Chapter 78: Serious Play and Life Hacks 

Raphiel, Eve, and Ryu drifted farther and farther away from the beach until they were nearly at the horizon itself, where sea and sky seemed to blur into one. There, over the open ocean, the three of them began what could only be described as an all-out brawl.

The first to make her move was Eve.

“Let’s start by seeing what you’ve got, little Dragon King!!”

Without the slightest hesitation, Eve’s fist shot forward, aimed directly at Ryu’s face.

There was no mercy in her attack whatsoever.

Then again, perhaps that was only fitting for the Demon King. She didn’t care if her opponent looked like a harmless little girl—if the girl was strong, Eve would treat her as a worthy opponent.

Ryu, however, didn’t even flinch.

With one hand, she casually caught Eve’s punch as though stopping a child from playfully swatting at her.

“…Mmm… is that… all…?”

“Ahahaha♪”

A fearless grin spread across Eve’s face.

In the next instant, her fists exploded into motion.

Her punches came so quickly they resembled the relentless barrage of a machine gun, each strike flowing seamlessly into the next with blinding speed.

Yet Ryu remained perfectly calm.

She read every attack before it landed.

One punch she parried.

The next she deflected.

Another she knocked aside with effortless precision.

Not a single blow reached her.

“You’re good!! But you’re still not fighting seriously, are you!?”

“…Mmm… this is… just playing… I have… no reason… to get serious…”

“Then let me teach you something!! Games are the most fun when you give them everything you’ve got!!”

“…Really…?”

“Absolutely!!”

Still redirecting Eve’s endless stream of punches as though they were no more troublesome than raindrops, Ryu tilted her head innocently, genuinely considering those words.

“…Mmm… okay… then… I’ll get serious…”

“—Ahahaha!!”

The instant those words left her lips…

The fight changed.

Without any warning whatsoever, enormous bite marks suddenly appeared all over Eve’s body.

It looked as though some colossal beast with impossibly huge jaws had taken repeated chunks out of her flesh.

Eve’s expression twisted in pain.

“Ow!! That actually hurt!!”

“…I’m… surprised… You’re the first… I couldn’t bite through…”

“Now that’s a compliment!! So I’m your first, huh?”

“…Mmm… now I kind of… want to eat you…”

Until now, Ryu had worn her usual sleepy, expressionless face.

But now…

A savage smile slowly spread across her lips.

Her golden eyes gleamed with unmistakable hunger.

It was the gaze of an apex predator that had finally stumbled across prey worthy of sinking its fangs into.

“And here I thought you two intended to leave me out.”

A new voice cut between them.

Raphiel had entered the battle.

Four pairs of silver wings, woven entirely from holy power, extended gracefully from her lower back.

Radiant light shimmered from every feather.

Above her head floated a brilliant geometric halo composed of glowing rings that slowly rotated in perfect harmony.

Bathed in divine light, she looked less like a human saint and more like an angel descending from the heavens.

Raphiel quietly opened her mouth.

“—Miracle of the Heavenly Halo. Miracle of the Silver Wings.”

“…Mmm…?”

“Geh!? You’re using that here!?”

The moment Raphiel invoked the twin Miracles, Eve immediately abandoned her assault on Ryu and threw herself into full-speed evasive maneuvers.

The first Miracle—the Heavenly Halo—multiplied the effectiveness and power of every other Miracle several times over.

The second, the Miracle of the Silver Wings, caused countless silver feathers to rain down from the heavens.

Ordinarily…

Those feathers were a blessing.

Anyone touched by them would have their wounds healed.

“The Miracle of the Silver Wings is normally a large-scale healing spell capable of restoring countless wounded people at once…”

“…Mmm…”

As one of the silver feathers gently landed on Ryu’s skin…

She frowned.

“…It stings…”

“…However, against beings aligned with darkness—or even ordinary humans—it forces every cell in the body into such extreme overactivity that they rot away. As expected of the Dragon King, though. You can withstand it.”

“Hey, Saint!! That combo attack is lethal to me too, so could you maybe stop using it!?”

“…Hmph.”

“…Mmm… annoying…”

Ryu calmly drew back her fist—

—and punched the ocean itself.

BOOOOM!!

The sea erupted.

An enormous wall of seawater blasted skyward, drenching everything in the surrounding air.

The falling silver feathers became soaked.

Heavy with water, they immediately lost their erratic floating motion.

Instead of drifting unpredictably, they now dropped almost straight downward, making them dramatically easier to avoid.

