Next chapter in 6-12 hours. Maybe shorter.
I used "she" in some of Al"s lines this chapter but the author still uses the gender neutral they, them, that person/fellow for most instances so about the only gender hint is the name Shiina.
Year 7444, Month 5, Day 29
After seeing off Miduchi I returned to "Boil Manor" again to leave my bayonet, changed into my under-armor, and put my rubber protectors on. I went through that sort of thing. I do have the feeling that I can afford to rest from my training for today at least but I can"t let my greatest a.s.set my value get weak. I"m considerably mentally exhausted but if you were to ask if I"m physically exhausted that isn"t the case. I walked countless Km inside of the dungeon but my body has already reached the point where something like that isn"t much at this point.
Since it seems my training time was a bit later than usual Angela came to get me from "Shuni". Angela was waiting while looking tired in front of "Boil Manor".
"Morning, is the alcohol all out?"
"Yes, I"m alright."
After exchanging greetings in order to warm up a bit we slowly ran towards the outer crater. Once we entered the summit {training road} (the name I"m calling it) we raise our speed to the usual but for today I"ll maintain this pace for a short while. I wanted to talk with Angela a bit.
"Hey~ Angela."
"Yes, what is it?"
"How, are you in regards to Giberuti?"
"..What do you mean by how?"
Her face is a bit red. Either she"s embarra.s.sed or it"s simply from the running?
"No, when you tried to rescue me, you guys did it right?"
"Well, we"re the same race after all, I wasn"t against it. If that wasn"t the case then even if it was me I wouldn"t so easily.."
"Hm~n."
You say that but when you"re out of mana you feel like anyone is fine as the partner. Anything that can be eaten, or anything that seems like it could be eaten you"ll feel like trying to put into your mouth after all. Since she might have had a bit of reason remaining she probably avoided Zenom, Toris couldn"t move from the pain of the bone fractures. Zulu was unconscious and couldn"t move either. Since the only one remaining was Giberuti, I"m sure there wasn"t any room for choosing.
Honestly speaking, I"m not such an ogre that I"d talk about the morals within the party when it comes to mana exhaustion. Even when it comes to me if the partner is a goat if it"s biologically female when I"m out of mana I might feel they"re fine to do it with. If there"s someone who can unconditionally endure that I would respect them. However, you can properly remember the memories from that time and you can completely remember your actions and the things you felt at that time. What I"m worried about is whether or not you"ll end up regretting doing it with a partner you didn"t want to.
"Then I guess that"s fine, sorry about asking something boring, forgive me...Let"s go."
I said that and raised my speed.
We did one lap around the outer summit and then returned to Baldukk descending the road along the riverside. Roughly 25Km in just around two hours. Right now even if I"m fully equipped I can run mountain roads at this speed. Putting aside Zulu and though Angela isn"t wearing any armor I"m amazed she can keep up with me. After we returned to "Boil Manor" I said to Angela,
"Wait just a minute."
and returned to my room before getting a rubber bag and returning.
"This is something that works as a subst.i.tute for a pig"s bowels, there"s 10 of them inside. You know about pig"s bowels right?"
When I said that with a flat voice and no emotion and her face suddenly turned red,
"Eh? Ah..Ha.. I know but..that is...I, I haven"t used them, very much."
She said it while quite embarra.s.sed. What"s with her, did she always have this sort of face?
"Nn? You don"t know how to use it? Then hand it to your partner. Once you cut the seal use them all right away. The water inside is fine to lick but it rots easily. If it"s during the season right now it would probably hold out about two days. Make sure you save the remaining ones. And throw them out. Also, the only one I"m providing these with is you. Don"t tell the others about this."
"..Yes."
I handed Angela the rubber bag while her face was red and,
"Well, that is, how do I put it. I"m sure there are times when you want to let loose as well. Be careful not to get pregnant. It"s not definitely safe with this but it"s incomparable to not using them after all."
I said that and without properly listening to her response turned around and walked off. I"m sure it"s my obligation as their owner to manage the slave"s condition as well. But, I saw it, so you make that sort of face when embarra.s.sed.
..............
That day after breakfast was over and everyone was relaxing and drinking some tea, I opened my mouth.
"Ah, that"s right, Giberuti. You should go to Greed Company in the capital right now. The locations is here."
I said that while handing him a memo.
