First things first, hello. You can call me Hikari.
I decided to give TLing Maken a shot, seeing that it’s been dead for years and it’s really a shame. As such, I decided to continue from where the last translator left it off years ago (as well as where the manga currently is). I’m aware that their website has been nuked, but a little google search can still dig up those chapters for anyone wanting to start from scratch.
That said, I’m still testing the waters with it, so I may or may not continue. At the very least, I plan to finish this batch of 3 gigantic chapters (like really, a whooping 40k characters in total) in parts. It’s a relatively shorter part this time (as it was more of a self-motivator), but I think I will divide this in 4-5 parts in total.
Anyway, what to expect from my translations of this or any other novel I may pick up:
1. I’m neither a native English speaker and nor do I have an editor, so there can and will be some awkward parts, typos and such. If you feel like pointing them out, however, I will be more than happy to fix.
2. My Japanese itself is decent (N2-1-ish), so I can somewhat guarantee the accuracy.
3. As it is a hassle to dig up the old terms, I will be mostly following the Manga terms. And in places, I will use my own versions.
4. I don’t have a set release rate so expect random updates, at least for a good while.
With that said, hope you enjoy the TL~
This might sound strange, but at that time, I could instantly tell that I was seeing a ‘Dream’.
There was a dark forest, one so dense that almost no sunlight could reach within… and it was filled with plants that were clearly not of earthly origins.
I remembered what these were, hence why I could tell.
That this forest was the same ‘Sea of Trees’ where I was born and raised.
And that the scenery before my eyes was probably… a dream.
After all, I should’ve left that place behind quite long ago. But now it suddenly appeared before me, so it couldn’t have been anything but a dream.
Also, there was yet another sight before me, one that felt exceedingly out of place.
Seeing this was what made me think “this can’t be real” and decisively judge it as a dream.
“…Still, even if this is a dream, there was surely a better choice than this…”
There stood two people, the two I knew very well.
One of them was… me. My past self, to be specific… from, I believe, around 1-2 years ago.
And the other was — perhaps you could call it fitting for this time axis and place — my mother. Naturally, I’m referring to the one after my reincarnation.
But her being with me itself was nothing out of the ordinary, considering she was my mother and all. All the more so if it was a dream.
…If you were to ask what looked wrong in it… it would be the fact the two of us were covered in blood and full of wounds, with our breaths out of order.
Seeing it from the side made it look as if… that was the result of a bloody deathmatch between me and my mother…
“…I’m not sure whether or not I wanted to see it to the end.”
“You wake up and that’s the first thing you say?”
And as such, just as I woke up from my bad — or should I say ambiguous — dream, Elk was fast to greet me with that retort.
By the way, if you are wondering why Elk was next to me when I woke up, I wish to use my right to remain silent.
☆☆☆
“We have a guest?”
“That’s right. It is a woman… and they claim to be your acquaintance, Minato-sama.”
As I started the morning in a bad mood and was on my way to downstairs with Elk and Alba to grab some food, the innkeeper stopped me with those words.
According to him, our guest seemed to be a girl… but who could it be?
If I were to speak of my female acquaintances, there was Sherry-san who also stayed in this inn… but I don’t think there was anyone else whom I could really call an acquaintance, was there…?
Just as I was wondering that, Elk warned me to be careful; she said there were some women who approached guys with false accusations like, “we deepened our bonds when you were drunk” and such. Ouch, so there are such nasty girls, huh… as expected of another world. Quite a lawless place this is.
I kept that possibility in my mind and headed towards the lobby where that woman waited, all while shaking my head in annoyance.
The one waiting for me there was…hmm?
It was someone I felt like I knew, but at the same time, didn’t; I couldn’t quite put my finger on either.
If I had to be frank, she was quite a looker, no questions asked. She had a cute face, with traces of immaturity still present, and a shoulder-length green hair, albeit a lighter shade compared to Elk.
She wore a refined green dress, with a leaf brooch on her chest and a leaf ornament of the same design on her hair.
Her seemingly embarrassed — or perhaps perplexed — face, coupled with her bashful conduct was quite cute, to be fair.
Enough for Elk to glare at me with somewhat murderous eyes from the side.
Err, in any case…
“Uh, hey~ …do we know each other? I’m sorry, but I’m having a hard time recalling your face…”
“Eh, a-ah… I see, so you don’t know…”
When I asked that, she appeared to be shocked for an instant, and then muttered those words as if she had given up on something. Was that part of the act too? Is this heading towards the route Elk mentioned?
Before either of us could open their mouth, Elk stepped in front of me with a stern expression and asked her. Or rather, pressed for an answer.
“Can you skip your needless preface and start with introducing yourself? Who are you supposed to be? What’s your relationship with Minato? If this is some weird scheme of yours…I’m not gonna forgive you, you hear me?”
“I-I’m not planning anything! I’m just, um… ah! That’s it! if I do this…”
She was bombarded by Elk and started to panic, but then she hit upon some idea and closed her eyes… the next moment,
“D-Do you understand it with this, Minato-san, Elk-san?”
““!!?””
…What the?
Is this… telepathy? And moreover, this magic power belongs to… a ‘Dryad’!?
