Reincarnated Hero System

One hot morning bath later, Evan headed to a small clearing just outside the cave, where Artemisia and Beatrix were already seated. The latter was holding up a pan, stirring its contents with a spatula as the aroma of cooked pasta filled the air.

“One serving of pasta from Chef Beatrix, coming up,” she announced cheerfully.

Evan took a seat and remarked with a nod. “Ah yes, Beatrix’s surprisingly good cooking.”

The moment the words left his mouth, Beatrix froze, then slowly turned her gaze toward him.

“What did you just say?”

Evan instinctively backed away, sensing imminent danger, but Beatrix didn’t move. She merely glanced at the pasta, then looked back up at him with narrowed eyes.

“Half-serving for you.”

“?!”

Evan’s expression twisted in horror and betrayal. “How could you?! With food?! You can threaten a man with anything, but not food!”

Still wearing her cold expression, Beatrix replied, “Quarter serving.”

Without hesitation, Evan dropped to his knees. “My sincerest apologies, most superior and exalted Chef Beatrix, slayer of hunger, conqueror of kitchens, cooker of dragons in seconds.”

At that last part, Beatrix blinked, visibly thrown off. “Cooker of dragons in…? What the what? Why would you even add that?”

Evan simply shrugged and responded. “Because I had a dragon and wanted to try dragon meat.”

Artemisia, who had been silent until then, furrowed her brows and muttered her thoughts aloud. “Isn’t that cannibalism?”

Evan blinked, then turned to her. “Isn’t what what?”

“You,” she said, pointing at him. “Eating dragons.”

“I’m not a dragon,” he replied flatly. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with me eating dragon meat. Case closed.”

“You’re a draconic—”

“Case closed,” Evan cut her off before she could finish.

The two locked eyes in silence for a moment, and then Artemisia sighed and nodded.

“…yeah… Case closed.”

Beatrix chuckled at their exchange, but just as she did, Evan reached into his inventory, pulled out an entire devil dragon corpse, and dropped it on the ground with a heavy thud.

“…” “!!”

The two girls froze at the sight, with Beatrix nearly dropping the pan in shock.

“Why do you have an entire dragon corpse in your inventory?”

At this, Evan turned, looking at her like the answer should have been obvious.

“Huh? Didn’t I tell you I fought a Soul Devil?”

Artemisia, pressing her fingers to her temple, sighed and said.

“Evan… a Soul Devil is not a dragon. Fighting one doesn’t explain why you have a dragon corpse in your inventory.”

“Oh,” Evan nodded. “Well, the Soul Devil was controlling devil dragons, so I had to take care of them first since they were getting in the way. I also made sure to loot properly afterwards, so here’s one of the corpses.”

Beatrix glanced at the dragon’s corpse in silence, before nodding thoughtfully.

“Yeah… always gather loot. That’s crucial.”

Artemisia immediately turned towards her with a deadpan stare. “That’s your takeaway from this?”

Sighing, she turned back to Evan. “We can’t eat that.”

“Why can’t yo—Oh, right, it’s a devil dragon. Of course, you can’t.”

That little detail had momentarily slipped Evan’s mind, but a devil dragon, saturated with negative magic power, wasn’t safe for either Artemisia or Beatrix to consume.

While purification could make it edible, Beatrix neither had the advanced culinary skill nor the stable divine spark necessary to pull that off.

So, unfortunately, dragon breakfast was off the table.

Stuffing the dragon corpse back into his inventory, Evan poked his head inside, rummaging around.

“What about gryphon meat?” he asked as his voice echoed faintly from within.

He poked his head back out for Beatrix’s answer, and she replied instantly, “We don’t have time for that, Evan.”

“Really…?” he sighed, sounding genuinely disappointed, before diving right back in. “Okay then… Pegasus meat?”

He resurfaced with a hopeful look on his face, only for Beatrix to squint suspiciously at him.

“Where the hell did you even find a Pegasus, Evan? And no! Horse-type creatures usually take forever to cook.”

“Hm… yeah, that makes sense,” he muttered, half-nodding.

He looked ready to drop the topic and rummage some more, but Artemisia wasn’t about to let it go that easily.

“No, you haven’t answered the actual question. Where did you find a Pegasus?”

Apparently, even she couldn’t suppress her curiosity anymore.

Evan blinked and tilted his head in thought.

‘Where did I find that again?’

Truth be told, he wasn’t sure. At some point, a Pegasus corpse had simply ended up in his inventory, and he’d never questioned it.

Silence blanketed the clearing, broken only by the soft sizzle of pasta in Beatrix’s pan as both girls fixed their eyes on Evan.

After a moment, Beatrix calmly set the pan aside and crossed her arms. “Evan. Open your inventory. I need to see what’s in there.”

“Huh? Why?” he asked, genuinely puzzled by the sudden demand.

“Because I’m starting to suspect you’re hoarding things no normal person should have, and I’m very curious to see just how far that rabbit hole goes.”

“I only have enough to furnish an entire house,” Evan replied casually. “And I do plan to put a house inside it eventually… once I’m back in the future. So, no house for now.”

That was a gross understatement, and both girls were well aware of it.

Beatrix shook her head in resignation and turned back to dish out the pasta onto three plates, one for Artemisia, one for Evan, and one for herself.

Meanwhile, Evan reached back into his inventory and, to no one’s surprise anymore, pulled out a full-sized refrigerator.

He set it down in front of them, opened it, shifted aside two cans of strawberry juice, moved a few bottles of wine, and finally retrieved a sealed box of chicken from the far corner.

