Kays Translations

Chapter 93 – Have I ever bought a talisman…?

I tried asking Jude-san about the miasma.

“Do you know what exactly this miasma is?”

“Miasma, huh? It’s that thing, right? It makes monsters more violent or causes them to behave unusually. It’s said to affect their reproduction too, possibly being the cause of the abnormal outbreak of monsters.”

As always, Jude-san is incredibly knowledgeable.

“More violent?”

Luna asked.

“Hmm, like getting rough and aggressive, but I guess that’s hard to understand.”

How could I explain it more clearly?

“It makes you all irritated and frustrated, that it does!”

Kirara jumped in to explain. Well, yeah, that’s not wrong.

“So it makes them more short-tempered?”

Mimi asked. Well going berserk doesn’t exactly mean being short-tempered—

“Well, that’s close enough to the idea.”

I imagine it would be more like lashing out or being aggressive.

“By the way, is miasma something you can actually see?”

That’s what I really wanted to know. I can’t see it. It seems Kirara can’t see it either, just senses it.　

Jude-san thought for a moment and answered:

“Maybe it depends on the concentration? I’ve seen dark shadows that seemed like a ominous presences taking shape. But not all violent monsters have a visible shadow like that.”

Now that I think about it, the Gs that appeared in large numbers were very horrifying, but visually they were just black or brown shadows. They didn’t look that ominous… or wait, didn’t Kirara sense something off about them?

So, some people can see or sense miasma, but most probably can’t.

Hmm… maybe it’s like yellow dust or pollen. You can’t see it, but you know it’s there flying around because of the symptoms. Though that, too, depends on the concentration.

Of course, If it gets thick enough to blur your vision, then you can see it.

The footage of pollen bursts is seriously wild. And in the countryside, when you’re close to mountains, you can clearly see cedar trees turning brown with all the pollen they hold. Sometimes you can literally see the edges of the mountains becoming hazy.

I don’t have hay fever, at least I don’t think I do, but there are seasons when my eyes get itchy and my nose just won’t stop running. I end up using allergy eye drops and such.

For now, if miasma is the substance that causes monsters to go berserk, maybe it can have the same effect on people. The symptom of feeling irritated seems to match.

“Hehe, you’ve got a wrinkle forming between your eyebrows,”

Martha-san pointed out, and I smoothed the area with my finger. You really have to be careful or those wrinkles will get deep. If I’m going to get wrinkles, I’d prefer crow’s feet at the corners of my eyes.

I pop one of Martha-san’s delicious biscuits into my mouth. It’s so crispy. It’s cooked to perfection.

Even if I don’t fully understand what’s going on, I think it’s worth trying what I can.

It’s just a hypothesis for now, but miasma seems highly suspicious. It also seems like the oil we normally use is mixed with miasma. When I mix it with the canola oil we make at home, the miasma appears to weaken.

“Jude-san, if possible, I’d like Luna to help me with her green magic,”

I started to say to him.

“okay”

He responded immediately, which caught me off guard. Wait—just like that?

“I plan to keep Luna’s involvement as discreet as possible.”

Still, with anything on a large enough scale, word tends to get out.

“No matter what happens to Luna, I’ll protect her. So there’s no problem. If she agrees, then go ahead, let her help.”

He said that clearly. Parental approval: granted. Martha-san just smiled warmly.

I turned to Luna to ask her directly.

“Luna, if it’s okay, I’d like you to grow lots of rapeseed flowers in my fields again, like last time. Can you do that?”

“If it’s for you, Saki-san, I’d be happy to! Maybe we can have another flower-viewing picnic?”

Luna said with a smile.

Yeah. Let’s all eat something delicious together again.

After leaving Jude-san’s house, we headed to the store where I bought the cheese and olive oil. Mimi, Kirara, and I went inside, and the squinty-eyed shopkeeper from last time was there.

“Welcome! So glad to see you again. And you brought friends today! How’d that stuff from last time turn out?”

He asked me. How should I put it, his voice is so good —almost too good. Like, suspiciously good. So good it’s hard to trust him.

“As always, the cheese was fantastic. Um, about the olive oil…”

“Something wrong with it?”

He slightly opened his narrow eyes as he asked.

“It was delicious, so I was just wondering where it came from.”

“Oh, that? It’s made in Darsia. It’s a popular one that mostly gets consumed in the royal capital.”

“I see. If possible, could I get another bottle of the same kind, and maybe one from a different region? Also, I’d like a bit of general-purpose cooking oil.”

When I asked,

“Hold on a sec.”

And he went off to find the items.

I exchanged glances with Mimi and Kirara. Kirara gave a big nod. We need to check the oils as they come out.

“How about this one? It’s from the League.”

Kirara made a circle shape with her fingers. Mimi did the same next to her—well, it looked more like a money symbol than a circle, but close enough.

“The color’s a bit darker, huh.”

“No good? Then what about this one? It’s from League too, but a different variety.”

We looked through several, and even though they were from the same region, Kirara gave a firm X on a few. Even the mixed oil for everyday use got a small X.

We bought the oils Kirara marked with an X and left the shop.

Let’s head back to the shed and do more testing.

We returned to the shed and stared at the olive oil in front of me.

I’m pretty sure the “Sealing” skill is a miasma-related ability. I’ve heard that mine is pretty weak, but maybe it can handle small quantities?

I decided to try Seal on the olive oil. To be honest, it’s a skill I hadn’t paid much attention to. I hardly use it, so I don’t fully get how it works.

I focused and imagined using seal on the olive oil container in front of me.

It felt like a probability-based skill. Perhaps because the container was small, I had a vague feeling it would succeed.

　 

[{Olive Oil Container} Seal]

As a result, the lid of the olive oil container wouldn’t open anymore.

“It’s completely sealed tight.”

Kirara said.

“Even I can’t open it,”

Mimi grunted as she tried turning the lid with force.

Maybe I messed up and ended up sealing the container instead of the miasma.

After a bit of struggle, we gave up. The good news is—

“I don’t sense any miasma from it now.”

Kirara said.

So apparently the whole container got sealed, miasma and all.

Next, I poured some of the mixed-use oil into a bowl and stared at it.

I focused, thinking I wanted to seal the “miasma” mixed into it.

I see, now that I’m thinking of it that way, that there was something there, a “miasma” appeared on the sealed object.

So even things that can’t seen can be sealed, huh?

[Sealing Target: Miasma]

When I activated the skill, I felt the air give off a sharp tension, and tiny black specks sank to the bottom of the oil.

I think… that means it worked? So I can remove miasma using this skill.

But realistically, the amount I can remove on my own will be quite limited.

Which means… the mixing-in-canola-oil strategy is probably more practical.

By the way, perhaps because my sealing ability or level is too low, the next day, the black specks I had strained out the oil and temporarily put in a zip bag disappeared. Where did you go, little miasma…

The lid of the olive oil container still won’t open.

This sealing skill is full of mysteries. It seems the duration changes depending on whether I just use it as-is or prepare a specific vessel to seal it in?　

Wait a sec… do I actually need to start making sealing talismans or something!?

Have I ever even bought a talisman…?

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