Chapter 14
‘Isn't this a fucking sweet deal? Stand a few guard shifts, get promoted quickly, and there's probably thesis material since it's ruins!’
Based roughly on that logic, I accepted the ruins guard duty request.
─The interior of the ruins has already been completely investigated by a Gold-class adventurer team. They said there were no dangers inside.
That was also a major reason the receptionist had said that.
While the other guilds were all busy defeating monsters in the newly discovered dungeons and building up their records, the Audumla side had surely searched through the ruins with a fine-toothed comb so they wouldn't fall behind.
And since they had still judged the ruins to contain nothing, they had to be fucking safe.
The party sent ahead of us probably went in all fired up, determined to find something worth taking, then returned after merely confirming once again that the ruins were a hopeless dump.
I felt sorry for the Gold-class adventurer party suffering at a shitty little company. Thinking of their gloomy journey home brought tears to my eyes.
“Hehe. They must be hungry, so I should buy some snacks to take along.”
In truth, I wasn't sad at all. If they'd found anything in the ruins, I wouldn't have been able to take this fucking sweet request.
I made full use of my experience standing guard as a squad leader in the army and packed my bag with things to pass the time. I also put in a few things for camping. It was a shame this otherworld didn't have coffee.
“Hey, Dorka. I'm coming back tomorrow and eating free breakfast the day after, so save my portion for me.”
“We charge customers after one in the afternoon.”
“You Dorka-like bastard.”
I exchanged a warm farewell with him and left the inn.
This time, the guild judged that there wasn't much danger of encountering monsters, so no Bronze-class senior was assigned to lead the party. Our party leader would probably be another Iron-class scrub just like me.
We were to assemble at two and arrive at the site by four. The four of us would guard the ruins for twenty-four hours, then switch shifts with the next team when they arrived and return.
Since there were four of us, we could sleep by taking turns standing watch. Wasn't this a fucking sweet deal?
─Scurry!
With the request time approaching, I hurried to the meeting place. This time, it was near the city's north gate. But when I arrived in front of the north gate, I saw a familiar person.
“Why, isn't that Ms. Francesca?”
“Ah! Mr. Nord! Hello!”
It was Francesca, the short half-dwarf rogue with long limbs and bouncy breasts, wearing a gray hood over her head.
“Yes, hello. We meet again after only a day.”
“Hehe. Indeed. Did you get home safely yesterday? I went to sleep before sunset and only woke up this morning.”
“Really? I woke up in the afternoon. I win.”
“Pfft. Is that something to win?”
“I spent the day productively in deep sleep. I got up, washed, and came straight to work. …And what about you?”
A man with half his head bald was standing beside Francesca.
He looked like an ordinary neighborhood uncle except for his lack of a belly, but I could tell at a glance that he was a priest. That was because he was wearing priestly robes.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Paragon Pomona, a priest of the God of Abundance.”
“I'm Nord. I look forward to working with you.”
The God of Abundance was primarily worshiped in Romania as an agricultural god, and his followers specialized in healing and recovery.
When they joined a temple, they all adopted Pomona as their surname. Apparently they treated one another like siblings or something.
I didn't know why nuns and priests worked as adventurers, but I'd seen adventurer priests like this a few times while I was at Carmine University. I wasn't particularly curious about the reason. I assumed they were short on money or something.
“I'm the party leader today, so I came first! The last person still hasn't arrived, though!”
“I'm relieved not to be the last one.”
We exchanged a few appropriate greetings and stood with the group. The clock tower indicated that five minutes remained until the meeting time.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the remaining time became exactly one minute, and the last person still hadn't arrived.
“…She isn't coming.”
Francesca muttered gloomily.
Yeah, fuck. This was what an Iron-class adventurer party was supposed to be like. Honestly, our previous party had been the strange one.
“Being late is most unpleasant. The God of Abundance once said that the lazy and those who do not understand the value of time cannot reap the fruits they desire. Though lower adventurers may spend every day wasting their lives, they must still possess a minimum of conscience and strive with the proper attitude─”
One person was late, while another was performing a do-you-know-the-truth-about-God routine beside me. Fuck, I was already tired even though work hadn't started.
“Oh. Everyone's already gathered.”
It was then. Right as it became two o'clock, the last party member appeared in front of us.
She was a woman with a shield and a short spear strapped to her back. Her golden hair and lively expression gave her a slightly athletic-girl vibe. She was equipped with a full set of cost-effective leather armor, and she was fairly tall for a woman.
