Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: Antidote Poison - 3
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A few minutes later.
We climbed to the roof of the tallest building in the territory.
If it followed yesterday's schedule, the green smoke would blow in any moment now.
The smoke that was Hieren Gois himself.
Offens spoke up.
“The antidote is best administered after killing Hieren.”
“Why? Wouldn’t it be better to detoxify the territory’s people first?”
“People might get caught in our battle and inhale more smoke. The amount of blood I drew yesterday wasn’t all that abundant.”
I understood what he meant and opened my mouth.
“You mean additional production would be difficult?”
“Yeah.”
“Understood. I’m sorry for the suffering territory folk, but let’s hold off on the antidote until after we kill Hieren.”
“Mm. Instead, let’s wrap this up as quickly as possible.”
“But we can’t kill him today.”
Wobble.
Maybe it was my imagination, but Offens’s knees seemed to buckle slightly.
He straightened his posture and said.
“Why crush the party’s morale?”
“It’s not that your skills are lacking. The bastard’s holed up tight.”
“He’s hiding now, sure. But won’t he show up eventually? He has to sprinkle that craving poison on the territory folk.”
“No. He won’t appear.”
I explained the conversation between Idria and Hieren that I’d seen yesterday through the Eye of Omniscience.
Including Idria’s plan: “Hide.”
Serein tilted her head.
“Hiding is the plan?”
“An extremely effective one.”
“Why...”
“Idria predicted we’d make an antidote from Hieren’s blood. So... no. Best to confirm it ourselves. It’s about time anyway.”
That was when Neril spoke.
“It’s not just time. It’s past time.”
“Huh?”
“You were right. Looks like Hieren’s not showing. It’s already over ten minutes later than when the green smoke rolled in yesterday.”
“How can you tell so precisely?”
“Wizards have a trick for reciting time down to the second, no sweat. You have to practice for spellcasting timing.”
She continued with a somewhat grave expression.
“It’s been eleven minutes and two seconds now.”
The party’s faces hardened in tandem.
But they still looked puzzled, not grasping the situation.
With a sigh, I said.
“Look down there.”
The group cautiously peered over the edge, scanning the territory.
The green smoke, delayed by about eleven minutes from usual, had already turned the territory into hell.
“Kwaaaah!”
“Ki-kill me. Someone kill me!”
“Heehee. Uhihihi.”
“Fuck! Give me that smoke, please! I’ll do anything!”
“Why’s it so late today? Ahh, heavenly god.”
It was worse than the horrors we’d witnessed yesterday.
They were starting to harm themselves.
Some wounds looked deep enough that they might actually die if left alone.
“Wh-what do we do? We can’t use healing spells!”
“Offens. Antidote them.”
Offens asked seriously.
“You sure? Like I said, this is hard to make more of.”
“It’s fine. Even if Hieren’s hiding for dear life, he can’t evade Jenia’s vision sharing. Detoxifying the territory folk comes first.”
“I see. Got it.”
He pulled a vial from his pocket.
I said to Risel.
“This is a dry region, so summoning water spirits won’t be easy.”
“Ah, yes. You’re so knowledgeable, Maide.”
“Blow the horn. No time to waste.”
“Got it.”
Crack.
Risel stood at the roof’s edge.
She pulled out the spirit-summoning horn and blew it vigorously.
-Pwooo!
A clear tone rang out, clashing with the hellish scene below.
The suffering territory folk’s gazes turned toward us, if only briefly.
“Ugh... that person?”
“M-Maide?”
“The hero.”
“Haa. Haa. H-hero. Please save us!”
Normally, I might’ve given a speech, but with a heavy heart, I simply looked to Offens.
Offens uncorked the vial and carefully handed it to Risel.
“Ask the spirits to mix this into the rainclouds.”
“Yes. One moment.”
Risel furrowed her brow, as if her head ached.
Invisible to us, the territory must be teeming with water spirits summoned by the horn.
Controlling them one by one wouldn’t be easy.
“Eramu. Natra. Geaevark!”
Offens’s vial floated lightly into the air.
It drifted up into the thick rainclouds.
And shortly after.
“Hotiara!”
Rumble. Boom.
A fierce thunderbolt heralded the downpour.
Whoosh.
Soon, the pounding rain assaulted our ears.
“Heavenly god...”
“Grant us your shield here.”
Jenia and Serein hadn’t even asked, but I cast protective spells anyway.
Thanks to that, not a thread of our clothes got wet despite the torrent.
I looked down and shouted.
Right on cue, Neril amplified my voice with magic.
“Everyone, drink this rain!”
“Huh? The hero?”
“This rain is the antidote to the filthy poison that addicted you! Drink it, and the withdrawal symptoms will be gone for good!”
“Oooo!”
“Once the symptoms fade after drinking the rain, collect as much rainwater as you can. Do your absolute best!”
The territory folk didn’t respond.
They couldn’t.
All of them were gaping at the sky, mouths wide.
It’d look comical if you didn’t know the context.
Thud.
I turned back to the group and let out a deep sigh.
“Phew.”
Jenia asked cautiously.
“Maide? What’s wrong?”
“...”
“O-of course, Hieren’s still alive, so it’s unsettling. But the territory folk are detoxified now, right?”
“If we leave this territory, he’ll show up again. Poison them with green smoke all over.”
Jenia nodded, as if she’d expected that.
“Yeah. That’s why you told them to stockpile rainwater?”
“Exactly.”
“With this downpour, they’ve got enough for a few weeks... So we finish up at the starting point and come back, yeah?”
