Next chapter in 2 minutes!? Again!?
Year 7445, Month 4, Day 29
"Who did you say was goldfish s.h.i.t!? Isn"t Ral the one that"s the goldfish s.h.i.t!?"
"Ha!? I"m amazed you can say that, you opportunist! You just nonchalantly appeared later acting so arrogantly, stop staying around!!"
Miduchi and Ralpha are shouting at each other in loud voices.
"Just a moment, the two of you, stop it already!"
Bel is scolding them but they don"t seem to care.
"Opportunist!? Did you say opportunist? Who"s an opportunist!! Even though you"re a "blonde delinquent"! This Duke of shamelessness!"
"Ha..You don"t even have enough money to dye your hair? You poor person! Even though your own color is that of a rotting woman!"
The two of them are glaring at each other.
"Hey! Would you two stop already!"
Zenom yells. But, it didn"t have any effect at all.
"I..I..I.I"m not rotting!"
"No, you"re rotting~ Zombie woman!"
Zombie woman this is somehow. I wonder if Ralpha is dissing me in a roundabout way as well?
"Hey, Maruso, we"re stopping them!"
"Yes, Zulu-sama!"
Zulu and Angela got up from their seats in a hurry and started trying to hold back Miduchi and Ralpha from behind.
"Zo..Zombie! Are you really saying that, this s.h.i.tty brat...Even though you"re not even decent at fighting you"re only first-rate at bad mouthing people! This"
"Not..even decent at fighting...Which mouth is saying that!"
Miduchi sure is unpopular. It"s fine if you don"t say that far right. But, it seems she was quite irritated being told zombie woman.
"Ral, you went too far!"
"Miduchi-san too, please be a bit more careful with your words!"
Gwine and Toris raised their voices trying to stop them as well.
"In the first place, you"re also giving off a sour smell, you stink of puke!"
"Wha!? I haven"t thrown up and I haven"t thrown up puke!"
Tears have started to appear in Ralpha"s eyes. No, you puke pretty often when you get drunk...
"U..Umm, th..the two of you, ple, please stop it! Please stop it~!"
Basutoral is in a fl.u.s.ter. Just this guy is making a monotone voice. He"s useless. Giberuti is continuing his meal quietly while sighing in disappointment. Well if these two were to start struggling there"s no way Giberuti could stop them.
"Miduchi-sama! Please stop already."
"Ral! I won"t forgive rude remarks towards Miduchi-sama."
Zulu and Angela are still trying to hold them back from behind.
If you were to ask what I was doing, I was finally able to pa.s.s between the tables to get to where the two of them were. The two of them were trying to intimidate each other with their teeth showing. Are you two monkeys?
"Would you stop!"
I let out a roar and landed my fist on both Ralpha and Miduchi"s heads.
"But, this girl is!"
"But, this person is!"
Be~quiet.
"You"re loud. You"re an annoyance for the other customers! If you really want to do it then take it outside, outside!"
After I said it the two of them calmed down but even after they they sat as far away from each other as they could. I lowered my head to the four from {Sun.Ray} while making a weak smile and after we finished our meals we left without staying long.
...............
Year 7445, Month 4, Day 30
I ate breakfast alone rather than with everyone else and then just like I went and bought some dried fish before quickly heading to a rustic inn on the edge of town to leave my horse before stepping foot in the dungeon. I took my time slowly clearing through to the 2nd floor and used magic on all of the monsters came across confirming the effects. Immediately after I went down to the 3rd floor I sang the national anthem and teleported to the place connecting to the fairy village and then dozed off while waiting for the time when the door opens. Since I forgot to buy a bento I"m hungry.
I thought about using fire magic to cook some of the dried fish but while it"s no problem making a small fixed flame like a gas stove by continuing to use the spell {Flame Thrower}, I don"t have a grill. Even when it comes to stabbing it with a knife and cooking it like that I only have one knife..I have the throwing needles. If I use these as skewers I guess it would be fine. Well if I eat one fish then my stomach should be able to endure.