But what the fuck? This one also carried a short spear and shield. Was she Gentric's secret alternate character? The priest Paragon, who had been rambling beside me for quite some time, frowned when she appeared.
“You're the adventurers going to guard the ruins, right? I'm Est Balkas. Let's do our best together today.”
“Hmm…. If you were late to the gathering, wouldn't it be appropriate to apologize?”
“Huh? Isn't this exactly on time? Sorry. I should've come a little earlier.”
Est apologized surprisingly readily. Even so, Paragon tried to continue lecturing her, but Francesca stopped him.
“She arrived right on time, so she isn't late. Mr. Paragon, couldn't you let it go just this once for my sake?”
“…Very well. I apologize. I was definitely being a little oversensitive.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
It was an appropriate mediation. Honestly, if we'd let that priest continue preaching, who knew how much longer it would have gone on?
“They say it takes about an hour to reach the ruins from here. There aren't many monsters in the area, so it shouldn't be dangerous.”
Francesca said that while taking out and unfolding a map.
“Then let's set out. I'll lead the way.”
And so we left the city and headed for the ruins.
***
After traveling for quite some time, we arrived in front of a cave deep inside a forest.
Amazingly, we hadn't encountered even a single monster on the way. The guards here did a damn good job. Sargadis's security was fucking solid.
“Here we are.”
The cave was indeed located somewhere difficult to discover.
The narrow entrance was concealed by bushes, so it would normally have been difficult even to notice. We entered the cave as soon as we arrived.
Drip… drip….
Water droplets fell from the stalactites on the ceiling.
As we'd heard beforehand, the cave was covered in hieroglyphs from the entrance onward. The sight practically radiated madness, making Est rub his arms as if he had goosebumps.
“Urgh, fuck. Aren't these people crazy? Why did they do this creepy shit inside a cave?”
“I-it is a little frightening. We aren't going to be cursed, are we?”
Francesca lowered her gaze uneasily. I hadn't said anything, but I was honestly fucking terrified too. I was probably the most frightened person here.
“Shiiiiiiit……”
Because I was the only person here who could interpret the picture-like characters densely carved across the walls.
The characters roughly meant the following.
[Record. Remember. Leave behind. Atone. Record. Remember. Leave behind. Atone. Record. Remember. Leave behind. Atone. Record. Remember. Leave behind. Atone. Record. Remember. Leave behind. Atone. Recor──]
“I feel like I'm going fucking insane!!”
“Everyone, calm yourselves. I sense no evil magic.”
Paragon said that while tapping the floor lightly with his staff.
“A Gold-class adventurer team has already explored this place, have they not? Steel your hearts and kindle a firm resolve within your chests, and these phrases will look like nothing more than mere graffiti.”
“Your legs are fucking shaking.”
“Be quiet.”
Anyway, compared to earlier, we advanced at half speed. What a bunch of cowardly Iron-class scrubs. As an archaeologist, I had experience exploring ruins and was gradually getting used to it.
“Ack! Mr. Est, stop pushing me! Are you the only one who's scared?!”
“I wasn't pushing you. More importantly, this is safe, right?”
Est asked while firmly guarding my back. Since I was also tense from the cave's eerie atmosphere, I played along with Est's question.
“It probably is. Ruins left abandoned inside a cave generally aren't anything special.”
“Really? Why?”
Est's face brightened as if a lifeline had descended from hell in response to my words. The other two also looked at me.
“Think about it. It's a ruin to us, but to the people who originally built it, it was simply a building they were paid to construct.”
“Ah, I suppose that's true.”
“Yes. To a person living two thousand years ago, a two-thousand-year-old ruin was a building that was ‘yet to be built.’ Why would they construct a building somewhere no one visited? If it were an impressive building, they would build it somewhere heavily traveled, like a city, and boast about it.”
“Could they not have done so because they wanted to hide the ruins?”
“Who knows? Would it really be a ruin important enough to hide deliberately?”
I recalled the history of the area around Sargadis that I had investigated at Carmine University.
“Sargadis has a long history and many ruins, but it wasn't the former territory of an ancient civilization. Flourishing civilizations leave records in history, but Sargadis has no known records whatsoever. It's unlikely that this is an especially important ruin.”
“Could it be the temple of a deranged black mage or heretics?”
“Come on. Neither our senior adventurers nor the priest beside us sensed any evil magic here, did they?”
“My apologies. In truth, I was only half bluffing.”