Ah, wait, that was kinda misleading.
Only Elk can perceive Dryad-chans’ telepathy; a matter of talent, I suppose. And Zally, too, since he possesses the interception item.
The only ‘Telepathy’ I can receive is from Neil, the Alraune. And only when she’s really close at that. But that’s apparently because Alraune, who are higher species of Dryads, have powerful telepathy by default, so it can somehow do its job even if one doesn’t have a talent for it.
In fact, whenever the Dryads contacted us during this incident, it was usually either Elk — or me too if I was close — who received Neil-chan’s tele-… wait, hold on a minute.
Since I can hear this telepathy, does it mean that the girl before my eyes is actually…
No, but that can’t be… I mean, yesterday she was definitely…
However, as if she had read what I was thinking, she took a deep breath… looked directly at still-bewildered Elk and me, and — intentionally using telepathy — declared to us.
“You may not believe me… but it’s really me, Neil!”
The ‘Neil-chan of the Alraune’ inside my memories was a girl who looked like a middle school freshman with red hair and clothes, as well as a red flower ornament on her hair.
However, the current ‘Neil-chan’ before my eyes had… a pale green hair and a matching green dress. Her hair ornament looked like a leaf, and she now had a brooch too. Even her height was closer to a high schooler now.
She had changed way too much overnight, or rather, I couldn’t even believe she was the same Neil-chan, however… she knew about us, about things we talked in her presence, about things only she should’ve known, as well as what I ‘requested’ and ‘did’ with her last night.
Ah, I’ll say this in advance, but I haven’t requested anything I should feel guilty about. Really, I didn’t. Though I’ll omit the details.
In any case, it turned out that this beauty was the real Neil-chan.
It seems that even she was surprised after finding herself looking like that when she woke up. What the heck?
While she was racking her brain on how to handle the situation, the Dryad-chans also woke up… however, their surprise apparently lasted for only a moment and they quickly accepted her with ‘It’s Neil-oneechan!’ That’s quite amazing.
But she still felt anxious about it, so she decided to meet with me and Elk, the two humans she could trust, and ask us if we knew the reason behind her drastic change.
When I asked her how she found out that we were staying in this inn, it turned out that she identified our location by sensing our magical powers, much like a radar.
Apparently, even this ability was something she could suddenly use since this morning. Again, what the heck?
Thus, after she explained all that to us in a desperate manner, she asked whether we knew anything about it… but unfortunately, I had no idea. Neither what her change (at this point, it’s better to call it a transformation) was, nor why it happened.
However, Elk had a hunch on what her sudden change itself could be, setting aside the cause behind it.
According to her, some Spirit and Undead type monsters could, in extremely rare cases, ‘Evolve’ into a higher species by fulfilling certain requirements.
It was much like how Dryads became Alraune.
And Neil-chan was an ‘Alraune’. Since it was a Spiritual race, then perhaps by some kind of factor she was made to ‘Evolve’ and become an even higher species of ‘Alraune’? Elk built up such a hypothesis.
But still, I know I’m repeating it again, but I didn’t know the reason behind it. Even Elk had nothing to offer regarding that… or to be more specific, the whole mechanism behind that ‘Evolution’ was still not fully solved.
Me and Neil-chan were in the middle of listening to Elk’s little lecture…but suddenly, one man slammed the door open and barged inside.
“Minato-san!? Is Minato-san here!?”
As we checked who it was, it turned out to be someone clad in the vigilante corps’ clothes, and thus one of them, most likely.
He probably made a full dash towards this place as he seemed to be out of breath. However, his expression told us that he had no time to worry about it. What’s going on? What could he need from me?
Just as he saw me (+ Elk, Alba and Neil-chan) in the lobby, he rushed towards us while out of breath.
“Minato-san, I’m so glad you are here… Please come with me, I beg you! If possible… please bring that owl and miss Sherry with you, too!”
“H-Hey, wait… first, calm down. What happened? And why Sherry-san too?”
And why did he address her with a ‘miss’? Well, it doesn’t matter.
“I’ll explain later, please hurry! There is a monster… an unbelievable monstrosity is heading toward us from the eastern skies!”
“““!?”””
Just as we were shocked by his words, Alba sitting on my shoulder turned around with great vigour, as if something had entered his wild sensor.
That added to our concerns and we hurriedly left the inn.
I didn’t even need to head towards the watchtower to see that ‘monstrosity’ the vigilante corps witnessed… it was already close enough to see with the naked eye.
What was flying straight towards this village from the east at ultra-high speed was…
“““A Dragon?”””
It was the very monster that was popular in RPGs and such, with the very same appearance.
It was clad in jet black scales and had bat-like wings, as well as horns on its head; that’s all I could tell from this distance… but I could already feel the unbelievable pressure coming from it.
People who saw it were already starting to panic a little.
Sherry-san and Zally, who overheard the noise also came downstairs and were shocked to see it in the distance.
“H-Hey, isn’t that a…!?”
“…Come on, this isn’t funny anymore…. Is this town cursed or something? Unbelievable monsters are appearing one after another… So, Minato-kun, I feel bad for relying on you on this, but think you can do something about that?”
