Chapter 49: Dealing with Atlas’s Corpse – Part 2
“Eeeeek—!? Th-that’s Atlas, isn’t it!?”
The moment Lilcarlia-san caught sight of the colossal corpse, she jumped back in sheer astonishment, her eyes wide, mouth gaping in disbelief.
I had brought her to the Second Home Garden, just as usual, when she came to collect her daily harvest. Lilcarlia-san was always the one I relied on in times of trouble. Somehow, it felt like I leaned on her too much… maybe a little more than I should.
“Yes. It’s Atlas.”
“W-what on earth happened…?”
“Well… you see, yesterday, there was a stampede.”
“A… stampede…?”
“Huh? You didn’t know?”
“W-well… actually, I was out in the neighboring town for a little while…”
“I see.”
Hmm… but she had arrived at my place at the usual time yesterday morning, hadn’t she? If she’s already back, the neighboring town couldn’t have been that far—or maybe she had rushed back and forth.
Come to think of it, Lilcarlia-san comes to gather her harvest every single day without fail. If she only did business in this town, that would be one thing, but traveling to other towns too… that must be exhausting.
I then recounted everything in order: the stampede, how I had rallied the Home Garden’s defenses, and ultimately how I had managed to defeat Atlas using the Giga Golem.
“You… defeated Atlas…?”
“Yes, somehow. It was touch-and-go for a moment, though.”
“You’re as reckless as ever…”
Lilcarlia-san tilted her head back to the sky, letting out a long breath as if exhaling disbelief itself.
“So… I was wondering what to do with the materials from Atlas,” I said.
“I see… In that case, would you mind selling them to me?”
“Huh? You’d actually buy them?”
“Yes, indeed.”
Incredible—Lilcarlia-san never ceases to amaze me.
“Ah, but I suppose they’d need to be disassembled first, right…?”
“Leave the disassembly to me!”
“You can do that?”
“Of course!”
“…Even so, with a body this size, I assume it would be impossible for just one person, right?”
“I can manage it!”
She really could… I had even thought about asking my sister to help.
“Just one thing, though—there’s a small condition,” she said.
“A condition?”
“Yes… when I’m disassembling it… you absolutely must not watch.”
“W-what?”
I frowned. Not watch her disassemble it? Why on earth…?
Well, come to think of it, I wasn’t all that keen on seeing it anyway. I wasn’t great with gore. Even though it was a monster, it still had a humanoid form, and even if asked, I wouldn’t have wanted to watch the disassembly process.
“Understood. I won’t look.”
“Thank you! Then, I’ll get started right away. Should be done in about an hour.”
“An hour? That fast? Amazing. I’ll come back in an hour then.”
With that, I left for the First Home Garden, flying through the air.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Defeating Atlas…? Unbelievable. That’s gotta be an extreme-A level threat, right?”
Once Geo vanished from view, Lilcarlia muttered to herself, her speech slipping into her natural, unguarded manner.
“‘Home Garden,’ you say? What a joke!”
It was almost absurd to call it that—truly an outrageous Gift. Time and again, she had made me realize the enormity of her power, and this was yet another record-breaking example.
“If he really wanted to, he could level a whole town… and yet, he calls it a ‘Home Garden’… that’s far from peaceful…”
By any logic, this Gift was something far more dangerous. From the incredibly addictive vegetables that rivaled narcotics to this, it could, if misused, threaten not just a town but humanity itself.
The fortunate part was that its owner was a calm, peaceful person.
“…Still, some gaps in the system exist. We’ll have to make sure no one abuses it,” Lilcarlia muttered, her gaze once again falling upon the massive corpse before her.
“Even so… it’s huge. I told Geo that, but there’s no way I could disassemble this alone. I’ll need everyone’s help.”
Then, she pulled out the magic bag she cherished.
“Here we go!”
Holding the bag aloft in front of Atlas, in the next instant, the enormous body was sucked cleanly into the bag in one swift motion.
“All done here… now, back home,” she said, vanishing from sight. Only a few Mega Golems remained behind, stationed to guard the garden.
◇ ◇ ◇
An hour later, I returned to the Second Home Garden.
“All done!”
Lilcarlia greeted me cheerfully, as if the work had already been completed.
“Huh?”
I had expected to see Atlas’ disassembled body lying there, but there was nothing to be found.
“I’ve already stored it safely in here,” she said.
“Oh, I see.”
It seemed she had put it into her magic bag—I felt a wave of relief.
“After deducting the disassembly fee, here’s your payment.”
“W-what? This much!?”
The bag she handed me was overflowing with gold coins—probably around fifty in total.
“These are rare materials, after all. That’s the going rate. And here’s the magic stone as well.”
“Whoa… it’s huge!”
Atlas’ magic stone was the largest I had ever obtained. Roughly the size of my head, heavy, impossible to lift with one hand.
I could probably sell it for a high price, but I had no intention of doing so. I wanted to absorb it into the Home Garden to level it up.
“Thank you so much for all your help,” I said sincerely.
“No problem at all! If anything else comes up, do let me know!”
Lilcarlia left, as always leaving me feeling indebted to her.
“…Still… how did she manage to disassemble it?”
It suddenly struck me. The ground where Atlas had lain was spotless. Not a single trace of blood remained.
Could anyone really disassemble something this large so cleanly…?