~ Chapter 166: Returning to those who missed them ~

[Illsyore’s point of view]

Upon arriving on this island in the middle of nowhere, which could only be described as some sort of forsaken land of the dead, I found myself acting not as a savior in shiny armor but rather as the witness to my wife’s prowess. To be honest, I was expecting her to come out victorious in this battle, but I wasn’t expecting her to humiliate the Phantom Rage Guild Master in such a way. She didn’t spare him a moment and didn’t even bother to go down and face him in her real body.

The man’s death was no different than that of some random bandit we encountered on the road, but maybe even those unfortunate ruffians received a bit more respect than this one did.

Seeing the scene of her battle, reminded me of the time when I first met Shanteya back when I was still the core of the Fellyore Magic Academy. I never would have imagined back then that she would grow up to become such a splendid and also terrifying woman. The sheer difference in power between the past her and the present her was like heaven and earth. The biggest and most impressive change in her, however, was the fact that she wasn’t a doll or a puppet anymore. She had her own free will, her own strength, her own way of viewing the world. She acted based on her own judgement, and just this little fact made her look even more beautiful in my eyes.

Back when I was still alive on Earth, there were a lot of men who often blabbed about having a wife who would listen to any and all of their whims, like a doll with no soul or life of her own. Although I was raised among individuals like them, I was lucky enough to not have those prejudiced immoral principles latch on to me.

Whenever I looked at my wives, I realized that their individual personality, their many unique characteristics and little habits were what made them attractive to me. They were all their very own flower garden which grew without the need of me posing as their gardener. I was there only to admire them as a guest, as someone who wished to be there to be embraced by their beauty and embrace them in return. If they wanted to, they could always close down their gates to me and kick me out, but I had faith they never would because our love was mutual. Just as I admired them, they too admired me, we allowed ourselves to soar free in a single dance of fate in the vastness of the open sky.

The Guild Master of Phantom Rage tried his best to imprison my beloved wife with his curse and his excessive fear of his own subordinates, which ultimately became his undoing. The moment she became mine, Shanteya roamed free. I had no reason or desire to keep her chained up. That was why I gave her the choice to be free from my bound that very moment I knew I could. That was why, I could say that the critical difference between the two of us laid in the fact that only one of us needed chains to rule.

The battle ended without me needing to lift a finger. I was brought there as a witness and remained as one until the very end. What was shown to me was the demise of a man who was unable to understand or even perceive the beauty of my wife. With his demise, the curse of the Phantom Rage was also over, but just like any other curse of this caliber, it would end up having an effect on all those who carried it in their blood.

News of those who ended up dying because of it would soon reach our ears because this organization had its tendrils spread all across the three continents. There were even a few of them on my island, acting as spies, but as long as they didn’t cause a mess of things, I turned a blind eye to them. If they dared to make a move, their heads would roll.

I was a bit sad that I could not save the women in his office, but even I couldn’t save them without giving them a completely new personality, that was if the operation was a success at all. It was sad and a bit tragic, but such was fate.

While Shanteya cleaned up the island of all the documents and books she could find, I made my way up to the surface and took a seat on one of the rocks there. My gaze became lost in the turbulent ocean before me. The waves have grown taller and the clouds darker. There was the scent of rain in the sky, a compliment to a heavy and depressing state of mind. My thoughts had wondered off back to Ayuseya, who was now temporarily in charge of Teslov Kingdom. She was the one who ran away from there, yet she ended up being the one to return to govern it.

Then I thought about Nanya, who was currently on the Demon Continent facing off her mother. She told me that she wanted to go there to inform her of our children, but when she left, it looked more like even she did not know what she was to expect upon her return. I was worried about her, especially seeing what both Ayuseya and Shanteya went through. This island was littered with the dead bodies of the former assassins who lived here, and they weren’t few in number.

In order to get her revenge and free this world of the Phantom Rage’s claw, she had to stain her own hands in the blood of hundreds. As a mother, she was forced by this situation to kill children, a situation I didn’t wish upon anyone, yet she stayed silent about it. Well, maybe she knew that I would detect those bodies with my Dungeon Territory, after all, ever since she told me that she wanted me to absorb this place, I already began the preparations for it, spreading my range as far as I could, searching for other Dungeons and absorbing the remains of the former assassins to feed my hunger for Magic Energy.

Once she was done, Shanteya returned to me.

“Is it time?” I asked her.