“…Well, I have never met one of those, so I’m afraid not…”
Judging by the distance and how big it currently appeared…it should be quite big in size.
If this town was attacked by something like that, there wouldn’t be anything left from it; one didn’t need to be a genius to realise that fact.
Actually, assuming we do put up a defensive line and fight it, we’d have to do all we can to keep it from entering, but I think that would be quite impossible… or rather, can we even fight against it? No matter how you look at it, it seems like it’s on a level where even Naga would be a joke to it.
If that happens, I’m not so sure whether me or Sherry-san can fight it… and if we consider the safety of the townsfolk, a complete evacuation seems to be the only way… no, I’m not sure if we can even do that…
Just as the grim mood started to spread among us…
“Aah, quiet down, people of ‘Minette’. Calm down. It’s okay, this guy won’t attack your town, so relax. You are wasting your strength, so settle down and stop running.”
“““!?”””
Without a warning, that telepathy — or more like a loud voice from speakers when making a wide-area business broadcast — reached everyone. It felt like it was forcefully crammed into our heads.
In a moment, every person who was on the verge of panicking was startled and stopped in their tracks. Even their voices died down and the place was wrapped in silence.
Their fear and bewilderment didn’t go away at all, but the current ‘indiscriminate telepathy’ knocked all of it down. More than the loudness, it was that overbearing voice that left no room for argument that achieved that. Everyone froze up, being even more bewildered than before. I was also included among them. No really, what was that just now!? Did that dragon actually speak!? You mean to tell me that’s a thing!?
…Wait, besides that, I think I’ve heard that voice before…
Before I could find an answer to any of my numerous questions, I heard the sound of something falling.
And the next moment, a single human came swooping down from the sky before our eyes… right in the middle of the road.
“““!!?”””
“Whew, I arrived… Sorry about that, everyone. It seems I scared you there.”
That person neatly landed on the ground with those casual words unsuitable to the current situation, and faced towards us…
And then, we finally confirmed who that person was… and became surprised all the more.
After all…
“Irene…san…!?”
“Hey, Minato-kun, you seem quite lively there. Thankfully, it seems that your injury has healed too.”
A living legend had suddenly made her appearance.
☆☆☆
After several dozen seconds that dragon made its descent. We then heard from Irene-san that the black dragon was actually… her mount.
That fellow was called ‘Delta’ and according to her, it was an S Rank monster, ‘Dark Dragon’… She told us to be at ease as she had it properly tamed, so it wouldn’t suddenly attack people.
It was currently lying down where it landed and was resting its wings.
And as for its master, Irene, she hurriedly asked the town mayor to lend her a room in the assembly hall… and then brought me, Elk, Sherry-san, Zally, as well as the Alraune Neil-chan — as she too was the involved party — to that place. Of course, Alba too.
The only thing she told us was, “I’ve got a little something to ask, so come.”
Presently, the five of us and one bird were sitting on the sofa across Irene-san inside that room. And she had yet to tell us why she called us here.
Moreover, there was also one more person sitting next to her… a man I have never seen before.
He had a black hair — quite unusual for this world — that just barely reached down to his chin.
He was a typical handsome boy with good features and a pair of glasses.
His height was quite something, too. Perhaps around 170 cm. He wore what looked like a simple, long robe… but it also looked like something a magician or someone like that would wear. He was currently eyeballing Irene-san while sighing from time to time.
“Good grief… you suddenly appeared without an appointment and told me to accompany you… That laid back nature of yours never changes, Irene-dono.”
“Sorry, sorry, Will-kun. It’s just that I heard you were finally done with the research you’ve been devoting yourself to and was having a day off, so I thought it might be fine. I was in a hurry, you know.”
“I wish you would understand that taking a day off usually means one wishes to rest and get rid of the fatigue… Oh well, not that I mind, really. I heard there was a fascinating sample here, and besides…” he clapped his hands and continued, “I heard I would be meeting my newest brother, so I was looking forward to it a bit.”
And that was when I finally realised that I was having a yet another chance meeting with one of my still-unknown siblings, and without any warning at that.
“I take it you are Minato-kun? Nice to meet you. I am William Kitz. the tenth man of Kadrille family. It might be strange to say this while doing a little chat… but I am your brother. I work as a biologist in the royal capital. Please call me ‘Will’, everyone calls me that. Let’s get along.”
“Ah, yes, umm… thank you for the polite introduction.”
Perhaps he felt my gaze on him or heard my sighs, the glasses-wearing man before me extended his hand for a handshake towards me, so likewise, I also responded in kind.
It seems that this new biologist brother of mine, William, was suddenly visited by Irene-san and was asked to accompany her, and was brought here all the way from that royal capital by riding that dragon.
…Uh, Irene-san? I feel like the abruptness and nonsensicality behind your actions is on the same level as my mother.
“I do feel bad about that. But as I already said, I was really in a hurry this time. The horse carrying the report from this town reached me at dawn today, and there were some points that caught my eye in it. So after I finished reading it, I jumped on Delta and made a dash.”
“…In other words, after you read the letter in ‘Volka’ at dawn, you flew to that ‘Royal Capital,’ and then took Will-niisan and came to this ‘Flower Valley’?”
