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Chapter 193 Part 2

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Translator: “Hakou”                             Editor: “Weasalopes”

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「Now now, there’s no need to take this personally」

She tried admonishing him even though she’s the one who set the fire.

「My apologize」

He looked at them with a calm expression on her face and let out a deep breath.

「Your eminence must be very tired after the incident with the self-proclaimed sage. We’ll have to deal with『Sin and Punishment』ourselves」

Her words were met with expectant glances from her aides.

「I’ll dispatch the saint」

「The saint?!」

A saint, or a saintess, is one of the trump cards that the eastern country possesses.
They can manifest power equivalent to high level magic without the need to recite chants.
A holy power given by God. That’s what they believed in the east.
Incidentally, it’s slightly different for the other countries.
A demon beast that uses magic. The common opinion is that it has the same principle as that.

「You guys and the saint will go to the royal capital. There, you will purify the roots of this evil custom」

「With the help of saint-sama, this will be easy. Leave it to us」

The young man, his hair peeking out of his shirt, kneels down, followed by the woman.
She was looking down at their figures from her chair, looking relieved.

***

The stage moves from the cathedral city in the eastern country to the royal capital, in the west.
Under the blue sky with high autumn clouds, I went straight home from the Merchant’s Guild. I didn’t go out to play today, but went straight to the garden forest with my family members.
Leading the way was a chestnut burr. No, it was General Dangorou of the doom squad, clad in brown thorny armor.
I followed behind him, along with a caterpillar wearing an eye patch on my right shoulder.

「Hm? Is it around here?」

Imosuke waddling around while looking at the ground. When I looked in the direction where he was looking, I saw a mushroom. It looks like a larger version of white beech mushroom.

「I leave it to you, General Dangorou」

At my words, the chestnut burr increased his speed and moved forward. It crashed into the white beech mushroom.
Dangoro turns around and looks back. The mushroom, pierced by the thorns, is pitifully pulled out.

『One hit!』

The air around him was as if he was smirking.
The vice-commander on my shoulder and I saw it. We both shook our heads.

「You see, Dangoro, that’s not how you hunt down mushroom」

I crouched down and removed the mushroom that stuck on the thorns on his back.
Apparently, the word 『hunting』 has caused him to misunderstand.

「If we don’t harvest it clean, we can’t eat it, right?」

He nodded a few times as if he had understood and resumed his march.
The target seemed to be a white mushroom standing elegantly in front of him.

「Hey, hold it right there! Stop!」

That is definitely the『White Lady』. Lately, I’ve been seeing them a lot in the garden forest, but they are said to be quite rare elsewhere.
As such, its value is said to be comparable to a pile of gold coins at the same height.

「It must be poisonous」

But here’s the problem.
They say it’s difficult to harvest them unless you’re a veteran adventurer.

「You won’t lose to the likes of poison, you say?」

Dangorou lifted his upper body slightly and looked back at me. He gives off a vibe as if saying, “Leave it to me”.
Imosuke who’s sitting on my shoulder nodded as if it was obvious.

「You guys may be okay, but I’m not. Besides, we’re here to eat today」

Hot pot using mushrooms from the garden forest. I’ve always wanted to try it.

「So please pick the ones you think okay for me to eat」

It seems he understood.
He is someone who knows the most about plants, including mushrooms, in our house. Let’s hope he knows what I’m talking about.
Under Imosuke’s direction, Dangorou went to harvest the mushrooms.
This time, he dug them up from under the roots, taking care not to damage them.

「Is this one also safe to eat?」

I picked one of the mushrooms and asked Imosuke about it.
The umbrella was bright red and egg-shaped, quite flashy.

『Probably』

Let’s prepare a status abnormality potion, just in case.
When I got close to the pond, I noticed that there was a lot of noise in the back.

「What is it?」

The turtle, the guardian of the pond, is usually quiet. He never did anything that would make the pond water surface ripple wildly.
This situation is quite unusual.
As I walked up to the turtle and crouched down, I could see that it was struggling with something.

「A white snake?」

A turtle about twenty centimeters long. A snake about ten centimeters long was biting into its short tail.
Rather than fighting, the turtle was shaking its body from side to side to shake off as if annoyed by it.

