Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Magic Tower and the Ruins
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The vegetables in the sandwich crunched satisfyingly, and the meat in the stew was tender to the chew—a most gratifying meal.
The horses, stuffed full of boiled beans and fresh young grass, brimmed with energy compared to yesterday.
"Let's recharge before we head out."
I spoke as casually as if I were popping into a convenience store before catching the bus, then made for the magic tower.
We'd come all the way to a proper city—might as well top off on grass to put my mind at ease.
It was a mining town, after all, so the magic tower's standards were what they were. With no reputation or trust to my name yet, anything beyond basic spells would be a hard sell for enchantment. But beggars can't be choosers.
"Nya-llo. What brings you here, nya?"
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Even brothers from the same litter were a genetic crapshoot, so I knew beastkin appearances ran the gamut from nearly human to almost fully animal.
I just hadn't expected one that looked like a housecat scaled up to human size.
Staring at the massive cat clerk—with her faintly gray fur striped in bold patterns—I felt a surge of both adoration and terror.
That jelly-like paw waving in greeting? Adorably cute...
But a cat this big? One errant swipe of those claws...
"I've come for some enchantments."
Business first. I strode forward, pitching my voice just a touch imperiously.
No rep, no trust? Better to subtly flex my noble status—even if it meant getting fleeced, it'd at least lower the enchantment difficulty.
"Nyaat... Enchantments, nya? Pre-made scrolls are way more con-nya-nient and cheaper, nya."
Pillow-soft paw pressed to her cheek, head cocked in that quizzical way.
"Huaa... She's too cute..."
Luna was already done for.
"I've got my own item I want enchanted. Just do it."
"Mmm, got it, nya. This way."
Did she get a commission on scroll sales or something?
Her slightly crestfallen expression as she led us on tugged at my heartstrings, but there was no helping it.
"What spells do you want enchanted, nya?"
We climbed to the second floor, a parlor decked out like something from an ordinary mansion, where we were served tea. I opened my mouth.
"Everything enchantable here. And throw in some daily life spells handy for travel."
I drew the codex from my small sub-space and flicked it lightly into the air. It bobbed up on its own, pages unfurling beneath my gaze and scattering a sprinkle of soft light.
"Mnya. A codex. Haven't seen one in a while, nya. Not thinking of selling this one... nyahaha."
She shot me a quick glance before scooping up the codex and padding off with it.
I was tempted to sneak a peek at her traits through the user's eye, but I restrained myself.
Maybe it dinged the immersion every time I used it.
'Like Cain's Indomitable.'
No need to indulge mere curiosity, then.
"No enchantments third-class or higher, nya. This'll have to do."
After a short wait, she returned, clutching the codex in her plush paw.
I took it, flipped it open, and scanned the contents.
Simple attack spells. Part-shields of fixed size instead of full-body barriers.
Alarm spells. Fire-lighting, water creation, body-cleaning—daily necessities.
Ample neutralization magic for basic poisons or monster miasma.
Not a bad lineup.
The price tag, though? Something no ordinary adventurer could scrape together in a lifetime.
Well, I'm Adelian.
"Come again soon, nya! Bye for now!"
She saw us all the way to the magic tower entrance, waving that jelly-paw of hers in an exuberant farewell.
I grabbed the reins after leaving the tower, figuring we'd walk to the city gates, when I bumped into someone else.
"Watch where you're going!"
A sharp shout, tiny fangs glinting.
Skin with a faint blue sheen, those fangs, pointed ears to boot.
Obviously no human child—this one spat her accusation with haughty spunk before trying to flounce off, only for Cain to snatch her by the scruff.
"No way..."
"What the—let go!"
I eyed her suspiciously, but Cain wordlessly passed the kid to Luna. Luna patted her down thoroughly and fished something from my pocket.
Oh right. Forgot about that enchantment.
"Doing stuff like this... is bad..."
"What's it to you?"
This city... was a lost cause.
I sighed, clutching my coin pouch—relieved from me twice now.
We handed her off to a passing patrolman yet again, slunk back to the magic tower in embarrassment, and scored an anti-theft enchantment as a complimentary service.
"But Cain, why didn't you shake her upside down and frisk her?"
I knotted my coin pouch securely to my belt and put the question to him. He answered evenly.
"Ain folk face oppression most everywhere, so they slip into crime easily. If there's a chance to set her straight, no need to get rough."
This protagonist?
Nothing like yesterday. What a speciesist.
I'd have to keep schooling him steadily. For real.
I sighed and shook my head, mounting up once we reached Sl City's gates.
We rode not the main highway, but a crude track scarcely worthy of the name "road," bound for Cain's village. Long hours passed.
The low grass had grown tall—no one had come this way in ages.
"Roughly, how long by horse?"
"Who knows. Took all day on foot when I was still a kid to reach that city."
I gazed at him from my gently rocking saddle: thoughtful expression, tinged with bitterness. Or maybe regret.
Lost in childhood memories?
"Well... tell us your old story. We hardly know anything yet."
Truth be told, I knew his entire past without him saying a word.
Still, I tossed it out there. Sometimes just giving voice to it sorted the heart and brought solace.
Hoping he'd vent a little to me and Luna.
"Well, it's too common a tale. Slash-and-burn folk banding together to dodge taxes."
Honest mother, steadfast father. Adorable little sister.
