Chapter 290: The Tin Knight and the Lingering Dream
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 290: The Tin Knight and the Lingering Dream
You have opened your eyes.
No, to be precise, you outside the monitor had been awake the whole time, but at least as the Tin Knight, you felt as if you were waking from a long slumber.
A sudden thrill ran through your body.
You had just remembered something you absolutely had to do right now.
You couldn't delay for even a moment. An opportunity like this didn't come by easily.
Therefore, you shouted with all your might.
[The Tin Knight announces that he's staring at an unfamiliar ceiling!]
After savoring the intense feeling of accomplishment, you pushed yourself up from the bed.
The blanket that had been covering you slid off.
As a price for having your impossibly heavy metal body placed upon it, the bed’s cushion was clearly shot.
You thought it was a bit of a waste. Since your body was basically armor, there was little difference between sleeping on the hard floor and sleeping on a bed.
Still, you appreciated the care someone had taken to respectfully lay your body on the bed and even cover it with a blanket.
It was a subtle way to return the favor, but instead of kicking the blanket away, you folded it neatly and placed it back on the bed.
The room was quite spacious, with an air of luxury about it.
However, it was far from a typical guest room, possessing many unique features.
A massive magic circle was etched into the floor of the square room, not drawn with something like chalk, but with blood.
What’s more, blood was continuously circulating along the paths of the circle.
The magic circle consisted of a large outer ring with three smaller circles inside it. Within those smaller circles were the bed you had just risen from, another bed, and the game book.
You glanced at the game book, which was flickering faintly like a flashlight with a dying battery, before turning your gaze to the other bed.
As expected, Sophia was lying there.
Sophia usually tied her hair back, but since she was lying down, it was spread out around her.
The sight reminded you of the ‘Owl’ you had just seen, stirring a strange feeling within you.
In the first place, Sophia’s body, much like your own, had little need for sleep, so this was the first time you had ever seen her sleeping.
A series of questions rose and fell in your mind.
Did Sophia know about you even before you met? No, she said she couldn't see your face or hear your voice, so had she only been guessing?
Was the future Sophia saw in the past about this dream world, not reality?
Was the ‘Owl’ gone for good? Or did it remain somewhere inside Sophia?
You crossed your arms and pondered for a moment before deciding it didn't matter and giving up.
Your specialty was beating opponents to a pulp, not wrestling with philosophical or scientific problems.
What mattered to you was whether you had fulfilled your role safely and whether your companion had returned safely as a result. That was all.
[The Tin Knight asks what score he gets out of a hundred for this one!]
“…Hmm, let’s see. I think I’ll have to think about that for a bit, you know?”
The reply came immediately.
Sophia, who had been lying on the bed as if dead, slyly opened one eye and smiled.
She asked.
“How did you know I was awake?”
[The Tin Knight replies that if you keep asking until she wakes up, the probability is 100%!]
“An astute answer to a foolish question.”
Sophia chuckled.
Her smile was a little more childlike than usual.
She laughed like that for a moment.
Then, she suddenly spoke.
“Thank you, Sir Tin. If you hadn't been there to talk to me, if you hadn't been there to protect me, I surely would not have been able to endure it.”
You shook your head.
[The Tin Knight says that’s not true!]
[The Tin Knight says that the Sophia he knows would surely not have broken down, even without him!]
You believed in Sophia.
You believed in the scholar who questioned what everyone else took for granted, who could say ‘no’ to the heavens that everyone else bowed to, and who challenged even the acts that people feared as taboo, all according to her own convictions.
You believed that even without you, she would have been able to stand tall on her own.
“Isn’t that an overestimation?”
[The Tin Knight says that people are often poor judges of themselves!]
[The Tin Knight replies that, in contrast, he has been watching Sophia this whole time, so he knows her well!]
“Hmm, that’s persuasive. And personally, it’s a conclusion I quite like.”
You felt a sense of puzzlement.
Perhaps sensing your confusion, Sophia continued.
“Because it means there’s someone who knows me better than I know myself. That is undoubtedly a blessing. —Perhaps one more precious than any blessing from a god.”
As she said this, Sophia’s face was incredibly serene.
Unable to think of a suitable response, you changed the subject.
Sophia seemed to notice your intention and your awkwardness, but she played along without pointing it out.
[The Tin Knight says he’s wondering where the other two are!]
“Hmm, I wonder? It seems Miss Dorothea prepared this environment, though.”
You looked around and noticed a window in a corner of the room. You walked over to it.
The window was sealed tight, preventing any sunlight or even a wisp of air from seeping in. This wasn't due to the window's own function, but because a bunch of what looked like skeletal arm bones were plastered all over it, sealing it shut.
You hesitated for a moment, then figured you could just beat up anything strange that appeared, and tore the bones off.
The view that was revealed outside the window was… in a word, fantastic.
“Oh, Goddess! Grant me your mercy…!”
“Great Goddess of the Earth! Bring salvation to this village!”
“Hey, you! Get in line! Didn’t you hear the Crow Goddess say to maintain order and wait your turn?!”
You and Sophia stood side-by-side at the window for a moment, rubbing your eyes with your arms.
But no matter how many times you rubbed, the scene outside didn't change.
[The Tin Knight is horrified that not only his dream but reality itself has been infested with fanatics!]
