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!
Enjoy~
TL: ALT
Chapter 89 – Day 34 of Exploration
I awoke at dawn and had breakfast while discussing the exploration with Hel and Sylvia. Jennifer, who had regained her strength today, wanted to join us as well.
“I want to get something to eat too. There’s a lot of meat and sweets here, but vegetables are scarce in the demonic land.”
Jennifer, who had just come out of the cave, explained while fixing her bangs. It seems she is taking care of her appearance because a member of the opposite sex named Lipa has come to live with us.
Lipa is currently training to wield a paralyzing staff. Apparently, he went to the swamp to wash his face and was attacked by a Green Tiger, but Sylvia saved him.
“W-w-well, the first thing is not to die.”
“Yes!”
Everyone has to walk this path at least once when they come to the demonic land. I hope he gets used to it gradually.
“Well, when we wake up, we’ll start exploring. Good night.”
“G-g-good night.”
Night owls Hel and Sylvia went to bed. We decided to start our exploration around noon.
It seems that Chel is tired from the journey and does not feel well.
“I’ll clean the cave today.”
She didn’t seem very energetic, so I told her to have some soup and go to bed.
“Makyo-san is the one who is strange. Chel-san is the normal one.”
Jennifer pointed this out to me while she was putting dried herbs into a jar.
“I see. Well, maybe you’re right.”
Maybe I was pushing Chel too hard to keep up with my pace.
While I was thinking about this and just standing there watching Lipa train, Jennifer scolded me, “Can you help me out here a little bit?”
We stored the herbs we had dried outside in the warehouse. The storeroom at the back of the cave was lined with healing potions, Sylvia’s weapons, and Hel’s jars.
“Makyo-san, please take a look at the monster skins. There are so many of them, and if they’re left like this, they’ll be eaten by insects, so it’s better to turn them into trade goods.”
There is a pile of monster skins in the corner of the room. Sylvia takes some of them to make weapons, but there are certainly a lot of them. It seems like it would be better to take some of them to the training facility as trade goods.
“Speaking of which, what happened to those guys?”
There were two elves who lived in a hut near the entrance to the demonic land. I taught them how to catch monsters, but they might be dead by now.
As I was tying the leather into a backpack, Lipa asked me.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m taking the trade goods to the military training facility. We can’t get wheat or vegetables in the demonic land, so we’ll get them in exchange. Would you like to come with me, Lipa?”
“Can I go?”
Since the kingdom of Estinia is not particularly hostile to the bird people, there should be no problem with them being there. In fact, it might be better to tell the royal family that we are trading with them.
“I think that’s okay. If they get mad, you can always disguise yourself.”
“No, I’ll disguise myself before I leave.”
Lipa wrapped a cloth around his face to hide his bird-like features.
I took Lipa and went to the entrance.
“The monsters around here aren’t that strong, so if you want to learn how to fight, you might as well train here. That’s what I did.”
When I turned around, Lipa was bitten on the head by the cam fruit, and his foot was caught in the bendgrass.
“Maybe Lipa is liked by the demonic land.”
I removed the cam fruit from Lipa’s body and stomped on the bendgrass.
“What does that mean?”
Lipa asked as I applied the medicinal herb to his wound.
“It’s a talent that makes you vulnerable to both monsters and plants. You should quickly learn to use this talent and become the cleaner of the demonic land.”
“Even if you say that…”
“Cam fruits are actually poisonous, but they taste delicious when eaten. If you touch a bendgrass, it will cling to you, but if you lure a monster into it, it will become a trap. It’s all about how you use it.”
“I see.”
After that, Lipa was attacked by a small monkey-like monster, but he was able to deal with it by paralyzing it with his staff and throwing cam fruits at it.
It took a while because I had to keep up with Lipa’s walking speed, but eventually, we made it to the stream at the entrance.
The log bridge that had been there was now gone without a trace.
“When you cross this stream, you have to kick it with all your magic power.”
“Huh?”
I crossed the stream, leaving a confused Lipa behind. I could have jumped over it, but I had to tell him about the slime.
As soon as I approached the stream, the slime bit my feet. I kicked the slime as hard as I could and made it across.
“See? Try it.”
“Y-yes!”
