Chapter 57: He is a Nerfed Version
Half a day later, Esdeath woke up from her unconsciousness and found herself lying inside a luxurious room she had never seen before. Beneath her body was a large, soft bed, and she was covered with a velvet blanket.
"Where is this?"
She turned her head and happened to see Yumesaki sitting by the bed, reading a book.
"You're awake." Yumesaki put down the magic book in his hands and said with a wide smile, "This is a top-tier inn room in Labyrinth City Orario."
"Where is Reinhard?"
"He went back a long time ago."
Yumesaki explained that as soon as the battle ended, he had immediately sent Reinhard back to Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World.
Esdeath let out a soft sound of acknowledgment and stared blankly at the ceiling, falling into a silence as if she were reminiscing about the battle from earlier.
After quite a while, she finally opened her mouth and said, "He is incredibly strong, that Reinhard."
"Isn't that obvious? He is the strongest in his world."
Yumesaki said with a half-smile, "For your information, the Reinhard who fought you was actually a nerfed version."
Esdeath raised her eyebrows in sheer disbelief.
It wasn't that Esdeath didn't believe him, because she knew Yumesaki wouldn't deceive her under these circumstances, she was just curious about what was really going on.
"It's very simple. In Reinhard's world, he is loved by the world itself."
Yumesaki gave Esdeath a quick explanation about what was called Divine Protection, then told her that the Divine Protections on Reinhard's body numbered at least over a hundred different types.
In fact, as long as Reinhard wished for it, he could obtain a new Divine Protection at any given moment.
It was just that because he had crossed over to another world, those Divine Protections vanished.
"Therefore, the Reinhard you met was definitely a drastically weakened Reinhard. If it were Reinhard in his full peak condition, you wouldn't necessarily be able to take even a single sword strike from him."
Take the Great Spirit Puck by the side of the main heroine Emilia, for example. His true form, usually appearing as a nine-centimeter-long cat-shaped spirit, was actually the leader of the six great elements who ruled over fire, the Great Spirit known as The Beast of the End of the Perpetual Permafrost. He formed a contract with Emilia and existed as a father figure to her, considering her the very meaning of his survival.
Because he could not bear a world that lost Emilia, he had set a contract to bring about the destruction of the world after Emilia's death.
Then he was killed by Reinhard with just two slashes of his sword.
This showed the strength of Reinhard in his full peak condition.
"It seems I am still not strong enough."
Esdeath originally thought she was already incredibly strong, but this time after fighting Reinhard, she finally understood the saying that above the heavens, there are still heavens.
Perhaps she was the strongest in her own world, but after changing worlds, she wasn't even comparable to a small child.
Therefore, Esdeath steeled her resolve to keep getting stronger.
And the world of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? was undoubtedly the most suitable place for her to gain strength.
Because here, not only was there the Dungeon, but there was also the Falna from the gods. As long as one entered the Dungeon to adventure, one could grow stronger.
After thinking it over for a few moments, Esdeath decided to stay in this world and continuously grow stronger.
Until one day, she could completely conquer the Dungeon.
Yumesaki didn't stop Esdeath either. "Alright, since you've steeled your resolve, then look for a Familia to join."
The Falna from the gods could also be considered a pretty good catalyst.
It could make Esdeath's strength progress by leaps and bounds in a short time.
Esdeath happened to have this exact thought as well.
At first, Yumesaki was prepared to have her join the Hestia Familia, but Esdeath instead wanted to join the strongest Familia in Labyrinth City Orario.
Since she herself was the strongest, it was only natural to join the strongest Familia.
Yumesaki rubbed his chin. "Ah, I see... that's not impossible either. Orario currently has two Familias standing on equal footing. One is the Freya Familia, and the other is the Loki Familia, known as the Twin Kings of Orario. Take your pick between the two."
Esdeath had also mingled around the Labyrinth City for a while and knew what kind of character the Freya Familia had, so without any hesitation, she chose the Loki Familia.
Yumesaki rolled his eyes but didn't stop her either, letting Esdeath go look for Loki on her own.
As for himself, he left the world of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and went to visit Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World.
When Yumesaki found Reinhard, Reinhard had successfully found the descendant of the noble family, Felt, in the slums and had brought her back.
Too bad for him, Felt herself was not cooperative at all.
To her, Reinhard was just a total stranger.
A stranger suddenly found her, told her she was a descendant of some damn noble family, and asked her to participate in some Royal Selection... it was completely absurd nonsense.
On what grounds did she, Felt, have to go participate in a damn Royal Selection, and what did it matter to her what became of this country?
Therefore, when Yumesaki saw Reinhard again, he could clearly see that this guy had become much more haggard.
Looking at the situation, Reinhard seemed to have been made quite miserable by Felt's antics.
Yet even so, Reinhard still forced himself to cheer up to greet Yumesaki, and even cracked a little joke along the way.
"Looking for me this time, could it be you want to find me to fight someone again?"
"Not this time."
Yumesaki shook his head and said, "I'm looking for you because I want to ask if you know where Roswaal's mansion is located?"
