Someone's Savior
To be honest, back when I played the original game, I never really liked this kind of stealth mission.
'My style was always to bring overwhelming firepower and smash everything head-on.'
That was how I usually played.
'But this time's an exception.'
Because I had to conserve as much magical power as possible.
Tyrbaen and the young magi needed every last bit of mana they could muster when the Ultra Wave began.
Spending any beforehand would be a complete waste.
Anyway—
'We got the Flame Crystal as planned.'
Kals had already finished testing the newly awakened shield.
Everything was proceeding exactly as I'd hoped.
'Now, back to the hut for a quick nap.'
When dawn came, I'd move the girls at just the right moment and trigger the Ultra Wave.
Yeah. That'd work.
"..."
But why did it feel like I was forgetting something?
I pressed my fingers against my eyelids, trying to suppress the unease as well.
'Must just be my imagination.'
Shaking off the thought, I patted Kals's shoulder.
"Good work out there, Kals."
"Thank you, Your Highness. You as well."
But as he said it, the look he gave the shield was... peculiar—
soft, distant, even affectionate.
I arched a brow teasingly.
"You've taken quite a liking to the Balancer of Flame, huh?"
Kals smiled faintly and nodded.
"Yes, honestly, I'd like to use this one forever if I could."
"Hah. The future's bright for our merciless little arsonist who burned an entire village to ash."
"Oh, come on! You were the one who started it!"
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding."
Well—partly.
"But that shield," I continued, "you'll need to be careful when you use it again."
"What do you mean?"
"The longer you control the flames with it, the faster its durability drops."
"...!"
Kals immediately lifted the shield, turning it over in his hands as if he could see the wear.
I couldn't help but chuckle.
"It's pitch-black in this forest. You can't even see it."
"...You're right."
He really was attached to that Balancer of Flame.
"It should still hold for now, so don't worry."
"If it breaks, can't we just fix it? I mean, it's a shield—surely a blacksmith could—"
I shook my head.
"No. It's unrepairable."
There were certain items like this—
relatively easy to obtain, yet absurdly overpowered.
'Balance-breaking items, basically.'
The Balancer-series shields fell squarely into that category.
Once you fused them with an elemental crystal,
they could literally control natural phenomena of that element.
'Total game-breakers.'
But they couldn't be repaired.
And since a shield couldn't avoid contact with enemies like a staff could...
'That flaw made them balanced, in a twisted way.'
Both our Balancer of Flame and the Balancer of Stone Eve was crafting
would last only through this quest.
After that, they'd be too damaged to use again.
"A shame. Couldn't you make another one?"
"What do I look like, a blacksmith? You think I can just hammer out a shield whenever I want?"
"Hm."
Kals glanced at the shield again and murmured,
"Then, even if it breaks… I'll keep it in my inventory. That should be fine, right?"
"...?"
I stopped walking mid-stride through the dark forest.
"You're planning to keep a broken shield?"
Kals, being a knight-class NPC, had only a basic grasp of the convenience spell Inventory.
Which meant that, despite being 6-star rank,
his storage space wasn't much bigger than mine.
Why waste that precious space on a broken shield?
"Why though? What for?"
"Well…"
He scratched his head, hesitating for a long moment before finally speaking.
"...I want to place it before my mother's memorial."
That, I hadn't expected.
"Huh? You mean your mother's—"
"Yes. I keep her memorial plaque in my room. I thought I'd set it there."
I froze, taken aback.
'Kals's mother…?'
Kals, the illegitimate son of Marquis Elron Reut—
his mother had been one of the household maids.
As I recalled, she had died not long after giving birth to him.
'If memory serves, the marquis's wife set fire to the detached wing she was kept in…'
…Don't tell me?
"I never saw my mother's face," Kals continued quietly,
"but I heard she died in a fire while living abroad. So this shield…"
His gaze never left the Balancer of Flame.
"This shield feels special to me. If something like this had existed then, maybe she'd have survived. I can't stop thinking that way."
I clenched my jaw, saying nothing.
'So the Marquis told Count Sillion a half-truth after all.'
That's how Kals must've learned the story—
or at least, a sanitized version of it.
I sighed inwardly.
"..."
For the first time, Kals's ignorance of his own birth felt… painful.
He'd met his father face-to-face,
and still followed me without knowing a thing.
It hit me with unexpected guilt.
'Should I have just told him then and there?'
…No.
That wouldn't have been fair to Kals, and I couldn't handle the fallout anyway.
My conclusion was simple.
'The Secret of House Reut.'
I needed to trigger that event as soon as possible—
so Kals could finally learn the truth for himself.
Until then, I'd have to keep silent.
So I slung an arm around his shoulder and grinned.
"Well, who knows? Maybe you'll be lucky enough to restore it somehow."
"Is that really possible?"
"Not easily, but hey—it depends on you."
"I understand. I'll show you the strength of the Imperial Knights."
Kals smiled, and I grinned back.
But right then—
"...Hm?"
That strange unease I'd been suppressing earlier surged back up from the soles of my feet to my throat.
"What the hell…?"
Kals and I turned at the same time.
Somewhere in the darkness behind us—
Grrrrrrrrrrr…
A low, trembling rumble echoed through the forest.
I knew what it was.
But I couldn't understand why now.
"...Kals, tell me I'm imagining this."
"So you feel it too, Your Highness?"
"What? You've been feeling it?"
"Since right after we left the orc village."
"And you didn't say anything?!"
"I thought maybe a mountain was collapsing somewhere!"
"You little—!"
That ominous, rolling roar—
there was no mistaking it.
It was the prelude to the Ultra Wave.
And it was far too early.
