Chapter 112
A Blow to the Back of the Head (3)>
“You woke up early.”
“Yeah. I went to sleep early.”
Having woken up first, I headed toward the oasis. When I arrived, there was already soone there.
Soloven, who had been eating palm fruit beneath a palm tree, welcod . As I approached, she handed a canteen.
“Ice attribute?”
I smacked my lips after draining the canteen in one go. It wasn’t ordinary water but palm fruit juice.
When I activated rcury from the gauntlet, white frost spread over the canteen. Seeing that, Soloven stared in shock.
“As expected, cold drinks are the best.”
“……You drank all of it.”
Soloven looked dumbfounded after watching empty in one shot sothing she had probably gathered with difficulty, then she regained herself and asked,
“You could use the ice attribute?”
“It’s a power I obtained from this Sanctuary.”
After hearing my answer, Soloven let out a quiet exclamation of admiration. I rely shrugged.
“Lightning and now ice too. At this rate, you’re going to collect every rare attribute.”
“They say fire is the most common attribute, right?”
“……There are not many who handle attributes themselves. So no matter the attribute, they can all be considered rare.”
At my words, which were practically a provocation, Soloven’s face stiffened frighteningly. I snickered while listening to the lecture that followed.
What Soloven said was half right and half wrong. The people Soloven referred to as handling attributes themselves were limited to warriors or lee-type classes.
“Most mages have attributes.”
“……That’s because only those with talent for attributes can beco mages.”
All mages handled attributes. Of course, among lee classes, those who handled attributes were extrely rare.
“Anyway, what’s the schedule after this?”
“I’m planning to head straight to the Academy.”
At the ntion of going to the Academy, Soloven nodded. While I was at it, I sat down beside her and even stole so fruit flesh to eat.
“I was going to show you the Rahorakti territory. What a sha.”
I could feel the apologetic emotion in Soloven’s tone. I nodded indifferently. It was only because of the shield techniques; I wasn’t particularly interested otherwise.
“Co to think of it, you received this villa, right?”
Soloven looked around. The oasis supplied the most important thing in the desert: water. But even that oasis had been contaminated by the hide of the Fiendbeast.
Even the fruit we were eating now was one of the very few untouched by that hide.
“It seems contaminated. Is it alright?”
“Of course it’s not good. The more contact you have with this kind of contamination, the more your sanity gets worn away.”
I responded sluggishly to Soloven’s concerned question. In truth, this villa had effectively beco garbage because of the Fiendbeast.
The oasis was contaminated, and the land was much the sa. Calling it a wasteland would have been fitting. Still, it wasn’t like there was no solution.
“I’ll suggest to Rama that he give you a different reward.”
“No need. I’m the one who asked for this.”
After hearing my answer, Soloven tilted her head. Looking at her, I gave a savage grin.
“Do you know how good a location this villa is in? But because it was contaminated and they thought restoration was impossible, the mont I asked for it, Rama handed it over imdiately.”
“Hmm.”
Thinking back on it made laugh automatically. Rama had looked pleased while also wearing a puzzled expression.
“So there’s a way to purify the contamination?”
“Yeah.”
After hearing my confident answer, Soloven let out a hollow laugh. Before she knew it, Rama had handed over this excellently located villa for next to nothing.
“Rama got hit in the back of the head.”
“You could say that.”
We both burst into snickering laughter. Puffing myself up proudly, I said,
“Co visit the villa soti later.”
“If you invite , then sure.”
At my playful words, Soloven laughed loudly in a way unlike her usual self.
“You seem happy flirting with a woman other than ?”
“……”
“……”
In the middle of our banter, a frightening voice suddenly ca from behind us. As if by magic, we both shut our mouths at the sa ti.
I felt sothing climbing up my back. Dropping her head over my shoulder, drool dripped from Aro’s mouth.
“……I should get going now. I’ll see you next ti as well, Senior.”
“Alright. My beloved junior.”
“…….”
Soloven hurriedly left her seat. Watching her leave, I let out a small sigh.
