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 join our Patreon to read up to 12 chapters ahead for this novel!
Sponsored chapter by Patreon. Enjoy~
TL: ALT
Chapter 185 – Day 16 of Management Life
After a short nap, we woke up in the middle of the night and started moving around. Golems are always awake, and Sylvia and Hel are night owls. Kahiman looked sleepy, but he became wide awake when he was given a wake-up herb to chew; his eyes practically popped out.
“There are many nocturnal monsters in the mountains. Stay alert.”
Ka-Ryu provided support by following behind the golems.
The mountain lacked tall trees, but low shrubs and grasses grew thickly. Occasional attacks occurred, but none were as brutal as a forest assault. Only silent, sharply pointed feathers flew in, and mist appeared out of nowhere, casting illusions.
A herd of short-horned deer charged at the golem line. Everyone seemed to be trying to hide in the ground, probably because it was easy.
“I-I want some skins. I’d at least like to take a vest.”
Many of the port ghosts have ambiguous identities, citing a lack of clothing as their reason. Personally, I’m not fond of them, but they are inhabitants of the demonic land, after all.
I set up a magic barrier directly in front of the charging deer. The deer gained momentum and couldn’t stop.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud…
I could hear the cracking of broken neck bones.
Startled by the sudden wall, the herd of deer bolted down the mountain.
The collision, which pierced the silence, sent the birds hiding in the thin grass flying up all at once. Like a flock of starlings, they circled the cloudy sky and vanished.
Only the carcasses of eight deer remained.
The golems watched us dismantle and skin the deer, clearly surprised. I’d assumed that no one in the demonic land would have trouble with this, but apparently, forgetting how to eat for nearly a thousand years means that they don’t know how to properly dismantle monsters either. For now, I handed the extracted magic stones to the golems.
We buried the entrails by digging holes in the ground, then bundled the meat together.
“I’ll carry it.”
Kahiman offered to carry the meat from the four deer. He said he was trying to build muscle by hiking up mountains with heavy loads. The remaining four were carried by the golems.
After we made a simple backpack and tied it up, it was quite large and heavy. However, Kahiman balanced it well and carried it skillfully.
Hel and Sylvia easily scraped the fat off the hides, rolled them up, and I carried them.
“It took a bit of work, but we want to reach the port by evening, so let’s push on.”
“Eh…? It might be impossible.”
The pace seemed too fast for the golems.
“It’ll be fine. There’s a proper shortcut.”
We aren’t going all the way to the mountain peak, so it shouldn’t take too long.”
“I-If you see any big monsters, let me know. I’ll command them to take us there.”
If Sylvia commands a monster, we might make it to the port in one go. Even better, if there’s a giant bird, we could reach the Island of the Ten-Thousand-Year Turtle.
Hearing this, Kahiman just went, “Ugh,” and lost his words. Probably because he wouldn’t build muscle if someone else carried it.
“We’re staying on the ground either way, right?”
“Yeah!”
“If we fly, we can’t outpace birds.”
Kahiman replied, then silently started climbing the mountain.
“Let’s keep moving before nightfall. Even if we command monsters, mountain creatures are more familiar with these trails.”
We sent Sylvia and Hel ahead with us, following behind and flanking the golems.
As we walked, carrying meat, carnivorous monsters naturally began to gather around us.
Thud! Thud!
Hel took down a black wolf with her crossbow.
Sylvia extracted the magic stones from the wolf’s corpse and handed them to the golems.
It was a familiar sight for me, but the golems had stopped, caught off guard by how skillfully we climbed the mountain, scanned our surroundings, and dealt with threats.
“If we stop, we’ll get surrounded!”
I needed the golems to keep moving, but they seemed tense, perhaps sensing that they were being targeted.
“Can I make my move?”
Kahiman asked, killing his presence.
“Go ahead, but what will you do?”
“I’ll be the decoy.”
He slipped between the golems, took a bottle of poison from Hel, and vanished into the low undergrowth.
“Makyo, what are you planning to have Kahiman do?”
Hel, at the front, called out loudly.
