The Rider Who Calls Death (3)
Archaeology doctor? I felt an ominous premonition when I encountered a position far more unexpected than I'd anticipated. Dana's eyes sparkled like a girl who'd just met the idol group she'd saved up her allowance to buy albums for as a child.
"I knew it! So it really was Professor Hiromain!"
Ah, fuck. My bad feelings never miss. She said she was a doctor, but of course she was a professor. Hiromain scratched her cheek awkwardly.
"Professor? It's practically an honorary title. I've barely taught any actual classes at the university. I do hold seminars from time to time, though."
"Oh, I see. Ah, I was late with my introduction, wasn't I? I'm Dana Berbeia. I'm a junior doctor who's also in academia, and these people here are my family and close friends."
When Dana pointed at me, I reluctantly introduced myself.
"I'm her husband, Nord. Nice to meet you."
"Yes, yes. Thank you so much for saving me earlier."
"No need to thank me so many times."
I drew the line just enough not to seem unpleasant. Honestly, if I'd known she was a professor, I couldn't even be sure whether my spear would have targeted Hiromain or the centaur first. A female archaeology professor who's close with a unicorn. I already know one bitch who's about ninety percent like her, minus the race. My hands were already itching. I could understand how a bloodthirsty murderer felt. Of course, I wasn't a murderer—I was an Earth warrior fighting for justice. I wouldn't just attack someone from behind just because they turned their back.
But if she's a professor, wouldn't it be okay to go a little 'braindead' on her?
I felt the urge to strike first while stroking the shaft of my spear. Good girl, good girl, our Mimi-chan (Mithril-Mithril Spear). I know you crave a professor's blood, but be patient. If I used Gigantic Drill Stinger while Dana was happily chatting away, my wife wouldn't look me in the eye for at least a month.
"Ah, let me finish treating your wounds."
"I'd appreciate that. I don't have much to offer as payment for the treatment, though……"
"No, no! You don't have to worry about treatment fees at all!"
What the actual fuck. Was that really our wife? My jaw dropped. Had she eaten something weird when I jumped down from the driver's seat? While treating the wounds, Dana chattered away happily like an auntie at a seven-thousand-won barbershop.
"I've read your books, Professor. Insulam De Aeternum is my all-time favorite in my personal library. Of course, I've also read the papers you published in academia. You'd be surprised how many times your writings were cited in the thesis I wrote for my doctorate."
"Ah, ah. That book… It's a bit awkward for me to say this myself, but I do pride myself on having written a good work. I received a lot of help from the descendants of Erin while writing it."
At Dana's sincere praise, she smiled awkwardly. Seeing the usually stingy-with-praise Dana showering her with compliments made my hand stroking the spear shaft move faster.
"Hehe. What's this, are you jealous right now?"
Dana, who had noticed me, spoke as if she was slightly pleased that I was jealous.
"Professor Hiromain is an authority on Ulster studies. You know, the essay I mentioned carrying around? I even gave you one of her books to read back in the old days—don't you remember?"
"No, when you and I say 'old days,' isn't that three or four years ago? How am I supposed to remember the author of a book I read when I was busy just adapting to the lab…… Ulster?"
I tilted my head. There had been mention of it before—scholars studying Ulster culture were extremely rare. Because there were no artifacts, it wasn't profitable, and investigating orally transmitted culture was a pain in the ass. And yet, an Ulster researcher. And not just any, but a doctor-plus-professor level figure? That would make her one of the very few in the entire academic world.
Hiromain. I feel like I've heard that name before.
Where was it? It felt like it had been mentioned by someone other than Dana, or maybe not. I tried piecing together my hippocampus hard drive. Ulster, Erin, professor, thesis…… seminar?
"Ah."
It came to me. Who was it again? Wasn't it that old hag professor who sexually harassed Tirsi? I think she mentioned it when answering my question.
She said she'd heard oral traditions with similar effects in Professor Hiromain's seminar after seeing Beast Regression.
No, she had also rambled about how the spell "yáǵeswō deiwōm dyēus" was something she'd heard in some professor's seminar.
Probably this person.
