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TL: ALT
Chapter 78 – Day 23 of Exploration
I had a short sleep and was woken up by Chel.
“Good morning. A monster appeared.”
It didn’t seem to be very tense, so I guess she defeated it.
“Good morning. You defeated it?”
“Yes.”
When I came out of the water ball tent, five large, long-legged spider monsters the size of dogs lay there, burnt to a crisp.
The sky was still dark, but the east was just beginning to light up.
I drank some water and prepared to leave, biting into some dried meat. All I had to do was fold up my fur and tuck the waterball tent pole into the haze turtle’s shell.
“Are your shoes okay?”
“They’re fine. No problem.”
“Shall we go?”
“Only Makyo can go once he wakes up.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, and this is the direction.”
Chel told me the directions with a spell.
“It’s not a spell. Look at the sky.”
“I see. I’m still half asleep.”
I checked to the east, and we headed straight south.
“Chel, aren’t you wearing your bracelet today?”
She’s not wearing the bracelet Hel made for her.
“Oh, the bracelet that suppresses magical power. Since Makyo is the only one here, I thought it wouldn’t be necessary if I really wanted to run.”
“You suppressed your magic power?”
“Yes. I suppressed my magic because I was absorbing the magic of the environment.”
“Oh yes, you said something like that.”
“It’s convenient because it makes small monsters lose their magic just by getting close to me.”
“Small monsters in the desert seem to have poison. I wish I had that ability, too.”
“Makyo, that’s enough.”
Chel muttered to herself and increased her running speed.
“Ability, huh?”
Was that a forbidden word? I adjusted my speed and caught up with Chel.
“Chel, can I ask you something to pass the time?”
“If you don’t mind losing speed.”
“You’re not really running. You’re not putting any magic into your legs.”
“Oh, that’s right.”
When Chel put magic into her legs, her running speed increased dramatically. When I did the same, the shell of the haze turtle I was dragging began to vibrate and go wild. I had no choice but to pick it up with both hands and run. I should have put a handle on it or something.
I got back to Chel and looked at her face.
“What? I understand. You can ask.”
“What’s school like?”
“The place I went to was a place where you learn magic.”
“What’s it like?”
“What’s it like… There are kids your age. You listen to the teacher, practice magic, take exams, and things like that?”
“Sounds fun.”
“Was it fun?”
“You have lots of friends your age, right?”
“I don’t have any friends.”
Was that another taboo word? Even though we live together, there are still so many things I don’t know about her. If I don’t do something, it might get in the way of our trip. Maybe I should just keep quiet for a while.
“Makyo, do you want to learn something?”
Chel asked.
“Of course there is. I don’t know anything. I’ve moved to the demonic land; I can defeat monsters, and I can sort of tell which plants are edible.”
“So you were an adventurer?”
“I was an adventurer, but not really an adventurer. I just did random quests and played around at night. It was terrible.”
“So you suddenly decided to buy some land?”
“Yes! I thought I’d be in trouble if I didn’t do something, so I wanted some land where I could farm.”
“Isn’t the demonic land too big to farm?”
“The land I wanted was bought before I could get to it. But I had saved some money. I thought I would end up spending it on something useless, so I bought the land in the demonic realm, even though I didn’t know what it was. I ended up getting tricked.”
“You know yourself pretty well, don’t you?”
“Yes. I jumped at anything new, and I learned a lot. But I get bored easily. I’ve been tricked a lot.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of the demonic land?”
“It’s not a matter of whether I get tired of the demonic land or not. Even if I get tired of living, I don’t have to force myself to die. It’s the same thing. Besides, if you live in a demonic land, all kinds of crazy things will happen. There are also many secrets.”
“By the way, do you have any abilities you want right now?”
“Yes, I do. Because no one ever comes to the demonic land. Even if people do come, they’re all former slaves, criminals, or people who have been banished. So I want the ability to create a place that normal people would want to come to.”
“You mean charisma?”
Chel asked as she burned the monster that had attacked from the sky with magic. Sometimes, we see monsters, but we almost never have to deal with them. It seems that no monster can even keep up with our speed.
“I don’t think I need charisma, but if I can do what I like without working hard, that’s even better. Oh, and if a lot of people come to demonic land, I’d like to open a brothel. That’s my secret dream.”
“Brothel! You’ll be cheated by the employees anyway.”
Chel sometimes hits the nail on the head.
“You are right. Then I’ll become an innkeeper.”
“Haha, I’ve never heard a Margrave doing such a thing.”
It’s true; it would be strange for a margrave to want to become an innkeeper.
“Wait, when did I stop being a noble? Since there are a lot of people in my house who have stopped being nobles, I thought I would stop being a margrave one day, but that’s not normal, is it?”
“T-That’s right.”
“Why did you run away, Chel? You said you were cursed by the Demon King’s family…”
“U-uh…”
It seems I dug up something I shouldn’t have.
“No, it was a slip of the tongue. Pretend you didn’t hear it. I can’t take responsibility for what I say anyway.”
“Oh, I can see something!”
Just as I thought, I could see something that looked like a sandstone tower over the sand dunes.
As we got closer, we could see that there were several towers and buildings that looked like residential areas. However, all the buildings were heavily weathered, and some were half collapsed or had only their foundations left. There were no signs of humans or monsters.
“Looks like this was an oasis city. Since we’re here, let’s take a break until the evening.”
“Yes, can I bake some bread?”
It looks like Chel is going to bake bread by wrapping the dough in bamboo. As I thought, she really likes bread.
“Sure. I’ll walk around a bit.”
