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Chapter 364: Vestiges

Canum’s card game room. The other four guys aside from me were drinking wine and eating snacks.

「Our topic for today is related to this. 」
Butler gestured towards the monster repellent that I made. It was sitting on top of a silk kerchief.

「It is a portable monster repellent effective for a small range of area; a creation of Jean-sama. 」
Hey, why did it sound like you’re starting an auction, huh?

The other trio — Dinosso, Retze and Hauron — were clutching their heads. There’s an extra person to our usual 4 player team, so Retze pulled another stool and was sitting on it beside me.

「..Jean, you’re obviously hiding this, so that means you already know that you’re not gonna give the temple any favors by exposing this. Heck, you might even mess up their vested interests big time. You know that this thing will definitely attract the attention of the state, the Adventurer’s Guild and even the Commerce Guild, don’t you? 」
Dinosso asked.

「Uh, yeah, I guess. 」
Yeah, vaguely, just like that.

「Don’t turn away, that’s making me uneasy. 」
Dinosso was on the verge of tears.

It’s all for Ruta, you see, he swishes his tails and bites at them to drive them away, you already know that, don’t you?

「I heard that you went out carrying an even bigger piece of cloth than this. You went riding with Ash before that — I can’t imagine you guys flirting and stuff, but I’m sure you guys talked about the sewer bugs. Really, you absolutely made this as an extra after making one for Ruta, didn’t you? 」
Retze hit the bull’s eye, and he’s torturing my cheeks….!!

「Ehhh, you put something as dangerous as this somewhere we can’t monitor!? 」
Dinosso stared at me in shock.

「Ruta? Who’s that, your lover? 」
「…He is Jean-sama’s horse. 」
Butler replied to Hauron’s question with a subtle tone.

「Horse…You gave a horse something that who knows how expensive it is… I don’t know what’s going on in your head for you to draw this magic circle on something so unstable as cloth, and how on earth were you able to draw it on something so tiny, and how, even though the range is narrow, it can work even with a single piece of an ordinary manastone — there’s a ton of things I wanna take a jab at. 」
Hauron took the cloth sitting on the table.

「Well, Jean decides what’s important to him and what not, and he can do whatever he wants with his things. Still, Ruta is in danger if it gets discovered, you know? 」

Ugh!

「It’s fine, I’ll ask the spirits to be on the lookout for you. One of my spirits is great at diverting the interest of other people — in return, can I open this so I can take a look inside? I won’t be making one myself — no, scratch that, I’ll definitely make one to test. 」
「It’d be easier if Hauron just spread the word about it. 」
You’re the Grand Mage, after all!

「No way! Everybody’s gonna pester me for sure if I make something like this, so I can’t help it. Besides, even if I were to teach the method, the priests won’t be able to make it at their level. 」
What a bummer, even the Grand Mage can’t spread it to the world, huh.

「You can look inside if you want, but be careful with how you do it since it’ll burst into flames if it mistakenly senses that you’re trying to cut the thread. 」
「So you’re prudent about this sort of thing. That’s a relief. 」

Ah, I felt bad for Hauron, but that’s not it. I just tried doing something that automatically destroys itself when certain conditions are met. Oh well, it’s thanks to that feature that everyone had ‘relief’ written all over their faces.

「I won’t ask about the thread, it’s more fun studying it myself. 」
Hauron has a lot of free time, huh.

「This season’s bugs usually go away by brushing them off with a wave of your hand but they’re a menace to sleeping folks and animals. It’d be good if the bugs disappear as soon as possible, and let’s hope that they won’t be a threat to Ruta. 」
Retze commented.

「Well, the guild is also working on it. No one wants to do the job if it’s simply investigating the sewers. They’re sending folks with money problems, so I doubt they’d be able to do solve the problem, though. Well, they don’t have any choice but to get involved if the first attempt ends up in an accident, right. 」
Dinosso reached out to the canape topped with marinated sardine.

「It’s the sewers, after all. The filth is already a burden as it is, and the runaway pigs are also particularly ferocious…Moreover, it is far too risky, and even if the guild provides a handsome reward, it wouldn’t be meritorious enough to propel the adventurer to fame. 」
Butler reached out to the scallop meats sauteed in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper.

「Ah, that info is outdated. The recent monster wave in the Magic Woods, the anomaly of the Labyrinth in the fortress city, and the ‘strange phenomenon occurring in the temple’, then it’s Canum’s turn this time, so the Adventurer’s Guild is putting a huge some of money into this issue, and even the Fief Lord is going to fund it. 」
Retze said as he reached out to the shrimp, fish cake and snap pea tempura.

Except for the canape, the scallops and tempura are all served in bite-sized pieces with toothpicks stuck on them. I prepared them with the assumption that we’re going to play cards while we’re discussing things.

So, they wanted to bring the sewer up while we’re still munching on our meal, huh. By the way, Hauron was so absorbed in fiddling with the piece of cloth that he’s not participating. He’s poring over the seams and stitches and making the bell ring.

「Oh, this is tasty. Half of the prawns is still intact, while the other half is all mushed. You get to taste the plump shrimps first followed by the sweet peas. 」
Retze sprinkled salt on his tempura and took a bite.

Right, tasty snap peas are also sweet. Seems like he’s taken a liking to it, so I’m glad.

「To be precise, the bugs now aren’t possessed by entire black spirits, but by fragments. If we’re going to dive into the nitty-gritty details, then it would be vestiges from when that Doll Hero devoured the spirits. They must’ve gone to the sewers and possessed the easily captured bugs. 」
Dinosso must’ve been curious about the tempura because of Retze’s comment. He took one, popped it into his mouth and passed the plate on to Butler.

「If that is true, then a monster the scale of what the Guild expects shouldn’t exist in the sewers. 」
Butler received the plate, put a piece of tempura onto his own then returned the plate before taking a bite himself.

I see, in that case, Dinosso and the others will probably leave it be.

「This is delish. 」
「Truly scrumptious. 」

I’m glad that you guys like it.