CHAPTER 12
What is the essence of a wholehearted lie?
It begins with believing the lie yourself.
What I’m doing right now isn’t a lie, it’s real.
I believe it myself, to the point of self-hypnosis.
I am a No-Named.
I am a No-Named.
Right now, I have become a perfect No-Named.
My terrifying Ability causes anything I touch to explode.
I don’t really know the name, but anyway, I have it.
The wholehearted swing of my hand, backed by this belief, achieved a brilliant result.
The flower-headed man who was about to finish off Aranseol.
The moment I charged at him, he immediately backed off.
He’s a sharp one.
To realize what would happen if my hand touched him and make the judgment to retreat.
A pity.
If I had just touched him a little, it would have been over for sure.
I slyly hid my hand and tried to close the distance with the man.
But the flower-headed man also kept his distance, quietly assessing the situation.

“Harua!”
At that moment, Aranseol grabbed my shoulder and kicked off the ground.
She was so strong that my body was dragged along, dangling helplessly.
He managed to break through the guard of someone with this much strength?
That man is as extraordinary as I am.
The flower-headed man didn’t chase us right away.
Like the sharp guy he was, he seemed to be watching the situation before deciding to pursue.
Well, it’s the right call when touching my hand means the end.

“Are you out of your mind?!” Aranseol shouted as we ran.
“What do you mean, out of my mind?”
“What you just did.”
“Hmph, I almost had him. A real shame, isn’t it?”
Aranseol gave me a look of utter disbelief.
Seeing that expression, I remembered something I’d forgotten.
Oh, right. I’m a holy mage.
I got so into it that I momentarily forgot.
The Ability in my hand vanishes.
I could have built a new world, what a waste.
“You would have died if I hadn’t.”
As I clenched and unclenched my fist, Aranseol bit her lip.
She knew that better than anyone.
Her eyes wavered for a moment, then she lowered her head.
“……Sorry. I was weak and dragged you into this.”
“This isn’t the time for apologies. We just had the bad luck of running into a maniac.”
It was just bad luck.
It wasn't Aranseol’s fault.
Aranseol ran in silence.
It looked like her mind was a mess of complicated thoughts.
“It was my will that was weak……”
I think she muttered something to herself, but I couldn’t hear it clearly.
“Anyway, who is that guy? He doesn’t seem like your average joe.”
I’ve seen my fair share of strong people while working as a pioneer.
But that guy seemed to be on a different level, even among the most skilled pioneers.
He reeked of danger.
“………The Arch-Sinner of Sloth, Cosmic Jac.”
My blood ran cold at Aranseol’s answer.
I’d heard of the Arch-Sinners before.
It was a brand given to criminals who had, at the very least, wiped out entire cities.
And I had just charged at one of them bare-handed.
Talk about a real maniac.
No wonder Aranseol was freaking out.
“Now that you know, don’t you ever do something like that again. There won’t be a second time.”
As Aranseol warned me, I had to agree.
Charging at a guy like that again would be suicide.
I’m definitely not doing that.
“Anyway, Aranseol, I can walk on my own two feet now…”
I was just about to ask Aranseol to let me walk on my own.

A shadow fell over my face.
Right in front of me, I saw a hand stitched together from various pieces of flesh.
Just a pure, bare hand.
But the moment I saw that bare hand, goosebumps erupted on my skin.
My lips went dry.
For a brief moment, time seemed to slow down.
A strange phenomenon one experiences when facing death.
I knew this phenomenon well, as I had experienced it before.
Between the fingers, I could see the flower-headed man, Cosmic Jac.
Cosmic Jac was a cautious man.
That’s why he had deliberately held back his strength and fought Aranseol moderately.
But then I, an irregular, had appeared.
And so, he decided not to hide his true strength any longer.
Right next to me.
Aranseol’s face was already being touched by Cosmic Jac’s hand.
On Aranseol’s pretty face, heat rashes bloomed and swelled, and then, without hesitation, it exploded.
Aranseol’s body, now missing its neck, collapsed.
The moment I saw that, I understood Cosmic Jac’s Ability.
This guy was the real deal, a murderous Ability that made everything he touched explode.
The gauntlet was just a restriction he had placed on himself to deceive his opponents.
His true power was in his bare hands.
And the death that Aranseol had met was now coming for me.

Thump—

Cosmic Jac’s hand touched my face.
I felt as if the flower was smiling sweetly.
That was the last thing I saw as my face swelled up and my vision burst open.
For a single moment, I saw the world in 360 degrees.
My eyes had swollen to their absolute limit.
The rest of me was probably the same.
This fucking otherworld!

POW!

And that was the next death I experienced.

There are many ways to die in this world.
For example, being dismembered by a cult.
Or being beaten to death by bandits.
Or having your head smashed in by a murderer.
And then there’s having your head swell up and explode.

Jolt—

I shot up and blinked my eyes.
I raised a hand and dazedly scratched my head.
My head, which had exploded, was safely restored.

