Chapter 163: The Vow to Stop Killing

「The bounty is mine!! Step away or I’ll kill youuuuuuuu!!」

The Mohican-looking man waved his hatchet as he rushed toward Seiya. However, Seiya, who had become a Berserker, did not allow myself to be hit and quickly went behind the man with quick steps.

「…Ah? Where did he go? 」

The man spoke with a stunning look. I never thought that human beings could have such statuses in the first place. Even though the Mohican man had a high status, he was different from Seiya. The man looked a little bit confused, as he saw that Seiya suddenly disappeared from his sight. Seiya moved his arm behind the man and twisted his neck.

「Hiiii. 」

With a strange voice and a bone cracking sound, the man’s neck turned around more than 90 degrees to one side. Then, the man vomited foam from his mouth and fell down, unable to move. Celseus and I, along with the hostile inhabitants of Galvano holding weapons, petrified upon seeing this scene.

「He…Hey…Celseus. What happened just now…? 」

「Se…Seiya broke that man’s neck…! 」

Eh, ah…Wait, wait a second!! What’s going on!? I mean, Seiya said that he wouldn’t hurt nor kill the people from the twisted worlds anymore!!

「He must have fainted! 」

I activated my clairvoyance along with my Appraisal skills at the same time to check the Mohican man’s condition after Seiya bent his neck in a deadly position. However, my skills confirmed the harsh truth.

—

『HP – 0. He is completely and absolutely dead, without a doubt. My condolences!』

—

I screamed after knowing that the Mohican man was truly dead.

「He killed this person all of a suddennnnnnnnnnnn!!」

Seiya killed the man without any hesitation. The people around him stopped approaching him and carefully watched him from afar. I used this opportunity to rush to Seiya. I yelled aggressively at him for killing that man.

「No way!! How do you explain this action!? You said you wouldn’t hurt nor kill people anymore, didn’t you!?」

「I said, “as much as possible”. It’s a case-by-case.* It can’t be helped if the other side exposes a murderous intention. I could have fallen into a predicament here if I didn’t stop that man. We can’t save the world with just beautiful and kind actions.」

「You…You’re probably right, but even so! 」

I couldn’t argue much with him as he calmly explained his actions. But, I didn’t remain silent.

「Then, why did you say Perfectly Ready!? What was it for!?」

「I feel apologetic now unlike last time. This Mohican man with a bent neck may have been a decent human being in the original world before he became like this in the Twisted Exfolia. Even if we change this world back to its original state, I presume that I hurt his soul after I killed him, and that reality won’t change.」

「If…If you realize that, then why did you… 」

「But, don’t worry. 」

Seiya approached the dead Mohican man. Then, Seiya took an object out of his chest pocket and attached it to the forehead of the Mohican man.

「Eh…That’s…! 」

The sticker attached to the man’s forehead said “I’m sorry” in Japanese. After he stuck the sticker on the man, Seiya murmured as he looked down on the corpse.

「I’m sorry.** 」

「How is this a way to properly apologize for what you’ve done!?」

However, for Seiya it was brilliant idea. Then, Seiya moved his eyes from the dead man’s corpse and looked at the surrounding people. He carefully watched their movements in silence. The inhabitants were still watching the situation from afar, but I felt no sign of them attacking us. After all, this situation was too abnormal, and even these people felt it. I felt relieved from the time being, but Seiya spoke to me.

「I really don’t want to hurt anyone. I want to avoid that at all costs. However, when we restored Geabrande to normal, I noticed that the anomaly in Rosalie’s personality and fate-changing effects were not that significant. My biggest concern was having guilt for hurting their souls. I was worried that I could become stressful as a result.」

「Ehhhhhhhh! So you were just concerned with yourself…!」

「I’ve already experienced it before. I collapsed during the fight with Ceremonic. Stress can accumulate before I realize it myself.」

After saying those words with a tough-looking face, Seiya pointed to the sticker on the Mohican man’s forehead.

