I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 2

by Namekojirushi

  “Um, Tetra... Is there only the one room?”

  “Yes.”

  “And it looks like there are only two beds, yeah?”

  “I’m sorry. These are the only two spare beds in the village.”

  Well, it was a small village. Maybe that couldn’t be helped. I wasn’t exactly going to get upset at Tetra over the way we were being treated. But...

  “......”

  “Ooooh... Ahhh...”

  Satsuki and Harissa were staring at the beds so intently that it was scaring me.

  “All right, everyone. Good night.”

  Tetra bowed and quietly left the room. Nobody said a word until she shut the door.

  But the silence didn’t last long.

  Satsuki turned to Harissa with the most serious look imaginable on her face.

  “Harissa, you don’t want to sleep in a cramped bed, do you? Rekka and I will sleep next to each other.”

  “No! I’m tinier, so it makes sense for me and Rekka to sleep in the same bed...”

  “It’s fine. When I was a kid, I used to sleep with Rekka all the time...”

  “My family was poor, too, so I’m used to sharing a bed with my siblings...”

  “No, I insist.”

  “No, I insist.”

  They continued to argue.

  “I’ll sleep on the floor, so you guys can each sleep in your own bed.”

  I tried to compromise, but...

  “You’ve gotta fight the Monster tomorrow, right? You can’t get a good night’s sleep on the floor.”

  “That’s right. You don’t need to do that, Sir Rekka... Honestly, I’d prefer to sleep in the same bed...” Harissa trailed off, mumbling as her face turned bright red. What was that about?

  Either way, my plan was shot down.

  “Okay... I’ll go outside for a minute. You two decide.”

  I quickly left the room. If I had stayed, they probably would’ve asked me to decide who I wanted to sleep with.

  For the moment, I was just going to wander around and try to find a spot to sleep.

  “Rekka, I think you’re allowed to be a little more of a pervert,” R sighed as she floated through the air next to me. “Or perhaps all three of you could sleep together.”

  “I can’t do that!”

  “Please do. And then do what comes naturally, too. Otherwise, I can’t finish my mission.”

  “It’s not that easy... Huh?”

  As I spoke with R, I entered a larger room in the temple. Tetra was standing silently in the room’s center.

  “Tetra?”

  “Oh, Rekka. What’s wrong? Can’t you sleep?”

  “Nah, something came up before I even got to think about it.”

  “...?”

  Tetra just looked confused. But yeah, I guess she would. I barely understood it myself.

  For no reason in particular, I entered the great hall.

  “By the way, what is that?” I sat next to Tetra and pointed to what she’d been staring at.

  It was something in the center of the room—a statue of a goddess and a box. The box was rectangular, shaped like a coffin without a lid. It was engraved and affixed to the floor, so it had probably always been there. The goddess was on top of the coffin, holding a sword.

  It was a temple, so it was only natural to have a statue of a goddess... but the coffin and sword made it look like somewhat of a haphazard monument.

  “This is another of God’s blessings. If you put food or clothing into this box and pray, whatever you put inside will multiply.”

  “Seriously? That’s amazing.”

  That really did sound like a divine miracle. It was amazing that there was light underground, too, but that was a little dull, to be honest.

  “Can I use this, too?”

  “No. This was made by God for the benefit of the guardians, so only we can use it.”

  Too bad. If I could’ve put some tea and Japanese snacks into it to get more of them, I could have taken a break and relaxed a bit. It would have been nice to get rid of some the fatigue that had been building up lately.

  Tetra told me more about the coffin. Apparently, the more people that prayed, the faster the things inside would multiply. And there was no limit to how much. As long as they kept praying, the contents would keep increasing in number.

  For generations, Tetra’s clan had been in control of this coffin. She said she’d learned all of this through the old scrolls and books she found on her own.

  “Once every seven days, the village gathers at the temple to pray for all the food, water, and clothing we need. It’s the most efficient way of making sure everybody gets what they need.”

  In the past, each person prayed for what they wanted individually, supposedly. But when everyone prayed for themselves, people had to wait in line. And if you let something spoil, you could only get more of the spoiled thing. That’s why Tetra had decided that they would all get together and pray, then hand out what each person needed.

  “It’s hard being the daughter of the village chieftain, huh?” I said, impressed.

  I meant it as a compliment, but Tetra looked down.

  “I wish I could bring more life to the village... I had hoped the rule I made about praying once every seven days would make everybody feel like part of a group. But it wasn’t that easy.” Tetra rubbed the edge of the box with her finger. “This coffin is what keeps us alive, but it has stolen from us any reason we had to work hard to survive. It gives us food and clothing—everything we need.”

  “...Aren’t any of the villagers helping you?”

  I thought it was an obvious enough question, but Tetra shook her head.

  “The village is infected with tens of millions of years of laziness. This is a village of living corpses. Even with what’s going on now, only myself and a few other young people are interested. The adults—even my dad, the chieftain—won’t try to do anything.” Tetra sighed a little as she spoke.

  She’d probably given up on asking the villagers for help. She’d worked so hard without anyone’s support... She must have been really tired.