She departed at dawn… but it’s still just forenoon now.
A one-way trip to here from Volka took us a few days by carriage… and you are telling me that she covered that distance in just a few hours, and even dropped in the Royal Capital on the way? There’s something wrong with that speed.
“That’s just how in a hurry I was. So yeah, let me get down to business at once… Minato-kun, Elk-chan, Zally-kun, and also… Sherry-san and Neil-chan, I believe. Please tell me about the monsters you fought during this incident, and make it as detailed as possible.”
As she requested, we talked with her about the current incident in great detail.
How the ‘North’ came here aiming to kidnap the Dryads and Alraune, abducted the village elder’s daughter to threaten him, and tried to have me and Sherry-san take each other out, but their plan ended in failure.
How the drug that was used during that time was the reason behind monsters turning brutish and attacking the town.
How a plant monster — it was called ‘Tropical Tyrant according to Irene-san — appeared from the forest during that time and how we fought it.
As well as… how we encountered an unknown, black dinosaur-man monster and how I fought it one on one.
And how I pushed myself a little and used my ‘Trump Card’, but still landed a decisive blow to it.
While I was at it, I also told her that I once encountered a similar monster in the ‘Sea of Trees’, albeit with different body colour.
Will-niisan asked us to show him the materials we collected on this occasion, so I asked Zally and we took out the potatoes the ‘Tropical Tyrant’ left behind, as well as the scales, claws and fangs of the Unknown.
Will-niisan took a little glance at the potatoes and quickly returned them back to us, however, he took his time with inspecting the small quantity of the ‘Unknown’s’ materials, even going so far as to take them in hand and inspect them with a magnifying glass.
At times, he fluently noted things down on the paper he used as a note while carefully observing, or more accurately, ‘Appraising’ it. Irene-san observed him from the side with a smiling yet serious face.
Seeing that I finally realised it.
That the reason these two suddenly appeared here was that ‘Unknown’.
After taking a good 10 minutes to appraise its claws, fangs and scales, Will-niisan leaked a sigh and put those materials down. Seeing that, Irene-san enquired about the results.
Will-niisan looked at the paper (roughly A4 size) where he noted down things and said.
“I believe there is no mistake. I examined the structure, the magical reaction and the such, and roughly speaking, there is a match. However, there are various minute differences aside from the colour, like density and magical conductivity, so it’s most probably…”
“A subspecies, yes?”
“Yes, I think it is safe to say that.”
“““…?”””
Irene-san and Will-niisan exchanged those words in a mysterious manner. And after thinking for a while, she looked straight at me and said.
“Minato-kun, would it be possible to leave all these materials in my care? Of course, for suitable compensation.”
“Aah, so it came to that after all, huh?”
She had her usual smile on her face, however, her eyes were dead serious… They gave off a kind of oppressive feeling, seeming to swallow you up.
The atmosphere she gave off felt as if — or perhaps it really was like that — she was simply ‘confirming’ it while assuming that I would give my consent… as if she was pressuring me towards that option.
Regardless of whether she was aiming to do that, or it was simply the end result, to think she could do all that with just a stare… This person is really unbelievable.
But well, since she was being so serious about it, there was probably appropriate circumstances behind it… and I wasn’t really reluctant to consent to it either. Though it was Zally that gathered them all.
But his eyes conveyed to me that he was leaving the decision to me. He probably had a big interest in them as an informant, however, he didn’t want them to the point that he would reject a direct request from the Guild Master.
In that case, there is no problem. However…
“Well, I don’t mind if that’s what you want… but — and this isn’t really something I’m asking in exchange — can I ask something?”
“What is it? Well, I think I already have an idea.”
Well, given where this conversation was going, of course she would.
“Just what kind of monster is that lizard? Not a single person knew about it, and just about everything was different with it… Is it a rare monster, after all?”
I asked around about it after everything was over, but no one had a clue. Be it the well-informed Elk, or the informant Zally, or Sherry-san with her peculiar knowledge as a Dark Elf, or Neil-chan who was familiar with the surrounding ecology as an Alraune(I suppose she is no longer one, but still), or anyone from the town or ‘North’.
Not to mention that unbelievable strength that I had experienced four years prior, too.
Whether it be its offence, defence, endurance or even agility… there was no monster that could compare to either of them from the ones I have met so far (excluding mom’s pets).
I don’t like to boast about myself, but whenever I seriously struck it, it responded with a strike of its own; it was smart enough to imitate the skills of humans… I can’t even remember how many times I was surprised in that short battle.
Based on its low familiarity, it shouldn’t be something that you meet so often… but it’s still weighing on my mind. If possible, I’d like to know more about it.
As she listened to me, Irene-san pondered a bit and opened her mouth with “well, I suppose it’s fine.”
“Let me say this first, but even I don’t know much about that monster, okay? It’s a monster whose sightings have barely gone up ever since its existence was acknowledged by the Guild a few decades ago.”
With those words as a preface, Irene-san started the talk.
“The name of that monster is… ‘Diabolos’. It is a monster that belongs to the strongest class among the nine monster group classifications… to the ‘Dragonkind’ class just like Delta.”
