Chapter 126 - Children of the Town
Ribek.
There was quite a bit of damage from Seiya’s attack so I was working through the next day to restore the town.
「Your Majesty! I’m sorry you had to come out personally!」
Outside of one broken area a single serious looking young man was waiting.
Behind him was a partially destroyed home.
It wasn’t a standard wood house. It was a one rank higher home that probably cost him quite a bit of money.
It was now collapsed because of Seiya.
I saw destroyed houses here and there. It was quite bad, it was nearly at the level of ruins.
「Can you……repair it?」
I opened my DORECA and looked at my menu.
I compared the magic and materials that it would take to repair it or make it anew.
I wanted to see which would be better.
I see, at this level of destruction it’d be better to make it anew.
「In this case it’d be better to make a new one than to repair it.」
「Eh…?」
The man was at a loss for words.
「Don’t worry. This was due to a natural disaster. I’ll fix it for free. Bring the materials.」
This was due to Seiya, I couldn’t burden the people with this.
That’s why I said this to the man to put him at ease.
「No, that’s fine. More than that………can it not be fixed?」
「I mean…it’s possible.」
I was about to continue on to say ‘it’s expensive’ but I swallowed the words back.
「Why?」
「To be honest……」
The young man walked back into the ruins behind him.
He stood in front of a wall that was barely standing up.
I walked closer and looked.
There were some horizontal lines carved into the wall.
「This…this is from my child. We started these lines as soon as they were able to crawl.」
「I see, so you continued to record their growth here. So, if possible, you want this place repaired?」
「Yes」
「…already this big…」
It was quite moving.
This wall was carved with the history of their child’s growth.
It had weight.
「I see…I’ll repair it then.」
「Really?」
Repairing this place and keeping this wall intact would take more magic and materials…but it was worth doing. I thought so when I saw his wife and child’s smiles.
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「Hey hey King-sama」
After I finished repairing the man’s house, a 10 year old boy called out to me.
「What’s up?」
「Did you really drive away the evil god your majesty?」
「Who’d you hear that from?」
I knit my eyebrows and asked him.
The official statement was that something had attacked and been driven off.
The information that it had been the revived Evil God was completely on lockdown.
After all, this world had been destroyed once by the Evil God.
If it was known that he revived it might cause terrible chaos.
That’s why I had the information held back…but a child in front of me knew it.
「Daddy said that he saw it. The guy that attacked looked just like the Evil God.」
「What kind of person is your dad?」
「Umm, kinda like a Royal Soldier? That kind of thing.」
A Royal Soldier huh……
I see, now I understand.
In the previous era they had probably gone out to subjugate the Evil God and got done in. They got turned back from Slave Beasts and were now living in Ribek.
In that case, it wouldn’t be impossible to recognize the Evil God on sight.
In the end Seiya was barely Seiya anymore. He’d practically transformed into something else entirely.
I wonder if that was what the Evil God looked like.
The child was staring at me waiting for an answer.
It doesn’t look like there was much hope in hiding it anymore.
「Yeah, it was the Evil God.」
「Really!? And King-sama beat him!?」
「Well, yeah.」
「WOAH!」
The boy’s eyes started glittering.
「That’s amazing King-sama! You won against the Evil God!」
「Ok ok, calm down, don’t shout.」
I felt like it’d be troublesome for everyone else to hear, but the child continued to get excited all by himself.
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I headed to the next area and happened to pass by the park.
I caught sight of some children playing there.
「Tch, another miss.」
「Ah, I got it!」
「I missed too. Yes!」
「You’re happy even though it’s a miss?」
「Well that’s a Slave-sama’s duty.」
The children were drawing lots with dirty papers.
The boy who won walked to a box under a tree and stood on it.
The other two stood in front of him and acted ingratiatingly.
「Master, what will we be doing today?」
「We can do anything for Your Majesty.」
They were acting……or playing house.
Was the Master and King they were talking about……me?
「Very good my little servants.」
The child who was the King said in a high and mighty manner.
As I thought, it was different. I wouldn’t say stuff like that.
When I thought that…
「That’s no good Ivan-kun, the King wouldn’t say that.」
「That’s right. As I thought you’re no good, you don’t know about his Majesty.」
「Ehhh?」
「I’ll show you how the real King is. That means you’re the Evil God.」
「Again? At least let me be the slave-sama——」
「That’s the punishment for messing up the King.」
「Fine~」
The other boy stood up and faced the other child.
The girl stood behind the boy who had taken the role of King.
「Prepare yourself Evil God.」
The boy King said in high spirits.
Apparently they were playing as me.
The King fought with his slave and in the middle said 「your smile becomes my power」 and finally repelled the Evil God.
……yep this was me.
It was pretty embarrassing.
They finished playing around and looked satisfied without knowing how they were making the subject of their play feel.
「Fuu, I’m thirsty.」
「Then let’s go buy some juice. I got some pocket money from mama.」
「Amazing! That’s 1,000 yen?」
「Hey, let’s go to oji-chan’s place. If we get a juice with the winning label we can get another for free.」
「Un, let’s go.」
The children left the park.
It was pretty charming.
I took out my Common Card and cast Luck Up on the three of them.
And so I turned to go to the next area.
「Awesome! I got the big prize!」
I could hear the shouts of the children from far away.
Isn’t that nice, they got it.
The moment I thought that.
The card I used to cast the magic on the children shone with light.
A dazzling light that I remembered.
My Common Card was evolving into…a Rare Card.