The fact that there was a town in the desert suggests that there may have been a trade route in the past. The well is dry, but there are signs that plants once grew around it.
“First of all, it’s strange that there are no ruins, considering that there are chains to hold back such a sky island.”
There were traces of white droppings, suggesting that birds were kept inside the tower. Many thin pieces of wood were scattered on the ground, looking like they could be used as firewood.
I took the piece of wood and went back to where Chel was baking bread.
“Is it ready yet?”
“Not yet. It’s hard to control the heat with a magic circle.”
Chel was drawing a fire magic circle on the ground and baking bread.
“There’s some firewood. Do you want to use it?”
“Yes, please. Where did you find it?”
“In the tower. I think the whole place is a big birdhouse.”
“The ancients kept birds…”
While saying this, Chel added more wood to the fire.
“Birds can be used for communication, and their droppings can be used as fertilizer for the fields. It seems to be an oasis in the desert.”
“Aren’t you going to do that thing where you release magic power into the ground and see what’s underground?”
“Oh, I’ll try that.”
There was a high possibility that there were ruins buried in the sand, so I should have done more when I entered the desert. I placed my hand on the ground and released magic power. Since it was covered in sand, I would have known immediately if there were any relics.
A short distance away from the ruins where we were, there were human bones, monster bones, necklaces, bracelets, etc., buried in the sand. It must be a graveyard. Also, the remains of a dried-up underground water vein continued under the well.
“If we follow the underground water vein, we might find the next oasis.”
“Which way do we go?”
I point in the direction of “over there.”
“South. Our destination hasn’t changed, has it? It’s hot, hot, hot~.”
Chel is eating a freshly baked round loaf of bread with dried meat in between.
“It’s too delicious; it’s the champion!”
“Champion, huh? Can I have some?”
When I ate it, the bread that I hadn’t eaten for a day was incredibly delicious.
“Chel, you have enough ability to make bread. Why don’t you set up a bakery in the demonic land?”
“Yes, I’ll do that! There’s no point in having abilities that are really useless, is there?”
I finished lunch and went to sleep until evening. I also set up the waterball tent.
“Do you think it’s necessary to know how strong other people are?”
Chel, who was on guard duty, asked me as I was about to go to sleep. Since she didn’t have an accent, I thought she meant it. For now, I just wanted to be left alone.
“I don’t know, but don’t you think it gives you an advantage when you fight?”
“Well, I don’t know if it’s an advantage or a disadvantage for Makyo…”
“Perhaps you can be useful to other people.”
“Yes, you can. You can assign people to jobs that suit their abilities. But people change, you know. I don’t think it’s really meaningful to know how strong they are at a certain time.”
She’s unusually talkative.
“So it’s like the Adventurers’ Guild and adventurers. You get stronger as you fight monsters. Beginners grow faster, and I was left behind.”
“So even though Makyo says you’re growing…”
“What?”
“No matter how much you grow, there are few people who can grow as much as Makyo. Can you be a little more confident?”
There was a sound of water splashing.
“Are you drinking?”
“I’m just licking some honey wine.”
“Where did you hide it? Don’t drink too much. That’s why you’re not allowed in the cave.”
“I know that. That’s why I’m complaining a bit and letting it out.”
“Oh.”
I nodded in agreement with Chel’s story while I slept because it would be unbearable if my sleep time was interrupted by a drunkard’s story.
Apparently, Chel can measure a person’s strength. I think she said something like that in the past, but it seems that her ability caught the Demon King’s attention. She was even involved in the battle for the throne, and she ended up fleeing.
“Ee~, so you’re not going back to the Demon Kingdom?”
I asked, even though I was already half asleep.
“Well, you see, I got a call from the former Demon King the other day. Something seems to have happened.”
“Eh, the former Demon King? A call? Is that even possible?”
I was about to fall asleep and didn’t even know what I was saying.
“Oh, she’s already dead, so she’s a ghost.”
“Again with the ghosts…”
I gave up listening to the story and went to sleep.
When it was my turn, Chel had fallen asleep on the fur I had laid out. It seems she was able to hold out because the alcohol hadn’t worn off too much. I had night sweats, but it was still easy to sleep.
“I wonder how many more days this will go on…”
I started my watch while eating some dried fruit.
I saw scorpion monsters and lizard monsters, but they were all small and didn’t attack.
In the evening, Chel got up. After brushing our teeth together, wiping our faces, and loosening up our bodies, we started to walk. While Chel slept, I wrapped the turtle’s shell in rope to make it easier to carry.
“It’s easier to run.”
“Did I say anything before I fell asleep?”
Chel asked as we walked.
“You didn’t have an accent. You said something like you didn’t want to go back to the Demon Kingdom, but you might have to? I was half asleep, so I didn’t really hear much.”
“Ah, because Makyo will be lonely if I go back.”
“Well, I think everyone will be more lonely than me. The women have a strong sense of comradeship, you know. Like with Jennifer.”
“Well, we’d have to build a boat to get back, and that’s not something we can do right away.”
“Do what you want, but make sure you get back. I’m sure you left a lot of things behind that need to be done.”
“Yes.”
After that, we rode in silence for a while.
The sun was setting, and the evening darkness was spreading.
Just when I thought we should take a break, I saw a white wall on the horizon.
“Can you see the wall?”
I ask Chel, as I might be mistaken.
“Yes, it looks like a cliff. The demonic land is supposed to be up to the cliff at the end of the desert, right?”
“That’s what I heard, but… haven’t we only been here for two days?”
“Yes.”
If I strain my eyes, I can also see what looks like a light on the white cliff. Could it be the light from the magic stone lantern?
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