Chapter 40. My Home, My Fortress
After I fed Megumin, my spirits lifted so much that when I led her to my room, where I planned—with Merimi's permission—to let her stay the night, she told me her story.
It was yet another insane adventure of their party, but that time they—or maybe just Megumin—were unlucky. She got caught by a teleportation spell that misfired in some strange way and threw her straight into this cruel world. At first she stayed optimistic. Even outside of Kazuma's party she'd traveled alone for a while. But this world quickly showed her its brutality: she ran into a squad of orkoids who had just recently captured some man, and the heart of a fourteen‑year‑old girl was not ready for such a sight. She stared at what was happening, stunned and unable to move, until at one point the man tried to fight back and was killed. Only then did she snap out of it and blast those creatures with explosion magic, after which she collapsed right there, completely drained of strength—and being powerless in this world is simply far too dangerous. She herself hadn't managed to recover before a crowd of bandits came running at the noise. She got lucky then. Those bandits had recently had a successful raid, so they had already satisfied their urges and, in the end, didn't lay hands on her body. And since she was objectively very beautiful, they decided to preserve her as well as they could, relatively speaking, just throwing her into a cage and, apparently deciding she posed no threat, didn't even bother to take her staff. She spent two days in the cage and realized that if she didn't do something, her fate would be anything but enviable. That was when this world, for the second time, saw just how powerful explosion magic could be. And again, she was left powerless.
Honestly, listening to her story, I was truly astonished. Not by how skillfully she wriggled out of situations, but by how insanely lucky she was. She managed to live in this world for three years relying solely on explosion magic, constantly getting into trouble and somehow, by some miracle, still not ending up in sexual slavery or in some monster's lair, and she even got lucky enough to find a local fire‑magic book, which she finally decided to study after once again walking along the edge. She lived another year like that, finally managing to reach a city and starting to try to take quests at the guild, which barely kept her from starving to death, because by that point she was already so emaciated that she had trouble completing the quests.
Obviously, those four years had been a real nightmare for her. But in fact, it could have been much worse—I know that firsthand. So, after hearing her story, I promised her that even if we couldn't find a way home, she could, if she wanted, become part of my team. And I would take care of her. Needless to say, she latched onto that chance almost more eagerly than she had latched onto the opportunity to be in Kazuma's party back in her own world.
Leaving Megumin at the inn, I decided not to delay and went to the bank while there was still time. There, despite the late hour, it was still crowded and, to my delight, the line in front of the slave‑registrar clerk wasn't too long. I headed straight for her.
"Welcome to the Three‑Sided Stock Exchange, Noer Branch. How may I help you?" the employee said, not in the least embarrassed by my unusual appearance.
"I want to buy a house in the city."
Surprise flickered in the girl's eyes, but she still replied in the most professional tone:
"Residential property in the city of Noer can only be purchased by those who have citizenship. Please present your documents."
"Here." I calmly took the documents out of my inventory. Fortunately, photographs weren't in use on this island, so in essence it was just a special piece of paper with text. Because of that, if you had money, anyone could get documents in Noer.
"Everything's in order." After confirming what she needed, the clerk pulled out a map of the city and spread it out on the counter in front of me.
"The properties currently for sale are marked on this map. Prices vary depending on location and amenities. As a rule, the closer a house is to the central square, the more fully equipped it will be for living—but naturally the price is completely different as well."
And indeed, looking at the map, on which circles with house numbers and sometimes even entire districts were marked, you could see a colossal difference in price. It ranged from 1 gold for several houses at once in the slums—where, in practice, you'd be killed before you could do anything there—to a hundred gold near the mayor's residence, where, naturally, the security was the best and refugees and bandits were simply not allowed anywhere near.
In the end I settled on a pretty good option: a two‑story house with six bedrooms. And what was even more surprising, it even had a working sewage system. Basically, a proper mansion that under normal circumstances would have cost well over 300 gold, but now, with hordes of refugees outside the city, constant reports of orkoid atrocities, and news of the approaching dark miasma that had already destroyed an entire kingdom, the more sensible rich folk preferred to quickly sell their homes for a song, just to take care of hiring guards and securing enough money to flee the island. So I ended up paying only 50 gold and, fully satisfied, made a quick stop by the market to buy the materials I needed to defend the house—another 10 gold gone there—and headed to my new home.
