Chapter 21: 21

It had been almost three days since the day Phoenix and I had fought.

I had won, and Phoenix had been defeated.

Not only did Phoenix put me and Demiurge in the area of her magic, but she also put herself in the area of her magic.

I thoroughly scolded her for using magic without thinking ahead as blood rushed to her head.

Phoenix was exhausted and wilted from being scolded much, but there was nothing she could do about it.

If it hadn’t been for that, everyone in the room could have been wiped out.

I too was strained in my words.

But after my sermon.

Phoenix, realizing that she may have involved her beloved Demiurge in a magical attack, tried to take her own life in a daze.

『 I’m sorry, Demiurge-sama! Even though my blood was boiling in my head, I put Demiurge-sama in danger! I will atone for this crime with my life! When I’m dead, please give my mana to the World Tree! So, goodbye, Demiurge-sama! 』

As soon as she said that, she really tried to kill herself, and Demiurge and I had to rush to stop her.

At this time, Demiurge’s words were enough to dissuade her from doing so.

『 If you are remorseful, please help me protect the World Tree. With you, the protection of the World Tree will become stronger. Besides, we have met again after several thousand years. It would be sad to say goodbye now. 』

『 De-Demiurge-sama~~~! 』

And Phoenix, shaking with emotion, took Demiurge’s hand and gave up on committing suicide.

Thus, Phoenix officially joined our ranks as a member of the World Tree’s protectors.

But…………

“Oi, Ares. Why don’t you just accept Demiurge-sama’s love?”

“No, it’s…”

Phoenix started to call me by my name.

If you ask me if we’re getting closer, I don’t think so, it’s just because it’s easier to call me Ares than to call me human.

Well, I guess the bottom line is that Phoenix still doesn’t recognize me.

Since I share my life with Demiurge, I’ve been able to treat her abilities as my own.

The【 Magic Barrier 】and【 Demise Emperor 】that I used in the battle with Phoenix are both Demiurge’ power.

To be honest, the fact that I was able to use that power―――even if it wasn’t a complete replica―――was no small shock to me.

In fact, in the battle with Phoenix, I didn’t feel that she was that much of a threat, even though I was dealing with her.

This was all because my power was enhanced overall… Maybe I was unaware of my power, but I was aware of it somehow.

I’ve already explained to Phoenix about me and Demiurge sharing a life.

I needed to talk to her about why I could use the power of Demiurge.

After I finished the whole explanation, Phoenix started to poke at me even more.

To be honest, it was a pain in the ass to deal with.

Even now, she was poking at the fact that I hadn’t responded to Demiurge’s goodwill with clear words.

“I can’t stand it! Demiurge-sama appeals to you so much, day in and day out, but you always turn your head away, or slink away from the scene! Not only do you never answer, you always run away! Don’t you feel ashamed to be a man?!”

“Uu… I know it’s shameful too, but…”

“And then!”

“But I still don’t know what I think of her… Until it’s clear, I can’t just accept the other person’s favor.”

Love is not a one-way street.

I believe that love can only be nurtured when the feelings of both parties are mutual.

I think there is something wrong with the idea of going out with someone because they are doing you a favor.

However, Phoenix raised her eyebrows at my idea and sullenly pouted her lips.

“Oh, my God! You’re getting on my nerves! I mean, Ares, when the hell are you going to give Demiurge-sama an answer?”

“Huh? Err, that’s… about six months.”

“That’s too long! Are you stupid? Even Demiurge-sama can’t wait that long! You have one week to come to a decision!”

“No, that’s too short! At least three months…”

“That’s too long! Then this is the biggest concession you can make! One month! That’s the deal! I’m not giving you any more time!”

“……”

You say that as if it’s already decided.

But if you think about it, Demiurge has been waiting for two years to be with me.

I guess it’s not a good idea to make her wait another few months…

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Damn.

“…Okay, I’ll have an answer within a month. So, give me a break.”

“You just have to know, only a month. If the reply is even one day late, I’ll burn you to the ground! You’d better prepare yourself!”

Well, after being poked and prodded by Phoenix, I was made to promise Demiurge that I would give her an answer within a month.

Even though she didn’t want to acknowledge me, she seemed to respect Demiurge’s feelings and didn’t want to get rid of me anymore.

Still, even I can somehow imagine that this is quite a complicated situation from her point of view.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Demiurge, there’s something I failed to mention before, you know, when I told you about the inefficiency of mana gathering.”

“Oh, by the way, I didn’t hear you through. So, what were we talking about?”

“I was talking about how we can’t gather mana efficiently by hunting the demons that live around this forest.”

“Oh, I see.”

*pan* Demiurge clapped her hands.

Three days ago, a lot was going on with Phoenix’s appearance and the battle, and I guess she forgot about a lot of things in the joint-life that started recently.

Incidentally, Phoenix is now out of the forest, hunting for demons.

As a side note, it seems that the elves’ wards in this forest can be passed through by the demon Phoenix when she is in her human form.

Perhaps the transformation causes some kind of change in the mana.

“So. Thanks to the addition of the Phoenix, the amount of mana I can collect in a day has increased, but it’s still not enough. That’s why I think I’ll go out to the human town for now.”

“To the town?”

“Yeah.”

In the first place, a few demons are living in the plains outside the forest.

It’s been almost two weeks since we started living with the Demiurge.

However, there are only two kinds of demons that we have been able to confirm, the【 Green Slime 】and the【 Kill Rabbit 】.

The rest are just animals that are not classified as demons.

This not only meant that I couldn’t get good quality Anima Crystals, but I also couldn’t get enough of them.

So I went out to the town to gather information on the appearance of demons, and was thinking of going on an expedition to collect anima crystals.

Humans are very sensitive to information about demons.

They even have a map of what kind of demons live in each region.

If we can utilize this information, we can collect more anima crystals than before.

In fact, it would be best if I became an adventurer, but I’m supposed to be dead already.

Besides, I have a history of getting into trouble with the Adventurer’s Guild.

To be honest, I’m not going to become an adventurer because I’m afraid of being found out.

I also want to go to the town to earn some money.

Besides, this forest used to be inhabited by elves, and is rich in high-quality medicinal herbs.

The fur obtained from killing kill rabbits is stored in the Space Storage from Sofia’s class, Sage, and I have a good number of them, as well as a literal money tree called【 Holy Apple 】.

As for the【 Holy Apple 】, it would be a hassle to bring a large number of them to the market at once, so the limit would be to make money from two or three at a time.

This is still very close to the limit.

This is how I gathered up the money to purchase items such as weapons and healing potions, as well as the equipment I would need to live in this forest.

It’s hard to live like this in the wild―――even though we’re sleeping in the undergrowth of a tree.

I would like to have at least a tent for sleeping.

“―――So, I’m going to go to town to gather information on demons and earn some money. As soon as I’m ready, I’ll go on a demon hunting expedition and collect the anima crystals. This way, it should be more efficient than just collecting a small amount of Anima Crystals every day.”

“I see.”

Demiurge appeared to think about it.

After thinking for a while, she seemed to have concluded and raised her gaze to look at me.

“You can go to the city… but I won’t allow you to have an affair with another woman.”

“I won’t!”

The next day, I talked to Demiurge, who said that with a serious face, and I gave her a big squeeze.

The day after our conversation.

I decided to head to a town close to this forest called―――【 Cid 】.

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