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 96 – Day 41 of Exploration
Chel woke me up in the middle of the night. I thought it was time for a shift change, but apparently, it wasn’t.
“I feel like there’s something watching us from the sea.”
“A ghost? If it’s a ghost, I don’t know how to deal with it…”
“No, I think it’s a demon familiar or something. Can you make a big wave for me? I’ll keep watch until morning.”
When Chel, who spoke without an accent, said that, it was hard to refuse.
For now, I will interfere with the power of the waves coming and going and slowly create a large wave. It’s not a very powerful spell, but it seems to have worked because Chel said that the gaze had disappeared.
After I finished my work, I went back to sleep. In the early morning, I woke up.
Since we weren’t in the desert, Chel decided to leave after sleeping.
The fish I shot with my magic in the middle of the night had washed up on the beach, so I filleted them and made them for breakfast. As long as I’m careful with the thorns, fish from the sea are generally delicious.
“If we’d brought a jar, we could have gotten some salt.”
While saying something that can’t be helped, I used magic to search the ground around me. There was a broken ship a little to the north. I think that’s the ship Chel came on.
When we get there, we’ll know the way home.
While I was watching, I saw a big bird-like monster flying over the sea, I don’t know if it was the demon’s familiar or something else, so I hit it with a stone and knocked it down.
“If the demons come, we’ll be in trouble again.”
After a while, only its feathers reached the shore. It seems that the bird-like monster was eaten by a shark and became food for the sea. Maybe the sea near the demonic land is different from other seas.
As for me, as long as there are no ghosts, I’ll be fine.
Chel woke up before noon, and we left after eating grilled fish.
We headed straight west, using the broken ship as a reference point. When we put our magic into our legs and ran, the sound of the waves and the smell of the sea quickly disappeared.
Even the monsters blocking our path were stunned by Chel’s magic without the need for a staff. Before, we had to worry about the effects of the magic stones we collected, but that was almost completely gone now. Living in a place like this changes your values.
We left the poisonous toad monster, which was bigger than the one we stunned, alone and continued on our way.
Even after we’ve killed a monster, we only think about whether there are any usable materials or whether it will be a trade item. We keep our distance from monsters that we can’t defeat or from monsters that we can’t collect materials from, and we just leave the area.
I’ve also become able to roughly predict the strength of monsters, so I don’t waste my energy for no reason. It’s obvious, but I’ve become a completely different person from the one who came to the demonic land three months ago.
“Hey, Chel, there was a bird-like monster that looked like a familiar, so I shot it down.”
I spoke to her as I ran.
“Eh? Where was it?”
“In the sea. A shark or something ate it.”
“That’s good. There are monsters that are good at spying, so maybe they came to check things out. If we can keep an eye on them… no, never mind.”
“Never mind?”
If there are invaders from the demon kingdom of Meiju, I think we have to respond as someone from the demon land.
“Even if they land in the demonic land, they’ll die soon anyway. Think of me as I was when I came. If I hadn’t changed, I would be in the belly of a monster right now.”
“That’s probably true.
We’ll let the monsters deal with them. Let’s hope they don’t come back as ghosts.
There must have been other castaways in the past besides Chel. Maybe some of them have already come back as ghosts, but we just haven’t seen them yet.
Hel said to take them to the beach, but maybe it’s to exorcise them. When their wounds have healed, we’ll bring them back as soon as possible.
On the way we stopped to rest on a hill, and before evening we had reached our cave. It hadn’t taken half a day from the east coast. It seems that our speed has increased again.
“Welcome back!”
Lipa greeted us from his flying broom.
“I’m home. Where are the others?”
“Jennifer-san is looking for edible grass, Sylvia-san is digging in the swamp, and I think Hel-san is sleeping in her room, but sometimes I hear voices like curses coming from inside.”
“Ah, it’s the usual incomprehensible bunch.”
Since there was no luggage, we went to check on Hel while eating the dried meat left by the fire. Chel was kneading flour and said, “I urgently need to eat bread because of the bread shortage.”
Knock, knock.
“Hey, Hel, I’m back. Are you alive?”
As I knocked on the door, Hel’s voice answered from inside, “Oh, yes.”
“Welcome back. I’m alive.”
Her hair was messy, and she smelled of sweat.
“I’m home. You smell of sweat. I heard you were holed up in your room.”
There was a desk and chair in the room and a magic stone lamp on the ceiling. There were also scraps of parchment paper scattered about, and it looked like she had been writing something with a quill. It was a more civilized room than mine.
“Who do you think is to blame?”
“Is it really my fault? Well, never mind. Let’s take a bath first.”
“Huh? Wait a minute.”
I left the cave with the thin Hel.
“Wait!”
“It’s okay. I know you have a tattoo. I’m not surprised.”
“Hmm? Makyo, you smell like the sea. Where did you come back from?”
“There was a monster that migrated from Cliff Garuda, so I went after it. I want to tell you what I found, and I want to wash off the sweat from my journey. Hel smells of sweat too, so it would be reasonable to take a bath and talk, right?”
