Chapter 426 – The Lords of their Gods
While the fight was going on, I asked Chel,
「You think you could beat her, Chel?」
『No way!』
Well, it would be hard for Chel to fight in the first place, so I understood.
「That reminds me, since you have the power of the death god, you can’t feel that destruction power.」
I thought about the fact that I was unable to feel it.
「PiggI!」
「I guess not, I didn’t feel it either.」
And it wasn’t just me, Cruz didn’t feel it either.
Chel’s power was only with the undead.
Because of that, Chel had no effect against the living, so maybe Ecces’ power was hard to notice.
「Do you and Yureena think you can beat her?」
「I know I can!」
「Well, she is quite strong, but I might be able to.」
As we talked it over, Belda said,
「Ecces is still just only 15 years old…」
「Yeah, she’s done quite well for being so young.」
Luka was 17 so she was 2 years older.
Even so, Cruz and Yureena were still 15. They weren’t children.
And they had the achievement of defeating the Demon Lord.
「15 year olds lately are pretty scary.」
「Ah, the fight is over.」
Cruz said, with a laugh.
It seems to have ended as expected, with Luka winning.
「It was a good fight for both of them.」
「Thanks, Ecces was strong too.」
Luka was sweating and breathing heavily.
I hadn’t seen her this tired in a long time.
「Thank you for this fight.」
Ecces said with a deep bow.
「I guess I have a long way to go to beat someone like you.」
Ecces said with a look like something in her mind had passed and now she was relieved.
I kind of knew how she felt.
I could tell that she had worked on her skill almost endlessly, and that she had a lot of talent. She was quite young at it too. Therefore, realizing her own ability she continued to train until she could fight someone like Luka.
And the girl she fought was almost the same age as her.
Whether she had won or lost, she needed the experience of fighting someone like Luka.
If she hadn’t, she would have never known if that work was all for something.
It helped her realize she had progressed by fighting Luka, whether she kept fighting with the sword or decided to abandon it.
「Marquise, are you finished?」
「Yes, I am sorry if I wasted your time.」
「No, no need for apologies. I felt I learned much.」
「Well, thank you.」
Then Ecces continued with some trepidation,
「Um, Regent of the dragons…」
「Hm?」
「I have sometime I’d like to talk to you about…」
「And you don’t want to talk about it here?」
「It’s fine if we speak here, but it might be a long story…」
Ecces said, and Belda interrupted.
「Well, then maybe we should go to the agent office.」
「That’s fine.」
And so we all went there with Cruz, Yureena, and Timi.
When we got there, Vi-Vi, Steff, and the kids were gone.
Because those dragons were flying in the sky, they probably went back to Tom’s house.
I did see Jaerl there though.
「Gaaa…」
Jaerl was in a corner of the stable with his wings over his head.
His tail was between his legs and you could tell he had peed all over the stable.
「…Jaerl, you must have been scared.」
「ryaaa」
Shiggy said, jumping out of the pouch and trying to comfort him.
Timi and Shiggy both petted the dragon.
「All those duchesses in the sky, it must have been scary. But they’re gone now, so don’t worry.」
「Gaaa…」
「I’m sorry you had to go through it, Jaerl.」
Belda also said, trying to comfort the dragon, and the dragons finally seemed to be relieved.
Then Jaerl noticed that Ecces was there as well.
「Gaaa!」
Jaerl rubbed his head up against Ecces. I guess he was used to her.
「Long time no see, Jaerl.」
Ecces said, petting Jaerl’s snout.
After we left Jaerl, we made our way to the waiting room of the agent’s house.
Everyone sat down, and I asked her,
「Ecces, what was it you wanted to tell me?」
「The oracle has fallen to earth.」
「Oracle? From the destruction god?」
「Yes.」
「That reminds me, Chel got the oracle before too.」
『Got it.』
However, Chel had given the oracle over to the priest of the death temple.
This was when Chel was the death lord and had to kill the previous one.
「Shiggy, what about her?」
「ryaa?」
Cruz and I hadn’t received our various oracles yet.
I guess each god has a different policy for how it is given.
「Well, and about that oracle…」
She said, and looked around at all of us,
「The hero here is the holy god’s follower, the holy lord, right?」
「You figured that out well!」
「…the destruction god will soon bring all the other lords together in one place.」
「Huh, so the destruction god said that?」
「Yes. And Alra is the magic lord, right?」
「Huh? What are you saying, Ecces. There’s no way he’d be that!」
「But that’s the only explanation.」
「The hero killed the previous lord though!」
Belda said, looking at me with worry.