What was a lie told with one’s whole being?
It started with the liar truly believing the lie themselves.
What I was doing wasn’t a lie; it was real.
I convinced myself of that, almost like self-hypnosis.
I was a no-name.
I am a no-name.
Right now, I had fully become a no-name.
A terrible supernatural power that would make an entire body explode the moment I made contact.
I didn’t know its name, but something like that definitely existed.
Believing in it, I swung my hand with all my might and it achieved an excellent result.
The flower-headed man, who had been about to finish off Aransel,
Immediately backed off the moment I charged at him.
He was sharp.
He must’ve realized something terrible would happen if I touched him and made the right call by retreating.
What a shame.
If I had even grazed him, it would’ve been over.
I subtly hid my hand and tried to close the distance between us.
The flower-headed man also didn’t give any ground, quietly observing the situation.
“Haru!”
At that moment, Aransel grabbed my shoulder and pushed off the ground.
She was so strong that my body flailed as I was dragged away.
To think she had that kind of strength, and yet that man had broken through her guard?
He was no ordinary person either.
The flower-headed man didn’t immediately pursue us.
True to his sharp instincts, he seemed to be biding his time, watching the situation before giving chase.
Well, it was the right call. If he touched my hand, it’d be game over.
“Are you out of your mind?!”
Aransel shouted as she ran.
“Out of my mind?”
“That move just now.”
“Phew, I almost got him. What a pity, huh?”
Aransel gave me a stunned look.
Seeing that expression reminded me of something I’d forgotten.
Ah, right, I was a holy mage.
Wait a second, I got too into it and forgot.
The supernatural power in my hand disappeared.
I could have reshaped the world. What a shame.
“If I hadn’t done that, you’d be dead.”
When I answered while clenching and opening my hand, Aransel bit her lip tightly.
She probably understood that better than anyone.
Her eyes wavered for a moment before she lowered her head.
“…Sorry. I dragged you into this because I was weak.”
“There’s no point in being sorry in a situation like this. We just ran into a lunatic.”
It was just bad luck.
This wasn’t Aransel’s fault.
Aransel ran in silence.
She seemed lost in thought and her mind was tangled with all sorts of things.
“Being weak… that was my choice…”
She seemed to mutter something to herself, but I couldn’t quite make it out.
“More importantly, what is that guy? He’s not normal, is he?”
I’d seen my fair share of powerful figures while working as a pioneer.
But that guy even among elite pioneers felt like a whole different breed.
He radiated a sense of something extremely dangerous.
“…Cosmic Zak, the Great Sinner of Sloth.”
I flinched at Aransel’s reply.
Even I had heard of the title “Great Sinner”.
It was a mark branded on criminals who’d laid waste to entire cities at the very least.
And I had just charged at someone like that with my bare hands.
There really was no one more crazy than me.
No wonder Aransel had freaked out.
“If you get it now, then never do something like that again. There won’t be a second chance.”
When Aransel warned me, I fully agreed.
Charging at a guy like that again would be suicide.
I’d never do it again.
“Anyway, Aransel, I think I can walk on my own now…”
Just as I opened my mouth to tell Aransel I could walk on my own,
A shadow passed over my face.
Right in front of me, a hand with patches of flesh crudely stitched together reached toward me.
A bare hand, nothing more.
But the moment I saw that hand, a chill ran down my face.
My lips went dry.
Time seemed to slow just a little.
That strange sensation you feel right before death —
I knew it well, having experienced it before.
Between those fingers, I saw him.
The flower-headed man. Cosmic Zak.
He was a cautious one.
That’s why he hadn’t shown his full strength and had merely fought Aransel moderately.
But then I, an irregular, had appeared.
And that changed everything. He decided to stop holding back.
Right beside me.
Aransel’s face had already touched Cosmic Zak’s hand.
On her beautiful face, patches of heat blossomed and swelled —
Then, without hesitation, her head exploded.
Her body which was now headless collapsed to the ground.
The moment I saw it, I understood Cosmic Zak’s ability.
He was the real deal. A murderous supernatural power that made anything he touched with his bare hands explode.
The gauntlets had only been self-imposed restraints. A trick to fool his opponents.
His true power lay in his bare hands.
And then, the death that had come for Aransel came for me just the same.
Thump—
Cosmic Zak’s hand touched my face.
I felt the flower smile faintly.
That was the last thing I sensed before my face began to swell and my vision distorted.
For a brief moment, I saw the world and all 360 degrees of it.
My eyes had swollen to their limits.
Everything else must’ve been the same.
This damn otherworld!
Boom!
And that was another death I experienced.
***
There are many kinds of death in this world.
Being torn limb from limb by a cult,
Being beaten to death by a bandit,
Having your head crushed by a murderer —
And then, there’s dying from your head swelling up and exploding.
Jolt!
I shot upright and blinked a few times.
Then I lifted my hand and scratched my head, fumbling a bit.
The head that had burst open was fully restored.
Caw, caw—
In the distance, the sun was setting, and crows cried as they flew across the sky.
My ears were a bit muffled.
When I inhaled and exhaled deeply, they cleared up.
“Whew.”
I’d come back to life again.
Letting out a small breath, I looked around.
Then scratched my head once more.
Maybe it was the flood of endorphins that had surged out right before my brain swelled up and I died —
But now my head felt strangely itchy.
A bizarre sensation, like I wanted to scratch the inside of my brain.
I lowered the hand scratching my head.
If I kept this up, it might become a habit. Better stop now.
When I turned my gaze to the side, I saw a corpse already attracting bugs.
It was Aransel’s body.
She had died leaving only a final warning for me to be careful.
