Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Things Go Awry (2)
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It took forever just to reach the mountain itself.
After leaving the city gates, it was quite a while before we finally arrived.
"Huff... haa..."
I had no idea why I was putting myself through this ordeal.
Was the rough path from the divination referring to this mountain trail?
No matter how much we climbed, the end was nowhere in sight.
If the path had been properly paved, it wouldn't have been this grueling.
This mountain was raw wilderness.
"Huu... huu..."
"Are you alright?"
I whipped my head around at Old Man Closel's question.
"Old Man, can't we just fly up there?"
"Mana could get tangled, and we might lose the traces."
"Huu..."
A closer look revealed I was the only one struggling in the group.
Serena, a native forest dweller, was even more energized, and the mages weren't having much trouble either.
They said circulating mana through the body made hiking a breeze.
Given the high levels of the mages here, that made sense.
"Monsters, these people..."
I was talking about the knights.
It would be exhausting even bare-handed, but they were climbing in full armor.
Unlike me on the verge of collapse, they were full of pep.
"You know, can't that spirit possession of yours make this easier?"
"Absolutely not."
Spirit possession while hiking?
Who calls on a god's help for a hike?
I'd have no grounds to complain even if a thunderbolt struck me down right then.
I couldn't wrap my body in spiritual energy either.
My spiritual energy was a mere tail hair compared to their abundant mana.
At best, three or four hours before I'd be right back here.
Better to ration it and use sparingly.
"I should've stayed with Allured..."
Allured had stayed at the mountain base under the pretext of waiting for the holy knights dispatched from the church.
A few knights and mages had stayed with him too.
The guardian post was there as well.
"You had to come along. Just accept it."
"...Why won't my feet lift."
It wasn't just talk; they really wouldn't budge.
Like stepping in mud, sticky and clinging.
Truth be told, I desperately didn't want to go any further.
Ever since starting the climb, everything felt off.
"Huu... What kind of hardship is this..."
Even as I scanned while climbing, there were no spirits around.
It was odd for a mountain brimming with such rich energy to lack any spirits.
It felt like the entire area had been cleared of them.
"Not even a mountain spirit...?"
There had to be something to ask for directions.
I raised my arm to wipe the sweat dripping from my forehead.
Sweat soaked my sleeve through.
This was what made the climb even harder for me.
"Am I the only one who's hot?"
The air had turned muggy the moment we entered the mountain.
Even under the tree shade, it was the same.
The key point was that it wasn't actually hot weather.
Everyone else seemed unaffected by any heat.
"Old Man Parmon, do you sense anything up ahead?"
"Heh heh... The only thing I sense better than you is killing intent."
"...What about you, Old Man Closel?"
"There are faint traces of mana leading that way."
"Haa... Why's it so dark up there..."
The sky was perfectly clear.
Not a cloud in sight, with visibility stretching far.
Yet to my eyes, it was dim and overcast.
Not hot, but felt scorching; bright, but shrouded in gloom.
"You've been saying strange things since earlier."
A knight walking beside me gave me a puzzled look.
This one was fairly friendly toward me.
The other knights seemed uncomfortable with my status or whatever.
Since the elders favored me, they didn't show it openly.
"...Yeah, something like that."
"I heard you can see spirits. Ah...! Sorry for the late introduction. Felicia Harbor. Stationed in the capital."
"I'm Chris. No family name. Commoner..."
"No need to mind that. Technically, I'm from commoner stock too..."
A knight from commoner origins...?
Commoners could become knights, though it wasn't easy.
Harbor shook his head upon seeing my expression.
"To be precise, my grandfather was the commoner. He earned his knighthood for merits in the Continental War."
"Ah..."
"I heard you see spirits. Any around me?"
"No. None attached."
There were no clinging spirits.
But his karma was tangled in complex layers.
Probably the buildup from killing as a knight.
"Instead, you'll face major hardship someday."
"Hm?"
"Karma always comes back. Try not to kill people if you can."
The knights ahead snickered at my words.
Open mockery.
Telling a knight not to kill.
Practically telling him to abandon his sword.
In this world, it was his profession, so it was ambiguous.
"Oh, right, Harbor...?"
"Sir will do."
"Anyway, Sir, rushing things makes them unravel even if they start smooth. Always take it slow."
"Hmm... So that's divination for you."
"Your legs might trouble you in old age, so be careful."
"I don't fully believe it yet, but thanks."
Sir Harbor rummaged inside his armor.
"Something about an offering fee?"
"Ah, no need."
My refusal to take the offering must have been unexpected.