"Roswaal, that Margrave of the border?"
"Correct."
"What are you looking for him for?"
"He is the disciple of the Witch of Greed. Inside his mansion, there is still a Great Spirit, and he has a large private collection of magic books. I want to read those magic books."
"The disciple of the Witch of Greed?" Reinhard said with a bewildered face. If he remembered correctly, this Witch of Greed had already died several hundred years ago, but Roswaal was just a Margrave who had lived for a few decades.
How did the two of them get involved in such a relationship?
With a smile, Yumesaki told Reinhard that Roswaal was an old monster who had lived for over four hundred years, capable of extending his life by taking over the physical bodies of his direct descendants.
Therefore, he had continued to live from over four hundred years ago until now.
Reinhard couldn't help but frown. "If based on what you say, the generations of Roswaal from beginning to end are actually all the exact same person?"
"Pretty much." Yumesaki nodded.
Reinhard originally didn't have any good impression of Roswaal to begin with, and now after hearing this, he had even less of a good impression, it could even be said he was disgusted.
Taking over the physical bodies of his own descendants to extend his life, wiping out his own descendants generation after generation—was this kind of act even human?
If he weren't Reinhard, if he weren't the knight among knights, upon meeting this kind of person, he would usually slash him down completely with one strike.
Disgusting, absolutely too disgusting.
"Why would he do something like this?" Reinhard asked. Exactly what kind of obsession drove this Roswaal to commit acts that so heavily violated human decency?
Yumesaki said, "Of course it's because he loves his teacher, the Witch of Greed. He wants to resurrect the Witch of Greed, so he is unwilling to die and has kept clinging to his remaining life until now."
Reinhard was left speechless.
He didn't understand it, but he received quite a massive shock.
After a long while, Reinhard finally told Roswaal's location to Yumesaki and advised him that it would be best not to agree to any of Roswaal's affairs.
"Don't worry, I'm just purely going to look around the library inside his mansion. Besides, those books don't belong to Roswaal either, but to his teacher, the Witch of Greed."
Yumesaki gave Reinhard a reassuring hand gesture, turned around, and left.
Reinhard watched Yumesaki's retreating back and couldn't help but let out a sigh.
It's precisely because of this that I'm worried. After all, anything related to a Witch is never a simple matter.
But considering Yumesaki's unfathomably deep strength, Reinhard again felt whether his worrying was in vain.
This mysterious person who came from another world was far more terrifying than he imagined.
Let alone a dead Witch, even if the Witch were alive, she wouldn't necessarily be able to do anything against this powerhouse from another world.
Oh well, he had better care more about Felt instead.
Faced with the highly rebellious Felt, Reinhard currently had a massive headache just thinking about it.
...
On the other side, based on the pointers from Reinhard, Yumesaki very quickly arrived at the border of the Kingdom of Lugnica and found Roswaal's residential mansion.
It was a European-style villa that counted as highly luxurious.
Flower gardens, fountains, a courtyard plaza, a front yard—everything that was needed was all there.
Just the rooms alone numbered as many as over a hundred.
Yet the maids inside the house were actually only two people.
Ram and Rem.
If both girls weren't capable of magic, wanting to clean such a massive villa would not be an easy matter.
Yumesaki swept his gaze around using Clairvoyance Magic once but didn't find Roswaal inside the villa.
Instead, he found the main heroine Emilia and her spirit, Puck.
As well as the twin maids who were doing the house cleaning.
Looking at the situation, Roswaal didn't seem to be here.
But it didn't matter, after all, he didn't come to look for Roswaal anyway.
Yumesaki avoided everyone inside the mansion, stealthily came before a large door, pushed it open, and walked inside.
Behind the door was a place for storing books.
On both side walls stood row after row of bookshelves, and the shelves were packed with all kinds of books, most of which were related to magic.
In the middle of the room sat a single chair, and on top of the chair sat a loli.
This loli had long, pale cream-colored hair woven into two twin vertical drill-like pigtails, and she frequently wore a luxurious frilly dress. She gave people an impression that invoked a sense of endearment, but fundamentally maintained a cold facial expression toward those around her.
Anyone who had seen the plot line knew this loli was no one else but precisely Beatrice.
The Great Spirit created by the Witch of Greed Echidna, her attribute was Yin, and she mastered all Yin Magic.
This included, but was not limited to, space magic, time magic, gravity magic, healing magic, and so on and so forth.
At the same time, Beatrice, who was reading a book inside the Forbidden Library, saw a stranger who didn't belong to Roswaal's villa enter her room. She subconsciously widened her eyes, opened her mouth, and asked.
"Who are you?"
"An Otherworlder."
"Huh?"
Beatrice, who originally planned to blast Yumesaki with a shot of magic to capture him on the spot, heard this answer and her whole self was instantly thrown into confusion.
What kind of ghost was an Otherworlder?
This answer was far too outside of one's expectations, even causing Beatrice's brain to temporarily experience a system malfunction.
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