Chapter 68

"AAAAAAAH!"

The first thing that erupted was a collective scream.

After a long stretch of panicked shouting, the people gradually came back to their senses—and realized they weren’t dead.

"Holy—"

"I’m... not dead?!"

"I’m alive!"

"Wait—what the hell?! Didn’t I get chopped in half? Is this a dream? Is it a dream?!"

Voices overlapped chaotically.

These people, reborn after death, looked as though they had just awakened from a nightmare.

They slowly confirmed the truth—

They were alive.

Very quickly, after others reminded them what had happened, one by one their gazes turned toward Kumironi.

The moment they saw her—

THUD!

They instantly dropped to their knees, bowing deeply, their foreheads slamming against the ground.

"Such a grace of rebirth—there are no words to thank you!"

"Such a grace of rebirth—there are no words to thank you!"

...

They bowed to Kumironi with the reverence one might give a god.

Now Rei finally understood why Iz had once said that if Kumironi was present, dying would be difficult.

She really was...

absurdly powerful.

Even though Rei didn’t know much about the healer profession, he could still understand something obvious—

The ability to resurrect the dead was undoubtedly an extremely rare power in this world.

And for someone like Rei, who valued survival above all else—

Resurrection was practically a dream-tier ability.

"I can only do this much."

Kumironi’s expression showed not relief, but helplessness.

"There are still some people who died more than twenty minutes ago."

Iz replied quietly.

"That’s already incredible."

"At least many people were saved."

"I came back too late."

Akasei crossed his arms.

"But there were other cities along the way. You couldn’t just ignore them either..."

Iz fell silent.

He didn’t argue.

In truth, most of the people had been revived.

The majority had only just died during the aftermath of the battle between Rei and Naya.

Only a small number had died earlier.

Even among the Level-5 adventurers, two of them had been successfully revived.

But the other two had died too early.

They could not be brought back.

And Kumironi had already reached her limit.

Her resurrection ability wasn’t infinite.

There was a cap on how many people she could revive... and bringing back so many already pushed her close to today’s limit.

Even if she tried harder, this was about as far as she could go.

...

What had happened today truly exhausted both body and mind.

Rei fell into an incredibly deep sleep.

He didn’t know how long he had slept.

When he woke up, the sky outside was dark.

Rei vaguely remembered that when he had been about to fall asleep, the sun had already been setting.

A whole day?

He looked at the precise mechanical clock.

Below the dial, the date was displayed.

September 13.

So it really had been an entire day.

This year’s Harvest Month had arrived early.

The scroll-like celestial phenomenon had appeared on August 29.

And the day he had gone to see Pally, when the monster tide invaded, had been September 12—yesterday.

Rei sat up in bed.

[Class — Level 2 Mage / Level 1 Death Priest]

So it hadn’t been a dream.

Everything that happened yesterday remained vivid in his memory.

Within his body, 200,000 dead souls were still stored.

Before returning to the hotel yesterday, Rei had already explained the entire situation to Iz, Kumironi, and the others.

Kumironi had examined his body.

There was no sign of spiritual contamination.

As for the Death Priest class and the matter involving Messer, Iz and the others had said they could talk about it after he woke up.

He had only changed into that class due to special circumstances.

It was understandable.

After hearing their response, the weight in Rei’s heart had finally lifted.

Because of that, he had slept extremely well.

He got up.

Washed up.

After removing his shirt, he noticed that his muscles had become clearly defined.

If not for his height still being on the shorter side, he could already be called fairly well-built.

He glanced down at himself.

Well... even though he was still young, his body’s development seemed to be progressing just fine.

Rei headed downstairs.

Iz was spawned in the lobby.

Ah... this familiar feeling.

It was strangely nostalgic.

"You’re awake?"

"Yeah."

"Everyone’s been waiting for you."

"For me?"

"You’re today’s main character."

"Me?"

Iz laughed.

"Of course you. You saved the entire Rain Town."

"Ha... yeah, I guess."

Rei’s smile was a bit awkward.

The truth was, he had been thinking about running away the whole time.

Even when fighting that monster—whose name he still didn’t know—his first instinct had been to escape.

If that thing hadn’t chased after him, he probably would’ve already run off to who-knows-where.

After thinking about it for a moment, Rei said:

"Even if I hadn’t been there, the magic array you left behind could’ve held the line. After you came back and killed the monster, Kumironi still could’ve revived everyone."

Iz shook his head.

"If you hadn’t been there, the Aberrant Insect King would have slaughtered everyone in town."

"Even Kumironi wouldn’t have been able to resurrect that many people..."

"And gathering all the bodies also takes time."

"I see."

So that thing was called the Aberrant Insect King.

It was true—although Rei had no idea why the creature had targeted him specifically, it had ended up chasing him instead of killing the townspeople.

The few who were accidentally caught in the crossfire had also been revived by Kumironi.

Even though Rei’s intentions had always been self-preservation—

Through sheer coincidence, he had ended up becoming the hero who saved everyone.

"Rei."

"Hm?" Rei looked up at Iz.

"I don’t know what you were thinking back then. I don’t know what was going through your mind."

"But at the very least, you saved everyone."

"You did something I couldn’t."

"No matter what your intentions were... you are Rain Town’s hero."

Iz...

Those words were actually kind of touching.

Not that Rei felt guilty or anything.

It was just a little ironic that he’d become a hero like this.

Still—

If there was credit to be taken, he definitely planned to take it.

And if they didn’t reward him, he’d probably complain loudly about it.

The two of them arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild.

The moment they stepped inside—

A thunderous roar of shouting exploded!

"REI!"

"REI!"

"REI!"

Akasei stood on top of a table, raising a mug high into the air.

"It’s time for the celebration feast!"

"Let’s cheer for Rain Town’s great hero!"

"The savior—KANZAKI REI!"

What the hell...

Whose celebration party is this?!

Why are you the one standing on the table yelling?!

"Tonight’s expenses!"

Akasei shouted dramatically.

"Will all be paid by our hero—King Rei!"

"OOOOH!"

"Long live Rei!"

"King Rei! King Rei! King Rei!"

Veins bulged on Rei’s forehead.

Hey—!

Since when do heroes pay the bill?!

But before Rei could even refuse—

A mug of alcohol was already shoved in front of his mouth.

"The hero has arrived!"

"Everyone, let’s get wild!"

"WOOHOO!"

"Celebrate!"

"Celebrate our victory!"

CLANG!

Mugs collided loudly.

Akasei slung an arm over Rei’s shoulders and leaned close, whispering in his ear.

"You cover this one. Next time I’ll take you somewhere nice."

"Just don’t let Kumironi and the others find out."

Wait...

Akasei.

You’re not talking about that kind of place, are you...

Ahem.

Not that Rei was particularly eager.

But since he was already in another world—

Learning about the local customs and culture was probably an essential experience.

The atmosphere instantly reached its peak.

Apparently a single day was more than enough for these adventurers—who lived constantly on the edge of death—to recover their spirits.

Wait—

Hold on!

Akasei—

Why are you taking your pants off?!

Since when does a victory celebration involve swinging your pants around on top of the table?!