  She’d exhausted herself working all alone, and maybe she’d abandoned hope of the village ever getting its energy back, but still... She’d come to the surface and asked us for help saving the village she loved.

  And then I wondered...

  Was Tetra’s story really about defeating the Monster Who Defied God? Sure, if it came back to life, the village would be destroyed, and she wouldn’t want that, but... Wasn’t the soul of Jizu Village what she really wanted to save? That she wanted me to save?

  Of course, this was just a theory. Tetra hadn’t said anything about it, but what if that was because she couldn’t? What if she was so exhausted and defeated that she couldn’t even say what she wanted? What if she was keeping her real desire sealed away in her subconscious?

  Shouldn’t I try to help her? I didn’t know how, but...

  “I think you’re trying really hard, Tetra.”

  “Rekka... Even if I am...”

  “So I’ll help, too.”

  “Huh?” Tetra looked up at me, shocked.

  That’s right. She was so petite that she had to look up at me when she talked. Even if the calm way she acted and spoke made her seem grown-up, she was just a normal girl.

  She was really just trying to save her hometown. And she was doing it all on her own.

  Talking to her, I realized how tirelessly she’d been working, but it felt like she was trying too hard for just one person.

  Wouldn’t it be okay... for her to rely on somebody else? Me, for instance.

  “Well, first we have to get through the Monster Who Defied God tomorrow, but even when that’s over, if your story isn’t resolved, I’ll stay with you. I still don’t know what it’ll take to help Jizu Village, but I’d never abandon you. Let’s try and work it out together, okay?”

  I wasn’t very smart, and maybe I couldn’t do much, but when I laughed and told her that,
her expression gradually changed. Shock turned to a quiet smile.

  “...Thank you, Rekka.”

  After I said good night to Tetra, I started to wander around the temple.

  I mean, when I went back to check on the other girls, there was a note on the door that read, “Decide which of us you’re going to sleep with, please.” The two of them had each taken a bed already. Normally you’d run, right?

  “You’re such a chicken that my stress is reaching supervolcano levels here.”

  I ignored R’s meaningless words (though I kind of got the meaning) and kept walking with no real destination in mind.

  Crap. I was getting really tired.

  “Ugh... Maybe I’ll just sleep in the hallway.”

  “Whatever you want,” the girl floating in the air next to me said coldly.

  Was she that mad that I hadn’t slept next to one of the girls? But you know, sleeping with a girl in a cramped bed was a bad idea anyway. For a number of reasons.

  Actually, I didn’t think I’d get any sleep.

  Rrrrring! Rrrrring!

  “Huh?” My cell phone was ringing? Down here?

  Confused, I took my phone out of my pocket. But instead of a phone number, the display was showing hieroglyphs.

  “...Is it broken?”

  “Sure it’s not a prank call?”

  “What kind of prank call would turn the numbers into hieroglyphs?”

  I thought about ignoring it, but it wouldn’t stop ringing. It didn’t go to voice mail, and I couldn’t reject the call... so I gave up and answered it.

  “...Hello?”

  “Hello?! Rekka, are you alive?!”

  A high-pitched voice rang through the other end—one I felt like I hadn’t heard in a long time. It was Iris.

  “Iris? Where are you calling from? There were strange hieroglyphs on my phone.”

  “Planet Finerita! I wanted to be able to talk to you whenever I wanted, so I had Daddy make me a cell phone that could call you anywhere in the universe!”

  Space technology really was something else, huh? But since I couldn’t save her phone’s weird number in my contacts, it was going to be a one-way street.

  “I’m getting the most advanced medical technology in the universe for you! I got a HUUUGE syringe fit for a space monster, too! They said it could even heal a planet-eating beast with one injection! So don’t die until I get there, Rekka!”

  No, an injection from something like that would probably kill me...

  “Wait, I’m actually...”

  “Okay, I’m on my way back! Just wait for me, okay?”

  Beep boop booooop...

  “She didn’t hear a word I said...”

  “You’d think she’d realize that you answering the phone meant that you were okay. She must have been pretty worried. She’s really in love with you, huh?”

  “Blah blah blah!” I stuck my fingers in my ears and pretended I couldn’t hear R.

  As I continued to wander around, I decided to visit the Hall of Sealing in the back of the temple. I didn’t really mean to do much there. I was just curious.

  But when I arrived, someone was already there.

  “Hey, Rekka Namidare.”

  “Bah.”

  It was the creepy-cute, super-deformed elephant fairy. He was flapping his ears in front of the giant door to the Hall of Sealing with an unsettling smile on his face.

  Was it okay for a magical girl mascot to have such an evil-looking grin? I mean, it’s not like I was really a magical girl either, but...

  “What are you doing there?”

  “Hm? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking.”

  It felt like he wasn’t being totally truthful, but there must have been plenty on his mind in the face of a battle with an enemy he’d had for millennia.

  I stood next to him and looked up at the door that marked the boundary between us and the sealed world.

  It was immense.

