Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Precious Items Have Owners (1)
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“Chris, have some breakfast.”
“Kyau!”
“Luna’s getting her teeth too, so let’s start with some veggies.”
“Kka!”
Serena’s cooking was excellent.
Waking up to a ready breakfast.
It was utterly peaceful.
“I-Is... is there some for me too?”
Aluerd approached the table with a haggard face.
“Come eat.”
“Jo!”
“Lady Luna, did you sleep well last night?”
“Kyak.”
I released Luna onto my lap.
I brought a piece of vegetable to her mouth, but her lips stayed firmly shut.
Her gestures clearly signaled she wanted her treats.
“Eat first, then I’ll give you treats.”
“Auuuh...!”
There was no way I could give her treats first thing in the morning.
I rolled my shoulders, feeling my body light and unburdened.
“Has it lessened a bit?”
For the past few days, my shoulders had ached constantly due to the yin energy.
I’d performed a simple ritual last night, and now they felt loosened.
The gloom around the shrine was still unavoidable, though.
“This is all because of those stray ghosts.”
I’d driven away the living people, and now the dead were gathering like it was a marketplace.
The totem poles kept them from approaching too closely, but they encircled the area.
The totems showed no reaction, as if they had no intention of chasing them off.
“A vacation after so long.”
“Chris, you need to rest a little.”
“Yeah, it’s about time.”
At that moment, Headless slid silently up to the front of the table.
- .....
“A customer?”
Nod.
“From last night?”
Nod.
“Coming again now?”
I turned my head following Headless’s gesture and saw people approaching.
Our old men and one dwarf.
They were friends, apparently, since all three had come together.
“We’re down!”
“Serena, got any more food by chance?”
“I’ll make more.”
Soon, the old men came over with greetings.
“We’re here!”
“We looked into what you asked for.”
Parmon the old man had been missing—he must have gone to check on it.
I’d asked him to investigate the orcs a while back.
The old men and the dwarf sat down at the table quite naturally.
His name was Drant, I think?
Anyway, Drant’s eyes turned toward Serena.
“A high elf, huh.”
“That’s right.”
A strange look directed at me.
It was similar to the gaze he’d given when he’d asked what kind of guy I was.
“Brought the tableware you requested.”
I took the bag Drant gruffly offered and immediately reached inside.
“Just as you said, Closel.”
“Told you.”
“How in the world is this possible?”
There wasn’t much I could say in response to that.
I had my suspicions, but explaining them would be incredibly vague.
I pulled out the bowls I felt at my fingertips and couldn’t help but admire them.
Smooth, curving lines.
Beautifully engraved patterns.
And shapes almost exactly matching what I’d envisioned.
“These are incredible...”
“Dwarf craftsmanship always boasts the highest artistry.”
They were more than sufficient even for setting up an altar.
A bit overly luxurious, perhaps.
“As promised, I’d like to see that rattle.”
“Of course.”
Drant stared fixedly as I picked up the rattle to hand it over.
His face plainly read, What the hell are you doing?
“Put it on the table.”
“...?”
“It’s manners not to handle someone else’s precious item carelessly.”
As expected of a blacksmith—his views on objects were rock-solid.
I could even sense the consideration of a true artisan.
I set the rattle down on the table, and Drant immediately leaned in close to inspect it.
“Hooh...”
“Hey, Drant, don’t just admire it yourself—give us an explanation.”
At Closel the old man’s urging, Drant opened his mouth as if it were a hassle.
“Incredibly sturdy. Probably tougher than that sword of yours, Parmon.”
“That good? One of a kind?”
“Looks lighter than mithril. I can’t even tell what metal it is.”
A metal even a dwarf didn’t recognize.
Honestly, the rattle had suddenly come into my possession, so I didn’t know much about it either.
Just that it was a sacred tool granted to me.
“It’s metal, but not metal.”
“...Then what?”
“Banshees and specters won’t touch it?”
Not only those, but even wandering souls got smacked by it.
“As I said before, it was made like this from the start. Like how a tree grows in the shape of a tree.”
“Hooh...”
Closel the old man’s eyes gleamed with interest.
Mine too.
Drant turned his gaze to me.
“Where’d this come from?”
I hesitated, wondering how to answer.
“Never mind. No need to say if it’s trouble.”
Truly a race with unwavering respect for items and their owners.
They were curious about the object itself, but showed no intent to pry further.
While Drant examined the rattle, Parmon the old man spoke up.
“About those orcs you mentioned the other day.”
“Yes.”
“All the orcs in the empire have vanished. Or more precisely, they’re in the process of vanishing.”
