Chapter 16
Chapter 16
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Master and Disciple
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-BOOM!
The slime's massive body exploded, sending globs of mucus flying in every direction.
Bits of bone presumed to be human limbs, along with all sorts of debris the monster had swallowed up until now, scattered everywhere as well.
Naturally, Cloe—who had been inside the slime's stomach—was one of those fragments too.
-Splat!
She would have been done for if she'd crashed onto the hard ground, but fortunately, Cloe landed on the mucus covering the floor.
"Hah... hah..."
Finding the magic stone inside the slime's belly had been pure coincidence.
Her 'Half-Demon' constitution letting her endure the slime's acidity was also pure coincidence.
The magic stone, which normally wouldn't shatter even if bitten, had weakened from the acid—another coincidence.
One stroke of luck after another piling up like that had allowed Cloe to survive.
'I... lived.'
Once the situation settled, the tension that had rubberized her body began to fade.
And in its place came a wave of pain.
"Guhhh..."
Still, the massive threat right in front of her was resolved for now.
That was what Cloe thought—until she belatedly realized she was facing a new danger.
-Blorp...
The giant slime she'd just defeated looked like several slimes forcibly merged together.
Which meant that killing the giant one could split it back into independent smaller ones.
'Damn it...'
Right now, Cloe didn't even have the strength to twitch a finger.
She'd thrashed about wildly without checking her own body.
-Blorp...!
"Ugh... ughhh...!"
Slimes were inherently harmful to humans as magical beasts.
In front of such a beast, Cloe's future—in perfect combat-incapable condition—was obvious.
'Am I... going to die like this?'
Death, which had come knocking several times today already, approached Cloe once more.
As she desperately struggled to escape it again...
-ZZZAP!
"Phew, you okay?"
Fortunately, her savior arrived right on time this time.
"Ha..."
How long had she waited for the owner of that voice?
It was someone she'd only met a few days ago, someone she couldn't fully trust yet—but the moment Cloe heard the voice, she felt all the strength drain from her body.
With the tension gone, deep fatigue filled the void.
"Haa..."
"Um, h-hey? Y-you're not dying, right...?"
The last voice Cloe heard as she slipped into unconsciousness was Sion's ridiculously idiotic shout.
"Ah..."
When she opened her eyes, she saw a ceiling that was familiar now.
The inn in Prifre where Rion was staying, the one she'd been crashing at lately.
Awakening there, Cloe slowly pieced together what had happened before she passed out.
She'd gone to the underground sewers with Rion to repair the purification facility.
There, they'd found evidence that someone had deliberately sabotaged it, and somehow she got tangled up with the Yormungand Assassin Guild.
While Rion drew the assassins' attention, she'd headed deeper to find the source of the corruption.
'I... survived.'
It had been a chain of events where someone like Cloe never should have made it out alive, but fortunately, she had.
"Mmph...!"
As expected, her body wouldn't move.
The bandages wrapped tightly around her told the tale of her current condition.
'Just like when I first got here.'
Come to think of it, she'd been in this state the first time she woke up here too.
Cloe felt like she'd been getting injured way more often lately.
"Ah... you're awake."
Sensing her stirring, Sion came over from the kitchen.
But Cloe wasn't in any shape to hold a conversation.
Prolonged exposure to the slime's acid had damaged her vocal cords too.
"You... got really badly hurt, so... please don't push yourself..."
"...Mmph."
"Ah, right now... your voice won't come out properly...? H-here, use this for now..."
What Sion handed her was a ballpoint pen and an empty notebook.
Realizing their purpose, Cloe immediately scribbled what she wanted to say.
What happened?
"Um... long story short... the purification facility's working normally now."
As Cloe had suspected, the source of the corruption was that giant slime she'd seen.
Once it split apart, the facility started functioning again, and in a few days, the slums' stream would be clean once more.
Yormungand?
"A few... got away, but oh well... they won't bother us anymore."