“Yes.” she replied with an ever-so-enchanting smile.

We then took flight to the sky and stopped at a good altitude from where I could see the entire island. From up here, I then absorbed the entirety of Phantom Island, jagged cliffs and all, leaving behind only a big hole that was soon filled with a torrent of water. In order not to cause any unwanted tsunamis, I used explosive [Fireball] attacks in order to destroy the newly formed circular waves. This whole process took me around half an hour, and once I was done, I took out the jet fighter. It was a good thing it had the possibility to modify the cockpit into one with two seats. I could also add three more, but I would need to cut back on the speed and also take my time with the modifications.

Maybe I should have built multiple versions of this thing rather than make one that can be modified? Argh, but the former gamer in me... or rather my inner child is the one that wants a cool toy I can change and mod as I want! I thought as I shed a few tears in my mind.

Well, to be fair, I already foresaw this possibility, that was why I made sure to have the right parts for the modification stored inside my Inner Mind. After all, there was always the possibility that I wouldn’t have the leisure of going into Research and Development Mode while on the go. I wouldn’t even know how long it would take me to make proper modifiable parts like that or if they would even work at all. At the very least, I knew that what I carried with me had been somewhat tested beforehand, at least in the form of assembling and basic function testing.

“Is this the metal bird you came with?” Shanteya asked me when she saw me pull out the jet fighter.

“Yes. We’ll board it once I finished the modifications and then fly off to Illsyorea.” I replied.

“I miss the little ones...” she said as she looked off into the horizon.

“Hm... Is someone heading this way?” I asked as I pointed to her left.

From what I could see, it was a small boat ridden by someone wearing a ragged cloak. I could not see their face though.

Shanteya looked at him and there was a slight change in her expression.

“Do you know him?”

“I guess, for some poor souls, their journey will never come to an end...” she said, and a soft smile appeared on her lips.

“Is that so... well, I don’t understand who would be so crazy as to wander off on a boat like that across a dangerous ocean like this.” I told her as I scratched my head.

“So says the man who crossed the ocean on a flimsy raft of all things.” Shanteya giggled.

I had no comeback to this. Looking down, however, I noticed that the humble sailor didn’t even took notice of us. He continued to push his humble boat at a slow pace without stopping for even one moment. Like a machine following the rules of its programming, so was he pushing that boat.

That stick of his must be magical though, I doubt it can reach the bottom of the ocean. I thought before I returned to modifying the plane.

When we were ready to board it, the little man had long since passed the location of where that island used to be. If Phantom Rage was his destination, then he was doomed to never find it since technically there was no such guild anymore.

The flight back to Illsyorea took us just a little under four hours, I wasn’t in a hurry. During this time, Shanteya told me what happened to her during the time we spent apart, where she went, what she saw, who she met. Her story sounded like an adventure on one side and a chore on the other. From what she told me, she didn’t take the chance to visit any of the local sightseeing locations or try to poke around to see what the local specialties were. All she did was gun for her target at top speed, ignoring the pleasures of travel.

Judging from her tale, it seemed as though the appearance of the island nation Illsyorea didn’t have that much of an impact on the people on Sorone. Or rather, it was completely ignored or believed to be nothing more than mere fabulation. This could either mean that our strength was too unfathomable for them to accept to exist, or the nobles were going through a lot of trouble to make it seem as though we weren’t that mighty.

In a way, it was a logical move. My country was accepting immigrants, and all those who chose to side with us had only benefits showered upon them. For the commoners, it was Heaven on Earth, while for the nobles it was an absolute nightmare that could only lead to a decrease in their authority and even their taxes.

The merchants were aware of this problem, so they turned the blind eye and played the fool so as to reap the most benefits from either side. As long as they continued doing a good business with us, I didn’t really mind. If there was one thing I was aware about was the fact that honest merchants were rare to find, but if you found them, then it was for the best to have them as friends rather than enemies. Only fools would try to antagonize the Merchant Guilds.

I landed the jet fighter in the same manner I did on the previous flights... basically, I slowed down as much as I could and then I stashed it in my Inner Mind. I couldn’t help it, there was no runway I could land on, and I wasn’t what you would call an expert pilot either. Actually, I was still surprised by the fact that I could fly this thing so well without crashing or breaking it by accident. In a way, I guess all those flying simulators really did help me get the basics down and not start with Research and Development on aircraft from scratch.

The moment when I stepped on the grassy field, I took a deep breath in and looked up at the clear blue sky.

