Half a day later, Esdeath finally woke from unconsciousness.
She discovered that she was lying inside a luxurious room she had never seen before. Beneath her was an incredibly soft bed, while a velvet blanket covered her body.
"Where is this?"
She turned her head and happened to see Rowan sitting beside the bed reading a book.
"You're awake."
Rowan put down the magic book in his hands and smiled.
"This is a room in one of the finest hotels in the Labyrinth City of Orario."
"Where's Reinhard?"
"He went back a long time ago."
After the battle ended, Rowan had already sent Reinhard back to the world of Re:Zero.
"Oh."
Esdeath stared blankly at the ceiling and fell silent, seemingly replaying the previous battle in her mind.
Only after a long while did she finally speak.
"That Reinhard… He was really strong."
"Isn't that obvious? The guy is basically the strongest person in his world."
Rowan smiled meaningfully.
"By the way, the Reinhard you fought was actually a weakened version."
Esdeath: "???"
"What? You don't believe me?"
Rowan glanced sideways at her.
It was not that Esdeath refused to believe him.
She knew Rowan had no reason to lie to her about something like this.
She was simply curious about what he meant.
"It's simple."
"In Reinhard's world, he is someone loved by the world itself."
Rowan explained the concept of Divine Protections to Esdeath and told her that Reinhard possessed at least a hundred different protections.
More importantly, if Reinhard truly wanted one, he could even obtain new Divine Protections whenever necessary.
It was only because he had traveled to another world that those protections had disappeared.
"In other words, the Reinhard you fought was an insanely nerfed version of himself."
"If you had fought Reinhard at his full strength, you might not even have been able to withstand a single sword strike."
The great spirit Puck, who accompanied the heroine Emilia, normally appeared as a cat-like spirit only nine centimeters long.
But his true form was one of the Six Great Spirits, the supreme spirit governing fire, known as the Beast of the End of the Frozen Wasteland.
He had formed a contract with Emilia and acted almost like her father, regarding her existence as the very meaning of his own life.
Unable to tolerate a world without Emilia, Puck had made a contract that required him to destroy the world after Emilia's death.
And Reinhard killed him in two sword strikes.
That alone demonstrated how terrifying Reinhard was at full strength.
"So I'm still not strong enough."
Esdeath had once believed herself incredibly powerful.
But after fighting Reinhard, she finally understood what it meant for there to always be a higher mountain beyond the one you had climbed.
Perhaps she had been the strongest in her own world.
But after entering another world, she might not even compare to some insignificant nobody.
Therefore, Esdeath made up her mind.
She would continue becoming stronger.
And the world of DanMachi was undoubtedly one of the most suitable places for her to do so.
Not only did it possess the Dungeon, but it also had the Falna of the gods.
As long as one ventured into the Dungeon and fought, one could continue growing stronger.
After thinking it over carefully, Esdeath decided to remain in this world and continue improving herself.
Until the day she could conquer the entire Dungeon.
Rowan did not stop her.
"Fine. Since you've made up your mind, find a Familia and join it."
Falna was indeed an excellent catalyst for growth.
It could allow Esdeath's strength to increase rapidly within a relatively short period of time.
Esdeath had been thinking the same thing.
At first, Rowan intended to have her join Hestia's Familia.
But Esdeath wanted to join the strongest Familia in Orario.
After all, she herself had once been the strongest.
Naturally, she wanted to join the strongest organization available.
Rowan: "Uh… That works too."
"Orario currently has two Familias standing side by side at the top."
"One is the Freya Familia."
"The other is the Loki Familia."
"They're known as the twin kings of Orario."
"Pick one."
Esdeath had already spent enough time in Orario to know what kind of place the Freya Familia was.
So without the slightest hesitation—
she chose the Loki Familia.
Rowan rolled his eyes but did not stop her.
He simply told Esdeath to go find Loki herself.
As for Rowan—
he left the world of DanMachi and returned to the world of Re:Zero.
By the time Rowan found Reinhard, the Sword Saint had already located the royal descendant Felt in the slums and brought her back.
Unfortunately—
Felt herself was extremely uncooperative.
From her perspective, Reinhard was nothing more than a complete stranger.
A stranger had suddenly appeared before her, claimed she was some kind of royal descendant, and told her to participate in some damn Royal Selection…
What kind of nonsense was that?
Why the hell should Felt participate in some stupid Royal Selection?
What did the fate of this country have to do with her?
So when Rowan saw Reinhard again, the man was visibly more exhausted than before.
It seemed Felt had put him through quite a lot.
Even so, Reinhard forced himself to regain his composure and deal with Rowan.
He even made a small joke.
"You didn't come looking for me because you want me to fight someone else again, did you?"
"Not this time."
