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Chapter 133 – Day 25 of the Strategy Life
Starting early in the morning, I cut wood for the tunnel and drew a magic circle. As a good luck charm, we carved a deer crest as well.
We carved it with the knife and chisel that Sylvia had made, but we left the final touches to Hel.
I prayed that the magic circle would not activate and freeze time.
“Don’t touch it, Ka-Ryu.”
We kept Ka-Ryu away from the entrance as much as possible. A golem with memories from 1,000 years ago would be incomprehensible to anyone from outside the demonic land.
“There were so many monsters in the desert. I didn’t realize it while I could see.”
Ka-Ryu was taken to the desert yesterday and was impressed by it. Then, Chel reported that she had learned something about Ka-Ryu.
“When Ka-Ryu’s magical power decreases, her body shrinks and she gets thinner.”
I thought she would collapse and lose her shape, but it seems she can adjust the amount of soil in her body to make herself smaller.
“I think the cube has that function. The Magic Sealing Clan studied magic circles and incorporated various mechanisms into the cube. However, we haven’t been able to use most of them.”
“I’ve been observing the inside at night.”
She is copying the magic circle drawn inside the cube. It can’t be opened, so it’s unclear, but she can make some predictions.
“It’s either thin glass or paper, and the thinness seems to be important. The cube was made on the premise that its interior wouldn’t break, so the Yggdrasil engineers’ obsession is extraordinary.”
It’s been handed over to the military, so hopefully someone can decipher it.
We are assembling the columns and beams of the tunnel using the wood with the magic circle drawn on it. Since today’s work is in the morning, everyone except Chel is helping.
Chel is boiling jam made from cam fruits. She added honey, and now the cave smells sweet. I’m worried that insects will come later.
“Everyone, be careful. The tunnel could collapse at any moment.”
“”” Got it!”””
Despite our caution, the ceiling didn’t collapse, even with all the noise we made while erecting the pillars and beams. The Green Tiger kept coming near, but I stroked its jaw and shooed it away.
The Green Tiger’s cubs approached Lipa and gently bit him.
“Today is a day for being bitten. This morning, when I went to feed the rock crocodile, it almost bit me.”
It seems his talent for attracting monsters is still intact.
“How’s the crocodile ranch going?”
I asked the director, Sylvia.
“T-They seem to be mating at night. If they’re able to reproduce, I’ll decide how many to keep. But apparently, the haze turtles from the neighboring swamp sometimes come and stomp on them.”
“The sleeping potion spread across the swamp is losing its effect. It might be better to return the turtles that are coming up to the shore.”
Sylvia and Jennifer explained.
“Let’s do that in the afternoon. Sometimes I feel like eating turtle soup.”
The turtle soup in this demonic land is delicious, even though it uses almost no seasoning.
We finished assembling the pillars and beams, cutting the weeds on the road, and solidifying them with palm tree sap.
“Was there a stone pavement here 1,000 years ago?”
I asked, removing a razor grass blade that had pierced Ka-Ryu’s foot. She was waiting at a distance.
“Yes, there was a beastman tribe skilled in earth magic, and they were responsible for most of the civil engineering work.”
“Were there other races besides the dragonfolk?”
“Of course. There were beastmen, demons, elves, dwarves, and humans—everything. The dragonfolk were the most numerous, but…”
Mid-sentence, Ka-Ryu bowed her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Blood. W-w-was there discrimination?”
Sylvia took off her sticky military gloves and put them in a basket.
“Dragonfolk and elves value pure blood.”
“But demons seem to struggle within their own clan.”
“The demons who came over from the continent didn’t seem to care much. Dwarves are stubborn and meritocratic. Beastmen and humans used to clash. What’s the situation now?”
Ka-Ryu asked in return.
“I don’t really care. I only recently found out that the king of this country is a dragonfolk. What about Lipa?”
“Cliff Garuda is only made up of bird people, so there’s no discrimination between races. I think demons were considered rare, though.”
“I-is it true that the vampire clan was treated as monsters?”
Sylvia asked Karu.
“It’s true. I’m sorry.”
“N-no, it’s okay.”
There was nothing she could do about it, even if she apologized. History can be cruel at times.
“They were monsters of the same demonic type as ogres. They weren’t as good at communicating as Sylvia was. However, they were incredibly popular in the nighttime Colosseum. I guess that’s what they mean by ‘berserkers.’ A race that could fight like that under the moonlight was truly unique.”
They might have been symbols of coolness.
“There was an attempt to recognize them as part of the human race. But a vampire who had escaped turned an entire village into his followers. So they had to be gathered in one place, and a settlement was established within the colosseum’s grounds.”
