I continued to leap through the trees, only stopping once I’d put a good distance between me and my house. The river stretched out before me, making a quiet, gentle trickle as it flowed.
“Phew...”
I slowly walked up to the river and sat down on a nearby boulder. Suddenly, the memory of Reina’s soft body and needy voice resurfaced.
“No, no.”
I have to think about something else, I thought.
I washed my face with river water. The island had a warm climate, but the water was pleasantly frigid. I scooped up water again and again, splashing it onto my face to dispel my worldly desires. When I raised my head, I saw large, white clouds sluggishly drifting across the vast sky. Closing my eyes, I could hear the wind blowing, the water running, and the trees rustling. The fact that I was here, all alone in nature, struck me as something absolutely incredible.
“Whew.”
I had finally calmed down. Then again, Mina was probably still messing with Reina and Tailtiu. She was unlikely to pull anything else as long as I didn’t return, so my only option for now was to kill some time.
“Come to think of it, how long has it been since I’ve had time to myself like this?”
I lived together in the same house with Reina, almost like we were family. Even when I left, I was usually with Luna or Tailtiu, who often came by to visit and spend time with us. If not, I was frequently with Elga or my new friend Zelos, hanging out together as guys. When I really looked back on everything that had happened on this island, I was somewhat surprised to find that since coming here, I had hardly ever done anything alone.
I had gotten a job at a company that anyone would have described as exploitative, and I’d spent my time there indecisively, unable to work up the courage to leave, before I was finally reincarnated by a god.
“And at first, I just wanted to live on my own, without having anything to do with anyone else...”
But now, I actually felt out of place if I wasn’t with someone. People sure can totally change, I thought, strolling along the river.
“Hahh... That feels good.”
This island wasn’t typically a place where one could leisurely walk around like this, but it was impossible for anyone to harm my god-given body. Even Mina, who was the strongest person on this island, treated me like a monster, so I knew it had to be pretty tough.
I continued to walk in silence.
I had been looking for a slow life on this island, almost as if I were retiring to spend the rest of my years here. But in reality, practically every day was a lively one. Yet I enjoyed that too, and it wasn’t a bad thing.
“I thought I’d be able to relax today, but it’s another chaotic day thanks to Mina...”
As I walked with those sorts of thoughts in my mind, a gold-colored magic circle suddenly appeared at my feet.
“Huh?”
Then, the magic circle emitted a blinding light—and the scenery before my eyes was transformed.
“GGGHAAAAAAAAAHH!!!”
“Huh?”
I was greeted by the sight of a vast wasteland and a giant, crimson dragon. The sky was cloudy, and the rumbling of thunder resounded everywhere. Nearby was what looked like a large force of soldiers and warriors sprawled on the ground, and only a few people were left standing. Even those few appeared to be on death’s door, seeming like it was all they could do to remain on their feet.
“What’s going on?”
I was positive that I had been leisurely walking on the island just moments ago, not taking a stroll through what looked like the scene right before the final battle in a video game or manga.
As I wondered what this place was, I realized someone had taken notice of me.
What’s with him? He sort of looks like a hero.
“Wha?! Where did you— No, this isn’t the time for that!” he said. “You have to get away from—”
“GGGHAAAAAHH!”
The crimson dragon glared menacingly at me. Looking up at it, it seemed quite ferocious, and twice as large as Tailtiu. However, it didn’t intimidate me like Suzaku or Mina. I got the feeling that it was maybe a bit weaker than an Emperor Boar. Regardless, it didn’t seem like a threat to me.
As I unworriedly looked up at the dragon, one of the people still standing—a girl with silvery blue, waist-length hair who was wearing what looked like white holy vestments—dropped a staff tipped with a large gemstone onto the ground and broke down crying.
“Aaah... I’m sorry,” she said to me.
“U-Umm... What for?” I asked.
Though her expression was stained with tears, I could tell she was incredibly beautiful. I’d never seen a guy as handsome as the blond young man next to her, either, and the magician girl with black pigtails was a beauty as well.