“That’s certainly true. No objection.”
Then Hel was silently carried on my shoulder.
We combined water magic and fire magic to create boiling water in the bath near the swamp. We were naked, but neither of us was the type to get aroused just by seeing the opposite sex naked.
My inner clothes smelled of sweat, so Hel and I used the stones at the edge of the tub as a washboard and washed ourselves while still in the tub.
“I didn’t know you could wash away your sweat and do your laundry at the same time.”
“Has the blood stopped flowing from your whole body?”
“Yes, that healed pretty quickly. But Jennifer’s worried about me and said I need to eat some vegetables, so she’s started looking for some edible grass in the demonic land forest.”
“That’s inconvenient.”
“It really is. She’s trying everything she can get her hands on, including some poison-absorbing grass. If she eats some bendgrass and gets hallucinations and then diarrhea, that’s fine, but if she eats some grass that could be used as an anesthetic for big monsters, she could die.”
“That worries me.”
I nodded, covered in soap bubbles.
“She doesn’t mean any harm, but it’s hard to convince her. Sylvia left early and is doing some digging in the swamp.”
“She made a good escape. Is Lipa practicing flying broomsticks?”
“No, he’s a glutton. He eats everything, but that’s why he’s developed a tolerance and doesn’t notice when he’s poisoned. Maybe it’s because he’s a slave? I stopped him.”
“He’s dangerous in another way.”
“When he concentrates, he can’t see anything around him, so Sylvia makes him practice flying broomsticks so he can see things from above.”
“I see.”
Hel washed my back, so I washed Hel’s back.
“What about you?”
“We delivered Chel’s letter. I hope it reaches the demon kingdom. I also met a sorcerer.”
“Oh?”
“He said that the trick to magic was to feel the flow of magic power while using magic tools, but I don’t know anything about magic, so I didn’t understand. Anyway, he said that it was an old curse, so he said that as long as you use magic tools and feel the flow of magic power, you will be fine.”
“I’ve been doing that for a while.”
“Besides, I can’t classify my magic or anything.”
“You have to start by throwing off the academic shackles of magic.”
“And then there’s the forest with the migration monsters…”
I opened my mouth slowly, soaking up to my shoulders in the tub.
“There are ghosts in a forest where there are no signs of monsters. I’m at a loss,” I explained, but Hel told me, “We’ll investigate it ourselves, so please do other work.”
“Is that all you have to report?”
“Oh, we spent the night on the east coast yesterday. Chel said she felt eyes watching her from the sea. Perhaps the familiars of the demon race are investigating the demonic land. I did shoot down a bird monster, though.”
“I knew it. I was hoping to use my spiritism to watch over the eastern coast.”
“Ghosts again?”
Even though I’m in a nice warm bath, a shiver runs down my spine.
“All you have to do is get me there. You’re going to refill the salt anyway, right?”
“Yes, I understand. I’ll wait in the forest while Hel sets up the spiritism.”
As I watched the sunset over the swamp, Sylvia crawled out of the water in a rather indecent state. She was wearing only her underwear, and the water had made her private parts clearly visible. She held a net in her hand, and it seemed that she had found some pottery-like relics, so she had been successful.
“Good work.”
“O-o-oohh, you’re back! Please tell me if you’re here!”
Sylvia hastily covered her chest and crotch with her hands. I looked across the swamp to the other side.
“Thank you for protecting the demonic land while I was away.”
“N-n-no, the Margrave of the demonic land has a lot on his plate. There are no vegetables in the demonic land. There are only edible wild plants. We have found wild plants that can be used as stimulants, hallucinogens, and anesthetics that numb the senses. Jennifer is making a list, so check it out. Maybe we can use them in trade.”
“I see. It looks like you’ve had some success with underwater excavations as well.”
“I-I-I’ll sort it out with Hel later.”
Sylvia’s stomach growled.
“Chel is baking bread, so please have that for dinner. Also, get some rest.”
“N-n-next time Makyo goes somewhere, I’ll go with you. I don’t like to stay at home.”
Sylvia said and ran up the hill.
The sun was setting. Hel and I dried ourselves and got out of the bath.
As we were about to return to the cave, wrapped in the cloth we had used to dry ourselves, we heard a strange noise coming from the bushes. A rustling sound was followed by twigs piercing our bodies, and Jennifer came out with a face as green as a turnip. The shoiko in her back, full of wild grass, made her look more like a monster than a human being.
“Hey, Makyo-san, you’re back? It was a real mess here! Hel-san got all bloody.”
“Oh, well, Jennifer should take a bath first.”
With that, I kicked Jennifer into the bathtub, and we went up the hill.
I could hear Jennifer’s voice behind me saying, “It hurts~.”
If you like my translations, please support me on Ko-Fi and subscribe my Patreon to read several chapters ahead!
[“Oh, well, Jennifer should take a bath first.”
With that, I kicked Jennifer into the bathtub, and we went up the hill.
I could hear Jennifer’s voice behind me saying, “It hurts~.”]
Omg lol
LikeLike