CHAPTER 13
In the fairy forest, shrouded in night.
Amidst the ominous cries of animals and the chirping of insects…
My clear refusal echoed.
Aranseol simply stared at me without a word.
Then, she slowly opened her lips.
“Alright, I understand.”
She didn’t argue further and turned away.
She intended to head into the forest alone.
Of course, I had no intention of just letting that happen.
She was going off to die alone. Do you think I’m crazy enough to let her go?
More importantly, I couldn't just scurry back by myself.
If I did that, who knows how Soun and Rapiel would look at me.
If we're going back, we should go back together.
I snatched her wrist, and Aranseol looked back at me.
For someone marching to her death, her eyes were incredibly calm.
“Cosmic Jac is wandering that forest. We somehow survived this time, but next time, we’ll really die.”
Cosmic Jac may be lazy, but he’s cautious.
That’s why he’d never let it slide after seeing us alive again.
“I know.”
What do you mean, you know?
“Are you in your right mind?”
“The search party coming here could be brutally killed by Cosmic Jac.”
“You’d risk your life to save people you’ve never even met?”
“Harua, you were the same way.”
Her next words made me pause.
“You saved those people on the airship first.”
What was she talking about?
“You idiot, I told you at the end. I only helped because there was an escape vessel from the start.”
“Even so, you saved those people. And…”
Aranseol looked me straight in the eye.
“You saved me, too.”
Her eyes were shining brightly.
I didn’t know why.
Her pupils seemed to shine much brighter than before.
“When I was about to be killed by Cosmic Jac, you rushed in, unarmed, to save me.”
My lips parted.
No.
I wasn’t the kind of person Aranseol thought I was.
I only saved her because I had the safety net of my resurrection ability.
If I didn’t have it, I obviously would never have done something so reckless.
So there was no reason for me to be praised.
I wasn't like Aranseol, who could face true death without fear.
“If you feel guilty about me going alone, you don’t have to.”
A small smile touched the corners of her lips.
“We both know it, don’t we? You and I can never get along.”
Aranseol hates Transferees.
I despise This-worlders.
It was a fact we both tacitly understood about each other.
“And yet, you saved me.”
Aranseol slowly pulled her wrist from my grasp.
Then she clenched and unclenched her left hand.
“This whole incident made me realize… that I haven’t really had much of a will to live until now.”
I didn’t know her past.
I wasn’t curious, and I never asked.
But I knew well that she had lacked a certain vitality.
I had often seen that vacant look in Aranseol’s eyes.
“But even someone like me had a desire to live left inside my heart.”
A life detached from ordinary people.
Even in that life, Aranseol had only just today confronted that faint desire to live.
I want to live.
It was the simplest driving force of life.
Aranseol had only realized that simple driving force today.
“And it must be the same for other people.”
Aranseol looked at me again.
“Harua, it must have been the same for you.”
To live.
Just as she said, I had no intention of dying, not in the slightest.
I may have acted recklessly, trusting in the safety net of my resurrection ability…
But at its core, my actions were driven by the fact that I didn't want to die.
In the end, the principle of any living creature is to survive for even a little bit longer.
“My parents were murdered by a Transferee.”
Aranseol finally spoke of her past.
“I’ve lived my whole life solely for revenge, and I still haven’t achieved it. That’s why I can’t possibly see Transferees in a good light.”
It was only natural.
Her family was murdered by a Transferee; there was no way she could like them.
She smiled at me for the first time.
That smile shone like the moon in the night sky.
“Even now, I feel uneasy about you, Harua, the one who saved my life. That’s the kind of person I am.”
Her smile also contained a hint of self-deprecation.
“That’s why I don’t want anyone else to go through what I did.”
Her eyes shone with clarity.

