Chapter 241 – Rune Scrolls
By beating Grendel, we were instantly treated as heroes in the great forest. Until I left the Holy Land for the quest, the beastmen were impatient because they couldn’t talk to me. That must mean that the fear of Grendel was great among the beasts.
“Did you say Luke?”
“That’s right.”
“There is no doubt that this is Grendel’s corpse. I didn’t know that the monster our warriors were chasing had been subdued by mere adventurers. Why didn’t Grendel’s body be shown at the checkpoint earlier?”
The Great Warrior Lephiel grabbed me and started talking to me. The other beastmen were clinging to him. He brushed it off, but he gave a proper answer to Lefiel. You can’t ignore the best warriors in the principality. Because of Grendel’s dead body, he stopped working at the checkpoint and ran to the inn.
“I missed the opportunity to tell you. I was distracted at the time because the female beast warriors were blocking my work.”
“Ah… That’s right.”
Lepiel, the person who initiated the work, understood what I was saying.
Dozens of female warriors were on the verge of attacking me, how could I have regained my senses? It’s only after the situation has calmed down that we have time to reveal the body.
“I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the beastmen. The royal family of the duchy will bestow medals on your party members. Originally, it was a medal given to the beastmen warriors who defeated Grendel, but you guys got to take it.”
The Morph Court is giving us medals?
An unexpected reward arose. Was it that he was born as a lowly dreamer and was able to wear a royal medal on his chest? Compared to the past when I was rolling on the street, I felt a sense of alienation.
“Is it the end of receiving a medal? The royal family is giving you a reward, but is there anything more?”
“The reward hanging around Grendel’s neck is 300 gold. It will be paid together on the day of the awarding ceremony.
Suddenly, I felt grateful to Grendel, who was probably wandering through hell by now.
Is it enough to say that it is not a monster, but a generous tree?
‘Thank you, Grendel.’
Live strong even in hell!
After breaking up with Lefiel, I informed the party that I was receiving medals and rewards. It was only natural that the couple and Mr. Wendy would be delighted to receive a large amount of money out of nowhere.
“Four, three hundred gold?! With that money, I can buy 30,000 loaves of bread using Luke’s method of calculation. I can build a fort with bread!”
“Rebecca, we don’t necessarily venture out to buy bread. The days of fussing over a piece of bread are over.”
“Because I know? I said Luke’s method of calculation!”
Has my habit of calculating everything in bread passed on to Rebecca?
It’s a great habit for an adventurer. Here, ‘bread’ does not simply mean bread to eat. It is an adventurer’s slang that refers to any act of extravagance, such as buying new clothes or spending money on entertainment.
If everything is calculated in terms of bread, there is no choice but to be a strong motivator for adventurers. Although there is a downside to being treated as an insect by the party members.
“After the story is over, let’s start soon, right? It’s hard to drive the carriage when it’s too dark.”
After chatting for a while, we heard Wendy’s words and got on the carriage together. This is not the time to talk all day about getting a bounty. Because I received a quest to track down the missing people of the upper ranks. We immediately left the Holy Land that day and moved to the Rookline Tunnel, where the top was last discovered.
*
A mountain towering in the middle of the great forest.
A rookline tunnel made by cutting through the lower part of the mountain.
By the time the carriage arrived at the tunnel, it was already getting dark. It was dark outside, but it was rather bright inside the tunnel with magic lights installed. I started searching the tunnel with my lovers.
“You mean that the people from the upper ranks suddenly went missing in the tunnel? It seems like there was a pretty intense fight.”
It is said to have disappeared suddenly, but it is not without traces at all. In the wide tunnel, the wreckage of the wrecked wagon remained intact. Looking at the sign, it was clear that it was the upper carriage that had a contract with Tabula. It’s just that the people and things inside are completely gone.
“Shouldn’t we scatter and look around the tunnel? There’s no clue whatsoever other than the wrecked wagon. Since three days have passed, the attackers must have fled quite far away.”
The wreckage of a wrecked wagon.
Traces of battle such as torn clothes and bloodstains left around. That’s all I could find in the tunnel. It was when Kate suggested splitting up and exploring.
“There’s no need to scatter. Bring people’s hair from inside the wagon. You can use search magic.”
“Hair? What does that have to do with search magic?”
Kate tilted her head, but did as she was told to look through the wreckage of the wagon. Soon after, Kate came over with a few strands of her hair and she held them out to me.
Hair of different colors or thicknesses.
It must have been spilled by the people of the upper ranks while living in the wagon. It’s even better if it’s mixed with the hair shed by the assailants. It was possible to track it down as long as there was even a little bit of it that had fallen off the body.
“Wait a minute.”
