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Chapter 111 – Day 3 of the Strategy Life
“This place is not suitable for magic.”
Hel said as he looked at the rocky area, where neither plants nor monsters could be seen.
“Is it because there is no food?”
“No, that’s not it… Can’t you see them?”
Could it be that Hel could see ghosts?
“Don’t say that.”
“If you can’t see them, that’s fine. Let’s go to the old well.”
After breakfast, we packed up the tent and headed west.
After passing through the forest, we found that only short plants were growing. There were many things whose effects we didn’t know, and the bones of monsters were scattered everywhere. When I released magic power into the ground to explore the old well and the underground lake, the surrounding rocks, and stone-like succulents, all opened small flowers at once, emitting a sweet smell.
“You shouldn’t inhale that smell.”
“Yes, let’s hurry.”
There was no way that the plants in this demonic land would emit a sweet smell for no reason, so we quickly left the area where the succulents were growing in clusters. From a distance, we could see that the area was covered in white, with a large number of bones scattered around.
The monsters had almost completely blended into the surrounding rocks, so you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart at first glance.
“I wonder if this is a real rock…?”
Jennifer found a rock that looked like a large lizard. It had been petrified by a Lamia or something similar and was frozen in mid-jump. A small mouse had made a nest in its mouth.
There were also turtles, indistinguishable from the rocks around them, and even a few mudskippers hiding in the mud. There were also many nests of wyverns and death condors, so there were many flying monsters as well.
“You have to look closely to see them.”
“No matter where you go, it’s a demonic land.”
The sun was high in the sky, so we took a lunch break. During this time, we unloaded our cargo from the wyvern and released it. The wyvern, which had become tired, walked slowly along the ground but was soon chased by a gray wolf and flew away.
“From now on, we’ll carry the cargo ourselves.”
“I-I understand. Unlike the jungle, I thought there would be no belligerent monsters here, but that’s not the case.”
For lunch, we had dried fish, bread, and pickles from the Meiju Kingdom. The pickles were tangy and went down well after a long day’s work.
“These pickles are so good! Should we start importing them?”
“Let’s wait until things settle down a bit.”
“Is it far to the old well?”
Lipa, who is flying in the sky, is undecided whether to continue flying or to carry the luggage on the ground. He is still not good at aerial combat, as he was busy dealing with the flying monster. Hel’s arrow has also begun to break after many uses.
“I don’t think it will take that long, so you can come down to the ground.”
After exploring the underground, we found a large space, so we must have come to the surface of the underground lake.
“If it’s an old well, we should be able to see it now.”
Hel pointed to the northwest.
“It’s rare to see it so clearly with the spell.”
The necklace for the spell, lying on the ground, formed an arrow pointing northwest.
“Can the spell be that obvious?”
“No, maybe someone is calling us. Didn’t you see the skeleton at the bottom of the old well?”
“Is it someone from the P.J. party that was here 100 years ago?”
P.J. is the initials of a person’s name, and it is also the name of the party that explored the demonic land 100 years ago. Either way, they are no longer in this world.
“I’m suddenly not so eager to go.”
“Because Makyo may not evacuate. We’ll build a shelter at the bottom of the old well.”
Chel seems to expect me to ride the giant magic beast. Even if I do, I think I need to prepare first.
“This time, we’ll just evacuate normally.”
“Do you want to ruin our chance?”
“Chance is a pinch. In the demonic land, there are more pinches than chances.”
“It will be fine. The Foolish King of the Demon Race said so.”
“The fact that the Foolish King said it doesn’t make it any better.”
“What are you trying to do, make fun of me?”
“Isn’t that what the Foolish King does?”
“That’s right, but… that’s not what I’m doing!”
“I know that.”
After returning home, Chel explained about the thousand years ago many times. When I first heard about it, I couldn’t imagine her being surrounded by the spirits of kings, but I remembered the foolish king.
“This time, we might have to talk to the people from 100 years ago. Don’t worry, I’m good at spiritualism.”
Hel said, puffing out her chest, which was unusual for her. She seemed confident.
“You know, the zombie that had the gold coins before, we burned it, right? We couldn’t ask it because its ego had already collapsed and had no spirit, but I’ve been wondering about it for a while.”
“It’s good that we can get information about the demonic land, but I’ll stay away from it.”
The women look at me and laugh, but I can’t believe they are actually talking to a being that has no substance and is completely incomprehensible. I wonder if they’re going to start communicating with ghosts or devils soon. I really don’t understand them at all.
After lunch, we headed northwest under Hel’s guidance.
As soon as we started moving, we found the old well where I had fallen before. It wasn’t very deep, but I had broken my leg here, so I went down very carefully.
As I made my way deeper into the cave, relying on the light of the magical stone lantern, I found glowing mushrooms the size of a man’s head growing everywhere, so the light was no longer needed.
In the largest room at the far end, there was a pool of water, and I couldn’t see more than a few meters ahead. It was the same underground lake as before.
It was a scary place, and I wouldn’t want to set up a base camp here unless a giant magical beast appeared. We set up camp on the shore and made a fire. The wind had died down, so there was no problem making a fire. Since we’re underground, we don’t seem to need tents.