Old Man Closel gave me a puzzled look.
"Didn't you say refusing an offering brings bad luck?"
"Sir Harbor's offering was already paid by someone else. This was just relaying the divination from back then..."
"Someone paid my offering? Who...?"
"It's a secret."
Old Man Parmon would be mortified by his personality.
I could see him perking up his ears from ahead.
At that moment, the lead mage halted.
"The traces cut off here."
"They cut off after coming this far..."
The group stopped and began glancing at me one by one.
The mages with eyes urging me to do something.
The knights with challenging looks.
"Ahem..."
I didn't like the knights' gazes one bit.
They looked at me like a con artist.
It was the unavoidable scrutiny of living as a shaman.
"Let's see..."
I gripped the rattle and shook it lightly.
The first sensation was the mountain's energy.
Pure and pristine.
A true sacred peak.
A scene flashed through my mind.
Allured was in it.
"Why's this guy showing up first..."
Allured had met the holy knights and priests.
The atmosphere felt far from good.
Shaking the rattle once more, the surrounding air suddenly heated up.
Sweat beaded on my forehead and trickled down my cheeks.
The visible sky grew even darker.
"This... it's huge... Why such immense pressure..."
The pressure was so intense my hand trembled on the rattle.
"...Chris?"
Serena called out, sensing something.
As someone divine-touched, she must have felt the entity's vast scale.
In an instant, my mind was sucked away, stretching toward somewhere.
Passing the glowing spot midway up the mountain, more scenes ascended.
The summit.
Utterly dark and filled with dread.
"...We're too late."
"Too late, you say?"
It felt like something that had started long ago.
Possibly underway well before we arrived.
The final stages.
Already slipped from my grasp.
Why reveal it only now?
This divination was far too late.
Above all, no direct possession.
No entity bursting from my mouth.
"Tell us quickly."
"Quiet... just a bit..."
I needed to concentrate.
It was right on the verge of clarity, but slipping.
Two scenes flashed by.
Undead descending from the summit.
But their movements were bizarre.
Not running forward, but backward.
Some even ran upside down on their hands.
And atop the summit stood people wreathed in black energy.
Necromancers.
Their position was crystal clear.
With the group, victory was certain.
We had to go now.
I saw us pursuing them.
The knights and mages died, but we clearly crushed the necromancers underfoot.
But at the mountain base, death overflowed.
Beyond the vanished territory, another one.
People beginning to walk backward one by one.
This would happen if we headed for the necromancers.
"..."
Still, no entity speech emerged from my mouth.
Only the gaze of the divine being watching me.
A strange figure, like a grandfather or grandmother.
The helping hand that always aided me now stood distant.
"A test..."
The gaze felt like instruction, and also a question.
As if asking, 'What will you choose?'
"This is why we came to the mountain."
A major crossroads, a trial for me.
It would greatly impact my future path as a shaman.
The path of a full-fledged shaman, not a child apprentice.
"The time came so soon...?"
As one builds karma, an inevitable moment arrives.
The moment shedding the child apprentice role to become a true divine disciple.
People say:
'Doesn't the god handle everything?'
A child apprentice receives divine teachings and learns.
It's the peak learning phase, when the spirits pay the most attention.
Shamans who receive the child spirit change even their speech from the deep interest.
I was the same.
A full disciple receives teachings but must forge their own path.
They must find answers themselves and accumulate karma.
Solutions fall to the disciple who received the teachings.
Though spirits help sometimes...
Finally, the mid-mountain glow appeared, and the scenes cut off abruptly.
"..."
"Chris, are you okay...?"
"Serena, what's wrong with you...?"
Serena was trembling in fear.
The divine gaze had passed over her; it was understandable.
"Serena. It's okay."
I gently stroked her back to calm her.
"..."
All eyes were on me.
"There are necromancers at the summit."
The elders waited silently for my explanation.
"The territory's people are probably all dead already. If we go up now, we can catch them."
Flinch.
People poised to move at once.
But.
"If we go to catch them, all the people in nearby territories will die. If we head straight there now, we might save them."
"..."
"But we won't catch the necromancers. The chance slips away."
This was the divine's question.
Catch the sinners?
Or save the people?
Fortunately, everyone here seemed to choose the same as me.
Except for a few knights.
"Tsk tsk... Blinded by vainglory..."
Flinch.
"Head down now. The holy knights have arrived."
Old Man Parmon picked up on the oddity in my words.
"Sounds like you're telling us to go on without you."
Exactly.
I had something to do first.
"My task... is on the mountain."
I had to go to the glowing spot.
"There's a power spot."