Campione! - Volume 13 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue 

The new year had just begun not too long ago. 

Alexandre Gascoigne was currently located in Portugal's ancient capital of 
Coimbra. 

His latest efforts were directed towards obtaining "a missionary's journal dating back to the Age of Exploration when a certain heretical monk had recorded his activities in various parts of Madagascar, engaged in heinous acts defiling God." 

Going through several plans in his head, he strolled along a quiet street in the ancient capital at night. 

A phone call suddenly arrived. Checking the LCD screen, he discovered it was an old acquaintance — the witch he had run into roughly one month ago. 

"How nice of you to call expressly this time, Lucretia. But surely you do not intend to engage in idle chitchat. State your matter concisely." 

'Hohoho. I offer you my greetings, Your Highness the Prince.' 

Lucretia's answer could be heard from the phone. 

'However, since you put it that way, I shall dispense with the chitchat. Let me cut straight to the matter. I am actually concerned about the latest news the Princess brought back from the Far East.' 

The matter. She likely meant the "King of the End." Alec nodded. 

'The goddess Circe, who once shared an intimate relation with Your 
Highness several years ago, has died by Kusanagi Godou's hand. 
Reportedly, the goddess used her last strength to summon the hero 
Odysseus in an attempt to corner the young man... But she failed so close to her goal and finally passed away.' 

"...Oh." 

'Through this battle, it is readily apparent that Odysseus is not the 'King of the End.'" 

Alec reawakened vivid memories dating to several years past. 

Odysseus. The heroic god he recently mentioned as having a "35% chance." 

Alec was intending to investigate him thoroughly when he discovered the 
'sleeping goddess.' The witch goddess Circe who had trapped the wandering hero for a year. A [Heretic God] who had apparently remained in slumber for centuries. 

'By my speculation, Your Highness the Black Prince awakened the goddess Circe for the purpose of discerning the truth about the hero 
Odysseus, am I correct? Your goal was to obtain information about him. 
Hoho, even if Your Highness went as far as to make a highly unusual proposal of "Would you like to search for Odysseus together with me?" to her, I would not be surprised.' 

Alec frowned. It felt like Lucretia had seen through the truth. 

His bringing Circe to the South Seas to revive her was, of course, a part of his explorations. 

He had awakened the goddess, who possessed a deep connection to 
Odysseus, on a land where traces of the "King of the End" had been discovered. This would surely bring his journey of demystifying the Devil 
King-exterminating hero's identity to an entirely new playing field — 

However, the "experiment" concluded with unexpected results. 

The awakened goddess quickly discovered Alec despite his efforts to conceal himself. Furthermore, she began to cling to him annoyingly for some unfathomable reason, always speaking like some kind of delusional girl, even going as far as to attempt imprisoning Alec using magic. 

In the beginning, Alec accommodated her as appropriate but quickly grew tired of it. After maybe the fourth day of saying "I love you," he immediately fled from the goddess. Soon after he ran, it developed into an altercation. 
Finally, Alec used his labyrinth authority on the island he had created together with Circe and succeeded in imprisoning her. 

Recalling these unhappy memories, Alec naturally put on a bitter face. 

'I never expected such a colorful and heroic saga from Your Highness the 
Prince, who has never been the subject of salacious rumors.' 

"Really? I, on the other hand, find nothing colorful about it." 

'As expected of Your Highness the Prince. Still the same old in this regard, even Italian boys in elementary school are better than you.' 

The witch's last comment was a sincere exclamation, carrying no sarcasm at all. 

Alec clicked his tongue disapprovingly and changed the unpleasant topic. 

"By the way, since Odysseus is not the 'King of the End,' then in that case..." 

'Oh? Did you think of something? I would be most grateful if you would enlighten me free of charge. Just as you already know, I too, once took part in the search for that king. Hence I would be rather interested.' 

"Nothing much, it's just a spontaneous idea." 

Alec shrugged in response to Lucretia's request. 

"The image of the wandering Pan-Eurasian hero who often displays his valor through the bow and arrows... Yet the hero who fits this description best, Odysseus, is definitely not a god with [Steel] characteristics. 
Nevertheless, given the case, I think the following possibility can be established." 

Without any pretense, Alec simply explained the possibility he had once suspected in the past. 

"Simultaneously possessing [Steel] traits and the characteristics of the wandering Pan-Eurasian hero... The 'King of the End' must be a hybrid like that." 

'I see, so that runs completely contrary to the notion of purebloodedness. If that really is the case...' 

"Yeah. If one were to carefully trace forwards and backwards from the pedigree of the hero Odysseus, the chance of finding the 'King of the End' should be substantial. That's what I believe." 

Naturally, this was nothing more than speculation. 

But after saying it out loud, Alec somehow found his argument more compelling than first imagined.