“We’ve arrived. Let’s go.”
Yue Wu dismounted from the Chimera’s back, then extended his left hand towards the girl.
“Thank you, Adventurer-sama, for bringing me back,” the girl said, bowing deeply to Yue Wu. “Please, come to my home. My parents will surely wish to express their gratitude.”
“You don’t need to keep calling me ‘Adventurer’,” Yue Wu replied. “My name is Yue Wu. Just call me Yue Wu.”
He wasn’t fond of the girl constantly addressing him as “Adventurer-sama.” While he was happy to be an adventurer, the addition of “sama” felt rather demeaning. It made him feel like a cannon fodder character in a novel, destined for an early demise.
“I understand. Thank y—”
The girl, her back to the stream, began to thank Yue Wu once more. Before she could finish her sentence, however, Yue Wu suddenly raised his hand, placing it on her head. He looked at her with a grave expression.
“Tell me,” he began, his gaze serious and his tone deliberate. “If you’re willing, would you consider joining me on an adventure?”
“Huh? What’s wrong, Adventurer— uh, Yue Wu?” The girl looked utterly bewildered by his sudden proposition.
Yue Wu didn’t answer her directly. Instead, he posed a question. “Do strange things often happen around here?”
“Yes, strange occurrences do happen from time to time,” the girl admitted truthfully. “But not long ago, a powerful Mage-sama came to our village. They promised to help us resolve these issues.”
“What’s more, that Mage-sama stayed in our village for a while, eventually setting up some kind of magic circle around the village. We haven’t seen them since.”
“Something is about to happen,” Yue Wu warned. “Don’t get too agitated.”
“Huh?”
The girl didn’t quite grasp his meaning, yet a sudden tightness seized her chest, making her breathing feel constricted.
“Lead the way to your home,” Yue Wu instructed, already stepping forward.
“Oh, alright! Father and Mother will be so eager to meet you!” the girl chirped, her spirits lifting.
She envisioned her homecoming, picturing her parents embracing her tightly.
“Is that so? Well, I’m a little embarrassed then,” Yue Wu responded with a simple smile.
The girl shook her head. “It’s fine. You are my benefactor, and my family will welcome you warmly.”
She held a very favorable impression of Yue Wu, finding him quite gentle.
“I still don’t know your name,” Yue Wu suddenly realized, having forgotten to ask all this time.
“Jeanne D’Arc,” the girl replied. “My name is Jeanne D’Arc.”
The moment she uttered her name, Yue Wu abruptly halted, as if frozen in place.
Jeanne D’Arc? The Saintess of Light from the European Continent in the game? The leader of the Knights of Orléans? The World Boss, the Demonic Dragon Saintess, in the later stages? A torrent of information flooded Yue Wu’s mind.
‘No, this must just be a coincidence,’ he tried to reassure himself. ‘Just someone with the same name.’
Yet, he couldn’t shake the urge to confirm whether the girl was merely a namesake. Thus, he asked her about the current year.
“Jeanne, do you know what year it is now?”
“You don’t know?” Jeanne was astonished that Yue Wu was unaware of the current year.
“Ah, I’ve lived in the mountains my whole life, rarely interacting with the outside world,” Yue Wu stammered, feeling a little awkward at her question. He concocted a small lie.
“Oh, I see,” Jeanne replied, now understanding him better. “It’s August 6th, in the year 608.”
‘The year 608?’ Yue Wu’s thoughts raced. ‘This isn’t the starting year of the game! 608 is two years *earlier* than the game’s beginning. This means I’m two years before the game officially starts.’
‘The history of this period is completely unknown, or at least, I don’t remember much of it. I only vaguely recall a few events, particularly one quest involving Jeanne when I was doing missions with Sister Fei Fei and the others.’
‘Wait a minute! Jeanne’s story… if I remember correctly, this might be the location of that old quest, ‘Jeanne’s Past.’ That quest involved helping Jeanne discover why her village had become a ghost town years ago.’
‘This means this girl could actually be the Jeanne from the game!’
“Yue Wu-sama?” Jeanne called out, growing concerned as Yue Wu remained motionless.
“Ah? I’m fine. Let’s go.” Yue Wu smiled and shook his head. Even if she truly was the Jeanne from the game, she was just an ordinary person now.
Even with talent, without guidance, no genius could achieve such feats in just a few years. Perhaps she was indeed just a namesake.
“Oh, right, our village is called Domrémy,” Jeanne chirped. “Everyone there is very, very kind!”
She eagerly wanted to introduce everyone in the village to Yue Wu. She even considered whom to introduce first after her parents. Unbeknownst to her, the village ahead was no longer the one she remembered.
“Alright, Jeanne, we can stop now.”
After crossing the stream, Yue Wu reached out, placed a hand on Jeanne’s shoulder, and pulled her close. He then produced a magic staff and a seemingly ancient spellbook, instantly entering a battle stance.