☆☆☆
First things first, hello. You can call me Hikari.
I decided to give TLing Maken a shot, seeing that it’s been dead for years and it’s really a shame. As such, I decided to continue from where the last translator left it off years ago (as well as where the manga currently is). I’m aware that their website has been nuked, but a little google search can still dig up those chapters for anyone wanting to start from scratch.
That said, I’m still testing the waters with it, so I may or may not continue. At the very least, I plan to finish this batch of 3 gigantic chapters (like really, a whooping 40k characters in total) in parts. It’s a relatively shorter part this time (as it was more of a self-motivator), but I think I will divide this in 4-5 parts in total.
Anyway, what to expect from my translations of this or any other novel I may pick up:
1. I’m neither a native English speaker and nor do I have an editor, so there can and will be some awkward parts, typos and such. If you feel like pointing them out, however, I will be more than happy to fix.
2. My Japanese itself is decent (N2-1-ish), so I can somewhat guarantee the accuracy.
3. As it is a hassle to dig up the old terms, I will be mostly following the Manga terms. And in places, I will use my own versions.
4. I don’t have a set release rate so expect random updates, at least for a good while.
With that said, hope you enjoy the TL~
This might sound strange, but at that time, I could instantly tell that I was seeing a ‘Dream’.
There was a dark forest, one so dense that almost no sunlight could reach within… and it was filled with plants that were clearly not of earthly origins.
I remembered what these were, hence why I could tell.
That this forest was the same ‘Sea of Trees’ where I was born and raised.
And that the scenery before my eyes was probably… a dream.
After all, I should’ve left that place behind quite long ago. But now it suddenly appeared before me, so it couldn’t have been anything but a dream.
Also, there was yet another sight before me, one that felt exceedingly out of place.
Seeing this was what made me think “this can’t be real” and decisively judge it as a dream.
“…Still, even if this is a dream, there was surely a better choice than this…”
There stood two people, the two I knew very well.
One of them was… me. My past self, to be specific… from, I believe, around 1-2 years ago.
And the other was — perhaps you could call it fitting for this time axis and place — my mother. Naturally, I’m referring to the one after my reincarnation.
But her being with me itself was nothing out of the ordinary, considering she was my mother and all. All the more so if it was a dream.
…If you were to ask what looked wrong in it… it would be the fact the two of us were covered in blood and full of wounds, with our breaths out of order.
Seeing it from the side made it look as if… that was the result of a bloody deathmatch between me and my mother…
“…I’m not sure whether or not I wanted to see it to the end.”
“You wake up and that’s the first thing you say?”
And as such, just as I woke up from my bad — or should I say ambiguous — dream, Elk was fast to greet me with that retort.
By the way, if you are wondering why Elk was next to me when I woke up, I wish to use my right to remain silent.
☆☆☆
“We have a guest?”
“That’s right. It is a woman… and they claim to be your acquaintance, Minato-sama.”
As I started the morning in a bad mood and was on my way to downstairs with Elk and Alba to grab some food, the innkeeper stopped me with those words.
According to him, our guest seemed to be a girl… but who could it be?
If I were to speak of my female acquaintances, there was Sherry-san who also stayed in this inn… but I don’t think there was anyone else whom I could really call an acquaintance, was there…?
Just as I was wondering that, Elk warned me to be careful; she said there were some women who approached guys with false accusations like, “we deepened our bonds when you were drunk” and such. Ouch, so there are such nasty girls, huh… as expected of another world. Quite a lawless place this is.
I kept that possibility in my mind and headed towards the lobby where that woman waited, all while shaking my head in annoyance.
The one waiting for me there was…hmm?
It was someone I felt like I knew, but at the same time, didn’t; I couldn’t quite put my finger on either.
If I had to be frank, she was quite a looker, no questions asked. She had a cute face, with traces of immaturity still present, and a shoulder-length green hair, albeit a lighter shade compared to Elk.
She wore a refined green dress, with a leaf brooch on her chest and a leaf ornament of the same design on her hair.
Her seemingly embarrassed — or perhaps perplexed — face, coupled with her bashful conduct was quite cute, to be fair.
Enough for Elk to glare at me with somewhat murderous eyes from the side.
Err, in any case…
“Uh, hey~ …do we know each other? I’m sorry, but I’m having a hard time recalling your face…”
“Eh, a-ah… I see, so you don’t know…”
When I asked that, she appeared to be shocked for an instant, and then muttered those words as if she had given up on something. Was that part of the act too? Is this heading towards the route Elk mentioned?
Before either of us could open their mouth, Elk stepped in front of me with a stern expression and asked her. Or rather, pressed for an answer.
“Can you skip your needless preface and start with introducing yourself? Who are you supposed to be? What’s your relationship with Minato? If this is some weird scheme of yours…I’m not gonna forgive you, you hear me?”
“I-I’m not planning anything! I’m just, um… ah! That’s it! if I do this…”
She was bombarded by Elk and started to panic, but then she hit upon some idea and closed her eyes… the next moment,
“D-Do you understand it with this, Minato-san, Elk-san?”
““!!?””
…What the?
Is this… telepathy? And moreover, this magic power belongs to… a ‘Dryad’!?
