Brain bloom

"……Um."

Melia breathed a sigh of relief and finally felt at ease. She regained some composure and glanced at Dandelion and Sen Shi's expressions out of the corner of her eye, judging that they had probably reached a reconciliation.

She didn't ask any more questions, even though her mind was also full of doubts.

"The matter is probably resolved. Let's go back." Mori looked weary, and his tone was equally tired.

"it is good."

Nodding in agreement, Melia glanced at Dandelion a few more times, feeling that this princess of the Four Seasons was hard to trust. Although she was smiling now, who knew what small thing might cause her to turn into that terrifying person again.

But B stopped Mori.

"You are the one who delivered the coffin."

"That's it."

She secretly sighed, finally able to be honest about this.

B continued, “Forgive my disrespect, but I must confirm, what changes do you… what changes do you want to make to the country? Because before being a devout believer, I loved everything about the country more. Besides, the one carrying the coffin is someone like you…”

She didn't finish her sentence, but the result was obvious: a deep sense of distrust.

“That inheritance was left by me, that’s an indisputable fact.”

Mori understood perfectly, but still chose to say nice things.

“I don’t intend to use this divine status to indulge in debauchery and extravagance in the Holy Coffin Kingdom, or to have a bunch of people serve me. I also won’t publicize this identity, but I still have to go to the Holy Coffin Kingdom.”

What do you want?

"Of course, I want to explore this country that I have such a deep connection with, and while I'm at it, I also want to look into some things, have a heart-to-heart talk with your Pope, and, incidentally, reclaim the inheritance that belongs to me."

Volume 1, Chapter 193: Winter

"Inheritance? You mean the gift from the coffin bearers back then... that wealth that enabled our country to be established?" Although he already had a conclusion in his mind, B couldn't help but ask again, because it was impossible.

"Yes."

“This…I’m afraid…” she was very troubled.

Mori's request was something B feared to hear. The damage this request would inflict on the country was immense, and her eyes dimmed.

Although the sum of money was enormous, a portion of it had been consumed since the founding of the kingdom. Moreover, as far as she knew, once the Holy Coffin Kingdom became self-sufficient, the remaining wealth was sealed away and stored in a place known only to successive popes.

She wasn't sure if this money, which was the country's lifeline, would survive intact...

Because the secular king of the Holy Coffin Kingdom is a complex person who would even extend his reach into it.

Given the sheer size of the country and the complex web of cause and effect, it's impossible for this money to be fully repaid.

She tried to defend herself from a gentler angle—

"Too much time has passed. For the happiness of the people, and to build more churches and cultivate more devout believers, a lot of money has been spent... Faith is our gift in return."

Mori shook his head: "I didn't expect to get it all back anyway. Just give me back those few pieces of armor and weapons."

"This? Uh... I think it should be possible. The Pope will give you a satisfactory answer."

"That's good."

B was quite surprised and couldn't help but breathe a long sigh of relief. She secretly felt that the coffin bearer wasn't as bad as she had thought. Knowing that the true god was like this before had actually caused her a huge disappointment; after all, that was the One Who Lives Through the Four Seasons…

Fortunately, he wasn't the stubborn type, nor did he seem to have the airs of a true god. He wasn't appearing to guide believers because the country had gone astray, which is good...

Mori really misses those things; each one was the culmination of her hard work.

Now that we have the chance, of course we should ask for it.

It's not meant to help the dandelion regain its homeland, but rather so that next time, when the dandelion gets angry again over some trivial matter, it can use it to protect itself...

Thinking about all this, Mori suddenly noticed that B had some newly wrapped bandages on his body. Now that he thought about it, the surroundings were also full of signs of a battle.

The centuries-old forest she had created with her power was left in ruins.

Not only that, while she was chatting with the young believer, Melia and Dandelion had somehow gotten together and were competing to rummage through the dozen or so corpses that B had hacked to pieces. The corpses' baggage was exceptionally rich, and Dandelion seemed to have made a great haul.

"How much money did you find? Demon Queen Banshee."

"Not many, about a hundred."

"Damn it, that's not much?"

"It's not much for me, but it's not bad either. It can open another elementary school in the Chaos Land."

Their boastful conversation about their achievements caught B's attention. Dandelion was one thing, but Melia was even digging through corpses? This was something B found hard to accept.

"Queen of Demons and Banshees, how could you do such...filthy things? At least show some respect for the dead!"

"The Chaos Land values ​​pragmatism and doesn't have as many complicated ideas as you humans."

“Exactly, exactly! Corpses are a rich treasure,” Dandelion chimed in. “Even if there’s not a penny to them, corpses can be used as fertilizer to make the flowers bloom more beautifully.”

B's face turned ugly. Glancing at Sen Shi's face out of the corner of her eye, she unconsciously felt a surge of goodwill towards the still-silent True God. At least she maintained this noble character, refraining from disturbing the corpse like a vulture, and shamelessly uttering vulgarities to justify her shamelessness.

At this moment, Mori was wondering if she had accidentally blown up a few people when she was attacked by this group. Could she have blown up all her money too...?

What a pity.

Suddenly—Melia's eyes narrowed for a moment.