“Yue Wu-sama?” A sudden, overwhelming sense of urgency caused Jeanne’s heart to pound.
“Come out, you who hide in the shadows,” Yue Wu stated calmly, gazing at the seemingly empty grassland ahead. “If you don’t, I won’t mind personally inviting you out.”
Beneath his feet, a golden magic circle materialized. Around its periphery, three rotating magical rings, alternating red and yellow, began to spin.
“I must say, your method of invitation is quite… overwhelming,” a peculiar, ghastly man remarked as he ascended from beneath the ground.
He was draped in a tattered, black robe. His left arm was devoid of flesh, a horrifying skeletal hand clearly visible. More than half of his body was similarly fleshless, yet his internal organs remained intact.
The sight was so grotesque that Jeanne, upon seeing him, immediately turned away and began to retch violently.
“Has my appearance startled the young lady?” the peculiar man asked, striking a gentlemanly pose as if to apologize to Jeanne. “My apologies.”
Jeanne, however, did not see his gesture, still overcome by nausea at his monstrous form.
“Enough with the pleasantries,” Yue Wu cut in. “You should have already made your move on the village ahead.”
He disliked beating around the bush and preferred to speak plainly. He had already confirmed that the Jeanne behind him was indeed the Jeanne D’Arc, leader of the Knights of Orléans from the game. Therefore, Jeanne’s village was likely no longer the one she remembered.
“It seems you’re quite familiar with our affairs,” the peculiar man observed, his skeletal left hand clenching a staff made of bone. His eyes fixed on the magic circle beneath Yue Wu’s feet.
“My knowledge of your affairs?” Yue Wu retorted. “Do you wish for me to be ignorant, or to be aware?”
Of course, he knew their secrets. He had completed every quest in the game, uncovered the conspiracy of an evil faction, and, along with his guild members, had annihilated that very force.
“What a pity. It seems our conversation ends here,” the peculiar man sighed. “Although I cannot discern the true extent of your power, the spell you just cast appears to be ‘Holy Light Judgment,’ a Level 6 Light-element magic.”
The peculiar man keenly sensed that the sudden appearance of this young man indicated an extremely powerful individual. To instantly cast a Level 6 spell without incantation, further augmented by three magical rings with dual attribute enhancements, meant he was no match for Yue Wu.
“Without the magical rings, it would indeed be ‘Holy Light Judgment’,” Yue Wu clarified. “However, with three rings, it becomes a super-magic, ‘Final Verdict,’ destined to shatter your plans tonight.”
As Yue Wu finished speaking, the magic circle beneath his feet vanished. Simultaneously, a vast golden magic array materialized in the sky, spanning an immense area.
At its center was a colossal cross, flanked by a sun and a moon, with countless stars scattered throughout the array. It radiated an incredibly dazzling light.
“Never mind that, attack now!” the peculiar man shrieked, panic seizing him. He hadn’t anticipated his opponent would cast a spell first, completely thwarting his stalling tactics.
He had no choice but to make a desperate gamble, hoping to survive.
The moment the peculiar man’s command was given, three enormous bone dragons burst from the ground. They immediately lunged towards Yue Wu’s position.
The peculiar man’s reasoning was simple: he believed that killing the caster would dispel the super-magic.
Indeed, his idea was sound. However, he completely overlooked one crucial detail. Yue Wu was no ordinary mage. He was a Priest, a formidable battle Priest with explosively high stats.
“Heh~ Take this hammer, Hammer of Justice!”
Yue Wu had anticipated his opponent’s strategy. While unleashing the super-magic, he had simultaneously prepared another spell: the Hammer of Justice, one of the Priest’s signature core offensive abilities.
A massive hammer of light, only slightly smaller than the bone dragons themselves, was gripped firmly in Yue Wu’s hands. Its weight was indiscernible until Yue Wu effortlessly swung it down.
Only then did its immense power and terrifying might become apparent.
BOOM! CRASH!
The three bone dragons took the full force of the Hammer of Justice head-on. They were instantly pulverized into dust, with no chance of regeneration.
What followed was akin to a dust explosion. The peculiar man vanished amidst the blast. Jeanne, having remained behind Yue Wu and protected by several layers of Holy Light shields he had already cast, was completely unharmed.
“Go now,” Yue Wu said to Jeanne, sighing as he gazed forward. “I’ll wait for you here.”
During the earlier conversation between Yue Wu and the man, Jeanne had realized that her village might no longer be the one she remembered. Yet, she ultimately gathered her courage and started back.
‘This must be why Jeanne will grow strong,’ Yue Wu mused, watching her resolute figure and retreating back. ‘Perhaps once people acknowledge their weaknesses, the rational ones choose to become stronger, to better protect what they hold dear.’