The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

“……Whew. –!? Ouch–!”

“Don’t just stand around like that, sir!? Do you have any idea how lonely I was!? I popped up here alone, and you were nowhere around! Where’d you do, sir!?”

“Did you really need to hit my head like that!? The hell are you so damn angry about!?”

“WELL! Just now, you were… being so friendly with Lylia! And you were showing off so hard, your nose was stretching like that liar wood puppet– AHH! MY NOSE IS TOO SHORT TO DO THAT!!”

“THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN ON ABOUT!? I was just trying to look cool for them! I mean, I looked cool, right!? Perfect acting, perfect scene-setting!”

“Apologize, sir!”

“To who!?”

“To the word ‘cool’!”

“That’s not even a person!”

“What!?”

“Where are we!?”

“Why’d you not ask that earlier!? I swear, your priorities… Well, other than the fact that it’s a wasteland as far as I could see, no idea!”

“WHAT!? That’s an important detail you’ve ignored for so long! You should’ve pointed that out earlier, you fool!”

Rather than focusing on defeating the Devil King, maybe I should have taught her the concept of priorities first.

Really, who the hell welcomes a guy home by hitting his head? Of course I’d be angry with that treatment.

“…Huh? Are your eyes all right now, sir?”

“Yeah, they’re working perfectly. God must’ve helped patch them up while I was being sent through time– Wait, you mean you hit my head without knowing that my eyes were done healing!? What the fuck!?”

“Well, you looked perfectly fine to me, so… My paw kinda slipped.”

Man, did I really raise my Familiar to hit people’s heads on a whim? Where did I mess up?

“Oh, but I only do this to you! Don’t worry, sir!”

God damn it.

“Also, there’s still another thing I don’t get!”

Where’d all her curiosity come from, anyway? Did she catch it from me or what?

“Oh yeah?”

“So when we got sent to the past, it felt all rough and chaotic, but why’d it feel so smooth and natural on the way back, sir?”

“With Devil King Lucifer gone, God’s power from that era must have returned to normal. Would explain why we didn’t even see any Spell Circles being invoked, too — He normally is that powerful.”

For a while then, I’d wondered how we would make our way back, but looks like God gave us a helping hand one last time. It’s not exactly known whether or not I would be able to invoke a Space-Time Transmission spell properly, after all.

I mean, with the arcane energy boost I got from the Holy Warrior blessing, I might have been able to actually do it. But that was right after overworking my body to hell and back, so I would’ve had to wait a while… and even then, at the end of the day, it might’ve been too reckless of a move to attempt.

Pochi nodded to my explanation, then raised her paws again, seeming to have remembered something.

“Oh! One more thing, one more thing!”

“What now?”

“I’ve been wondering this since I got back here…”

“Wondering what?”

“My body feels kinda heavier!”

Did she notice that because she’s been waiting a while for me?

Suspecting that it might happen to me as well — though I’m not feeling anything wrong for now — I tried moving my whole body.

Hmm…… actually, I do feel somewhat heavy, too. Wait a second…

“Is something wrong, Master? Are you… invoking your Appraisal Glasses?”

Yes, I am. First, I reflected its effect onto myself, and looked at my own status summary.

“–! I see…!”

“W-what did you see, Master!? Your face looks… scary! I have a bad feeling about this!”

Right, she’d be able to tell what this kind of expression change means, what with us being friends for so many centuries… And it works against me sometimes.

“My Holy Warrior title… it’s gone.”

“W-wait, what about my Holy Warrior’s Familiar title, sir!?”

“THAT’s what you’re worried about!? Hmmm…? Yup, that’s gone, too.”

“NOOOOOOOOO!?!?”

Man, does she have to be so dramatic? It’s not like she also lost her Heavenly Beast title or anything.

Still, even though our levels are still the same, not having the benefits of the Holy Warrior-type titles makes a lot of difference… in a negative sense.

“WHY!? HOW!? You didn’t mess something up again, did you, Master!?”

