Chapter 57
T/N: The giant"s speech is kinda prolonged, so it would help if you have his mental voice in a huge, long, rumbling voice (the generic "giant" voice)
"I really have to apologiiize...... I even caused trouble for you travelleeers......"
We have decided to conduct a feast in order to comfor the giant who was
battered in so many levels.
We call it some kind of launching.
The finally completed Toramaru01 was displayed in the middle of the
town square like a theatrical costume. Although it"s become somewhat
comical, suddenly getting broken will just immediately put it back on the
flow and get repaired.
But that"s that.
Dwarves gather in the town square to have their feasts, having a buffet
syle party. A lot of dwarves brought various things, and everyone was
having fun at it.
The most important part was had something to do with the giant.
Although he was depressed earlier, he already kinda lost himself for some
reason without anyone noticing. It seems like he wasn"t badly scarred.
Instead, the problem was on another person.
I glimpsed on said problem person, and saw her sitting in a corner.
"It"s my fault......"
While holding a cup of milk with both hands, the sulking knight had
lowered ears then she let out a deep sigh.
Those ears could move......
I felt moved but I"ll keep that in my chest.
"It can"t be helped! Today, we drink! When you"re bothered with
something, just do this!" (T)
"Precisely! It"s also important to refresh your mood, you know?" (K)
"Yea! There"s a special fruit wine, I"ll bring it over!" (Dwarf)
The Dwarves were quick to read the atmosphere, and brought out barrels
of drinks.
Other than that, there were cheese and meat prepared. In just a few
minutes, the Naito-san"s depressing surroundings became lively.
Speaking of Dwarves, I heard that were supposed to be a difficult race, but
they"re an unexpectedly pleasant community.
"Though I finally had a chance to prove myself useful, but this is the
result......"
However, our efforts didn"t seem to have much of an effect to the sulking
Naito-san. We hastily did a follow-up.
"No no, I also got carried away! You"d natually give it your all when you
have to fight a giant equipped with orichalc.u.m! You did well to survive!"
"Rather, that"s just how warriors should be! Yea! Since n.o.body knows what
might happen! It"s fine, sometimes it"s better than losing your life!"
"That"s right! In the first place, it"s all this guy"s fault! It"s preposterous to
be fully armored and get done in with just a hit!" (K)
"......I"m sorryyy"
"......Kawazu-san, you abandoned Giant-san. Giant-san is also depressed,
you know.
We"ll, anyway! Naito-san is special.
Taking one of her attacks, it"s already great that you just fainted. See, even
wyvern"s get done in by a single kick, don"t they?"
""Haaah......"" (Naito&Giant)
For some reason, both of them are troubled now.
"......now what, Kawazu-san?"
I wasn"t clear on what was wrong so I tried asking, but Kawazu-san was
just taking it easy. So that"s that, it can"t be helped. It seemed that he was
already ready for his own party.
"Well, won"t it resolve by itself come tomorrow?"
"Is that so?"
"Isn"t it that way with people? More importantly, there"s good food and
alcohol. Enjoying this part is key to enjoying life"
"...... yea, you"re right"
So Kawazu-san says as he was croaking his laughter, fading into the
Dwarves" feast.
I couldn"t help but get serious, getting myself a cup of fruit wine and
drinking it. It wasn"t as sweet as I thought it would be.
Part of the tension continued to diminish. If there"s a commotion, it didn"t
matter much.
When the surroundings got dark, the Dwarves took out round gla.s.s b.a.l.l.s
attached to their respective stands, and placed them outside their houses.
The b.a.l.l.s were lined up.
When the preparation was done, they started to glow like light bulbs and
illuminated the place.
Inside the illuminated village, the image changed into something very
similar to a festival.
"That"s magic?"
I asked the merry Dwarf(green), and he happily told me.
"No no, that is dried light moss burning. Putting it in a container and
lighting it on fire makes it glow the whole night. When we want proper
light, we use it like this"
Oh, so it"s light moss again. Light mosses are quite nice, aren"t they?
Indeed, it has a light intensity that won"t lose to a light bulb. It"s seems to
be warmer than the in the underground tunnels, which could be caused
by the fire.
It"s really a mysterious and eco-friendly light.
"Hee~, doing it like this is quite nice. Festivals from the place where I was
from feels just like this.
I said that out of a somewhat nostalgic feeling, and Dwarf-san(green) seem
to be satisfied.
"Well, feasts tend to be similiar wherever you are. You had fun, didn"t
you?"
"Ah, absolutely"
Dwarf-san(green) and I nodded, then the chat ended.
That also can"t be helped. We both knew that there"s something we must
hear no matter what.
I really don"t want to be the tsukkomi, but I have to ask about the main
subject.
