Chapter 52

ain?

Same thing again?

If someone called god really did exist, and this being was standing in front of Riley, he would have asked if there was something wrong with the god’s eyes.

“…Ha…”

Having heard the answer, Riley let out hollow laughter and crossed his arms as if he was daring her to continue explaining.

“According to the divine message, the reason you were chosen is…”

Priesia carefully continued, and Riley, with his eyes narrowed, glared at her as if he was going to pierce a hole through her lips.

‘Go ahead. Why don’t you tell me again to go kill a demon lord. Go right ahead.’

If, just like how it went in his past life, a pretty-faced priestess looked at him and said, ‘This world will be in a great danger soon, so please defeat the demon lord,’ in that case, even if she was a priestess or whatever…

“…”

…Riley was thinking he was going to turn everything upside down. As he was thinking such things, he repeated the motion of closing and opening his hand.

“What’s the reason?”

Answering Riley’s question, Priesia, who paused for a moment, said with a serious face,

“…It’s because of a dragon.”

“…?”

‘A dragon? It’s not a demon lord, but a dragon?’

Riley asked back,

“…A dragon?”

“Yes. A dragon.”

Based on how things were going, Riley was sure that she was going to ask him to kill a demon lord, but instead, it was a dragon.

“…”

As Riley was not giving any response, Priesia continued first,

“According to the divine message from the goddess Irenetsa, soon...a dragon will appear and it will bring terrifying disaster not just to Solia, but other cities as well.”

“So?”

Because the story was different from his predictions, Riley chose to postpone taking action. Instead, he asked Priesia.

“According to the goddess Irenetsa’s words, the one who will defeat that dragon is you, young master.”

“I will?”

“Yes.”

This was definitely similar to a situation he heard in his past life. However, it was somehow funny.

Also…

‘This damn piece of work called god must have absolutely nothing else to do…’

Riley thought that.

‘Just how many cities are in this world, and how many people live in this world? To put it bluntly, for going this far, isn’t this almost at the level of a stalker? By chance, is this a scripted scheme being filmed with hidden cameras?’

Riley thought of all sorts of stuff.

“…Ha…”

Although the being that priestess asked him to kill was changed from a demon lord to a dragon, Riley still couldn’t believe this. Moreover, he was sorely disappointed.

“Excuse me. Lady priestess. Do you think that makes any sense?”

Riley stared at the priestess with a gaze of disbelief. Priesia flinched.

“Do you at least know what kind of person I am?”

“That is…”

Avoiding Riley’s gaze, Priesia fiddled with her fingers.

It appeared that she had no idea.

“The title I was given from my own House is Lazy-Sword. Lazy-Sword… In the past, present, and even in the future, I have always been and will be dawdling around without doing anything. Just how is someone like me supposed to kill a dragon?”

If he had a bit of luck, he might be able to kill a dragon just by tricking it with words like how a main character in some fiction would.<>

r /> However, that was…just a story in fiction.

From how other people saw, Riley was just the youngest son and a spoiled master in the House, who has achieved or trained in absolutely nothing.

It was absurd that anyone would expect someone of such a reputation to kill a dragon. After all, how would he?

It was nonsense.

“Also, have you forgotten what you said to me last time?”

“…What are you…?”

“You asked if I was impotent! Me!”

“…!”

Priesia flinched as her face turned red.

Meanwhile, Nainiae, who was watching the two from the side, tilted her head to the sides. It was because she didn’t understand where the conversation was flowing toward.

“Instead of looking for hope from a dawdling impotent young master, go look for someone else!”

No matter what kind of reaction the priestess showed, the expression on Riley’s face did not change.

Pat Pat

Riley patted her shoulder a few times and started to walk away to get out of the restroom.

“P-Please wait… I haven’t finished telling you the whole story.”

Priesia rapidly turned her body as she called Riley to stop him.

Noticing that it didn’t stop him from walking, Priesia brought up what she didn’t get to earlier.

“…Astroa.”

“…”

Now that the name of the grand mage who died yesterday was mentioned, Riley’s steps came to a stop.

“I heard it was you that managed to stop Astroa.”

“What?”

“I heard. Exposing the laboratory and narcotics hidden in the basement of the Magic Tower were actually your exploits.”

“Just who said such…”

‘Who spread such ridiculous rumors?’

Riley was about to ask that, but he looked at Nainiae. She only had one good eye, but her wide open eye was definitely directed toward Riley.

“…It was you?”