"Go to the capital and find a random patrol soldier..if possible someone who seems to have a decently high social standing and can read and hand them that memo while asking the location of the place and I"m sure they"ll tell you. There"s rubber products left inside of the store so you should be able to tell it right away. Tell the people in the store that you"re my new slave and greet them before coming back. In addition buy some boots for yourself. The money is..fine I guess. No, take some. Here."
I said that and handed him one golden Shu (250,000 Z).
"Buy about 5m of rubber cloth with the change and bring it back. Also, it"s fine for you to eat lunch today using it as well. Come back before dinner."
Giberuti consented and left the restaurant.
"Now then, let"s have a different conversation. The story about after I got caught in the trap. Let"s change locations. We"ll head to "Boil Manor". Zulu and Angela you two come as well."
I said that and started walking towards "Boil Manor". Along the way I bought sandwiches for lunch for everyone as well.
............
As expected if eight people enter my room it feels quite crowded. It feels a bit cramped but it can"t be helped. I move further into my room and sit on a chair, Ralpha, Gwine, and Bel sit on my bed. Of course it"s a straw bed so even if I"ve made them take their shoes off I don"t want to let the guys sit down on it. On the other side of me Zenom sits down on the remaining guest chair and next to Zenom Toris, Zulu, Angela are sitting on chairs brought from a different room.
"It"s going to be a slightly long story so get comfortable."
Everyone is focused on me. I can"t even hear a single cough. They must have wanted to hear about it quite a bit.
However...
"As a matter of fact, there"s two types of people in here.."
Everyone is looking at me. Huh? Well I guess it"s fine.
"People born with memories of their previous life, and people that were not..Zulu, Angela. I didn"t tell you two about it until now but other than Zenom, us five..Ralpha, Gwine, Toris, and Bel all remember things from before we were born."
Huh? Huhuh?
"Why aren"t you surprised at that?"
It"s particularly strange that Angela and Zulu aren"t surprised at all. Do they think I"m saying some kind of boring joke?
"We heard about it yesterday."
Zulu calmly responded.
"Eh?"
"After we left master in the dungeon, everyone carried the peevish Ral to this inn. Since it was together with Kalstalan-sama who couldn"t move it was quite difficult."
Angela said. What about that? Angela continues opening her mouth.
"After we carried Ral into the room, she and Zenom got into an argument."
I looked at Ralpha and Zenom surprised. And then I looked around at Toris sitting next to him and Bel, Gwine, and finally Ralpha on the bed.
"I mean.."
Ralpha said with a sulky expression.
"Eh?"
Really what does that mean?
"I mean, it"s because we abandoned you and left the dungeon, so I said to Zenom. "Because he"s a reincarnated person, because he"s not a person of Orth did you abandon him, he"s an ally right, if it was Al then he definitely wouldn"t abandon us.""
Eh? What"s that? What, are you saying? I"m sure my mouth is definitely wide open right now.
"I couldn"t help, but say something I shouldn"t have..Sorry..I"m sorry."
Ralpha lowered her head to me looking down.
".."
This girl...
"Ralpha. What was it that you weren"t supposed to say?"
"Eh? That is, the fact that we"re reincarn"That"s wrong.""
I think I said it with a considerably strong tone of voice.
"That"s, the wrong answer. It"s fine if you said something like that. It"s the individual"s choice if the ones who hear it believe it or not after all...Of course for the time being there"s more harm in saying it so not mentioning it is the better choice. But, just as I was about to say I thought it was a good time to tell Zulu and Angela about it. After all we"ve already been together with these two for close to two years. I"ve understood their personalities and above all else I don"t think they would betray us. However, you, so you said something like that to Zenom, you r.e.t.a.r.d! You, step down from there! Spend the rest of today in "seiza" on the floor while listening, you idiot!"
In a rage I stood up and pointed to the floor in front of Ralpha while yelling.
I glared at Ralpha while breathing with my shoulders.
"Before that apologize to Zenom! You, do you know what kind of feelings zenom..s.h.i.t! Bel! Toris! You two as well! you two..even though you"re adults don"t overlook this.."
It"s completely collateral damage to Bel and Toris but I couldn"t hold back. Gwine couldn"t hide her fear of my sudden threatening att.i.tude. It seems that Ralpha finally realized from being yelled at by me and,
"Zenon..Uh..Father..I"m sorry."
said that while lowering her head to Zenom. Her face was half-crying but who cares. Reflect on things. Zenom made a bitter smile seeing that and nodded. I sat back down on my chair and looked at Toris while saying.
