Chapter 75: The Tin Knight and The Land of Deep Green (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 75: The Tin Knight and The Land of Deep Green (5)
The Tin Knight’s autonomous combat privileges were revoked in a single day. It was a short-lived dream.
“I’ll give you orders remotely, so just follow them.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is flustered by the revocation of his trainer qualification!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is shocked that his status has been demoted to Adel’s level!]
“Um, Sir Knight. I think I’m the one who should be shocked by that statement…”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists it takes courage to speak the cruel truth to one’s pupil!]
“I see, Sir Tin. You’re aware of the principle that adding the word ‘courage’ makes most statements sound plausible.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ shrugs his shoulders!]
“Stop spouting nonsense and get to work, you idiots.”
Dorothea used the head of the predator boss (or what was presumed to be its head), which the Tin Knight had retrieved, as a catalyst to activate her magic.
The boss’s head, which had boasted an immense size, shriveled up until it was about the size of a baseball and began to float in the air.
Dorothea covered one eye with her left hand, let out a small cough, and then spoke.
“《Ah, ah. Good. The voice transmission seems to be working well. The view is decent, too.》”
Dorothea’s voice and the voice leaking from the mini boss head overlapped in the air.
The Tin Knight watched in admiration as the boss head landed with a smack on his shoulder.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ praises the zombie drone system!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ questions if it really has to ride on his shoulder!]
“《Quiet. Just sharing sight and transmitting my voice is tricky enough. Adding remote control to the mix is a pain.》”
After grumbling quietly, Dorothea removed the hand covering her eye.
At the same time, the head on the Tin Knight’s shoulder went limp.
Dorothea warned the Tin Knight several times, as if to drill it into his head.
“Don’t turn the corpses into pulp. Don’t waste mana unnecessarily. I’ll be checking in periodically. You’d better be ready if you do anything stupid.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ emphasizes the importance of autonomy in the field!]
“How about we forget hunting and just pull weeds until we leave?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ changes his tune, saying one must respect the leader’s judgment!]
Seemingly thinking that provoking Dorothea any further would truly result in a hunting ban, the Tin Knight hastily departed.
Dorothea watched him go with a distrustful gaze and shook her head.
She had used the word “monitoring” to threaten the Tin Knight, but in truth, she had no intention of meddling with his every move.
Besides, Dorothea had plenty of other things to do.
Collecting tree sap, gathering and processing various herbs, grinding wild animal bones into powder.
Ordinarily, Dorothea would have handled every single task herself, but with all her existing catalysts gone, she was in a situation where she'd even take a cat's help.
“Adel, I need to extract sap, so make a deep cut in that tree.”
“Yes! Is this deep enough?”
“Sophia. Go gather some more of this same grass.”
“Understood.”
“Adel, clear away these thorny vines.”
“Yes! I’ll cut them down!”
“Sophia, are you still not done? Seriously, how does it take you over ten minutes to pull a single blade of grass!?”
“It is to ensure the root is delicately extracted. It’s a shame I don’t have a brush to dust the soil from the roots.”
“Aargh…! Just pull them out however! And Adel, dig a hole here!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Sophia! Hey! The acorns you gathered are spilling everywhere! Pick them up properly!”
“This is a more difficult task than I anticipated.”
“Sophi—no, Adel!”
“Adel, over here!”
“Adel. After that, do this!”
“Adel!”
She was desperate enough to take a cat's help, or so the saying goes. Though, it felt more like a cat's help was all she was getting, but it couldn't be helped.
While giving orders to her two companions, Dorothea had to focus on processing various ingredients herself.
Occasionally monitoring the Tin Knight remotely was just a bonus.
Dorothea’s hands, mouth, and mind were busy; Adel’s body was busy; Sophia was not very busy at all.
Of course, Adel didn’t complain about the situation. She was a good lion.
It wasn’t that she had been about to sneak in a complaint, only to shut her mouth after seeing a crazed Dorothea hang Sophia from a rope to use as bait. Probably.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ announces his return!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ boasts of his successful hunt!]
A little after lunchtime, the Tin Knight returned to their base.
He was dragging a giant wild boar in one hand and a giant wolf in the other.
Dorothea’s nagging seemed to have worked, as the carcasses were in much better shape than the previous beast’s.
Sophia, who was watching while hanging upside down, spoke.
The fact that her complexion hadn't changed at all, despite all the blood that should have been rushing to her head, was bizarre in its own way.
“By the way, Sir Tin. Did you hunt these animals while they were minding their own business?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ reports that these creatures attacked him first as he was wandering around!]
“I see. Did any of them try to flee during the fight?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that some of the minions fled, but none of the boss-level ones did!]
“That is strange.”
Dorothea interjected.
“Strange? What’s strange?”
“Well, they are wild animals, are they not?”
“So what about it?”
“Is there any reason for them to risk their lives to fight?”
Dorothea was about to ask what she meant, but her expression shifted as if she’d had a sudden realization.
A question mark seemed to appear over Adel’s head as she asked.
“Isn’t it because they’re magic beasts?”
“Most creatures called magic beasts are not so different from ordinary animals. They are stronger and possess special abilities, but their fundamental behavior patterns do not change dramatically.”
Dangling in mid-air, Sophia continued her eloquent speech.
The sight of the Tin Knight, Dorothea, and Adelaide listening with their heads tilted up was quite bizarre, but there was no one around to point it out.