Said main subject had me wander around under the pressure, telling other
people that I"ll leave it to them.
"......so how is it on that side?"
"Ah. That guy started drinking by the barrel"
He pointed at the direction where a giant was drinking from a barrel, I
covered my face with an "oh no".
"......is that alright?"
I didn"t think that the barrel could be too big, relatively, but that seems to
be part of the plan.
"Well he"s a giant, his only problem is the morning after. However, the dark
elf lady is the problem. She"s been stubbornly drinking milk"
"Aahh...... what kind of situation is that?"
Another troublesome matter.
Then Dwarf-san(green) seemed like he really wanted to say something
while looking anxious, his temples pressed.
"No, it"s exactly how it looks like. I just thought she"s about to stop
drinking milk"
"...... I"m more worried about the person drinking all this milk compared to
the one who"s drinking by the barrel"
Cautiously looking at Naito-san"s situation, it seems like she was using the
same cup and refilling it with milk all this time.
The redness from her dejected face comes from...... sickness?
But no matter how you look at it, she doesn"t seem sober.
"I"m such a useless bug...... I don"t deserve a weapon...... but I still want it!"
Oh so that"s what she wants.
But I think your milk really had something else in it?
I sent an enquiring gaze to the Dwarf(green), and he quickly shook his
head.
"...... anyway, can we hurry with the weapons?"
"...... yea, I"ll try"
In any case, I want to think that it"ll be fine if you just properly join the
party.
However, the feast was forced to come to a halt by an unexpected guest.
The alarm bells suddenly rang, a dwarf with an orange hat came yelling as
he ran to the town square.
"Trouble! A wyvern has shown up! Everyone run!"
The peacefullness of the village was instantly turned into nervousness.
Furthermore, the cry that came from the sky sounded distinctly familiar to
my ears.
It"s really boorish.
The other members couldn"t be relied on right now so I have to do my
best alone.
I moved my body, which was a little bit unsteady, and spoke to the short
dwarf,
"Hey, is everyone gathered in the town square?"
"Yea, aside from the lookouts! What are you planning to do?
"Then gather everyone here as much as possible. Imma do something
amazing"
"Amazing, you say...... for some reason, it has an ominous ring to it!"
Although he was yelling that, he did as I said and I"m grateful for that.
I was also quite pumped.
But wait, hasn"t the magic I"ve been using become predictable lately?
If I do an amazing feat of magic here, perhaps the stocks would rise. (T/N:
"stocks", as in Tarou thinks he"s a commodity - which is smart)
Let"s download a magic that I find interesting.
In the first place, the opponent this time is a party crasher.
Although I don"t have any aversion on shooting it down and making a dish
out of it, the village will more or less suffer some damage.
Then first...... so it won"t break.
"Let"s see...... how about this?"
I recalled the image of the whole village where I"ve spent the past few
days, and casted magic.
The greatest magic I"ve casted lately.
An enormous and complex magical array encompa.s.sed the whole village,
and magical light flowed out.
"Freeze, one-hour"
Along with my words, there was the sound that"s like a jar being closed.
But when the lights went out, there wasn"t really anything that changed in
the village.
All the dwarves had gathered to the town square. They were restless and
worked-up, but there were some who noticed the strange changes that
took place.
"What"s happening!? Things can"t move!"
"Even the doors of the house won"t open!"
"Be quiet!"
I shout as loud as possible before a cofusion occurs.
Full disclosure, this is a magic that stops time.
I"ve stopped the time for all the things in the village for one hour.
You can"t destroy the things that had their time stopped, much less move
them.
With this, the village will absolutely not get destroyed.
Even if I release all of my magical power, for example, only this village will
remain unscathed.
I won"t do such a thing though.
Well in the end, we"ll make a meal after boiling and grilling.
"Just a Wyvern, its nothing. This is my magic after all! As long as you settle
down at the town square, you"re definitely safe!"
I don"t know just how effective my words were but I compensated by
putting as much confidence as possible in my declaration.
After that, I"ll put a dome-shaped barrier to perfect it, just in case.
The Wyvern emerged from the darkness of the night, as if noticing the
dwarve"s movements. Then it immediately smacked into the barrier that I
erected.
"...... what an idiot"
But I remember seeing this Wyvern that"s sticking on the barrier.
No, I can"t tell from the facial features of the Wyvern, but there was a big
scar on its forehead.
"......my oh my, could it be that it came for revenge?"
Wyverns rarely come near this village, so maybe he came after failing to
put something on his stomach.
If so, then it"s quite a gutsy Wyvern.
"However, barging in at this time is not good, you know"
Such things don"t concern the Wyvern but annoying things are annoying.
"To respect its guts, how about sealing it and sending it away? Would that
be safe enough?"