This was getting way too many connections with those bastards. It was too suspicious. If I played around with Lightning Missile a few times, wouldn't she spill everything? If doing it to a person was bad, maybe taking that unicorn brat to the Room of Truth would work too. For now, should I try 'interviewing' her with words?
I opened my mouth.
"Ah! Professor Hiromain! I've heard of you. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you right away."
"No, it's fine. After all the help you've given me, how could I be upset over something like that?"
The kindly smiling face looked genuinely sincere, as if she really meant it. But I wasn't going to be fooled anymore. Don't underestimate the insight I've honed through Erna and that bitch. Now I had the confidence to distinguish between masterpieces and absolute trash even while watching Caster's reviews on Departure Video Travel.
I decided to probe her. Professor, take off the mask and reveal your true nature!
"Even though we helped you, you must have been quite shaken. How did you end up being chased by such a monster?"
"I don't know. Alice—ah, the horse over there—and I were just walking along when it suddenly appeared and attacked us."
Hiromain spoke while looking at her wounds. So the unicorn with the broken horn was named Alice. It seemed she'd injured her arm from being ambushed with the first strike.
"Fortunately, the ranged slashing attacks were slower than Alice's gallop. Otherwise, I would have been dead already."
"I see. Um…… this might be difficult to ask, but what about the companions who were traveling with you?"
Hiromain blinked, then smiled.
"Ah, I don't have any companions. As a field researcher, I've always traveled alone with that child for research trips. The university that accepted me as a professor probably hired me through special recruitment because I'm a rare Ulster scholar."
"That's a relief to hear. I was worried your companions might have been harmed."
Dana, who had been listening to me, half-closed her eyes. It was the expression of someone wondering if this bastard had eaten rat poison. She knew well that my anger management issues manifested as Professor Slayer. But seriously, sis. Your current mood was exactly my mood earlier.
"So, what was that monster?"
I pretended not to notice Dana's mood. I was no longer dominated by anger. The reins of rage were in my hands. The growth of Beast Regression had to be controlled entirely by my will. Suspicious things were suspicious things, and right now I had to hide my suspicions while digging out the true nature of this middle-aged female professor.
"That was probably a Nuckelavee."
The merchant Victuar butted in again. This person really loved talking.
"What about Nutella?"
"Nuckelavee, Nuckelavee. Around here, it's…… more like a folk tale ghost story."
There it was, fuck—the otherworlder specialty. The thing where they show off their knowledge without explaining in one go until you ask. I was about to ignore it because it was annoying and because I'd already heard about the monster I'd killed, but Hiromain took the bait.
"You're probably right. Nuckelavee, Knoggelvi, Nykur. There are many names, but they all refer to a type of kelpie, a powerful water spirit."
"That thing was a kelpie? It was a bit different from the kelpies I know."
Dana asked while putting on the cast, responding to Hiromain's explanation.
"Ah, in Gorgalia, 'kelpie' is used as a general term for water ghosts. If we classify it accurately, the Nuckelavee is a sea spirit."
"Hmm. Ulster has that kind of aspect. It's all over the place like a bard's poem, so isn't it hard to research?"
"Once you get used to it, it's enjoyable, like listening to old stories. Miss Dana, you seem to be a descendant of Erin, am I right? In that culture, it refers to a horse-shaped evil spirit that eats people, doesn't it?"
Showing her authority on Ulster, Hiromain had figured out our wife's ethnicity. Dana introduced her hometown as if she was used to it.
"Yes. I'm from a branch of the Ulster people. In my hometown, kelpie stories were like cruel fairy tales told to children."
"Oh. Then you must be from the Pict side of Erin? Hehehe. I've also briefly visited their settlements before—it was already more than five years ago. Anyway, let's get back to the Nuckelavee story."
Hiromain, who had briefly gone off on a tangent, spoke with a serious expression.
"According to the legends, the Nuckelavee is an extremely powerful evil spirit. From what I've heard, it's a genuine phantom beast that existed during the ancient civilization period."
"We took it down pretty easily, though? Was it a young one?"
I pointed at the centaur's corpse lying over there. The legendary evil spirit (killed by a spear) that was supposedly extremely powerful.
"Probably not. The Nuckelavee passed down in legends is believed to be a single entity. There were no records of anyone having defeated that Nuckelavee…… It really does seem like a rather anticlimactic end."
