Chapter 99 Ingrid's Summons
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Translator: JayM
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Ingrid's Summons
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Clack. Clack.
A familiar shaking. The nostalgic feeling of something supporting his back and buttocks.
Jeong Yoo-shin opened his eyes.
“What?”
He was sitting on a train seat.
Jeong Yoo-shin looked around blankly. An empty train car. There was no one else here.
He turned his gaze.
Outside the train window, the ocean stretched out endlessly.
The evening sea shimmered with the hues of the setting sun. Vermilion. Nature's gift at the end of the day.
Clack. Clack.
Jeong Yoo-shin’s mouth opened slightly in time with the shaking.
“What is this?”
He had killed the Giant Spider in the Forest area and met the deer beast-person.
He had been suspicious when the beast-person said that Ashur had sent him, but he believed it after seeing the sandbag.
That was his last memory.
Had there been an accident during his return?
Was he transported again?
Since he had been dragged into this other world without any rhyme or reason, it was possible that he had been transported somewhere else again.
No.
That wasn’t it. Mana Adaptation. The phenomenon of the body mutating due to mana. This was likely what people called leveling up.
A dream.
As he reached this conclusion, his turbulent mind calmed down.
He leaned back comfortably in his seat and admired the ocean, enjoying the peace in the empty train car.
The train was going somewhere.
The fact that he wasn't stagnant, whether in reality or in this dream, soothed his mind.
“Hmm?”
Something changed. Two people appeared at either end of the train car.
Karin and Mion.
Strangely, both of them were wearing school uniforms.
“Karin…? Mion…?”
Was this a dream or reality? Could his wicked mind have conjured up such an illusion?
Karin was wearing a short skirt that revealed her healthy thighs, and her leopard-print bra was faintly visible beneath her white shirt.
Mion, on the other hand, was wearing a modest skirt, but her soft, plump thighs clung to it regardless. Although she was wearing a long-sleeved cardigan, her ample bosom strained against her shirt, clearly revealing a black lace bra.
The two of them walked towards him and sat down close on either side of him.
“Karin, Mion, how did you…?”
The two women, as if they couldn’t hear him, just sat quietly while glaring at each other.
“Karin, I can take better care of him. Why are you here?”
“Mion, what are you doing here? Skar is my employer, so it’s only right that I take care of him.”
“That’s absurd. Why are you even here? The others are working hard downstairs. There’s no reason for you to be up here alone, Karin.”
“S-Stay away!”
“I-I don’t want to. You stay away, Karin.”
As the two women moved closer to him, Jeong Yoo-shin suddenly felt suffocated.
There was a feeling of being pressed down by something heavy.
“Gasp… gasp. Please, both of you, move away for a moment.”
Jeong Yoo-shin struggled to speak, but the two women continued their argument as if he wasn’t even there.
“J-Just a moment… I can’t breathe…!”
Jeong Yoo-shin opened his eyes.
“Hmph.”
Something large and heavy was pressing down on his face.
“Hmph… Get off.”
“Oh…!”
“Y-You’re awake! Skar!”
The heavy weight immediately disappeared. A strong milky scent lingered in the air.
And then he saw Karin and Mion who were back to their normal selves.
Karin was in her shirt and leather pants.
And Mion was in her priestess garb.
He was on his bed in his room.
Had he returned alive?
For some reason, he felt full of energy. A strange sense of omnipotence coursed through him.
Level up.
Had he survived?
He was lucky.
“What are you two doing here?”
“…”
Karin and Mion exchanged glances in silence at Jeong Yoo-shin’s question.
What was going on?
“How long have I been lying here?”
“About five days.”
Karin replied.
“Quite a while.”
“Tell me about it. You were half-dead when you were taken out of the labyrinth. What happened there?”
“Didn’t my party members tell you?”
“When I went to get you, they were all laid up in the infirmary.”
“Are they alright?”
“They’re all fine… except for the priest.”
“What’s wrong with the priest?”
“He had a lot of spider eggs implanted in his shoulder. He had a rough time. The deer beast-person said there wasn’t enough pesticide on hand.”
“I see… So everyone’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
That was a relief.
They had survived. All of them, not just him.
He was happy about that.
Jeong Yoo-shin smiled and looked up at Karin and Mion.
