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Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 29




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Chapter 29:

Aisha Hart

ROXY LOOKED AT ME, her head tilted to the side. She was confused, because of course she was. One moment we’d been bantering and laughing, and the next moment I was standing rigid as I stared at what waited behind her.

“What’s wrong, Fay?”

Roxy started turning to look behind herself, but I coughed loudly to draw her focus back. Then I rapidly fumbled my way through some sort of excuse in a desperate attempt to keep her attention on me.

“Fate, that was the most awful attempt at a lie I think I’ve ever seen…” muttered Greed. “And I’ve been around a long, long time.”

But there was no time for me to respond. Lady Aisha edged ever closer to Roxy, silently urging me to keep her occupied. I suddenly realized that Lady Aisha was so close that Roxy should have sensed her approaching. If she couldn’t, did that mean Lady Aisha’s ability to hide her own presence was on the level of a holy knight? Higher, perhaps?

Fate! We don’t have time for these stray thoughts! my brain cried. I gathered myself and continued with the plan, just as Lady Aisha and I had decided. “Actually, Roxy, would you close your eyes for just a moment?”

“Why? You want to do another impression of me?”

“It’s something different this time.”

“Oh, is it a present?” Her face was full of excitement as she looked at me expectantly.

In a way, it kind of was a present, so I nodded vaguely.

“I can’t tell if that nod means yes or…something different. Very well. There you go, my eyes are closed.”

The moment Roxy’s eyes closed, Lady Aisha and I quietly began to switch places.

“What are you doing, Fay? I hear you moving around. Can I open my eyes yet?”

“Not yet.”

“What in the world are you up to?”

With Lady Aisha now standing in front of Roxy, we were ready to go. Lady Aisha gave us the sign that she was ready, and all the party guests realized our intentions. Aaron stood a short distance away from the group, watching everything with a grin.

“Okay, Roxy,” I said. “You can open your eyes now.”

“Finally. I wonder what you—ah!”

Roxy stilled, her mouth agape. In front of her stood Lady Aisha, throwing up a victory sign with a smile, clearly overjoyed at the success of her mission. When Roxy finally came to her senses, she ran to Lady Aisha and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Mother?! But how? I received word from the estate saying you were feeling better, but it also said there was no need to come see you!”

“My dear, I’m on top of the world! I feel marvelous. The letter said you didn’t need to come see me because I intended to come see you myself!”

“You’ll have to give me a moment, Mother. I’m not entirely sure I understand what’s going on…” Roxy struggled to come to grips with the situation. When she’d last seen her mother, Lady Aisha had been so weak that she couldn’t walk without a servant’s help. Yet here she was, dancing around with a bounce in her step. Anyone would have been baffled. Even I was a little taken aback by Lady Aisha’s transformation, and I’d healed her myself. Roxy knew her mother’s illness much more thoroughly than I did, which made it all the more confusing for her.

“Fate healed me,” Lady Aisha said casually. “Though to be clear, I don’t really know exactly how.”

“Fate did this?! But I don’t understand—how?” Roxy closed in on me, giving me no room to move. She grabbed hold of my hand, her eyes seeming to say that she wouldn’t let go until I explained things.

“Well, to be honest, it wasn’t all me.” I unsheathed Greed with a wry grin and transformed the black sword into the black stave.

“It changes form,” murmured Roxy. “There’s this stave, then the bow, the scythe, and the shield, right?”

“Right. I unlocked the black stave by giving up the entirety of the stats I earned in the battle with the Divine Dragon.”

“Ah, back when…” said Roxy, a hint of joy in her face.

Even now, I remembered it as clearly as if it had happened only the day before. The Divine Dragon’s overwhelming attack. The skull mask I wore crumbling from my face, revealing my true identity. Roxy looking at me, tears streaming down her cheeks as some feeling gripped my heart. What have I done? I thought. I never imagined then that I would ever see her warm, kind smile again…but now I was filled with gratitude.

“I hate to interrupt such a beautiful moment,” said Lady Aisha, sweeping in between Roxy and myself, “but have you forgotten I’m still here? Can you save these wistful reminiscences for a little later?”

“Mother, that’s not at all what we were doing, right, Fay?”

“Yes, so let’s keep the jokes to a minimum.” I nodded. I cleared my throat and showed both Roxy and Lady Aisha the black stave. “Let’s take Greed’s Fourth Level as an example. If I feed the stave even more of my stats, I can use a secret technique. These secret techniques differ depending on what form Greed takes.”