"Does Giberuti know?"
"No, I don"t think he knows. Zulu, Maruso, about yesterday did you mention it to Larry?"
Toris turned to Zulu and Angela while asking.
""I haven"t said anything."
I put my left elbow on my desk and put my forehead against my left hand while listening to the reply.
"Then, the two of you already know right.."
I confirmed with Zulu and Angela.
"I think we have inquired about the outline of things."
Zulu acted for both of them and replied.
"..Got it. Is there anyone other than us that has heard about it?"
"I don"t think anyone did. Soon after we left the dungeon I asked Larry to go and buy some medicine for pain relief and soon after that Gwine and I jumped out and check the pedestrian traffic. We properly confirmed that no one else was in the guest room at that time as well. It was a time when almost no one was in the inn and it was soon after we had returned and given the head clerk money to go and call a healer for us just in case."
Bel replied. If I remember right these guys returned early morning. The night must have ended as they returned to the inn somehow or other. Was it after the guests for the inn went to get breakfast?
"I see..then that"s fine. If Bel confirmed it then it"s probably alright...Then, I"ll skip over things in regards to us..Continuing off. I"ll return to the conversation. First I"ll start with an outline."
I look around at everyone before opening my mouth.
"That trap was a special trap. The moment you get caught in it your mana starts getting absorbed it seems. Since the inside was slippery and slope with almost no footholds so once you"ve gotten caught there"s almost no chance of climbing back out. Let alone that it"s probably best to think that it"s impossible to stay still inside of it. And then, once you"ve started falling down the slope for a short while you"ll be teleported even though there"s no crystal."
I took a sip of water.
"The destination of the teleport is almost definitely the 14th floor. Though I just determined that based on the number of times I teleported while returning so I don"t know if it"s the 14th floor in the true meaning of it. However, for convenience sake I"ll be calling it that. And, I was teleported to somewhere on the 14th floor. I think you can imagine but I writhed around from the mana exhaustion and somehow managed to rest for three hours."
I run my fingers through my hair lifting it up. Since I properly have Bel periodically cut it for me it"s not sloppily growing out.
"And, when I was resting one more person came falling down from the trap on top of me."
I heard the sound of everyone swallowing.
"..That person was..a Dark Elf"Ho~ a Dyurou huh? That"s unusual!?"
Zenom said.
"Zenom, there"s still a continuation. Just listen. Their name was Chizumagurol but..their real name is Shiina. And they were a subordinate of mine in the past."
Everyone was surprised as if lightning had struck through the room.
"Ho~"
"Al-san..that means..does that mean?"
"The same as us."
"j.a.panese!"
"A reincarnated person huh?"
"Hm~n.."
"Yeah, that"s right. She always used to give her best at her job but it seemed like she had trained quite a bit even now. She was wearing clothes like a "ninja" though. Well, it"s only obvious but her mana had run out and it was troublesome, I used something the cloth from her hood and tired up before letting her rest."
Somehow I feel like Ralpha and Gwine"s expression got a bit softer while they were glaring at me.
I wonder if it would be best to tell these two that I"m dating her?
"After that..from here on is the story I wanted to let everyone hear today as well. The 14th floor was largely different from all of the floors we"ve seen until now. First, there was no walls throughout most of the floor. You can think of the entire floor being one large spherical room. And the floor didn"t give off light. That"s why it was pitch darkness. I don"t think even Zulu"s {Night Vision} would be able to see. The only thing that probably would have been effective is Infrared Vision.
After that, in the center of the floor there was something like a 100m or so "doughnut" no, something like a ring that was like the boss rooms up until now, and that ring was where the teleport crystal room was. There were no teleport incantation on the crystal in there. That"s why I think there"s a high probability that was the lowest floor but it might have simply been a branch floor or dead end.
I walked around quite a bit after falling there but other than the monster in the boss room in the center of the floor I didn"t encounter any monsters. There were several corpses of victims from that trap in the past but they all starved to death. Since there corpses weren"t laid waste to all so normally..Right, I don"t think monsters that appear in the halls appear there."
I took another sip of water.