She had been rummaging through the red-haired man's body when she noticed a hidden pocket in the corpse's underwear. Ignoring the blood on her hands, she forcibly pulled out an item that wasn't valuables.

She glanced at it briefly and immediately scoffed.

"See? If I hadn't searched the body, how would I have found this?" She shook the piece of paper she had found in her hand vigorously, like a child showing off a toy.

All three were curious, so they simply moved closer.

Generally speaking, such an unassuming little piece of paper may very well carry a weighty message.

Mori glanced at the words on it and immediately frowned.

"—For this mission, the Extinction of the Four Seasons is the priority. Secondly, cause as much damage as possible to the interior of Silvermoon City. It is recommended to use poison to contaminate the water source and secretly destroy the city's defenses. Once the time is right, contact us using a coded message."

She initially thought these people who inexplicably attacked her were simply assassins sent by the Peda Empire to kill those who killed the Four Seasons. However, there was another layer of trouble behind it all…

Clearly, the shadow of war is looming over this permanently neutral city.

Melia and B each have their own intelligence sources, so it wasn't so surprising. But faced with this confirmed news, they had to consider how to respond from an international perspective.

Melia's approach remains unchanged: she'll help whoever wins.

B represents the Holy Coffin Kingdom and brings with her all the elite troops recruited by the entire nation; she has much more to do. In an instant, many strategies flashed through her mind, but they all vanished like smoke.

There are beings of higher rank than her here—

"Great God of SB, I acknowledge your divinity, so I will obey your commands now. Will you intervene to protect this island and safeguard those innocent civilians?"

"Please call me the coffin carrier! At least that sounds better..."

Sen Shi inevitably felt embarrassed. Although these two letters had different meanings in the world, she just couldn't accept it.

She shook off the awkwardness and focused on thinking about the current situation, and a question arose.

"I am not an omniscient and omnipotent god, so don't expect too much from me. I'm quite curious why the Peda Empire suddenly wants to attack Silvermoon City."

“Because there’s an excuse to fight the Four Seasons, plus winter is coming.” Melia was happy to share her opinion with her. “You killed the Rain Wizard in Frozen Bear Town, and he failed to bring back that huge sum of money. They obviously can’t survive the winter, so of course they’re going to come out and plunder.”

Mori was a beat slow to react before finally recalling the common sense he had learned in the gaming world. Since that knowledge had been largely useless, Mori had subconsciously forgotten that he was a veteran of this damn game…

Yes, the winters in the Peda Empire are extremely harsh.

That was also the harsh winter known as the Beast Season.

……

(I'm typing this while on an IV drip, and my head is spinning...)

Volume 1, Chapter 194: Not sure what to name it

If we exclude the Demon Realm, which Sen Shi knew very little about, the God Realm they spoke of, the Underworld, and other unknown places, and simply estimate the territory of the human world—then this world is not very large.

Although Mori didn't know what lay beyond the sea, all the places where humans had ventured were clearly marked on the map.

At most, it's just a few countries with populations in the tens of millions and relatively large territories fighting each other, with a dozen or so independent city-states scattered around, plus a few different and unique scattered ethnic groups.

However, due to the existence of magic and strange powers, even across the vast ocean that is only a few days' sailing distance apart, the climate can vary greatly.

For example, the Peda Empire suffered from a peculiar winter.

When the old cloud worms come out to move around and turn the climate into what is called winter, the cold winds will freeze the seas surrounding the Peda Empire.

Even the most robust old pirates, covered in skulls and runes, would find it difficult to set sail in such an environment.

What if, by some unfortunate event, the ship is torn apart and devoured by a ferocious sea beast? That would be better.

I'm afraid that a sudden gust of wind might bring an icicle that could pierce my throat.

In that case... it would signal the start of the Beast Season.

Any corpse that dies in the bitter cold is awakened by a strange magic present in the icy wind, transforming into a bizarre "beast" that will tear apart any living thing it encounters. It's almost like a curse on these ferocious pirates; this harsh winter has always plagued the Peda Empire.

Therefore, every year when the harsh winter comes, they do their best to ensure that every citizen can live warmly until the next spring.

That was all Sen Shi knew. The "beasts" that the pirates had transformed into had an average level of over 85 in the game era. Moreover, because they had extremely high resistance to both magic and physical attacks, players always kept their distance and were unwilling to take on these tough opponents.

But this was reality. In order to gain more knowledge, she slowly began to speak:

"In my time, the Peda Empire would gather a large number of mages to ignite nineteen immortal flames in order to resist the harsh winter, and use this warmth to cover the entire country."

"Yes, that's how it is in this era too."

Melia gave Mori the answer he wanted directly.

"But because of the need to withdraw from fighting the Evil Mist, the Peda Empire lost many mages in succession, making this tradition of resisting the cold winter difficult."

"It's that damn thing again."

"So, in order to ignite the Undying Flame, they resorted to summoning mages from abroad. But there are many who hate that country, so they can only hire mages from the darker realms... which requires wealth."

"A darker area?"

"Yes, for example, demons, evil spirits, and devils who study black magic. Or ancient powerful beings who live in seclusion in the demon realm, etc. These guys are monsters who don't take threats and are only willing to work for money."