Chapter 95: 95 – Abridged Conclusion

Technique God Laplace, currently known as Pierre Greyrat.

A bit of an inside joke with a few different levels, but it was the name he was going by at the moment while making sure nothing went too awry.

Today was the day. The day where everything would go down in the capital and fate would change.

It would start with the formal ball at lunchtime where all the nobles would come in and do their thing. Trussed up and posh, they'd do a show of power, flaunt their wealth, yadayada. After that, everyone would be released into the night to celebrate the midsummer festival among the common folk where wine, beer, and all sorts of drinks would be served.

A full day of festivities.

And the day where Tristina Purplehorse would be kidnapped and forced to serve as the Asura Kingdom Prime Minister's personal sex slave for the next ten or so years if time flowed as it normally should.

But that wouldn't happen here.

At least, that was the plan.

The city capital would be packed with people and nobles from all around, so acting would be a bit tricky. But things were set up and a lot of coordination with Philip and Sauros... Mostly Philip. Anyway, there was a fool-proof plan to make things work and reduce both casualties and damage.

Like that, destiny would change and things would work out. And in changing destiny, Pierre would have more room to act and less restraints on his powers in fighting against Being W down the line.

In theory.

That was the entire framework behind Old Rudeus's attempt to go back in time and something that Pierre had refined and tested.

It was simple. Obvious.

Cause and effect still existed in this world, even if it wasn't similar to Earth. So if Pierre wanted an effect far in the future, he needed to change the cause in the present to make that happen. But if he tried to break causality by doing too much, then the world would push back on him and things would fly out of hand.

Mostly by making this world's Rudy either see him as the enemy or develop into a terrifying force that would result in the entire timeline being forcibly pruned by reality.

In theory.

It hadn't happened yet, and Pierre didn't want to see if that would actually happen.

Mostly because if it did, he had a feeling that the pruning wouldn't effect this timeline's Rudy because of the stunt Being W tried earlier in trying to mix an alternate Rudeus with Rudy. Well, that and because Pierre was serving as the 'anchor' in this reality while the other side figured out how to tie things up on that end so they could finish this in one go.

So as long as Pierre played by the rules and didn't do anything too crazy like say rush up to the Asura Kingdom's first prince and lop his head off while instilling Princess Ariel as the rightful heir... And so long as he didn't announce himself as Laplace until a certain event came to pass, everything should be fine

In theory.

Yes, in theory.

But in practice...

A sword cut towards Pierre's neck. As it did, space itself seemed to ripple. Blades, lashing out at him from every direction all at once.

But that was an illusion.

Pierre swept his own sword up to meet the approaching blade. Holding his sword with his left hand, Pierre flicked his wrist and then stomped on the ground with his right foot.

A clear sound echoed through the air. A beautiful chime that shouldn't have emerged from clashing steel.

"Oho?" An elderly female voice echoed, followed by the sound of rustling robes. Reida Reia, the strongest Water God swordsman... and someone who *should not be here.*

Reida smiled and said, "To stop my blade and nullify <Deprivation Sword Kingdom>... It seems that man was right. There truly was some interesting sights to experience during this midsummer festival."

Pierre smiled back, resisting the urge to cut her down now to eliminate the problems later. Instead, he said, "I'm honored to face such a splendid secret technique."

"Don't play the fool." Reida pulled her sword back and said, "That isn't even your dominant hand. Though, for a Dragon Race, I suppose us humans are mere insects in your eyes."

Pierre took a quick glance at his surroundings.

Chaos. That was the only way to describe it.

Knights and adventurers clashing in the streets. The ordinary townsfolk scrambling to get as far away as possible. Men bearing various coats of arms clashing in the streets with shouts of heretics and traitors.

That old man Sauros smashing people trying to take advantage of the chaos with his fists while shouting about honor and duty.

Heh. Some things didn't change in the end.

But the most important people...

There. Paul and Lilia were moving with Ghyslaine to intercept a carriage heading out of the city. And fast in pursuit, there was Philip and Hilda... guarded by Gal Farion?

Argh, what even *was* this timeline?

Pierre thought that Being W sent those two here to stop him from rescuing Tristina, but his influence was completely gone from them and had spread to the knights instead. And then there were the hordes of monsters closing in from the distance that seemed to just *coincidentally* appear...

Being W had lost it. There was no other explanation for it.

Monsters randomly appearing in droves was inevitable. That was a fixed event in this timeline since the metastasis event was nullified. But it was *far* too early for that. And considering the flow of mana, it hadn't happened yet.

This was a localized event. Something that Being W dropped in just to stir the pot.

Or did he get baited that hard by Paul and Lilia showing up here?

A flash of silver.

Pierre leaned back, narrowly dodging Reida's sword.

"Tch." The Water God pulled her sword away and said, "As I thought. Even after reaching this level, it's not enough to qualify meeting your gaze."

Pierre glanced at the chaos around him and said, "I'm simply concerned with the surroundings. Are you going to ignore the innocents?"

"It's a pity. But if I let someone like you off, I won't be able to repay my debt to that man." Reida raised her blade again and said, "It isn't now... but I know. You intend to remove him in the future. The Prime Minister is in the way of the princess, after all."

Pierre narrowed his eyes. "...And you seem to know a lot more than you should."

