Chapter 378
Chapter 378: Unexpected Result
Thank you for your patience…! Enma’s character design has been revealed. For more details, check the update note or the author’s Twitter!
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The day after the water corpse was washed ashore, our ship, NeedAlun, set sail smoothly.
“Take care, okay?!”
“Pa~pa~!”
“Both of you, be safe and have a good trip!!”
Arthur waved enthusiastically from the deck to my wife and son who had come to see us off. Just a few days apart… it’s sad, especially when we were finally alive…
The fact that Arthur was spending his precious vacation on a vampire extermination made it even more melancholic.
… I also need to do what I can. At least I want him to get home as soon as possible—
‘So, Alex, it’s up to you.’
Yesterday, Arthur had handed me remnants like scraps of clothing and accessories from the victims, asking for an appraisal.
‘Sure, I’ll give it a shot.’
The secret art is, as the name suggests, a hidden technique. There’s no need to do it in front of everyone, so I took them back to the inn and tried to summon the souls of their owners.
But…
‘…A.’
‘O…A…’
‘…’
No luck.
Too much time had passed. Most victims’ souls had either vanished or, even if summoned, had decayed to the point where only an insect-like ego remained.
I thought maybe enhancing it like Martin would work, but unfortunately, the souls had transformed too much, and they were incinerated before being recognized as ‘humans’.
The melancholy of watching the summoned souls go up in flames right before my eyes, the guilt, and the inexplicable aftertaste… it was hard to describe…
‘Yoshi!!!’
That’s not good, Ant! This isn’t a moment to celebrate!
‘But my power has increased after a long time…’
I can’t take it lightly!
That aside, claiming to have the ability to read the past from the relics only to come back empty-handed would be too unremarkable.
So, I decided to try summoning the souls of the dead indiscriminately from across Aulitos Lake.
The result…
‘OaAAaA—’
‘Huh… Mom? Where am I?’
‘Huh… no way, I… huh, I’m dead… huh…?’
I ended up picking up the souls of the dead. A bunch of collapsing souls that barely resembled their original forms, one little boy, and one young woman.
The souls couldn’t communicate, and I couldn’t enhance them with Holy Silver Magic either, so I sent them straight to the spirit world.
The boy seemed to have drowned while playing near the water, not understanding what had happened to him… I gave him a peaceful sleep before returning him to the spirit world. He hadn’t held on to extreme regrets or obsessions, so he’d probably be quickly returned to magical energy…
The problem was the woman who called herself Beatrice.
‘But… you said if I obeyed, you wouldn’t kill me! You’d let me live and go home! You liar! Liar!! OaAAaA—!!!’
It seemed she had been captured by lake pirates… Beatrice, the daughter of a prominent figure from a certain city, had been on a passenger ship traveling to attend a party in another city, but was attacked by lake pirates at night and kidnapped.
Most likely for ransom, so they didn’t kill her immediately. Believing the lake pirates’ words that they’d let her go if she complied, she had tried to please them, enduring nothing but humiliation… but to no avail, she was killed.
From the freshness of her soul, it didn’t seem like much time had passed…
‘I can’t forgive them!! I can’t forgive those bastards!!!’
Filled with rage, she rapidly transformed into an evil spirit. It’s common for the dead to be consumed by hatred from their lives, but… this direction is bad.
Because, even though they’re lawless scoundrels, she had developed hatred for her own kind.
She wouldn’t benefit from Holy Silver Magic. Once transformed, there was little I could do…
That said, if I gave her magical power, it could strengthen her reason. I wanted to confirm if she still desired revenge against the lake pirates, even after becoming an evil spirit.
‘Of course!! Why should I be killed while they get to live freely?! That’s ridiculous!!’
I understood her feelings all too well. I informed her that due to time constraints, I couldn’t guarantee I’d be able to take revenge and decided to temporarily accept her existence.
A noble girl, accustomed to a life of ease, had suffered a senseless fate and was filled with despair and rage. Once her grudge against the lake pirates was resolved, I expected her attachments to dissipate. To forcefully inject magical power to maintain her existence and drag her into a battle against the Demon Lord Army would lead to so many complications. Both ethically and practically.
Though she said she’d help in searching for vampires, unlike the holy spirits who could rejuvenate their magical energy by burning themselves, gathering multiple ordinary undead would drain my magical power.
‘At this point, I’ve got Barbara, the veteran soldier, Virosa, and quite a few undead already…’
When in human form, magical energy is really… If I were in the form of a demon race, it wouldn’t be a big deal.
Considering the need to use various spells in case of emergencies, maintaining multiple ordinary undead while staying in human form seems a bit tough…
By the way, Beatrice still had a clear sense of self, so she remembered quite a lot of information from her life, like her hometown and the name of the ship she was on. She had been attacked in a region along the northern coast where security had deteriorated, and there had been a considerable number of guards on board, but they were all wiped out by the lake pirates… it seems. Beatrice herself had been sleeping and hadn’t understood what was happening.
And— ironically enough, she also naturally remembered her family.
