Volume 7, Chapter 75 – Epilogue

By the time the group emerged from the Water Tree, the sky had turned to dusk, with the sun about to set. The sunset-dyed sky became the dominant color of the world.

“Ah~ ah~~, it’s already evening? That was so comfortable, I completely lost track of time.”

Stretching languidly, Yisi, who felt as if her whole body was about to melt, let out a breath.

“Hah… hah… a little… hot…”

“Eh? Camilla? Are you alright?”

Yisi quickly supported Camilla, whose face was flushed red and was about to lose her balance. It was probably because of how comfortable she had been just now. A blush had appeared on Camilla’s snow-white skin, which was slightly hot to the touch and covered in a layer of fragrant sweat.

Leaning on Yisi, Camilla, her golden hair damp with sweat, panted as she spoke.

“Thank you… Onee… sama…”

“Ah, let me carry you back. By the way, hasn’t Pepe come out yet?”

Yisi looked at Laxy, who had come out a little earlier than her. Laxy showed a hesitant expression.

“Edith is discussing with the dryad about moving her to the Pescia Territory. It seems she wants to take the dryad as her exclusive servant.”

“That’s Pepe for you. After experiencing something so comfortable, she can’t help but want to possess the dryad.”

Yisi sighed helplessly.

The so-called dryad’s service was not the strange things she had initially imagined, but service in the literal sense. To put it simply, it was lying on a large bed made of flowers and having a slightly warm, golden nectar applied all over her body with soft vines for a full-body massage without a single blind spot. During the process, Yisi even felt like she had entered a fantasy land. Not only was her body relaxed, but even her mind was healed. Although she had felt very embarrassed when the vines touched some special parts, because everyone was in a separate treehouse, Yisi didn’t feel particularly ashamed. It was worth mentioning that the massage was performed on five people at the same time; the dryad could control multiple vines at once.

“Thank you for your invitation, but I have already decided to return to the Fairy Village. I’m very sorry.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll come and find you in the Fairy Village in the future. I am quite fond of your skills.”

“Thank you for the compliment. Next time, I will be sure to provide a service that better suits your preferences.”

“I look forward to it.”

Not long after Yisi’s words fell, Edith and the dryad walked out of the treehouse together, looking like old friends reunited after a long separation. Yisi, who was supporting Camilla, waved at the two who had just come out.

“Are you done talking?”

“Yes, it was a very pleasant chat. The dryad understands my thoughts better than any pet I have ever kept.”

“You flatter me too much, Miss Edith. It has been a thousand years since I last saw a pureblood. My techniques are still very rusty. It is all thanks to the nectar that I was able to satisfy you.”

Although she sounded embarrassed, Yisi could see from the dryad’s expression that she was very pleased with Edith’s praise.

Yisi couldn’t help but feel curious.

“Miss Dryad, can you tell me what the nectar is?”

“Eh!? This… al-although it’s very embarrassing… I can’t hide it… this is a unique nectar of our dryad race… you can think of it as, think of it as…” At this point, the dryad dared not look directly at Yisi, her hands twisting nervously in front of her. “Sali… saliva…”

Huh?

Before Yisi could retort, the dryad explained in a fluster.

“B-but this is completely different from human saliva! Dryads don’t need to excrete impurities like humans. The reason I say saliva is just because the flower that spits out the nectar is equivalent to a dryad’s mouth… It-it’s definitely clean! It’s not something used to aid digestion! And the nectar can raise everyone’s level! In the future, when you enter the forest, the fairies will also help you!”

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Should I be disgusted, or should I take it as a reward…

Forget it. Saliva is exchanged during a kiss anyway. You lose if you care too much.

Yisi couldn’t help but observe her companions’ reactions. Compared to her, their reactions were very calm. There was even a look of joy on Laxy’s face.

“A level up? What a great gift. No wonder I felt a little different from usual when I came out. So it’s because I leveled up.”

“I see. I also feel like I’ve become stronger.”

Edith also smiled, with no trace of disgust on her face.

Am I the strange one here?

…Well, it’s better not to worry about these details.

Yisi glanced at her own experience bar. Perhaps because she had only licked a little of the nectar, her experience bar hadn’t even increased by 0.01%.

After some more pleasantries, the dryad bowed to the group.

“Now then, I have given you all a blessing as instructed by the Gospel. Next, it is time to send you off. The Water Tree of Taris will become history from today on.”

“History? Are you taking the Water Tree with you?”