Small and poor, but a village where everyone looked out for each other.
Yeah, common enough. Back in my modern life, I'd seen it plenty—in movies, dramas, games, novels.
Protagonists always got hit with trials; we loved watching them overcome.
But to the man himself? Pain beyond compare. I felt it vividly, right there beside him.
"It was the day I went alone into the woods to pick fruit my sister wanted."
The fruit lay deep in the forest. I picked my fill, then rested midway up a slope overlooking the village. That's when child-Cain saw it.
Villagers and his parents offered up alive as human sacrifice.
"Black smoke rose from the village below."
He tumbled and rolled running down, shoes lost, feet shredded bloody by rocks and roots, dragging himself to the scene—too late. Everything was over.
"No one was left when I got there."
Dazed and wailing in despair, he crawled on rags that were his legs toward the city, begging for help. That's when a black mage appeared and took him away.
"That's the end of it."
No. Not even close.
Then came five years of grotesque vivisections.
Even among the test subjects, there were hierarchies and societies. Cain was used, betrayed—but endured to the end and survived.
He finally stabbed the black mage and escaped, only for the one he begged for aid to be a man-eating witch, unfortunately.
Escaped again; the kind man he met next shackled his ankle and put him to work as the village's communal slave.
Escaped once more, wandered lost, met people—and again.
Until he was sold off to an auction house.
A tale only Cain and I knew in this world.
"You've been through hell."
But when he said that was the end, I played dumb and spoke up—though I couldn't quite hide my unease.
Because I knew.
All Cain had ever wanted was to live happily with his family again.
But the only family left him was...
Just find someone you love and be happy. I'll help.
'Our hero retired with his beloved, had kids, and lived happily ever after.'
Thunk!
"Eh...?"
An arrow nailed me in the head out of nowhere. I turned blankly.
"Goblins."
"Looks like an ambush!"
An arrow? In this mood?
Too ridiculous—I hadn't even raised my shield. Pendant expended.
No spare lives for a month now, thanks to one goblin.
I activated my shield belatedly, smirking through the boiling irritation.
Monsters were foes no matter the route, threats to all humanity. No mercy needed.
"Kiek! Drop everything! Khek! Hand it over!"
Ah! A pack of wild goblin bandits appears!
Go get 'em, Cainmon.
"Kill them all."
Far from the highway, they'd thrived—a dozen or so slinking in to encircle us.
I pulled the codex from my sub-space and set it afloat; it bobbed near me, pages riffling automatically.
Cain batted away poison darts aimed at the horses with his sword. The three war-trained mounts formed up on instinct, pawing the earth.
Cain up front, Luna in back.
As they dismounted and charged, I shielded up to guard the horses and took in the full scene from horseback.
I spotted the tree-perched goblins—the ones who'd nailed my head with their crude arrows—then laid a hand on the codex.
"By the power of truth."
Mere first-class spells, but triggering three pages of neutral magic missiles at once felt like an FPS aim-assist kicking in.
Cain's momentum-fueled slash sent two goblin heads flying; my gestured missiles struck the treetop goblins and detonated.
Glance back: Luna had kicked one goblin's head clean off, then twisted midair to heel-drop another—its skull caving inward past the shoulder.
"Their blood isn't green, huh."
Monster blood was red, in truth.
Less creepy thanks to immersion? Or...
'Mortal Kombat felt more brutal.'
Yanking the reins, I let the horse trample a goblin slinking through the grass with a rusty dagger aimed at its legs. I pondered.
A dull crunching sound.
"Ugh... I'm all dirty now... The blood's got poison in it... Gotta burn them before they contaminate the soil..."
"No, I'll purify it."
I watched Cain and Luna pile the dead goblins off to one side, frowned faintly, approached, flipped the codex to cast purification, then asked Cain.
"Any water nearby?"
"Not close, from what I remember."
Thank goodness we'd enchanted ahead of time.
I turned from the sight I had no need to linger on, chuckling at Cain—splattered red here and there—and Luna, pouting over her sticky legs below the knees.
"See? Ample funds are the key to quality of life. Note it well, Cain. Can't buy or sell comfortably—or live easy—if you hate talking."
To that stubborn head-turner, I found the clean spell in the codex and whisked away the bloodstains as best it could.
"Won't feel refreshing, but you're clean now. Let's go."
Luna's horse, Bess, had wandered off chasing beetles in the interim, but barring that, no major incidents—we mounted up again.
'Weird.'
Wasn't especially shocked. No trauma from the killing.
Yet my hands trembled oddly.
I gripped the reins in one hand, shook out the eerie-feeling other into the air, then clutched them both tight.
* * *
"Here we are."
As the sun began its descent.
One side of the blue sky smoldered pale orange.
Rounding a massive boulder tangled in woods, we stepped out to find collapsed, charred house skeletons standing alone on an empty plain.
"This is... your hometown?"
The whole scene fit in one glance.
A trickling stream, a tiny well deeper in.
Now overgrown and choked with weeds, it bore little trace of human hands.
A weathered signpost—village entrance marker—not far off lay splintered and half-buried, proclaiming it once a small settlement.
Perched atop it, as if nothing else worth mounting stood nearby, a lone crow. It soon took wing in a whirl, circling close by.
Caw!
That eerie cry drew my eyes up: red-eyed and frantic, the crow wheeled once overhead in ill omen before vanishing somewhere.
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