“When bandits look for targets to plunder, why do they aim for private homes or small merchants instead of carriages escorted by armed mercenaries or knights?”
“Because the first option is dangerous for the bandits too, right?”
“It is the same for magic beasts. In fact, they are far more thorough at risk management than humans, who are often blinded by greed and take on reckless challenges. They do not provoke strong opponents, nor do they engage with unfamiliar ones. Even if the opponent is weaker, they will avoid a fight if they think they might get injured in the process. After all, even if a hunt is successful, a serious injury could mean the end for them.”
“However,” Sophia added.
“In that sense, Sir Tin is the worst possible prey. He is incredibly strong, an unfamiliar opponent with no known weaknesses, and crucially, there is nothing to be gained from defeating him.”
“That’s true. It’s not like you can eat him after you win.”
Dorothea looked at the wolf and boar carcasses.
A belligerence that initiated fights when there was no need, prioritizing the defeat of an external enemy over their own survival.
As if to confirm something, Dorothea took out a small dagger and tried to skin the wolf, but she frowned when it didn’t go as planned.
She said to the Tin Knight.
“Chop this thing up into manageable pieces. Try not to damage the bones if you can.”
“Eek.”
Adel was horrified by the gruesome command—just what you'd expect from a witch—but the Tin Knight responded immediately.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says to leave it to him!]
A silver-gray sword flash glinted, and the wolf’s carcass was instantly dismantled.
His skill was truly artistic, not spilling a single drop of blood on the surroundings.
Dorothea approached the dismembered wolf and rummaged through its innards with a stoic expression.
Then she frowned.
“What is this?”
Green, stem-like things were embedded between the red blood and flesh.
The green was particularly concentrated around the heart and head.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ marvels that it’s a parasite—no, a parasitic plant!]
“A parasite. There are certainly ones that manipulate their hosts, forcing them toward water or making them easier for birds to eat. If this is a plant-type version of that, then the strange behavior makes sense.”
“So, you’re saying those green stems manipulated the magic beasts into attacking Sir Knight?” Adel asked, rubbing her arms as if she had goosebumps.
Dorothea shook her head.
“It probably can’t give such detailed commands. At most, it would heighten their fighting spirit or amplify their hostility toward outsiders. I think I have a rough idea of why such an environment was created, too.”
“You mean the vision of the past that Sir Tin and I saw?”
“Right. If the local creatures fight intruders to the death, the interior naturally becomes safer, doesn’t it? If the creatures here had ventured outside and caused harm, the state would have stepped in and wiped them out, but they keep to themselves inside.”
Adel asked cautiously.
“Then, what should we do? Shouldn’t we get out of here quickly, in case we also get affected by these green stems?”
“Only the pack leaders showed abnormal behavior. The regular animals seemed normal. The infection—no, the parasitism—probably requires spending a significant amount of time here, or perhaps there are other conditions. Besides, if things get dire, I can purify it with holy power, so there is no need to worry.”
Sophia offered this reassurance, but Adel still looked quite anxious.
Dorothea scratched her head.
“Well, I wasn’t planning on staying long anyway, so it doesn’t matter… But we might need to hurry things up a bit.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ gets excited, asking if this is a limited-time subjugation quest!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ vows to quickly go and catch the next boss!]
“It is a limited-time quest. But it’s probably a little different from what you’re thinking.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses his confusion!]
Dorothea held out her left hand.
The wolf’s blood on Dorothea’s hand floated into the air, mingled with her black mana, and flowed back into the wolf’s body.
And then.
The wolf’s carcass, which had not only been killed but also dismembered, began to twitch and squirm.
Adel’s face turned pale, and Sophia’s eyes widened in surprise.
Clatter.
The wolf rose to its feet.
Leaving its skin and chunks of flesh on the ground, the skeleton wolf approached Dorothea and bowed its head.
Dorothea did the same with the boar, and it too rose, leaving nothing but its bones.
“Normally, it’s more efficient to use the blood and flesh too, but I need those for ingredients.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if she’s going to use them to monitor him too!]
“The one stuck to you is a special model with sensory sharing and direct control. These ones are just souls put back into their original bodies. They can’t share their sight and can’t understand anything beyond simple commands.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks what she’ll use them for then!]
“Oh, that.”
Dorothea grinned.
Seeing that smile, the Tin Knight felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
Dorothea snapped her fingers, and the skeleton wolf and skeleton boar dashed into the forest.
“So, shall we have a little competition to see who can catch more? Oh, don’t worry. I’ve ordered them not to attack unless the opponent strikes first, so if you get desperate, you can just hunt those.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is horrified!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ screams that his prey is disappearing!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ burns with competitive spirit, vowing not to lose!]
Clank, clank!
With the most passionate movements he had shown since entering the forest, the Tin Knight charged in.
“Hehehe, that’s right. In a forest like this, I don’t have to worry about prying eyes. Culprit or not, if I just tear this whole forest apart, something is bound to turn up. And while I’m at it, I can mess with that troublemaker a little.”
She said it was “while she was at it,” but Dorothea’s voice was unusually excited.
It was obvious that the latter was her main objective.
“Now then, shall we get back to what we were doing?”
Watching Dorothea, who was smiling brightly for once, Adelaide gulped.
The title of ‘Witch’ isn’t just for show, she thought.