Ah, wait, that was kinda misleading.
Only Elk can perceive Dryad-chans’ telepathy; a matter of talent, I suppose. And Zally, too, since he possesses the interception item.
The only ‘Telepathy’ I can receive is from Neil, the Alraune. And only when she’s really close at that. But that’s apparently because Alraune, who are higher species of Dryads, have powerful telepathy by default, so it can somehow do its job even if one doesn’t have a talent for it.
In fact, whenever the Dryads contacted us during this incident, it was usually either Elk — or me too if I was close — who received Neil-chan’s tele-… wait, hold on a minute.
Since I can hear this telepathy, does it mean that the girl before my eyes is actually…
No, but that can’t be… I mean, yesterday she was definitely…
However, as if she had read what I was thinking, she took a deep breath… looked directly at still-bewildered Elk and me, and — intentionally using telepathy — declared to us.
“You may not believe me… but it’s really me, Neil!”
The ‘Neil-chan of the Alraune’ inside my memories was a girl who looked like a middle school freshman with red hair and clothes, as well as a red flower ornament on her hair.
However, the current ‘Neil-chan’ before my eyes had… a pale green hair and a matching green dress. Her hair ornament looked like a leaf, and she now had a brooch too. Even her height was closer to a high schooler now.
She had changed way too much overnight, or rather, I couldn’t even believe she was the same Neil-chan, however… she knew about us, about things we talked in her presence, about things only she should’ve known, as well as what I ‘requested’ and ‘did’ with her last night.
Ah, I’ll say this in advance, but I haven’t requested anything I should feel guilty about. Really, I didn’t. Though I’ll omit the details.
In any case, it turned out that this beauty was the real Neil-chan.
It seems that even she was surprised after finding herself looking like that when she woke up. What the heck?
While she was racking her brain on how to handle the situation, the Dryad-chans also woke up… however, their surprise apparently lasted for only a moment and they quickly accepted her with ‘It’s Neil-oneechan!’ That’s quite amazing.
But she still felt anxious about it, so she decided to meet with me and Elk, the two humans she could trust, and ask us if we knew the reason behind her drastic change.
When I asked her how she found out that we were staying in this inn, it turned out that she identified our location by sensing our magical powers, much like a radar.
Apparently, even this ability was something she could suddenly use since this morning. Again, what the heck?
Thus, after she explained all that to us in a desperate manner, she asked whether we knew anything about it… but unfortunately, I had no idea. Neither what her change (at this point, it’s better to call it a transformation) was, nor why it happened.
However, Elk had a hunch on what her sudden change itself could be, setting aside the cause behind it.
According to her, some Spirit and Undead type monsters could, in extremely rare cases, ‘Evolve’ into a higher species by fulfilling certain requirements.
It was much like how Dryads became Alraune.
And Neil-chan was an ‘Alraune’. Since it was a Spiritual race, then perhaps by some kind of factor she was made to ‘Evolve’ and become an even higher species of ‘Alraune’? Elk built up such a hypothesis.
But still, I know I’m repeating it again, but I didn’t know the reason behind it. Even Elk had nothing to offer regarding that… or to be more specific, the whole mechanism behind that ‘Evolution’ was still not fully solved.
Me and Neil-chan were in the middle of listening to Elk’s little lecture…but suddenly, one man slammed the door open and barged inside.
“Minato-san!? Is Minato-san here!?”
As we checked who it was, it turned out to be someone clad in the vigilante corps’ clothes, and thus one of them, most likely.
He probably made a full dash towards this place as he seemed to be out of breath. However, his expression told us that he had no time to worry about it. What’s going on? What could he need from me?
Just as he saw me (+ Elk, Alba and Neil-chan) in the lobby, he rushed towards us while out of breath.
“Minato-san, I’m so glad you are here… Please come with me, I beg you! If possible… please bring that owl and miss Sherry with you, too!”
“H-Hey, wait… first, calm down. What happened? And why Sherry-san too?”
And why did he address her with a ‘miss’? Well, it doesn’t matter.
“I’ll explain later, please hurry! There is a monster… an unbelievable monstrosity is heading toward us from the eastern skies!”
“““!?”””
Just as we were shocked by his words, Alba sitting on my shoulder turned around with great vigour, as if something had entered his wild sensor.
That added to our concerns and we hurriedly left the inn.
I didn’t even need to head towards the watchtower to see that ‘monstrosity’ the vigilante corps witnessed… it was already close enough to see with the naked eye.
What was flying straight towards this village from the east at ultra-high speed was…
“““A Dragon?”””
It was the very monster that was popular in RPGs and such, with the very same appearance.
It was clad in jet black scales and had bat-like wings, as well as horns on its head; that’s all I could tell from this distance… but I could already feel the unbelievable pressure coming from it.
People who saw it were already starting to panic a little.
Sherry-san and Zally, who overheard the noise also came downstairs and were shocked to see it in the distance.
“H-Hey, isn’t that a…!?”
“…Come on, this isn’t funny anymore…. Is this town cursed or something? Unbelievable monsters are appearing one after another… So, Minato-kun, I feel bad for relying on you on this, but think you can do something about that?”
