Chapter 178
Polia opened her eyes like those of a ferocious beast and pointed her sword at me.
Clink, clink, clink…….
At the same time, a bell rang inside my mind.
Judging from the fact that the ‘Danger Detection’ Skill had activated, she wasn’t putting on an act.
She was pouring killing intent into her sword.
“Boy, hand over the Moonlight Herb.”
“……Without that flower, my younger sibling’s illness won’t be cured.”
“I genuinely think that’s unfortunate as well. Your sibling is a good child.”
Polia’s gaze grew even colder.
“But regrettably, that too is a fate decided by the goddess.”
The sword in Polia’s hand drew even closer to me.
I could instinctively feel that if she swung it like this, I would die without any chance to resist.
“It’s better for only one person to die than for two to die, isn’t it?”
“Ms. Polia, isn’t that a bit too harsh to say?”
I replied with a hardened expression, but there wasn’t the slightest change on Polia’s face.
“It can’t be helped. I don’t want to see unnecessary blood if I can avoid it. While I’m still speaking nicely, put the flower down and step back.”
I valued my life as well.
There was no other choice but to comply obediently with her words.
Even if I used the power of the spiritual beast, it didn’t seem like there was even the slightest possibility of successfully escaping or defeating Polia.
Just as she wanted, I took out four stalks of Moonlight Herb from subspace and placed them on the ground.
Then I stepped back several paces.
“Thank you, boy.”
Polia put on an apologetic expression and picked up the Moonlight Herb from the ground.
“Forget about me now. I’ll never appear before you again.”
“That’s a farewell I don’t really like.”
“…….”
Polia looked at me with a bitter smile, then sheathed her sword back at her waist.
And as if leaping away at high speed, she left first.
……The ‘Danger Detection’ Skill no longer activated.
Under a night lit by the Milky Way.
Polia ran as if throwing her entire body forward, clutching the Moonlight Herb she had taken from Billet to her chest.
She ran, and ran, and ran again.
The time she had been given was short.
Now…… this was the only method left.
The place she arrived at was the peak of the ‘Spitz Snowy Mountains’ on the northern outskirts of Kirhen.
In the past, it had been famous as a tourist destination, but after being designated a prohibited zone by the Empire, people’s footsteps had long since ceased.
Only Polia knew that this silent mountain, where even starlight seemed to freeze at night, was the ‘nest of the Guardian Deity’.
Ssshk……. Ssshk…….
Before Polia’s eyes lay a gigantic beast.
The wolf called the Guardian Deity, who had protected Kirhen for hundreds of years, couldn’t even open its eyes and was releasing labored breaths.
Polia approached the one lying there and placed her hand on its leg.
It was a terrifying curse.
Excruciating pain surged up through her palm. Even so, Polia endured it to the very end.
……Just touching it caused such intense pain.
Surely, the Guardian Deity had been enduring tremendous agony spreading throughout its entire body. And for a very long time at that.
Polia forcibly held back tears that threatened to spill.
No matter what kind of magic was used, this curse couldn’t be lifted.
There truly was nothing more that could be done.
And so, she intended to use the final resort.
Kirhen’s legendary medicinal herb, said to be able to purify any curse or contamination.
“……Father.”
Polia spoke softly to the Guardian Deity.
“Don’t worry. You don’t have to hurt anymore. I brought the medicine, Father. Look. Here’s the Moonlight Herb…….”
Polia lowered her gaze to the Moonlight Herb in her arms.
But.
“……Ah.”
Polia’s vision wavered.
The reason she had cooperated with Billet was to take the Moonlight Herb from him.
At first, it was simple curiosity.
While talking with an academy student, she happened to learn that he possessed magic capable of finding Moonlight Herb.
……And even that he had personally harvested Moonlight Herb, which was believed to be extinct.
At first, she doubted it, but the moment he showed her the Moonlight Herb himself, she knew it was true.
In the end, she cooperated with him in finding the Moonlight Herb, and they succeeded in discovering four stalks.
And Polia intended to seize them and feed them to the Guardian Deity.
……But.
With a deathly pale face, Polia stared at the Moonlight Herb in her arms.
Moonlight Herb that once carried a vibrant blue vitality.
That beautiful flower she had watched together with ‘Father’ during her childhood…….
That which she believed to be her only hope had completely withered in her arms.
“……Why?”
Polia grasped the brownish Moonlight Herb again and examined it.
The blue vitality had vanished, leaving behind only something that had once been Moonlight Herb, dried up and dropping its petals.
It had now become nothing more than a rotten flower, utterly useless.
“It was definitely alive. This isn’t fake Moonlight Herb.”
The color of those brilliantly beautiful petals had never been a lie.
And yet, a flower that had been alive just moments ago had withered and died.
“Why……? For what reason? Why did it become unusable?”
The only hope that could save ‘Father’ vanished like a bubble.
Just as she was staring blankly at the brown, decayed Moonlight Herb with hollow eyes—
Step, step…….
Footsteps echoed from between the shadows.
“That’s only natural.”
What emerged from the shadows was…… the very person Polia had just pointed her sword at.
……An academy student, Billet.
“In this era, Moonlight Herb can no longer survive.”
Polia stared at him with wide-open eyes.
“Boy, how did you……?”