“I was hoping you'd keep that a secret for the rest of your life.”
What a shitty priest.
“Oh, thank goodness. Can't you see light at the end of the cave?”
Est had somehow fled behind me and said that. Light?
‘Why is there light coming from inside the cave?’
Though I found it strange, I went farther inside and soon learned the reason. The ceiling toward the back of the cave was completely open. Sunlight shone down from there, illuminating the interior.
“Ah, it looks like the ceiling collapsed and revealed the ruins.”
Francesca pointed toward the interior of the ruins. The ruins inside were definitely covered in sand. Even fresh grass had grown over them, making it look as if the ground above had collapsed entirely.
“Really? What if it collapses again while we're inside?”
“Hmm… The ground structure is sturdy, so it should be fine.”
“It is reassuring to hear that from our dwarven party leader.”
“Hehe. Though I'm only half-dwarf.”
I observed the interior while listening to the party members' conversation.
The structure inside the ruins was unusual. Several large stone steles stood in the center, with crude rectangular stone pillars erected around them. Nearly half of the pillars had fallen over.
‘It looks just like some kind of collapsed dolmen.’
No, I remembered seeing ruins somewhere that resembled this, apart from dolmens. Somewhere on Earth, not in a foreign country of this otherworld.
“I'll lay out the mat. Hehe. Should we even build a campfire right in the middle of those ruins?”
“Stop that. If anything happens, you will end up destitute while paying for the damage.”
“More importantly, shouldn't we avoid damaging the ruins recklessly…?”
The other party members began laying out a mat in one corner of the ruins while chatting. They even exchanged various opinions about where to lay it.
“Someone might come into the cave. Let's stay somewhere we can keep watch over the entrance. Ah, but the ceiling is high enough that we'd die if it fell, so maybe we can ignore it?”
“That's a good suggestion, but if we sit facing the entrance, someone could shoot an arrow from inside and one of us would be hit and killed.”
“I do not wish to die.”
“Neither do I.”
“Damn it. Are you three seriously going to gang up and crush my opinion?”
Our party laid out the mat in one corner and unpacked everything. Carrying a bag didn't increase our combat power. As long as we kept our weapons in our hands, we would be fine.
“All right, that's done. I'm going to look around the ruins.”
After spreading the mat over the flat ground, she slapped the floor and approached the ruins.
She was more eager than me, an archaeologist. She was so enthusiastic about learning that I felt like asking whether she wanted to become a graduate student.
“I'm going to look around too. What about you two?”
“I must decline. Perhaps it is my age, but I am tired from walking.”
“I'll just prepare to build a campfire. Will you go gather firewood with me later?”
“Sure, why not? We'll be back.”
After being turned down in succession, I followed Est to look around the ruins.
Est was examining the ruins with a serious expression. She was working harder than I expected, which surprised me.
“Are you interested in history?”
“Huh? Of course not. I'm looking for something that might be worth money.”
“I see.”
Adventurers were certainly all alike. Come to think of it, I wasn't all that different, so I understood her. I had earned a master's degree in archaeology because I needed it; I wasn't actually all that interested in this world's history.
─Swoosh.
I looked up at a fucking enormous stone stele. Three characters were drawn on it.
Their meanings were, respectively, human, beast, and transformation.
‘…Does this mean that a person turns into a beast? Something like that?’
Was this Yharnam rather than Sargadis? I had no idea what it was supposed to mean.
‘To begin with, why are these even hieroglyphs?’
Britannia had used this otherworld's version of the alphabet since ancient times. The only country in the surrounding area known to use hieroglyphs was Narmer-Nile.
Hieroglyphs were a very primitive form of writing.
Naturally, countries that used them tended to have long histories. On Earth, China and Egypt were representative examples. But Britannia didn't have a history that old.
This really did seem to be the ruins of an extremely ancient primitive tribe.
The ruins of an age when humanity went uga-uga. It was probably the tribe's unique language, used for such a short time by the primitive people of this world that it never appeared in historical records.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue. Ruins from a civilization this ancient weren't very good material for a thesis.
Unlike on Earth, archaeology here focused on a few ancient civilizations that had once flourished.
Even if these ruins truly were traces of primitive people, academia probably wouldn't be very interested. On Earth, people would have made a fuss about finding traces of a chipped-stone-tool civilization in their country, but here, artifacts that didn't make money weren't given much attention.
‘There's no equipment to analyze it, either… Maybe I should just record the writing.’