“Yes, the Water Tree is my main body. I cannot be too far away from it. Ah, you must be worried about the humans here, Lady Yisi. Please take this,” the dryad handed her a glowing sapling, only the size of a palm and less than a foot tall. “This is a Water Tree sapling that I brought from the Fairy Village a long time ago. Although it is still small, as long as it is not wasted, the water it produces should be enough for the nearby towns.”

“A sapling? Isn’t that your child?”

“Huh?” The dryad was stunned for a moment, then covered her mouth and let out a chuckle. “No, that can only be considered a part derived from the roots of the Water Tree. The Fairy Village cannot accommodate so many Water Trees. We usually either pinch off the saplings or bring them to the outside world, so you don’t have to worry, Lady Yisi.”

As expected of another world. Even the customs are so peculiar.

Since the Water Tree was a living thing, it couldn’t be stored in her inventory. Yisi held it in her hands.

“As long as it doesn’t touch the ground, the Water Tree will not produce water. Also, it must be placed in a sufficiently wide area, otherwise, when it grows up, it will cause trouble for the surrounding buildings. Please convey this point to the humans, Lady Yisi. Hmm… it’s getting late. I must bid farewell to the animals in the forest before the sun sets.”

Swoosh.

Just as Yisi was about to say her goodbyes, four unfamiliar people suddenly appeared in the sky above them. Especially the slender girl in the center, with long black hair and holding a long scythe. Although she was wearing a fox mask and Yisi couldn’t see her face clearly, the dark purple eyes under the mask gave off an indifferent and unapproachable feeling. If Pepe’s unapproachability was because she exuded a dangerous atmosphere of “get close and you’ll be attacked”, then this girl was just purely cold. Even if one were to proactively talk to her, one would not get a reply. Coupled with the long scythe in her hand and the black formal dress that shrouded her slender body, the girl gave the impression of a grim reaper.

After a quick scan, the girl in the fox mask locked her gaze on the dryad opposite Yisi. Completely ignoring Yisi’s group, she landed directly in front of her.

“Who are you…?”

Faced with the dryad’s question, the grim reaper-like black-haired girl extended her hand and presented an object that emitted a green light.

“Proof of the Fairy Village?! Only the hero guided by the Gospel can step into the forbidden land set by the Elf God. You are…”

“We have come under the guidance of the Gospel to ask for the nectar.”

Like a person who brings death, the black-haired girl’s cold voice was devoid of any life.

The dryad frowned.

“I’m sorry. Before you came, I had already given all the nectar to someone else.”

Although she could only see the black-haired girl’s back, Yisi could still feel that the atmosphere around her had been disturbed for a moment.

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“To someone else? Who? The Gospel’s guidance cannot be wrong. Do not try to deceive me. You are also a person guided by the Gospel. You should know the responsibility I bear.”

“The instruction the Gospel gave me was to give the nectar to the first person who came to the crown of the tree and was accompanied by an angel.”

“But she does not have the mark of the Fairy Village.”

“The Gospel’s instructions are not set in stone, so I will make adjustments according to my own situation. Also, I do not like your tone. Please leave. In my territory, even if the three of you attack together, you cannot defeat me.”

“…Lin, the Gospel did not record this,” a red-haired girl standing on the side explained in a low voice. “What the Gospel writes will surely come true. Why is there a change? This has never happened before. The dryad might be lying.”

The black-haired girl first held her palm out to her companion, and after a moment’s hesitation, took a deep breath.

“I have no intention of arguing with you. Since you do not have it, I will not force you. I hope you will not regret your judgment in the future. In addition, my companion has caused you trouble. I apologize to you for that.”

As she spoke, the black-haired girl shook her head at her female companion, who had been silent and was holding a young man. That companion forcefully threw the young man to the ground, forcing him to his knees.

“My name is Lin. I am the savior discovered and raised by the Divine Religion, guided by the Gospel. In this incident, my companion, a bishop of the Divine Religion, has brought you great trouble—he dug through the labyrinth and the Water Tree lake, intending to use it to threaten the angel Laxyphinia into joining the Divine Religion. We are deeply sorry for this. I will carry out his judgment before you all.”

The black-haired girl took out her long scythe and swung it unceremoniously at the man’s neck.

The sharp sound of the wind made one’s skin tingle.

Before the scythe could hit, Yisi stopped the girl, blocking the long scythe with her Sword of Ruin.

“You—”

The girl narrowed her eyes.

“This is your Divine Religion’s own business, right? If you want to put on a show, go and repent before the victims in Gota. This is a pure land, unrelated to blood.”

“Do you intend to defy the savior’s decision?!”