I'd gone as far as collapsing an entire mountain to delay it!
'…Does this mean it's happening regardless of the girls?'
That couldn't be right.
Why Did the Ultra Wave Suddenly Begin?
"Kals, move!"
I broke into a sprint.
We had to reach the hut before the Wave hit—no matter what.
I threw everything I had into speed, desperate for even the slightest acceleration.
Even the skill I'd sworn not to use—I deployed it now.
[Movement Technique: Lightning Step]
Shuuuuuuu!
My body shot forward, the world blurring past.
"Y-Your Highness!"
Kals's voice grew faint behind me.
I hadn't expected much, but in an instant, I was a flash tearing through the forest.
'What the hell—why is this working so well?'
Unlike back at the tomb ruins, the footwork of Heavenly Rain Sword Art was functioning perfectly.
The flow of mana through my body tightened like a drawn bowstring, and Lightning Step was operating at full efficiency—
no, more than that—twice as effective as I remembered.
Kals, who had fallen behind, finally caught up to me.
"Your Highness! What's happening to you all of a sudden?!"
"I don't know either!"
If I had to guess—
'Is it because I'm in a rush? Or maybe something about the environment is amplifying it?'
…No idea. Not the time to figure it out.
First, we had to reach the hut. Wake Tyrbaen. Prepare the defensive barriers.
'Then, with his help, we can—'
That was when a face flashed across my mind.
"E—Eve!"
"Sir?"
"What about Eve Wyler?!"
I snapped my head up, scanning the shadowed forest.
But there was nothing.
Even with my explorer's perception active, the forest revealed no trace of her.
My mind grew tangled.
'At this point, she should've secured the Stone Crystal and returned.'
Eve Wyler carried an A-rank Fate Card—[Dawn Assassin].
An assassin class specialized in stealth and infiltration.
She should've been faster than me and Kals, not slower.
She'd even bragged that she didn't need any help from us—and with good reason.
But if she wasn't back yet...
'Then something else must've gone wrong—something unrelated to the Stone Orc tribe.'
My instincts screamed in warning.
Pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place.
"...No way."
I stopped dead in my tracks, staring into the darkness ahead.
"Your Highness? What's wrong?"
Kals halted beside me.
But after a brief moment of thought, I shook my head.
"No… No, we have to keep moving. There's nothing we can do right now."
I started running again, back toward the hut.
Thanks to Lightning Step, we'd make it before the Wave hit.
Then we'd surf the torrent of destruction—
and collect a mountain of experience points.
"..."
But my thoughts wouldn't let go.
Eve Wyler.
'Don't tell me… she ran into the culprit?'
That chilling possibility looped in my head, refusing to leave.
And the fact that I couldn't confirm it only made it worse.
'What should I do…?'
Gilroshan's intuition was correct.
Thirty minutes earlier—
Eve Wyler had encountered a group of acolytes from the Kishiris Order deep within the forest.
"—Huh?"
She had just been about to enter the Stone Orc encampment.
"..."
"..."
The acolytes, on the other hand, were on their way to observe the children's movements.
They crossed paths purely by accident—
a cruel twist of fate neither side had anticipated.
'How the hell did this happen?'
As someone who knew the scenario of The World Forsaken by God, Eve was completely thrown off.
'They're not supposed to be here at this time.'
According to the original timeline, they should've only just met the orc shaman.
And with the hut destroyed, their departure should've been delayed even longer.
'So why are they here now…?'
Could it be—
'Did my interference mess up the timeline?'
Her thoughts raced.
That was when the priestesses drew their blades.
"No helping it."
"She's a witness."
The battle was brief—
and ended in Eve's utter defeat.
"—Agh!"
A sword drove into her side, and she was seized by the acolytes before she could recover.
Then, Ervia Watts appeared—
the High Priestess of the Kishiris Order.
Tilting her head, she addressed the wounded assassin.
"Why are you here alone, at this hour?"
"..."
Writhing from the searing pain, Eve bit down hard on her lip, refusing to answer.
Everything had already gone to hell.
'I just need to prevent the worst outcome.'
And the worst wasn't her death—
it was the Ultra Wave being triggered prematurely.
If that happened, all the boys and girls would be annihilated in an instant.
'Gilroshan! Get back to the hut—now!'
Even if she died here, she couldn't let that happen.
So she chose silence.
"If you tell me why you're here, I'll heal you. How about that?"
"..."
"No? Nothing to say?"
"..."
"Hm. That's getting suspicious."
Ervia watched the bloodied assassin for a moment, eyes narrowing.
Then she gestured to her subordinates.
"You two—check on the children's situation immediately."
"Yes, High Priestess!"
And within minutes—
"I see. So they're mixed, are they? Boys and girls together."
"...!"
All of Eve's efforts were for nothing.
Ervia had already learned everything she needed.
The priestess muttered to herself, piecing the clues together.
"The hut's destroyed, the kids are mixed, the operation's suspended, someone's wandering around in the middle of the night, and Vareshan's gone missing…"
Then, all at once—
"…Ha. So that's it? Son of a bitch."
A twisted smirk formed on her lips.
"This just turned into a royal mess. As if it wasn't disgusting enough already…"
Scratching her head, she sighed and reached out a hand.
A piercing scream split the air.
"AAAAAAH!"
"Alright, enough persuasion. Time for threats. You could actually die, you know."
Ervia's hand gripped the blade still lodged in Eve's side—
and twisted.
"You know who we are, don't you? Who else knows? How much do you know about our plan?"
And then—
"Vareshan's disappearance… that was your doing too, wasn't it?"
Ervia Watts, the High Priestess of Kishiris—
had already deduced everything.