「But, I’ve settled that problem now. My guilt completely disappeared.」

「Se…Seiya, so you got rid of your guilt just by sticking one sticker on a corpse…!」

I understood Celseus’ feelings. It was too unbelievable and confusing. Even though it was a phantom inhabitant, he put a sticker on the person he killed and said, “Yes, I have a peace of mind now”…Wha…What an uncanny hero!! If we were in a novel or anime, the number of fans would surely decrease!! What a horrible story this would be!!

I felt extremely upset and confused by Seiya’s actions. Meanwhile, Seiya looked at the inhabitants with pitiful eyes. Then, he put a big luggage bag in front of himself. A few stickers fell from the bag. The stickers had written the following words, “I’m sorry”.

「I don’t want to kill them in haste. However, in a case of emergency, I have prepared around 5000 “I’m sorry” stickers. So I can kill them calmly and smoothly.」

「Are you willing to kill 5000 people!? Does that mean that creating stickers was your extra preparation in the Underworld!?」

I screamed aloud. But I realized the reason why Seiya said Perfectly Ready in the Underworld. It was because he completed making the 5000 stickers.

…Now I understood why he was ready to come here! Well sort of! But…It still felt out of place! This hero was truly unbelievable!

It seemed that the inhabitants of Galvano felt the same way. While holding their weapons, the people looked at Seiya from a long distance and spoke with frightened voices.

「Wha…What is that guy talking about…!?」

「Did he say “I’m sorry” stickers!? I don’t understand what that means!!」

「Hey…Wa…Wa…Wait a moment…That guy…Don’t tell me that that guy is…!!」

Suddenly, the streets became silent. I looked around at the people and at the surroundings with cold eyes.

…The Twisted Exfolia’s Galvano was now a well-developed town. And the inhabitants were monster-like humans who didn’t care about human life. But…they seemed to have noticed what was going on. I felt as if I heard the voices of these people’s hearts.

『No way, that guy…that guy is dangerousssssssssssssssssssss!!』

…That’s right! This cautious hero was far crazier than anyone living in this town was!

「Okay. So who wants me to put an “I’m sorry” sticker on the forehead?」

Seiya looked at a man in a leather jacket who stood in his straight line of sight.

「Is it you then? 」

The man shouted “Hiiii!” immediately when Seiya punched the man in the buttocks. The surrounding people screamed high.

「It’s a ruthless assassin! 」

「That man’s butt suffered a blow just by staring at him! 」

Well, they were right in a way! A strange villain suddenly appeared out of nowhere with embarrassing stickers, and used one of them on a killed man with a broken neck!

The people were out of breath, and stepped further away from us. Seiya glanced at me.

「Hey, Lista. I already gathered enough information. Summon the portal now.」

「Ye…Yes! Understood! 」

I looked at my surroundings first, and then, I casted a spell to open the portal to the Underworld. In the meantime, the inhabitants remained immovable. An impressed Celseus spoke, I nodded in agreement, and Seiya responded afterwards.

「No one is coming near you Seiya.」

「One person’s sacrifice avoided hundreds of deaths. Listen, Celseus. This is a deterrence.」

「I…I see! 」

「Eh. I wonder about that… 」

Celseus got convinced, but I had doubts about it. Hmm, it felt as if Seiya’s method was somewhat wrong, but…Ah, I don’t know anymore!

I scratched my head in confusion since I didn’t know what to think or do anymore. However. Seiya’s expression became suddenly serious as he gazed far in the distance.

「…My fire lizards in the surveillance area have been annihilated. Someone destroyed the fire lizards’ limbs.」

「Eh? 」

I followed Seiya’s line of sight with my eyes and saw a garbage dump. Then, I doubted my own eyes. Earlier, the man, who fired a bullet at Seiya and was blown away, stood up while shaking his limbs!

「Uhuhuh…Step aside…This guy is not an enemy that you can win even if you attacked him as a group…」

All the inhabitants moved away from the spot quite rapidly. The man approached us with a stern look. One of the lens of his cracked glasses was shining blue. It looked very suspicious to me.

「Purity (of a substance) 99%…! Ahahah…This guy is not a spy from a neighboring country! This guy, no, these guys are Artema-ranking soul owners!」

「Pu…Purity!? Artema-ranking, what…!?」

Those words had part of Artemaeus’ name in them. Artemaeus was the previous Demon King of Exfolia whom we defeated. I didn’t know what he meant by those words. The man kept talking with a sinister grin on his face.