The red-haired girl, her face full of anger, took a step in front of Yisi, her longsword pointed straight at her throat.

But the others behind Yisi would not stand idly by.

Laxy, who reacted first, deflected the red-haired girl’s longsword with her rapier. Then, Edith, who had acted a step later, slipped between the two. She first struck the red-haired girl’s chest with her elbow. As the girl staggered back from losing her balance, she pressed the tip of Gungnir to her throat.

“You dare to make a move on my fiancée in front of me? I don’t care if you’re the savior or not, I have to praise your guts,” Edith’s eyes flashed with a bloodthirsty light. “—But that will not change your end.”

“Pepe, Camilla!”

With her words, Yisi stopped Edith and Camilla—if she hadn’t called out, the spell Camilla was about to unleash with [Twilight of Eternal Frost] would have bombarded the black-haired and red-haired girls. Yisi put force into her Sword of Ruin and pushed the girl called Lin away.

And because of Yisi’s words, Edith withdrew Gungnir, which had already slightly pierced the skin, clicked her tongue, and kicked the red-haired girl away with force.

“Unnecessary kindness.”

The dryad, finally able to speak, clapped her hands.

“Everyone, that’s enough. I agree with Lady Yisi’s words. This is my domain, and I do not wish for anyone to act recklessly here. If there is nothing else, please leave.”

“Lin, these people have no respect for you! Use what the Pope gave you—”

“Enough. The Gospel only ordered us to execute the bishop within the range of Gota. It did not specify that it had to be here. Let’s go.”

“But the nectar could have raised our levels by two! To just let it be taken away…”

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A direct two-level increase?

Yisi raised her eyebrows slightly. If she had known, she would have waited until her companions’ levels were higher before using the nectar. The experience required to go from level 20 to 22 and from 30 to 32 was worlds apart. The higher the level, the greater the benefit. But it seemed that she had taken something that had originally belonged to these self-proclaimed saviors.

“Are you going to defy my decision?”

“Uh… I…” The red-haired girl staggered to her feet, her flushed face full of embarrassment. “This matter I will report to the Pope.”

Ignoring the red-haired girl, Lin, who was wearing a fox mask, turned to Yisi and slowly sheathed her long scythe.

“You are strong.”

“Just a little stronger than an ordinary person.”

“That angel over there… you got her in the labyrinth, right?”

“Laxy belongs to me.”

From the previous actions of the Divine Religion, they were very desperate to get Laxy. And to sacrifice an entire city to get what they wanted, she could not agree with such an organization. So she would not hand Laxy over.

“Laxyphinia…” The girl’s gaze fell on Laxy. For the first time, Yisi saw a wavering look in her eyes. After a long hesitation, the girl asked Laxy coldly, “I’ll ask one last time. Trino Type 10043, Laxyphinia, guided by the Holy Gospel, have you decided to betray the guidance of the Holy Gospel and leave the savior?”

“An angel will not be swayed by others. My lord, Yisi Enya, is the true hero. I have never betrayed the Gospel, nor have I ever thought of leaving my lord.”

“Is that so? It seems a thousand years has made you forget your mission. But I will not give up on what I believe in just because of your abandonment. May you not feel guilty for your choice today in the peace of the future.”

Interrupting her conversation with Laxy, the black-haired girl put her long scythe back into her storage magic and then picked up the young man who was kneeling on both knees. Throughout the whole process, the young man had not resisted at all, and his face even held a look of resolute self-sacrifice, as if it were not others who were making him die, but that he himself had chosen to walk the path of death.

“Yisi Enya. If there is time in the future, I hope we can sit down and have a good talk. The human world needs a powerhouse like you.”

“If there is a chance.”

Neither denying nor confirming Lin’s invitation, Yisi just shrugged. Even without using the [Eye of God], she could tell from the [Omniscient Map] that this girl before her was quite troublesome, and it would be best not to get involved with her. Of course, this was not to say that the girl’s personality was troublesome, but that her identity and the mission she shouldered were something one would not want to get involved with. The other party was not human, but a mixed-blood with the blood of a human, a dragon, and a sea monster. The reason she wore a fox mask was probably to cover up the parts of her face that were different from a human’s—perhaps she had some scales.

Without bidding farewell to the dryad and Yisi, the black-haired girl just waved to her two companions and then led them and the young man away with flight magic.

“They’ve gone to Gota.”

Slowly sheathing her staff, Camilla frowned.

“They’re probably going to apologize to Dominic. Just as that girl called Lin said, this incident was caused by the Divine Religion. They have to quell it.”