  There was no roof to the Hall of Sealing, and the door stretched all the way up to the ceiling of the cave. Because of that, even though we were indoors, it half felt like standing outside.

  The engravings and decorations on the door were much rougher than the ones in the temple, and in places they were cracked. I could even hear the sound of the door cracking, and it was clear the seal was about to break.

  Tomorrow, I was going to break that seal and go to the other side, wasn’t I?

  “You know, there’s one thing I don’t get.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Why did you want to ask me for help with the Monster?”

  It was a simple question, but I was at a loss for an answer.

  At first I thought it was because we had a mutual interest in defeating the Monster, but that didn’t make much sense. I had nothing going for me other than the bloodline of the Namidare, and I couldn’t come up with a good reason for him to help me do it.

  But Bah just laughed. It was as if he felt I was asking an obvious question.

  “It’s because you beat the ultimate mage, Messiah Kyandistrapps, of course.”

  “Huh? Because I beat Messiah?” I gasped in surprise when I heard the name of the mage who’d put me through all kinds of misery last time. “No, wait. How’d you find out about that, anyway? Satsuki and I didn’t tell anyone, and Messiah’s not the type to go around talking about being bested, right?”

  “The world of magic is a special place. Messiah may have been the strongest, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of other talented mages. But only I know about Satsuki and the Magic of Omniscience, so don’t worry about that.”

  From what he said, Bah had heard about Messiah’s downfall and got curious as to why he’d been fighting in the first place. When he looked into it, he learned of the Magic of Omniscience and Satsuki’s family.

  Of course, that information was carefully protected with a great deal of safeguards and subterfuge. It was only his incredible power as “The Perfect Beast” that allowed Bahamut to break through it all.

  He reassured me that even if other mages tried to do the same thing, they probably wouldn’t get far. That made me feel better, but I still had to correct him on an important detail.

  “Bah, I hate to say this... but I didn’t beat Messiah because I was stronger than he was.”

  “You don’t need to be so humble. Messiah is powerful enough that even I wouldn’t want to fight him. He’s not somebody a normal person could beat with a few tricks.”

  “But I am a normal person. You see...” I gave Bah a brief summary of how I’d taken down Messiah.

  “...Then you lied and told him this alien meteor weapon was your own magic?”

  “That’s right. So, like I said, I’m just a normal human who can’t use any magic. Wait, can’t you tell by looking at me?”

  Messiah was able to tell at a glance that I wasn’t a mage, as I remembered.

  “Determining if someone has magic, and how much they have, is a type of support spell. I’m specialized in offensive magic, so I can’t really use spells like that.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Come to think of it, he had asked me when we met if I could use area of effect offensive magic. I thought it was some kind of joke, but it turns out he was just mistaken.

  “I see... So you’re really just an ordinary boy, huh?”

  I felt a shiver as something cold ran down my spine.

  Reflexively, I turned to the side to look at Bah... but he just stood there with the same creepy-cute smile on his face, no different than before.

  “What’s wrong, Rekka?”

  “Nothing...”

  Was I just imagining things? Something still didn’t feel right, but just as I tried to convince myself otherwise...

  The door to the Hall of Sealing suddenly started to rumble and shake.

  ▽

  Leviathan had regained its power and was thrashing around on the other side of the door. At this rate, the seal could break at any moment... At least, that
’s what Bah said quietly to everyone when they gathered to see what the commotion was about.

  “It’s no sweat off my back, but I imagine you guys don’t want Leviathan coming to this world, do you? So I think we should go immediately.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I gulped and tried to steel myself after this dramatic change in our situation.

  “You didn’t sleep, Rekka. Are you okay?” Satsuki asked warily.

  “I was waiting for you,” Harissa said, upset.

  ...I wasn’t able to steel myself quite like I’d hoped.

  “Mmm! Wait, are you two really going to follow me?” I looked at them both again.

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll follow you anywhere.”

  Well, I figured that they’d said that... But wait, there was someone else.

  “What are you doing here, Tetra?”

  “I was the one who asked you to do this. I have a duty to see it through to the end.”

  “Wait, hold on...”

  “I’m going no matter what you say,” she said, smiling. “You said you’d stay with me. I can’t let you go into that dangerous place alone.”

  “...!”

  The pure look in her eyes pierced right through me, and I couldn’t help but smile.

  Why were all the heroines this time so stubborn?

  “Rekka... you’re going to tell me all about this when we get back, okay?”

  “......”

  For some reason, both Satsuki and Harissa were glaring at me angrily. What now?!

  “Bah, I just realized something. How are we going to cross the seal?” I turned to Bah, desperate.

  Depending on how we were going to do it, there was still a chance I could leave them here. They’d probably scream at me later, but it was better than taking them into danger.

  “This door can be opened from the outside as long as you follow the instructions. Of course, it takes a lot of power, so humans can’t do it on their own.”

  ...Which meant that once Bah and I went inside, it would stay open, huh?

  I tried to think of some way to get the girls to stay behind, but I knew in my heart that even if I were to lock them up somewhere, they’d just use their magic to follow me somehow.

  “Fine. But don’t do anything crazy, you guys.”