Chapter 345: Mystery Solved
Butler returned after a while.
We took a lot of time capturing the red lizards, so I thought Butler wouldn’t take that long and he’d return soon. We stopped looking for pill bugs and instead sat around the fire and enjoyed some tea.
「You took your sweet time huh, considering it’s you we’re talking about. 」
Hauron smoked his hookah while lounging on his flying carpet which hovered barely an inch above the ground.
Dinosso sat beside him, looking like he just lost his soul. I wonder what happened to him after Chris and I were liberated… I was curious, but I might get dragged into whatever it was, so better not to.
「They seem different from our previous encounters with them. I could readily spot normal pill bugs, but the monster ones mostly scurried away and hid in areas that are hard to reach, such as cracks in the rock or deep behind the roots of trees. It seemed they would be crushed if I still persisted in reaching out— it took a while before I found one that could be safely retrieved. 」
Butler answered Hauron with a smile. Oh, he’s not meeting Dinosso’s eye!! He was probably guilty that he ran off and abandoned Dinosso.
「Ahh… They probably fled because I’m here. Well, it’s understandable, given that I crushed them thoroughly enough that they’d remember my mana as that of their natural enemy. 」
Hauron listlessly replied.
「Mana… 」
「Mana is also different depending on the person,, you know. If not then spirits won’t be playing preferences, after all」
Hauron explained when I muttered.
Oh, come to think of it, Nefer had been deliciously gobbling Glasses’ mana back when we met them at the labyrinth. So it’s the taste, huh, does it have a taste?
「Wahahah! Master’s mana is very pleasant! 」
The theory is that spirits suck mana not only through their mouths, but they also breathe it in through their nostrils. Ah, no, inhalation must be the norm for the spirits, I guess. Oh well, I guess inhale and breathe in are the same thing, so it should be the nostrils, huh.
「Still, if Butler can’t call out the pill bugs, then Jean must be the one communicating with those pill bugs, huh? Retze purposely omitted Jean’s name when he was explaining stuff, though. 」
Hauron said, sounding like it was a pain-in-the-neck.
「When we were searching for pill bugs, we could sense that they meant no harm towards Hauron-dono! Ah, but is it even possible to call the pill bugs out? 」
Chris asked.
Oh. Perhaps back when Retze was explaining about how pill bugs don’t proactively attack humans, Hauron was still on guard in case they attacked him? And I was the only one who didn’t notice it!?
「That’s because even if it’s just a simple agreement, it is still considered as a contract. Spirits and monsters possessed by them could sense their contractor’s mana if that person is nearby, and they would come out if the contractor calls out to them. Well, it’s unsure whether they respond because they’re on amicable terms, or if they come out because they want to break the contract. 」
「Is that so? 」
「Don’t ask me. I’ve never tried that before. 」
Chris turned to me, so I answered him. My main principle when looking for them is to turn the rocks over or poke around.
「They can suck a bit of your mana even if they simply appear in response to being called, so they usually show up. Ah, but they might not appear if they’re asleep, or if they’re afraid of something, or if the situation and condition didn’t meet the requirements for using mana. 」
Hauron explained.
「Ah. 」
「What’s up? 」
「No, it’s nothing. I just recalled something completely unrelated. 」
I replied to Retze.
Ohhhhh, this might be the clue to the Auro’s sensor mystery, huh. We’re contracted, so he would always know when I come to the island. Alright, I should hide my mana then.
「There’s something I wanna ask, but the pill bug is pitiful so let’s do that first. 」
I returned to my senses. Butler took out a string-tied pouch and offered it to me. I have tons of questions I wanna ask now, like how to conceal mana aura and other stuff about magic.
「 『Pill Bug, this is Hauron. Remember him well. You might have harbored animosity towards him, but from now on, he will not intentionally crush your kind, so I request that you let go of your resentment and be in a cease-fire with him. 』 」
For the meantime, I declared those words first.
「It’s troubling that you’re so fluent in the magic language… Ahh, there’s a mountain pile of things that I wanna ask. 」
Hauron sighed.
「Well, I guess it’s fair enough since I’m also gonna ask you tons. It’ll be impossible to answer each and every single one of yours, but I’m gonna do my best to answer what I can. Okay, give me your hand. 」
「Yes, please. 」
Hauron stretched out his hand. He seemed to be the type of person who would shut their eyes when getting injections or getting his blood drawn, huh. Oh well, he won’t avert his eyes if he treats the pill bugs as his enemy, so this is probably a huge step towards peace, I guess.
「Valmour, if the pill bug try to do something strange, you cut off my arm first to block it from reaching my brain, alright? 」
「Ou. 」
No, I was mistaken!!
The ritual of letting the pill bug remember Hauron ended in solemn silence, and no arms were cut off in the process. I wonder, which did the pill bug remember, his scent or his mana?
「Thanks for the hard work. 」
I gave the pill bug a bit of mana before releasing it to the forest.
It immediately burrowed under a stone. Ahh, I wanna turn that stone over.
「Alrighty, let’s have lunch, shall we? 」
I opened the basket, entrusted the alcohol and cups to Butler, and spread the dishes. X-Stick is with us today, so the menu is hamburgers, fried chicken, fries — I cheated a bit and took them out from【Storage】still piping hot.
「Help yourselves. X-Stick, what do you wanna eat? 」
「The sunny-side up one! 」
X-Stick chose the burger with bacon and sunny-side up egg sandwiched among the standard patty, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes.
「This is really nice for sinking your teeth in!! 」
He opened his mouth wide and gobbled the burger, leaving a huge bite on it.
It wasn’t teeth marks, but just a mouth-shaped bite. I wonder how he ate it. Maybe he had something that could cut through it and store it in inside his mouth? It’s a mystery how he could eat the burger that was almost as big as him with that tiny mouth of his.
「… I didn’t know King’s Bough also have their meals…」
「Indeed… 」
Hauron and Butler seemed to treat it as heart wrenching for some reason.
And yet there’s a Bough who always drinks alcohol by the fireplace, you know.
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
I Got Transferred in the Middle of a Mountain
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 80 hours
Thanks for the treat.