“…”

“I believe I have told you not to say anything anywhere?”

Riley was outside of the restroom, but he turned around and walked toward Nainiae.

Thump Thump

Riley was approaching Nainiae one step at a time, and there was terrifying aura being exuded from him. Priesia was unable to continue her words. Instead, all she could do was to gasp for air.

“…Then what you did can be considered as an act of betrayal, right?”

Because Riley could see his old self from the past life in her, and because that conjured up sympathy in his mind, Riley didn’t warn Nainiae with deadly aura like how he had done to Aploc.

“You sure have some amazing guts, or did you not know that it was going to turn out this way?”

If he had known she was going to cause such a huge accident like this, Riley would not have left her alive.

“…Kuk!”

Riley grabbed Nainiae by the neck and immediately pushed and hung her up against the restroom wall.

“Who else knows about this?”

With her neck held up by Riley, Nainiae grabbed on to his arm with her eye barely open.

Her legs, which were struggling in the air, had stopped moving before anyone noticed.

Soon, Nainiae started to strain herself to sound her voice as she looked at Riley.

“They were…not my deeds…”

Riley’s eyebrows wrinkled.

“…?”

“Because they were not my accomplishments… What happened in Lower Solia…or uncovering the things in the basement of the Magic Tower… Because I only watched you. Because I don’t deserve the credit. That’s why…”

All Nainiae thought was that the one who should be rewarded was someone other than herself.

She could not stand the fact that the person who should be credited for the deeds were not getting any rewards, and she also could not stand that she was the one, despite not having done much, who would be getting all of the rewards.

“…”

Having heard Nainiae slowly voicing her reasons little by little, Riley’s grip on her neck became weaker.

“Kuk! Kuhuk! Kuhuk!”

With her neck grabbed by Riley, Nainiae was held up in the air against the wall. Now, with his hold weakened, she slid down, fell on her knees and started to cough.

‘…’

The expression on Riley’s face turned bitter.

It was because what Nainiae said earlier was so similar to what he had once said in his past life.

“…Please do not worry.”

As Riley’s suffocating aura subsided a little, Priesia, who was barely able to breathe again, carefully opened her mouth.

“I am the only one who heard from Nainiae.”

Riley slowly turned his head and looked at Priesia.

It appeared she was telling the truth. Riley couldn’t see or feel the presence of any holy knights or priests nearby who were supposed to be guarding her.

Although he couldn’t know, he figured everyone in the Holy Temple must be panicking right about now since the priestess suddenly disappeared.

“In that case, what was that about?”

Riley pointed his index finger toward the outside of the restroom, toward the arena.

He was talking about the prince Daniel.

“I didn’t mention anything about your ‘powers.’ I just informed them about your good deeds. Initially, I was going to inform the castle about everything I heard from Nainiae, including your strength, but…”

Priesia looked at Nainiae who was still unable to stop coughing.

“Nainiae objected. She insisted that I keep that a secret.”

With his eyes narrowed, Riley glared at Priesia.

It appeared she was still wary of how Riley’s atmosphere changed suddenly in a blink of an eye earlier. Her tone of voice was a bit more cautious than before.

“Young master. Regardless, as Nainiae said, it seems the fact about your incredible power has been proven already.”

‘Should I just bury them all? What if doing something in the castle leads to something else even more bothersome?’

As he racked his brain, Riley asked the priestess as he glared at her,

“So?”

“It’s about that dragon that I told you about earlier.”

Kill the dragon for them.

In the end, the main point that the priestess was trying to make was just that.

Actually, to Priesia, it was probably not important if Nainiae told her about Riley or not.

Recalling his experience in his past life, the priestess that Riley knew did not care about terms or conditions. No matter what, once she received a divine message, the priestess that Riley knew from his past life had an extreme tendency to bite on and never let go.

It meant that, regardless of Riley’s skills, she would have come and made a request to him about killing the dragon.

“We would greatly appreciate it if you could please slay the dragon as the divine message said…”

Although Priesia continued, Riley was not heeding her words at all, not even with the backside of his ears.

Instead, all he was doing was just remembering how he acted in his past life.

‘Could you please hold the holy sword? Please save us.’

In his past life, to a request from a priestess to slay a demon lord, he said,

‘Yes, I will do it.’

The Riley in the past life answered like that so willingly.

‘In that case, how about now? Even now, am I supposed to answer like that?’

“Ha… Hahaha…”

Having asked himself the question, Riley started to give off hollow laughter.