“They’re disappearing?”
Thinking about it, I’d had a similar hunch.
It felt like lost souls were finding their way back home.
“There are reports they’re all heading somewhere at once. We’re tracking their destination.”
“Hmm...”
“We failed to pinpoint that orc you called Gullak.”
It wasn’t an easy task.
How would humans even know orc names to track them?
To these folks, they were just monsters.
This time, Closel the old man spoke.
“You opened that necromancer’s subspatial pouch for us last time, right?”
“Yeah.”
“We secured a ton of clues from it. We’re in the process of decoding the ciphers.”
We’d looted quite a few pouches.
We’d collected all the bags from the dead necromancers, so there were bound to be some leads among them.
“The clues all followed the same pattern. We could even infer their origin.”
“Where?”
“The Harp Kingdom.”
A nation at one end of the continent.
It bordered the sea.
A kingdom famous for its maritime trade.
“Lots of items manufactured there.”
“Hmm... sea... sea...”
It felt strangely familiar.
Like something I’d heard before.
“Right, water?”
“You know something?”
“When we caught that guy named Berte last time, there was this strong fishy stench.”
“Hooh... If you say so, they must be connected. The one they took away?”
The old men leaned in, interested.
“Hans Uncle’s soul that I saved before, the World Tree incident, and now this—they’re all the same.”
“Keep going.”
“It’s more about souls than actual magic.”
“Necromancers are the type to dabble in that sort of thing...”
That’s what I thought at first too.
But wasn’t it weird?
Corrupting souls into wraiths, cursing the World Tree.
This time, using blue flames to lure nearby souls.
It was far too shamanistic to pass off as mere magic.
Sharing these thoughts, the old men fell into serious contemplation.
“....”
“....I see.”
They exchanged glances.
True to veterans hardened by the battlefield, they seemed to have inferred something.
“That sorcery you mentioned. We suspect it’s orcish, right?”
“Yes.”
“And you met an orc who could read it.”
“The one you asked me to look into.”
I wasn’t sure if Gullak could read it, but as a shaman’s descendant, the connection ran deep.
“Maybe the necromancers are recruiting orcs like that.”
Orcs fleeing necromancers and hiding somewhere?
It was credible, but it didn’t quite click.
No perfect hunch.
“If we assume Berte’s water ritual was sorcery, then the captives make sense too.”
“Explains the flood of Harp Kingdom leads as well.”
“Hmm...”
As I lapsed back into thought, Closel the old man spoke.
“Think you could lend a hand?”
“Of course.”
It went without saying.
These bastards messing with souls—I couldn’t just let it slide.
Their actions were utterly detestable.
Defiling the souls of the dead and desecrating their flesh.
They even served vile demons akin to fiends.
“Envoys will soon be dispatched to the Harp Kingdom.”
“Go with them?”
“Move separately from us. Going officially limits what you can do.”
So much for my vacation.
And this one looked pretty tough.
“Can’t leave just yet.”
“Got business?”
“The area around the shrine’s gotten too yin-heavy.”
It was near a graveyard to begin with, and now stray ghosts were swarming.
The shrine and totems would hold them off, but leaving it like this wasn’t ideal.
The whole place could turn into a goblin den.
“I’ll need a few days to dispel the yin energies. I did a bit yesterday, but...”
“No need to rush the departure.”
Aluerd, who’d been eating quietly, cleared his throat.
“I didn’t want to interrupt your discussion, but the church has already sent people there.”
“Hooh... Right, you’re no small fry yourself.”
At Closel the old man’s words, Aluerd scratched his head sheepishly.
“Hans, disciple of Sir Klein, and the holy knights have set out for there.”
“The church going for the same reason?”
“Harp Kingdom came up while interrogating the traitors.”
As expected, that stench I’d tracked led there.
At that moment, Parmon the old man pulled a crystal orb from his bosom.
- Father, this is a report...
The title of “Father.”
I glanced over, and Parmon the old man’s responding face was stiff.
His voice as well.
“Speak.”
- Orcs are crossing the empire’s borders. Confirmed in multiple locations.
“Destination?”
- Still unidentified.
“Investigate.”
The light in the crystal orb faded.
Were father-son conversations always this stiff?
Anyway, the direction the orcs were heading...
I gauged the location of the cliff where I’d met Gullak and pointed to a spot on the map.
“Old men, what’s over there?”
“The sea.”
“It borders the Harp Kingdom.”
I had no idea how tangled this shaman fate of mine could get.
“Fucking hell, what a mess.”