Everyone Else is a Returnee

Two angels coming to Yu IlHan’s workshop was perhaps a natural thing. That was because when many guardian angels were dispatched to Earth as the result of the angel’s conference, and the question about what will become of the angels that Yu IlHan was with, had come out. (T/N: ‘was’ with, so I guess that includes Lita)

Of course, the one to suggest was Lita, and the chairman, Myuta could only give her the answer she wanted even despite knowing her intentions.

Yes. To increase the rewards, Yu IlHan had an extra angel in charge of him now.

“To think the number of luggage increased to two.”

[What do you mean luggage! Why are you saying such things even though we haven’t met in such a long time?](Lita)

“It’s only been two months though…… Anyway, Lita, I heard my dropout period was a thousand years?”

[Flinch.](Lita)

Lita avoided Yu IlHan’s sharp gaze and turned her gaze away.

Although she didn’t say it to protect Yu IlHan’s mentality, and Yu IlHan didn’t look back to the time, she couldn’t not feel bad about shutting up about it.

[Yu IlHan, since you’re directly related to this incident, you have the right to know about the conference that occurred in Heaven. Would you like to listen to the details?](Erta)

“Go on.”

While Lita was kneeling and putting her hands up in the air for her sin of deceiving Yu IlHan of the time, Erta told Yu IlHan what happened in the conference in Heaven.

In truth, Yu IlHan was the strongest candidate that Heaven had to draw in, so their way of treating him had slightly changed.

[As such, a large scale support will be dispatched to Earth. However, even with that, Earth will go through a harsh time.](Erta)

“So, in conclusion, you guys don’t know that much, but it is likely that the same thing will occur again in the future?”

[That is so.](Erta)

“How useless.”

[Right. You can also see that from how we left you alone for one thousand years.]

“Wao.”

She agreed!? Yu IlHan became shocked.

[We’re looking at you as a potential ally. So the need to exaggerate our powers uselessly have disappeared. I wonder if you forgot, but you saved my life. At that moment, the relationship between you and Heaven changed a lot.](Erta)

“Oh, yeah. Give me the rewards. Rewards. Attach a rot-proof option on the Cross Bag!”

[Is just that fine with you?](Erta)

“Wao!”

Our Erta has changed! Yu IlHan even thought that this maybe a hidden camera. However, Erta was not joking, and in the end, he suggested to her the thought that he was only thinking about.

“Can’t I temporarily transfer the weight of the Cross Bag into another item?”

[How can you think of such horrifying ideas every time…](Erta)

[Erta, don’t be so close to my IlHan!](Lita)

“Lita, hands up.”

[Yes, sir!](Lita)

Concludingly, it wasn’t very hard to do so. It could even be done with Lita and Erta’s power right now.

Of course, they had to call other angels due to the rot-proof option that he talked about before.

[Cross bag]

[Options –

Spatial expansion

Weight control

Rot-proof

Weight transfer]

“Perfect.”

[It’s good that you like it. Of course, the rewards don’t end with just this.](Erta)

“Erta, are you really alright? You didn’t eat something wrong, right?”

People did not always reject reality when bad things happened. When something was too good to be true, or too happy to be, people doubted reality. Yu IlHan right now was exactly like that.

However, Erta shook her head with a bitter smile.

[So you really can’t get rid of your habit of underevaluating yourself. the things you did this time are worth that much……Lita, now it’s your turn.](Erta)

[Oh, yeah.](Lita)

Why did Lita come up when talking about rewards? Don’t tell me the reward Heaven gave him was Lita!? Looking at Yu IlHan with his pounding heart, Erta clicked her tongue.

[It’s what you think it is.](Erta)

“Didn’t I tell you to stop mind reading every time?”

[IlHan is so cute since his thinking is obvious, right?](Lita)

“Lita, you too!?”

Lita, who was punishing herself until now, stood up and approached him. However, the words that came out of her mouth was a little unexpected.

[You didn’t choose a subclass yet, right?](Lita)

“Eh?”

