Half-Elf Mage Delia
Half-Elf Mage Delia
"You call an elf like me a kanpeu? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Delia furrowed her brow and stared at me.
I held back from explaining the specific meaning of kanpeu, dragging it out.
There are two things that piss a person off the most. The first is when someone stops talking mid-sentence.
The second is—!
"I asked you what kanpeu means!"
My provocation had worked. Delia raised her voice.
It was just about time I enlightened this otherworld half-elf on the true meaning of kanpeu.
Suddenly, Bella interposed herself between us.
"Everyone. It is time to depart. Kanpeu or whatever else, you can hear the explanation later. For now, we must board the carriage and get moving. If we are too late, it may inconvenience the head of Nain Gard."
Bella shot a pointed look at Delia first, not me.
"Your father has a fiery temper, as you well know. If you bring us in late, he will not leave you alone, will he?"
"Urk...!"
Delia's father.
The moment the head of Nain Gard was mentioned, Delia quickly quieted down. It seemed her father was a rather strict man.
In the end, I never got to tell Delia the meaning of kanpeu.
"I will make sure you explain it to me later! Kanpeu!"
"Sure."
I climbed aboard Bella's carriage, and Delia climbed into the carriage she had arrived in, and we parted ways.
Once my lovers had followed me into the cabin, Bella, who had entered first, immediately issued the departure order to Hannah.
"Hannah. Let us depart."
"Understood. Hyah!"
Hannah, seated in the coachman's seat, cracked the whip and set the horses running. Through the cabin window, I could see Delia's carriage running parallel beside us.
Kate spent a long while observing Delia's carriage before she spoke to me.
"Mongma-nim. Did you call that half-elf back there a kanpeu?"
"Yeah."
"So what does kanpeu mean?"
"It means a shitty elf."
"Aha—!"
Kate heard the shocking definition but nodded her head with an expression that said she understood perfectly.
It seemed Kate hadn't liked Delia pushing me around and painting me as a vicious incubus, either.
"Kanpeu! I learned another new word from you, Mongma-nim! When I get back to the church, I will have to teach it to all the congregation!"
It was a historic moment: the first time the word kanpeu became known to the people of this other world.
Imagining all those innocent churchgoers going around saying "kanpeu, kanpeu" made me feel weird.
"Huh? Mongma-nim, the kanpeu is staring at us right now!"
"Leave her be. Let her look or not, it is her own mind."
I subtly turned my head to look out the same window Kate had been watching.
Sure enough, just as she said, the silver-haired half-elf in the carriage running parallel was staring intently our way.
'She's watching me.'
Specifically, she was watching me.
I had no intention of making a fuss just because she was staring, so I decided to ignore it.
I tuned her out and asked Bella, who was sitting across from me, something I had been wondering.
"Bella. Elves are a nudist race who live completely naked, right? Is your friend Delia completely naked too? Is she wearing nothing under that robe?"
"I am curious too, Vice Guild Master!"
Rebecca chimed in from beside me.
The two of us had been genuinely curious since earlier whether a stark-naked body would pop out if we stripped Delia's robe off.
Bella, as a childhood friend, seemed like she would know about Delia.
"No? Delia is not that kind of pervert. You must not misunderstand. Among elves, she is the only one who knows the meaning of shame. She is always fully clothed."
But the answer I got was unexpected.
An elf, ashamed of baring her body?
Completely unbelievable!
Every elf I had ever met had been a total pervert!
"Really? She is fully dressed?"
"Yes. Delia was raised by her human father with a proper upbringing. Her elven mother is separated, so she says she has barely ever met her in her life. She received such a strict home education that she absolutely hates exposing her body and has a lot of shame. That is why she covers her whole body with a robe."
Certainly, a half-elf with perverted tendencies would have been going around without even the robe on.
Amazingly, the Delia we met was a woman with a normal way of thinking among countless elves.
Rebecca let out a sigh of relief beside me.
"Th-thank goodness! I was planning to cover Luke's eyes the moment that half-elf started taking off her robe. I even prepared a blindfold for it."
"Huh."
Rebecca pulled a pitch-black blindfold from her pocket.
She had apparently meant to block my view with that. It was just like my lover to be so thoroughly prepared.
"There is no use for it now, so I will throw it away."
"Nah. It might come in handy, you know? Give it to me."
"What are you going to use it for?"
"I want to put it on you. When we are mana charging."
I snatched the blindfold Rebecca tossed from midair.
Just imagining putting a blindfold on Rebecca during mana charging made my lower body instinctively stiffen.
Blindfold play!
Just thinking about it turned me on and felt like it would boost the efficiency of mana charging.
"Sh-should we try it sometime?"
"Yeah."
I could see Rebecca nodding her head, even though she looked embarrassed.
I was already looking forward to our next mana charging session.
Of course, before that, I would have to awaken as a Rune Mage at the temple first.
*
From the port city to the Temple of Nain Gard took roughly an hour.
As for whether that roughly hour-long journey was smooth, it absolutely was not.
Because during the carriage ride along the road, we were attacked by fishmen.
Weeeeeeeng!
The carriage alert sound signaling that hostile creatures were approaching.
The moment we heard it, dozens of fishmen appeared before us riding in the carriage.
Their churrrring breaths echoed all the way to us.
