"And she died."
Reinhard's words plunged them back into silence.
"Sorry." Gojo recovered first. He'd started this line of questioning, so the apology fell to him. Dragging someone's dead family into conversation wasn't exactly tactful.
"It's fine. It was a long time ago."
Reinhard waved it off without a trace of bitterness.
"No wonder you're so strong that even other countries are afraid of you." Felt's expression cleared with sudden understanding.
The Astrea Family had never once failed to produce a Sword Saint. But none of the previous holders had inspired the kind of wariness, the outright dread, that Reinhard commanded. History had no precedent for him.
Now she understood why. A man who could will any Divine Protection into existence was, for all practical purposes, invincible. Of course the neighboring kingdoms were terrified. Reinhard's strength didn't leave room for hope.
"That's straight-up cheating," Subaru muttered, shaking his head. If he didn't know Reinhard was incapable of lying, he'd never have believed something so absurd.
"You must have quite a collection by now." Betty's gaze turned probing.
"I do have a fair number. The exact count..." Reinhard paused, apparently tallying them in his head.
A moment later: "Including this new flight one, I have two hundred and fifty-two..."
"Stop. Stop right there." Gojo cut him off. "That's more than enough. I don't need to hear the rest."
If his hands hadn't been occupied carrying two people, he would have plugged his ears. There was no helping it. Even for him, this level of cosmic favoritism was hard to stomach.
Because here was the thing.
After arriving in this world, unlike Subaru, Gojo had come equipped with a so-called Supporting Character System. The system's shop could exchange Popularity Points for Divine Protections, Innate Techniques, and all manner of other enhancements. That alone was staggeringly powerful. In theory, as long as he had Popularity Points, the possibilities were limitless.
In practice? Nothing came cheap. The Divine Protection that let him cut hair had cost tens of thousands of points. Anything with a more potent effect ran into the hundreds of thousands, even millions. Stockpiling multiple protections would require astronomical sums. At least until the show's popularity exploded, that situation wasn't changing anytime soon.
And Reinhard? He didn't even need the exchange process. No cost. No conditions. No threshold. If the thought crossed his mind, every single Divine Protection listed in the system's shop was his for the taking. Free. Effortless. It was absurd beyond words.
Some people were born on the finish line. Reinhard was the living proof.
"You should be this world's protagonist."
"That's what I'm saying!" Subaru nodded emphatically.
Reinhard's revelation had shattered their understanding of what was possible.
"If only I had an ability like that..." Subaru's voice carried genuine longing. For someone with no talent in any area, a power like Reinhard's would have changed everything. Maybe he could have become strong, instead of being someone whose only useful skill was dying.
"If I could give it to you, Subaru, I would."
"Reinhard, can you wish for a Divine Protection that makes you filthy rich?" Felt's eyes gleamed with almost religious fervor. "Like turning rocks into gold or something."
"Lady Felt, unreasonable requests like that won't work."
"Really? You're not just saying that because you don't want to do it?"
"I assure you, that's not the case."
She squinted at him, clearly trying to determine whether the Sword Saint was sabotaging her financial future.
"Leave him alone about that." Gojo shrugged. "With your personality, if he could turn things to gold, you'd have him up on a mountainside converting the whole peak before sundown. Gold would be worthless within a week."
"Tch."
The conversation carried them forward, and before long the group had reached the outskirts of Arlam Village. Flying was slower than teleportation or warping, but the pace was manageable.
"We're here." Gojo dropped from the sky and set Meili on the ground. "Get back to work."
"Reinhard, don't you have some kind of detection Divine Protection?" Felt asked, the thought striking her the moment she saw Meili get started.
"Hey. If we can handle it ourselves, let's not bother Reinhard." Gojo rapped his knuckles lightly against Felt's head. "If he had a way to help, he'd have offered without being asked."
What looked like a gift from heaven to the rest of them was something else entirely for Reinhard. That ability had indirectly killed his grandmother. Every time he used it, every time he even thought about it, the memory surfaced. That wasn't something anyone should poke at casually.
Felt hadn't caught the subtext, but when Gojo gave a faint shake of his head, understanding clicked.
"Yeah, fair point. Got it."
While Meili directed her Mabeasts to fan out from the village, the rest of them built a fire and settled in.
"So how long are we waiting? I'm getting sleepy and my stomach's empty." It didn't take long for Felt to start complaining. She'd been up since early morning, sat through an entire royal selection conference, and then gotten dragged out here without so much as a nap. A full day of nonstop chaos had ground her down.
"Shouldn't be too much longer." Gojo prodded the fire with a stick. "Meili's friends are spreading outward from the village in every direction. Speaking of food, I'm starting to miss Miss Carole's pastries."
Grrrrr.
Subaru said nothing. His stomach spoke for him.
"I'll go find us something to eat." Reinhard stood, smiling at the group. "I happen to have a cooking Divine Protection, you know."
"Then we're counting on you!"
He moved fast. Minutes later, Reinhard returned carrying a cleaned and dressed Mabeast carcass, and he'd been thoughtful enough to pick one that wasn't under Meili's control. How far he'd gone in that short window was anyone's guess, but he'd not only caught his prey but butchered, washed, and prepped it. He'd even gathered an armful of wild fruit that looked promising.