「The existence of these guys could make this country…No, they could shake the foundation of the world itself! The Artema-ranking soul owners belong to the Principality of Galvano!」

The man pulled out a silver rifle from his inside pocket chest.

「Ho…How many guns does he have!? Se…Seiya!!」

「Don’t panic. All of the bullets are gone.」

Did Seiya order the fire lizards to keep an eye on this man? Seiya was well prepared as ever. Still, the man pointed his rifle, which should have no bullets, against his temple side of the head.

「Superior Werewolf… “Plug-in”! 」

He pulled the trigger. As Seiya said, when the man pulled the trigger only a dry sound was heard since the gun had no bullets. However, an anomaly happened. His face got covered in silver from the temple point, and it spread to the upper body through the neck in a blink of an eye.
The man’s body became fully covered in silver and began to swell. I heard a squeaking noise from this strange occurrence.

「Superior!? Plug-in!? Wha…What the hell is that!?」

My eyes were glued to the behavior of that mysterious man. But suddenly, a strong shock ran through my back as if I were punched!

「Whahhhhhhhh!? 」

I rolled on the ground while screaming. After a while, I managed to regain my posture and I looked around.

「…Ah? 」

I noticed a thick fog around me. This place was definitely the Underworld. Beside me stood Celseus, and beyond that, stood Seiya who seemed calm as he closed the portal tightly.

After a moment, I understood what had just happened. Seiya kicked me to the portal, which I had opened moments ago! Then we came back to the Underworld…

「Oh gosh!! I’m glad that we came back in time!! That man was trying to use something against us, wasn’t he!?」

「My scheduled surveillance time was greatly exceeded. This is enough for now.」

Seiya listened to my remarks halfway through and then he looked around.

「I don’t think anyone will break through this dimension as it happened with the god of death back in Geabrande.」

Still, Seiya was wary of the surroundings for a while. I spoke to Celseus in the meantime.

「That man was trying to transform into something. Don’t you think so?」

「Yes, he was. I mean, his body got silver and he was in the verge of deformation.」

「True. Was he that angry that his body got swollen as a result?」

「Maybe. But, either way, it’s incredible that we managed to come back on that exact timing. I was surprised, but I wonder if that man was the most surprised. After all, we suddenly disappeared from his sight.」

Seiya spoke firmly after hearing our sloppy conversation.

「I repeat; the Twisted Exfolia is a world with a SS+ difficulty rank. We have to pay more attention than ever before. Our safety comes first.」

「Well, I do understand that… 」

We are now in no danger since we’ve returned to the Underworld for the time being. I felt relieved, and then, I reminded of Seiya’s actions. “An «I’m sorry sticker» after killing an hostile inhabitant. And a fast escape after an enemy went through some transformation.” There’s no way that Seiya did things halfheartedly, but those actions were somewhat out of the ordinary…

「Ugh. 」

Unexpectedly. I felt a tingling sensation on my legs as I heard low voice down below.

「Eh! 」

I stepped on something. Because of the infamous thick fog from the Underworld, I did not know what I stepped. However, when I looked down carefully, I noticed the presence of a man with a bad physique who fell on his back. Obviously not an inhabitant of the Underworld!

「What!? Who is this person!? 」

「Do…Don’t tell me that someone really managed to come here from Galvano!?」

Celseus quickly hid behind Seiya. Seriously!? Did this person break through the dimension to chase us just like Tanathus, the god of death, did back then!?

However, the situation was strange. When I looked closely, I saw that the fallen man’s mouth was binded over and a fire rope seized his limbs.

「Don’t fret. I chose him from the group of people earlier and brought him with me.」

「You did it, Seiya!? What for!?」

「I want to get a lot of information from this guy. This way, I will understand the current situation of the Twisted Exfolia while staying in the Underworld. We can feel at ease.」

「In…In other words, it’s an abduction this time…! 」

Right now, the calm-looking hero seemed like a villainous criminal to me.

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*Considering or dealing with each instance separately, taking into account its individual circumstances and features.

**Seiya spoke in English (アイム・ソーリー / Aimu Sōrī / I’m sorry).

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