The middle of the night, just before the date was about to change I made water and washed my face then at the same time as the date changed I put my hands on the door and stepped foot into the fairy village. The same as usual I cross about the pond to the island floating in the center and after pulling the stove magic tool out of the hollow tree I called out for Karl and teacher Mila.
"Pu..Ahahahahaha, so you"re alone today? So you were rejected by Miduchi, how pitiful."
"Come now, Karl, you shouldn"t say things that rub salt into people"s wounds. Al, men aren"t about their faces. Please don"t get down over it. What~ in the end Humans and Dyurou are different races, it"s not that easy to have children either way."
"I wasn"t rejected! She just had some business and couldn"t come along this time. Don"t say such rude things. I won"t give you any dried fish."
"Oh my, is that so? That was quite rude of me, but you"re in the wrong too Al. It"s because you just come along alone without saying anything. It can"t be helped if we misunderstand right?"
How do you expect me to give you advance notice~?
"And also teacher Mila, men aren"t just about their face, that"s certainly true but..I know that I"m not that particularly good looking but I didn"t think it was to the point of being said that far.."
"Ra..Rather than that would you please grill the fish?"
No follow up from teacher...
"Yeah, I"ll grill it now..And, which one is best to start with?"
"Wouldn"t starting with meineiji be best?"
"I guess so. Piru, pirurururu"
Teacher Mila called out to the other fairies. Soon after a lot of fairies gathered and started surrounding us. After a short while they finished eating the dried fish so I called out to teacher.
"Teacher Mila, I would like for you to teach me the spell {Remove.Curse} this time. Do you know of this magic?"
I need to say it before I forget.
"Hn, {Remove.Curse} huh, of course I know it. Are you cursed Al?"
Oh~ after all teacher knew about it. It seems that I"ll be able to avoid embarra.s.sing myself. That"s great...
"No, it"s not me. Of course it"s not Miduchi either. A completely different person obtained a cursed sword and they"re charmed by that sword."
"Ho~nn, is that so. But, when it comes to the spell {Remove.Curse} if you aren"t actually looking at everything about the cursed target then I don"t think you"ll be able to learn it..though I think even that is considerably difficult."
What was that? In other words, that means a {Cursed.Item} is necessary? This is bad...
"Well, if it"s something like that then I have just the right thing. Wait just a moment."
Teacher Mila said that before flying to the top of the tree. Ho...Thank goodness..I think?
Somehow I have a bad feeling about this.
"Ah, is Mila going to bring that out? Or will it be that?"
Karl is saying something but his words went in one ear and out the other. I"m getting a bad feeling about this. Soon after Mila returned with something like a ring in her hands. The ring has a diameter of about 2 cm and looks like a ring with no gems in it.
【Ring.Of.Poison】
【Mithril Silver】
【State: Good】
【Manufacture Date: 16/10/6715】
【Value: 1】
【Endurance: 35】
【Effect: Delayed Lethal Poison】
After all...It seems the bad feeling is going to be correct.
"This is a {Cursed.Item}. It"s a bracelet to us fairies though. Al, put this ring on your finger."
Umm..it"s saying lethal poison but, that is...
"Ah, you had Identify didn"t you. There"s nothing worry about~ we"ll properly take it off before you die."
【Effect: Delayed Lethal Poison; those who wear this ring will without exception be violated by poison through a curse. The poison is the type that drains stamina and every 1 minute it drains 1 HP. Obviously if HP reaches 0 you will pa.s.s out through declined stamina and if you ignore it beyond that you"ll eventually die. It"s possible to recover the lost HP through "healing" and such spells. Also it"s possible to temporarily neutralize the poison through the spells "Neutralize Poison" and "Counteraction" but unless you remove this ring through cutting off the fingers or some method the poison will be activate again. Once the ring has been removed the poison will no longer take effect.】
I had imagined that it wasn"t the type of poison that kills instantly from the name but what an unpleasant item. I look at the ring on the palm of my hand while gulping.
"Here, would you just put it on already."
Teacher Mila is urging me on. I guess there"s no choice but for me to gather my courage and put the cursed ring on. I wonder if we can"t change it to a sword that charms you?