I grabbed my hair and chanted a spell in front of my lovers. Magical power was blown into thin hair and a detailed technique was applied. The moment the spell to track the target was completed, the magic was activated.
[Life Detecting]
A magic that uses skin fragments, bloodstains, and hair that have fallen from the body as catalysts to track down the owner. Among the catalysts, hair is the most efficient. In this world, you shouldn’t let your hair loose. It’s the same as leaking your location.
Originally, it was a magic learned to track down Albert.
I got to use it here first.
Squeak-!
The five strands of hair he was clutching with his hands bent into the shape of a warrior. The stiffly curled hairs all pointed in one direction. It is just west of the tunnel that goes off the road and into the jungle.
“Mmm, your hair is bent like a dowsing device.”
“It’s almost like a water vein finder. If you keep walking in the direction the tip of the hair points, you’ll find the original owner.”
“Ohhhhh… You mean you can chase it with just hair?”
“Even if it’s not hair, it’s the same if you use the hair that grows on your body. If the opponent is too far away, it won’t activate. Those who attacked the carriage are still hiding in the great forest.”
“It doesn’t have to be hair…? Then, it means that the hair on the other side is also possible.”
Kate lowered her head and looked between her crotch as she wondered what she was thinking. Covered in the skirt of her nun’s uniform, she seemed to be staring at something beyond the Y-zone.
“Kate. What are you thinking?”
“It’s a dirty idea-“
Yes.
It can also be done with pubic hair.
You’re still out of your mind, Kate.
In the first place, what is the girl with no hair on the bottom looking at?
“Stop thinking dirty and let’s move.”
“Yep!”
Thanks to learning her search magic, there was no need to spread out and walk around. We parked the wagon outside the tunnel and moved in the direction the hair pointed.
From the moment we got off the road, we were exploring the jungle. A dark forest with no light. All sorts of weeds grew up to my waist, making it hard to even walk properly.
“Light.”
I summoned a light source with magic in the air and secured my sight. Floating bright spheres illuminated our path in the jungle. I walked for quite some time, but the direction my hair was pointing didn’t change. This means that the object being tracked is not moving.
“I think we’re almost there.”
Maybe when I walked for two hours?
We were advancing by relying on our hair and found a cave. The entrance to the cave is hidden by a large boulder, making it difficult to recognize.
I wondered where the raiders had fled.
Did you say that you were stuck in a cave for three days?
Are you eating garlic and mugwort here? To become a person?
We drew our weapons and entered the cave. I had no choice but to stop and stop. From deep inside the cave, I heard the voice of someone talking.
“…How long do we have to stay in the cave? I think I’ll wither away from not seeing the sunlight.”
“Tomorrow, the master will contact you. Don’t be impatient. I took the rune scroll, but we can’t just throw it away. It’s something he really wanted to get his hands on.”
A rough male voice and a thin female voice.
Deep in the cave, two men and women were talking. My eyes widened at the word rune scroll. It was certain that he was referring to an ancient artifact that had been stolen.
“I’m going crazy because I can’t do anything and I’m locked up. Can I play with these things? It doesn’t matter if I kill at least one person, right?”
“Do whatever you want. I’m not the kind of person you’d quit if I told you not to.”
What are you playing with?
Are you talking about people?
“For a moment…”
“Why?”
The man and woman in the cave didn’t notice that we had entered. It was time for her to approach without making a sound of footsteps as much as possible. A startled voice echoed from inside.
“Franz! It’s a search magic! Someone’s chasing us!”
It was the moment when the woman shouted.
The two strands of hair she was holding in her hands lost their strength and sagged. The man and woman in the cave released the [Life Detecting] Magic from her body. Perhaps the female side has extensive knowledge of magic. Realizing that she had a search spell, she immediately cast a dispel spell.
This is why I don’t like quick-witted guys.
“Run before you miss!”
We hurriedly ran into the depths of the cave. There is no law that there is only one entrance to the outside. We have to catch them before they jump out. Inside the cave where the voices came from, we found the hideout of the assailants.
Sleeping bag on the floor.
A roaring bonfire.
“…”
There are also several people who are unconscious and tied up with ropes around it. It is the same as the upper class people’s impression of the alchemist of Tabula.
“Hair! It’s my hair!”
“That guy was after us.”
The male and female prisoners who had been talking for a while looked at me.
It was the impression of common beasts that you can meet anywhere in the great forest.
A man and a woman who took the form of a wolf and a fox, respectively.
But for some reason, the moment I looked at their faces, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of incongruity.
‘Is this the real face?’
It feels like seeing something wearing a doll mask in the form of a beastman.
His intuition as a mage sent a signal that it was strange.
