'... It almost feels as though he is blaming me.'

Of course I was. I had said it to make her feel bad. For someone called the Earth Sage, hadn't her first response to seeing the corpses been to start a brawl?

Still, as befitted a spiritual adept of great discipline, the Earth Sage composed her expression and made a request.

"That is a keepsake created by the Grand Master of Mother Earth's faith. I would ask that you hand it over."

"No, thanks. I passed the keepsake's test. And under the rule that's existed since the dawn of history—'An ownerless item belongs to whoever picks it up first!'—this Earth's Ripple is mine."

It could have sounded like a sudden fit of greed, or a legitimate declaration. Naturally, the Earth Sage would only have heard the former.

"Do not be unreasonable. Unworthy though I am, I am an Earth Sage, one permitted to bear the title of sage. On behalf of all followers of Mother Earth, I ask that you return it."

"You're the one being unreasonable, Earth Sage. I'm the most ordinary human in the world. On behalf of all humanity, I declare this mine."

Earth's Ripple trembled. It seemed to be shouting at me not to lie.

Dead things these days were so strange. I gave it a tap for being noisy, but only hurt my finger.

'Has seeing the keepsake right before his eyes suddenly stirred his greed? This is why a convict's character cannot be trusted.'

Clicking her tongue, the Earth Sage made one last attempt to persuade me. If this failed, she intended to take it by force.

"I have labored for twenty years—a full twenty years—to reach this source. I built Tantalus itself, and I came down here in person to overturn the ground. My contribution is the greatest."

"Oh, so we're dividing up the shares? You sound more like an adventurer than a follower of Mother Earth!"

The Earth Sage's eye twitched.

Adventurers. Treasure hunters, as they called themselves; grave robbers, as everyone else called them. To call a follower of Mother Earth an 'adventurer'—someone who rummaged through human remains in search of keepsakes and treasure—meant one of two things.

Either it was sheer ignorance, or it was a calculated provocation, a polite invitation to start a fight.

"You said this was to get rid of the bottomless pit, right? Then we're all set! I'll use this Earth's Ripple to get rid of it! And I'll keep this! Hic! Wow, what a windfall! What a windfall!"

"Might you be drunk?"

"No? I'm not drunk at all. Hic, hic. Ah, I feel great! To think I'd find a treasure like this down here!"

As I excitedly babbled on, the Earth Sage shook her head and reached out.

"It appears you are intoxicated. In that case, forgive my discourtesy."

She tried to snatch Earth's Ripple from my hand. Just as her fingers were about to close around it, it turned lightly, sweeping her hand aside in a circle.

She should not have been pushed aside.

The Earth Sage's body was brimming with highly advanced energy arts. With every step, she dispersed energy into the ground through an application of the earth arts, putting down roots beneath her feet.

That was why she never fell.

With her mastery of Earth energy arts and the Water energy arts hardened through that training, she was truly a living ancient tree.

But an ancient tree cannot exist without the earth.

'What?!'

CREEEAK.

Earth's Ripple, the sword without recoil, smoothly deflected her arm.

Earth's Ripple was light only to me. To anyone else, it weighed as much as a towering mountain.

That wasn't a figure of speech. It really was a sword with the weight of the largest rock in the world.

A contest of strength? There was no such thing. Resistance? Impossible.

As long as I held Earth's Ripple, I could not be overpowered by 'strength.' Its weight swallowed up all the strength others exerted.

That was why Earth's Ripple was the sword without recoil. Though in my hands, it was a staff.

'He has been permitted not merely to hold it, but to wield its power...? Why?'

As I casually brushed her arm aside, the Earth Sage's eyes filled with shock and fear.

Not fear of my strength, but fear born of her own sense of inadequacy—fear that I might truly be Earth's Ripple's rightful owner.

She regarded me with utmost wariness.

"... I do not know how the keepsake came to choose you, Master Hughes. But I ask you once again. Please hand it over to me."

