Chapter: 314
A few days had passed since Yoon Si-woo woke up.
Fortunately for us, no major incidents had occurred in the last few days.
There had been some distress over the rumors that Yoon Si-woo could die, but…
Well, in the end, I resolved to think that it would be fine as long as we didn’t push ourselves to fight so hard that we had to use the Power of the Witch.
Ah, just so you know, when I say no major incidents, it means that no bad events happened, not that nothing happened at all.
Thanks to resolving the miasma problem stemming from the sacred relic we stole from the Witch of Lust, research on how to utilize it was actively ongoing, yielding various results.
Among those results, the most noteworthy was definitely the recovery of Marine’s father, Mr. Lucas, who had been in a half-conscious state.
Mr. Lucas Eloise, who was the Deputy Commander of Astrape 3rd Squad, had been unable to wake up since a devastating injury inflicted by the self-proclaimed Witch of Arrogance, Freede, during her invasion of the city.
Mr. Lucas had been in a critical state, frozen in place by his own powers, with his neck nearly severed; he barely managed to survive in a sort of frozen human condition.
Until now, there had been no way to treat Mr. Lucas in that state, but finally, using the power of the sacred relic, we were able to heal him.
From what I heard, Marine had cried a river when she saw her father finally open his eyes.
Marine, who had been in a state of despair, having lost both her parents—her father in a coma and her mother Natalia sacrificed to seal the Witch of Gluttony—finally had her wish come true.
She had been acting tough, but she must have been suffering a great deal, and when her seemingly hopeless father woke up, it must have all come flooding out.
Anyway, right after waking up, Mr. Lucas received the news of his wife Natalia’s death. He was incredibly saddened yet managed to get up and express his intention to return to duty without falling into despair.
He had always been prepared for such a possibility and felt he needed to muster even more strength in honor of his wife, who had sacrificed herself to protect everyone.
That steadfast mindset, worthy of a hero, made me understand just how Marine had grown up to be so resolute.
Moreover, Mr. Lucas wasn’t the only one to announce his return to duty.
Yoon Si-woo also decided to immediately return to the captaincy right after waking up.
When the news of Yoon Si-woo’s return first spread, people had been quite worried about whether he would be okay without any rehabilitation period.
The concern directed solely at Yoon Si-woo, unlike Mr. Lucas, who was an esper and could manage without a gap, stemmed from the fact that Yoon Si-woo was a martial hero wielding a sword.
Given the long time he spent bedridden, it was natural to assume that his body would have suffered some detriment, leading to valid worries about needing rehabilitation before regaining his former skill.
But Yoon Si-woo, apparently mocking those worries, showed off an even stronger side and surprised everyone.
He had already been recognized for his swordsmanship, but now he had improved so much that even seasoned swordsmen were in shock, asking, “What in the world is that?”
During a miasma extermination operation to prove he was okay, a squad member, after witnessing Yoon Si-woo’s combat, seriously questioned, “…Captain, you didn’t pretend to be unconscious and secretly practice, did you?”
Curious about how this could be, I directly asked Yoon Si-woo, and Lucy answered in his stead, saying, “He trained a bit while he was out. I drilled swordsmanship into his soul.”
Yoon Si-woo, who himself didn’t have any memory of training, just felt suddenly stronger upon waking up, leaving him somewhat dumbfounded.
Was he some mobile game protagonist who gets stronger automatically after sleeping? Come on, stop using cheat items!
Of course, I didn’t feel jealousy at all; my first thought was that this was great.
The stronger Yoon Si-woo became, the less we would have to rely on the Power of the Witch.
In a perfect world, I wished Yoon Si-woo could become strong enough to take down all the witches with just a single sword, but alas, that seemed impossible.
After all, if it were possible, Yoon Si-woo would have already defeated the Witch of Gluttony in the original story and achieved a happy ending.
…But then I wouldn’t have come to this world at all.
I always wished that the original story had a happy ending where everyone was safe, but thinking about it means I wouldn’t have met everyone…
No, thinking about this is pointless.
Having met everyone here, I sincerely hope that they can all achieve a safe and happy ending.
Well, in any case, the conclusion was that we were receiving the very joyous news of the returns of two heroes: Mr. Lucas and Yoon Si-woo.
Losing such a significant portion of our captain-level strength, the return of such strong forces was a true blessing in a drought for the city.
Moreover, with the news of the extermination of the menace known as the Witch of Lust overlapping, the city had regained a hopeful atmosphere that had been missing for a long time.
…At least on the surface.
“Now that Yoon Si-woo has woken up, we’re okay, right?”
“Isn’t that so? We managed to defeat the Witch of Lust even without Yoon Si-woo. And now that Yoon Si-woo is back, we can relax even if another witch attacks!”