“S-so the vampire clan lived nearby?”
“Maybe it was near the cave where we live now.”
“I-I see.”
Sylvia seems to be getting excited again.
“Ka-Ryu, you should tell Sylvia.”
Hel nudged Ka-Ryu with her elbow.
“Huh? Really? Actually, I’m a fan of vampires. I’ve been discriminated against because I’m half-vampire. I’ve been bullied a lot. That’s why I always go to the Colosseum to watch vampire fights and get some courage.”
“I-I see…”
“I also think, ‘See? I told you so” when I see vampire clans being accepted in modern times.
“It’s all thanks to the Holy Knights.”
“Who are the Holy Knights?”
“They were people who fought for the abolition of discrimination. They crossed the sea and were killed in the demon kingdom.”
After hearing about it from Chel, I felt complicated too.
“So there were people like that outside the giant magical beast?”
Weren’t there any who returned to Midgard as golems, even if only their souls?”
“Even if their souls returned to Midgard, no one could live as a golem. I am unique even in Midgard now… Could it be…”
No one else spoke.
It was partly because it was an unpleasant story and partly because soil was steadily falling from Ka-Ryu’s body, causing her to shrink.
I gently hugged her and poured my magic into her.
“You came from the past. I understand why you feel complicated. But we don’t intend to hurt you. Let’s talk more when you’ve calmed down.”
“…I understand.”
After finishing the work, we returned home.
I was worried about insects, but sure enough, Hell Beetles and Vespa Hornets appeared, and there were charred monster corpses scattered about.
“This might be a masterpiece.”
The jam bread I ate for lunch was so sweet that it didn’t seem like something from this world. One bite made my stomach feel heavy.
“Well, it’ll make good food for monsters.”
“How about fermenting the jam and making wine?”
“Everyone’s taste buds are different, but are demon tribes special?”
The women were harsh.
Lipa and I silently wrapped the jam in butterbur leaves to use as bait for traps.
“What a failure.”
Chel, who forced herself to eat everything, lay down in the afternoon and was useless for the rest of the day.
While eating ham sandwiches in the afternoon, Jennifer, Lipa, and I moved the Haze turtles.
We moved the ones that were moving away from the shore to the swamp near our house. The ones on the shore would eventually return to the swamp on their own.
There were a few more in the ruins between the swamps, so we threw them in, too.
If their companions were attacked, the turtles would charge at us, so we used wind magic to blow them away.
Once they realized we were stronger, they retreated into their shells, which made them easier to move.
Jennifer knocked them away with a slime wall, while Lipa wrapped vines around them, tied them to a broom, and flew them away.
“That broom can handle quite a bit of weight, huh?”
“Probably just barely.”
After we captured one that had invaded the crocodile enclosure, I saw a Haze Turtle on the other side of the river.
“How far has it moved?”
Gyaaaah!
The Imps are screaming, but the Haze Turtle doesn’t seem to care as it breaks trees in the forest. An old tree stands in its way, but the turtle starts eating its branches and leaves.
Birds screamed loudly, alerting the area to the battle between the tree and the Haze Turtle.
“This is no good.”
I jumped as high as I could, hit the Haze Turtle on the head, grabbed its tail, and threw it away.
Jennifer used a slime wall to bounce the turtle toward the ruins.
After checking the area for other haze turtles, I found several empty shells scattered in the forest. They had been eaten by monsters. Since it was the breeding season for insect-like monsters, they might have been attacked.
I decided to dismantle the Haze Turtle lying upside down in the ruins and have Lipa take it back.
In the past, I would have spent the entire night dismantling it, but now, with the magic cube, dismantling it into blocks is easy. I poured the blood that came out into the swamp.
Fish began to gather around it. The monsters were attracted by the smell and began gathering around the shore where I was dismantling the turtle.
After dismantling it to a certain extent, I left the shell behind and returned home to prepare the pot. It’s just salt, so it’s not difficult. All I had to do was wait for it to boil.
Before long, the sun began to set, and I had to give up searching for the geological layers once again. I checked P.J.’s notebook for the first time in a while to see if it mentioned anything about geological layers. I also looked through history books about East Kenya to find mentions of geological layers or volcanoes. While there was a record of a volcanic eruption, it didn’t specify how far the volcanic ash spread or where it flowed.
I decided to explore the northwest region of East Kenya, which is said to be mysterious. Perhaps it extends beyond the mountain range to the Elven Kingdom.
Daydreaming about unseen geological layers, I ate the turtle soup.
“Delicious!”
“It’s tasty, isn’t it?”
Chel, who had woken up without my noticing, was also enjoying it.
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So much going on and so fast
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