Fled Without Realizing I Had Prevented the Apocalypse

The world is ending.
How many people would remain unshaken in front of this sentence?
Most would be surprised, and a few might brush it off nonchalantly, but a hint of unease would still be melted into their innermost thoughts.
I was the same.
Medieval fantasy game, Pandea Chronicle.
A game that progresses by dealing with events occurring within the continent of Pandea, and like most fantasy games, it has the end of the world as its ending.
I was possessed into such a game.
Now, as a noble of a fallen kingdom and a third-rate villain in the game.
Being a noble from a fallen country and starting as a third-rate villain by nature, the start wasn’t very smooth, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t do what needed to be done.
After all, there’s a difference between my life not being smooth and it being completely taken away.
So, like the protagonists in other novels, I too moved to prevent the impending doom in the future.
In the process, I used most of the wealth left in the fallen family, but I didn’t mind much.
The amount of wealth was quite substantial, but if the world ends, it would all be for nothing anyway.
It would be more beneficial to prevent the apocalypse and gain recognition for the merit to create wealth again.
For this, I even used some of the hidden pieces stuck in my head.
Because there were countless things to prepare for to prevent the apocalypse.
In addition, I had to deal with most of the villain organizations scattered around.
Some of the villain organizations were certainly related to the apocalypse, but I mostly recruited or dealt with organizations that weren’t as well.
In case the apocalypse comes, it would be troublesome if they interfere.
It’s too burdensome to prevent an apocalypse that’s difficult to stop even with perfect preparation while also facing interference.

Having experienced this several times in the game already, I put in even more effort.

After making all these preparations, I waited for the scheduled apocalypse, but….
“It didn’t come.”
The apocalypse didn’t arrive.
The sky didn’t split open, monster attacks didn’t break out in each region, and outer gods existing beyond the universe didn’t come to this world.
What remained were hundreds of millions of cells of private loans accumulated for struggling to prevent an apocalypse that wouldn’t come, infamy enough to implement country-wide inspections and searches, and the bounty on my head.
The fate of a false prophet.
That was the reason why I was now wandering the continent, avoiding people’s eyes.
“Kukukuku.”
Hearing sudden laughter, I looked down to see an old man in a black robe chuckling.
“What’s so funny?”
“How can it not be funny? A celebrity like you personally traversing such a dirty back alley.”
The old man said, twisting his whole body. However, he couldn’t move. He was unable to budge due to being tightly bound with ropes.
Moreover, nails made of mana were driven into his body to prevent him from controlling magical power, so he couldn’t even handle his specialty, black magic.
In other words, the old man before me was just an ordinary person.
He would die instantly if I just punched him.
Knowing this, the old man continued to provoke me.
“To think you’d come personally to stop just a group of black magicians. The Empire must be quite short on talent, eh?”
“What do you mean ‘just a group of black magicians’? When the signs of demon summoning are this clear.”
I pointed up with my finger, wearing an expression of disbelief.
Above the dark space, an inverted pentagram made with someone’s blood was engraved. Blood was still dripping, as if they had been completing the formation with blood just before I entered.
In addition, an indescribable energy was leaking from the unknown characters drawn around the formation.
A chilling sensation that made my whole body tingle, even though it wasn’t complete yet.
It was a clear precursor to demon summoning.
“Hehe, if you had come just a little later, He would have descended here directly…!”