Yu IlHan finally remembered that he now had the opportunity to acquire a subclass along with the 2nd class advancement. He did remember seeing it the moment he advanced in class, the Rookie Reaper that appeared right after had a huge presence so he forgot about everything else.

Although he was thankful that Lita had reminded him of that, why was that coming out now? Yu IlHan asked in confusion.

“What’s that got to do with the reward?”

[Close your eyes and think of the subclass. Then you’ll know.](Lita)

Yu IlHan obediently did as she said. The next moment, green texts kept appearing on his retina one after the other.

LIke when he was acquiring the main class, his achievements and records were forged as records and were appearing. Starting from blacksmith, cook, carpenter, to enchanter. It was as if all the subclasses in the world were gathered at this place.

However, at the bottom of the list of green text, there was one which emitted white light.

[39. Angel’s Partner]

“What is this? It seems like someone will sue this for copyright infringement.”

[It’s alright. We can just say it’s the combination of commonly used nouns.](Lita)

Around here, Yu IlHan also vaguely realized the identity of the reward that Erta and Lita had talked about. They must have interfered with Yu IlHan’s record. The result was this, Angel’s Partner.

[This is the reward we prepared to help you proactively, and transfer your a part of our power even if we have to restrict our angel powers. It is also a method for a higher existence to bring out his or her own power in an Abandoned World.](Erta)

“You were frustrated cuz you got done in by the Reaper helplessly right?”

[I won’t deny that, but you, who end up facing crisis faster than any other Earthlings, probably need our strength.](Erta)

“No, you angel!”

He denied it desperately, but Yu IlHan also ended up thinking that she was right. Didn’t people say that power called for bigger power? Even though Yu IlHan had avoided God’s eyes so well, strange things occurred wherever he went.

He thought ‘no way’ until now, but it seemed that Yu IlHan had the protagonist curse. A horrifying curse that depletes both his body and mind due to experiencing what other people would experience once or not at all in their entire lives, hundreds and thousands of times!

If he was C*n*n, then it would be other people who dies, and it will be alright, but isn’t this as if he was being pressured to one-coin-clear a nightmare mode while other people were going through normal mode!

[And if you get this subclass, then whether you earn mana or whatever you can be with me always!](Lita)

In other words, the talk leads to here – Lita can come down to the ground in pretext of Yu IlHan becoming an Angel’s Partner. She really is indirect about it.

Although he also wanted to see Lita about to cry by declaring no, Yu IlHan eventually ended up nodding his head.

“Ok, I’ll do as you say.”

[Yay!]

[No, I said this is a reward for you. It’s not like I want to be with y……](Erta the tsundere)

“What nonsense are you talking about? Do you think I’m crazy to think such things?”

[Although I do feel complex to be rejected so outright.](Erta)

[Pfft.](Lita)

Loner Yu IlHan does not expect emotions towards himself from other people. It was because his base level though was that he would only get hurt if he expected something. He even cut off any possibilities for that as well. Someone might call him a coward, and he would not be able to retort.

He also spent countless years in building up a sibling-like relationship between him and Lita. It was almost impossible to shake him with Erta’s slightly daring words.

He just laughed over Erta’s words as a joke, and selected the Angel’s Partner subclass which was emitting the brightest light amongst the subclasses.

At that moment, a feeling of elevation comparable to when he advanced to 2nd class welled up in his whole body. If the class advancements until now took place in such way that it would increase the abilities in his possession, acquiring a subclass made him feel like a new internal organ was being made.

“I feel sick.”

[You’ll be okay if you endure for a little.](Erta)

[There’s no choice since it’s making a link to a higher existence. Please endure a little.](Lita)

Fortunately, this was not a ‘success or failure’ thing. Like what Lita said, when he waited a little more, a sense of sharing between the two angels, appeared, as if they were in a party.

A strange sense of safety, and a not so bad tension. Yu IlHan ended up laughing.

“Not so bad.”

[Please take care of us from now, IlHan!](Lita)

[Now there won’t be anymore cases where I will become useless luggage like last time.](Erta)

At that moment, waterfalls of texts appeared on his retina.