"During the time right after I fell down since I had no mana I wasn"t able to create even a single bit of light. It was to the point where I thought my eyes had been crushed at first. And, it was during such a time that a dark elf suddenly fell down on my from above that"s why at first I thought it as a monster attack. Since I had gotten a bit of rest by then I had some mana and was able to make some light and confirm their face right away. Since they had run out of mana as well I tied them up pretty soon and I went back to sleep so I could completely recover my mana as well. After that when we safely recovered our mana, the two of us cooperated to escape and searched around finally finding the room in the center."
I cross my legs while sitting.
"It was a considerably powerful monster but we somehow managed to defeat it and escape. That Dark Elf my previous subordinate had something remaining she had to take care of in her hometown so we separated ways for once. It might take several monsters or maybe even a year but she intends to group up with us eventually. Since everyone doesn"t know her I won"t say to trust her right away. But, because of a certain reason I completely trust her from the top of her head to the ends of her nails. She"s definitely my ally."
I leaned forward putting my jaw on my crossed arms.
"What I want you to remember from here is that after this accident, in the worst case the same, no, in the case you get caught in a similar trap. Listen well, by no means should you move around. Monsters won"t come out. In the case you run out of mana..I"m sure various things will be difficult but curl up your body and go to sleep. Also, absolutely do not try to defeat the boss monsters in the center room by yourself. I"ll definitely go to rescue you so just wait until then. Think that the boss there probably can"t be beaten unless I join you. Also, if there"s too many people there will be victims as well. It"s difficult if including me there"s not at most 2-3 people. Make absolutely sure you don"t forget this."
Since the rescue group that comes afterwards will definitely run out of mana it would be perfect to carry around two 1m or so ropes to tie them up. After that is a lighter magic tool I guess. Since things like that we could gather together into a pack smaller than a flask if I prepare an exclusive pouch for them it should be fine.
And, I finished with the concluding words.
"This time, various things happened but the reason I was able to somehow return was largely thanks to the fact that I was able to recover my lost mana. And the fact that I had one other person with me who could use magic as well. Well, it"s still harsh even if you can just use magic. It"s not guaranteed that the same boss would be there next time as well but in the off chance that the same boss appears, then me and..I guess so, at the very least someone who can use magic a bit better than Bel is required otherwise we can"t win. I"ll talk about the details of this boss later but honestly speaking if I was alone it would have been difficult without a spear. I think it would have been seriously dangerous with just a sword. Even if I had won it"s very possible I would have been heavily injured. It"s repeating but I"ll say it again, if you get caught in that trap make sure you don"t move as much as possible and just rest and try to calmly wait for help to come. I"ll definitely go."
After hearing this story everyone"s bodies shook from the terror.
"However, as I said just now, if there"s someone who can use magic then it"s fine but I think if it was a master archer like Bel and they have plenty of armor that might work as well."
After this I talk about it in even more details and take questions while responding. For example, like this.
"About that boss but I understand that if Al-san and I are there we can defeat it but why is it bad if there are other people?"
"Yeah, about that. It"s main body is a large..slightly over 2m in diameter sphere. And, it floats with a large mouth and fangs, and a single large eye. There were several tentacles growing from the top of the spherical body and it fires off magic in rapid succession from there. If you can deploy an {Anti-Magic Field} I think that a party from a knight group would have easily been wiped out."
"No way~!"
"I"m sure I just had good luck this time. Since it came down to a test of endurance and in the end my mana exceeded that eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d so I was able to hold out until it couldn"t use magic anymore. Ah, it"s name was Death=Tyrant.Kin. Since it was undead it smelled bad. I think I was largely able to win because even it"s brain had rotted and all of it"s actions were pretty idiotic."
For example,
"Hey, that Dark ELf person is Al"s acquaintance right? Even if they have something to take care of in their home town, is it no good to put that off? I wanted to try meeting them..Speaking of Dark Elf, when we were searching for Toris and Gwine I caught sight of one but I haven"t talked to any."
"It seems her older brother has a severe illness. She came to Baldukk to earn money for the medicine and got caught in the trap. Since the magic stone we got from the Death=Tyrant.Kin this time was pretty heavy I gave it to her to pay for medicine."
"Hmmn..But, I see. If it"s something like that then it can"t be helped~"
"You"ll be able to meet her eventually. When that time comes get along well with her."
Or,
"Al-san, that is..It"s extremely difficult to ask but..even if it"s Al-san"s guess it"s fine but for example, I mean for example. About that trap but if Bel and I were to fall together it would be fine. And if Bel and Al-san or Bel and Zenom-san, when opposite genders fall I can imagine what happens but if two men or two women were to fall..that is, what would happen? How did things go with the dark elf?"