“Lin, huh? You’re already calling her by her name.”

At Edith’s soft huff, Yisi spread her hands helplessly.

“I can’t just call her ‘that woman’, can I? Although her companion was very rude, she herself had no hostility towards us. Well, it’s also possible that she just didn’t want to cause trouble. After all, the people of the Divine Religion are all people who act according to the Gospel’s instructions. If they can only do as the Gospel says, then doing something outside of its instructions might cause some kind of change.”

Like the butterfly effect.

“Mary and the others are still at Dominic’s residence. My lord, we should hurry back.”

“Ah, I know.” Yisi turned to the dryad. “Then we’ll be leaving first. We’ll come and visit you in the Fairy Village in the future.”

“Yes, I look forward to your arrival.”

After waving goodbye to the dryad, Yisi subconsciously looked in the direction the black-haired girl had departed. At this moment, she had an intuition that in the more distant future, she would meet her again. And by then, the connection between the two of them would be much more complex than she could imagine now.

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This was an inseparable, fated encounter.

End of Volume 7

Author Note

Afterword

In the blink of an eye, another volume has come to an end.

First, let’s talk about the content of Volume 8. Originally, this volume was only intended to be a transitional one, to move the plot from the early stages to the next phase—the connections between the various races, nations, and beliefs on the continent. However, because Laxy’s performance was a bit unexpected for me while writing (I originally just intended for her to be a character outside the main group, like Fran and Shinku), the direction changed slightly. But overall, I’ve managed to throw out many new settings and continental backgrounds that were never mentioned before: the existence of the Demon Lords, the Divine Religion, and the Empire; the Gospel, the Savior, and their respective developments, all of which will ultimately converge into a single fate. Just these few themes mentioned above will take up three volumes in the storyline. Of course, this is not absolute, just as the Gospel’s prophecies are not always accurate.

Leaving aside the new plot hooks, while Laxy’s performance may not have been stunning, she’s a character that is hard to part with. This type of serious, considerate puppet maid is just too cute. With a few tweaks to her details, she could practically be the main heroine. Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have written her to be so adorable. I had decided from the beginning not to have her join the group permanently. As it looks now, I can only let Laxy follow along for one more volume. After all, the matter of the Source of Mana has not been completely resolved, and Tina’s promise cannot just be left hanging.

Next, let’s talk about the next volume. There won’t be a specific character tied to the next volume. I can give a little spoiler: Volume 8 was to lay the groundwork for the heroine of Volume 9. You could even say that Volume 8 and Volume 9 could be combined into one whole volume. However, after thinking it over, yomi felt that the volume would be too large, and it would be better to separate them. So, we have Volume 8 and Volume 9. Volume 8 will be set in the royal capital of the Hels Kingdom and will focus on what the Divine Religion is trying to do and the conflicts they face. As for the ultimate goal and core conflict of the Divine Religion, that is the core of Volume 9. This feeling of characters and fate, conflict and struggle, is truly addictive.

Alright, that’s it for the spoilers. Let me list some of the things I encountered while writing this volume.

The first thing is an illustration sent by an enthusiastic reader. Although I’ve already mentioned it on Pineapple Circle, I think it’s better to put it here as well. It’s Mary in a maid outfit, and the green slime below is Tiffany.

[T/N:i will put the image bellow]

Thank you to the reader @是在下输了啊 for the illustration~

The second thing is about the update of my old book, Ella. Because the copyright is still with the original, now-defunct website, I can’t just put the whole book on Pineapple Bun. The recent slow updates are also due to health reasons. My finger pain has flared up again recently, and I had a stomach bug at the beginning of the month, which delayed updates for half a month. I’ve recovered recently, so I will be updating.

The third thing is to recommend a book written by a friend. This friend also came over from another website with yomi and has writing experience. The book’s title is Married Life with the Demon God. It’s a male-protagonist story, right here on Pineapple Bun. Interested readers can search for it~

That’s all for the rambling. Finally, thank you to all the readers for reading this far. Yomi is deeply honored by every subscription and donation from you all. Thank you very much! The fact that I was able to upgrade to S-class and get a new cover this month is all thanks to your support (：з｣∠).

That is all.

2020/09/15

yomi

Translator Note

Laxy join the party!! :3

im posting the illust collection to discord too! check it out :3

first this is fan illust by @是在下输了啊

lewd!

ahem-

This is Laxy.

Bonus Edith/Pepe

Volume 8: Sin, Punishment, and the Girl of the Gospel (Part 1)