"Now we're a little more on equal footing. Well? Are you ready to listen?"

"Please speak. I am always prepared to listen."

"Ahaha. Don't lie. How could you listen when you're under the delusion that you're the only one qualified? I'd just be reciting scripture to a cow."

She didn't bristle at my words. She had finally recognized my claim.

Earth's Ripple could easily push aside even a concrete building in its path, yet to me, it felt merely a little hefty. About as heavy as the magician's cane I used to hide a sword in.

I spun Earth's Ripple like a windmill as I spoke.

"These days, magic has advanced so much that fuel is no longer a concern, so I hear even ordinary families simply cremate their dead. In an age like this, how many corpses have you buried?"

"... You need not worry. I have buried quite enough."

"You don't seem very used to handling corpses, considering."

"You are being unreasonable. How can you claim I am unaccustomed to corpses?"

She spread her arms as if inviting me to see how calmly she stood atop this mountain of corpses.

And I pointed out that very thing.

"That's exactly what I mean. How casually you're standing on corpses."

Her outstretched arms went rigid. The Earth Sage answered in a trembling voice.

"... What did you say?"

"Why can you stand so calmly with corpses underfoot? Why can you send your energy into ground made of corpses and casually use it to support yourself? Why can you so casually unleash attacks that overturn a mountain of corpses?"

The Regressor was averse to corpses. Being covered in the undying one's remains had even made her freeze up for a moment.

That was why she had pushed off the overturned Tantalus or created Stepping Clouds to step on. It wasn't until she fell that she thought of destroying the footing beneath her opponent.

Nobody found that strange. Aversion to corpses was almost instinctive.

"People dislike death. Even when it's someone else's. That's why we shy away from corpses, bury them, and lay them to rest in our hearts. Buriers are apostles who honor that wish."

The Earth Sage, on the other hand...

"Haa."

At my sigh, the Earth Sage flinched like a student caught misbehaving. My stern admonishment struck her ears.

"As a burier, you're not even as good as Shei."

An admonishment made of plain truth, without the slightest hint of reproach.

"You were the first to step forward when you saw the mountain of corpses. You saw the vengeful spirits still clinging to their duty, yet failed to recognize them. And, good heavens, you even overturned a grave someone else had made."

"That was..."

The Earth Sage opened her mouth as if to make an excuse, but couldn't. I assessed her dispassionately.

"You fail as a burier."

Embarrassment and shame. And alongside them, defiance began to rear its head.

Before she could flare up, I spread my arms and cried out.

"But that's all right! What good is being skilled at burying corpses? You've done so much more than bury the dead and honor their souls!"

It wasn't a lie. This, too, was how I truly felt.

She had probably produced a hundred times more bags of concrete than she had conducted funerals.

She had saved several times more people than she had buried.

The buildings and facilities she had made still supported the foundations of the Military State. I had seen people curse the Military State throughout my life, but never anyone blame the Earth Sage.

'The Earth Sage should have fixed the country before fixing the dam.'

All I ever heard were joking complaints like that.

I expressed my heartfelt respect for that Earth Sage.

"I respect you, Earth Sage. That isn't a lie. Building graves for the dead is admirable, but does it compare to building homes for the living? Who is happier—the military engineers you've buried with your own hands, or those who survived thanks to you?"

She gave no answer, but her thoughts ran deep. Reading them one by one, I continued.

"You said you would eliminate the bottomless pit to restore Mother Earth's faith to its former glory, but let me be frank."

A cold truth she might already know herself.

"Getting rid of the bottomless pit won't bring back faith in Mother Earth. However you dress it up, that was the course of history."

It was an era when the Holy See rose to power, wars continued, communal funerals became popular, and advances in magic and alchemy reduced concerns over fuel.

People gradually chose cremation over burial. The Holy See conducted funerals cheaply, so the poor, who had neither land for a grave nor money for a coffin, entrusted their funerals to it.

And so demand for buriers gradually dwindled.