“He’s going to be the decoy. He wants to be a trap master in the demonic land, so just watch quietly and see how it goes.”
“”A trap master?””
Hel and Sylvia exchanged glances, then looked at me.
“Sometimes you just have to let them try things. He might handle it surprisingly well.”
In the darkness, only the sound of the wind rustling through the shrubs could be heard. I sensed monsters watching me, but Kahiman, who should have been beside me, was nowhere to be found.
“We can’t track Kahiman either. Are you sure this is okay?”
Ka-Ryu asked anxiously.
“It’s fine. Kahiman is better than me at hiding his presence. He’s got weapons, too, so if things get dicey, he’ll make some noise fighting.”
Just as the sun began to rise in the east, the scent of beasts drifted through the air.
Mixed in with the sound of the wind, the footsteps of monsters became distinctly audible. However, the footsteps weren’t coming toward us.
Woof! Gyaa!
Sounds of a struggle reached us from afar.
I turned to survey the area and saw Kahiman following behind, carrying meat as if nothing had happened.
“Have you done it?”
“Yes.”
Kahiman’s reply was brief.
As sunlight touched the mountainside, we could see our surroundings. No monsters were pursuing us. Only faint snores could be heard.
Hoo-hoo.
Looking up, we saw a large owl gliding down.
Hel shot it down, and Sylvia commanded it with vampire blood. They tied the luggage to its furry neck and tended to its wounds. The two worked like an assembly line—calmly and efficiently.
We decided that Hel and Sylvia would ride the owl. The golems would walk on the ground.
“Well, then, we’ll go ahead and wait at the port town.”
“We’ll have the port town’s corpses help with the fur, too.”
“Yeah, I’ll leave it to you.”
They took the meat that the golems had been carrying.
Even lightened, the golems’ pace remained slow. In fact, they discovered relics from the past Guardian Spiders on the mountain top, so they started collecting parts.
“Iron is hard to find in the desert.”
“Iron, huh? I saw it mentioned in the Sealing Clan’s dungeon to the northeast.”
“Yeah.”
Kahiman nodded.
“Really!?”
The golems stirred.
“We’ve been using substitutes, but with iron, we could repair tools and parts.”
“I see. But heading northeast will have to wait.”
“No problem. Makyo, you became the demonic land’s lord in less than a year, right?”
“True, but…”
“A year is but a fleeting moment for us.”
The golem, scraping iron shards from the Guardian Spider, turned its glowing red eyes toward me.
Apparently, spending a thousand years in the desert makes one lose all sense of time.
“Understood. I’ll hurry as much as I can, so you guys should too. Since these are buried without weathering, there must be a way back. It’d be less of a burden to take them on the way back, right?”
“That’s true.”
After promising the golems that we would return by the same path, we began climbing the mountain again.
Kahiman carried the meat the entire time and showed no signs of strain.
When the shrubs gave way to grass, the shortcut finally came into view. It was a narrow path, as if a knife had been thrust into the mountain. Thanks to this shortcut, we wouldn’t have to climb all the way to the summit.
“I see, the piles of stones around here still serve as trail markers.”
Ka-Ryu added a small stone that had fallen nearby to the pile.
“Though only humans like us pass through now.”
Once we reached the other side of the mountain via the shortcut, large bats and wolves attacked us.
“Kahiman, throw that stake.”
“Yeah.”
The stake, obtained from the Sealing Clan’s dungeon, pierced the wolf’s forehead.
The wolf flinched for a moment, but then attacked the golems again as if nothing had happened.
“Ow! Help me!”
The golem bitten on the arm cried out, but something seemed off.
“What’s the deal? It doesn’t hurt, right?”
Ka-Ryu rushed over to the bitten golem.
“Well, yes, but the wolf—”
The wolf’s eyes rolled back as its magic depleted.
“The stake sealed its magic. Nice weapon you got there.”
Ka-Ryu turned to look at Kahiman and nodded.
“They say, ‘If you don’t see a man for three days, look at him with new eyes,’ but what happened in just two days down in the dungeon?”
