Translator: Reflet

「Yunis～～～～!!」

「Wha, Lilu, uwah!?」

Knocked over by the overbearing Lilu’s dive into her arms, Yunis rolled off the chair. Just before that, the plate that held a fork and a mountain of pasta along with the table it sat on were instantly transferred to the corner of the room.

「..Welcome back, Yunis」

「Oh, it’s good to be back, Spina. Huh, did you change a bit or what?」

Yunis responded to Spina at her own pace, being squeezed by Lilu all the while. A question mark floated above her head as she took notice of Spina’s hard expression and closed posture.

「There’s a lot that you want to ask..Well, eat first」

As Aur carried two heaping plates of pasta in both of his hands, he set them on the table.

「Uhh, yeah, I don’t think that even I can eat that much!?」

「Fool, this is mine and Mary’s share」

Aur said in an exasperated tone while tearing Lilu from Yunis and returning the table back to its original position. However, that full plate was clearly too much even for Mari.

「Aaah, Yu..Pasta!」

Mary shrieked as soon as she entered the room. She had looked at Yunis for an instant, but her attention immediately shifted to the pasta on top of the table.

「Haven’t changed much either, have ya Mary」

Yunis gave a wry smile while petting Mary, who was intently shoving pasta into her mouth.

「But wow, that was a little unexpected. I didn’t think that you would trust me in such a straightforward manner, Aur」

Yunis said while heartily bringing food to her mouth.

「I merely concluded that that was the most likely possibility. Don’t misinterpret」

Lilu lifted a gleeful smile to her face in response to the astonished Aur.

「If all else failed, we had Plan B prepared to force you into your corpse and re-brainwash you. Yep, we don’t need that corpse anymore so go ahead and dispose of it」

「Certainly」

「Wait don’t burn my bodyー!?」

When the flabbergasted Yunis stopped Spina, who had nodded without hesitation, the magus teacher and student said with earnest faces,「It’s obviously a joke」「Of course it was a joke」. She had never seen a joking aspect of either of them. ..Just think of it as them rejoicing over our reunion, thought Yunis as she forced herself to come to terms with this.

「Oh, so that was why you left the corpse there..」

Lilu gave an exasperated sigh.

「What did you think it was left for?」

「Well..Umm, sentimental value..etc」

「..Hah」

As Lilu gave her response, Aur snorted with laughter.

「Tch, that kinda offends meー!」

Yunis smiled wryly to their usual back-and-forth exchange.

「..Yunis, are you hungry or something?」

Mary inquired while comparing with her eyes Yunis’s empty plate and Yunis’s face.

「Huh?」

Tears had been running down Yunis’s cheeks at some point.

「..Here you go」

Misunderstanding in some way, Mary thrust her plate out to Yunis without hesitation.

「Thanks, but, I’m fine」

Yunis answered with a cheerful smile, not bothering to wipe her ever-flowing tears, overwhelmed with the fact that she had returned to the place where she belonged.

「..Cause my chest is, already full」

「So why did you wear that helmet anyway?」

Once the lively mealtime had settled down, Lilu gestured to the full-face helmet lying in a corner of the room, inquiring. She had favored light clothing in her previous life, so there was no way that she would have given herself the opportunity to wear a helmet.

「I’m bad at things like acting..So I wore it in order to not give it away with my facial expressions. There’s also the fact that heroic spirits don’t generally change their expressions」

Heroic spirits could apparently change their equipment to a certain degree. This was fundamentally the same idea as Lilu’s ability to shape clothing with mana.

「Which means that as I thought, you could move freely as soon as they called you a heroic spirit. I didn’t feel any killing intent, so I thought that was odd..」

「Yeah..It’s because big brother assisted me」

Yunis mumbled that with a slightly meek expression.

「Big brother’s ability is『Lead』. It negates any and every arte/technique, denying their existence. And lawful artes are no exception. So without being bound by the lawful artes of a saint, I was able to freely act」

「So it was Zitelid who dropped the sky-soaring carriages. ..But, if that’s the case then don‘t they also retain their ego?」

Yunis nodded to Aur’s question.

