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Chapter 36
The End of Spring (1)
“What on earth did you do?!”
When Izumi woke from his dream and saw my battered body, he freaked out.
“Saintess, you need to rest right away!”
“Don’t worry too much. It’s just that my legs won’t move.”
“That makes me more worried!”
Frothing at the mouth, Izumi quickly pulled himself together and checked my condition. Cedric glared at him with a look of distrust.
“Like you’d know just by looking. You grew up soft and pampered in peace.”
“There’s something odd about the wound on your right calf. Thankfully, the bleeding’s mostly stopped, but this is…”
“…So you do know.”
Cedric fell silent.
“We need to operate immediately. Ah, no—Saintess, can you heal yourself?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t heal myself with my powers.”
“I… see.”
Izumi bit down on his lip in frustration. Cedric’s expression turned grim.
“Is it serious?”
Cedric’s medical knowledge was all self-taught. In contrast, Izumi had been a doctor in his previous life, so he could probably list my symptoms in detail.
I quickly cut him off.
“Hero!”
“Yes?”
“Handling that thing takes priority over treating me. You know why, right?”
“That thing…?”
Izumi followed my gaze.
I was pointing at a massive cherry blossom tree in the center of the royal capital.
“The tree…? What is that?”
“That’s the true body of Haru.”
Izumi blinked, baffled.
“Haru, Hochun, Minchun, Sangchun. Those are the titles of the Four Heavenly Kings—second only to the Demon King among high-ranking demons. Since her name means ‘spring sky,’ doesn’t it make sense that her true body is a cherry blossom tree?”
“Still, of all things… cherry blossoms? It looks weak.”
“Physically speaking, she is the weakest of the four.”
“What do you mean?”
“It means she’s a demon specialized in mental magic. Right now, everyone in the capital is trapped in an eternal nightmare.”
I added in a grim tone:
“After wandering in a nightmare long enough, people start losing their vitality and eventually die, even in the real world. That’s why we have to hurry.”
Izumi shivered.
He was probably recalling the nightmare he’d just escaped. His brow furrowed as he thought of his sister, then his eyes widened in realization.
“Wait, Saintess—does that mean you were the one who woke me up earlier…?”
“I briefly made contact with your dream.”
Though I didn’t expect to be hit by a car and end up in an emergency room the moment I entered…
Fortunately, right after he woke up, I disguised myself as someone he knew—“Eustinas”—to lead him toward death and trigger awakening. I hesitated slightly before adding with a regretful (but fake) expression:
“If I made you uncomfortable, I apolo—”
“No! I’m grateful, really.”
He shook his head.
“Then I’ll go get close to Haru first. Saintess, Sir Cedric, please wait here.”
Cedric quickly nodded, and Izumi charged off toward the center of the capital with a determined face.
I patted Cedric on the back now that we were alone.
“Saintess?”
“Follow the Hero.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“If the Hero gets captured alone, it’ll be even more dangerous.”
Cedric paused in thought, then seemed to agree with my reasoning.
“Understood.”
He chased after Izumi at a slightly slower pace. As he examined the roots sprouting everywhere and the ruined streets, his brow furrowed.
“The sky’s darkened.”
“Because the branches are blocking it.”
Above the cloud-covered sky, Haru’s cherry blossom branches spread thickly. The falling petals were beautiful in a way that felt completely out of place given the grave situation.
“Will cutting down the tree kill her?”
“You can’t kill a demon’s true body with normal means. The divine power the Hero carries is the only solution.”
“…The Hero doesn’t seem smart enough to figure that out.”
“Ha ha… Well, he was chosen by the goddess Aether. I believe in him.”
Of course I do.
He’s a graduate of Japan’s top university and a former doctor, after all.
Even if he’s reckless, he’s not dumb like the average shounen manga protagonist. If he makes mistakes, it’ll be more about common sense than intelligence.
Like bowing on all fours in front of a foreign emperor, clapping twice and tossing a coin in front of Aether’s statue, or—God forbid—putting sugar in his rolled omelets.
