Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: How to Utilize Chris (1)
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“Chwiik! I don’t know!”
It was what one of the roughly fleeing orcs spat out after I grabbed him.
“I-I don’t know anything.”
“You don’t know anything, yet you ran away?”
“Chwiik!”
There was one strange thing.
This orc was afraid of my rattle.
Until now, the only beings that feared my rattle were the undead.
Was it because he was a monster?
Swoosh—
The orc trembled as I lifted the rattle.
He flinched.
“You’re scared of it shaking?”
“Spare me!”
“Then why did you run?”
The orc, who had been watching me carefully, finally began to stammer out an explanation.
“Orc shamans have mysterious powers.”
It was an easy fact to guess.
He was the only one here with any real spiritual sense.
He couldn’t see spirits, but he could smell them—a peculiar guy.
I could smell them sometimes too, so he must be able to do something with that.
“That guy’s Gullak, right?”
“Yes! When Gullak swings his staff, orcs die. The dead orcs become his staff.”
“...?”
“Chwiik! Prophecy of death!”
As expected, after getting tangled up with a necromancer, he’d gone down a dark path.
From the rough explanation, it sounded a lot like a curse.
“I should’ve pushed that bastard off the cliff back then.”
“Spare me!”
“Not you.”
Regret was washing over me when the orc’s spirit beside him shook its head vigorously.
As if to say that wasn’t it.
“Keep explaining.”
“Chwiik!”
His explanation was surprisingly detailed.
Gullak swings his staff and points at an orc.
Then he says something like this:
‘You’ll weaken.’
The orc explained that those who received this prophecy of death all died without fail.
Astor Closel, who had been listening, tossed out a comment.
“Isn’t it more like divining death? Mysterious that orcs have such ability.”
Even to me, the old man’s words sounded closer to the truth.
He probably just smelled the scent of death on them.
But what did that have to do with him fearing me?
The orc began explaining again.
“Orc shaman Gullak always spoke of the human shaman’s existence.”
“Me?”
“A being impossible to reach. One who walks with great spirits.”
He shuddered.
The orc suddenly trembled as he spoke.
“Gullak said he couldn’t even breathe in the presence of the great spirit.”
Hearing that, a scene flashed through my mind.
The first time I met Gullak, I had done a divination for him.
It was the first offering I’d received after becoming a shaman.
In my memory, Gullak had been prostrated on the ground back then.
“Human shaman Chris is stronger than Gullak! If you receive the prophecy of death, you die immediately!”
“...?”
“I-I don’t want to become a staff! Spare me!”
I was extremely curious about what that staff even looked like at that moment.
Making dead ones into staffs?
This made me think he really had gone down a bad path.
Maybe meeting him in person would be the fastest way.
“So where is that guy now?”
“I can’t say.”
“It’d be better if you did.”
“The last shaman. I can’t say even if it kills me!”
This was the same guy who’d been begging to be spared just moments ago...
The phrase “last shaman” felt off too.
I remembered he had brothers.
The orc, who had been glaring at me with wide eyes, opened his mouth again.
“Chwiik! Orcs repay favors! Gullak said he’d find his master when the time comes.”
“...?”
Master?
If an orc shaman has a master, doesn’t that mean he’s not the last shaman?
But soon, from the way he looked at me, I realized who the master was.
“Me?”
I turned to look at the spirit, and it nodded too.
The funny thing was how similar the two looked.
Were these guys brothers too?
“He’ll come soon! Human shaman, don’t rush him.”
“Hmm...”
Either way, he was born with a great destiny.
I nodded as I roughly thought about what to do, and the spirit next to me poked its head in.
- ....
The orc was making a pitiful face despite being a monster.
To humans, monsters are things to be exterminated, so that expression was natural.
“I’m not gonna kill you, idiot.”
“Chwiik?”
“Get lost.”
The old men looked at me at my words.
“You’re not even going to ask where he’s going?”
“Doesn’t matter. Whether he goes this way or that, we’ll meet anyway.”
It sounded like grasping at clouds even to me.
But my companions just nodded as if it made sense.
Except for Dr. Zant.
“Strange orc and strange human.”
“You get used to it after traveling together.”
“Why don’t you get your fortune read by Chris here?”
