Level 1 Strongest Sage ~

I defeated the demon.

I already eliminated his possibility of reincarnating, and also destroyed the magical circle that the demon casted on the Holy City.

The demon was said to have a daughter, too, but she met her demise at the hands of my flaming knight, apparently.

The Evil God’s aura that I felt in several places had also completely vanished, so this was probably the end of it.

That was what I thought, but —

“I can’t find Elmia, the captain of the Holy Knights, anywhere. Please, Halt-sama, please help me search for her”

When I teleported back to the Great Shrine to report the demon’s defeat to Seira, she showed a relieved expression for a while, but soon after, she requested me to aid her in searching for Elmia.

Elmia must have been held captive by the demon, just like how Seira and Ysha, the candidate chosen to be the next saintess, were.

Back when I rescued Seira and accompanied her when she returned to the Holy CIty, I had secretly stuck a teleportation circle to Seira when we shook hands in parting. That was the reason I managed to save her from the demon.

However, at that time, Elmia seemed guarded against me,and she didn’t shake my hand, so I wasn’t able to stick a teleportation circle on her.

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That’s why even though I was told that Elmia was missing, I couldn’t immediately go and rescue her.

I asked Tina to search Elmia’s mana, but it seemed that she couldn’t detect Elmia’s mana within this Holy City.

There were three possibilities, then.

First, Elmia was taken away to a place that was out of Tina’s magic detection scope.

Second, she was bound with a tool that was capable of erasing her mana.

Third, Elmia was already killed.

The demon considered the Holy Knights to be nothing but a nuisance.

I didn’t really want to think about this, but the third one had the highest chance.

Just in case, I also casted a magical teleportation circle on her Holy Armor, but —

I didn’t believe the demon would still allow her to wear that holy armor when he kidnapped her, given that the armour could manifest the holy knight’s power to its maximum capacity.

In that case, even if I teleported to the place where the holy armor was lying around, no one would probably be there.

Also, if the demon had thrown the armor into another dimension, then I might even die if I teleported over there.

However Seira desperately pleaded with me to save Elmia with tears streaming down her face, so I decided to take the risk and teleport to the place where her armor was.

It’s just that I didn’t know what kind of destination awaited me, and I wanted to preserve my life as much as possible, so I layered several barriers around me.

My status was frozen, so unless something huge happened, I didn’t think I would die. But then, it wouldn’t hurt to be more careful.

I also considered the odds of dying at my teleportation destination, so I placed a magical circle that would automatically bring my body back to Ryuka just in case it did happen.

By doing this, even if worse comes to worst, Ryuka would still be able to revive me.

Even I didn’t want to die, of course.

If only I had known it would be like this, then I would’ve attached a magical teleportation circle on Elmia that was similar to the one I stuck on Seira, one that could also grasp the situation at the destination….

Unfortunately, the magic circle I placed on Elmia was just a teleportation marker, nothing more.

“I don’t know what kind of place Elmia is right now, so I’m going to teleport on my own for now. Just in case something happened…Ryuka, I leave it to you.”

“Y-yes!”

The entire Elnor family was gathered here.

I already told Ryuka that I might come back dead just in case the worst possible scenario occurred, and requested her to revive me if that happened.

“Alright, I’m off.”

──＊＊＊──

I teleported to the place where Elmia was.

It was a pitch-black space.

I couldn’t grasp the situation.

I could just light the whole place with magic, but I didn’t know what kind of consequences it would bring.

A trap that would make the entire place explode if I tried to cast a spell existed in this world, after all.

And so, I scanned the surroundings using my magic vision.

A holy armor that was probably Elmia’s lay down beneath my feet.

It was closer than I imagined, and my foot hit it inadvertently, causing a sound to echo.

“Is somebody there?”

It was Elmia’s voice.

I turned towards the direction of the sound, and somebody was standing there with both arms raised. It was probably Elmia.