“So, what are you two doing here? Tell me honestly.”
Finally, Karin confessed.
“You weren’t waking up, so I was going to nurse you back to health. But this big-titted priestess kept interrupting me.”
“B-Big-titted priestess? How rude, Karin!”
Mion glanced at Jeong Yoo-shin, and he quickly averted his gaze to the ceiling.
No, he had to handle this smoothly.
“Ah! Priestess Mion, thank you. In the Forest area, one of my companions was possessed by an evil spirit, and I was able to exorcise it. I couldn’t have done it without your blessing.”
“…Huh?”
“Didn’t you rub your tongue on my cheek last time? I misunderstood. You were being insightful, Priestess Mion.”
Mion froze.
“…Huh?”
“Wh-What?! Mion! You milk-jug pervert!”
Karin exploded.
“Th-That’s… You were conscious? Yes, that’s right. I was worried about you, Skar, so I cast my special holy magic on you.”
Mion was flustered, but she quickly regained her composure and replied calmly.
“You damp and creepy priestess! Get out of this inn!”
Karin shouted while pointing at Mion.
“If we’re talking about creepiness, wouldn’t that be you, Karin?”
“Ugh…!”
Jeong Yoo-shin looked at Karin.
What? What was this about? Karin being creepy? Did Karin, who always teased people with a cool expression, have that kind of side to her?
Knock, knock.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
Karin and Mion stopped arguing and closed their mouths.
“U-Um, Skar, you have visitors.”
It was Tarman.
“Alright. I’ll be right out.”
Jeong Yoo-shin replied and looked at Karin and Mion.
“Could you two please step outside for a moment? I need to change my clothes.”
“Okay.”
“Yes.”
Karin and Mion left the room, and Jeong Yoo-shin was left alone.
He got out of bed. He wasn’t sure if it was because of their nursing or the level up, but he definitely felt energized.
‘Is this my third level up?’
He had been feeling uneasy about the lack of progress lately, but he hadn’t expected this kind of reward.
Did people really get stronger the more they struggled?
Jeong Yoo-shin grinned, changed his clothes, and went down to the first floor.
Iron Mask, Mars, and Kubo were there. All the party members were gathered.
“You look well.”
Iron Mask said with a happy tone.
“You too.”
“Can you see through my mask? Impressive.”
The naked dwarf priest bowed his head to Jeong Yoo-shin.
“Skar, thank you. You saved my life.”
“Don’t mention it. I just did what I had to do.”
Truly…
If they hadn’t come for him when he was dragged away with a hole in his stomach from the Giant Spider, he would have died there.
Although caution and calculating the odds were virtues for an explorer, ultimately, it was dedication and sacrifice that bound a party together.
Clink.
Iron Mask placed a pouch on the table.
“Your reward. One gold coin and 75 silver coins each. That's the reward for subjugating the Giant Spider and for completing three requests.”
Jeong Yoo-shin grinned and pocketed the pouch.
“The subjugation reward is quite generous. But Kubo, are you really alright?”
Kubo shuddered and touched his shoulder.
“As you can see. Sigh. It was truly horrifying. I felt weak and itchy on my shoulder, and it turns out baby spiders were eating my flesh. If it weren’t for your Pesticide, I would have been spider food.”
“You shouldn’t rely so much on your imprint. By the way, where’s Bryn?”
“Her? That student went back to school. She was smiling while saying that she was finally able to graduate after earning so much extra credit.”
Jeong Yoo-shin’s jaw dropped.
Unbelievable.
“Smiling? She was smiling after going through all that? She’s got guts.”
“She’s magnanimous.”
“She’s thick-skinned.”
The party members nodded in agreement.
Still…
Jeong Yoo-shin stroked his chin. He felt a bit bitter about letting her go without any reward after she had helped him.
“I should have given her something if I knew we were parting ways like this.”
“Skar, Bryn already took half of the Giant Spider subjugation reward.”
Jeong Yoo-shin’s eyes widened at Iron Mask’s reply.
“…Really?”
“Yes. She claimed she deserved the largest share. We agreed. She collected the reward from the Explorer’s Guild.”
Wow. He had thought that she was timid. Hearing that she had meticulously scraped together everything she could left him speechless.
Jeong Yoo-shin looked at Iron Mask and spoke.