To put it all into perspective, I shared each level and its corresponding secret technique.

Level 1 (the black bow): Bloody Ptarmigan

A shot as fast as lightning with a wide area of attack.

Level 2 (the black scythe): Deadly Inferno

Kills anything (even immortal beings) by burning through the core of the opponent’s magical energy flow.

Level 3 (the black shield): Reflective Fortress

Absorbs the enemy’s attack and delivers it back multiplied.

Level 4 (the black stave): Twilight Healing

Cures all injuries and illnesses.

Roxy nodded vigorously as she listened. “I see, you used Twilight Healing to heal my mother of her illness. Thank you, Fay! But, um, I’m a little worried that she may be…almost too healthy now.”

“I actually thought exactly the same thing. I never expected her to be quite so lively.”

“Look at me, stuck here listening to the two of you go on and on about skills and techniques,” said Lady Aisha, laughing. “Can’t you both just be happy that I’ve recovered?”

Roxy narrowed her eyes as she studied her mother. “In that case, can you please stop playing tricks on your own daughter?”

“But it was a surprise. That’s how surprises work! Don’t you think so, Fate?”

“Er, uh, I mean, I think…yes?”

“What’s with that tone of voice, young man? You’re making it sound like I forced you into this against your own will.”

Honestly, right from the start, I’d had a strong feeling that I had no choice but to go along with Lady Aisha. Then again, I was already in this deep, so perhaps that was for the best.

“Look at it this way, Roxy. Lady Aisha came all this way from the Hart family estate because she wanted you to see for yourself that she’d recovered. If she wrote it in a letter, you wouldn’t really know just how true that was.”

“Well, if you say so, Fay.” Roxy’s eyes were slowly tearing up. “I really am glad, I must say. I’ve been worried about you for so long, Mother…”

Lady Aisha promptly burst into tears herself, and the two stood there for a time holding each other and crying until they calmed down. Then they turned to me and once again expressed their thanks. It made me genuinely…happy. I hadn’t healed Aisha for thanks or reward, but their gratitude brought a real smile to my face. Seeing Lady Aisha healthy and doting on Roxy really made me feel like this was the way things were supposed to be.

I transformed the black stave back into the black sword and returned it to its sheath.

“I was wondering,” said Roxy, “just how many stats do you have to give Greed in order to cast that secret technique? Healing is no small feat. I’m sure it must have been quite a lot.”

“Yeah, it’s quite the sum. For Twilight Healing, it’s 40 percent of my stats.”

“A whole 40 percent… And how many stats was that, roughly?”

I was a little hesitant to say because it was actually pretty up there, but I’d promised myself to be honest with Roxy, so I confessed. On hearing the number, Roxy and Lady Aisha were stunned into momentary silence.

“You’re joking, right?” Lady Aisha asked. “Fate, are you serious?”

“Really? That much?” Roxy echoed.

“But that’s…that’s well over four hundred million…I can’t believe it!”

“Mother, calm down! Remember that Fate did slay the Divine Dragon, so he had a lot to begin with. Still, to think you’d so freely give them up…”

Lady Aisha was still lost in disbelief. Meanwhile, Roxy seemed oddly accepting of the situation. Then she snapped her fingers, her expression showing that she’d finally worked something out. “Aha! Now I understand,” she declared.

“Understand what?” I asked.

“Why my mother is so thoroughly revitalized. I think it’s because you gave so many stats—more than the Divine Dragon holds itself!—to heal her.”

“You…might be right.”

Her hypothesis certainly held water. All of Greed’s secret techniques were incredibly powerful. I was certain that Twilight Healing probably did more than just heal a person’s wounds. After all, to cast it, I had to be in the Domain of E, which actually made it a little foolish to think it just cured run-of-the-mill issues. It was entirely possible that Lady Aisha’s stats had shot through the roof. That said, I wasn’t about to go looking without permission—I’d decided that back when I was still a servant.

After Lady Aisha had her fill of playfully bullying Roxy and me, she turned to the other guests and joined the rest of the party.

“She’s going to be a handful,” said Roxy, her eyes looking to the future.

Not a hint remained of the frail and bedridden Lady Aisha I’d met all that time ago. She had been on death’s door when I healed her. But even if I had defied the will of the gods by giving Lady Aisha’s life back to her, I had no regrets. Seeing her so happy at Roxy’s party was proof enough that I had made the right decision.



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