「Oh, and Father helped too. It’s just that they seemed pretty hellbent on defeating you, Aur, so I don’t think they’ll be allies」

「..So Wolf’s also there, huh」

Saying things like “Take care of my daughter”..Aur had had enough of him. He was someone that Aur would never like to meet again if he could help it.

「Are you ready to prostrate yourself in front of him saying “Please give me the young lady”?」

「If that’ll end it then I’ll bow as many times as he wants」

After all, unravelling long history would reveal him to be the land’s greatest, most famous hero king. He was renowned for living to such an age, siring children that also became heroes known far and wide. If he were to go further and become a heroic spirit, it would be reasonable to imagine that old age would be irrelevant to him, regaining the 100% of the power of Wolf’s golden age.

「So how many heroic spirits are there?」

「With me included that would make 7 people. And, each of them have their own unique ability of sorts..using something like magic」

Yunisu leaped with a tap, transporting herself right in front of Aur.

「I have this. It was called『Leaping Piece』. This ability ignores barriers or long distances and allow you to move anywhere in an instant. Seems like you can also pursue someone’s mana to track down their magical transport destination. I’m limited to carrying myself and at most another person, though」

That’s ridiculous, thought Aur. Ignoring barriers and distance, that was the kind of power that overturned the very foundations of magic.

「Big Brother is 『Lead』, the nullification of every type of arte/technique. Father is 『Dragon Slayer』, and if his opponent is a dragon, he can kill them unconditionally, apparently」

「..So that relates to his great exploit, huh」

The genesis of the transportation gate that Yunis had accomplished when Aur was captured in Figuria. That was in fact probably her greatest achievement of great exploits, using her power. And now, Aur had come to get a good idea of what kind of thing lawful artes really were.

「The force urges reason, which is the power that shapes the world. Which means that lawful artes, are artes that create reason..create law and order, huh」

Much like how things fall to the earth, Wolf could not lose to a dragon. To bring about rules themselves that make such a thing natural. That was the essence of lawful artes.

Magic twisted reason, but magic had its own magical rules. Perhaps they could be referred to as the logic of magic. What could and could not be done with magic was made clear, and there were certain things that were set in stone and common sense. Lawful artes distorted that, twisted it.

「Can’t tell what exactly the abilities of the other 4 are. I just killed one of them, so 3 more, I suppose. They were called『Magic Bullet』,『Avidya』, and『Immortal』」

Along with their names, Yunis gave basic descriptions of various things such as their outer appearance.

「..Magic Bullet and Avidya are probably 『The Magical Bullet Archer』Rex and, 『The Blind』Gaius. As for『Immortal』..I dunno」

Aur shuffled through his memories, finding applicable hero names. Rex was also known as『Hundred in One Shot』, a master archer who never missed with his arrows. There was only one time in his life when the arrow’s aim was deviated by someone’s scheme, shooting his wife to death.

Gaius The Blind was a special case of having acquired his 『Hero』status. Bathing in the blood of saints, it was said that he gained sight. Afterwards, it was said that he devotedly killed many monsters and fought for the sake of the world but was killed by a saint’s disciple.

「Heeey, heroic spirits are what heroes become after they die, right?」

「What are you saying so late into the conversation」

Lilu flapped her hands to Aur’s exasperated words.

「No..I was just thinking, if『Immortal』doesn’t die then how did he become a heroic spirit」

Unh, Aur muttered for an instant. But that wasn’t because he thought that Lilu’s words hit home.

「..On the contrary, immortal heroes aren’t scarce. However, as the meaning suggests, there are no heroes who do not die」

A hero’s ability was generally was god-given. If even that god was destroyed, there was no way that heroes would not be destroyed.

「For most of them there’s some sort of weak point, and if you strike there then they die. It could be their ankle, their back, or even the protection of some sort of contract」

But that was only the law of the earth’s surface. The lawful artes of heroes who polished on earth their god-given power and rose to heaven were abilities were a cut above that.

Would an immortal man turned heroic spirit die after all..?

A tinge of discomfort floated across Aur’s heart.