「Oh?」

The turtle which was larger than the snake seemed to be more powerful. The white snake was swung around until it was slammed against a stone on the shore, releasing its tail.
As soon as the turtle turned around, a ring of light surrounded the white snake.

「Teleportation magic huh?」

This turtle is actually not just an ordinary turtle. It’s a powerful spirit beast that used to live in the Spirit lake before it moved here.
He’s called Zaratan, and is said to be as big as a small island.
As soon as the circle of light disappeared, the white snake disappeared as well. Then Zaratan seemed to notice us and came closer to us.

「It got caught up in teleportation magic, huh?」

According to what Imosuke interprets, Zaratan was using magic to connect the ocean and this place to transfer various things.
This time, when he tried to bring in a herd of shrimps, he also transferred the white snake that was chasing the herd with them.

『It seems it was surprised』

Imosuke was talking about the white snake.
It doesn’t usually attack Zarathan, but apparently they had lost their sense of discernment because of the panic.

「Yeah, I bet it is」

It must have been very surprised.
Zaratan dipped his head into the water, as if to say sorry. That’s when I noticed something that caught my attention.

「Can you ask him if it’s okay for me to lift him up for a bit?」

After Imosuke delivers my message, Zaratan moves his head vertically.

「There we go」

I put my hands in the water, grabbed the side of the turtle and lifted him up.
Then, upon closer inspection, I saw that its tail had been torn off.

「Look at you beaten up like this. There’s also a few scratches on your shell」

Imosuke interpreted it for me.
The answer that came back was that it was an old injury, not from just now, so it didn’t hurt.

(Now then, what should I do?)

The forest and ruins on its back that won’t fall off even if I’m holding him vertically, and its short tail has been torn off at the base. As I look at these two things, I think.
This turtle is not one of my family members. But I already considered him as one of my family members. He’s a reliable presence that complements Imosuke and Dangorou, who are not good in water.

(It’s fine if I heal him with magic, right?)

A thick book with a black leather cover that was given to me the other day. It shows that the person the turtle once had living on his back had benefited from the same mysterious stone statue as me.
One of these days, I might ask him for advice on magic and stone statues.

「Can I heal this injury?」

I figured it wouldn’t be a problem if he knew, so I discussed it with Imosuke. The leader of my kin didn’t seem to have any objections, so he interpreted for the turtle.

「How is it?」

I’m sure he got the message, but this time his reaction was slow. He seemed to be in a daze.
I assumed he wouldn’t mind, so I went ahead and activated the magic to heal his injuries.

「Hmm… so E-rank is not enough, huh?」

It’s not a serious injury by the looks of it. So I thought it’s enough, but I guess not.
I was left with the feeling that I pushed something heavy and it won’t budge.

「He’s actually bigger than this after all」

Maybe that’s why.
I crouched down and looked around. When I confirmed that the grass and trees made it impossible to see me from the outside, I went and activated C-rank magic.

「It was just a bit more」

For a moment, Zaratan seemed surprised to see himself surrounded by a pale red light.

「Alright, let’s use B-rank magic here」

Aside from using it to spray the garden forest, this should be the first time I used it on anything else.

「There!」

Along with my voice, a strong light illuminated the surroundings in red.
After it subsided, Zaratan’s tail grew three times longer than before.

「So it was longer in the past, huh?」

I looked at the shell with mild surprise. The scars, both large and small, were gone.
There was also a penetrating sensation, so every one of his injuries must have healed completely.

「Wait just a minute, okay?」

Still lifting him with both of my hands, I used a D-rank cure disease and cure abnormality status. There seem to be no problems with either.

「Alright, good work on keeping still」

I put the Zaratan back in the pond.
The turtle stretched its neck as far as it could, eagerly checking its tail and shell.

『He said thank you』

Imosuke said. He seemed quite proud of himself.
Looking down, Dangorou was also waving his chestnut burr at the turtle. He looks more proud than usual.

「I’ve left you in charge of the pond and all, so it’s nothing」

After I said so, we resumed our mushroom hunting.
As we resumed picking mushrooms, I occasionally glanced toward the pond and saw Zaratan’s face looking at us all the time.

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