“…Well, I have never met one of those, so I’m afraid not…”
Judging by the distance and how big it currently appeared…it should be quite big in size.
If this town was attacked by something like that, there wouldn’t be anything left from it; one didn’t need to be a genius to realise that fact.
Actually, assuming we do put up a defensive line and fight it, we’d have to do all we can to keep it from entering, but I think that would be quite impossible… or rather, can we even fight against it? No matter how you look at it, it seems like it’s on a level where even Naga would be a joke to it.
If that happens, I’m not so sure whether me or Sherry-san can fight it… and if we consider the safety of the townsfolk, a complete evacuation seems to be the only way… no, I’m not sure if we can even do that…
Just as the grim mood started to spread among us…
“Aah, quiet down, people of ‘Minette’. Calm down. It’s okay, this guy won’t attack your town, so relax. You are wasting your strength, so settle down and stop running.”
“““!?”””
Without a warning, that telepathy — or more like a loud voice from speakers when making a wide-area business broadcast — reached everyone. It felt like it was forcefully crammed into our heads.
In a moment, every person who was on the verge of panicking was startled and stopped in their tracks. Even their voices died down and the place was wrapped in silence.
Their fear and bewilderment didn’t go away at all, but the current ‘indiscriminate telepathy’ knocked all of it down. More than the loudness, it was that overbearing voice that left no room for argument that achieved that. Everyone froze up, being even more bewildered than before. I was also included among them. No really, what was that just now!? Did that dragon actually speak!? You mean to tell me that’s a thing!?
…Wait, besides that, I think I’ve heard that voice before…
Before I could find an answer to any of my numerous questions, I heard the sound of something falling.
And the next moment, a single human came swooping down from the sky before our eyes… right in the middle of the road.
“““!!?”””
“Whew, I arrived… Sorry about that, everyone. It seems I scared you there.”
That person neatly landed on the ground with those casual words unsuitable to the current situation, and faced towards us…
And then, we finally confirmed who that person was… and became surprised all the more.
After all…
“Irene…san…!?”
“Hey, Minato-kun, you seem quite lively there. Thankfully, it seems that your injury has healed too.”
A living legend had suddenly made her appearance.
☆☆☆
After several dozen seconds that dragon made its descent. We then heard from Irene-san that the black dragon was actually… her mount.
That fellow was called ‘Delta’ and according to her, it was an S Rank monster, ‘Dark Dragon’… She told us to be at ease as she had it properly tamed, so it wouldn’t suddenly attack people.
It was currently lying down where it landed and was resting its wings.
And as for its master, Irene, she hurriedly asked the town mayor to lend her a room in the assembly hall… and then brought me, Elk, Sherry-san, Zally, as well as the Alraune Neil-chan — as she too was the involved party — to that place. Of course, Alba too.
The only thing she told us was, “I’ve got a little something to ask, so come.”
Presently, the five of us and one bird were sitting on the sofa across Irene-san inside that room. And she had yet to tell us why she called us here.
Moreover, there was also one more person sitting next to her… a man I have never seen before.
He had a black hair — quite unusual for this world — that just barely reached down to his chin.
He was a typical handsome boy with good features and a pair of glasses.
His height was quite something, too. Perhaps around 170 cm. He wore what looked like a simple, long robe… but it also looked like something a magician or someone like that would wear. He was currently eyeballing Irene-san while sighing from time to time.
“Good grief… you suddenly appeared without an appointment and told me to accompany you… That laid back nature of yours never changes, Irene-dono.”
“Sorry, sorry, Will-kun. It’s just that I heard you were finally done with the research you’ve been devoting yourself to and was having a day off, so I thought it might be fine. I was in a hurry, you know.”
“I wish you would understand that taking a day off usually means one wishes to rest and get rid of the fatigue… Oh well, not that I mind, really. I heard there was a fascinating sample here, and besides…” he clapped his hands and continued, “I heard I would be meeting my newest brother, so I was looking forward to it a bit.”
And that was when I finally realised that I was having a yet another chance meeting with one of my still-unknown siblings, and without any warning at that.
“I take it you are Minato-kun? Nice to meet you. I am William Kitz. the tenth man of Kadrille family. It might be strange to say this while doing a little chat… but I am your brother. I work as a biologist in the royal capital. Please call me ‘Will’, everyone calls me that. Let’s get along.”
“Ah, yes, umm… thank you for the polite introduction.”
Perhaps he felt my gaze on him or heard my sighs, the glasses-wearing man before me extended his hand for a handshake towards me, so likewise, I also responded in kind.
It seems that this new biologist brother of mine, William, was suddenly visited by Irene-san and was asked to accompany her, and was brought here all the way from that royal capital by riding that dragon.
…Uh, Irene-san? I feel like the abruptness and nonsensicality behind your actions is on the same level as my mother.
“I do feel bad about that. But as I already said, I was really in a hurry this time. The horse carrying the report from this town reached me at dawn today, and there were some points that caught my eye in it. So after I finished reading it, I jumped on Delta and made a dash.”
“…In other words, after you read the letter in ‘Volka’ at dawn, you flew to that ‘Royal Capital,’ and then took Will-niisan and came to this ‘Flower Valley’?”