"Churrrr! Non-fishmen races, get out of the carriage! We, the Angry Claw Tribe, will annihilate you!"
Their numbers were roughly sixty.
A teeming swarm of fishmen, like a plague of locusts, blocked the road.
As it happened, the roadside was lined with shacks and the like, which told me this had originally been a fishmen colony.
"Fishmen again? What the hell is with these bastards?"
Bella answered my grumbling mutter.
"I have heard the mood among the fishmen living in the western continent has been unusual lately. There are riots breaking out not just in the port cities but all across the continent. It seems they have all turned into homicidal maniacs, rampaging wildly."
"All the fishmen have turned into murderers?"
"Yes."
Bella nodded.
"The truth is, fishmen have always held other races in contempt. They considered themselves the only superior race and thought other races were worthless. It is no wonder conflicts break out."
Well, I knew well enough that fishmen are a headache.
Every other race is utterly disgusted by that unique fishy stench of theirs. But they pass it off as their unique culture and absolutely refuse to wash.
There is even a continental proverb that says, "The only good fishman is a dead fishman."
Abbreviated as 'Good Fish, Dead Fish.'
Those fishy bastards are every single one of them idiots.
"Bella. Still, is it not a bit strange that every single fishman has turned into a crazed killer? It seems like there used to be at least a few normal fishmen."
"That is what I am saying. I am currently conducting a separate investigation, mobilizing adventurers for it."
There was no more time for chatting.
Because the fishmen who had been blocking the road began to advance on us in formation.
There was no fishman with the rank of chieftain, like the fishman Banner I had fought in the valley. Fishman chieftains always have a mark engraved on their foreheads.
That meant all the fishmen blocking the road were small fry.
'The numbers are insane, though!'
But they were not numbers to take lightly.
A full sixty of them!
With sixty fishmen, even Bella could be in danger.
If I let even one or two of the swarming fishmen slip through, it would be a pain in the ass.
"Fight while protecting the carriage as much as possible! We have to stop any fishmen from getting close to it."
"Yes! Mongma-nim!"
I got out of the cabin with my lovers and prepared for battle.
But before we could clash with the fishmen, Delia cast magic right from beside us.
"Burn them! O eternal, blazing inferno of Muspelheim! Kenazru!"
Ancient Magic, Kenazru!
Kenaz is the rune letter meaning fire.
The moment the incantation ended, blazing fireballs hurtled toward the fishmen.
Boom! A deafening roar echoed, and a fishman standing there turned to ash. But Kenazru was not a spell that ended with a single fireball.
"Burn to death, all of you! Hahaha—!"
Delia gripped a quarterstaff in both hands and aimed its tip at the fishmen.
As if it were a cannon, blazing fireballs vomited forth from the head of the quarterstaff without pause.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom! The fishmen blocking the road went up in glorious combustion. An endless barrage of eardrum-bursting explosions echoed.
The detonations had wrecked the road, making it look like a natural disaster had struck.
"Churrrrrrrrrr—!!!"
"Muwul! Spray water on meeeeeek!!"
"My body is burning up, churyaaaaaaak!!"
After the fireball bombardment ended, roughly thirty fishmen remained alive.
She had incinerated half the advancing fishmen with a single spell!
But astonishingly, the danger of the Kenazru magic was not just that.
Whooooosh—!
The fishmen sprayed water on each other, trying to extinguish the flames clinging to their bodies.
But no matter how much water they sprayed, the fire, far from going out, greedily continued to burn their bodies.
It was an unquenchable flame!
"Insane! What is this, Amaterasu?"
I stared at the fire blazing fiercely even in the water with a flabbergasted expression.
Seemingly quite pleased with my reaction, Delia jutted her chin up and spoke with a boastful look.
"The fire of Ancient Magic cannot be suppressed by ordinary means. Even if you spray water or dirt, the intensity of the blaze only lessens; the embers remain. It will keep burning until I, in my mercy, put it out."
"......."
It was fascinating.
Fire summoned by ordinary magic is ultimately treated as part of a natural phenomenon, so of course it goes out when it touches water.
From the flames called forth by the basic magic Fire, every magical fire is like that.
But the fire of Ancient Magic seemed to possess an aspect that transcended natural phenomena.
"Fascinating, is it not?"
"Yes."
"Let me ask you just one thing, too! What is kanpeu?"
It was the moment I was about to give Delia an answer.
"Kanpeu is—"
"Luke—! If the fishmen are dealt with, please return to the carriage!"
Right on cue, with perfect timing, Bella called for me from the carriage.
The fishmen who had been blocking the road were instead slaughtered.
The ones who barely survived were currently being roasted golden brown by flying embers.
Soon enough, once they all burned up, it would be time to depart for the temple again.
"Bella is calling me. Sorry, I will tell you next time."
"Argh! What the hell is kanpeu—?!"
I winked at Delia and returned to the carriage.
Thirty minutes after that.
We finally arrived at the Temple of Nain Gard.
"Kanpeu! What the hell is kanpeu?! Hey! Do you know what it means?"
"I-I do not know either! Lady Delia!"
"If you do not know, how am I supposed to know!"
"I am so sorryyy!"
When I got off the carriage, Delia was in sight.
Because I had stopped mid-sentence, Delia was taking it out on her attendants for no reason.