Lipa timidly approached the stream and kicked the slime away, but it stuck to his feet because his kick wasn’t strong enough. Lipa desperately tried to get the slime off his feet, but in the meantime, he was attacked by another slime.
“Don’t let them suck up too much magic power.”
Finally, I went back and tore off the slime that had stuck to Lipa and threw it away.
“Well, you can fly over on a flying broom. Don’t be so picky about how you do things. That’s the trick to surviving in the demon land.”
“Yes.”
Lipa, who had lost some of his magic power and was now looking pale, replied. Before I knew it, Lipa’s disguise was lifted.
A horse was tied to a tree near a simple hut across the stream.
“Someone is here.”
When I looked inside the hut, Sasha and the soldiers surrounded the two elves.
“Hey, are you holding the elves?”
“Ah, speak of the devil, Margrave. Are you here to trade?”
Sasha looked at my shoiko and asked.
“There’s no other reason to leave the demonic land. If you’re busy, we can talk some other time.”
“No, I was just thinking of a way to contact the Margrave.”
“What do you want?”
“Yes… Have you increased your subjects?”
Before coming to the main point, Sasha asked after looking at Lipa.
“Yes. I found him in the country of the birdman tribe, Cliff Garuda.”
“Ah!”
Lipa panicked, realizing that my words had revealed his disguise.
Sasha blinked several times and then seemed to accept the situation, saying, “Oh, I see.” Perhaps it was a reality that was hard for her to accept.
“Did that sound bad? Then please keep it to yourself.”
“It didn’t sound bad, but… So you mean that the trade route with Cliff Garuda was connected through the demonic land?”
“That’s right. Well, it’s not a big deal.”
“I think it would be classified as quite a historical achievement, but what kind of country was it?”
“The magic tools are well developed. Since they can fly, many of them are probably in the delivery business, right? Like airships?”
When I asked Lipa, he replied, “Yes.”
“Ships fly in the sky?!”
The soldier next to Sasha couldn’t help but ask.
“That’s right. But what do you want from me?”
If I didn’t force the conversation back on track, I would have to leave without Lipa.
“The chaos in East Kenya has finally calmed down. It seems that Zamurai has been assassinated. I don’t know if it’s true or not because his body is missing, but a person called Marchia has been appointed as the head of the Merchant Guild…”
“Marchia, that strong-looking red-haired girl?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I think I made a very obvious face, and Sasha asked, “Is it that bad?”
“I just thought it would be annoying if they came back to the demonic land. What about the Lord?”
“The lord who betrayed the vampire clan is dead. The distant relative of the vampire clan who was in the royal capital has taken his place. I know the army betrayed them, but can you please return Sylvia-sama to them?”
“If she’s willing. I’ll ask her. Is the new Lord of East Kenya doing well?”
“He’s an old half-elf, but he’s never ruled a territory before. The military and the merchant guild are keeping an eye on things, but he’s declared that ‘the people of the territory are my countrymen. I don’t need soldiers who don’t protect the people of the territory.’ The private soldiers he had working for the merchants’ guild have gone back to being adventurers.”
“He is quite a capable man. Then that’s fine. Is that all you wanted to say?”
I received a report that the neighboring lord had changed.
“The royal family asked about the progress of the demonic land, so I’ll report that the trade route with the Cliff Garuda has been opened.”
“I’m counting on you. Have you brought flour and vegetables?”
Our business here is trade.
“Yes, as soon as the captain returned, we wanted to start work on the trading hut, but what is the situation here?”
Sasha asked, pointing to the elves.
“Ah, we are helping the elves who have lost their way. I thought they’d die if they were unlucky, but they survived. They were lucky.”
“Hehe, thanks to the Lord of the demonic land, we’ve managed to get by.”
The walls of the hut are covered with dried sleeping flowers, so it looks like they’ve successfully chased the monsters away. There’s also a smell of meat, so I guess they were able to dispose of them as well.
“These are escaped slaves, but are you planning to make them the caretakers of the trading hut?”
Sasha asked.
“Well, yes. These little scoundrels are just right. You put your own interests first, right?”
“Eh? Well, I can’t thank the Lord of the demonic land enough for taking care of us.”
“See? They don’t seem to feel any guilt when they lie, do they? Someone like that wouldn’t think of challenging the army or invading the demonic land, even if they tried to sneak in some supplies.”