Making a decision, it was only a matter of executing the plan but it was at
that time that an accident happened.
With a "gashan", sounds of heavy metal moving were heard from a part of
the town square.
I raised my eyes to the hovering shadow, then I realized it"s ident.i.ty.
"...... huh, why"s it moving?"
[Roaar!!]
When I looked up, it was Toramaru01 with his arms loosely dangling and
his mouth emitting steam.
However, why does it feel like that heartless sound feel more powerful
than usual?
And what kind of joke is it, that the eyes have become red instead of
yellow?
"Ah-...... is the Giant inside it?"
Asking the surrounding dwarves, they responded by firmly nodding their
heads.
"As soon as he started hearing the Wyvern, he put on an armor, yelling [I"ll
do it! Wyverns or whatever!!]"
"Wasn"t he quite drunk? Just how many barrels did he drink?"
......however, that"s the case. Is that what they call drunken mode?
Does that mean this is the hidden talent that I wasn"t aware of?
The red-eyed Toramaru01 crouched his body as if to acc.u.mulate a busrt of
power, then shot towards the wyevern while having a bullet-like
momentum.
And with that, Toramaru01 proceeded to charge through the barrier I
made.
Toramaru01 a.s.sumed a ball-like shape, and caught the wyvern into a
furious tackle.
"Ughya!!"
The Wyvern let out a cry, trying to receive that blow. It wasn"t much, it
wasn"t able to stop.
Sharp nails were deflected by the smooth orichalc.u.m body, and it
proceeded to crash to the ground.
The crashed wyvern shook its head and somehow managed to stand,
however Toramaru01 unraveled his body from a ball, dancing in the
moonlight......
It aligned its feet and fell straight down.
"Screeech!!"
He aimed an intense dropkick at the Wyvern"s weak spot.
The crushed Wyvern had its body bent in a "
ground, seeming to be thoroughly pa.s.sed out.
Then Toramaru01"s red eyes beamed, and raised it"s arms in victory.
"Roar!!"
Everything was over in a moment.
However, that moment itself was the monumental birth of Toramaru01"s
completion.
"......he won, hey"
I had a very foolish face as I was left out with from this huge development.
No no, even though we were struggling so much, you resolve it with
drunkeness? Isn"t this scary?
Furthermore, this function of Toramaru01 that I didn"t know, is it just my
imagination that it looks like it was installed?
In any case, it"s easy to point out the eyes that glow red.
I turned to meet the dwarves eyes, and there were those who looked away
and quickly whistled.
"So it you guys......"
Dwarves really are a mysterious race.
It"s seems like their style won"t become legendary.
"Oh well, it"s not that big of a deal. But there"s a problem.
"What is it? Is there something else besides taking down a Wyvern?"
When one of the Dwarves said that, I silently pointed at it.
"Roar!!"
He was still on a rampage.
Based on the fight earlier, the Giant isn"t weak after all.
If he functions while suppressing his weak personality, he could make short
work out of that Wyvern.
Furthermore, he withstood my magic and smashed through the barrier
that was used against the Wyvern - like it was made of paper. It seemed like
the Orichalc.u.m armor didn"t even exert a little magic for defense.
Aside from that, even though it guarantees the safety of the one inside it,
what happens when you try to break the armor?
"It"s incredibly troublesome, isn"t it?"
"......do you ever think through troublesome things?"
I don"t want to hear that from you, Kawazu-san who drank too much and
turned blue, and wobbly on your feet.
But yea, it"s not really something that troublesome.
"Aaah, if it"s like this, should we have made Naito-san"s weapon first
instead?"
Then we could just happily laugh it off.
"......what about me?"
Suddenly, a wobbly Naito-san appeared.
"Naito-san! Are you okay?"
Even a cursory look could tell you that she"s not okay at all. Naito-san"s
head was notably unstable.
"......what are you saying. It"s not like there"s no way I wouldn"t not be
okay?"
"You"re ability to speak is already problematic....."
The red-faced Naito-san hooded her eyes and frowned when she saw the
barking Toramaru01.
It seems like something about Toramaru01 touched her nerves.
"......what could it be? It"s not good to crash my party. Also, something
about his face p.i.s.ses me off."
"......is that so?"
I gulped.
Because there was a demon that just found its prey.
We couldn"t say anything, we were only able to watch the ill-tempered
demon that suddenly appeared.
Today is indeed a festival.
Everyone in this place knew that something was about to start.
"Hey you! Don"t interrupt when people are drinking!"
"Roar!"
"What "roar"! Can"t you say anything else?!"
"Roar!!"
"I can"t understand a thing you"re saying!!"
Naito-san jumped as she yelled.
But it"s too reckless.
The other party was fully covered with an Orichalc.u.m armor.
