"W-well... you're still pretty amazing, at least... that demon from the Superd tribe actually got happily driven away? By the way, what exactly did you say?", Eris was like a curious little child, lying on his shoulder with her eyes full of anticipation.
"I told you to learn more things, but you never do. And now? Completely at a loss, aren't you?"
"What's the big deal! Isn't that what you're here for?", Eris pouted and said unconcernedly, then rubbed her head against him.
That dependent appearance was like that of a child who would never grow up, making Ash frown slightly. The smile on his face gradually faded, replaced by a serious expression, "I'm not going to stay with you for the rest of my life."
"What's wrong with that!"
"...Isn't that simply impossible under normal circumstances?"
Hearing this, Eris immediately panicked and suddenly tightened her arms around his neck. "You can't leave before you get old! Otherwise, I definitely won't let you off! Hmm... right! I haven't gotten revenge on you yet!"
"...Normally, when you hear that someone is going to get revenge on you, wouldn't you run away first?"
"Don't be so stingy! You're a man, aren't you!", Eris frowned and looked at Ash unhappily, her little mouth sticking out high, but the words she said were so overbearing that he couldn't help commenting, "...I think there's a difference between being a man and being a punching bag."
"And you call yourself a punching bag? You're obviously the one who bullies me all the time!"
"Then you should learn to behave."
"No! That would feel like I lost! At the very least, I have to beat you once first!"
"Then I lost."
"Are you messing with me! I'm gonna bite you!", His overly perfunctory answer made Eris angry and annoyed. She opened her little mouth, showing her cute canine teeth as she threatened him.
"...Not to mention, what else can you do besides getting my whole body covered in your saliva?"
"Getting you covered in saliva is enough! And don't say 'getting you covered in saliva'! If you dare run away, I'll even spit into your mouth when you sleep at night!"
"Wouldn't washing the clothes be too disgusting? You're a young lady, aren't you?"
"I don't care! I'll disgust you! Let's see if you still dare mess with me!"
As she spoke, she proudly snorted twice, but those words made Ash want to lecture her again.
The two of them continued toward the village while chatting about strange things.
However, although the village was within the range of his magical detection, unfortunately... even after the sun went down, they still hadn't reached it.
Eris, who was very interested in camping outdoors, regained her ability to move afterward and climbed down from his back, then began running around.
She even helped pick up the dry wood and branches that had been left behind God knows how many years ago... Although she was clumsy, she still managed to do it in a fairly decent manner.
———
Night fell. The two sat around the campfire, and Eris roasted the lizard meat Ash had previously cut apart while chatting with him.
She seemed to have completely forgotten that she was in danger. She was even incredibly excited after learning from him that they were currently on the Demon Continent, making Ash constantly feel that he had been worrying about her for nothing.
She hadn't asked at all what was happening at home. He didn't know whether she was afraid of making Ash worry about her or simply thought there was no point in asking.
It was only when the sun had completely set and night fell that, even though Ash had given her his shirt as a blanket, she still approached him with an extremely furtive air, carefully curling up and quietly moving closer to his side.
Only after seeing that he seemed not to have noticed anything did she grin and continue chattering for a while.
But then, because too many things had happened today, she unknowingly fell asleep from exhaustion with her head resting on his legs.
"She's pretty cute when she's asleep... What a shame about that personality."
Looking at her steady breathing and innocent sleeping face, Ash simply reached out and rubbed her head. After confirming that she was sleeping soundly, he quietly put her on the ground.
He spread out both hands, and a purple light instantly appeared. With a light push from him, it attached itself around Eris... and the temporary barrier was completed.
After using magic to confirm that there was no danger nearby, he instantly flew into the sky and began flying at supersonic speed, searching the Demon Continent for people caught in the disaster.
After all, he felt that he bore a little responsibility for this sudden disaster.
Therefore, throughout the entire night, he went directly from the northern end to the southern end, even reaching the southernmost Millis Continent in the latter half of the night.
Sometimes, he would kill monsters with a single killing spell; sometimes, he would rush into a crowd and kill all the thieves taking advantage of the chaos.
At the same time, he used battle to sustain battle. After killing those villains, he gave the money he collected to the victims, and as for the rest... he left them to figure it out themselves.
With just a rough round trip in a single night, more than a thousand people were rescued. There were especially many victims on the Millis Continent, so he also killed quite a number of thieves and slave traders who wanted to make money off the situation.
He had originally planned to continue, but he vagudely sensed an inexplicable rejection coming from the world.
Just like what he had sensed earlier... it was something resembling fate, or perhaps the will of the world, rejecting his existence.
It was as though the world could no longer tolerate it and was warning him not to interfere with the predetermined fate of this world.
———
A hard-to-describe subtle state, the abnormal rejection from space, all of it inevitably made Ash wonder whether this Great Transfer had been destined to happen from the beginning... Were many people simply supposed to die?
He couldn't figure it out, but out of caution, he still gave up on searching several continents as though plowing the land.
And just after making up his mind, while patrolling the sky, he unexpectedly discovered the corpse of an acquaintance in the sea through magical detection.
"...So this is fate too?"
Ash stood on the surface of the water, looking at the corpse drifting with the waves, the father of Eris. The expression on his face inevitably looked somewhat strange.
Based on his deeper understanding of fate, although he wasn't entirely certain, everyone in this world should have a route that was different yet already determined. It might deviate, but generally speaking, the overall outcome wouldn't differ too much.
For example, Eris's parents both gave him the feeling that they didn't have long to live, but...
"It happened this quickly? Quite a bit earlier than I expected... As expected, I still lack enough research in this area?"
Ash raised a hand slightly in distress, and the corpse automatically floated up from the surface of the water. It then instantly moved with him to the Fittoa Region, his homeland.
If he had only just died, Ash would still have been capable of using the time magic given to him by Shiro to reverse time within a small area, allowing him to avoid the fate of death, or he could have used the Miracle Magic in the system that he still hadn't fully researched.
But clearly, quite a long time had already passed. He should have died not long after the Great Transfer occurred, so there was simply no way to save him.
Therefore, Ash merely found a roughly suitable place, got a coffin, and buried the man in a pit.
"...But something still feels wrong. Something must have deviated from its course. Could he have died because of me?"
Ash slowly extended his hand, his fingertips lightly brushing across the cold gravestone, the expression on his face seeming somewhat uncertain.
It was precisely this speculation that made him want to temporarily avoid Eris for a while.
However, there was one thing he could determine: that lady's fate seemed to have undergone a slight, subtle change.
Because during the rescue operation throughout the night, besides accidentally discovering Sylphie's parents surviving in the wilderness, he had also unexpectedly rescued one of the maids from Eris's family.
Unfortunately, there was still no sign of Sylphie.
However, Ash had a premonition that Sylphie would not encounter any danger. Although this premonition had no concrete basis whatsoever, it was purely a premonition that arose after his vague probing of fate.