Now that last one? Absolutely unforgivable. Rolled omelets should be salted and eaten with kimchi stew. Period!
‘Whoops.’
Got a little too worked up about nonsense. Let’s focus on the mission.
‘Izumi’s definitely going to fail on his first try anyway.’
Haru is the only one of the Four Heavenly Kings who has a weakness to mental attacks.
Other demons you can just fight with swords and brute force, but how do you even fight a giant tree?
The answer is: infiltration.
“What a massive tree.”
Thankfully, we reached it quickly thanks to Cedric’s pace. In the distance, Izumi was swinging his sword at the tree a few times, then started climbing it.
It wasn’t a useless effort. If you slam your way through with brute force, you can reach the top and break into its interior.
“What should we do?”
“…Let’s wait a bit.”
Originally, this is where Lilliana officially joins as Izumi’s sidekick.
They build trust. A romantic mood blossoms. Two birds, one stone.
But sorry—not this time. I’m excluding Lilliana from this event. That’s why I didn’t bother waking her up.
‘She won’t be able to wake without Izumi’s help anyway. She’ll probably only get up after Haru is dead.’
Lilliana won’t be the party’s brain anymore.
We can’t have two suns in the sky. It’ll split the team. Heh.
Chuckling inwardly, I waited under the tree.
A moment later—
Ptuh!
The massive cherry blossom tree moved like it was alive and spat something out with a gagging sound.
“Aaaaaaahhhh!”
As expected, Izumi came flying out like a cannonball. Well, more like a gob of spit than a cannonball, really.
“Ugh, ugh… I thought I was gonna die.”
He tumbled to a stop after rolling about fifteen times near us, then got to his feet.
He just fell from a tree over a kilometer tall without a scratch. Must be nice. Too bad I can’t do anything about it in my current “frail saintess” mode.
“What the hell kind of stunt was that?”
“There was a big hole at the top of the tree.”
Covered in sticky mucus, Izumi wiped his face.
“I went in, and the thing just up and vomited me out…”
“That’s disgusting.”
Cedric grimaced.
“Hero, over here for a moment.”
“Okay.”
I cast healing and purification on him, and Izumi instantly became squeaky clean. He looked at himself and grinned brightly.
“Wow! Thank you!”
“Can you tell me a bit more about what you saw up there?”
Of course, I already knew everything about the tree’s insides and how to beat Haru.
But I couldn’t just reveal it all. Playing prophet only works for so long. If I say too much and mess up the story’s timeline, the concept falls apart.
Must protect the concept at all costs!
“Just like I said. That cherry blossom tree feels like it has digestive organs inside.”
He scratched his head.
“I guess I’ll keep trying to go inside. This time, maybe I’ll stab my sword into the wall to hold myself in place. I got ejected because I wasn’t ready.”
“Hmm…”
I pretended to ponder.
Only pretended, of course. I already planned to follow the original strategy.
As Izumi said, the only way to get inside the tree is brute-force entry. The problem is that I can’t go in that way, nor can I see inside the demon’s body.
Which means there’s only one option.
‘I just need to give him the strategy.’
Same as I did with Cedric before. Honestly, I worry that using this trick too much will backfire, but the alternative is waking Lilliana and wasting time going back and forth inside.
That would mean more people dying from the nightmare, and fewer points for me.
“You’re right, Hero—”
Just as I was about to say that—
A lightbulb went off in my head.
“Saintess? Did something occur to you?”
Izumi’s green eyes sparkled with hope. I thought I might be able to meet that expectation.
…With maybe a 75% chance. Probably?
“If there’s an entrance, there must be an exit, right?”
“…Huh?”
“If there’s an exit, we might not need to climb all the way up again.”
“…? …!”
Izumi looked confused for a moment, then his eyes widened in realization.
“Saintess, could it be…? No—well, it’s worth a shot.”
He vanished in a flash. Looked like he was going to circle around the tree, which had a diameter of about 200 meters.
Five minutes later—
He returned, face flushed with excitement.
“There is one, Saintess!”
Seems he found the demon’s… other end.
