TN: Please read my translations only on my website nyx-translation.com since I never give my permission to any site to host my translations. And if you like my translations, please support this site on Ko-fi and Patreon to read several chapters ahead!
Sponsored chapter by Patreon. Enjoy~
TL: ALT
Chapter 64 – Day 9 of Exploration
It’s quite hot and humid in the cave because it’s hard to ventilate. It seems that Hel and the others are using magic circles to send in the wind, but my room is the only male room, and no magic circle has been drawn there.
I woke up in the middle of the night because I couldn’t sleep. When I went outside to cool off, I saw Hel standing by the fire, looking at the eastern sky. Next to her was Chel. It was rare for Chel, the morning person, to be awake in the middle of the night.
“You’ve been cursed by a pretty serious guy, Chel.”
“The one doing the cursing is the current Demon King. The former Demon King is calling me. This is a problem.”
The two of them seem to be seeing something in the eastern sky. However, I can only see the starry sky. No, more than that, Chel is speaking fluently to Hel.
“This is great. It’s a skill that every mage in the world would want to be able to cut their magic consumption in half.”
“It’s complicated because you take it from the people around you. You wouldn’t like it if you thought there was a little slime around, would you?”
“The people here are fine. The only one with low magic power is Sylvia, right? Don’t worry, she heals quickly. It’s probably a trait of the vampire clan.”
“Even if you say that.”
“Have you tried it?”
“Well, yes.”
Chel said, then put her hands on the floor.
“Hmph!”
She seemed to release some magic power with a shout, but nothing special happened.
“Even with this, I can’t do anything like Makyo.”
“There are things that people are better or worse at. There are more effective ways to use them. That’s why the former Demon King is calling you, right?”
“I think the Meiju Kingdom is in danger, so the former Demon King wants me to come back.”
“You’re going back?”
I’m also in favor of Chel’s return, but I’m a little sad.
“No, I can’t go back now. Even if I could, I wouldn’t know what to do. Really, the dead are selfish and don’t know our situation.”
“That’s probably true. Well, even if the country falls, the demon tribe will survive. Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“I won’t do anything reckless. I’m not even good enough at wind magic to cross the sea.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. If you keep lying to yourself, before you know it, you’ll have done something you can’t take back. It takes strength to admit that to yourself.”
“Maybe so. But don’t tell Makyo. He’ll be scared.”
“…Oh, I see.”
After saying that, Chel turned around and came towards the cave, so I ran back to my room without thinking. For some reason, I felt like I shouldn’t let her know that I had been eavesdropping.
When I woke up in the morning, Chel was baking bread as usual.
“Good morning.”
“Hey.”
I decided not to ask her about the curse. If she wanted to tell me, she would do it herself.
“Do you want to go and kill the monsters around the stream at the entrance today?”
Jennifer suggested.
“I-i-if we’re going to build a hut, I think it would be a good idea to collect the sleeping flowers from the roots and replant them.”
Sylvia seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“I will sleep until noon. I got tired after making the bracelet for Chel by the campfire’s light.”
“I got this from Hel. Now the curse can’t be heard anymore.”
After that, Chel showed me the agate and leather bracelet. It had a magic circle drawn on it, and it looked like it would be effective against magic.
“You said you couldn’t hear it, but were you able to hear anything?”
Jennifer asked Chel.
“Huh? Jennifer’s snoring or what?!”
“My snoring is not a curse! No, I don’t even snore to begin with!”
“T-t-that’s a little hard to believe…”
Sylvia said with a straight face.
“What? Do I snore that much?”
“It’s not just snoring. I’m really grateful we got separate rooms.”
When Hel said this, Chel and Sylvia also nodded in agreement.
“No way…”
“For now, we’ll cut the grass and kill dangerous monsters in the morning, so that it will be easier to collect the sleeping flowers. The location of the hut will probably be decided by the Zamurai Fruit Company and the military, so our work will start after that.”
So, the breakfast meeting ended with the curse of Chel still unclear.
As planned, we spent the morning cutting grass and killing monsters. The monsters near the entrance have recognized us, so they rarely attack us anymore.
It seems that the exploding magic circle I drew on the hill attracts a lot of monsters, so I’ve decided not to use it unless it’s an emergency. For the rest of the time, we’ll collect dangerous plants like egg mushrooms and bendgrass.
“Aren’t we becoming a monster protection group?”
“That’s true since we’re removing traps and dangerous plants, it seems that way. But no matter how many monsters there are here, it’s not a problem. What is more, we need to become a little stronger so that we can fight monsters like those in the depths of the demonic land.”
“Makyo, do you still want to get stronger?”
“Because I haven’t been able to explore the demonic land at all. I need to go to the southern desert, and I also need to go to the northern mountain range. You know, there was a flying island and an underground lake under an old well.”
“I-I-I have to survive!”
Sylvia said as she defeated the poisonous snake monster. She was able to defeat small monsters by swinging her hammer.
The army and the merchants of the Zamurai Fruit Company hadn’t crossed the stream yet. Come to think of it, it usually takes a while to get through the forest outside.
“They probably won’t come today. Maybe they’re having a dispute.”
After lunch, Sylvia took a nap so Hel could take over.
“Let’s go and excavate the ruins today. There’s nothing to do, right?”
“Yes. The pots and plates are still drying. I’ll help you.”
It seems that Hel’s pottery will take some time.
“It’s been a while since we had a fight, hasn’t it? Speaking of which, I had a shield made. Hehe, with this, no one will be able to get through to me.”
