Chapter 323
Chapter 323
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 323
Chapter Title: Girl of Steel #4
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A long time ago, I had heard the sound of electricity crackling from a frayed wire.
It was a truly chilling noise, one that made my hair stand on end.
Of course, the sound itself was just a simple fizzing crackle.
But my brain, trained from childhood on what happens when you get struck by lightning or shocked by electricity, instinctively recoiled from it.
At least, that's how I saw it.
So when the cotton-candy-like thing stuck to Elfride's head started crackling and making eerie noises, I snapped out of my thoughts and moved my legs and arms first.
"Hey, Elfride! Duck your head!"
My hand shot out in a hurry, swatting the cotton candy off Elfride's head. And right as I was about to hurl it far away toward the ocean horizon or wherever, someone shouted loudly.
"Lightning!"
Krurrung-!
Pajijijik-.
What swept over my head next was an intense sensation so powerful I thought my whole body might fry.
My arms and legs cramped up, my skin stung, and my mouth went bone-dry.
"Ughghgh-."
It was literally like getting electrocuted.
I had no choice but to admit that the weird cotton-candy thing in my palm had, for some inexplicable reason, unleashed a massively powerful bolt of lightning.
Only after a few seconds had passed could I finally shake off the daze and regain my senses.
"I-is this for real? What the hell is this?!"
Even in a world without rules or laws, was it okay for cotton candy that shot lightning to exist?
If this had appeared in front of paranoid nymphs who loved sweets, who knows what kind of disaster might have unfolded.
Gyuuiing.
Pajit-.
The thing let out another bizarre noise and discharged a stinging spark.
"Ah, hot!"
As I hurriedly dropped it, the thing floated through the air like fluff caught in the wind and landed right on Gloria's head.
Kachink, crash-.
The sound of glass shattering rang clearly in my ears. Then Luna yelled loudly.
"Th-the shadow bind broke!"
That breaking sound just now must have been Luna's spell shattering.
"And that's a Cloudring!"
Luna, staring at the blue cotton candy perched on Gloria's head, shouted. Cloudring? I'd heard that name somewhere before.
Activating parallel thinking in my head, which was spinning wildly from the sudden divine realization, I recalled what Luna had said back when we were suffering under the summer sun.
Cloudring.
It was an extremely rare magical beast found near the shores of Delphoi. Just having one nearby cooled the surrounding air like a natural air conditioner.
And now it was right in front of me.
Shooting lightning, no less.
"Good job, Ingya."
Ingya, ingya.
It even seemed friendly with Gloria, like she was its owner. Anyway, we had no choice but to stay on high alert.
We could somewhat pressure Gloria when she was alone, but with this unidentified freakish beast showing up, we had to change strategies and plans.
"No choice now. We'll just overpower her with brute force."
Hippolyte was indeed frowning deeply, regulating her breathing. Seeing her blade vibrate with an ominous hum made cold sweat trickle down my back.
Was a total melee about to break out for real?
As I tensed up with that feeling.
Gyuuiing.
"What? Is that true?"
Ingya, ingya.
"Oh man, we're in trouble. It's telling me to clean up those filthy things?"
Ing.
"No way. Why me? This is ridiculous. Is there no one else?"
Krurrung...!
"See? I'm right."
Gloria suddenly started talking to herself, rambling on.
More precisely, she was conversing with the cotton candy wriggling atop her head.
But the conversation sounded incredibly suspicious at first glance.
Gyuuiing.
"Ah, I thought I'd get a few free days for once. Oh well, can't be helped. Hey, you lot. Consider yourselves lucky. I've got business to attend to, so I'm out."
And then Gloria, like she had some urgent matter, lost all will to fight and turned her back to us?
"Voodoo of Ambush!"
Right then, Luna darted forward nimbly, aiming for Gloria's nape—but she got swatted away by a casual flick of Gloria's hand and tumbled across the sand.
Voodoo of Ambush? Shouting it that loud kinda defeats the ambush part.
"Huiii..."
"I didn't even hit her that hard. Whatever. Anyway, big bro, see you in a few days. Once I wrap up all my karma and become free, we'll be together forever. Rolling around with you every day—"
"Scram!"