“No. We can’t leave here.”
Everyone tilted their heads.
“Ah!”
Neril caught on first.
She clicked her tongue and spoke.
“So this is Idria’s plan?”
“Probably.”
“She’s got a sharp head.”
Adwin asked.
“Sis? What’re you talking about?”
“Look down there.”
“Yeah? Huh!”
The building we were on was surrounded by territory folk.
To put it bluntly, we were encircled.
Offens said, sweating coldly.
“Even in this downpour, their eyes are fierce.”
“Mm.”
“Now I get it. To them, we’re a lifeline.”
“Yeah. The rain will stop eventually, and the stockpiled water will run out someday. It’s finite.”
“...”
“To the territory folk, that hellish withdrawal and addiction is an ‘inevitable future.’ Now that they’ve been cured once, they won’t want to go back.”
As Risel put it, it was a slave’s life without the chains.
What would they wish for in that state?
One of two things.
‘Kill Hieren and uproot the problem, or...’
[No way?]
‘Yeah.’
With a sigh, I said.
‘Us staying in this territory forever.’
After the rain stopped, we met with the lord.
His clothes were soaked through.
Even a noble with a count’s title had stood there like a madman, mouth agape in the rain.
‘He must’ve wanted out of that addiction that badly.’
Anyway, the lord cleared his throat lightly, now sane, and spoke.
“Ahem. Sorry for meeting you in such a state.”
His switch to polite speech suggested he now acknowledged me after this “antidote rain” incident.
I replied.
“No, not at all.”
“Hero... er, may I call you Maide for now?”
“Of course.”
“The antidote rain you and your companions made was incredible. It wasn’t just covering poison with more poison like before.”
“...”
“The poison literally vanished from my body. I felt it physically, no explanation needed.”
I nodded silently.
The lord asked in a subtle tone.
“But... will that green smoke never appear again?”
“I don’t want to lie, so honestly: it’ll come again.”
“Was today’s lack of green smoke because you’re in the territory, Maide?”
“...”
“You’re called a hero across the continent, and that smoke is surely the evil Demon King’s doing. With a hero here, no smoke... It’s a perfectly reasonable guess.”
Scratching my head, I replied.
“Well, you could think that.”
“Ooh! As expected!”
Grab.
The lord seized my hand.
In a desperate, pleading tone, he begged.
“Then please, stay in our territory forever.”
“Lord.”
“Please, I beg you. What do you want? Money? Jewels? Land? Weapons? Name it.”
Thud.
He even knelt at my feet.
To a lord who’d endured soul-shaking withdrawal, I must look like a literal heavenly god.
“If you want, I’ll give you my title too.”
“Come on...”
“No lie. I’d rather die than go back to that beastly life.”
“...”
“This isn’t just from me.”
Thud. Swish.
He stood, went to the window.
Drew the curtains and opened it.
“Waaaaaah!”
“Hero! You’re there, right, hero?”
“Lord, keep the hero here no matter what.”
“Don’t let him go. Absolutely not!”
It was madness itself.
Trail swallowed a groan.
[This is no joke. If you say you’re leaving, they’ll tear you apart alive.]
‘We could leave if we wanted. Fly off on Agril, or knock ’em out one by one and break through.’
[But then...]
‘Yeah. My reputation tanks.’
At least in this territory, no one would call me hero again.
No, it wasn’t just this one territory.
The folk, enraged, would spread rumors: “Maide Mohan abandoned us and fled.”
With the oracle likely favoring Kaild, that’d paint me as the ‘fake’ even more.
[You can’t ditch the oracle for one territory.]
‘Right. If we don’t solve it by the deadline, we’ll have to shake them off and go.’
[...]
‘But conversely, that means solve it by the deadline.’
[Heh. Yeah, that’s you.]
I asked Jenia.
“How much time do we have left?”
“A full day plus a bit. About 28 hours?”
“We find and kill Hieren within 28 hours. Use vision sharing.”
Jenia nodded gravely, shouldering the burden.
She opened the window and called Agril.
Whoosh.
Agril’s wind whipped my face.
The territory folk stirred in uproar.
“Uwaaaah!”
“N-no. He’s leaving.”
“Damn it. If you go, I’ll bash my head in and die! Not joking!”
Jenia squeezed her eyes shut, ignoring their clamor.
Moments later.
She sent Agril back and returned to us.
With a deeply dejected look, she said.
“He’s nowhere.”
Huh?
That’s a problem.
“How wide is Agril’s vision range?”
“Wide enough for the whole territory, for sure. He must’ve left Atrium Territory.”
“Well, this plan falls apart if his position’s exposed.”
I said that, but my gut said otherwise.
Even if he slipped out, we’d spot him quick chasing on Agril.
They’d know that, so no point in pointless moves.
‘Hieren’s definitely hiding somewhere in the territory.’
[But vision sharing didn’t find him.]
‘Even Agril’s eyes aren’t omnipotent. Like in Aibis Territory, couldn’t find Ariena in Offens’s shadow. We had to break the curse first back then...’
...?
Ah!
Lightning struck my mind.
Wait, how the hell is ‘that’ even possible?
[What? Let me in on it.]
‘Give me a sec to sort it. Even I’m stunned I thought of it.’
First, wrap this up.
I told the lord.
“We’ll leave tomorrow.”
“Maide!”
“Ah. Hear me out.”
Waving my hand, I said.
“By tomorrow, I’ll wipe out the green smoke.”