Jennifer said, showing off the shield made from the bones of a monster.
“Well, I’ll leave the excavation to you! Since I can hear the voices of the dead, excavating ruins is easy.”
“I know more about temples than anyone else. There’s a unique atmosphere in places of prayer.”
Both Hel and Jennifer, who had been so proud of themselves, were exhausted by the time they crossed the southern river.
They were both moving slowly, stopping again and again to deal with the monsters and plants that attacked them.
“We’ve got enough food, so let’s just ignore them and keep going.”
“Let’s go!”
Chel and I quickly crossed the river and kept going.
“Wait for me! Something’s biting my leg!”
“There’s something slimy under my foot, too! Ughhhhhh!”
Chel had created a water column in the river to save them. The catfish monster was biting Hel’s leg, but it wasn’t that big.
“It’s good that you’re being careful, but we’ll clear the way. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”
“Trust me a little.”
Chel dried the two soaked people with a wind spell.
We’ll take the path Lamia took to the ruins.
“Is it here?
“It’s certainly quieter than the other forest.”
As Jennifer said, it was quiet, with no sound from the imp.
“Let’s get started.”
We immediately started digging up the human bones we had found yesterday.
“I don’t hear any spirits.”
Hel digs at the skull while looking around. She uses a small shovel to dig so it doesn’t collapse, but she’s good at it. Maybe she’s done this before.
“I think the spirits were able to rest in peace. This is a graveyard near the temple.”
Jennifer digs in the ground around the skull. When she finds a necklace or silver coin as a burial offering, she writes it down on a piece of paper.
“Wait, is this a mass grave? There’s a lot of stuff buried here.”
I used my magic to scan the ground like a sonar and discovered that there were a lot of human bones. Moreover, they weren’t all in coffins but were arranged as if they had been thrown into a hole together.
“Makyo, aren’t human bones scary?”
“Human bones are not scary. It’s just that I don’t understand what it means when there are spirits or something that has no substance.”
Chel says, “Hmph,” collects some dirt on her fingertip, and starts digging. It seems that she can only remove the dirt because it’s magic, so she works very quickly.
“You’re so handy.”
“Makyo can do so much, right?”
“I can’t do such delicate work.”
Even though I said that, I tried it, and although I wasn’t as good as Chel, I was able to dig faster than digging with my hands.
“I don’t know, but with Chel and Makyo, isn’t it more like civil engineering than digging?”
Hel said enviously.
“You can do it too, Hel.”
Chel tempted Hel, and she dug the earth with her magic, but she only managed to scrape the surface.
“Since I’m losing my confidence as an elf, I’ll dig with a shovel.”
Jennifer, watching, didn’t even try.
“I’m not good with earth magic. It comes at me as an object, so I get confused trying to defend against it. I’m also not good at using it because it doesn’t have any special properties.”
She knows what she can do.
“Could it be that Estinia still uses the concept of magic properties?”
“You can learn simple magic in places like the Adventurer’s Guild or school. However, unlike elves, humans don’t have that much magic power, and our lifespans are short, so it’s easier to focus on one type of magic and grow in that area. Only those with talent can use many different types of magic.”
Jennifer answered Hel’s question. They both moved their hands as well as their mouths.
“Are you saying that Makyo is different from other humans?”
“That’s right. Makyo being a human is the least convincing of all the theories.”
Chel and Hel looked at me.
“No, I couldn’t use magic at all until Chel taught me. Maybe the demon race has better teaching methods?”
“There are a lot of monsters here that use magic, so even if I don’t teach you, you’ll learn naturally.”
“Anyway, while you’re using magic, don’t you think you’ll naturally start to specialize in certain types of magic?”
Jennifer asked.
“Hmm, I don’t know. Ah, I think I use the ability to make magic power surround my body quite a bit. It’s useful when kicking slime, for example.”
“Only Makyo uses such a special body technique.”
“Don’t think of yourself as ordinary.”
Hel and Chel made fun of me.
While we were having this conversation, the digging continued. During the break, we ate some rusks coated with honey from honeybees.
“We can’t work without sweets.”
“Jennifer says good things.”
In the end, a total of 12 human bones were found, in addition to the one found at the beginning. Among them were the bones of a child.
“They were all killed with a blade.”
As Hel said, all the human bones had been cut by a blade.
“A large sword? There were also bones that had been cut in half.”
“It’s hard to believe they would even harm a child.”
“Mass murder? Was there a war?”
As we looked at the bones, we imagined the tragedy that had happened at the temple in the past.
“If they were massacred, I would think that at least some of their souls would remain, but there’s nothing left of them either.”
Hel said, scowling.
“What do you mean?”
“Either they killed themselves, or they were killed by a saint…”
“Nobody wants to be killed by anyone.”
“A saint is someone who performs miracles after death. A murderer cannot perform miracles.”
Chel and Jennifer looked at the bones, arms crossed.
“Then it must have been the work of someone with holy powers while alive.”
“Is there such a person?”
“A hero?”
“…A holy knight?”
Jennifer asked Hel.
“Probably.”
“But such a legendary figure…”
“Isn’t it possible because it’s a legend?”
Hel’s words left Jennifer speechless.
Neither I nor Chel know what a holy knight is.
All we know is that there was a mass murder in this temple in ancient times.
If you like my translations, please support me on Ko-Fi and subscribe my Patreon to read several chapters ahead!