"What is it? Do you not like that one? Would a different one be better? But the other ones we have aren"t really suited for learning the spell {Remove.Curse}. Since you lose once your senses. Endure using that one."
It can"t be helped. I have over 200 HP right now. If it"s within 3 hours then somehow or other..Oh~ I"ll just confirm first.
"I understand. By the way teacher, around how long does it take for teacher to use the spell {Remove.Curse}?"
Hearing my statement teacher Mila raised one of her eyebrows while saying.
"What? Are you doubting my skill? Relax. I can take it off right away. In the past whenever Karl did something bad I would put this on his arm as punishment."
Hearing that I was relieved. Karl only has 20 HP. I take the ring in my fingers and put it on the ring finger of my left hand. I let go of the ring with my right hand and 10 seconds later something like small tentacles came out from the ring and moved around crawling into my ring finger as the ring tightened. It didn"t hurt, but wha, what in the world was that!?
"Here, don"t move. I"m going to use the spell {Remove.Curse} on you now. Make sure you remember that sensation well."
Teacher Mila said while putting both of her hands on the ring on my finger and concentrating. The blue spell light started coming out of her hands. That continued for about 1 minute and the tentacles that came from the ring into my finger withdrew back. In a hurry I took the ring off.
"The trick is matching your own mana up with the mana of the ring. After you"ve matched them up once, you follow that back and just like untying a tied knot you do the same thing for the mana of the curse inside of the ring. You should practice it a number of times before you get a knack for it."
"Yes.."
"If all your magic levels are at level 6 then you should be able to use it. That"s why I"m sure Al can do it. Well, in the worst case if you struggle with it, I"ll heal you along the way so feel free to relax."
Alright, I guess I"ll try doing it. I put the ring on again and wait for the tentacles to come out. The tentacles crawl into my finger. Now then..I put my right hand over my left hand with the ring on it and start concentrating.
It took me around two hours before I was able to get any effect from {Remove.Curse} for the first time. After that I practiced it a number of times (of course, I recovered my HP each time) but Karl, teacher Mila, and the other fairies all went back into the hollow tree to sleep around 1 am. I was left alone to fight with the cursed ring eating into my finger.
In the morning, since I was starting to get hungry I ate some dried fish together with teacher Mila and the others when they woke up. After finishing eating I struggled with the cursed ring again. Getting a handle on it is extremely difficult and late into the night I was finally able to activate it in about one hour. In the end I ended up staying at the fairy village until late night again this time as well.
"Karl, teacher Mila, thank you very much again this time. By the way, if possible I was thinking about bringing even more people next time but is that okay? Obviously since the number of people increases I"ll be able to bring along even more fish as well."
I look at Karl and teacher Mila"s faces and they smiled broadly. Karl is flying around in circles as if depicting his joy and teacher Mila is smiling as well.
"It"s fine as long as they don"t rampage around here. If they won"t harm our allies then they come at their own convenience."
"Of course, I won"t let them do anything like harming everyone. I want you to teach them spells as well and we might end up staying over for a bit. I would like for you to let me test some new equipment here."
"Yeah, in that case it"s fine."
"Thank you very much. And also, one more thing. Would you please remain quiet about my Unique Abilities?"
This, is an important point. It can"t be forgotten.
"..I"m~ fine with that. But whether Karl can really remember it.."
Ge.
"Ahahaha, Al is as much of an idiot as usual. There"s no way I could remember something like that. Ah, were you rejected by Miduchi because you were an idiot?"
A winged insect is proudly holding it"s chest held high over how much it"s lacking the ability to remember things. That"s why I said~ I wasn"t~ rejected! I wonder if there"s some kind of impairment in Karl"s head? Putting that aside, if it"s possible I wanted to try making at least one prototype gun and bring it in here to have Bel test it out but I guess things won"t go that easily...Of course it"s necessary for me to practice with it as well. The diameter of the fairy village is about 1 Km and the sound shouldn"t leak out so I thought it was ideal for a practice grounds though.