There were several stone steles. I found the stele bearing the sequence of characters displayed at the adventurer guild and copied it into my notebook. I could investigate it later at a library or university.
‘Bird, food, conduct a ritual, enjoy, winter, hunting….’
It felt like a fairly useless record. It seemed to be nothing more than a record of the writers' daily lives. Like discovering that the records found from the era when the pyramids were built were actually excuse letters from workers who had skipped work.
“What is that? Why are you copying it?”
Apparently she hadn't found anything worthwhile, so Est came over and asked me.
“I'm just writing it down. I might see characters similar to these while working as an adventurer later. Then I can look at this notebook and compare them.”
“Oh, that's smart. Should I write some down too?”
“Do you have a notebook?”
“Give me one page.”
“Thank you, customer. Ten pages cost one copper.”
“One copper?! What a fucking scammer! Forget it. I won't do it.”
Est whined, and I chuckled.
“I was joking. Would you like to borrow a pen too?”
“I said forget it. I was joking too. I can't even write.”
Est interlaced her fingers behind her head and returned to her spot. She heated up quickly, but cooled off just as quickly.
─Scratch, scratch.
I was left alone among the piles of stones and copied everything up to the central stele. Since the characters were pictures, copying them took time.
Only after copy-pasting the contents of every stele did I return to our spot.
No, to be precise, I tried to return.
─Glint!
“…What?”
Something glimmered beneath the central stele. It was the root-like base buried in the sand.
‘…Should I dig it up?’
─Glance.
I looked up at the stele. The stele, which looked like it would kill me if it fell on me, was leaning backward. If I dug around its base a little, it wouldn't topple toward me and turn me into a yellow pork cutlet. After confirming that, I knelt and crouched down in front of the stele.
Scrape─ Scrape─.
I dug away the sand beneath the stele. I thought there might be something worth money, but what was at the base was surprisingly a sequence of characters.
[I leave these words for the descendant who carries on the lineage of Erin.]
“…Fuck?”
The characters looked familiar.
Ogham script.
A script of Ulster, almost unused in the present day─.
‘Why is this here?’
The writing carved into the stele was an extremely primitive script that could easily be mistaken for ordinary knife marks. It might help to imagine grooves cut into a tree to count the days after being stranded on a deserted island.
It was easy to guess why the Gold-class adventurer team had overlooked this. Beneath a rock carved with unusual hieroglyphs were these knife-like marks. They had been blurred by time and were half buried at that.
They probably would have dismissed them as scratches even if they had noticed them. If I hadn't known Ogham, I never would have imagined that this was writing. It looked far too different from the hieroglyphs above.
‘Could this be a fucking jackpot?’
My heart began to pound. The ancient civilization of Ulster, Erin, was a representative example of an ancient civilization that didn't make money, but it was still more than good enough material for a master's thesis.
Erin's writing had survived in an ancient ruin of Britannia!
‘Fuck, I can totally write a three-part, mind-blowing thesis!’
If I borrowed the twenty-first-century YouTube style of storytelling, I could even write a long-form epic saga using this material!
Thesis material, you were mine! It was when I excitedly tried to dig around the base of the stele like a dog playing in the dirt.
“What are you doing?”
“Gah! You startled me!!!!!”
“Kyaa?!”
A voice approached from behind without a sound, scaring me half to death. It was Francesca. She had become interested after seeing me play at being a digging mutt and had come over to the stele.
“I-I'm sorry. I startled you by speaking so suddenly, didn't I?”
Francesca's hood had fallen off as she apologized to me. Her hair was the familiar black color even to me, but her blue eyes gave her a mysterious air.
I steadied my heart and shook my head.
“I-I'm fine. I was only startled for a moment. There was a strange mark beneath this stele, so I was digging to take a look.”
“A strange mark…? Oh? That mark has a fascinating shape.”
After I exposed part of the inscription, Francesca seemed to realize that it wasn't an ordinary scratch either. I rubbed my hands together and spoke.
“It caught my eye, so I became a little curious. It seemed interesting too.”
“Hehe. I see. I like old stories like this too.”
She came over and crouched beside me. Since she was short, crouching made her look even tinier.
“I'll help you dig. It looks like fun.”
“Oh, would you?”
I didn't refuse her kindness. Even as a child, playing with a girl rather than digging in the dirt alone had always made you more of a winner in life.
Back then, other kids would tease you with singsong chants if you played with a girl, but there wasn't anyone around to do that now.
─Rustle, rustle.
