Chapter 810: Inner Nature

“So I was the only one not in the know since the very beginning…”

Perhaps even Adam, Margaret, and the others had understood things better than I had. However, the problem was how they had learned the key to defeating Karwenz and the secret of my indestructibility.

Elisa knew these things because Karwenz had told her. But, how did Adam and the others know? Actually, it was easy for me to figure out with just some basic analysis, since very few in this world would know about it.

“Silly cat…”

“You should be grateful to me, rather than getting angry. According to your logic, the process doesn’t matter at all as long as the end result is good. What do you think would have happened if I didn’t make these preparations beforehand?”

What would have happened? I would have done my best to kill Elisa, or Elisa would resolve herself to kill me so that I would revive in the River Styx? Both results would likely be unacceptable.

That’s why, I…

“Harloys, this time, thank you so much.”

Yep, I sincerely thanked Harloys as this was indeed the best possible result.

*Plop!*

However, the black cat fell off my head and looked at me with astonishment and disbelief, as if she was seeing a ghost.

“Y-y-you… must be Karwenz in disguise!? That cold-blooded, awkward, insane, masochistic, overthinking, lolicon, maid lover, and tsundere Roland would actually thank someone!?”

My eyebrows were probably becoming really distorted. Just what was all this? Was this what the silly cat thought of me?

“Cough, at any rate, I’m really grateful to you. Even if I’m cold-blooded, awkward, insane, masochistic, overthinking, lolicon, maid lover, and tsundere, I still know how to be thankful. As for what you just said, I won’t hold a grudge about it at all. Yep, I don’t remember any of it. Isn’t it just cold-blooded, awkward, insane, masochistic, overthinking, lolicon, maid lover, tsundere, and cat abuser? Rest assured, I’ve already forgotten it all.”

“You obviously remember it clearly! Wait a moment, how come there’s the addition of cat abuser? What do you intend to do to me!?”

I opened my right hand and released the dead body of an Elemental Lord who resembled a lizard king as the silly cat screamed into my ears.

The flame sea was still chasing after us. Adam had stopped Elisa, but she still summoned countless fire elemental creatures and Elemental Lords to hunt me down. The elemental creatures and Elemental Lords wouldn’t care one bit if they died during the process, as this was a command from the Fire Elemental Goddess.

“Northlands.”

I grasped my sword of ice, gathered power, suddenly charged forward, unsheathed my sword, then sheathed my sword again. Even a magma giant with reinforced armor and a powerful body that he was proud of would easily be sliced into tiny shards as if he was butter.

A domain and ice and snow had already overwritten everything around me. Although my Northlands ice magic sword didn’t activate its incredibly strange and powerful special effect, just the fact that it was a SemiGod Equipment pure ice magic sword meant that it was the natural counter to all fire elemental creatures.

In a way, I actually wasn’t very used to my sword. According to Eich’s standards, my sword with only a blade was still technically a sword, but it was far too long for any regular infantry soldier to use properly.

An overly long blade might appear to be cool, but it would easily crash into something unnecessarily. It was quite inconvenient to use due to its length. If I pulled out my sword and then discovered that its point was stuck in the ground, so my opponent started laughing at me… This was just an example, not some personal experience!

It would be far to foolish for me to fail an attack because my sword was overly long and got stuck in the ground. That was something I absolutely wouldn’t accept.

Although it was quite fun to attack large magma giants, fire dragons, and other such large magical creatures from a long range, any enemy that got within close range of me would make my overly long sword into a hindrance. Yet, smaller and medium-sized enemies were the most common.

I felt a bit of a headache. I had never practiced with a longsword before. I would probably be able to use one well if I had two weeks to practice, but time was more precious than anything right now.

Still, I needed the power of ice and snow from my Northlands sword when facing Fire Elemental Lords.

“If only it was a bit shorter… eh?”

To my surprise, my magic sword suddenly became much shorter right when I thought this.

I kicked away a flame dwarf that approached me as I thought about the short sword in my hand.

“It would seem that my magic sword is even better than expected, with additional potential to be discovered. However, I’ll likely require a great deal of practice to get used to it.”

I then smiled as I gazed upon the endless amount of high-level fire elemental creatures before me.

“…There are so many great living targets for me to practice on! Ikorose, shinsou!” [TL note: Bleach reference.]

My sword suddenly extended and instantly pierced two fire elementals which were more than 30 meters away. As those two fire elementals were returned to being the fire element, I clasped my hands together and swung my sword with all my might, clearing all the enemies around me in a large AOE with the extended sword.

“Ha, this is so fun. What should I try next… how about Senbonzakura? Souten ni zase, hyourinmaru? Forget it, it seems rather difficult, so I’ll develop them later. Let’s just use the most basic technique. Hmph, how dare you block my way, red monster! Take this attack from old Roland!”

I could sense that the fierce battle behind me was constantly changing location. It was likely that Elisa was constantly moving forward and changing the location of battle to chase after me. But, judging from how Adam and the others still had plenty of magic power, they would be able to hold on for quite a while longer.

Meanwhile, the enemies I faced weren’t that strong. I slaughtered all the fire elemental creatures and Fire Elemental Lords which were hastily summoned here, swiftly transforming them back into the fire element.

However, I still hesitated when I saw a one-time-use Dimensional Door in the cave that Margaret told me about.

Margaret had mentioned that this was a Dimensional Door which led to the northernmost part of the mortal plane. If I went there, who knew how long it would take to reach Bardi again? It would likely take almost half a year. Wasting so much time might even be worse than getting trapped by Elisa here.

If this was Adam and the others’ plan to restrict me in their own way…

“Aren’t you tired from overthinking things so much all the time?”

“I am tired, but there’s no helping it. It’s my fault for being cold-blooded, awkward, insane, masochistic, overthinking, lolicon, maid lover, tsundere, and a cat abuser. I can’t change my inner nature.”

“…You still remember that! I’ve never seen a man who holds grudges to such an extent!”

“Hmph, that’s because you’ve never met Rolo and Baron Blackhand.”

“…Don’t try to fool me, I know those are just your alternate accounts! You grudge-bearing…”

I had fun with the silly cat as I prepared for dimensional teleportation.

“Since there’s no other way, I might as well try it out.”

Although I was saying this, I actually felt that Adam and Margaret wouldn’t do bad by me, just like things were in the past.

“You’re always so mysteriously trusting of the people next to you. You were just betrayed, so could you please learn from your experience?”

“There’s no helping it. That’s just my inner nature.”

My words echoed in the cave. Everything became silent as Harloys and I vanished.

Five minutes later, the furious Fire Elemental Goddess melted the entire cave and even the volcano that the cave belonged to into molten magma.