As I approached and brushed away the bugs, I saw the empty space where her neck had once been.
Cosmic Zak, the Great Sinner of Sloth.
I was reminded once again just how much that bastard had been toying with us.
In the final moments, neither Aransel nor I could even react.
That thing was a genuine monster. The real deal among everything I’ve encountered.
I didn’t know why this other world was so full of monsters.
Even if there are a lot of them, did they all have to show up right in front of me?
I barely made it back alive from the airship, and now the next thing is a Great Sinner?
Life is too damn hard, and my luck couldn’t be worse.
Cosmic Zak’s presence was no longer detectable.
Since our heads exploded and we died anyway, there was no way we could come back, so I guess he just left us alone like that and left.
I get why he’s associated with sloth.
I sat down in front of Aransel and raised my hand.
Wait, did I really need to go out of my way to save an uncivilized otherworlder?
I scratched my head once.
The surge of disgust was starting to fade.
Maybe I’m a bit off today from being reminded how utterly screwed up this world is.
Well, I had been living a little too comfortably lately.
“Rise.”
To get a grip on myself, I muttered some nonsense and activated Resurrection.
A bright light seeped into Aransel’s body, and her head slowly began to regenerate.
A moment later, her pretty little face returned.
I felt a bit proud, realizing I’d restored it with my own hands.
It looked like it would take her a little longer to wake up, so I leaned against a tree.
From what I’ve seen with Old Man Bulldog and the airship flight attendant, their memories were fuzzy right before death.
I wondered if Aransel would be the same.
While I was unconsciously scratching my head, Aransel’s eyes suddenly flew open.
At that very moment, she jumped up, grabbed her sword, and swung it.
I almost clapped at how clean the movement was.
Aransel stood frozen with her eyes wide open.
Then she slowly turned her head and met my gaze.
She had a dazed expression on her face.
It was the same look everyone wore after coming back from the dead.
“…Haru?”
Judging from her face, she hadn’t quite grasped what was happening yet.
“Yeah, looks like we made it. Cosmic Zak knocked us out and left.”
“That can’t be…”
Aransel muttered as her hand, still gripping her sword, trembled.
“My head definitely exploded…”
Could it be that she actually remembered that?
I had no idea how her mind could be holding up like this.
I thought to myself that she wasn’t exactly normal either, and responded casually.
“Then, there’s no way your head would’ve stayed intact like that, right?”
“……”
Aransel’s eyes were glazed over, as if she couldn’t find the words to argue.
Then she turned back to me.
“Haru, did you do something?”
Why was she always so sharp like that?
But even in this world, magic that brings someone back to life wasn’t something taken for granted.
“What could I possibly do?”
A holy mage who hadn’t even managed to sprout a seed yet.
What could someone like that really do?
Knowing this herself, Aransel fell silent and slowly lowered her sword.
“I’m going to rest a bit.”
Maybe her mind was still a mess from having just come back from the dead.
She trudged over and sat down against a tree.
For some reason, she began to fidget with her left hand.
While Aransel rested, I ended up taking a break too.
What were we going to do now?
There was still quite a bit of distance left to the Breathing Tree.
But wandering around a forest where Cosmic Zak was roaming wasn’t a good idea either.
Thanks to Resurrection, we had somehow made it through this time.
But there wouldn’t be a next time.
When he realized we were still alive, he’d be suspicious and he’d definitely try to kill us.
He might really bury us in the ground for good next time.
While I was deep in thought, it seemed Aransel had her own things to think over too. She remained silent the whole time.
“Haru.”
Before I realized it, night had fallen over the forest.
At last, Aransel spoke.
“Cosmic Zak is targeting Lady Liliran.”
Liliran.
Hearing that, I remembered what Raphael had asked of me.
She’d asked me to deliver a letter to Liliran.
Liliran. The leader of the fairies and a master of spatial magic.
I hadn’t expected Cosmic Zak to be targeting her.
Unexpectedly, our objectives overlapped.
“The airship crash was his doing too. He wanted to use the chaos to draw Lady Liliran out of the Breathing Tree.
She’d never ignore a falling airship.”
But we had evacuated the passengers.
Because of that, Cosmic Zak’s plan fell apart and so he came after us instead.
“And Haru, soon people will come to investigate the crash.”
My body tensed.
“Then Cosmic Zak, who’s still wandering the forest…”
“He’ll use those people as hostages to lure Lady Liliran out.”
A perfect, vicious cycle.
But that didn’t mean it was something we could fix.
“Then we should hurry and—”
“Getting back to the airfield is impossible. The forest is too treacherous at night, and it’s harder to navigate in the dark. More importantly, the Fairy Forest is vast…we’re not likely to run into the search party.”
Aransel stood up and looked toward the Breathing Tree that was visible through the trees.
“On the other hand, we can head toward the Breathing Tree as a clear destination.”
“…Are you seriously saying we should go to the Breathing Tree?”
Had she lost her mind?
She must have forgotten that Cosmic Zak was still out here.
Aransel slowly turned to look at me.
“If we reach the Breathing Tree and tell Lady Liliran what’s going on, she can send a letter to the airfield using spatial magic. Then, instead of a search party, the official army will come to take down Cosmic Zak.”
So we had to go to Liliran.
That’s what Aransel was saying.
This was someone who’d just come back from the dead.
Literally. She had just died.
Her head had swelled and exploded. That’s how she died.
And now she was saying she’d march back into the forest.
That she’d walk willingly toward death.
Risking her life for others.
It was noble….but I couldn’t understand it.
I stared at her for a moment, then finally spoke.
“I’m not going.”
I wasn’t some saint.
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