?"

"Next time works just as well."

The [Black Dragon] didn't care about these creatures. Since a thousand years ago, it had been summoning them to its side from all over the world, for one purpose only: to buy time for itself with their lives. That purpose had never changed.

So there was no point in wiping them out now. That was why Isagi had said what he said.

"Let's go. Time to head back."

*

This time, Isagi and the girls' trip to [Dragon Valley] took far less time than before. Going and coming back came to only about a week.

The timing was perfect, too. They returned just as this year's Fertility Festival was about to begin.

This year was as busy as last year. Goddess Demeter went without saying: as the "star" of the Fertility Festival, she was still run off her feet these days. So were the several goddesses living in the [Court of Stars], including Goddess Hestia, who had been sent over by Goddess Hephaestus to work part-time. All of them were busy preparing for the festival.

Isagi, like the other girls, had nothing to do, and was thoroughly idle these days. He hadn't even reopened Hostess of Fertility. For one thing, the goddesses were away. For another, Orario's visitors were as numerous as ever and business was so good that nobody could be bothered to open the doors, so they simply took a few days off.

When everyone else was playing and resting, he naturally had to play and rest along with them. And so…

*

One day before the Fertility Festival.

The autumn sky was high and crisp. The sunlight wasn't harsh, just soft and pleasant, neither cold nor hot. In the yard, the Golden Tree was shedding golden leaves like fine rain, piling them nearly to the brim of the garden, and they crunched underfoot when he stepped on them.

When Isagi drowsily woke up, Lefiya and the others had probably just left. Through the half-open window came the girls' lively chatter. They'd likely gone out shopping.

Isagi yawned sleepily and glanced at the time. It was already afternoon again. Days off had a certain "decadence" to them: he'd wake up and half the day would be gone. The drowsiness vanished at once, and he shook his head.

He got up and washed, ate the lunch the girls had left for him, then looked out at the quiet garden and stretched.

No one was home. The goddesses, needless to say, were busy, and the other girls were either helping them or out having fun. It happened all the time. So Isagi decided to go for a stroll by himself today.

For some reason, he kept remembering that last year's Fertility Festival had felt just like this.

This year's festival was even livelier than last year's. The Guild hadn't planned it that way. It was probably simply because, now that the Dark Familia had been truly wiped out, the city had become more prosperous and stable than before in every respect. That naturally drew more and more people too. Everyone longed for a peaceful life, after all.

He headed south along North Main Street, but didn't take the main road, since it was the busiest time of day. The avenue was a racket, packed with pedestrians and tourists, frankly a bit ridiculous. He cut through the back alleys instead.

Isagi slipped past the Loki Familia's Twilight Manor with practiced ease and kept heading west, crossing several blocks and a small fountain plaza. Before long he reached the area around the Dian Cecht Familia's compound.

The [Pure White Infirmary] wasn't far from here. Rows of identical pure-white apartment buildings stood in neat lines, taking up far more ground than he'd imagined.

The Dian Cecht Familia had a lot of members now. The city had never gone through the [Dark Age], so almost all of the Dian Cecht Familia's original members had survived. On top of that, there was the Dark Familia's downfall and the stronger public security.

Rarely, when he came near the Pure White Infirmary, Isagi spotted Airmid resting. Far off on the Infirmary's third floor, the silver-haired girl stood at the outer corridor on tiptoe, her little head tilted, propping her cheek on one hand as if gazing at something in the distance.

Maybe it was the towering Babel far away. Or maybe the city's prosperity.

But very soon, she spotted him.

Isagi's eyesight was ridiculously good these days, so he quickly saw the girl waving hello. What he hadn't expected was that Airmid would hurry off, and a short while later come running out of the Infirmary.

The small girl wore her Familia uniform as always, like a nurse's outfit, and her rather cool, pretty face held its usual calm expression. She was used to that by now. As a healer, showing either "joy" or "dejection" could affect a patient's mood. The former made patients careless, thinking it was nothing serious. The latter could make them lose hope and the will to keep up treatment.

"Mood is extremely important to treatment!"

Airmid had said this, quite solemnly, more than once. Even with the City's Strongest healing magic, and the most effective at that, many injuries and illnesses couldn't be cured just by casting a spell once.

"Mr. Isagi!"

Isagi honestly didn't know why she'd run out to join him. Wasn't she only supposed to be saying hello?

Hmm. Their relationship was a little delicate. It wasn't a question of whether they were friends. Airmid simply wasn't an adventuring companion, and the two didn't see each other much. Of course, he had asked for her help many times with Fels's and Cecil's research. Most of it had come to nothing, but that was only natural. If research produced results every time, that would be truly impossible.

Come to think of it, he'd brought something up with her before: making a "potion that restores Stats." It was because of Haruhime's new skill, of course. [Soul Siphon] drains other people's Stats, and with Heith's new skill, "Mark," the drained person's Stats could be restored.