[You have become Angel’s Partner. You can enter a partnership with a maximum of 2 angels. All abilities increase by 30% when fighting against a Breaker or Undead.]

[You have earned the passive skill, Angel’s Protection. Probability of being inflicted with a fatal hit decreases by 30% and curse resistance increases by 30%. All quest rewards increase by 30%. There is no level with this skill, and you can only raise it by fulfilling certain conditions.]

[You have earned the active skill, Angel’s Support. You are now able to borrow the angels’ power when fighting in an Abandoned World, according to the mastery of the skill. This skill grows faster the more you are around angels, and associate with them.]

[Currently, you’re in a partnership with the angels, Lita and Erta.]

Acquiring special enhancements when fighting Breakers and Undead meant that the Heaven’s Army are proactively enemies with them. Considering that most subclasses have no relation to fighting power, Yu IlHan could be said to have profited a lot.

Angel’s Protection literally felt like a blessing. Although he didn’t know that well since he never was inflicted with a fatal strike, thinking back to how monsters seemed to be in so much pain every time he did a critical hit, it’s good news that the probability of being inflicted with a fatal hit had decreased.

Same with curse resistance and quest rewards. He finally felt that he had received the rewards of his suffering since he got acquainted with angels.

In contrast, Angel’s Support was the method that Erta spoke a little of just a few minutes ago. The counterplan that angels had come up with to prepare against the dungeons related to Abandoned Worlds.

At the same time, being Yu IlHan’s reward, this was a skill to counterplan against when encountering similar situations. Yu IlHan also had no reason to hate it. He didn’t know when he would fall into such a horrifying place again, but if he could borrow a higher existence’s power then that would be enough.

“Hm? Active skill is trainable?”

[Yeah. It’s a skill that grows faster the more you associate with angels.]

Lita lightly replied to his question, but to Yu IlHan, the listener, it didn’t sound so light. To express it, it reminded him of a slow anaconda walking towards its prey within the bushes.

Why? There was no way Lita had any malice against Yu IlHan. Yu IlHan laughed at himself for imagining something nonsensical but in fact, his intuition was spot on. It was just that he was a thousand year old virgin and could not see through the identity of the crisis that he had felt.

[Anyway, we gave you all the rewards. Please take care of us from now too, Yu IlHan.](Erta)

[Since we met after such a long time, let’s play!]

Erta’s calm voice and Lita’s playful voice harmonized and hit Yu IlHan’s eardrums. As he felt better now, since he had acquired a new, and good, skill, he made a refreshing smile and spoke.

“Okay, after I finish mana crafting on the spike spear, make the harpoons, and refine the trolls’ blood!”

[It’s that work again!]

Even though he had met Lita he longed to meet so much, this was the moment when Yu IlHan’s workaholic characteristic to finish his work first, had activated.

Author’s notes

I remember a light novel called ‘Akuma no Mikata’ (T/N: Devil’s Partner, is what the Koreans translated it to. Actually it should be ‘Devil’s Ally’… I think, JP TLers… opinions?). To the middle school me, the plot was quite a shock… Huh? I think nowadays, light novels and middle school Toika story are coming out too much?

Subclass get! Angel’s partner won against blacksmith at the last moment. Since he can’t use the best materials yet!

Subclasses can also grow and advance to the next stage. This will come up later as well. (T/N: I dun remember seeing that…)

Translator’s notes

I’m sure many of you are disappointed with the appearance of Lita. (Especially the change in her personality, actually if you think about it, her personality didn’t really change) Tbh, if you read more, some of you might switch to Erta… at least… I did….

Also, I take NU reviewers as critics. They say there are ‘plot holes everywhere’ but I don’t seem them at all… O.o… someone tell me those plot holes? I will try to explain them~ (or ask author). They criticize despite not knowing anything… With the unexplained things, author would probably explain all of it at the end. That’s what happened with his first novel.

Also, what happened with reposts in NU was that I forgot to change the title ([Title] [-Number]