There’s a skeleton in a black robe sitting near the wall. It’s the adventurer who held the doughnut-shaped stone with the thunder pattern on it, the one who wrote, “The dungeon has been stolen; it’s all over.” Who exactly is he? Well, since there are only bones, we can’t tell his gender, can we?
“Is he a man?”
“Definitely a man. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to do a little interview with him.”
“Okay, I’ll stay away.”
I decided to make my bed as far away from the skeleton as possible. I only spread out a wild boar pelt, but just having a place to call my own made me feel comfortable. I’ll probably wait here all day, so I’ll prepare a magic stone lantern and spend the time reading.
Meanwhile, Hel prepared for the ritual by placing spiritualist incantations and magical materials around the skeleton. The women and Lipa had also gathered, and I was the only one watching from a distance.
The incantations echoed around the underground lake, adding to the eerie atmosphere.
I tried not to look, but before I knew it, the skeleton’s skull had moved, and started a normal conversation with Hel.
“What’s your name and where are you from?”
“Paul Gerard. I come from a family in the west of the Kingdom of Meiju that has been entrusted with protecting the king for generations.”
His voice was soft, but I could hear him clearly. I felt myself shrink and almost forgot to breathe.
“Gerard is the ancestor of Sekito and the others!”
Chel was surprised and let out a cry.
“Is it a famous family?”
“It is a famous family. But in the old days, there were… family disputes about who should become the head of the family, and many young heads of the family died of illness. I never thought they would come to the demonic land.”
“Paul didn’t become the head of the family?”
Hel asked the skeleton.
“Yes, even from my perspective as the eldest son, my younger brother was the more suitable candidate. It is common for people with outstanding talents to be shunned. If you want to start a family, you need someone to support you. I never thought that my younger brother would try to kill me after I was gone…”
“An invasion of the demonic land by the demons?”
“Yes. Of course, with Peter there, they were no match…”
“By Peter, you mean Peter Jefferson, right?”
“Our boss is the one and only Peter Jefferson.”
It seems that Peter, who has a graveyard on Sky Island, was the boss. Paul is definitely one of the P.Js from 100 years ago.
“Can you tell us the names of the other members?”
“Phantom Ka-Zira, Farell Jiles, Park…”
“Is Ka-Zira an elf?”
“Yes. The Ka in between means she was from the lower classes. It doesn’t mean anything in demonic land. She was the most beautiful woman of all…”
“Could it be that she was the elf zombie that was burned?”
Jennifer asked Hel fearfully.
“She probably is. She was written about in the elf literature as an elf who used time magic, but she was from the lower classes. There are probably people who want to hide that fact.”
Maybe she holds a grudge against me for taking her gold and burning her body. Hel said she didn’t have a spirit body, but maybe the curse still lingers.
But we found three bodies. Assuming Farell’s body is in the Cliff Garuda, that means there’s one more. We found the other body in the base cave.
“What about Park?”
“A dwarf who could manipulate any kind of magic circle. He was undoubtedly a genius, but after Peter died, he went his own way.”
“His own way?”
“Me and Zira. If we had completed the space-time magic together, we would have been able to reach Midgard again. If only that hadn’t happened…”
“Did you go to Midgard?”
“Yes, Peter took us there. We saw the truth. We got the Dungeon Egg there, but it was stolen.”
It says that the dungeon was stolen, but was it the dungeon egg? If that’s the case, is the dungeon Paul wrote about different from the one where the giant monster swallowed Midgard and was relocated? Several dungeons… No, does this mean that Midgard had the technology to create dungeons?
“Who stole it?”
“I don’t know. Was it Peter who decided that the technology was too advanced, Farrell who wanted to develop his homeland, or Park who was jealous? There’s no end to the people I could suspect. But maybe I dropped it somewhere. If only I had the dungeon, I could go back with Zira…”
Paul’s voice gradually faded.
“There will be more victims. It’s better to stop. Makyo, did you hear what he said?”
“It echoes in such a quiet place. I heard it. That Paul and Zira were lovers, is that true?”
I looked around carefully but couldn’t see the ghost that seemed to be Paul.
“Probably, yes.”
“She was the one with the gold coin, right? Then I’ll leave the gold coin with Paul. Next time, we’ll bring the burnt body as well.”
I said this and put the gold coin I had in my pocket into Paul’s hand. Everyone seemed to agree with my proposal.
“Just to confirm, Paul said that the egg was stolen from the dungeon, right? Not the dungeon…”
“Yeah, he was scribbling in his ‘travel notebook’ in a hurry, so maybe he didn’t have time to write ‘egg.'”
“An egg, huh. Actually…”
I rummaged in my pocket again, took out an egg-shaped leather pouch, and showed it to them.
“When I became Margrave, I went to the royal capital, right? At that time, I went to a brothel. P.J.’s squire gave me this leather bag as a deposit. Doesn’t it look like an egg?”
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Oh boy, he mentioned he went to a brothel lol
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There are specialists that can tell the gender from the proportions of a skeleton. It’s easy if you compare that to recreating the original face from a skull.
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