After setting the box on the table, he selected a bottle of strawberry wine, counted how many were left, and then nonchalantly stuffed the fridge back into his inventory.

Still holding the chicken box, he used his Elemental Shield skill to cover it with a barrier. Within seconds, the temperature inside the shield began to rise rapidly, effectively microwaving the chicken.

Once done, he deactivated the skill and opened the box.

“Fried chicken, ready to serve,” he declared, pulling out a drumstick and tossing it into his mouth without ceremony.

Beatrix, having long since accepted that such outrageous antics were typical of Evan, casually reached over, grabbed a drumstick, and tossed it into her mouth without comment, then returned her attention to her pasta.

And so, the trio had their breakfast. Once they were done, they packed up their things and prepared to begin the journey toward the Chasm.

But just as they were about to set off, Evan stopped, took a deep breath, and clenched his fists as he muttered to himself, “Not now, Evan. Not now.”

Then, without explaining, he started walking forward under the puzzled gazes of Beatrix and Artemisia.

“…What was that about?” Beatrix asked, brow raised.

Evan responded without looking back. “Something we’ll have to deal with eventually, after the Chasm. Let’s just get there first.”

She didn’t press him further and instead shifted the conversation topic to a more immediate concern. “Alright then, what’s our mode of transport? Are we running or flying there?”

Evan opened his mouth as if to answer, but stopped, then shook his head.

‘Let’s keep that a surprise.’

“Hold on a second,” he said instead, unfurling his wings and shooting up into the sky.

A few moments later, the silence was broken by a loud screech, followed by feathers fluttering down from the clouds above.

Then Evan dropped out of the sky, landing beside them with the tail of a massive eagle gripped in one hand.

The creature thrashed around, raising a talon to attack him with, only to freeze mid-motion when Evan gave it a silent stare, almost as if he was daring it to follow through.

The eagle flinched, slowly lowered its talon, and bowed its head in reluctant submission.

“Thought so,” Evan said, before turning to the girls. “Our ride’s here. Let’s move.”

With that, he hopped onto the eagle’s back without hesitation, while Artemisia and Beatrix just stared silently.

Even after months of growing accustomed to Evan being, well, Evan, they couldn’t help but let out a sigh, because somehow, the boy still managed to find new ways to surprise them at every turn.

◇　◇　◇

Just like that, their journey to the Chasm began.

The eagle flew as if its life depended on it, because it very much did, as Evan, in his usual offhand manner, casually made a remark about possibly having eagle meat for lunch if they didn’t arrive fast enough and ended up needing to stop for a quick meal midway.

And though the Chasm terrified the creature due to the overwhelming pressure of the energy it emitted, the being on its back who could end its life at any moment terrified it far more.

So it flew with everything it had, because, once again, its life very much depended on it.

The Chasm wasn’t exactly close, but it wasn’t too far either.

Within thirty minutes of flying, they could already make out the massive wall of law energy rising like a curtain into the sky. Another thirty minutes, and they were above the blackened, lifeless land that bordered the Chasm.

As they crossed over it, heading toward the wall of light, they made it roughly halfway before the concentration of energy became too intense for the eagle to endure.

Recognizing this, Evan had it descend, and after they disembarked, he instructed it to remain where it was while they proceeded the rest of the way on foot, stopping only when they got within the effective range of his appraisal skill.

And then, right before activating the skill, Evan said aloud without turning around, “Beatrix, if anything goes wrong, I’ll be counting on you to rewind time for me.”

Beatrix froze where she stood, caught off guard by the sudden statement. “Huh? What do you mean by that?”

Evan gave no answer to her question. But Evan didn’t answer. He simply turned toward the Chasm, shutting his left eye, and then activated Full Appraisal on the massive, shimmering wall of law energy in front of them.

At first, he received no feedback. So he began slowly shifting his line of sight downward, peering deeper and deeper into the darkness that stretched far below the edge of the ravine.

Still, there was no feedback from the skill.

A thought crossed his mind, and he activated his Farsight skill, enhancing his vision into the blackness that stretched far beyond the reach of natural sight.

The Chasm definitely had depth, even if no light reached that far down. So he pushed Farsight to its absolute limit, and finally, somewhere deep within that darkness, appraisal returned a result.

After reading the result, Evan’s eyes widened, and he muttered aloud, “Wow… this is a lot bigger than I thought it was.”

Hearing that, who hadn’t taken her eyes off him the entire time, quickly asked, “What is it? What did you see?”

Turning around to face both girls, Evan raised a hand and pointed behind him with his thumb as he began to explain, “Well, for starters… that thing is a wound on the planet itself.”

Beatrix’s eyes widened in shock at his words, while Artemisia, though her expression didn’t change as dramatically, still showed a visible hint of surprise in her otherwise composed face.

‘We’re on a damaged planet? That’s not good…’

The moment the thought crossed her mind, Evan continued speaking.

“I found out the name of this world. It’s called Taemia. T-A-E-M-I-A.

And that Chasm behind me is a scar left behind from a battle between Deity Level existences that occurred some time ago. The wall of law energy we’re seeing is the planet bleeding.

Just like how blood flows out of a person when they’re cut, the energy inside this world is spilling out of that Chasm.”

He turned back to glance at the chasm again before adding,

“That thing extends deep beneath the planet’s crust, deep enough that I don’t want to know what’s down there.”

Evan gave only a brief summary of what his appraisal had revealed, but even that was enough to leave the girls more surprised than before.

Still, the explanation kind of made sense. It offered a logical answer to the strange phenomenon they were staring at.