On the other hand, Naito-san"s weapon was completely destroyed from
the earlier mock battle.
In other words, she"s unarmed.
"Hey, Naito-san! That"s overdoing it!"
I anxiously cried.
In the end, it"s a drunken recklessness, you can"t just joke and say "oh she"s
dead".
I tried to immediately cast some magic.
With an abnormal speed, Naito-san fist pounded the Giant"s helmet. A
frightening power struck Toramaru01 between the eyebrows.
The st.u.r.dy Toramaru01 must have a heavy head.
It wouldn"t be strange if his balance is broken once a tremedous force hits
the head.
As expected, he flipped back for about ten spins, and I didn"t antic.i.p.ate
that his head will get burried in the ground.
My right arm was readied for nothing.
Within the cloud of dust, Toramaru01 was stuck on the ground, telling a
story of the brutality from that attack.
"Woow...... beating him unarmed"
They didn"t explicitly say who...... but it"s definitely Naito-san.
However, this unbelievable sight was enough to light a fire even amongst
these stubborn craftsmen.
"""YEEAAAHH!!!"""
The cheering Dwarves were not just enthusiastic, they were burning up.
No no, you guys, isn"t this friendly fire?
I shouted my throat out, but everyone was burning up and they weren"t
listening.
However, there was a new wave of cheers then. Toramaru01 stuggled and
stood back up.
That"s right, even though it was strong, in the end it was just a punch.
No matter how much power was put into it, it shouldn"t be able to do a lot
of damage on Orichalc.u.m.
But...... looking at Toramaru01"s unsteady feet, I can see that there
definitely was some damage.
It"s obvious when you think about it.
What would happen to the drunk person inside when he was made to flip
back like an acrobat......?
That state is expected when he was spinning around earlier as well.
Toramaru01 was reduced into a groggy state, and was like a small dying
tiger.
He moved his head, as if to say "Please forgive my thoughtlessness!", but
our demon wasn"t someone that would be contented with just that.
"What? Don"t tell me it"s over with this, even though you have such a nice
armor?"
Naito-san smiled like a G.o.ddess, and it made me apprehensive.
The extended play was messed up, the Dwarves were all over the rematch,
and it was already too late to do anything because it turned into a new
event.
"Oh no...... now what do we do?"
I wasn"t able to ride the flow so I turned to the groggy Kawazu-san at the
side, he was gulping down some water.
"Isn"t it fine? It should be fine to treat him after he gets hurt"
"...... I guess?"
The fight had the dazed Giant"s struggle hard, and it was unexpectedly
prolonged. However, Naito-san still grabbed the victory with a TKO after
one round.
In this feast, the Giant was traumatized.
Naito-san was emotionally scarred.
......and the rest of us were left with a dream of that night in our hearts,
the curtains were closed.
"......"
The next day, Naito-san covered her face with her hands and refused to
move.
But the inn was flooded with fans that were hoping for a handshake, and I
presumptuously handled them.
"I was really moved! I"ve never seen a warrior like you before!"
"Aye, the warrior is still resting after the fight and a bit groggy. Please give
her a break for today"
"Over here! I"ll make something for you, please accept it!"
It"s a yellow-capped Dwarf this time.
This is the tenth guest today.
I"m sure that Naito-san"s weapon will be good after seeing this.
So about the Giant......
The Giant seemed to have reverted to normal on the surface, and doesn"t
remember much from yesterday.
However, for some reason, he had gotten hold of the Wyvern that he was
supposed to take care of, and now he"s full of joy.
"Thank you very muuuch. I"ll be able to have a light heart and return to the
village with thiiis."
The Giant lowered his head several times, and I couldn"t help but smile
bitterly.
"You also have it hard, don"t you? By the way, why are you guys going to
war?"
I asked without knowing anything, and the Giant replied with a troubled
face.
"That, it seems a new demon lord has been enthroooned. Everyone in the
village is riled uuup.
The demons are near the Giant triiibe"
"Seriously, a demon lord...... "
It seems like another troublesome thing is going to happen somewhere in
the world.
I sighed, it"s certainly a tough conversation.
We~ll Sailor Soldier is also a Hero, and should be fine with a Demon Lord.
Still though, the Giant is still a little worrisome.
I downloaded an instant magic and made something with it, which I
handed over to the Giant.
"If and when you find the situation hopeless, eat this. It"s a candy that
raises morale."
"Thank you, I"ll do my beeest"
Well it"s just a candy with the same effect as alcohol.
He"ll surely be able to survive if he decides to fight with it.
I don"t think anyone could be an opponent for the Toramaru01 that
descended that night.
Well, except for our Naito-san.
----
Dwarf arc end.
Also, links are still dead, except for the chapter list. I got lazy.
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