It was not certain for how long he laughed. The laugher did not last for very long, but Riley barely managed to hold in his laughter and said,

“…Why should I?”

Riley answered with a question.

Why? It was a simple question.

“…?”

Priesia tilted her head to the side and explained once more,

“As I explained before, you have received a sign from the goddess Irenetsa. So, the dragon…”

“So, why?”

Riley asked again like that.

‘Why do I have to do it?’

“I am not religious. What I’m saying is, I don’t believe in the goddess Ire-whatever.”

“…”

“To put it bluntly, even if the world is going to be destroyed tomorrow, I’m a bastard that would not care much about it.”

It looked like Priesia was not expecting that such an answer would jump out of Riley.

In panic, Priesia gathered her hands together and held them firmly as she started to try convincing Riley,

“Because…you have a great power.”

“Great power?”

“You possess a great power, enough to stop Astroa with a single blow.”

“Power huh…”

“I heard from Nainiae. That’s not all. What you just showed earlier… I remember it clearly as well.”

It looked like she was talking about how Riley, out of frustration, acted toward Nainiae, the one who didn’t keep his secret.

Priesia continued,

“If you have a great power, if you have received a divine sign…then surely, you should be using your power to protect people, isn’t that right?”

Clap

Clap

Clap

Riley slowly applauded as he nodded and said,

“Um, those are magnificent words.”

Riley kept on nodding as if he was impressed. Priesia looked relieved. It was just about when her face started to become brighter.

“Ah…but what should we do?”

Suddenly, Riley stopped nodding. Instead, in a deadly and violent voice, Riley asked back,

“I don’t think that way at all?”

“Pardon? What do you…”

“What are you going to do if I still say no after all that?”

Riley took a step toward Priesia and started to exude his aura. It was the aura similar to what he showed toward Nainiae earlier.

“T-That is…”

“Are you going to yap to everyone all over the town? Tell them that the youngest master of the Iphelleta House has astonishing powers, yet all he does is just dawdling and leisurely enjoying himself playing around?”

Under normal circumstances, nobody would have believed a claim about the Lazy-Sword Riley, the youngest of the Iphelleta House, actually being an incredible top-notch warrior.

However, if the one making the claim was the priestess, it was possible that things could go differently.

“Or are you going to follow me around everywhere and pester me?”

“…”

“By pouring in your holy power into a dying body, by giving blessing to a cursed body, are you going to force me to fight? As you say something like, you are the chosen one who received a sign by the goddess. You mustn’t fall here?”

Priesia was gazing at Riley’s eyes, but her shoulders shriveled.

His eyes were filled with unbelievably huge rage.

It was pure rage that included the anguish that was oppressed and held up inside Riley since the past life.

“Goddess? Fuck! What a bullshit. This goddess must have her eyes rolled the wrong way. She thinks I’m some kind of tool. She is doing this just to work me and take advantage of me again, isn’t that right? Doesn’t she know this is a stark violation of the Labors Standard Law? What a lunatic… In my past life, even the horrible bosses who were called sons of bitches would not have been this bad.”

‘Labors Standard Law?’

Priesia had no way of understanding all of the harsh, bare-knuckled words pouring out of Riley’s mouth, but she could not dare to ask what he meant by that.

It was because deadly aura, the kind that made her fear that one wrong word could result in losing her head, could be felt from Riley.

All she could do at the moment was to look at Riley approaching her as she shook in fear.

“Fine… Go ahead. Expose my secret or follow me around. When you do…”

Riley brought his face right up to Priesia’s and warned. His warning message was loaded with his deadly aura as well.

Because of his deadly aura, without realizing it, Priesia hunched her shoulders and took steps back.

“…then you will be hearing an urgent message from your goddess telling you that you will need to find a brave warrior who could stop me.”

“…”

As Priesia’s face turned cold and hardened, Riley continued,

“I don’t know if there really is so called god or not, but…deliver this message to your goddess. No, maybe she is watching from somewhere.”

To the goddess that must have a serious problem with her eyesight, the video mail that Riley was sending had a simple message.

“Just let me be. Let me rest a little now.”

N O

His message of response could also be summarized in those two letters.

“…”

Priesia was still frozen solid. Leaving her be, Riley turned his head.

“And you.”

Before anyone realized, Nainiae was not coughing anymore, and she was looking at Riley.

Riley locked his eyes with Nainiae, cracked a smile, and said,

“You. Let’s have a word, shall we?”

It was a terrifying smile that felt like a warning.