Ka-Ryu pressed Kahiman.
“Well, it’s just…”
“He decided on his roles, you know?”
“Roles?”
Ka-Ryu turned to me.
“That’s right.”
“He decided he’ll be the trapper in the demonic land.”
“Just deciding doesn’t make you that much stronger, does it?”
“I guess he was naturally suited for it, but knowing what to do and what not to do… well, that’s another story.”
While I was explaining, a crow that had been sleeping rolled down from the mountain.
“Hel’s poison is potent.”
Apparently, Kahiman had been scraping bits of meat from his back, coating them in poison, and setting traps.
“If hunting practice is what I need in the demonic land, I can practice all I want. Maybe I used too much poison?”
“It should be fine. You will get used to it.”
“Right.”
The golems, who had been listening to our conversation with Kahiman, stopped again.
“Come on, let’s hurry. It’s past noon already. I’m hungry and sleepy, you know?”
Kahiman pulled the stake out of the wolf’s forehead and followed. Whether influenced by him or remembering their pride as soldiers, the golems also began using long poles to ward off the approaching will-o’-the-wisps and two-headed wolves. Despite their ability to instantly heal from injuries, the golems had been hesitant until now.
We arrived at the ruined port town just before dusk. The pleasant smell of roasting meat wafted through the air. Sylvia gave instructions while skeletons tanned hides.
She seemed to be lining up ghost-type monsters and questioning them.
“Oh, you finally made it. You’re late.”
Seeing the golem group, Hel raised a hand.
“We were just gathering some iron.”
“Y-you could have done that on the way back!”
Sylvia criticized their poor planning.
“My bad. Looks like the meat’s done.”
“It’s cooked by the corpse, so it has no flavor. You should sprinkle salt on it.”
Apparently, corpses can’t handle seasonings. Maybe sprinkling salt on them makes them ascend to heaven.
The golems rushed over to Sylvia, asking her to turn their sticks into spears.
“It looks like there’s only a wrecked ship. What should we do?”
Hel reported back while I was eating the bone-in venison. They must be wondering how to get to the Ten-Thousand-Year Turtle’s island.
“How about flying there on the Great Owl?”
“I’m fine with anything. We could run across the sea or ride on wooden planks.”
“Huh, that’s okay too? I’ll try drawing a magic circle for a flying carpet on the wrecked ship.”
As long as the goal is clear, everyone can find their own way to reach it. Sometimes, taking a detour might actually get you there faster.
“Oh, and about the Sealing Clan, it seems they really are on Ten-Thousand-Year Turtle Island. They might be descendants of patients with the Beast Demon Disease, so if we make contact, let’s aim for dialogue instead of attacking recklessly.”
“Got it. We should at least bring back some clues for finding the earth veins.”
“Mhm. If only we had the technology to measure the magic power underground…”
The port town had little left but its walls, so it was practically a campsite.
“B-but the skeletons work hard. When I mentioned making fur vests, they suddenly became cooperative.”
Sylvia, who had escaped the golems, came to report.
“W-well, they keep their distance from the golems, though.”
The golems also avoid the skeletons and the hooded will-o’-the-wisps. They seem to be waiting for some kind of opportunity.
Just as we were about to eat and sleep, a loud voice echoed from the edge of town.
“Forgive us! Though it was an order, it’s true that the army drove you here. We won’t ask for forgiveness, but the civil war is over. Please grant us permission to build a road through here.”
Ka-Ryu and the golems apologized to the townspeople on the road leading into town.
“Look, we’re not the Sealing Clan. If you’re going to apologize, do it to the ones on the island. More importantly, now that the civil war is over, can you tell us what’s happening beyond the mountains? I asked the lord’s party, but they didn’t give me any clear answers.”
The skeleton wearing the triangular hat approached the golems.
After that, it seemed the skeletons from the ship and the golems talked all night long.
I went straight to sleep. The only sound I heard was Kahiman hitting the wall with his stake.
If you like my translations, please support me on Ko-Fi and subscribe my Patreon to read up to 12 chapters ahead for this novel!