Well, it"s fine to practice on the wide and bright 7th floor as well but since it"ll weigh several kg and including the ammunition it would end up being quite heavy. It"s troublesome carrying it down. I just thought it would be easier if I could do it here. Well, in that case then I guess it would be fine if I bring Zulu, Angela, and Giberuti the slaves? If I include Miduchi then it would five of us so we could carry in quite a bit of fish as thanks. No, I"ll stop after all. I forgot how much brains Karl"s lacking. Though I can"t really be talking about other people.
I once again politely thanked them and left the fairy village. By the time I left the dungeon it was late at night and when I confirmed the clock magic tool the time was already past 3 am. I pull back the hood I was wearing before nodding to Church-san who was guarding the tax collector at the entrance while grumbling how "it"s painful to practice spells" and then after fixing my hood I headed towards the inn I left my horse.
.............
Year 7445, Month 5, Day 2
I periodically fall asleep while riding my horse towards my company in the capital and arrived before dawn. It"s only obvious in the case of restaurants but there"s early stores open here and there as well. There"s people carrying around night soil buckets, the people who collect night soil finished up their breakfast early and are running around gathering for fertilizer production on the outskirts. It seems they sell that to the villages? surrounding the capital. Though people with houses along the river seem to wash it away into the river but if you gather it up in a bucket you can make a bit of money off of it (around 50 Z a week for a family of six) so the only ones who do that are rich people though.
If it"s this time then it"s probably before the Yotlen family arrives at work. I stop in front of the store and tie my horse to the stake and it was just Dianne was opening the door and coming out. I guess she was going out to buy some breakfast. She"s holding a pot and plate.
I"ve mentioned it before but fundamentally the people who live in the city of Orth eat their meals outside most often. They either go to a restaurant to eat or buy something made in a restaurant and bring it back home so there"s just that much difference. Since the firewood that is required for fuel costs money and even the magic stones consumed for a stove cost a bit as well. Inevitably the restaurants end up grasping the stomachs in the area.
Most of the people who make their own meals at home are those with over a certain amount of income. Since there"s ingredient stores aimed at restaurants and the few people who cook for themselves as well if they wanted to make it themselves it"s possible but in the first place most houses don"t even have the right facilities for cooking. The farther away from the city areas you get into the remote regions there"s less to worry about in regards to fuel so most people end up cooking for themselves at home.
"Oh my, Al-sama."
Dianne called out to me while making a slightly surprised face.
"Hey, Dianne. Are you going to buy some food? Buy a portion for me as well."
I casually replied to her while handing Dianne two large copper coins I took from my wallet. If it"s 2,000 Z then it should be plenty to feed the four people in the Ryogu family and I. If it"s a full pot of stew with not much ingredients in it then you can get it for 400 Z or 500 Z. After that it"s fine if she just buys some adequate bread.
"I understand. I intended to buy some stew but is that fine?"
"Yeah, of course. Is everyone already up? Is it fine if I enter the store?"
"Yeah, of course. Everyone is already awake."
When I entered the store and Rozural, Wendy, and Ruku were already up and making preparations to head to the workshop. We exchanged greetings and I told Rozural that if he doesn"t have any particular business for today to remain in the shop and discuss with me how we"re going to get over the next couple of months with just the stock we have remaining.
In about 10 minutes Dianne returned with a pot full of hot stew, a deep plate with five fried eggs, and carrying something like thick baguette bread. We all ate breakfast and while were enjoying some after meal tea the Yotlen family appeared to work.
"Ah, presichent~ go~od mornish~"
Kamnal ran over and greeted me with a lisp.
"Oh~ Kanna, have you been well?"
I pick up Kamnal who"s soon to be five and spin him around.
"Really, Kanna, wipe your feet. You"ll get dirt on the president!"
Anna warns him. As expected of an older sister. But, this much is fine.
"Here, stick your feet out..I"m sorry, president~"
Hanna is gallantly taking care of Kamnal as well.
"Yeah, it"s fine it"s fine, no worries."
I guess just Kamnal doesn"t have any rubber sandals?
"Wendy, make some sandals for Kanna as well. One size larger or so."
"No..No way, it"s fine."