A typical example of a fanatic.
I looked down pitifully at the black magician who was frantically expressing his misguided faith despite being tied up, and then opened my mouth.
“What summoning with such a sloppy formation.”
“…What do you know about Him to say such things?”
“I may not know much about the one you revere so much, but I at least know more than you about the summoning methods of those damned demons.”
After all, I had struggled to prevent demon and outer god attacks.
Naturally, a vast amount of information about demon summoning was stored in my head.
“A real demon summoning formation is much larger and requires more detailed techniques than that. Moreover, demons won’t even respond to the summoning unless it’s from a contractor who has made a direct contract with them.”
“I have made a direct contract with Him! He possessed me directly and let me hear His voice!”
“Well, if you had made a direct contract, you wouldn’t have been caught so easily.”
“……”
“If you don’t believe me, why don’t you try asking your damn demon for help? When you make a direct contract, a part of the demon’s power is transferred to the contractor, so it would try its best to save you.”
The black magician, who had been skeptical of my words, closed his eyes.
It seemed he was trying to speak to the demon again as I had suggested, but judging by his expression becoming increasingly anxious in real-time, it appeared the connection had been cut off.
“This can’t, this can’t be happening? Generalissimo, Generalissimo of deceivers!”
“You’ve already been abandoned. They probably cut off the connection the moment you were caught by me.”
Well, considering they didn’t even tell you their true name, it seems you were just a disposable pawn.
“That, that can’t be. He clearly favored me…”
The black magician, upon hearing my words, hung his head as if in despair.
Although he verbally denied what I had said, it seemed he had realized that it was the truth.
I stared at the black magician for a while before letting out a slight laugh.
“Favor? That’s a common delusion among fanatics.”
“…That’s not something you should be saying, of all people.”
“What?”
The black magician, who had been hanging his head, suddenly lifted it up.
“Kyle Amillan, the story of you fleeing from the Empire is already famous. They say the Emperor herself has put out a wanted order to find you.”
“……”
The Emperor herself, is it.
Certainly, what I did before leaving the Empire was close to treason, so it’s not strange that she would want to capture and kill me.
Of course, I have no intention of dying easily, which is why I left the Empire like this.
“You, who were called the Empire’s foremost hunting dog, ran away. Doesn’t that mean the Emperor abandoned you? Having been so miserably abandoned, who are you to…!”
Bang-!
The next moment, as the black magician was spitting out his heated words, magical power gathered around his head and burst it in the blink of an eye.
The body of the black magician, who didn’t even realize he was dying, flailed its arms and then collapsed with a thud.
Simultaneously, a voice came from behind.
“Why are you listening to all that talk?”
When I turned my head towards the voice, light brown hair flickered in the darkness. At the same time, a beautiful woman with snow-white skin revealed herself.
“If you listen to the voice of something that’s not even human for too long, it affects your fair skin.”
The woman walking slowly towards me and the corpse of the black magician.
I looked at her for a moment before finally uttering her name.
“Beatrice.”
Beatrice.
The owner of one of the top five merchant guilds in the Empire, and a magician who had reached the level of superhuman by binding five rings.
And.
“Now with this, 178 million cells remain.”
The capital that I had to draw in to prevent the apocalypse.
She was the one who readily lent me that enormous amount of gold coins.
“Already about 100 million. The principal was about 2 billion. I’m more moved than you are.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean. You’re not moved because I’m paying back the debt, but because your assets are increasing, right?”
“Oh my, was I found out?”
Beatrice let out a soft laugh and covered her mouth with a fan.
I watched her for a moment before speaking.
“What’s the next request?”
“Are you already looking for the next request? This one must have been quite tough, shouldn’t you rest a bit…?”
Disposing of black magicians showing signs of demon summoning.
This request was indeed tiring.
So, an ordinary person would have simply accepted her kindness.
If the woman before me hadn’t been called the gold-collecting spider in the world.

“What do you mean rest? You want me to pay back the money more than anyone, so why are you saying such things?”
“What a hurtful thing to say.”
Beatrice slowly lowered her fan.
As she did, a gentle smile was revealed from behind the hidden fan.
She poked my chest with the lowered fan and said,
“I want you to stay by my side like this.”
“……”
I remained silent for a moment at Beatrice’s words.
It wasn’t because I was surprised by her sudden confession.
Rather, it was because I found it absurd.
The gold-collecting spider. The owner of one of the Empire’s top 5 merchant guilds. A magician who sees everything in the world as gold coins.
Beatrice is a person who could be said to have dedicated her life to gold coins.
For such a person to say she hopes I won’t pay back the money, even at her own loss?
Just lending money without interest is already a loss for her.
“…The artifact purchased from Count Arixis this time, the Goddess’s Tear, has been requested for delivery. One person. The deadline is three days.”
Perhaps because I had been looking at her with suspicious eyes for a long time.

Beatrice sighed once and then told me about the next request.
“The advance payment?”
“Five hundred upfront. Fifteen hundred more upon success. Excluding the 10% brokerage fee, it’s 1.8 million cells.”
“I accept.”
When they entrust simple delivery like this, the difficulty is usually quite low compared to the money received.
So it’s beneficial in terms of deadline and funds to take as many as possible.
Besides, I’m not in a position to be picky about this and that.
“Um, Kyle.”
As I was about to leave immediately to receive the delivery item after accepting the request, Beatrice called out to me from behind.
“If you pay off all your debt, will you leave?”
“Of course.”
What a silly question.

After Kyle Amillan left, Beatrice stared blankly at the spot where he had been.
His skills in catching fanatics under the Emperor hadn’t rusted at all, as he had caught dozens of fanatics without damaging the place where the demon’s descent was scheduled.
“No wonder the Emperor is going crazy trying to find him.”
The current Emperor of the Empire has even issued a wanted order to find Kyle now.
However, the point is that she used the wanted order, which would normally be issued to find and kill criminals, solely to find Kyle.
Moreover, the fact that she’s offering a huge sum of 100 million cells just for providing information on his location, and 2 billion cells if he’s captured alive, has caught the public’s attention.
The reason why the Emperor hasn’t been able to find Kyle despite going to such lengths is simple.
“That woman who already has so much is trying to take away what I’ve already licked, what a fuss…”
It’s because Beatrice personally spent money to block information about him.
So that everyone looking for Kyle, including the Emperor of the Empire, couldn’t know his current location.
It was truly an expensive operation.
It could be said to be the most money Beatrice has ever spent in her life.

And that’s not all.
The difficulty of blocking the information was also one of the highest in her life.
Nevertheless, Beatrice succeeded in blocking all information about Kyle.
“Monopolizing one thing in the market is the most important factor after all.”
A product without substitutes is bound to sell.
Especially if it’s a product that’s the only one in the world.
Of course, Beatrice had no intention of selling Kyle, but anyway.
“He talks about leaving without even acknowledging such efforts.”

She felt a bit hurt, but Beatrice soon shook her head.

That man was originally like that.
Even if she complained now, it wouldn’t change him.
What’s important now is to do her best to ensure the monopoly doesn’t break.
And to make him fully enter her spider web.
That was the goal of Beatrice, the gold-collecting spider.