Caw, caw—

In the distance, as the sun set, I could hear crows flying across the sky.
My ears are a bit muffled.
I took a deep breath and exhaled, and my ears popped.
“Hoo.”
Alive again.
I let out a light breath and looked around.
And once again, I scratched my head.
Maybe it was because of the insane rush of endorphins right before I died as my brain swelled to a massive size.
The inside of my head feels strangely itchy.
It was a bizarre sensation, like wanting to scratch the inside of my brain.
I lowered the hand that was scratching my head.
This seems like it could become a habit, so I should stop.
I shifted my gaze to the side and saw a corpse that was already starting to attract insects.
It was Aranseol’s body.
She had died after giving me one last warning to be careful.
I approached her side and brushed away the insects, revealing her empty neck.
The Arch-Sinner of Sloth, Cosmic Jac.
I understood once again just how much he had been toying with us.
In the final moment, neither Aranseol nor I could even react.
That thing was a genuine monster, the likes of which I had never met before.
I don’t know why there are so many monsters in this world.
I can accept that there are many, but can’t they just not appear in front of me?
First, I survive an airship crash, and then I run into an Arch-Sinner.
My life is too hard, and my luck is absolute crap.
I could no longer feel Cosmic Jac’s presence.
He probably thought that since our heads exploded, there was no way we could survive, so he just left us.
I can see why he’s called Sloth.
I knelt in front of Aranseol and raised my hand.
Wait, is there really a need to save a savage this-worlder?
I scratched my head once.
The welling sense of disgust subsided.
I guess experiencing the shittiness of this world after a long time has made me a bit unstable.
Then again, I have been living too comfortably for my own good lately.
“Get up.”
To clear my head, I muttered some nonsense and activated Resurrection.
A bright light seeped into Aranseol’s body, and her head slowly began to regenerate.
A few moments later, Aranseol’s pretty face was back.
The thought that my own hands had sculpted that made me feel a little proud.
It seemed like it would take a while for Aranseol to wake up, so I leaned against a tree.
From what I saw with Bulldog and the airship crew, their memories of just before death were hazy. I wondered if it would be the same for Aranseol.
I was unconsciously scratching my head when Aranseol’s eyes shot open. At the same time, she sprang to her feet and swung her sword with a shing.
The clean motion almost made me applaud.
Aranseol stood frozen in place, her eyes wide.
Then, she slowly turned her head and met my gaze.
She wore a dazed expression.
It was the common face of people who had died and come back to life.
“……Harua?”
Judging by her expression, it seemed the situation hadn’t fully sunk in yet.
“Yeah, looks like we somehow survived. Cosmic Jac knocked us out and left.”
“That’s impossible……”
Aranseol muttered, the hand holding her sword trembling.
“My head definitely exploded……”
Don’t tell me she remembers that.
I don’t know what kind of mental fortitude she has.
Thinking that she wasn’t normal either, I casually replied.
“If it did, your head wouldn’t be so perfectly intact, would it?”
“……”
Aranseol’s eyes went blank, as if she couldn't refute that.
Then, she looked back at me.
“Harua, did you do something?”
Why is this girl so sharp?
But even in this world, magic that can bring people back to life is not a common thing.
“What could I possibly do?”
A holy mage who hasn’t even bloomed his Seed.
What could such a holy mage really do?
Aranseol wasn't ignorant of this either, so she fell silent and slowly lowered her sword.

“I’m going to rest for a bit.”
Her head must be a mess after dying and coming back to life. She trudged over and sat down, leaning against a tree.
For some reason, she was fiddling with her left hand.
While Aranseol rested, I took the opportunity to rest as well.
What now?
We still have some distance to go to the Breath Tree.
But I’m not keen on wandering through a forest where Cosmic Jac is roaming.
This time, we somehow survived thanks to Resurrection.
But there won’t be a next time.
That guy will be puzzled to see us alive and will definitely try to kill us.
This time, he might really bury us in the ground.
While I was contemplating, Aranseol was also lost in thought, remaining silent the whole time.

“Harua.”
Night had fallen in the forest.
Aranseol finally spoke.
“Cosmic Jac is after Lady Ririran.”
Ririran.
Hearing that name, I remembered Rapiel’s request.
Rapiel had asked me to deliver a letter to Ririran.
She had said that she was the chief of the fairy tribe and a master of space magic.
To think that Cosmic Jac was after her.
Unexpectedly, our objectives overlapped.
“The airship crash was his doing, too. He was trying to draw Lady Ririran out of the Breath Tree by causing a disturbance. Lady Ririran wouldn’t ignore a crashing airship.”
But we had evacuated the people from the airship.
Because of that, Cosmic Jac’s plan was thwarted, and he had targeted us instead.
“And Harua, people will be coming soon to investigate the airship crash.”
My body tensed.
“Then, Cosmic Jac, who is wandering the forest…”
“He’ll use those people as hostages to draw out Lady Ririran.”
It was the worst possible vicious cycle.
And it wasn’t a problem we could solve.
“Then, we need to get out of here quickly and…”
“It’s impossible to get to the airfield. The forest is dangerous at night, making it even harder to find the way. More importantly, the Fairy Forest is vast, so the chances of running into a search party are low.”
Aranseol stood up and looked at the Breath Tree, visible through the leaves.
“But we can use the Breath Tree as a landmark to navigate.”
“……Are you seriously suggesting we go to the Breath Tree now?”
Is she insane?
It seems she’s forgotten that Cosmic Jac is roaming this forest.
Aranseol slowly turned to look at me.
“If we reach the Breath Tree and inform Lady Ririran of this, she should be able to send a letter to the airfield using space magic. Then, instead of a search party, a proper army will come to capture Cosmic Jac.”
Therefore, we had to go to Ririran.
That’s what Aranseol was saying.
This was a girl who had just come back from the dead a little while ago.
To be precise, she had died once.
And she had died by her head swelling up and exploding.
And now, that same girl was saying she would venture into the forest once more.
It was no different from saying she would walk willingly into the jaws of death.
To risk your own life for the sake of others.
It’s a noble act, but one that I cannot comprehend.
I stared at her blankly before finally opening my mouth.
“I’m not going.”
I am no saint.