Chapter 88: Anything???
At that time, Ryuu's eyes had been clouded by anger and grief, hatred and resentment.
She could no longer remember what kind of expression Astraea had worn when she left Orario.
"Throw away justice, Ryuu."
The words her goddess had spoken in a sorrowful voice echoed in Ryuu's mind throughout the days that followed.
No matter how Syr comforted her, and no matter how warmly the Hostess of Fertility embraced her, nothing could fill the hole in the girl's heart.
It was she who had personally killed her own captain.
To cover Ryuu's escape, her companions had exposed their own bodies and the monster to Ryuu's magic.
In the end, not even their bones remained.
All of her emotions rotted away at that moment.
She was not even allowed to regret or repent.
She wanted to die.
She wanted to disappear from this world completely.
But she could not choose death.
How could she meaninglessly throw away the life her captain and companions had saved?
"What should I do...?"
Ryuu's sky-blue pupils were filled with confusion.
Even her goddess had abandoned her.
What was she supposed to do in order to keep moving forward?
"Although I don't know why Astraea-sama left Orario, when she told you to give up justice, she definitely wasn't abandoning you."
Shiro spoke calmly.
"She believed that sooner or later, you would stand up again on your own. Besides—"
Torajirou Shiro changed the direction of the conversation.
"Who decided that the dead can't be revived?"
Resurrection of the dead.
It sounded like something completely unbelievable.
But Shiro himself had already experienced it once.
That also made him understand that above the gods, there were beings even stronger than them.
As long as he reached that level, even a miracle like reviving the dead could be done easily.
Loki had once mentioned that reincarnation existed in this world.
The souls of the dead returned to heaven, where the gods arranged their reincarnation.
However, as more and more gods descended to the lower world, the number of gods handling reincarnation had become seriously insufficient.
Because of that, the souls of people who died within the past twenty years were apparently still waiting in line in heaven to reincarnate.
Ryuu's companions had died less than ten years ago.
In other words, as long as Shiro could become as strong as the person who revived him within ten years, he could go to heaven and bring them back to life.
And those ten years referred to ten years in this world.
At present, Shiro had not returned to his original world yet, so he still did not know the difference in the flow of time between the two worlds.
"Eh...?"
Ryuu widened her eyes.
Like a drowning person clutching at her final straw, she staggered over to Shiro and grabbed his collar.
Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke.
"What... did you say...? Did I hear wrong...? You just said resurrection, right?!"
If someone had normally told Ryuu something like the dead could be revived, she would definitely have driven that person away in anger.
But right now, Ryuu was on the verge of emotional collapse.
And the person who said those words was someone she knew.
At least in Ryuu's understanding, Shiro had never lied to her.
So—
"Please! As long as you can revive Alise, Kaguya, and the others, I'll do anything!"
She shouted words that were extremely serious for an elf.
At least, the instant Shiro heard them, his thoughts went in a strange direction.
"If I can do something about reviving them, I'll help as much as I can. But that last part is..."
Shiro originally wanted to say forget it.
But halfway through, when he looked at Ryuu's face, he shamefully realized that he was a little tempted.
The sudden pause left Shiro unsure of how to continue.
An angel and a devil began fighting fiercely inside his mind.
The atmosphere turned awkward.
After a long silence, Ryuu slowly let go of Shiro's collar with her right hand.
Her face turned red all the way to the tips of her ears.
It seemed she had also realized the double meaning behind her own words.
At this moment, the pure elf was overwhelmed by shame.
"I-In any case, I'll do it!"
Ryuu shouted those words and ran away.
...
Back at the camp, dinner preparations were underway.
Campfires rose from the forest.
The male members had finished bathing early and were sent by Finn to gather fruit needed for dinner.
"Yo! Shiro! You're back!"
Tiona walked past the large pot carrying firewood.
When she saw Shiro, she greeted him with full energy.
"Yeah. I ran into a friend on the way, and she gave me some special antidotes. Take these and use them on the people with worse poisoning."
Shiro tossed the medicine Ryuu had given him to Tiona.
She caught the medicine, said "Got it," and was about to run toward the poisoned members' tent.
But the moment she took a step, she suddenly remembered something and forced herself to brake.
"Oh, right, I almost forgot. When Finn and the others came back from bathing, they picked up two adventurers."
Tiona turned back to him.
"One of them seems to be someone you know. They're being settled in the tent over there, so remember to go take a look when you have time."
"Someone I know?"
Shiro had a bad guess in his heart.
After asking the people guarding the camp for the location, he arrived outside a tent.
He pulled open the tent flap.
Inside lay two people.
Shiro did not know the one with fiery red hair, but the other one was...
White hair stained with dust.
A torn piece of Salamander Wool draped over his body.
The bandage wrapped around his head should have been first aid done by the Loki Familia.
"Bell..."
Shiro spoke the name of this unlucky adventurer.
At the same time, he could not help complaining in his heart.
Was this kid just too unlucky?
Every time Shiro saw him, Bell was either being chased, fainting in the Dungeon for all kinds of reasons, or getting dragged into some disaster.
And the most ridiculous part was that he somehow survived every time.
Could he be the protagonist of some light novel?
At that moment, Bell, who was lying on the bed, suddenly moved.
"Welf!"
He opened his eyes wide and shouted the red-haired man's name.
His upper body sprang up as if he had bounced, and he looked around in panic.
"Your companion is lying over there."
Shiro handed him a piece of fruit.
Bell said "Thank you" and instinctively took it.
"Huh? Shiro-san?! Why are you here?"
It was clear that Bell's brain had not fully started working yet.
Shiro briefly explained the current situation regarding the expedition to the dazed Bell.
Then he pointed toward Welf, who was lying on the ground.
Bell endured the pain in his body and stood up, walking over to Welf's side.
Only after seeing that Welf was safe did his tense body relax.
"Your Familia saved us again this time..."
"What happened to you this time?"
Shiro had seen Bell in the Dungeon a total of four times.
The first time, he had been chased by a Minotaur.
The second time, he had overused his magic.
The third time, he had fought a Minotaur alone.
Shiro was very curious about what Bell had encountered the fourth time.
"Welf and I ran out of resources in the Dungeon, and then we ran into an abnormal situation. Welf was badly injured, so we wanted to rest on the 18th Floor."
Bell lowered his head.
"But on the way, we ran into the Floor Boss..."
Wait.
Shiro suddenly remembered something in his heart.
The last Floor Boss had been defeated by him.
Thinking about the timing, it should have just respawned today.
Was Bell really so unlucky that he just happened to run into the freshly respawned Floor Boss?
Shiro sighed and said, "Forget it. Your companion will still need a while to wake up. Come out and eat something first."
…
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