Rowan shook his head.
"I came to ask whether you know where Roswaal lives."
"Roswaal?"
"The Margrave?"
"That's right."
"Why are you looking for him?"
"He's a disciple of the Witch of Greed."
"His home also contains a Great Spirit and a considerable collection of private magic books."
"I want to read those books."
"A disciple of the Witch of Greed?"
Reinhard looked completely confused.
If he remembered correctly, the Witch of Greed had died several hundred years ago.
Yet Roswaal was supposedly only a margrave who had lived for a few decades.
How could the two possibly be connected?
Rowan smiled and explained that Roswaal was actually an old monster who had lived for more than four hundred years.
He prolonged his lifespan by taking over the bodies of his direct descendants.
That was how he had survived from four centuries ago until the present day.
Reinhard frowned.
"If what you say is true, then every generation of Roswaal has actually been the same person?"
"More or less."
Rowan nodded.
Reinhard had never had a particularly favorable impression of Roswaal to begin with.
After hearing this, his opinion became even worse.
In fact—
he was disgusted.
Taking over the bodies of his own descendants to extend his life.
Erasing generation after generation of his own bloodline.
What kind of behavior was that?
If Reinhard were not the Sword Saint—
if he were not the knight among knights—
then when encountering someone like that, he might simply cut them down on the spot.
Disgusting.
Truly disgusting.
"Why would he do something like that?"
Reinhard asked.
What kind of obsession could drive someone to commit such a horrifying violation of basic human morality?
Rowan replied,
"Because he loves his teacher, the Witch of Greed."
"He wants to resurrect her."
"So he refuses to die and has desperately clung to life until the present day."
Reinhard: "…"
He did not understand.
But he was deeply shocked.
After a long while, Reinhard finally gave Rowan Roswaal's location.
He also warned him,
"Whatever Roswaal asks of you, it would probably be best not to agree too easily."
"Relax."
"I'm only going there to look through the library."
"Besides, those books don't even belong to Roswaal."
"They originally belonged to his teacher, the Witch of Greed."
Rowan gave Reinhard a reassuring gesture before turning and leaving.
Reinhard watched his departing figure and sighed.
That's exactly why I'm worried.
Anything connected to a Witch was never simple.
But considering Rowan's unfathomable strength, Reinhard began wondering whether he was worrying unnecessarily.
This mysterious man from another world was far more terrifying than Reinhard had initially imagined.
Forget a dead Witch.
Even a living Witch might not be able to do much against someone like him.
Whatever.
He should focus more on Felt.
At the moment, Reinhard was already suffering enough headaches from the extremely rebellious girl.
…
Meanwhile, following Reinhard's directions, Rowan soon arrived at the border region of the Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica and found Roswaal's mansion.
It was an extremely luxurious European-style manor.
Gardens.
Fountains.
Plazas.
A vast front courtyard.
Everything one could ask for was present.
There were more than a hundred rooms alone.
Yet the mansion had only two maids.
Ram and Rem.
If the twins had not been capable of using magic, cleaning such an enormous mansion would have been anything but easy.
Rowan swept the mansion with Clairvoyance Magic.
Roswaal was nowhere to be found.
Instead, he found the heroine Emilia and her spirit Puck.
Along with the twin maids currently cleaning the mansion.
Apparently, Roswaal was not home.
But that did not matter.
Rowan had never come here to meet Roswaal in the first place.
Avoiding everyone inside the mansion, Rowan secretly arrived before a particular door and pushed it open.
Behind the door—
was a library.
Bookshelf after bookshelf lined both walls.
The shelves were packed with books of every kind, most of them related to magic.
At the center of the room stood a chair.
And sitting on that chair was a little girl.
She had long, pale cream-colored hair styled into two vertical drill-shaped twin tails.
She usually wore an elaborate frilly dress, giving her the appearance of an adorable doll.
However, her expression toward almost everyone around her was generally cold and distant.
Anyone familiar with the story knew exactly who she was.
Beatrice.
A Great Spirit created by Echidna, the Witch of Greed.
Her affinity was Yin, and she had mastered virtually every form of Yin Magic.
Including, but not limited to—
Space Magic.
Time Magic.
Gravity Magic.
Healing Magic.
And many others.
Meanwhile, Beatrice, who had been quietly reading inside the Forbidden Library, suddenly saw an unfamiliar person who clearly did not belong in Roswaal's mansion enter her room.
Her eyes widened instinctively.
"Who are you?"
"Someone from another world."
"Hah?"
Beatrice had originally been preparing to blast Rowan with magic and capture him on the spot.
But after hearing that answer—
her brain practically stopped working.
Someone from another world?
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
The answer was so completely unexpected that Beatrice's thoughts briefly crashed.