“…I was wrong. The future of the Lionel Kingdom seems bright.”
“…”
Iron Mask glared at Jeong Yoo-shin. The latter turned to look at his party members.
“So, when are we going back to the labyrinth?”
“…”
Everyone was strangely silent.
“Why so quiet?”
“Isn’t the Blue Moon Festival coming up soon? We should at least attend the festival before going back, shouldn’t we?”
Kubo chided.
“You want to rest, is that it?”
“Ahem! I’m a priest. I have a duty to help with various tasks at the temple during festival preparations. Besides…”
Kubo paused and grinned.
“The Blue Moon Festival is a festival of frenzy.”
Really?
“What do you mean by frenzy?”
“This, this.”
The dwarf made a circle with one hand and inserted a finger from his other hand.
Copulation.
Sex.
Seriously…
He had to endure the sight of a naked dwarf grinning lewdly while inserting and withdrawing his finger through a circle.
He wanted to smack the dwarf’s ass and gouge out his own eyes.
But he had endured worse, so he held back.
“Really? Copulation? The barbarians will love that.”
Kubo and Mars paled at his casual remark.
“That’s true ‘frenzy.’”
“Skar, you’re scaring me. Don’t say things like that, even as a joke. Last year’s Blue Moon Festival was a disaster.”
What had happened?
No.
He could tell just by looking at their faces.
They had probably kidnapped a good-looking couple and raped them.
A man and a woman, smitten with each other at the festival, had probably held hands and entered a secluded alley, unbuttoning each other’s pants only to find a barbarian standing there while grinning lewdly.
There was no need to imagine the rest.
Did he really need to hear the tragic story of them crawling out while covered in semen?
Penis-wielding outlaws of the labyrinth city. It was a perfectly reasonable prediction.
But…
“I have black hair too. Can I participate in the festival?”
“Aren’t you a good barbarian who doesn’t rape people? The guards all know that, right? People in the Southern District know about it, but many are unsure. Some people might avoid you at the festival, but no one will completely ostracize you.”
Jeong Yoo-shin’s shoulders slumped at Mars’ words.
Publicly known as a virgin?
Everyone knew about it. It wasn’t something he could hide anyway.
Kubo chuckled.
“Honestly, it’s a bit scary. A virgin. My condolences to the waist of your first woman.”
Jeong Yoo-shin scowled.
‘These bastards.’
They were getting too comfortable with him.
“Why do you assume I’ll be the one making the first move? Couldn’t a woman jump me?”
“…”
His party members fell silent and stared at Jeong Yoo-shin’s face.
What?
Crash.
The sound of shattering glass suddenly came from behind him.
Huh?
He turned around to see Karin, her face flushed while holding an empty tray. Broken glass and spilled juice were scattered on the inn floor.
“…Skar, is that your kind of thing? Do you like women forcing themselves onto you, stomping on you, and spitting on your face?”
Being stomped and spat on…
That was a bit too heavy.
“Karin, this is a misunderstanding.”
“S-Sure.”
Karin nodded, but she didn’t seem convinced.
Kubo and the other party members then stood up.
“Ahem… ahem. We’ll be going now. We’ve seen your face and know you’re alright now, so we’ll see you later.”
“When will I see you again?”
“A few days after the Blue Moon Festival?”
Jeong Yoo-shin sighed and nodded at Kubo’s words.
They were practically saying that they wanted to eat, sleep, and play until they died.
“Alright.”
“See you then.”
“Take care!”
His party members left the inn in a flurry. Jeong Yoo-shin stood at the door as he saw them off, and then returned to the hall.
“Skar.”
Karin crossed her arms and looked at him.
“What is it? Where’s Mion?”
“Mion went back. Oh! I forgot to tell you, my mother called for you.”
Karin’s mother…
Ingrid Redtail. The guardian of the labyrinth city. One of the council members.
“…Huh?”
“She told you to come tonight.”
What was it this time?
“Did she say if she was upset about something?”
“No… she said it was something related to Lin. I don’t know the details. Just go.”
“Alright.”
Jeong Yoo-shin felt uneasy, but he wasn’t too worried.
‘I gave her such a good massage. What could it be?’
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T/N - Lol, that’s the problem. You gave her too good of a massage, MC. Ingrid probably had a “fun” time reading Lin’s memories.