They seem pretty exceptional in all sorts of ways.
“I dragged you into this hopeless hell! My secret divine art—opening the door to another world and summoning a supremely powerful Divine Beast—was a failure!”
“Ceres, how could you?! You’re a saint!” the man shouted.
“I’m sorry! But I couldn’t think of any other way to defeat Walpurgis, the Dragon of the Apocalypse...”
“Dammit! I’m a failure of a Hero! If only I were stronger, this never would have happened...”
“Hey, come on, Ark! And you too, Ceres!” the black-haired girl said. “You know this isn’t the time to be talking like that! If I... If only I was more powerful... Gah, some Witch of Destruction I am! I can’t even destroy anything!”
I was able to gather a lot from this exchange. First of all, the blond man was undoubtedly the Hero. The silvery-blue-haired girl was a saint, and the black-haired girl called herself the Witch of Destruction. They were probably all members of the Hero’s party, tasked with defeating a Demon Lord or something.
“GGGHAAAAAHH! GGGHAAAHH! G-G... GGGHAAAAAHH?!”
And the monster that had been looking at me and continually roaring for a while now was the Dragon of the Apocalypse. I somehow felt like it was slowly backing up as it stared at me, but it was probably a strong dragon, so I must have just been imagining things.
I looked around at all the people on the ground. The thought that some among them were dead made me feel a bit depressed.
“Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve seen someone dead since coming to this world,” I said. I’d never experienced the death of anyone else in my past life, either, but I was less mentally affected than I would have expected in a moment like this.
It’s like I’m becoming less and less ordinary every time I have one of these kinds of experiences.
“Now then...”
I understood the situation and why I was here. The question now was whether I’d be able to return to Arcadia...
“GHAH?! GHAAAAHHH!!! GHAAAAHHH!!!”
The dragon in front of me continued to roar with all its might. Meanwhile, behind me, the members of the Hero’s party standing off against the dragon sounded like they were getting ready to meet their end.
“Ngh?! Walpurgis, you monster! What pressure!” Ark shouted.
“S-So this is the Dragon of the Apocalypse... This is the great, calamitous rage that brings the world to its destruction, written in the chronicles of the Church! Ohh, how terrifying...”
“Hahh... Jeez, I won’t be able to call myself the Witch of Destruction again after this. Not that that matters, I guess, seeing as we won’t make it out of this alive... But I’ll give everything I’ve got if I can just save him!”
And I was stuck in the middle of it all, standing there with nothing to say. I really did feel like some average Joe who had wandered into some big climactic battle. It was incredibly awkward.
“O God, please find it in your heart to at least save this unfortunate soul who’s only here because of me,” Ceres said.
“You, stranger, get behind us,” Ark said to me. “Then run away as fast as you can. And no matter what, don’t turn around.”
“Good grief, I don’t know who you are, but this is just a disaster,” the black-haired girl said. “We’ll buy you time... So survive, okay?”
However, I thought the three of them were wonderful people. They had seemingly summoned me for their final battle as a trump card or to bring about a miracle, only for an ordinary human to come out. They would have been well within their rights to hurl abuse at me, just as much as if they had spent tons of money on a mobile game only to pull nothing but garbage characters, but that just wasn’t the kind of people they were.
“Well, I can think about all that later,” I mumbled to myself.
First, I turned my back to them and stepped forward—in the direction of the dragon they called Walpurgis.
“H-Hey?!” Ark said. “Where are you going?! It’s dangerous over there!”
“You can’t! You have to run away!” Ceres said.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
As the three called out to me in a panic, I approached the dragon.
“GHAH?! GHAAAHH! GHAAAHH!”
Walpurgis threatened me again and again. But it did nothing to try and harm me; it just roared as hard as it could while inching slowly backward. Meanwhile, I walked up to it, getting closer. The three heroes were shouting something from behind me, sounding flustered.
“Yep, this is no problem,” I said.
Even when I looked up at the dragon from this close, I didn’t sense anything like that certain, indescribable quality that was in Mina or Suzaku.