The two of us worked together and dug through the sand for quite a while. As a result, the entire inscription on the stele was revealed.
“Ah, I think that's all of it.”
“Yes. It seems so.”
I deciphered the fully uncovered inscription with my eyes. Francesca watched me with a fascinated gaze.
But I was too focused on these characters to pay much attention to her gaze. The writing in the ancient language of Ulster was that fascinating.
[I leave these words for the descendant who carries on the lineage of Erin.]
The short inscription began with those words.
[My name is Branwen Berch Llyr.
I set out to find the origin of the secret art ‘Beast Regression’ that had been passed down among the people of Erin, and arrived here.
After a long journey and long hardship, I obtained the answer I had sought. My questions were resolved, and only sorrow remained. The ancient sorcery, the primitive mystery, the druidic secret of granting humans the power of beasts, was by no means a curse.
We betrayed an old friend by suspecting him, but our friend did not do the same.
Let those who bear Llyr's blood remember this as their original sin. Swear upon the twilight grassland that you will atone for your mistake.
I record here the forgotten ■■■■ secret art.
Pray to the Sky God (yáǵeswō deiwōm dyēus).]
That was the end. As befitted writing by someone from long ago, it was quite fragmentary.
However, some of the letters in the middle had been damaged and could not be read. And only the characters in the final line were strangely shaped cuneiform. As far as I knew, they were not Ogham characters from Ulster.
I translated the writing into Britannian and pronounced it aloud without thinking.
“…《Pray to the Sky God (yáǵeswō deiwōm dyēus)》?”
It was at that moment.
─Kuwaaaak!!!!!
“Ddet?”
I felt something moving through my body at tremendous speed.
It felt as if the blood vessels from my heart to my right hand had swollen to five times their normal size! It was very similar to the sensation of ‘handling mana’ that I had only read about in books.
“Something's… something's happening!”
“M-Mr. Nord?”
Francesca pointed at my shoulder in confusion. Since she could tell something was wrong, naturally I realized the change in my body too.
Shwak─ Shwak─ Shwak─.
My right hand was glowing a fluorescent-paint green!
Mana that looked smooth and viscous had wrapped around my arm. Wondering what the hell it was, I kneaded the green mana covering my arm.
─Squish, squish.
The grass-green mana covering my arm could actually be touched.
It was squishy, much like touching animal hide. The sensation was so blissful that I ended up screaming.
“My arm has been wrapped in a cat's paw pad!!”
“W-what have you done?!”
Francesca and I sprang to our feet and made a commotion!
“I recited a spell and my right arm turned into a paw pad! Nord is now a Twinkle animal-man!”
“I-is it magic?! Mr. Nord, are you a mage?!”
“I don't know! Was I a mage? I had no idea!”
What was this?
No, seriously, what was going on? Unable to solve the mystery, I swung my champi-colored arm around. Fuck, what was this, and why could I still feel everything in my arm?!
It was while I was losing my mind over this unexpected situation.
─Someone once said that misfortune comes in clusters.
“Aaargh!! Fuck! Goblins!”
Whether I was confused or not, the situation grew even worse. Paragon, who seemed to be the least likely person here to swear after Francesca, launched a stream of profanity.
And it was completely unavoidable, because a group of green monsters had suddenly appeared beside Paragon and Est while they were fooling around after laying out the mat.
“Kyaak!! (Food!!)”
“Kyasuk!! (Nest!!)”
It was a language I could understand. That meant they were creatures intelligent enough to use language and had communicated through it.
Goblins had appeared inside the cave!
“Hey! Party leader and foreigner! Stop standing around and come help!”
Est shouted urgently. There were that many goblins.
Goblins weren't particularly strong monsters. They were small and belonged to the weaker class of monsters.
But they made full use of their intelligence, which was enough to use language, and each carried a polished-stone tool in its hand. Their basic physical abilities were also superior to those of kobolds, the advanced rats.
Almost the physical ability of an elementary-school student!
That was power that could never be underestimated. Anyone who had suffered through the holidays against their nieces and nephews couldn't possibly look down on the power of a child.
Goblins had that much power in addition to being armed. They knew they were weak, so they even traveled in groups.
And we were outnumbered. This was fucking dangerous!
“Twenty brats armed with kitchen knives!”
Can you imagine how terrifying that would be?
Brats were truly merciless and selfish creatures. The green brats of this otherworld were no different. Against creatures like that, just two people would be torn apart and killed in an instant!
Knowing that, Est and Paragon abandoned the mat and their luggage, took only their weapons, and retreated!