*
While the Tin Knight and Sophia had just experienced a dynamic story event that could be called a trinity of the heavens, the underworld, and the earth within their spiritual world, if one were to ask whether their remaining companions, Dorothea and Adelaide, had been relaxing peacefully, the answer would be ‘no.’
Upon realizing that the Tin Knight and Sophia were undergoing some kind of grand mental adventure, Dorothea had used the game book’s power to intervene in their dream, setting the stage for the Tin Knight to run wild against the ‘something’ inside Sophia. And once she knew this would be a long fight, she had even cast a barrier using her own blood.
If you were to ask if that was all, the answer would, of course, be ‘absolutely not.’
In the process of subduing the man playing the flute, the Tin Knight’s party had physically overpowered the townspeople he had entranced, which naturally resulted in injuries.
They had acted under the assumption that with Sophia around, minor wounds could be easily healed, but now their healer was unconscious.
To heal the people rolling on the ground with limbs broken clean off, Dorothea had to work her fingers to the bone, literally.
Skeleton Team A transported people on stretchers, Skeleton Team B applied bandages, and Skeleton Team C distributed a special healing-promoting stew made by the witch.
Everyone was terrified at first, but the adaptability of humans striving for survival is truly great. Eventually, they reached a point where if a human-shaped skeleton walked by while they were sleeping, they would just think, ‘What, a skeleton?’ scratch their bellies, and go right back to sleep.
There was… some backlash about being healed by the very person who broke their limbs, but it wasn't too serious.
The first reason was that most of the people who had been entranced by the flute retained their memories of that time.
The townspeople clearly remembered hurling insults at their lord and threatening him with weapons.
This was a world where a commoner could be put to death simply for blocking a noble’s path.
In a situation where a death sentence for all of them wouldn't have been strange, getting away with just a broken bone or two could be considered merciful.
William, too, was inwardly displeased with the townspeople, but he didn't go out of his way to stop Dorothea’s actions.
To a lord, his people were property and potential soldiers. Executing them out of anger would only diminish his own power.
If it had been just one or two people, he might have made an example of them to save face as a noble, but too many were involved. Formally punishing them all would either turn his domain into a ghost town or trigger a massive second uprising. Faced with that, it was more profitable to just play the part of the benevolent lord.
The second reason was a bit simpler.
It was because Dorothea fed them.
It might sound like a joke, but this was extremely important.
After all, one of the reasons the man playing the flute could so easily enthrall people was because the entire domain was in a state of famine.
For people who had been grateful to get even one meal a day of thin grain porridge and a piece of hard, dark bread, Dorothea’s special stew, filled with herbs, meat, mushrooms, and grains, was nothing short of a magical food.
In fact, it contained a fair amount of pain-relieving herbs, so it was a substance that teetered on the line between medicine and drug.
And if you were to ask where the enormous amount of food needed to feed the people of an entire domain two full meals a day came from, it was, of course, the effect of the kingdom’s sacred treasure Dorothea had newly acquired: the Pouch of Lilium.
Dorothea had initially underestimated the power of the Pouch of Lilium, ‘endlessly pour out grains,’ but upon calm reflection, it was an incredibly powerful ability.
The phrase ‘pour out grains’ meant that it could produce not just one type of grain, but a wide variety.
If the user used the pouch without much thought, it would endlessly spew out the single type of grain most familiar to them. But if they strongly pictured a specific grain, the type of grain produced would change to that.
She could even get it to produce things that made one wonder, ‘Is this even a grain?’ like potatoes or corn kernels, if she concentrated hard enough. The efficiency was worse than for regular grains, though.
After various tests, it seemed it could produce pretty much anything that grew from the ground.
Dorothea was seriously worried that Algind might come chasing after her to get it back later.
Adelaide provided the meat by storming a nearby forest and hunting with enough ferocity to bring it just shy of extinction, and the undead labor union took care of the herbs and mushrooms.
The reason Dorothea went to such lengths wasn't out of an overflowing sense of consideration or pity for the townspeople.
It was simply that it would be a pain if the townspeople caused a commotion while the Tin Knight and Sophia were out. Her mindset was more along the lines of, ‘Here, eat this and be quiet,’ and ‘I’ve done my part, so I’ll kill anyone who takes my goodwill for granted and comes at me.’
The one thing Dorothea hadn't calculated was that the public image of necromancers was an absolute train wreck, far worse than she had imagined.
Unable to conceive of a ‘necromancer who doesn't particularly intend to do good deeds but still observes a minimum of decency,’ the residents went through a sufficient process of rationalization.
“Hey, aren’t witches supposed to be evil? You know, eating children, digging up graves, that sort of thing.”
“I heard necromancers curse people for a hobby.”
“And, uh, I think I heard that if you cooperate with a witch or a necromancer, you get cursed, too.”
“…” “…” “…”
“So, maybe she’s not a necromancer?”
“Right, if she’s not an evil witch, then we haven’t done anything wrong. We won’t be cursed.”
“Then what is she?”
“Uh… she’s merciful, so we can just call her a goddess, can’t we?”
“Her clothes are a bit crow-like, aren't they? Crows are often seen near corpses, so it wouldn't be strange for her to have power over the dead.”
“Hmm, I like it.”
The result.
“A goddess exists on earth, and her name is Lady Dorothea!”
“Thank you, Goddess! Our children are alive because of you!”
“Great Crow Goddess! Grant rest to the dead! And blessings to the living!”
A new faith, the cult of the Crow Goddess, was born in the East, and the witch buried her head between her knees.