"Empty promises? Like what?"
Leon pressed without thinking.
"Like... bringing back dead family, lovers, friends. That sort of thing."
The voice that appeared out of nowhere answered casually, yet with absolute certainty.
"Hm?"
Who was answering his question?
Leon startled and whipped his head around.
"Heith?"
What he saw was a girl with pink twin-tails in full combat gear.
She was half-kneeling on the ground, gripping a staff taller than she was, first-class adventurer equipment: the Crimson Gold Heal Rod, focused on treating a critically wounded adventurer.
"Wait... what are you doing here? Wasn't the word on the street that Freya Familia's main force was off on a deep-floor Expedition in the Dungeon?"
Seeing the surprise on this mysterious man's face, Heith felt a long-absent surge of pride as a member of the Freya Familia.
She let out a light snort, her eyes sweeping contemptuously over the enemies now scattered and fleeing in every direction under the reinforcements' assault.
"You just believe whatever people tell you? You think only Evilus's idiot commanders know how to play mind games?"
"Or..."
She cut her eyes sideways at Leon.
"In your mind, every executive in the Freya Familia is just like Ottar? All muscle, no brain, living for the thrill of the next fight?"
Leon's cheek twitched. He opened his mouth, and "Aren't they?" nearly slipped out...
But then he caught sight of Dainsleif, Hogni Ragnar, who had materialized at Heith's side like a bodyguard at some point, and he swallowed the quip right back down.
Noticing the unfamiliar man beside Heith, Hogni gave Leon a brief, aloof nod. Then he immediately retreated deeper into his oversized cloak, arms crossed, standing there like a stone statue, eyes completely frozen in place.
The pose was the absolute pinnacle of "don't talk to me."
But anyone who knew him understood: this man with crippling social anxiety had been completely overwhelmed by the dense crowd of strangers around him and was in full shutdown mode.
That one polite nod to Leon? That was him giving it everything he had.
Heith: "..."
Leon: "..."
Watching Hogni pull this routine, especially in front of Leon, Heith nearly blacked out. Whatever dignity she'd just clawed back for the Familia evaporated the instant Hogni appeared and went full ice-statue mode.
She pressed a hand to her forehead, sighing repeatedly.
She didn't snap out of it until the wounded adventurer under her hands was being pressed so hard he nearly passed out. She jolted back to attention and resumed bandaging him with an apologetic wince.
"Leon!"
With the reinforcements' timely arrival, the pressure on Jeanne and the others dropped drastically. Healers and now-freed military police took over treating the wounded and evacuating civilians, and the girls finally broke free to regroup with Leon.
Hearing Jeanne's call, Leon returned Hogni's nod, gave Heith a quick wave, and headed toward them.
"So those two are his companions?"
Heith watched Leon's retreating figure, then spotted Jeanne and Rose's familiar faces. Thinking back to that brief encounter in Rivira Town, it clicked.
"No wonder... they came to reinforce us alongside Ottar and Gareth."
Leon dusted himself off, undid the top two buttons of his shirt, rolled up his sleeves, and asked, "Everyone okay? Nobody hurt?"
As he spoke, his eyes did a quick once-over of the women. Apart from some dirt on Kureha's blouse, the rest of them looked like they hadn't just spent the better part of a day fighting.
As for why Kureha was a little dusty?
Well... she'd just punched above her weight and taken out a Lv. 2 Evilus elite. And the price she paid for it was... a slightly dirty blouse. That's it.
"We're fine. Only Kureha was... a bit reckless."
Called out by Jeanne, Kureha squirmed a little under Leon's gaze.
Her cheeks flushed as she fidgeted. "I... I just wanted to catch up to everyone faster, so... when I finally had an opponent like those Evilus guys, my hands got itchy and I just sort of..."
Leon's mouth twitched at this humble-brag.
Good lord. In her mind, soloing an Evilus elite above her level was as routine as eating breakfast.
If any other adventurers heard that, they'd go green with envy.
"Since everyone's fine, let's get out of here. The cleanup isn't our problem anymore."
He paused, then added, "Keep it low-key. Who knows if there are still rats lurking around collecting intel."
Everyone nodded soberly.
...
...
