Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 150 - Aisha Greyrat 6

I often wonder — can happiness really last?

I really liked Domi. It was a very silly horse.

Very silly, but very adorable.

Happy every single day. Running wild in the rain, munching on carrots when there was nothing else to do.

Eat until full, then sleep. Wake up, then eat again.

It probably didn't have a single worry in the world.

Very happy. It died very happily.

Even though it was clearly so happy...

That day, I still cried.

I know I wasn't crying over Domi's death.

I was thinking about something else.

I thought of my brother.

I thought of my sisters-in-law...

Brother is human. He won't live very long.

But what about my sisters-in-law?

Demon Race, Half-Long-Ear Tribe...

After brother dies, they'll still live for hundreds of years.

[Will the future really be happy?]

And just the thought that brother might leave this world before me — I can't accept that.

I want to die before my brother...

If I could choose, I'd rather die together with him.

Or maybe, could we all live a very, very long time, until even my sisters-in-law are gone?

So I asked Orsted.

-------

"Extend your lifespan?"

"Mm... is there a way?"

"It's not that there isn't one. There's a secret treasure on the Heaven Continent that can change a human's form. You'd become a half-dragon."

"A dragon-person...?"

"Mm. They live a very long time."

"What kind of secret treasure?"

Orsted smiled faintly. He reached into the void and pulled out a map, handing it to me.

"A bottle of essence blood. Something refined back in the ancient era."

"Just... one bottle?"

"Mm, just one. That's confirmed intelligence, though I've never gone to retrieve it myself."

One bottle...

That's fine. One bottle is one bottle.

"Can I go get it at my current strength?"

"Suit yourself. But there are no teleportation arrays over there, so it'll take you some time to travel."

I spread the map out and studied it for a while.

It won't take that long, really.

Probably...

Three years? Four years?

"If you go, keep an eye on certain people along the way."

"Hm? Apostles of the Man-God?"

"No need to seek out the last apostle. Just pay attention to some of the famous powerful individuals. I've told you about their actions from the previous cycle. Just check whether what they're doing makes sense."

"Understood. I'll keep watch along the way."

------

We arrived in the Biheiril Kingdom.

Three years from the Holy Country of Milis to here.

Adding the year I left home — this is already the fourth year.

"Aisha, you're really heading off alone tomorrow to that, what was it, the Heaven Continent?"

I nodded at Bahn.

"Mm. You all can't follow me there, so tomorrow we part ways."

"Three years already. It doesn't feel real."

Polina nodded along.

"That's because Lady Aisha is too strong~ These three years have been a little too comfortable."

Sara nodded too.

"Polina has a point... we've been a bit too reliant on Miss Aisha."

I smiled at all of them.

"From here you should recruit new members. A party with no front line is too dangerous. Go back the same way and you'll definitely die on the road."

Bahn nodded.

But then, unusually, he turned to Polina and Sara.

"You two get off the carriage. I need to talk to Aisha about something."

Polina and Sara nodded and climbed down.

Bahn is the captain, after all. Jokes are jokes, but when things get serious, Sara and Polina listen.

"What is it?"

What came next surprised me.

Bahn reached into his pack and pulled out a magic-sealing scroll and a high-ranking magic scroll. Fire magic, by the look of it.

He activated the magic-sealing scroll right in front of me.

This kind of scroll isn't like a magic array. It can't fully restrict a powerful mage.

"Bahn, what's the meaning of this?"

"Aisha Greyrat. Are you a believer of the Man-God? If you are, I'll activate this high-ranking magic. It probably won't kill you, but still."

I should be asking you that...

Running into him in the Holy Country of Milis was odd to begin with. A famous adventurer from the Ranoa Kingdom, all the way out here in Milis...

"I'm not. What about you? If you nod, I'm drawing my sword right now."

"I used to be... Are you really not a believer?"

"If that's the standard, then I used to be too. When I was very young. Around six years old, probably."

"Back then I was guided by the Man-God and almost got my brother killed."

Ah, to be precise, it was by not listening to the Man-God that I almost got my brother killed.

But I got lucky. Stumbled into the current situation by accident.

Brother is very happy. And I feel... pretty okay too.

"Six years old?"

"Mm. After that, I never dreamed of the Man-God again."

I raised my right hand and pushed up my sleeve, showing the bracelet Orsted had given me.

"Have you heard of Dragon God Orsted?"

"Of course. Second of the Seven Great Powers."

"He gave me this. It blocks the Man-God's influence."

"I see..."

Bahn put the scrolls away, his expression fallen.

What a baffling conversation.

"Aisha, I lied to you before."

"Hm?"

"The other two brothers in the party, and Lodis... the reason they died... it was because I listened to the Man-God."

I didn't respond. Bahn just started talking.

Over ten years ago, a god began appearing in his dreams.

The god gave him advice. And the advice paid off.

Then one day, the god appeared again.

[Rudeus Greyrat, Aisha Greyrat — curry favor with them and you will gain tremendous benefits.]

So he did exactly that.

He helped my brother and me search for clues about Mother Zenith. During our adventures together, he put my brother and me in the captain's position. Back at the guild, he promoted our names, then rallied people to help search for clues about Mother Zenith.