I could barely see her with my magical vision, and it seemed that her mana was restricted.

It wasn’t odd then that even Tina’s magical detection didn’t work on her, given this distance.

I scanned the surroundings.

There seemed to be nobody else here, but just in case, I cautiously approached her.

“Who’s there!? S-stop, d- don’t come near me!”

Elmia’s voice was shaking.

She was totally scared of my presence as I approached her in the midst of this darkness.

I didn’t want to frighten her, but I had to be vigilant.

Please bear with it, I’ll apologize later.

Finally, Elmia was within my reach, and I managed to go to her without a hitch.

Apparently, there was no trap or something like that in here.

The only noteworthy things in this room were the manacles binding her hands. It seemed that those were magical devices that absorbed mana.

I could free her by destroying these.

Alright. Let’s save her.

I was about to cast a spell that would illuminate the area, when —

“You’re staring at me over there, right!? N-no matter what you do to me, I will never sell my soult to the demon! I’m… ready. I-if you’re going to slay me, then go ahead, and slay me!”

Elmia yelled, her voice breaking in tears.

Tsk, what a  shame, just a little bit more and it would be “Argh, kill me!”….

Ah! If I played with her body more, then maybe I’m going to hear her scream “Argh, kill me!”?

The demon’s whispering coursed through my body.

…So weird.

I already annihilated that demon just a while ago.

I calmed down.

I wasn’t interested in doing anything to a girl who was on the verge of tears.

“Please be at ease. I came here to save you on the behest of Seira.”

I conjured a ball of light on my palm and called out to Elmia.

“Y-you are —”

She had been staying in this dark room for a long time, so her eyes got used to the darkness, and now she was blinded by the light.

“I am Halt, the Sage that you met outside the Holy City. I am going to remove these restraints.”I destroyed the magical devices that bound Elmia’s hands.

At the same time, her body, which had been held by her hand, swayed towards me.

I hastily caught her.

Because her armor had been removed, only her chest was covered by a single strip of cloth, while she was in her underwear on her lower half.

Her body was in that situation as she fell into my arms.

Fluff — something soft touched my body.

Th-this is…the same size as Tina’s!?

When I saw Elmia in her armor, I already thought that they were ample enough, but not as big as Tina’s. However, this is —

Perhaps, she had always done her best to stuff these melons in that holy armor as she fought day by day.

I mused on this as I destroyed the shackles on her feet while still carrying her.

I felt a pang of regret for not freeing her feet first.

There was stone dais that reached up to my waist, so I laid her down on top of it.

I could bring her immediately back to Seira, but there were also holy knights around Seira, Tina and the rest of the girls. Elmia would probably be mortified if she were to be seen looking like this.

Her armor didn’t seem to be damaged even if it was thrown in this room, so I decided to put it on her first.

But first, she needed to recover first in order for me to do that.

She had been standing all the time she had been bound, so she didn’t have any strength left, and both of her shoulders were dislocated, to boot.

She didn’t seem to have wounds, but a great deal of her mana had been depleted. I casted heal on her shoulders while sending mana into her.

“S-sorry. But I’m fine. Her Ladyship the Saintess… Seira is in danger. The demon is here. Please save Seira — “

Elmia fainted after muttering those words.

She had pushed herself for far too long. 

“It is alright. Seira is safe. I already defeated the demon.”

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She probably didn’t hear it, but I still talked to her nonetheless.

Elmia’s expression loosened up, somehow.

After I healed her, I clad her in the holy armor, then teleported us back to Seira, who was probably worried sick about her.

––––-

T/N: Annnd there we have it, guys, confirmation of Halt’s immortality. As long as Ryuka is around, Halt won’t die, at least not permanently, anyway. So what’s the lifespan of a dragonoid, anyway? The odds of Ryuka dying of any other reason aside from natural causes is next to nil, since Halt could always heal her, too. By then, maybe Halt would’ve invented an automatic spell that would revive him from the dead.  XD