What… what the hell was this?
Yazuki was momentarily stunned. But then a thought struck him.
He immediately checked his own body and realized that the hero gear, which was once brimming with holy power, had now been almost completely eroded by his darkness, and it had started leaking.
Reflected in the eyes of the stunned girl in front of him, he saw his own armored appearance.
Two places on his abdomen, one on his right gauntlet, another by his left elbow... In total, seventeen spots across his body were faintly emitting wisps of black mist.
It looked like smoke rising from something burnt inside his armor. However, the holy power still clinging to the surface of the armor quickly evaporated those mists.
Still, this level of appearance shouldn't have been enough to terrify her like that. How weak was her courage?
Then again, maybe he couldn't blame her. After all, a full-suited armored man had appeared in a girl's room out of nowhere—anyone would think he had ill intentions.
But wait a minute... she seemed kind of familiar. Had he seen her somewhere before?
Yazuki locked eyes with her again, and at the very instant their eyes met, the girl's body trembled again.
Another wave hit, and it even reached down to her feet.
T-this was too much. It looked like she couldn't hold it anymore.
No way… was even his gaze that terrifying now? Did he scare her to the point of neurosis?
Yazuki sighed. He'd wipe this part of her memory later.
For now, while she was still dazed and incapable of screaming or resisting, he should first compress his soul back and let his body recover.
Once he reverted to his pure human state, he felt a bit heavy—mostly due to the weight of the armor. But overall, his mind cleared just a little, and his whole body felt a bit more relaxed.
The reason for this was simple.
After his return, he had used the Staff of Distortion to remotely send a massive amount of dark power to that demon king, boosting its strength. This was done to relieve the burden on his own soul by offloading some of that power.
Then, using the Staff of Distortion, he reversed half of that power, causing both sides to cancel each other out and essentially kill the demon king.
Later, he used the Valhalla Gate to devour an entire world along with half of the God of Violence, Merseys's soul.
But the cost was a large chunk of his own soul power.
Altogether, if his soul was divided into 99 pieces spread across different worlds, probably half of them were now below par. That devoured world alone was stronger than a dozen of his earlier worlds combined.
Of course, it wasn't a perfect comparison. Some of those early worlds were still very young, while that devoured world had obviously existed for a very long time.
If those early worlds had aged the same amount of time as the devoured one, they might've easily outclassed it.
Also, the world he devoured felt different from the one he used to be in—it seemed like just a fragment of his original world.
It was as if the original world had been dismembered.
Regardless, it proved that Merseys was no ordinary being—she was terrifyingly powerful.
Now that Yazuki had reduced the pressure on his soul, he could finally relax a bit and enjoy otaku culture more freely.
To put it simply, if a single drawing used to take him 30 minutes, now it'd take less time. And the saved time could be used to indulge more, right?
So, how much more could he enjoy now? If he hadn't been dragged into this whole reincarnation mess, his original career in the otaku world would've probably seen some progress too.
Not much different from now, really.
Also—
"U-Um…"
A small, animal-like nervous voice brought Yazuki back to reality.
The girl who had been mostly exposed before was now wearing a school uniform—he wasn't sure from which school—and had cleaned up the floor. The air was thick with perfume, probably used to cover something up.
The girl's expression had changed.
Gone was the frozen, terrified look. Instead, she now seemed shy, almost like a normal person meeting a celebrity—her eyes gleamed with admiration.
No, it was more than that. It was the look of a normal person seeing a hero—a savior—with worship and awe.
"Um, Hero-sama, are you… alright?"
Her words finally flowed a bit more smoothly, and Yazuki began to understand the situation.
It was like seeing your idol witness one of your most embarrassing moments. Of course, you'd want to bury yourself alive. No wonder she had frozen like that.
Wait, then what had leaked out earlier?
He glanced around the room. Ah, he got it. Behind the girl, near the desk, was a box.
Something was peeking out of it.
So… while she was satisfying herself, he had suddenly appeared—no wonder she got scared like that. In a way, wasn't this straight out of a hentai doujin plot?
Which meant, the next step would be him threatening her and seducing her...
...like hell it would!
Huh? He noticed something interesting on her personal computer. The open document on her screen caught his eye.
"You're 'Half-Moon'? The author of Noelle of the Wind?"
"Huh? Th-that… mmm, yes~~"
The girl—Nanase Haruka—blushed even deeper than before, her face so red it looked like it was bleeding.
Although she usually acted like she hated otakus, she had secretly been writing light novels herself.
Wait, how did this legendary hero know that? Did that mean he had read her work? Was he from Earth too?
What kind of person was under that armor? She was curious. He had just returned from fighting in some other world, right?
If someone that powerful enrolled at Babel, it would certainly make humanity feel more secure.
Just as Haruka was about to speak again, she stopped.
Enroll in Babel? What could Babel even teach him? He'd be better suited as Babel's Hero Instructor.
If he came to Babel, what position should he be given? Head of COCOON? But would COCOON's top brass willingly give up their authority?
Then again, someone like him—the legendary hero—probably didn't care for such power. If he really wanted to, he could form a force greater than COCOON with just a single command.
If he joined any faction, it would make all the others uneasy. The one he joined might even use his name to suppress others.
Maybe that's why he chose not to reveal himself—he'd seen through the nature of human conflict. He only emerged in times of world crisis, saved everyone, and disappeared again without fanfare.
He was the truest example of a noble hero.
"I'll be looking forward to your next volume~"
The hero left behind those words. The space around him began to shake and distort—signs of dimensional transfer.
Was he heading to the surface world? Or another world in need of saving?
"Wait! Please take this—this is my personal communicator. If you ever need my help, please contact me when you return!"
She hurriedly handed over a brand-new communication device.
Through the mask, he looked slightly surprised, but still reached out, grabbed it, and disappeared in the next instant.
At that moment, Haruka felt elated. All her previous shame was swept away.
Just being able to help such a supreme and noble hero in even the slightest way—was an honor.
And then—
"Uwaaaa~~~!"
She let out another loud wail of embarrassment.
Yup, as expected. She confirmed something about herself: whenever she meets his eyes, for some reason… she loses control.
(T/N: For those that don't know, pshhhhh woman water gun.)
And as for the one who left—
To him, it was simply:
"One little spy girl hero, acquired."