Leila say that in a panic but someone who is related to Greed Company that deals in rubber, even if they"re a child, barefoot is no good. Kamnal is a boy after all, I need him to become a skilled sales clerk one day. Of course, Anna and Hanna as well.
"Yeah, I will take care of it."
Wendy smiles while replying.
"Then, shall we head out?"
Ruku called out to Wendy and Dianne and the three of them started walking off to the workshop.
I stayed in the capital for two nights and went over various fine details with Rozural and the others. The customers who came to buy condoms would often ask when the next arrival of the new model would arrive. Everyone was well-dressed customers. Leila..you"re quite good.
............
Year 7445, Month 5, Day 4
I arrived at Boil Manor and after leaving my horse there was no one inside of the inn. I wonder if they"re already out for lunch? Since it couldn"t be helped I left the inn to go ut and eat something, since I didn"t particularly have any plans I decided to walk around the town of Baldukk looking for a random place to enter.
Then, a face I know came walking down from ahead of me. It"s Kaku.Dankel from {Black.Topaz}.
It seems he recognized me as well and walked over.
"Ya~ Dankel-san."
"Ah, Greed-san, you appeared at just the right time..I heard you went to the capital?"
What is it, I won"t run away.
"Yeah, I had some business at my company. I just returned now. Ah, that"s right. I"ve finished gathering the necessary things. If it"s convenient for you then how about tonight?"
"Oh~ that"s a big help. The location is.."
Dankel made a clearly relieved expression while saying.
"I"ll go over to your inn. Since it"s necessary to tie up Balkemi-san and hold him down."
"I understand. Then what time tonight would be good? We"ll make preparations and wait. Balkemi"s inn is "Missuri". Do you know of it?"
"Yeah, it"s the inn about midway along the 2nd street right. I think I"d like to finish it up before dinner so I"ll head over around 5 pm."
"Oh~ that helps. With this we can go to the dungeon starting tomorrow. I"m sure our Anderson will be pleased as well."
I guess he isn"t thinking about if I were to fail? though it doesn"t particularly matter.
"No, please give my regards to Anderson-san as well. Well then, if you"ll excuse me."
"Ah, that"s right, Greed-san. It"s kind of questionable if it could be considered a bonus to our thanks to you but it seems there"s some kind of conflict between the human and dark elf in the {Slaughterers}. It might be none of our business but just in case I thought it would be best if I mentioned it to you."
Hohou.
"Eeh!!? Is that true!? What are those guys doing.."
I raised my voice in surprise.
"No, well it"s a rumor so..It"s not like I"ve confirmed it directly myself.."
I was told with an unfortunate tone of voice.
"I"m sorry, please excuse me for a bit."
I ran off as if I was returning to Boil Manor. This sure is troublesome...I guess I"ll eat something at a random restaurant along the way once I turn the corner. Somehow I wanted to eat some sandwiches but I guess sobagaki is fine as well.
Author"s Note:
"Remove.Curse" Abjuration.Enchantment.Charm
(Earth Magic Lv. 6, Water Magic Lv. 6, Fire Magic Lv. 6, Wind Magic Lv. 6, Void Magic Lv. 6, Consumes 30 MP)
The caster can release the target from one "curse". In the case that the target is a living creature, it just releases them from the "curse" but in the case it"s a non-living creature it will completely destroy the target(excluding artifacts and relics). Removal of the curse requires contact with the cursed target or otherwise the target applying the curse. Furthermore, depending on the strength of the curse, there are cases where it requires more mana than listed above as well. The reverse magic "Curse {Beast.Curse}" allows the caster to place a curse on the target(limited to living creatures) for a number of hours equal to their level. The curse allows them to reduce the ability values of the target by an amount equal to the level of the caster. Ability values won"t drop below the bare minimum of zero. Ability values drop in the order of Strength, Speed, Dexterity, and Endurance. By pouring more mana into the spell you can influence what and how much of each abilities are decreased. However, in order for the spell "Curse{Beast.Curse} to take effect you need to concentrate for a time(even when the proficiency level with the spell increases this is separate from the time required to concentrate) of at least the targets HP (in the case of non-living creatures their Endurance value) times 60 seconds.