*
*
*
The beach Gloria had fled from was left with only the crashing waves, the cries of seabirds, and the traps we'd painstakingly prepared and devised, all eerily desolate.
"Damn it-."
Hippolyte spat as she stabbed her longsword into the sand.
"We accomplished nothing. We exposed our full strength, so pulling off a plan like this next time will be impossible."
"Hoo..."
Next to her, Elfride, drenched in sweat, collapsed onto the beach.
She'd been draining mana continuously, and at the end, that freakish beast had stuck to her face and interfered, so she must have been exhausted.
"My spell got disrupted. What the hell was that? That weird cloud thing..."
"It's a Cloudring. A small lightning repository, revered as a treasure of Jupiter. I knew Gloria was favored by Jupiter, but I never imagined she'd have a Cloudring too."
Small lightning repository.
A fitting nickname for that tiny thundercloud. Was it a gift from the god of lightning, Jupiter, to his supposed bastard child, Gloria?
Paranoya, who'd been listening, chimed in.
"Th-that kind of treasure is nothing compared to the transparent helmet Lord Hassan inherited or the scythe of death...! Those are Pluto's terrifying treasures...!"
Pluto's treasures?
Even exhausted, my ears perked up at that.
"What's that?"
"Honestly, I don't know much either...!"
What the—.
I knew to take Paranoya's words with a grain of salt, but I'd leaned in anyway, hoping for some silver lining.
Feeling a bit disappointed, Paranoya spoke again.
"But somewhere in the world, there must be treasures hidden by Lord Pluto...! Like the Star of Kallan around Lord Hassan's neck...!"
I became aware of my necklace.
The Star of Kallan.
No, it had been upgraded to Pluto's Pupil now. Thinking about it, since it was my father's item, it was rightful inheritance for me.
If Paranoya was right, there were legacies out there in the world for me to claim. Nice.
Elfride added her two cents.
"Pluto's legacy... It's probably already been looted by adventurers and tomb raiders from Pluto's Labyrinth."
"We must take it back...! Adventurers are filthy tomb raiders...! Lord Hassan must claim his rightful rights and reclaim them...!"
Does that even make sense?
It was common for adventurers to loot gold coins and artifacts from Pluto's Labyrinth and make a living off them. I'd done my share of that myself.
Still, among them, there must be powerful weapons, armor, accessories with real strength. Thinking that way improved my mood a bit.
"Heeeugh-."
Then Luna, who'd been knocked out after getting slapped on the hand by Gloria, opened her eyes. Hippolyte let out a slight hum and explained the situation.
"Noxdoti, you're finally awake. Gloria got away. A complete defeat for us."
Luna blinked her eyes.
Then she opened her tightly clenched palm and showed it to us. Inside were a few strands of long, black hair gripped tight.
"Our victory!"
"A-as expected of Lady Luna...! I believed in you...!"
"Now we'll use this to find the person most closely blood-bound to Gloria, or traces of them."
As lunch passed and the sun began dipping toward the sea, we finally beheld the strange object Luna had completed.
"Luna, what's this?"
"Karma Detector! Tie the hair to the tip of this needle treated with a special spell, place it on a flat board, and it'll point toward karma similar to this hair!"
It looked like a homemade compass from an elementary school science project. When Luna blew on it, the needle spun around before finally settling on a direction.
"It works!"
"Who knew Noxdoti had such skills? The world never ceases to surprise."
*
*
*
"It's around here somewhere. The needle keeps spinning uselessly. What's going on?"
We left the outskirts of Delphoi and combed through the nearby mountains. The dense trees and grass made it easy to lose our bearings, and the bugs were a nightmare.
"Fucking hell, mosquitoes even in autumn."
Especially the swarms sticking to me—it was torture. Why me specifically? Felt like I was a mosquito magnet totem or something.
"Lord Hassan's blood must taste like honey...!"
"Shut up, man."
Luna and Hippolyte seemed focused on finding the path, but at this rate, not sure if we'd achieve our goal before sundown.
For all we knew, Gloria's brother might not even be near Delphoi.
With my clear mind freed from Chaos's Blessing, I thought maybe we should head back to the inn and try again tomorrow.