Reida laughed and said, "Well. I guess you can say this old woman had a divine revelation. So." She aimed her sword back at Pierre and said, "Shall we dance?"

Pierre stared at Reida and then let out a deep sigh. After that, he raised his sword and muttered, "Why was it multiverse theory? Why couldn't it just have been two divergent timelines winding back on itself? This would have been so much easier if I could have just done a time leap instead..."

"Pardon?"

Pierre shook his head. "Let's just get this act over with-"

"You." A cold and intimidating male voice called out from the side. But while it was cold and intimidating, a hint of confusion could be detected in it.

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At least by Pierre. Mostly because he knew the speaker very well.

He had to, considering that he stole that guy's identity to pull off some ploys in the background.

Even so...

Pierre groaned. "It's official. Hitogami's gone off the deep end. All of these half-baked developments are just like an amateur trashy web novel- Ah, crap."

Immense pressure. An explosion of mana, flooding the air with crimson and sending people flying in every direction from the sheer force of it.

And then Pierre suddenly had a fist rushing towards his face, courtesy of Orsted.

-LIV-

A giant explosion echoed from behind.

Paul glanced back briefly before focusing his attention back in front of him.

Lilia looked up at Paul from her spot in his arms and said, "Do you think it's fine?"

Paul nodded and said, "That Pierre guy's in the city. Not sure how strong he is, but unless someone like Orsted comes along, things should be fine."

"...I think that I see Orsted's mana in that mix though?"

"...It'll be fine."

Right. Paul didn't know Pierre very well... despite the guy seeming really familiar for some reason. But he knew Pierre well enough that he could take care of things.

Though Paul was confused on why Orsted was there... Did Rudy send the guy? A trump card in case things went too far south?

Paul continued talking and said, "He's probably a contingency plan of our genius son anyway."

"Ah." Lilia nodded and said, "Rudy would do something like that."

"Right?"

At that time, a dense poison mist flew towards them.

Paul wrinkled his nose and then swung his sword through the air, aiming at the cloud.

Silver light flashed along Paul's sword before it exploded, splitting the mist apart and erasing it.

In the distance, a faint male voice called out. "That's impossible! They said that bastard was just a Sword Saint!"

Another faint male voice echoed. "Forget about his rank! That mist should have been enough to take out a Sword King! How did he just blow it apart?! Even a King-Ranked healing mage wouldn't be able to detox it! What is that guy?! A magic swordsman?!"

Lilia chuckled and said, "It seems like your brother underestimated you."

"More like my paranoid son overprepared me." Paul frowned and said, "How the hell did he know that the Notos family had a bunch of North Saints and North Kings on the payroll? I didn't even know there were that many around here. Isn't the base for them in the Magic Continent?"

The current head of the North God style was a Demon Lord or something, right?

"Well. Whatever the case..." Lilia adjusted her glasses and then looked at the frantically fleeing carriage. "...Should we end this play and rescue the fair maiden? As much as I've enjoyed spending time with you, I do believe we should hurry home."

"True." Paul shifted his grip on Lilia and said, "Do you want me to finish it, or do you want to try out Rudy's gift?"

"I had enough fun using it on those nobles, so I'm fine."

"Alright." Paul nodded and then focused. As he did, his vision changed. Normally invisible lights flickered into existence. And as it did, a faint silver light stretched out from Paul's sword, resonating with the surrounding lights. "Then I'll finish this in one blow-"

"Don't forget about the girl."

"...Two blows. Er. You can handle the aftermath, right?"

Lilia rolled her eyes and then reached up to adjust her bracelet. "I will prepare the barrier spell, yes."

"Great. Then on three. One. Two... Three!"

Pure white light flashed as a barrier formed around the kidnapped girl lying in the carriage.

Countless silver lights flashed as Paul's sword and Battle Aura shot out, tearing everything except for the barrier into shreds.

Paul came to a stop staring blankly at the sight of the bound up girl floating above a giant crater where a carriage had just been. A carriage that was nowhere to be seen, along with the abductors and operators that had just been there a second ago.

There wasn't even any crimson mist or dust. Just... nothing.

Lilia gave Paul a pointed look. "...Husband?"

Paul cleared his throat and said, "In my defense, Rudy overprepared me for this."

It was the sword. It was *definitely* the sword. Paul didn't do anything different. He was just swinging his sword like usual.

Okay, maybe he was swinging it more than usual. Instead of trying to hit three times at once, he was hitting a bunch of times at once. But even then, it shouldn't have *vaporized* the bad guys and the carriage...

Silence.

The girl, Tristina Purplehorse, slowly spun around in the air and turned to look at Paul with wide eyes.

At that time, horses whinnied from behind as another carriage pulled up. Philip and the rest of the rescue party.

When they did, booming laughter echoed. Gal Farion. "I knew it! Paul you bastard! You were holding out on me!"

And after that...

"In the name of Saint Milis and all that is above... What did I tell you about keeping a low profile, Cousin?"

...Philip said his piece.

Paul wanted to respond. He wanted to say that it was Rudy's fault for being so paranoid and giving him a crazy sword that seemed to be able to rip apart space itself.

But then he remembered how things had been going so far whenever he said something.

So instead, Paul just laughed and then shut his mouth.