Raphiel pursed her lips in disappointment.

“Muu… you’re quite capable.”

“…Mmm… now… this is getting… interesting…”

“Ahahaha♪ Nice!! I’m having fun too!!”

The three combatants smiled.

Each felt the battle growing more exhilarating by the second.

Just as all three prepared to escalate things even further—

Gooooo…

A deep rumble rolled through the sea.

The ocean surface trembled violently.

The water swelled upward as something unimaginably massive began rising from the depths below.

Raphiel’s face stiffened almost instantly.

“…Leviathan?”

Only its head emerged above the waves.

Even so…

It towered hundreds of meters high.

Its entire body was covered in immense scales as thick as fortress walls.

More terrifying than its size, however, was the overwhelming pressure radiating from its existence alone.

Raphiel instinctively broke into a cold sweat.

“…I think I might wet myself. This is the first opponent I’ve ever looked at and thought I couldn’t possibly win.”

“Well, we’re in the ocean. If you did it now, nobody would notice.”

“I’m a Saint. Saints don’t do things like… that.”

“Leaving that aside… I never expected Leviathan to show up. What do we do?”

“I propose we retreat to land immediately.”

Even Eve, despite shrugging as though trying to act unconcerned, silently agreed with Raphiel’s suggestion.

Meanwhile, Ryu stared at the gigantic sea serpent.

Then quietly muttered—

“…Mmm… that smell… it’s nostalgic…”

She sniffed the air several times.

A warm, gentle smile appeared on her face.

It was the sort of smile someone wore upon unexpectedly meeting an old friend after countless years apart.

Then—

Before Raphiel and Eve could flee…

A voice echoed directly inside their minds.

Not spoken aloud.

Not even in any human language.

It was Leviathan’s own tongue.

『Hear my words.』

Both Eve and Raphiel instinctively tensed.

Leviathan clearly sensed their wariness.

Nevertheless, the ancient beast continued.

『Go fetch your guardian. Immediately.』

“…Huh?”

『I tolerated it for a short while. But you fools have been making noise directly above my bed for far too long. I shall say this only once more. Go fetch your guardian at once. Otherwise… I’ll summon a tsunami and sink the entire continent beneath the sea.』

Veins bulged across Leviathan’s enormous face as it spoke.

The colossal creature was absolutely furious.

Eve and Raphiel slowly turned toward one another.

“…Let’s call Eight.”

“…Yeah… let’s go get Oniisan.”

Whenever they found themselves in trouble…

Whenever something became too troublesome to deal with…

They relied on Eight.

That was one thing the constantly bickering Raphiel and Eve had always agreed upon.

At that very moment…

Not a single soul realized that the survival of every nation across the continent had quietly come to rest upon the shoulders of one young man.

◇　◆　◇

“Well… I really messed that one up. She got away fair and square.”

While grumbling to himself, Hijiri secured his mangled left leg with a splint and tightly wrapped it in strips of cloth.

Orvier was already gone.

She had cleverly exploited the moment he approached to confirm her death, dragging him into the close-quarters fight he hated most.

Realizing the disadvantage almost immediately, Hijiri had changed tactics on the fly…

“…The moment I started thinking about taking her down even if it meant sacrificing myself, she instantly switched priorities, broke the seal on the Eye, and escaped. She’s a troublesome one.”

His assessment of Orvier rose considerably.

She wasn’t merely some reckless bandit.

She was cautious.

Calculating.

The sort of opponent who valued accomplishing the objective far more than winning the fight.

Those were always the dangerous ones.

“Now then… how exactly am I supposed to explain this?”

Hijiri had personally volunteered for the mission.

He had convinced the Emperor to entrust him with guarding the seal.

And despite all that…

He had failed rather spectacularly.

There was little doubt everyone in the Roulesia Empire would blame him once they learned what had happened.

He stood there thinking for a while.

Then suddenly clapped his hands.

“Got it!! I’ll just shift the blame onto Luresia for trusting everything to one person in the first place!! Deflecting responsibility is an important life skill, you know!! Yep! None of this is my fault!!”

It was one of the many little survival techniques Hijiri had developed after enduring the harsh realities of another world.

Whenever something went wrong…

It was someone else’s fault.

Maintaining a healthy body was important.

But maintaining a healthy mind was just as essential if you wanted to keep living.

And Hijiri had survived countless disasters by stubbornly protecting his mental state—no matter how ridiculous the logic required to do so.