"Start with the fruit while the meat cooks. It'll need a few more minutes."
He handed out bundles of clean fruit wrapped in broad leaves, then knelt by the fire and set to roasting the meat with practiced efficiency.
Everyone was hungry enough to dig in without ceremony. But the fruit lost its appeal fast. A rich, intoxicating aroma had begun drifting through the campsite, winding its way into their nostrils with what felt like deliberate intent. Reinhard hadn't used any visible seasoning. The smell defied explanation.
Gojo, Subaru, Felt, all of them found themselves swallowing involuntarily.
After an agonizing wait, the meat was ready.
"Reinhard, you are a hero."
Gojo said it after the first bite, and he meant it. He'd been in this world long enough to enjoy noble-class cuisine. Rem's cooking was excellent. Miss Carole's was wonderful. Compared to Reinhard's, they might as well have been beginners standing next to a grandmaster chef. The gap was almost insulting.
"This is the best roast meat I've ever had!" Subaru couldn't contain himself either.
"Figures. Cooking with a Divine Protection backing it up..." Felt was tearing into her portion with abandon, pausing between bites to chime in.
She hadn't finished the sentence when Meili's voice cut through the camp.
"Found them!"
Two words. Every person still savoring their meal snapped to attention, heads turning toward her in unison.
"Found them?!"
"Where?!"
"How many?"
"Is there a guy with green hair?!"
Subaru was on his feet before anyone else, meat still clutched in one hand, closing the distance to Meili in two strides. The intensity pouring off him was almost physical.
Reinhard glanced at Subaru but held his tongue. He didn't ask how Subaru knew so much about the Witch Cult. He didn't press.
Meili flinched at the sudden charge, instinctively pulling her meat behind her back. For a split second she thought he was coming for her food.
"There's a cave in that direction. About ten minutes by air. As for how many, or whether there's someone with green hair..." She shook her head. "The Mabeasts can only give me a rough picture. Specifics are beyond what they can do."
"Doesn't matter. Finding them is enough." Gojo had already finished his meat at some point and was picking his teeth with a blade of grass. "Specifics don't change the plan. We go in, wipe them out, leave no one standing."
"Meili, keep expanding your search radius. Make sure there aren't other Witch Cult members hiding nearby. I don't want any slipping through the cracks."
"Yes, Big Bro."
"The rest of you, finish eating. No rush. Once Meili's done a full sweep, we'll go clean them all out in one shot."
That last part was aimed mainly at Subaru. He'd been calm all evening, but the moment Meili reported in, his composure had cracked wide open.
"Seriously, these people have the worst timing." Felt grumbled between bites. "They couldn't have shown up before we sat down to eat?"
Subaru nodded and lowered himself back to the ground. He resumed eating, methodical and deliberate, but something in his expression had sharpened. A cold edge that hadn't been there before. Each bite looked less like a meal and more like he was tearing into the Witch Cult itself, grinding them between his teeth.
A few minutes later, every scrap of meat was gone.
Gojo surveyed the group, rose to his feet, and stretched. "Let's move. Time to go pay the Witch Cult a visit. Every last one of them."
They launched from the forest in a burst of motion, cutting into the deep night sky and streaking toward the coordinates Meili provided. Along the way, small Mabeasts kept darting to her side, exchanging silent communication before scattering off in new directions.
"The Witch Cult members don't seem to be spread out. No other traces anywhere in the surrounding area."
Meili's hair whipped in the wind as she called up to Gojo.
"That makes things simple." He shifted his grip on her. "Reinhard, mind if I take point? I want to study these people up close. You handle protecting Felt and the others."
"Of course. Protecting Lady Felt and my companions is my duty."
"Then it's settled."
His smile widened, sharp and eager, and he dove toward the Witch Cult's position with Meili and Subaru in tow.
"AAAAAGH!"
A piercing scream tore through the night. Meili, caught completely off guard by the sudden plunge, shrieked at the top of her lungs.
The Witch Cult sentries outside the cave and the cultists sleeping within fared no better. None of them had anticipated anything like this. They were zealots, yes, but basic survival instincts still functioned. Humans, animals, it didn't matter. A scream erupting out of nowhere while you slept would jolt anyone awake in a panic.
Before the cultists could process what was happening, a figure descended from the heavens trailing that scream, landing squarely beside the campfire at the cave's mouth.
"Good evening, members of the Witch Cult..."
"Urk."
Gojo took in the robed figures with their strange hoods and let a smile curl across his face, ready to deliver something appropriately cool, but the speech died in his throat, cut short by a retch from below.
"And here I was about to say something impressive." He sighed and set Meili down, watching her double over.
"Big Bro, next time you're going to drop like that, a little warning would be nice." She glared up at him, mouth twitching.
"Next time, absolutely. Promise. Subaru looked like he was about to burst, so I picked up the pace a little."
Before the cultists could regroup, Reinhard, Betty, and the rest touched down behind them.
...
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