Some of the Yormungand assassins assigned to the escape route had fled the sewers.
Whether anyone would hire them now that their 100% success rate was broken was anyone's guess—but it wasn't Sion's problem.
Lily?
"She's... sleeping for a bit. She'll wake up tomorrow..."
Artificial spirits like Lily entered hibernation when they exhausted all their mana.
With her master Sion right there, mana replenishment wasn't an issue, so Lily would recover soon.
-Scribble... scribble.
"Um... sorry."
Before Cloe could finish writing her next line, Sion spoke first.
"It was my misjudgment... If I'd known there was a monster like that... I wouldn't have sent you alone..."
The sewer incident had completely exceeded Sion's expectations.
Black mage's experiment, Yormungand assassins.
Each one was a formidable foe beyond what Cloe could handle, and she'd been pushed to the brink of death multiple times because of it.
Sion felt like it was all due to her own poor judgment.
Cloe silently shoved the sentence she'd written toward Sion.
Thank you.
"...Pardon?"
Just three short words: Thank you.
That single sentence perfectly captured Cloe's current feelings toward Sion.
"...I'll make sure nothing like this happens again."
This was the first time Sion had ever apologized to someone else.
And the first time she'd heard "It's okay" from the person she apologized to.
All of this exchange was interaction with others—something Sion had always despised and deemed worthless.
But right now, Sion felt that it wasn't as bad as she'd thought.
-Scribble... scribble.
As Sion puzzled over her own changes, Cloe wrote the next line and showed it to her.
Teach me magic.
"Magic...?"
Sion had tried to teach Cloe magic several times before.
To help her achieve one of the accomplishments needed to return home.
But Cloe, who'd lived her whole life with a dagger, thought magic wasn't for her, leaving Sion's training plans at a standstill.
"Suddenly... did something change your mind...?"
If Cloe was willing to learn magic now, Sion had no complaints.
She was just curious about what had changed her mind.
I want to get stronger.
Survival was Cloe's everything right now—her reason for living, her goal.
This incident had made her desperately realize she needed more power to survive.
And once stronger, she didn't want to be Rion's burden anymore.
She wanted to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her, and one day be able to help her too.
Cloe didn't bother writing all that out.
"O-okay... Once you're fully healed... I'll teach you slowly."
The warm atmosphere continued until suddenly, a burning smell stung her nose.
By the way, what's that burning smell since earlier?
"Ah, right, the soup...! Hold on, I'll bring it right over!"
What'd you put in it this time?
"I-I used normal ingredients this time...!"
Like what?
"...Echo grass, a bit of golden mushroom... sky-clear herb... and a little century ginseng."
...Pass.
"Ah, nooo...!"
The foothills of Bestia Mountain near Prifre Castle.
This was the only path from Prifre Castle to Bestia Mountain, and right now, it was like the front lines, with most of Prifre's forces gathered there.
With so many troops pulled away, Prifre itself was suffering from various security issues, but given this location's importance, it was a necessary sacrifice.
If these lines collapsed, Prifre wouldn't be worrying about security—it'd be fighting for survival.
They were holding back the magical beasts pouring in from not heading straight to Prifre, but with no end in sight, it was turning into a war of attrition.
"Whew..."
Just minutes ago, they'd repelled another wave of beasts, so the front was thick with the stench of blood and gunpowder.
Most soldiers were exhausted from the nonstop battles, barely able to stand, and the medical tents for the wounded were always at full capacity.
"Oh, Olivia! Where've you been? Finally showing up?"
Olivia—one of the frontline commanders and vice captain of the Imperial Knights—grimaced deeply.
While most of the front was worn out from battle, one person looked perfectly fine.
Someone piling up beast corpses into a mountain and casually sharpening his sword atop it.
"...Hero."
Olivia called out to the man she utterly despised.
The Hero, Karl Leonhardt.
"Right, you said you were reporting to the capital?"
He was one of the Seven Stars who subjugated the Demon King, the Empire's hero.