“I followed you, Ms. Polia. You’re so fast that it was quite the struggle to keep up.”
He followed her.
Polia couldn’t help but feel puzzled.
North Mountain and the Spitz Snowy Mountains were different mountains.
She had sprinted here at full power.
It was a speed that no one could possibly keep up with.
“How I managed to follow you here isn’t something Ms. Polia needs to worry about. Shall we calmly talk about what really matters? The reason the Moonlight Herb vanished starting ten years ago.”
Polia widened her eyes and looked at him.
Billet opened his mouth as he walked forward with an unhurried stride.
“The Empire designating Kirhen’s snowy mountains as a restricted zone ten years ago. Monsters that had never existed in Kirhen suddenly swarming around that time. The Guardian Deity that had protected Kirhen beginning to threaten humans instead. If we make a single assumption, doesn’t everything line up perfectly?”
He paused briefly and glanced at the Guardian Deity.
Feeling the subtly distorted current leaking out of the massive wolf’s body.
“…Mana pollution.”
The moment he spoke those words, the air sank ever so slightly.
Polia’s fingers trembled.
“As Ms. Polia knows, when a mage uses magic, mana becomes polluted. Monsters live by consuming that polluted mana.”
The number of monsters that had suddenly increased since ten years ago.
“The mana existing in the atmosphere was no longer pure. Moonlight Herb, which can only survive in clean mana, became polluted and withered away, eventually losing the ability to grow naturally.”
That was why it disappeared.
Because the environment had become one where Moonlight Herb could no longer live.
However, there was something strange.
“But boy, I saw it clearly. I saw you digging up perfectly intact Moonlight Herb. The reason you climbed the mountain was to harvest Moonlight Herb, wasn’t it?”
“Ah. That? Actually, the claim that Moonlight Herb exists only one stalk per mountain peak was a lie. Naturally, there’s no such thing as a convenient magic that lets you easily find Moonlight Herb either.”
Billet let out a light laugh.
“Moonlight Herb exists not only at mountain peaks, but anywhere. It’s just that it’s already nearly dead, reduced to a brown, unrecognizable form. That’s why people can’t identify it as Moonlight Herb.”
“Then the Moonlight Herb you showed was……?”
“Yes. I told you already. I have a special ability.”
He rolled up one sleeve and approached Polia.
“An ability that can purify any curse, any pollution, any plague. A special power that no one else can replace.”
“…Lies. At best, you’re just a student.”
“Does it matter that I’m a student? What matters is that I have the ability.”
Billet picked up a withered Moonlight Herb.
Holding Pau’s card in his other hand, he closed his eyes and focused on the hand gripping the Moonlight Herb.
‘Pau.’
Paaat—!
A warm light gathered in his palm.
A change occurred in the brown, rotten Moonlight Herb.
Amazingly, a green glow spread through the decayed brown portions in his hand.
The lifeless stem and leaves firmed up as if absorbing moisture, gradually regaining vitality.
“Does it still look like a lie that I have this ability?”
The Moonlight Herb that had been dying from pollution had been completely revived in his hand—proof in itself.
“Because I had this ability, I deliberately let you see me harvesting Moonlight Herb. Showing you the fresh, healthy Moonlight Herb I dug up every time was the same thing. Still, it’s not perfect. If it’s left in the open air, it gets polluted again, so I only showed it briefly—for about a second—for that reason.”
Polia’s expression hardened.
It was the moment doubt turned into certainty.
“I needed to climb each mountain in all four directions, so I was looking for a companion to help me. That’s when I happened to find you. You were a famous adventurer, weren’t you? So I told a few lies to make you help me.”
“……”
“Rapin wasn’t actually my younger brother either. And of course, the incurable disease was also a lie. I don’t have some twisted hobby of dragging a family member dying from a fatal illness up a mountain.”
At those words, Polia’s eyes shook violently.
It wasn’t anger or betrayal—rather, a feeling close to emptiness.
“You deceived me well. I was completely fooled.”
“I’ll apologize for that.”
Billet tilted his head slightly.
“But my intentions weren’t bad. Please be generous and understand.”
“…Shameless.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
A brief silence followed.
He shrugged and smiled leisurely.
“Well, I didn’t come here just to verify the truth of that, so let’s set it aside for now. Anyway, the reason there were no monsters in Kirhen until ten years ago was probably because the Guardian Deity eliminated them.”
Billet turned his gaze toward the Guardian Deity.
“But that Guardian Deity was also tainted by polluted mana, and over time, it stopped recognizing monsters as enemies. In the end, since the Guardian Deity could no longer deal with them, the number of monsters kept multiplying.”
That was likely why the snowy mountains, which had been a tourist attraction of Kirhen just ten years ago, were designated as a restricted zone by the Empire.
“All of these negative events happened because of mana pollution. I only wanted to let you know that.”
As if recalling something, he replied with a faint smile.
“And your objective. I realized not long after traveling with you that finding Bedervel wasn’t actually that important.”
“……”
Polia’s tightly closed lips slowly parted. Her eyes gradually widened.
“That’s because, Ms. Polia is……. No, perhaps it’s more appropriate to call you this now.”
Billet stared straight into her black eyes and said,
“The Empire’s greatest sword, the Wolf Knight Bedervel.”