The sun had slipped toward the horizon without anyone noticing.
At the edge of the skyline, Orario's towering walls were bathed in warm amber by the deepening dusk.
At the relief distribution plaza, Evilus's crazed, inhuman, indiscriminate massacre had finally been quelled with the steady stream of powerful reinforcements.
Another half hour passed.
Apart from a few scattered skirmishes, the overwhelming majority of Evilus and their allied forces had been crushed by the forces of order.
Leon and the others stood in an inconspicuous corner, watching the grim-faced military police sweep the battlefield and record the casualties.
How many people actually died in this attack?
Knowing the Guild, Leon figured... an incident this big couldn't be covered up. So they'd fall back on their classic move: spin control.
The thought that media manipulation was chasing him even in his second life made him chuckle.
While his mind wandered...
"..."
The group beside him watched the scene in silence for a while. Then Kureha let out a soft sigh.
"No matter where you go... humans killing each other always seems to be the main theme."
Rose nodded slightly. "At the root of it, it's just the complexity of human nature. Allegiances, beliefs, self-interest, greed... mix them all together and you've got the perfect breeding ground for war."
Hearing the women drift into this heavy topic, Leon's lips twitched silently. He shrugged, spread his hands, and said with an almost brutal bluntness, "Here's an even more depressing truth: human history is basically just a history of war. As long as humanity exists, war never stops."
He stripped the cruelty of human nature bare in a single sentence.
Jeanne fell silent. After a moment, she murmured to herself, "I wonder... is there truly a way to eliminate war for good?"
Oh? That question sounded familiar.
Leon raised an eyebrow, then let out a light laugh and snapped his fingers.
"Sure there is. I know a way to solve it once and for all."
"What is it?"
Ryuu, who had just walked over with Alise, her face as cold as ever, cut in without warning.
At the same time, Alise, Lyra, and the other girls of the Astraea Familia, along with the Varma sisters who had just approached, all turned curious eyes toward this seemingly "unremarkable" man.
Under all those stares, Leon flashed an easy smile and said something that sent a chill down every spine present.
"Simple. If you can't eliminate war, just eliminate the source of war."
He glanced around at the audience he'd attracted, his tone as casual as if he were discussing dinner plans.
"My suggestion: wipe out humanity entirely. That way, the world gets eternal peace!"
"Pretty great idea, right?"
"Not only does it solve war at the source, it makes the world so much more... mm, peaceful and beautiful!"
"I've even got the slogan ready for when I kick off the great extinction. It goes: For a Blue and Tranquil World!"
Jeanne and the others: "..."
Alise and the others: "..."
The Varma sisters: "..."
Hogni and Heith in the distance: "..."
Riveria and her elven warriors, who were walking over: "..."
After Leon finished speaking...
Dead silence.
The adventurers bustling around, the battered civilians, even the captured Evilus prisoners...
Every last person stared at the man who'd just casually proposed human extinction with the look of someone who'd seen a ghost.
Wait, hold on, buddy!
Are YOU the Evilus cultist here, or are WE?
You've already got the human extinction slogan ready to go. Who the hell is gonna believe this wasn't premeditated?
"Cult! You're in a cult!!!"
One of the bound Evilus prisoners lying on the ground thrashed wildly, staring at Leon in pure terror, desperately trying to squirm away.
Everyone looked at the Evilus fanatic who'd been scared witless by a single sentence from Leon, then back at the man himself, standing there looking like he'd just commented on the weather.
A rare, collective silence fell over the crowd again.
This man was a devil.
Several of the officers present exchanged complicated looks, all independently reaching the same conclusion...
Never, ever make an enemy of this guy.
Anyone who could say something that insane with a straight face had to have something seriously wrong with his head.
Faced with the crowd's bewildered, horrified, and deeply conflicted stares, Jeanne and the girls nearly died of secondhand embarrassment, toes curling hard enough inside their boots to dig a foundation.
The Holy Maiden grabbed Leon by the arm, turned to the crowd with an apologetic expression, and bowed.
"Sorry, so sorry. He's just been under too much stress. He spoke without thinking and said some things that gave everyone the wrong idea. Please, nobody take it to heart."
Everyone: "..."
...
...
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