I quickly grabbed Aro from my shoulder and brought her in front of . In her fox form, Aro stared at Soloven’s retreating figure while drool dripped from her mouth.
“Why are you drooling again?”
“Hm? Ssslp. Ah. I’m hungry.”
Only after I pointed it out did Aro realize she had been drooling. She hurriedly wiped her mouth.
It didn’t seem like simple hunger, though. The unpleasant feeling lingered, but I didn’t say anything further.
“I’m thirsty.”
“Well, after drooling that much, of course you’d be thirsty.”
“……I said I’m thirsty.”
What was I supposed to do about that? The mont I gave a half-hearted answer to her saying she was thirsty, Aro glared at fiercely. Clicking my tongue briefly, I grabbed the gauntlet.
I created a small ice spike and handed it to Aro.
“……You want to suck on this?”
“That’s contaminated water. If you drink it, you might go straight to Valhalla. Want to try?”
“Ptoo.”
Aro made a dubious face while looking at the ice spike and asked again. At my indifferent answer, she spat to the side and started sucking on the ice.
“The taste is kind of tingly.”
After sucking on the ice for a while, a strange sound ca out of Aro’s mouth. I looked at her like she was hopeless.
“Seems like it suits your palate.”
“No, no. Seriously, it tastes tingly. You try it too.”
Flustered by my response, Aro held out the ice she had been sucking on. I imdiately turned my gaze away. This wasn’t warti, and I had no intention of eating sothing soone else had already been sucking on.
“Huh? What the?”
Aro kept pestering , so in the end I had no choice but to make my own ice and put it in my mouth. But Aro was right.
“See? It’s tingly, right?”
“It’s not just tingly. It’s literally electrifying.”
Excited by my reaction, Aro hopped around as she continued talking. I quietly made her sit down while crunching the ice.
―Crackle.
“?”
The mont I crushed the ice, electric currents burst out from it. Seeing that, Aro imdiately threw the ice she had been sucking on to the ground.
“This is my first ti seeing lightning-attribute ice.”
Aro blankly examined my gauntlet. I was equally dumbfounded. At this point, even the ice I created contained electric currents.
“Good morning…….”
“Co here, Whitey!”
Winter finally appeared, only half-awake. Rubbing her eyes, she gave a little bow in greeting.
Apparently pleased by Winter’s polite appearance, Aro smiled warmly and called her over.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yes……. But I drank a lot.”
Walking over like a zombie, Winter collapsed beneath the palm tree. In response to Aro’s question, Winter answered in a daze.
I looked toward Aro. Since I hadn’t attended the feast yesterday, I didn’t know how much Winter had drunk.
“Whitey. How much did you drink yesterday?”
“The wine was sweet and delicious. About 11 bottles?”
“Ah. One bottle…… wait, what?”
Hearing that absurd amount, my eyes widened. Even if the wine only had an alcohol content of around 12%, 11 bottles made no sense.
Aro, who was learning this for the first ti as well, dropped her jaw. Since one wine bottle was roughly 750mL, Winter had consud about 8.2 liters yesterday alone.
“You’d die even drinking that much water, idiot.”
“But……. It tasted so good.”
The lethal dose of ordinary water was around 10 liters. Considering blood alcohol concentration, a normal person would have already beco a cold corpse.
“It just tasted like a sweet drink.”
“Ah. Right.”
Only after hearing Winter’s words did I nod in realization. Among the abilities granted after becoming a Believer of Anaye was resistance to liquids.
This was also why I could freely wander around the Poison Swamp. Alcohol contained in liquor could also technically be called a poison.
And if that poison even existed in liquid form, then no matter how much we drank, there was no need to worry about getting drunk.
“We’re immune to poisons related to liquids.”
“What? Wait, is that like complete immunity to all poisons or sothing?”
“No, not to that extent. Everyone becos like this after receiving Anaye-nim’s mark.”
Looking embarrassed, Winter scratched the back of her head. Aro wore a deeply moved expression. Then she pressed her lips against the Mark of Anaye on the back of her hand.
“……What are you doing?”
“Reverence.”
“This is driving insane.”