“Why the hell do you always think it’s my fault!? The Devil King isn’t a thing now, so there won’t be any Holy Warriors, either! Shouldn’t that be obvious!?”

“But it’s so cool! I wanna have something like ‘Former Holy Warrior,’ at least!”

“Yeah… right. Maybe God in this era is so weak that He can’t even give us that.”

“Oh my God…”

Seeing Pochi with her face down, I used the Appraisal Glasses to read my status summary again.

After all, I need to know exactly how strong I am before I can consider how I’ll go about achieving my goals — hell, even live my life.

My arcane energy is…… huh?

“I don’t want to see you making that face again, sir… what’s the problem this time?”

“Most of my… arcane energy… is gone?”

Suddenly, an impact ran through my head — heavier than before.

“GAH–!? The hell are you doing, furball!?”

“You should’ve turned off your Appraisal Glasses sooner! Now what, sir!? Do I have to wait!? When can you use it again– ngh–!?”

I jammed my fist into Pochi’s mouth to make her shut up.

“Hng–! Mmph! Hah–! Mmph–!”

Huh…? My MP is capped at 5,000? This isn’t because my auto-regen stopped… And casting Giving Magic wouldn’t get it over that value, either.

This means my arcane energy capacity must be limited by something, for some reason.

The cause is… probably God.

Which means He has a mission for me. Again.

Yeah, that’s probably it, especially seeing that there isn’t any restriction on Pochi’s energy.

“Mmph! Ngh–! Gwoh–!”

“Whoops, sorry. I needed some PEACE AND QUIET to think things over.”

“I was about to eat it, sir! It was just the right level of salty!”

Now I’m worried that she’ll eat me in my sleep.

“So, what’re we gonna do, sir?”

“We’ll probably know where we are when we reach a human settlement… And guessing from the sun, that way is north. If we’re back to the right point in time, we can get to Beilanea using the general directions and landmarks we remember.”

“Why don’t we just teleport to the Spell Circle in Pochisley Agency, sir?”

“…You’re a genius!”

“Eh-hem!”

Pochi puffed up with pride, while I used the tip of my Drynium Rod to draw a Teleportation Spell Circle that connects to the one in my room.

Fortunately, I can still invoke this spell with my low energy level.

“……Huh?”

“It’s not working? Did you mess up somewhere, sir!?”

“No, there’s no way I’d cast this spell wrong, of all things. Maybe someone erased it?”

“Well, how about you tell someone that we’re back, sir? With the Telepathic Call magecraft.”

“That’s it!”

“Eh-hem!”

“……Nope, doesn’t work!”

“No way!”

Even Pochi is surprised. I gazed at the northern sky, feeling that even worse revelations are still ahead of us.

I can’t connect to Lina, Irene, Tifa, Haruhana, Gaston, any of Team Silver… Should that even be possible?

No, that can’t be.

What the hell did God do this time?

“Well… first of all, let’s head north.”

“Hmm! Yes, sir!”

Pochi gigantified, and I hopped on her back.

“Rise, A-rise, All Up: Count 2 & Remote Control!”

“I’m going full speed ahead!”

“Yeah!”

“AWOOOOOOOOO!!”

Pochi dashed through the landscape, fast as a storm.

After a while, we saw a familiar — and quite nostalgic — mountain trail.

“…This should be the Giants’ Passage, right, sir?”

“Should be, yeah. Which means at the end of this road is…”

“Beilanea!”

Pochi wagged her tail with joy, but I couldn’t shake this… strangely bad feeling.

The monsters that appeared along the way were not so strong.

At least we don’t seem to be in the era of Holy Warriors anymore, but… Hmm…

“I see it, Master! That’s Beilanea!”

The city in the distance doesn’t give off any different impression from the land we departed from years ago.

The city’s signboard clearly says “Beilanea,” so I can confirm that it’s no longer Brunnera… but things still don’t feel right.

We entered the city and immediately headed for the northern district, where Pochisley is located.

“………Huh?”

“This can’t be right, Master…”

The Pochisley Agency is…… gone.

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