“We won’t do anything like that anymore!”
The two elves shook their heads as hard as they could.
“I said we won’t do it anymore!”
“The past is the past. If it doesn’t work out…”
I was about to say that I would let the fish in the demonic land eat them, but I stopped myself. The elves have already prepared to die here. I don’t want to scare them any more than they already are.
“If there were a caretaker in this hut, wouldn’t the military training go more smoothly? You learned to hunt the monsters in this forest, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
One of the elves replied.
“Then we can use it as a supply base. You can’t solve everything by punishing everyone and sending them away, can you? Can you watch and see how things go for a while?”
“If the Margrave says so, the army will say nothing. However, we would prefer that you take the weapons to the army facilities instead of trading them here at the hut. If the weapons from the demonic land end up in the hands of the Merchant Guild, we might get into trouble again.”
“All right. You two, in between hunting, make your way from here to the military facility. And listen to what the soldiers have to say.”
“Understood!”
They both put their hands on their chests and saluted.
We left the hut after exchanging monster skins, vegetables, and flour. Sasha and the others said they would check the forest paths with the elves and then return.
“We will continue our exploration, so if anything happens, throw the monster corpses to the demonic land side. We’ll come back if we notice anything strange with the monsters. Take care.”
With that, Lipa and I crossed the stream.
When I returned to the cave at the same speed as Lipa, the sun had risen high in the sky.
Hel and Sylvia had woken up and were eating fish soup for lunch.
“What are you going to do about the excavation?”
Hel asked as she sipped at her soup.
“W-w-well, are you going to push up the ground with magic?”
Sylvia also seemed curious about the excavation method.
“No, we’ll follow the cobblestones in the ground. If there are remains of buildings, we’ll dig them up.”
“Understood.”
Hel replied, and Sylvia nodded.
“Jennifer, do you still have the palm sap shovel?”
If not, I can make one, but she said there was one. Jennifer quickly prepared it for us.
After lunch, the five of us (except Chel) went to the other side of the swamp. I dealt with the monsters that came out by punching them. Lipa’s training to paralyze monsters by waving his staff can wait until we get to the excavation site.
On the other side of the swamp, I unleashed magic power on the ground and confirmed the remains of the cobblestone. It continued north and south, so we decided to head north for now.
There are no big trees growing on the cobblestone. There are only the monsters of old trees, the treants, moving around. They don’t have their roots deep underground. It was easy to tell because there were goblins flying around near the treants. The imps were about to attack Lipa, but when I put magic power into my fist, they flew away, screaming. I have a high level of crisis management skills.
Following the cobblestone path, we came to a hill. The hill was covered with young cam fruit trees and the trees from which we used to make jam. When I used magic to examine the ground, I found that there were ruins buried there.
“There are ruins buried there. The roots of the cam fruit trees are tangled. Let’s cut down the trees without uprooting them.”
“No one can pull up a tree except Makyo-san.”
While Jennifer made fun of me, I chopped down the tree and threw it down the hill. Of course, I was bitten by the cam fruit, and the imps and forest rats that lived there attacked me. I crushed them all with the club made from the bones of the monsters that Sylvia had made.
“Sylvia, this is really handy.”
“T-t-that’s good to hear.”
Lipa was at the mercy of the monsters and plants’ attacks, but it was good training for him.
After a few hours, a bald hill was created, and with a shovel, we cut the roots and pulled out the stumps.
“It takes a long time, doesn’t it?”
Hel, her face covered in dirt, put her hands on her hips and stretched. When you do the same work all the time, it’s easy to get tired.
“Can’t you use magic to dig it up all at once?”
“I know how you feel, but it’s not that easy because it would destroy the ruins. Let’s take our time.”
As the sun was setting, we called it a day after starting to break down the hill. Under the hill where I had thrown the tree, small monsters were gathering in search of cam fruit and poison berry fruit.
“Tomorrow, big monsters might come to hunt these little ones, so be careful.”
“Yes!”
“Big monster… !?”
Lipa was the only one who was scared.
If you like my translations, please support me on Ko-Fi and subscribe my Patreon to read several chapters ahead!
Omg, I love Lipa lol
LikeLike