‘Could you at least send a letter to my father and mother? I’m sure they’re worried about me. Given the outcome, I… want to say my farewell and express my gratitude for everything…’
With her head bowed demurely, Beatrice made that request.
It was a very difficult request. I hadn’t revealed to Beatrice that I was the Demon Lord’s Prince. She believed I was a very rare dark attribute hero and wished to meet her family one last time, but for confidentiality reasons, I had to refuse.
Thus, a letter. A compromise as long as I could pre-screen its content.
… The final words, huh.
It was somewhat risky, but by the time the exile sentence ended, the Night Elf intelligence network would probably be shattered, so I promised her I would send the letter around next summer.
‘Thank you very much…’
Tears of dark magical energy trickled from Beatrice as she deeply bowed her head.
This was about all I could do. I’m sorry. The fact that I could have her meet her family if I wanted to was painful. My heart felt like it was about to burst with guilt and helplessness…
‘Yoshi!!!’
That’s NOT a Yoshi moment!!! I’ll wipe that grin off your face!!!
†††
“So… how did it go? How’s the secret art…?”
After some time sailing, while on deck feeling the wind, Arthur quietly asked.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t glean any meaningful information from the relics. I’m sorry.”
I straight-up apologized. In the end, it felt unremarkable, but trying to cover it up with excuses would mark me as a third-rate liar.
And saying I couldn’t obtain significant information from the relics was the truth.
“I see… It’s disappointing, but we didn’t expect much, so don’t worry about it.”
Arthur didn’t try to hide his disappointment but didn’t seem overly concerned either.
“Hey, Arthur. Do you recognize the name Keerehen?”
“No… I don’t know. Why?”
“It seems unrelated to the relics, but there’s been some incident with a victim from that city.”
— Of course, I was talking about Beatrice. She was from the city-state of Keerehen.
“However, it might be a case of lake pirate victims rather than vampires.”
“… Is that from the secret art?”
“Something like that.”
Nodding gravely, Arthur looked at me with pity.
“Your secret art seems to be rather complicated too.”
“I can’t deny that…”
It is complicated… Mostly due to my position…
“Keerehen… I feel like I’ve heard of it… Ah, perfect timing, Captain!”
Arthur stopped an older man walking nearby.
“What is it, Sir Arthur?”
“I have a question. Do you know the city of Keerehen?”
“Keerehen… Ah, yes. It’s a small city-state in the northern region. Our ship doesn’t stop there, but we’ll be nearby in about two weeks if all goes well.”
Looks like this man is the captain. He seems experienced, with a map of Aulitos Lake in his head.
“Any special business with Keerehen?”
“No, nothing like that… Just wanted to ask, thanks for your help.”
Arthur smiled pleasantly and suddenly compared me with the captain.
“Ah, this is my colleague, Hero Alexander. Alex, this is the captain of NeedAlun.”
“Pleased to meet you, Hero. I’ve heard you’ll be sailing with us starting today. I’m Captain Sendros.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Hero Alexander. I look forward to the journey.”
“No, no, the honor is mine… It’s reassuring to have two heroes aboard!”
The captain nodded solemnly, gazing at Arthur with respect.
“Thanks to you, Sir Arthur, we were saved from certain doom…”
“Oh, it’s not just my efforts. I could do without encountering another Kraken.”
Huh?
“Did he just say Kraken?”
And… “another”?
“Actually, we were recently attacked by a Kraken… the ‘Demon of Aulitos,’ as they fearfully call it…”
With a somewhat delighted yet fearful tone, the captain spoke as if sharing a ghost story.
“That is—”
I involuntarily glanced back at Leila.
Leila, standing a step back, looked just as confused, asking, “Um…?”
“Normally, a regular ship would’ve sunk quickly, but thanks to Sir Arthur, we were protected!”
“I was barely holding on.”
Arthur, stroking his left-hand shield, bore a tired expression.
“But unfortunately, I wasn’t the one who drove it off. A White Dragon just so happened to pass by and aided us with its breath!”
“Huh…”
“Thanks to that, we were spared, but I wonder what that was all about?”
“I have no idea. I wanted to thank it, but when it comes to dragons, that can be a bit intimidating…”
The captain chuckled as Leila responded with a nervous laugh, “Ahaha…”
“Hmm, but I think it was someone we could communicate with. It might’ve deliberately helped, as I felt like someone was riding on its back.”
!?
We froze at Arthur’s casual observation.
Did this guy just see through the dark flashes of breath flying around? I mean, it was you, Arthur, who was stubbornly fighting that monster all along, wasn’t it?!
Wait, was that this ship?!
“Hmm, then I guess it might be a hero after all?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of Dragon Riders back in the homeland… but maybe they exist.”
“If we could get more details… no, at least if we could learn its identity! I’d ask the bards of Aulitos Lake to spread the tale of Sir Arthur and the hero’s deeds far and wide…”
The captain looked rather disappointed.
No, no…!
I absolutely cannot let Leila’s identity be discovered…!
Since they already saw the breath, if she took human form, she couldn’t carelessly let it out in front of them anymore…!!
As Leila and I exchanged alarmed glances, our hearts raced with anxiety.