Hiromain looked at the Nuckelavee's corpse as if something was strange. I slung the spear over my shoulder.
"It was probably a fake or something. Evil spirits that borrow appearances are common, aren't they?"
I didn't think I was so overwhelmingly strong that I'd one-shot a legendary evil spirit. A monster from the ancient civilization era, the golden age of otherworld humanity, being passed down to the modern otherworld? That would mean that Nuckelavee was truly a mythical evil spirit. Even though Britannia had always been a small country, it was a creature that had made even the ancient humans, including the Ulster people, pass down knowledge orally. It didn't seem likely that such a monster would die from one throw of my spear. That thing was most likely a fake imitating the legendary evil spirit created by some vile bastard.
Victuar made a disgusted face while straightening his collar.
"A monster that eats people. How gruesome. Let's get out of here quickly."
"Yes. After we burn the corpse. It might be poisonous, so everyone please step back."
I had everyone move away and set the corpse on fire by imbuing my spear with Burning Hand. I didn't forget to dig up dirt to bury it so the fire wouldn't spread across the grassland.
"Fire in the hole."
—Whoosh!
While burning the corpse with the breath of the Golden Sun, I frowned.
Damn, this bastard doesn't burn worth a shit.
Was it a river or sea spirit? Just as she'd said, its body had so much moisture that the fire wouldn't catch well. In the end, I sprinkled cooking oil on it. It was a waste, but it couldn't be helped. Even if it was a common mob, it wouldn't be proper to leave such a gruesome corpse unprocessed.
—Whoosh whoosh whoosh.
After properly confirming that the kelpie had burned and burying it, I returned to the carriage. The party members were organizing their luggage.
"Professor Hiromain? Where are you headed?"
"I'm going to the settlement of Erin's descendants in the east. I know some people there, so after paying my respects, I plan to head to the university in Romania."
"Ah, so our destinations are similar."
Fuck, did this mean we'd be traveling together with this auntie? I wanted to kick her ass and say goodbye right here at maximum power, but because we'd been running so fast, we were already close to the village we were stopping at. Flusmirror Forest. That was the place Dana and Veronica had estimated to be the location of Gorgalia's sacred water forest. We planned to stop at the village of Flusmirror adjacent to that forest, stay overnight, and then head to the Bicorn sanctuary.
The party members—including Dana—looked at me. It was as if they were asking what I was going to do. Since I was the party leader. Probably, even if I spat out something like "Let the professor starve to death on the roadside!" and ran off, no one would say anything. Still, I had to think hard enough to frown.
This meeting could be an opportunity.
That horn-broken unicorn, just like the black mage Erna. A professor who seemed to know about my Beast Regression. Both felt like extremely dangerous opponents, but the drop items or drop information they could provide would definitely be worth it. This was honestly almost like divine luck. I'd gotten plenty of Odin-related knowledge from messing around with Veronica, but there were still tons of mysteries tangled up in my life.
"……Let's travel together. It would be more convenient to move together while our paths overlap."
After carefully testing the waters, I said that. How the Immortalis black mage unicorn, who had been close enough to share magic knowledge with Erna, had regained the form of a divine beast, and who had carved the Beast Regression spell onto the stele—these were pieces of information I couldn't obtain even if I tried to make time for it. It was worth the risk to temporarily add this professor bitch to the party.
"Would it really be alright to trouble you so much?"
"Of course. In exchange, I'd appreciate it if you could chat with me and my wife. We're actually quite interested in old stories since we're scholars and their family."
I laid the groundwork while pretending to be kind. If given the opportunity, how much knowledge would she spit out? In the worst case, I'd become Professor Slayer and extract the information by force if necessary. Hiromain nodded happily, seemingly unaware that I was secretly sharpening my knife.
"If that's the case! Actually, I barely have anyone to discuss research with, so I was at the point of practicing my lectures on Alice!"
"Hahaha. I guess the lab researchers don't like the professor's private conversations?"
"Pardon? No. I don't have any researchers or a personal lab."
"Ah. I see—wait a moment. What did you say?"
I froze as if I'd been hit in the back of the head. A professor who didn't exploit—graduate students?