Huh? Did I say that Miduchi was a man? Well it"s fine. I"m sure he"ll be surprised when he sees the real person.
"Toris, you..Don"t ask such creepy things..Miduchi..ah, this is something like a nickname of the dark elf but I immediately tied them up and rolled them around so I didn"t bother listening to everything. Since I"ve experienced I think you can somehow imagine it. Ralpha and Angela can probably imagine it as well? Though I don"t think the type of thing you"re worrying about would happen. Some maddening level of extreme desires come in waves but it"s not like you completely lose your sense of reason either. Though you become quite loose in general, as expected I don"t think it goes that far."
"I think it"s just the same as master says as well.."
"Me too, as expected.."
"Even if Toris is a good looking guy, he doesn"t look like a woman after all..So just accept that as being the case."
"Please excuse me.."
Or,
"For it to be a single floor made into one large room..I feel like even I would get lost. What do you think?"
"No, there"s no way I could know something like that. Sorry."
"I guess that"s true.."
Or,
"Hey~ Al. What floor did that Dyurou get caught in the trap on?"
"Supposedly the 2nd floor. Somehow I feel like there"s one on the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors as well though..That"s why I talked about it today."
"After all huh..I guess we need to be careful of the walls in the rooms as well..Or is it fine as long as we don"t lean on them.."
"Yeah, also we need to make sure we aren"t thrown or knocked back like me. It"s of great attention to make sure you"re not sent flying by the boss {Cave Great Boar} on the 6th floor from now on as well."
Or,
"However, master. For there be such a terrifying trap as that..We need to take a second look at our individual equipment and make sure that even during combat we don"t remove the bare minimum."
"Yeah, for sure. It would be best to make something like an exclusive pouch. At the very least one days worth of preserved food and if possible a flask, lighter magic tool, and a rope of some length I guess."
"It doesn"t seem like very much at all."
"Yeah, Zulu, afterwards I"ll give oyu come money so go with Angela and pick out a good pouch for everyone."
"I understand."
Or,
"Master, I"ve never seen a Dark Elf before but is their skin color really different from everyone else?"
"Yeah, it seems that normally it"s deep~ purple and most of them are close to black. Their hair color is often white or very low pigment colors. Since this time the one I met has the same blood mixed in as us their hair color was black and their skin felt more of a light purple though."
"He~ so their skin color really is that different. That"s unexpected."
"Since I lived in the capital I"ve seen them a number of times but it was more surprising to me that there were people with large ears and tails. People of the dog-people and wolf-people races even have four b.r.e.a.s.t.s after all.."
"People with a lot of them even have up to six."
Or things like that.
Along the way, we had some lunch and continued talking into 3 in the afternoon. Around evening, Larry safely returned and we all had dinner together. Larry brought along 249,520 Z in change. They gave him the rubber sole boots and rubber cloth for free it seems. Well older brother still hasn"t returned so I haven"t decided on a sale price yet. But this change, I guess he didn"t pocket it...Hm~n.
..............
Year 7444, Month 5, Day 30
Today is the judgement day in Baldukk. I"m sure {Bright Blade} will be completely wiped out with this. It ends up like this because you tried ambushing me in the dungeon. It doesn"t particularly matter how much you attack people but we aren"t such nice people to just take that quietly. In the first place, even the representative of nice the sister from {Black Topaz} was pleased that their portion will increase thanks to the decrease in rivals. Sister-Anderson isn"t a saint. After that when I ran into her in a bar she was in a good mood drinking and causing an uproar with her party members.
Since it"s necessary for me to stand as a witness I put on some nice clothes and put my sword at my waist before going to the plaza in front of the government office. Of course I haven"t repaired my protectors and helmet which are evidence. Toris and Bel split up the evidence and brought it along. It"s been close to two years since the execution of Derenola who attacked Bel, I"ve gone out for greetings during the judgement days but as usual there"s an amazing number of people.
It seems that judging from the emblem this time the second knight group is in charge of security. It"s not guaranteed that the commander is here but since I"m sure they"ll become a customer in the near future I should probably greet the one in charge.
Though no matter what I do I need to greet his majesty the King first.
I told the knight group soldiers guarding the entrance to the government office that the head of Greed Company has come and would like to greet his majesty and had them confirm my status.