But Luna and Hippolyte looked quite anxious.
Makes sense—they'd left their home in Sodomora for foreign lands, so they were fidgety to wrap things up and return.
The only one relaxed was Elfride, lips sealed as always.
Then she sidled up to me and spoke.
"Hey. Hassan."
"What."
"We agreed you'd hide under the cloak. Why'd you jump out?"
Oh. She was criticizing my actions from the fight with Gloria earlier.
"If I hadn't smacked that Cloudring off your face, you'd be fried right now."
"I know."
"Then we're good."
"More importantly, you. What are you gonna do?"
"About what."
"The prophecy. You've been agonizing over it. Given it any thought?"
"No clue."
I was busy swatting mosquitoes, and Elfride nagging me up close was getting on my nerves.
Then she said,
"If it's too hard, I could help."
"Help how?"
"With becoming your family. I could be first. No strings attached, just putting my name on paper."
Even with my Chaos-freed brain running parallel processes, I couldn't comprehend what Elfride was saying.
What the hell was she talking about?
Right then, Luna shouted.
"Here, right around here!"
Only then did we push through the brush and reach a wide plain. Dim night sky, air with a faint charred smell.
Familiar constellations.
The moment I saw them, I stopped caring about our previous conversation.
Zzuzzuzizuzz.
The plain alive with the noisy cries of autumn crickets.
"Looks like ruins of some building. But these patterns... they look vaguely familiar..."
"Look here! Tons of weird bones! Burn marks everywhere! Animal bones mixed with human ones, it seems. Why'd the detector stop here?"
As everyone puzzled over the surroundings, I couldn't help but frown deeply.
I knew what this place was.
"Hassan-. Feel anything, Hassan-."
Luna calling my name.
Hassan-.
San-.
Hey, Hassan-.
My thoughts spun like thunder in my brain.
I realized it.
"This is the Deathros Arena site."
Someone once said criminals always return to the scene of their crime. It was spot on.
Seeing the empty lot of the arena I'd burned, now overgrown with lush greenery, made my nape tingle.
Iron chains amid the weeds.
Rusted, broken swords.
Teeth and nails.
Amid them, my memory conjured one man's face.
He was, as far as I knew, the strongest Samaritan man.
"Castor-."
His dying words, which I'd slightly forgotten amid life's chaos, flashed in my mind. He'd asked me to look after his sister in his black homeland, right?
No way.
Coincidence?
No, a man strong enough to be called Gloria's brother—it had to be him.
As I pondered, a rustle came from behind us. Small presence. Wild animal? But the footsteps were distinctly bipedal.
"Customers of the arena?"
Plain face, height about half mine.
A middle-aged halfling, called a dwarf, approached us. He scanned our appearances and nodded knowingly.
"Not customers, but gladiators, I see. Shame, though. Place has been shut down for ages. Some bastard torched it and ran, bankrupting everyone."
"Who are you?"
Grinning at Hippolyte's narrowed eyes.
"I'm the, whatya call it, forest ranger here. And a small-time entertainer, you could say. Looks like a pretty ragged party?"
The man eyed us up and down.
People in this world don't see blatantly sizing up appearances as rude, so it was par for the course.
"Look like you haven't eaten in days. But decent skills, I'd wager."
To him, our grubby post-Gloria-forest-trek look screamed desperation.
His judgment was spot on. I, covered in mosquito bites, just wanted a wash.
Even I, used to grime, felt it—Luna, Hippolyte, and Elfride, who liked cleanliness, must be dying.
Then the ranger said,
"Looks like I could help you out. Fancy earning some coin? I'll provide washing spots and meals. Charity work, y'know."
"Y-you dare say that knowing who we are? The ones here are none other than—. Mmph-."
I hurriedly silenced Paranoya mid-rant. Then asked lightly,
"Work to earn money? What is it? Illegal?"
"Heavens, no! Perfectly legal, socially commendable even. Just enter Pluto's Labyrinth and hunt beasts."
What?
As I furrowed my brow slightly, he drove the point home.
"You lot look skilled. No harm in hearing it out. Beat that black-haired monster, and you'll claim a massive treasure."