There was barely any reaction before, yet the mont she heard she was immune to alcohol, she started making a huge fuss. I let out a sigh and stood up from my seat.
“Huh? Where are you going?”
“We need to prepare. We’re heading straight back to the Academy.”
It was about ti to return.
***
Rama personally stepped forward to find the mage’s corpse that Davide had ntioned. Since they knew the rough location, the search did not take long.
“You seem troubled.”
Accompanying Rama was the Chief of the desert tribe. Rama cautiously spoke toward her dark expression.
“You could say that. My friend from the sea made quite a troubleso request.”
“Friend from the sea? Ah, you must an Davide.”
Rama chuckled at the phrase “friend from the sea.” It truly suited soone from the Duhein Family.
“What request?”
“He asked us to purify the villa.”
“?”
Not only the assassin silently surveying the surroundings, but even Rama turned to stare at the Chief.
Despite the sudden attention, the Chief remained lost in thought.
“……Is purification possible?”
“According to him, yes. He said he knows the thod and would teach it to us if we purified the villa.”
Rama looked toward the assassin. The assassin also wore a vacant expression. What kind of villa was that?
Even within the Kargula Family, it was the largest and most expensive villa. Of course, it could not compare to the main estate within the territory, but it was still extrely valuable.
“……So that’s why he asked for it.”
“You got hit in the back of the head.”
At the Chief’s words, Rama let out a small sigh. He had already promised to give it away, and since they did not know the purification thod, it had been nothing more than a burden anyway.
“And what did he ask for in return?”
“A friendly relationship with the desert tribe. Also, he said he would turn the villa into a shared facility, so we could use it freely whenever we wished.”
The assassin, overco with frustration, rolled his shoulders to vent his anger before walking farther away. He looked as though he no longer wanted to hear the conversation.
Leaving the assassin alone, Rama continued speaking with the Chief.
“A shared facility?”
“Yes. He said it would beco a shared facility of the Anaye Order, so anyone could use it comfortably at any ti. All he asked for was prayers of gratitude.”
“……He really thought this through.”
Rama secretly admired Davide’s skillfulness. In the desert, the most important thing was a place to rest. That was why the value of an oasis was so significant.
Judging by the villa’s location, travelers crossing the desert would frequently pass through there. Davide’s intention was to spread Anaye’s na to those travelers.
“Lord Rama. We found it.”
At the assassin’s words, Rama and the Chief imdiately stopped talking and hurried over.
“Hah.”
When Rama arrived at the site the assassin had discovered, he let out a scoff. The ground was completely blackened. The assassin wore a grave expression.
“What incredible firepower.”
“At this level, the essence is definitely gone.”
There was a reason Davide had sounded so confident. The scorched black sand had caved inward. The assassin approached and touched the sand in the center.
The heat had been intense enough to crumble the sand apart. Not only the essence, but most people would have died from that level of power.
“Any traces?”
“He’s quite sothing. Even after taking a direct hit from an explosion like this, he survived and escaped.”
There were no bloodstains. Even those had evaporated. Instead, the assassin found another trace.
“An artifact.”
“An artifact?”
“Yes. It appears to belong to the mage who created the barrier. It was sothing he wore around his neck.”
The assassin picked up and showed what appeared to be fragnts of so object. The Chief recognized it imdiately, and Rama nodded.
“There’s more than enough possibility he survived.”
“Lord Rama. Here.”
The assassin soon found sothing else and handed it to Rama.
“This is the container that held the Desert Essence.”
The shattered glass-like fragnts were familiar to everyone there. Feeling the desert’s magic from the glass shards, the Chief smiled in satisfaction.
“Search the surroundings more thoroughly.”
“Yes, Lord Rama.”
At Rama’s command, the assassin bowed his head and resud searching the area. Staring silently at the glass fragnts, Rama turned toward the Chief.
“What about Davide’s proposal?”
“……I’m hesitant because there’s no certainty that the thod will work.”
“You can accept it. Davide’s soone trustworthy.”
Rama let out a hollow laugh as he gathered the fragnts into his pocket.
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