And when I arrived at my property, which was surrounded by a rather decent fence, only then did I fully realize where exactly I'd bought a house. My neighbor turned out to be a slutty fortune‑teller who was actually yet another weakened goddess, and, in effect, the progenitor of flesh demons. Was I happy about such neighbors? No way. Was I afraid that I'd have problems because of her? Also no. Even though she was the progenitor of flesh demons, that idiot would still prefer someone else to deal with the problem. It was no accident she'd put so much effort into making it so the original Lona could receive memories from the previous cycle through pregnancy.
Still, even so, some extra insurance wouldn't hurt. I got to work at once and, practically chugging mana potions, began to set up the mansion's defenses. And what's the best way to protect something? Exactly: make it inaccessible to others. That's where the sage Lona's research into spatial magic came in handy. I worked until the dead of night. Sweat poured off me in streams, and my stomach made it very clear how unhappy it was with that many potions. But everything was ready. Four hastily created nodes at the corners of the property and a control point in the basement of the house itself. One final push of magical energy—and space shuddered; for those outside, the house seemed to warp for a brief moment before everything went back to normal. Only now what could be seen from outside was just an intangible illusion. And the only ones who could enter this space were me and those I granted access to.
"Heh. Heh‑heh. Ha‑ha‑ha‑ha." Leaning wearily on my staff, exhausted chuckles burst out of me, soon turning into full‑blown laughter.
"I did it, I made a place where no one can get to me!" The feeling—the feeling of realizing that now I was truly safe—was intoxicating to the point of madness. Not even at Merimi's inn, despite its protections, could I feel this way. But here… Here, even if the dark miasma flooded Noer this very moment, I'd be out of reach.
"Heh‑heh." Still unable to calm down, almost like I was drunk, I staggered to the master bedroom, where the bedding was surprisingly clean, though I no longer cared. Just like I didn't care that I was soaked with sweat. Without undressing and without turning down the bed, I simply collapsed onto it and, only at the last moment, tossed one of my still‑unassigned points into the junior priestess trait and then immediately into the senior priestess trait, after which I blacked out.
New memories flowed smoothly into my mind and, unlike usual, it almost felt like a more or less pleasant dream. Surprisingly, Lona's experience as a junior priestess was quite good. It began at the moment when, still an acolyte, Lona had a revelation: that day she didn't just mend some small thing, she healed a severe fracture with a single touch. From that moment on, her aura seemed to change. There was a faint, barely perceptible purity about her that felt like sacrilege to stain. That day, a fat priest, afraid of losing his position, somehow couldn't bring himself to kill his rival and instead simply expelled her, forbidding her to appear in the church. For Lona, who had grown used to living in the temple over countless cycles, this was unexpected. She felt lost and then decided to use her power to heal refugees, while the holy relics, which didn't have much offensive power, helped her defend herself by merely stunning offenders long enough for Lona to walk away unharmed. That was when the city's mayor took notice of her, having heard rumors about a saint whom people had begun to consider almost a divine emissary sent to save the destitute.
The mayor took her under his wing, because someone with such healing skills was simply too valuable, and her positive reputation also played into his hands. For once, she began to live a fairly comfortable and easy life; no one forced her into anything, she just periodically did healing work and could spend the rest of her time as she wished. And when the dark miasma came, the mayor took her away with him. For once, she lived almost like an ordinary girl, even fell in love and started a family. And with each cycle, her skills got better. Until, at one point, another breakthrough came—the moment she became a senior priestess.
Now her aura was not faint, but almost tangible. Just looking at her felt like looking at a chosen saint. Her healing underwent a significant leap. She no longer just healed severe injuries like fractures but could regrow full limbs, and the power of holy relics in her hands was no weaker than magic. From that moment on, she was no longer kept merely safe. The not‑so‑stupid mayor quickly realized that she could become his key both to victory over the black miasma and to boosting his reputation enough to become ruler of the entire island. He played the great hero, trying in every way to seduce her while sending troops with her to cleanse Sybaris. From then on, unlike her life as a junior priestess, things became harder. Not everything always went well. And when it didn't, it ended, to put it mildly, unpleasantly—but sometimes there were moments of great triumph, with the island cleansed of filth. Yet all the same, everything led Lona back to the beginning of her path. The priestess's path was a dead end, because light could not break the loop.
When the memories ended, I suddenly realized I was sitting at a table in the middle of space, and in front of me was the now‑familiar angel.
"You sure managed to stir things up in such a short time," the angel said, leafing through a small booklet, then snapped it shut and looked at me. "You've fulfilled the conditions, and as promised, you will now serve the multiverse."
Before I could ask anything, he flicked me on the forehead, and I lost consciousness.