“Ah~! It’s good to be back!” Shanteya said, mimicking me.

“Yes. We should go ahead and let everyone know.” I told her with a soft smile on my lips.

“Illsy, before we go in, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.” she said as she grabbed my hand.

“What is it?” I asked.

“While I was away from Illsyorea, I had plenty of time to think about what I was going to do in the future and what exactly I wanted to do for myself. Initially, I thought that I could go back to leading a normal life as a simple el’doraw woman by your side, ignoring the brutal past that shaped me into the person that I am today, however, I came to realize that this isn’t what I want.”

“What do you want then?”

“I want to be of help to you and this island in a way that only I can do so... Ayuseya is a woman who can juggle all sort of political situations, Nanya can take care of the army, Zoreya is our best intermediary with the various churches around the world, while Tamara... well, frankly speaking, I don’t know what she wants to focus on.” she shrugged and showed me a wry smile. “As for me, I think the world of shadows suits me the best.”

“World of shadows? You want to become an assassin again?” I asked furrowing my brow.

To be honest, I did not feel very comfortable with that idea. I loved Shanteya, so I did not want to see her fall back into that pit of darkness. From what she told me of her journey so far, I couldn’t see where the idea of returning to her former life was coming from.

“No.” she shook her head and with this one word managed to dispel the worries in my heart.

“Then?”

“I noticed that all the other nations have very their own networks of spies and intelligence operatives. So far, Illsyorea survived based on its own strength and the goodwill of our allies, but it would be far better if we would know beforehand when someone is trying to plot against us or what is the general view of the world about us after we make a certain move. If we had this knowledge, then Nanya would know how to prepare our armies, Ayuseya would have time to contact our allies, and I could hunt down the enemy spies.” she explained.

“So, it’s not about you returning to the life of an assassin but actually trying to create a wall of defense against the spies and assassins from other countries, right?” I asked.

“Yes.” she nodded.

“Whew... well, that scared me for a moment.” I let out a heavy sigh.

“Illsy?” Shanteya looked at me a bit confused.

With a smile, I took her into my embrace and then kissed her on the forehead.

“For a second there, I thought you were going to return to your life as an assassin... Honestly, I don’t want you to become that woman again, I pretty much love the woman you are right now. Creating our Central Intelligence Agency or Secret Service Agency isn’t exactly what I thought you would want to do, but in a way, it does suit you best. The skills and techniques you learned and perfect over the years fall perfectly into that category.” I nodded.

“Are those the names of the organization who deal with this sort of things back on your world?” she asked.

“Well, some of them. Every nation does indeed have one, and their names are different for the most part. I guess these are the ones that stuck with me the most, although, what exactly they did and how they operated was beyond me. I can’t offer any advice on this part.” I shook my head.

“I understand, Illsy. Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out eventually. However, since we are back home now, I should go see the little ones. They probably missed me.” Shanteya said with a charming smile on her face.

“Of course. I’ll be right behind you... Erm, will you join me tonight in my room?” I asked her.

“I’m sorry, Illsy, but I’ll be sleeping with the children tonight. You won’t mind, will you?” she showed me a small apologetic smile.

“Of course not.” I shook my head “How can I?”

Both little Bachus and Anette were overjoyed to have their mother returned to them. They played together and listened to all of her stories until late in the night when they couldn’t keep their eyes open anymore and fall asleep together with her. Today was all about Shanteya’s home return and a celebration for the demise of the infamous Phantom Rage Guild. Initially, I wanted to send a notice to our allied nations about my wife’s success, but she insisted that I should hold back on this move until after Ayuseya returned from Teslov, or at the very least received her advice on this matter. For me, it did not really matter what I did, but in the end, I did comply with her request.

The following day, Shanteya decided to take the next two days to relax and relieve herself of the stress accumulated over the past two months. The first thing she did was to prepare a small picnic to go on. Anette helped her make the sandwiches by using her [Telekinezy] spell. She wasn’t that proficient as I was with it, but she was learning. Bachus tried to help but ended up accidentally smashing a carton of eggs on the floor, startling Tamara, who was baking a pie. That was the first time in a while since I saw a cat dangling on the ceiling.

I let the students know that Shanteya was back, but she was currently taking a small break to recover. They were very happy to hear this and asked me why I was skipping school. I felt like I should have punished those brats with an extra test paper just for that! Well, jokes aside, they gathered together and made a small welcoming basket for Shanteya, which they personally delivered around 5 PM.