The families of those killed by Cosmic Jac.
The resentment and desire for revenge they would harbor.
Aranseol hoped that the chain of revenge would not continue.
“I want them to live lives where they don’t have to hate someone, where they aren’t consumed by vengeance.”
It might have been a defensive act born from her own psyche.
Just as she wished her past self had not gone through such a thing…
She wished that others would not have to go through it either.
Aranseol’s desire to save the people on the airship was unconscious proof of that. And today, by facing death, Aranseol had finally come to understand herself.
People who have died and come back to life sometimes change a great deal.
For instance, a man who had only been greedy for money his whole life might suddenly donate his entire fortune. Or a man who had neglected his family his whole life might seek them out and embrace them.
Before death, they recall the many things they failed to achieve and resolve to fulfill them.
In the end, it might be because they come face-to-face with the person they truly are, deep down inside.
Aranseol had faced her inner self.
That was why she wanted a world that didn’t breed revenge.
She came to wish that no one, including herself, would have to live in such a world.
It wasn't the endless life goal of revenge.
It was the first life goal she had set for herself.
It was the conclusion she had reached while resting and contemplating after her revival.
“I’ll be back.”
Having freed her hand, Aranseol started walking.
She grew distant, disappearing into the night forest.
She didn’t ask me to come with her.
This was her goal, and she had no intention of forcing it on me.
I didn’t move from my spot.
As I said before, I’m no saint.
My morality extends only to the point where I can't bear to watch an acquaintance die.
Just enough morality to be on par with a regular Transferee.
And even then, I wouldn't step in if it meant harm would come to me.
I refuse to suffer a loss for the sake of a stranger.
I clenched my fist until my knuckles turned white.
If I run into Cosmic Jac this time, I’ll really die.
Resurrection won't be a safety net anymore.
The decision I should make here is to turn around and get out of this forest.
Yes, that was the plan.
“Damn it.”
Before I knew it, I had caught up to Aranseol.
Aranseol looked back at me with surprised eyes.
“Aranseol, I hate This-worlders. To the point of disgust.”
Savage this-worlders.
My contempt for them always followed me.
“When I was first transferred, the place I landed was run by some cultists. They tore off my arms and legs without hesitation. Just for the sole reason that I was a Transferee.”
I didn’t bother mentioning they tore my head off too.
My resurrection ability is my hidden card, my secret.
Nothing good would come from it being known.
“So I despise This-worlders. But I absolutely can’t stand seeing a This-worlder be morally superior to me.”
As I said before, I am absolutely, one hundred percent not a saint.
But there was just one thing.
One reason I couldn’t just watch Aranseol walk away.
Aranseol is a savage this-worlder.
And a savage this-worlder is morally superior to me?
That was something I simply could not tolerate.
The morality of these savage this-worlders is on the level of medieval human scum!
The thought of being morally outdone by a savage this-worlder was unbearable!
Aranseol stared at me blankly.
Then, she laughed as if in disbelief.
Don't you laugh, you bewitching thing.
I won't fall for the tricks of a cunning this-worlder.
“What kind of ridiculous reason is that?”
“It’s a reason straight from my heart.”
It was a perfectly understandable and magnificent reason.
A sense of relief seemed to be mixed in with Aranseol’s laughter.
“I guess we really can never get along.”
Just as Aranseol said, we were the absolute worst match for each other.
Becoming friends with a racist? Absolutely impossible.
“And yet, we can still go in the same direction. Isn’t that funny?”
“I don’t see where the punchline is.”
“It’s just that, in the end, even people who hate each other like this are still the same.”
Aranseol’s face looked somewhat relieved.
“For the record, this is the first time I’ve ever told someone to their face that I hate Transferees.”
In a world full of anti-Transferee sentiment, that was actually a pretty admirable attitude.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’ve already said it before to a shitty party I was in.”
Of course, I just ended up shouting it at the corpses of a bunch of idiots who got themselves wiped out by pushing their own opinions.

“That was my first time, and you’re going to say something like that after taking my first?”
Hearing Aranseol’s next words, I turned to her with a dumbfounded expression.
A playful look was written all over her face.
This was the girl who had been expressionless and short-spoken throughout our entire conversation.
Was she always the type to make jokes like this?
Seeing my complete lack of reaction, she seemed to get embarrassed by her own words, her ears turning slightly red as she looked away.
“It was a joke.”
“I might not know much, but I can see how you acted all foxy in front of our master.”
“I never acted foxy.”
Perhaps this was Aranseol’s true personality.
The Aranseol I had known was a racist who disliked and was uncomfortable around Transferees.
But the Aranseol now didn’t seem like a racist.
Aranseol smiled at me.
For some reason, it made me feel a little light-headed.
But there was something neither of us knew.
That the two of us have the absolute worst luck.
Rustle-
The sound of a leaf being stepped on echoed.
My gaze, and Aranseol’s, slowly turned towards the sound.
And both of us froze solid.
In the place where the sound came from, there was a man with a flower for a head.
The Great Sinner of Sloth, Cosmic Jac.
As soon as he appeared, he slowly turned to look at us.
“Huh?”
A sound of disbelief escaped his mouth.
His reaction was clearly, ‘How are you alive?’
He looked like he’d just seen a ghost.
The color drained from my face and Aranseol’s.
My resolve from moments ago felt meaningless as death once again stood right before us.
They say life is a series of unfair blows, but…
This time, even God had crossed the line.
The moment Cosmic Jac paused, unable to comprehend the situation…
Both Aranseol and I turned our bodies.
We didn’t know if we could escape from Cosmic Jac.
All we knew was the reflexive thought that if we didn’t run now, we would die.
Cosmic Jac stomped the ground.
Ghost or not, his intent was clear: he had to eliminate us.
There is no next time.
The death knell was ringing in my head when, at that very moment…
“Cosmic Jac.”
A voice rang out.
Our eyes fell upon the source.
There stood a woman the size of a wrist.
A woman with four wings, vanilla-colored hair, and strange, fluffy tufts of fur cascading down from it.

“Ririran!”
The moment she appeared, a murderous intent burst forth from Cosmic Jac, blanketing the entire forest.
Startled birds took to the sky all at once.
It was as if what he had shown us before was just a tiny fraction of his power.
His killing intent was so potent it made even me, who treated death like a joke, tingle with fear.
Cosmic Jac launched himself forward explosively.
It was the same leap he had used to catch up to us in an instant.
But just as he leaped, the one he had called Ririran brought her hands together.
“You stalker. Stop following me around.”
With those words, our vision changed in an instant.
A nauseating sensation washed over me, and the next thing I knew, I had landed on the ground with a thud.
“Oof.”
As I rubbed my backside, I saw Aranseol had landed gracefully.
To think the difference in our athletic abilities would show even here.
Soon, the surrounding scenery began to come into focus.
Inside a hollow tree.
I could see many small houses, like dollhouses, built here and there.
I knew immediately where we were.
Inside Breath Neck, the nation of the fairies.
And I also knew who the fairy was that had teleported both me and Aranseol.
When I looked up, she was looking at us with a short smile.
“Welcome to Aerield, the nation of the fairies.”
The master of space magic.
Ririran Aerield.

She had brought us inside Breath Neck.