Why had both the Victorious King and the Overlord shunned Mother Earth's faith at that time? Whatever the case before, after the Grand Master, the faith possessed undeniable miracles.

The Overlord had brushed it off as a nuisance, but surely that wasn't the only reason.

"There was simply too much death, that's all. Land was scarce, burial was difficult, and they were busy fighting wars. What were they supposed to do with unidentified people wandering around calling themselves buriers? A nuisance, certainly."

The Sky God's faith dressed this up as the will of heaven, but it was simply how things had turned out.

"The reason Mother Earth's faith seems to be enjoying a brief revival now is that you abandoned an old stubborn principle. You gave up refusing to take any nation's side, and laid the foundations of the Military State instead of making graves for the dead."

When the Military State summoned them, the followers of Mother Earth had been wary. It had long been taboo for their religion to answer a nation's summons, and the precedent of the Overlord summoning them only to wipe them out made them all the more reluctant.

But the Earth Sage pushed ahead, bringing prosperity to both the Military State and Mother Earth's faith. Even that rigid Military State had given her a general's stars, honorary though the rank might be, and she had not refused them.

Thanks to her, the followers of Mother Earth gradually gained recognition.

"More precisely, it's because you worked so hard, Earth Sage. The lives you saved, the facilities you built, the achievements you made—those are its glory. Its lost glory hasn't 'returned.' You've 'created' a new one, here and now."

After lavishing enough praise on her to make anyone blush, I turned slightly to reveal the Grand Master.

Kneeling reverently atop this mountain of corpses, the Grand Master comforted their souls. Dying alone and lonely.

By contrast, the Earth Sage, more builder than burier, did not look back. She only moved forward. That was why she never fell.

"You said you inherited the Grand Master's will, but did you really? What do you, as you are now, have in common with the Grand Master of Mother Earth's faith from thirteen hundred years ago?"

Only the name of their faith was the same, and the powers they used were similar.

They were utterly different. I made her recognize that fact.

"So that is what you mean, Master Hughes."

Drawing a deep breath, the Earth Sage murmured sorrowfully before the Grand Master.

"That I have no right to demand Earth's Ripple."

I replied with a smile.

"No. You have exactly the same right as every ordinary person."

"Then I am not this keepsake's rightful owner, but..."

"You have to pick it up. Just like everyone else."

"Very well."

She nodded. Having truly confronted her own desires through my words, the Earth Sage said,

"You are right, Master Hughes. I have indeed behaved disgracefully in the presence of Earth's Ripple. To desecrate a grave... Now I understand why my teacher warned me to beware of arrogance..."

She had become much more honest.

"However, I serve Mother Earth. I need the Grand Master's keepsake, the token that holds this hidden history, to gather our scattered followers, reveal the truth to the world, and hold the Holy See accountable for its sins."

In other words, she had shown her true colors.

"Hand it over."

'If you will not give it to me, I shall take it by force.'

I laughed loudly.

"Aha! Ahahaha! Ahahahaha!"

Of course. You didn't need any qualifications to act. What set your limits, if not a lack of ability?

Speaking on behalf of the dead? Who could dare do that? How could anyone speak for people they knew nothing about? Especially people from thirteen hundred years ago.

"Haha. Excellent. I really do like this sort of honesty! You should have said that from the start!"

"Then will you give it to me?"

"Take it!"

I promptly held out the hand gripping Earth's Ripple. At that, the Regressor, who had been groaning beneath the corpses and concrete far below, opened her eyes wide and shouted.

"Don't give it to her!"

Oh, come on. Now that wasn't fair.

Because you shouted, it would look as though I had changed my mind and refused to give it to her because I'd listened to you.

When I hadn't intended to give it to her yet in the first place!

The Earth Sage's hand closed on empty air. I had deftly moved Earth's Ripple out of her reach. There was a dispirited little sound.

The corner of the Earth Sage's eye twitched, and delight lit up my face.

"If you can, that is!"