She departed at dawn… but it’s still just forenoon now.
A one-way trip to here from Volka took us a few days by carriage… and you are telling me that she covered that distance in just a few hours, and even dropped in the Royal Capital on the way? There’s something wrong with that speed.
“That’s just how in a hurry I was. So yeah, let me get down to business at once… Minato-kun, Elk-chan, Zally-kun, and also… Sherry-san and Neil-chan, I believe. Please tell me about the monsters you fought during this incident, and make it as detailed as possible.”
As she requested, we talked with her about the current incident in great detail.
How the ‘North’ came here aiming to kidnap the Dryads and Alraune, abducted the village elder’s daughter to threaten him, and tried to have me and Sherry-san take each other out, but their plan ended in failure.
How the drug that was used during that time was the reason behind monsters turning brutish and attacking the town.
How a plant monster — it was called ‘Tropical Tyrant according to Irene-san — appeared from the forest during that time and how we fought it.
As well as… how we encountered an unknown, black dinosaur-man monster and how I fought it one on one.
And how I pushed myself a little and used my ‘Trump Card’, but still landed a decisive blow to it.
While I was at it, I also told her that I once encountered a similar monster in the ‘Sea of Trees’, albeit with different body colour.
Will-niisan asked us to show him the materials we collected on this occasion, so I asked Zally and we took out the potatoes the ‘Tropical Tyrant’ left behind, as well as the scales, claws and fangs of the Unknown.
Will-niisan took a little glance at the potatoes and quickly returned them back to us, however, he took his time with inspecting the small quantity of the ‘Unknown’s’ materials, even going so far as to take them in hand and inspect them with a magnifying glass.
At times, he fluently noted things down on the paper he used as a note while carefully observing, or more accurately, ‘Appraising’ it. Irene-san observed him from the side with a smiling yet serious face.
Seeing that I finally realised it.
That the reason these two suddenly appeared here was that ‘Unknown’.
After taking a good 10 minutes to appraise its claws, fangs and scales, Will-niisan leaked a sigh and put those materials down. Seeing that, Irene-san enquired about the results.
Will-niisan looked at the paper (roughly A4 size) where he noted down things and said.
“I believe there is no mistake. I examined the structure, the magical reaction and the such, and roughly speaking, there is a match. However, there are various minute differences aside from the colour, like density and magical conductivity, so it’s most probably…”
“A subspecies, yes?”
“Yes, I think it is safe to say that.”
“““…?”””
Irene-san and Will-niisan exchanged those words in a mysterious manner. And after thinking for a while, she looked straight at me and said.
“Minato-kun, would it be possible to leave all these materials in my care? Of course, for suitable compensation.”
“Aah, so it came to that after all, huh?”
She had her usual smile on her face, however, her eyes were dead serious… They gave off a kind of oppressive feeling, seeming to swallow you up.
The atmosphere she gave off felt as if — or perhaps it really was like that — she was simply ‘confirming’ it while assuming that I would give my consent… as if she was pressuring me towards that option.
Regardless of whether she was aiming to do that, or it was simply the end result, to think she could do all that with just a stare… This person is really unbelievable.
But well, since she was being so serious about it, there was probably appropriate circumstances behind it… and I wasn’t really reluctant to consent to it either. Though it was Zally that gathered them all.
But his eyes conveyed to me that he was leaving the decision to me. He probably had a big interest in them as an informant, however, he didn’t want them to the point that he would reject a direct request from the Guild Master.
In that case, there is no problem. However…
“Well, I don’t mind if that’s what you want… but — and this isn’t really something I’m asking in exchange — can I ask something?”
“What is it? Well, I think I already have an idea.”
Well, given where this conversation was going, of course she would.
“Just what kind of monster is that lizard? Not a single person knew about it, and just about everything was different with it… Is it a rare monster, after all?”
I asked around about it after everything was over, but no one had a clue. Be it the well-informed Elk, or the informant Zally, or Sherry-san with her peculiar knowledge as a Dark Elf, or Neil-chan who was familiar with the surrounding ecology as an Alraune(I suppose she is no longer one, but still), or anyone from the town or ‘North’.
Not to mention that unbelievable strength that I had experienced four years prior, too.
Whether it be its offence, defence, endurance or even agility… there was no monster that could compare to either of them from the ones I have met so far (excluding mom’s pets).
I don’t like to boast about myself, but whenever I seriously struck it, it responded with a strike of its own; it was smart enough to imitate the skills of humans… I can’t even remember how many times I was surprised in that short battle.
Based on its low familiarity, it shouldn’t be something that you meet so often… but it’s still weighing on my mind. If possible, I’d like to know more about it.
As she listened to me, Irene-san pondered a bit and opened her mouth with “well, I suppose it’s fine.”
“Let me say this first, but even I don’t know much about that monster, okay? It’s a monster whose sightings have barely gone up ever since its existence was acknowledged by the Guild a few decades ago.”
With those words as a preface, Irene-san started the talk.
“The name of that monster is… ‘Diabolos’. It is a monster that belongs to the strongest class among the nine monster group classifications… to the ‘Dragonkind’ class just like Delta.”
☆☆☆