"And yes, I gained plenty. Adventurer rank, prestige, wealth... I nearly had everything."

Until my brother left for the university.

Up until then, Bahn felt like the winner in life. Brothers at his side, women around him, fame, and more wealth than he could count.

After my brother and I left the Adventurer's Guild, Bahn went a long time without seeing the Man-God.

Until one day, that god returned.

[Send a letter to the Adventurer's Guild on the Begaritt Continent. There is information about Rudeus's mother there.]

Bahn froze.

Why was this god so focused on Rudeus? Could it be that he was just like Bahn himself?

He only thought about it for a moment.

No point digging deeper. He was happy. He sent the letter and went back to living it up.

------

[You have a commission tomorrow, right? Have your party members...]

One more suggestion. The final suggestion.

The one Bahn regretted most.

Two party members lost their lives. Lodis died too.

His best friend gone, Bahn spent every night desperately wanting to dream of that god again. He wanted to confront him. Wanted to rage at him.

But there was no one to rage at.

He even thought about going to my brother. He didn't.

What if it was true? And if it was, so what?

[Could I possibly be a match for Rudeus?]

The thought sat in his mind and stayed there.

So he ran.

Brought on new members and started what he called an [adventure].

But no matter how far he traveled,

there was always a thorn in his chest.

The Man-God.

Bahn knew he was weak. He couldn't threaten the Man-God. That wasn't even a question.

But.

He himself was proof.

He himself had once been a believer.

He didn't know why he'd been abandoned. But even if he couldn't touch the Man-God, what about going after the Man-God's believers? That god sat high above everything, yet seemed unable to do so much on his own. He needed believers. Bahn was sure of it.

So while he traveled, he started watching for anyone who might know about the Man-God.

Bahn running into me really was a coincidence.

------

"So, knowing you couldn't possibly be my match, you still intended to make a move?"

"Yeah. If you really were a believer of the Man-God, dying would've been fine by me. But you clearly aren't."

"The Man-God is my enemy."

Bahn leaned back and tilted his head up, breathing out slowly.

"Is that so... And your brother..."

"Mm. Him too. We both want the Man-God dead."

Bahn smiled.

Not because he heard that my brother and I were enemies of the Man-God.

His smile looked like relief.

Like a man setting down something he'd carried for a very long time.

"Aisha."

"Hm?"

"Back then, you were already no match for me."

"Isn't that obvious? I'm a priest!"

We climbed off the carriage together.

Sara and Polina were chatting about something nearby.

The Biheiril Kingdom is covered in snow year-round. Last time I said that robe would be useless.

Well. Doesn't really matter.

"Miss Aisha! Uncle Bahn!"

"Lady Aisha~ Stinky baldy!"

Bahn's mouth twitched. He reached out with one large hand and grabbed Polina by the head.

"You little brat!"

"AAAAHHH!"

While they were carrying on, Sara came over to my side.

She tugged at the hem of my clothes.

"Miss Aisha, you're setting off tomorrow?"

"Mm."

"Can't we... wait here for you? I still want to adventure together..."

"Once I'm done on the Heaven Continent, I'll be heading home."

"Mm... That's true..."

These three years,

my impression of this party has been genuinely good.

Polite Sara. Loud Polina. Bahn, who never seems to worry about anything.

Bahn acted strangely more than once, but he came clean with me just now.

"If you go back the same way, you really do need to pick up a few more adventurers. I'll be sad if you die on the road."

"I know..."

"Come on, don't look like that. It's not like we'll never see each other again. I live in the Ranoa Kingdom."

"Mm... True. Getting too sentimental about partings isn't very adventurer of us."

"Right?"

Beside me,

Polina and Bahn were still at it.

"I'm off, then."

I said it simply, turned, and walked away.

I didn't look back at whatever Polina and Bahn called after me.

------

------

The Heaven Continent.

The northernmost place in the world.

Red dragons circle the sky in great numbers here.

But I have Orsted's item. They sense his aura and not one of them comes near me.

3 months of searching, and I found the location.

Exactly as Orsted described.

A magical beast guarding it.

A mutated dragon.

It looked something like a red dragon, but its lower jaw seemed to have been bitten through, saliva dripping constantly from the wound.

Disgusting, honestly.

"Let me put you out of your misery."

I drew my sword and walked toward it.

And just as I said — it seemed like it actually wanted that.

The dragon watched me approach. No furious roar. No scramble to flee.

It just watched.

"You've suffered enough."

I didn't know what it had been through.

But I was gentle, just this once.

I drove my sword into its head.

One strike. Fatal.

Clutched to its chest was a treasure chest.

I opened it. Inside sat a bottle of golden blood.

This has to be it.

"Should I just teleport straight back and surprise my brother...?"

While I was thinking it over, a teleportation array materialized at my feet.

Hm?

A letter from Orsted.

I picked it up, unfolded it, and read.

"Ho. So the last apostle really wasn't Bahn after all... Geese... Can't say I recognize the name."

In the letter, Orsted was asking me to deal with some powerful individuals whose movements had gone off-script.

Fair enough. These past few years there really have been quite a few of them, people whose actions don't line up with the previous cycle at all.

Before the fighting starts on brother's end, I'll handle as many as I can.

➤ Next: Kalman III Alexander Raiback