If that was possible, Isagi had wondered, couldn't there be a potion that "restores Stats" as well? He had floated the idea to Fels, Asfi and Airmid. But Fels had been busy lately, and Miss Asfi wasn't good at brewing potions. Only Airmid had said she could give it a try.

In theory, Haruhime's [Soul Siphon] was essentially a curse, a way of inflicting an "abnormal status" on someone. So once it was lifted, the lost Stats could be "recovered" somehow, like water drained from a vessel.

Whether the drained Stats would still be there after the restoration was another question. Isagi's opinion on that hadn't changed: never mind, make it first and study it slowly afterward.

And Airmid hadn't come to find him today about the potion. He'd only told her about it when he got back from [Dragon Valley] a few days ago, so there couldn't be progress yet. The girl was simply free today.

"Aren't there many patients at the Infirmary?"

"At least it isn't busy."

The senior members of her Familia had been giving her days off lately. They said she should rest properly, and that since their unreliable patron god spent every day out carousing, the members ought to enjoy themselves too. Isagi thought that made a lot of sense.

The trouble was that Airmid clearly had no idea what "rest" meant. She hadn't come from the Pure White Infirmary originally, but ever since she joined the Dian Cecht Familia, her talent had revealed itself, and with the turbulent times on top of that, her life had been, how to put it, repressed? Plain?

Orario had long held a theory: whether an adventurer had talent was decided from the very start, when they joined a Familia and received their Falna. Those with no skills and no magic were forever just "supporting characters." The truly powerful adventurers were the gifted ones, extraordinary from Lv.1, who surged ahead within a few short years and became real powerhouses.

Ais was like that. Ryuu and Senior Alise and the others were like that. So were Ottar and the rest of the Freya Familia. Even Finn and Riveria had taken twenty or thirty years to reach Lv.6, a pace most people in the city could only look up to and never reach.

And Airmid was exactly that kind of existence. From Lv.1, she had already been the City's Strongest healer. Any illness, any wound, any curse: as long as a single breath remained, bring the patient before Airmid and they'd be saved.

Even before she had the Mystery Development Ability, the potions she made were many times stronger than ordinary ones. And after she reached Lv.2 and gained the Mystery Development Ability, she produced special curse-lifting and antidote potions that only she could make, along with the [panacea], which the city's adventurers considered a second life.

To the people of Orario, she was a treasure. Isagi had long understood why Airmid never went into the Dungeon. She had no interest whatsoever in becoming an adventurer or exploring the Dungeon. She only wanted to help people, nothing more. So spending all her adventuring time on treating the wounded was what mattered most to her.

In theory, leveling up would make her already formidable healing magic even stronger, and she might gain new skills and spells. But for Airmid, how things were now was already enough.

Isagi also understood where the god Dian Cecht and the Guild were coming from. If a healer like Airmid made a mistake in the Dungeon, more than just one person would die. So although they did approve her joining certain grueling battles, such as the subjugation of the Artificial Labyrinth and the expedition against the Corrupted Spirit, that was only when Orario's very survival was at stake. Normally, Airmid was strictly protected and kept away from danger.

"I've been hearing about the [power of wishes] from Lefiya and Cecil lately."

Airmid had fallen into step beside him, and the two headed toward Adventurer Street. It was even noisier there, so they quickly crossed the main street and followed the more tangled alleys of the Old Town, once hiding places for many of the Dark Familia, toward the market district in the Sixth District.

Airmid sounded almost wistful as she talked about leveling up. She was probably wondering what it would be like if she could reach Lv.8 herself.

"I don't know..."

Before Isagi could answer, she tilted her little head and went on, half to herself.

"Maybe I just don't have that kind of talent."

"What do you mean?"

"I level up very slowly."

This was the first Isagi had heard of it. Airmid had certainly been to the Dungeon, or she couldn't have gone from Lv.1 to Lv.2. And her title, [Dea Saint], had been earned in the Floor 17 Monster Rex subjugation, where she single-handedly sustained the healing of several hundred adventurers and saw them all through the battle without a single casualty. But that had been several years ago.

"Isagi aside, Miss Ais, Miss Ryuu, even Miss Riveria and Lefiya all reached Lv.2 several times faster than I did."

"I really have no talent for adventuring."

In a way, that was a regret of hers. Like Heith, the girl was fundamentally unsuited to being an "adventurer."

"But it doesn't matter anymore."

Airmid smiled as she said it.

"I've always wanted to thank you, Mr. Isagi."

"Huh?"

"The gods all long for a [Hero]. I never really understood that before, but I do now."

[Hero]. A [Hero] brings more than stability and prosperity. More importantly, a [Hero] creates a world where no one gets hurt.

"So without realizing it, Isagi, you've saved a lot of lives and spared many people from suffering."

"You might even be a better healer than I am."