“Don't retreat! Hold them at the entrance!”
“That's easy for you to say!! Do you know how big the difference in numbers is?!”
If we ran into the open, we'd be surrounded and killed! But I couldn't exactly ask them to hold the entrance until they were stabbed to death with kitchen knives!
“Kyaak!! (Food!!)”
“Kyaak!! (Food!!)”
“Kyaak!! (Food!!)”
The goblins charged toward us in a chanting chorus. Francesca and I hurried toward our party members. Francesca drew her weapon, and I pulled my sword from my waist.
“Fuck! My right hand feels strange!”
The arm that had drawn the sword was unfortunately my right hand. Est let out a horrified cry when she saw the arm wrapped in fluorescent mana.
“What's with your arm?! Are you a goblin too?!”
“Don't say something so horrible! I told you it wasn't a curse!”
The stele had said so, so I had no choice but to believe it. Green Monkey Nord would be too horrible. We gathered in one place and formed a formation.
“W-we can win…. We can win….”
Francesca trembled as she muttered while holding a long one-handed hammer. I followed her chant while tensing up.
“Almighty Akarat, protect me with eternal light. Almighty Akarat, protect me with eternal light. Almighty Akarat, protect me with eternal light─”
“Kyar-kyaak!! (Give up!!)”
“Fuck!! Why does this shit happen every time I accept a request?!”
The excited green brats charged at us!!
A chaotic suspenseful charge with no formation whatsoever! I saw a chance of victory in that complete disorder!
“You little shits! Katydids were scarier than you!”
Not knowing the condition of my right hand, I swung the sword with my left.
Whoosh!!
The strength I'd built through Professor Brammathon's physical training produced a slash powerful enough to kill an otherworldly green brat.
But the brat displayed cunning intelligence and dodged my sword. It even performed a naryeotagon technique, rolling across the floor and escaping the path of my attack!
“What the fuck?!”
“Kyak!! (Kill!!)”
The attack continued from there! A polished-stone axe flew toward my foot! If it hit me, my mobility would drop sharply!
“K-keep quiet!!”
Flustered, I didn't even recover my sword before throwing a punch.
Because of my posture, it was a bare-fisted knuckle blow swung with only arm strength and no power from my waist. There was no way it should have had any killing or stopping power.
─Except for one variable: I had thrown it with my ‘right arm.’
Ttukwang!!!
─It came with an incredible impact and burst of sound.
“Gyak.”
Thud.
The goblin struck by my right arm died without even managing to let out a proper scream.
Its skull was obliterated, and the tremendous force sent the contents of its head spilling onto the floor like the insides of a melon.
Splatter.
Trickle….
“….”
The surroundings fell silent. The charging goblins were horrified to see their soul-friend turned into melon juice, and so were my party members. Fuck, so was I.
“What the hell is this…?”
I flinched and clenched and unclenched the green-glowing hand.
It was an astonishing power. One pathetic punch thrown wildly had sent an excited brat into eternal sleep! It was almost the strength of a bear.
“…A bear?”
Boom!!
When I spoke that one word, a tremendous electrical current shot through my head. It was the sort of sixth sense that should definitely be called a ‘discovery of truth’ or ‘Eureka.’
It felt as if the enormous mana vessels radiating from my heart were coursing through my entire body!
With a shiver, I realized the true nature of this power.
“Ah, I see. I──”
A warrior who wielded the strength of a bear in a human body.
There was only one such warrior in the world.
“──Was I Vector Man Bear?”
Earth Warrior Vector Man.
I had become a warrior chosen by the planet Gaia to fight for the peace of humanity!
Of course, someone selfish and pathetic like me could never truly be the successor of that hero. For me to call myself Vector Man was to sully the names of those great heroes.
But at least this magic.
This sorcery, at least, must be a power belonging to the same lineage as those great warriors.
Now I could understand the meaning of the characters depicted in the murals. The huge hieroglyph containing the three meanings—human, beast, and transformation—pointed to a single truth.
──A human who calls down the strength of a beast into his body.
The writing recorded on the stele was a phrase honoring this very power!
“Then─ there is only one thing I need to do now.”
Even though I had awakened my true power, my companions and I were still in danger.
They might not have been Earth's humans, but they were still people who fought alongside me and loved peace.
Therefore, I widened my eyes, twisted my limbs, and shouted.
“──Transform.”
As I whispered with a grand, bear-born resolve.
My entire body began to shine with green light.