Seeing her diligent students again also brought a smile on her face and so she spent the rest of the evening in their company. While she was doing this, I went out to check up on some things around the town. The trade was blooming from the looks of it and the number of immigrants was growing. I could see now why the extra land I absorbed was going to be useful. The expansion of Illsyorea was imminent.

As I walked down the main street, I spotted a small stand for grilled meat on a stick. I bought two pieces and then continued on my way. Those who recognized me greeted me or offered me some gifts of appreciations, which I accepted if they were something small and insignificant and refused if they happened to be extravagant... like their virgin daughters or some other nonsense like that. There was only one noble from Paramanium who tried this scheme and ended up having him sign a document through which he swore in the name of the Emperor of Paramanium to have his daughter marry someone she loved not someone he chose out of either political or economic reasons. That did earn me a cute thankful smile from the said daughter, so this was a good enough ‘gift’.

After this, I made my way to the port, where I noticed that there were already three ships waiting in line to dock. There was an actual line for docking here, and most of them were merchant ships. Well, I wasn’t surprised about this. Once word got out into the world that Illsyorea was a trustworthy port halfway between all the continents and was also an opening market for them, it turned on the sparkles for the jingles in the eyes of all those who traded by boat. Getting your goods from Allasn to Sorone or to Thorya had never been safer, easier, and cheaper too.

Thanks to Illsyorea, long perilous trips had turn into excursions even some fragile nobles chose to go on now and then. This, however, meant that once in a while, you got lots of ships trying to dock at the port.

“It’s really peaceful here, isn’t it?” I said as I was gazing out at the ocean.

My Leviathan pet just poked its head out and tried to take a bite out of a big bird that happened to fly by close to sea level. It wasn’t even worth considering as a snack for this monster.

“It certainly is peaceful, mister.” said a child who happened to hear me.

Looking back at him, I saw that he was wearing some simple linen clothes, had a small hat on top of his head and a missing tooth that didn’t stop him from showing me a big smile.

“How is Illsyorea compared to your previous home?” I asked him.

“Hm... that place can’t be called home. Here, the people don’t laugh at my mommy and the adventurers are nice and helpful. We get to have light in the house and even a bath too... Back there, only nobles could use those things. Besides...” he stopped and then showed me another big smile.

“Besides?” I raised an eyebrow.

“There’s no other place in the world where you can find a Lord as generous and kind as Illsyore Deus! He’s like a god to some of us! Hehe, I secretly pray to him at night to keep us safe and well fed, but don’t tell mommy that!” he winked at me.

“Heh? I don’t think praying to a Dungeon as a god is good thing...” I said with a forced smile as I felt a chill on my back, Why do I feel like Melkuth and the rest of the Pantheon is glaring at me right now? I wondered and quickly turned around in the hope of catching him there, but only found myself feeling stupid about it Why would the God of War sneak down here to spy on some unimportant mortal like me? I thought.

Looking back at the kid, he was still smiling.

“I prayed to all the gods, but only Illsyore did something for me.” he shook his head.

“Child, he is a Dungeon, not a god. What he does is something any of his kind can.” I told him, hoping to somehow get myself out of this mess.

“I don’t believe that. Even if he has the same powers, he must have something the other Dungeons don’t. Ah! I know! He must be the God of Dungeons!” he declared in a excited tone of voice, which more than anything sent a feeling of guilt wrapping around my heart.

Will I be accused of blasphemy?! No... Corruption of mortals? Erm... Is this even something to be punished for?! I didn’t do anything! Gods above as my witness, I’m innocent in this! Ah! I hope this doesn’t become a thing... Erm... I hope... Please? I thought.

“Ah, I got to go now, mister! Take care!” the child showed me another big smile and then ran off.

Within my heart, I felt like laughing and crying at the same time.

“How should I even stop this cult from spreading?” I wondered, but just then, my alarm beeped again.

Looking at my wrist, I saw the name ‘NANYA’ flashing in a red light, which represent danger, peril, a life-threatening situation. I felt my heart sink and a sense of fear grasping it.

“One after another, they needed my help... Still, out of all of them, I felt the most worried for you... Nanya. What happened for you to send out the Red Call.” I said as I looked out into the horizon.

Unfortunately, given the situation, I could not return home to say my farewell again. A simple message would have to suffice because reaching my demoness as fast as I could was my top priority.