“Not interested.”
The orc and the spirit following him moved away.
With an ancestral spirit watching over him, he’d get through anything short of disaster.
I figured he’d reach Gullak safely.
“Hah.”
It was Parmon’s laugh.
The kind that sounded incredulous.
“You’ve gone and become an orc shaman’s master now?”
“I have no intention of taking disciples...?”
“Making allies of every race on the continent. And in such an excellent way too.”
The old man’s eyes grew warm.
That was the look he gave when he misunderstood me in a positive way.
“Even without your powers, you’re impressive. It’s a shame you’re not a knight...”
“He would’ve made a fine mage too.”
It was practically the look of grandparents admiring a cute grandchild.
“I’ve only helped out once or twice.”
Wasn’t that true?
Elves once.
The church once.
Orcs once.
Not even multiple times—just once each.
This kind of treatment felt excessive.
“That’s not true.”
Serena, who had been quietly standing behind, shook her head.
“The World Tree’s corruption means corruption for all elves.”
“Just one jujube tree and...”
“They’d all be dead or...”
Sadness settled on Serena’s face.
“...turned into dark elves.”
People with heavy pasts tend to be quiet.
Parmon was like that, and so was Serena.
I wondered when things would get better for them...
“Let’s go.”
I stopped as I was about to start walking again.
I’d remembered something I forgot.
“Damn... we left Aluard behind.”
Everyone flinched.
“...”
“...I see. We left that friend behind.”
At my words, the group froze awkwardly in unison.
No one had thought of it.
Except Astor Closel.
“I’ve already contacted him.”
“That was close. Where is he?”
“I just told him our destination. Didn’t he have things to do?”
Wasn’t following me and Luna what Aluard was supposed to do?
He hadn’t said much to me either.
“What did the church tell him to do?”
“Why ask me?”
“...?”
That’s what I wanted to say.
Who else was I supposed to ask?
Astor Closel gave a meaningful smile.
“When you sent Aluard to the child...”
“Yes?”
“You had your hands behind your back.”
“Me?”
I hadn’t received an offering.
The child had just caught my eye, so I helped—that was all.
Priests were there for that sort of thing anyway.
“Usually, something mystical happens in those cases. So I just let it be.”
“...Is this divine blessing too?”
You know how it is.
Shamans who receive child spirits start mimicking baby speech.
It’s the influence of the deity.
Different from how child or elder disciple rites naturally bring out old or baby speech patterns.
You could say they gradually resemble the deity they serve.
That’s why shamans hold the status of divine disciples.
It’s why spiritual practice is called ‘study.’
Just then, Luna, who had been sleeping, woke up and wriggled around.
“Baba!”
“Huh?”
“Cho! Woo...”
Luna seemed to be trying to say something, but she looked frustrated.
She didn’t know many words yet.
“Awoo...! Luna! Cho!”
“Luna and Aluard?”
She shook her head.
Wriggled around.
“Awa!”
The old men smiled warmly at Luna’s antics.
Parmon patted my shoulder.
“Babies grow up in a flash.”
Astor Closel too.
“Sainthood makes them grow faster, but trying to speak means she’s growing quick.”
Luna had been listening quietly to the old men.
Then she poked my back.
“Woo... Luna big!”
“Huh...?”
“Hah... She already learned that? From our conversation just now?”
“Baba! Luna big! Grow! Cho!”
What do you do in a situation like this?
Praise her?
Joy welled up, but I felt awkward not knowing how to react.
I just quietly pulled out a snack from my bosom.
“Kyaa! Nom!”
The old men watched us fondly.
“What a lovely pair of siblings.”
“Heh heh.”
“We’ll see it soon.”
We’d been walking for about two days.
Not rushing, so the distance wasn’t that far.
Shortly after the old man spoke, a castle appeared in the distance.
“We’ve arrived.”
Kingdom soldiers lined up on the castle walls.
And the open gates.
It was definitely peaceful.
Nothing special about the scene, but one thing unusually caught my eye.
“By any chance...”
The Harp Kingdom’s flag fluttering in the wind.
A national flag holds many meanings.
It’s a symbol in itself.
But something was off about this one.
An emptiness kept rising in me.
“Does the Harp Kingdom have no king?”