I heard voices from people chatting in the streets.
Seeing them talk about hopeful things instead of the pessimistic chatter from before made me chuckle softly to myself.
“That Yoon Si-woo really is something, isn’t he?”
I felt anew just how significant a position Yoon Si-woo held among the people.
Those bright smiles from the people meant that he played not an insignificant role in their joy.
Of course, he would be feeling quite pressured.
Anyway, I smiled for a moment before slowly wiping the smile off my face and continued walking until I finally reached my destination.
When I opened the door to the building, I was greeted by the bustling scene of a research lab.
This was the research facility created to study the sacred relic we had recently obtained.
As I whispered to myself while passing by researchers who were constantly calculating something, I approached Sylvia, who was slumped against the wall in a corner of the lab.
“Sylvia, I’m here.”
“…Ah, Miss Scarlet, you’re here?”
“…What are the results?”
Sylvia weakly shook her head in response to my question and then subtly gestured ahead with her chin.
When I looked where Sylvia pointed, I saw Dwight approaching with a bit of a frown.
I could roughly guess the result from Dwight’s slightly furrowed expression, but I asked him for confirmation.
“…Is it impossible?”
“…Hah, it seems it’s not just ‘seems impossible’; it is impossible.”
Dwight sighed and replied to my question like that.
I sighed in response to his answer and forced a weak smile.
For the last few days, nothing particularly bad had happened.
If anything, good things had happened.
Yet despite the hopeful atmosphere in the city, there was a reason our expressions were so gloomy.
The reason was simple.
“After all, with just one sacred relic we obtained this time, it’s absolutely impossible to take down the Witch of Gluttony.”
Even though nothing bad occurred, our current situation was already bad enough.
Since we obtained the sacred relic recently, various research efforts had taken place, but the most critical goal was straightforward.
How to use the power of the sacred relic to defeat the Witch of Gluttony.
So, including Dwight, the research team put all resources toward figuring out how to amplify their power using the relic as a consumable as they did when they previously defeated the Witch of Gluttony.
Encouragingly, they succeeded in that regard, but it was ironically laughable how it led to our despair instead.
From our past experiences and running battle simulations, it had become clear that the two sacred relics the city possessed currently, the World Tree and the Tears of the Ocean, simply couldn’t contend with the Witch of Gluttony.
If there had been even a slight possibility, it would have been one thing, but no, we got a clean-cut 0% conclusion—absolutely impossible—leaving us no hope to even try.
We finally understood the true meaning of Ms. Eve’s earlier statement that at least three relics would be necessary to face the Witch of Gluttony.
It didn’t mean we needed three relics to certainly defeat her; it meant we’d need a ‘minimum’ of three relics just to create a 1% chance of being able to engage her.
To someone who hasn’t faced the Witch of Gluttony, it might seem absurd, but all those who have had that experience couldn’t help but relent to that conclusion.
The engraved fear and the despair felt during battle were undeniable.
Anyway, the conclusion remained that to face the Witch of Gluttony, we needed to find another sacred relic somewhere, and therein lay the problem.
We barely had any information about the relics.
Something about what was to the west. Something else to the east.
How were we supposed to find the relics with such vague information?
Echoing our situation, Sylvia muttered with a sullen expression.
“What should we do now…?”
“…Right, what should we do?”
What to do? We’re screwed.
I almost replied like that to Sylvia’s words, but instead, I caught myself and opted for a more suitable response.
It was better to say ‘What should we do?’ than to bluntly declare ‘We’re screwed.’
No matter how dire the reality was, I didn’t want to bring Sylvia down.
“…We have no information for searching the relics. Even if we blindly search, we have no idea when the sealed Witch of Gluttony might revive, so we don’t even have enough time to search. It’s really a hopeless situation.”
“Ugh…”
Unlike me, Dwight, lacking subtlety, ended up deflating Sylvia’s spirits.
But then again, it was true that the situation was hopeless, so what else could we say?
“…In any case, I understand. I’ll think of a countermeasure before it’s too late, so I’ll head out for today.”
“…Yeah. Continuing this conversation will only lead to more despair. I should also take a break.”
For now, we decided to disband without doing much except realizing the despairing current reality.
As I left the lab with Sylvia, I saw the faces of people brightly smiling.
That was the result of only sharing good news with the ordinary citizens.
“…Everyone is smiling.”
“…Yeah, it seems so.”
People didn’t know.
That the Witch of Gluttony would soon resurrect.
That, in this state, she would be our end.
Still, it mustn’t be revealed.
I didn’t want to reveal it.
I didn’t want to lose the hard-won joy on those faces.
I figured we felt the same way, so both Sylvia and I smiled along with the people.
Even as the engraved fear and the overwhelming despair swirled within our hearts…
We still smiled.
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