Kays Translations

Chapter 3: For some reason, I was reunited with material of fate

On the way to the village, Roy says.

“Ren, do you remember the bridge that separates the village from the forest?”

Ren recalls it as he walks with Roy, without getting on his horse.

The bridge that Roy had just mentioned must have been the suspension bridge that Roy had escaped from when he was attacked by the Thief wolfen.

“I remember. What's wrong with that bridge?”

"That bridge has been reinforced recently. We were heading upriver today when all of a sudden the little boars showed up in droves.”

“They were excited about the road maintenance, right?"

"Ah. I forgot to mention it earlier, but that's probably not all.”

"Eh? What do you mean?”

Ren, listening to the conversation, looked at Roy's face and questioned.

“I don't fully understand the situation, but recently some little boars have been running away from the upper reaches of the river. The carpenters who came to the village say they don't think it's just because of the road maintenance.”

"You don't mean some strong monsters have come again right?"

“Hmm… I don’t think so.”

Ren didn’t doubt what Roy was telling him, but he still wanted to go check it out.

It was because he knew that he was the best fighter in the current situation.

As soon as he thought about it, he got on Io's back.

“Ah! Hey! Ren!?”

“Excuse me. I'll go check it out.”

“Wait! We'll check it out later. You don't have to work so soon after you get home!”

“Even if you say that, I’m curious about something.”

The knights who had come with him from Clausel said they would go with him.

But Ren who fears the worst, told them to guard the village, just in case.

For the knights, their duty was to escort Ren, but the pressure in his words made them nod their heads.

“I'm going to check it out for a bit! I'll leave as soon as I sense danger!"

“Oh ---- hey! Ren!"

Ren ran through the forest, pulling Io's reins without listening to Roy's voice to stop him.

Ren had never visited the upper reaches of the river Roy mentioned. But he ran along a riverside animal trail that he quickly found and headed upstream.

He passed near Tsurugi Rock and headed deeper into the forest.

All Io had to do was run one step, and the trees in the area swayed in the breeze.

When Ren arrived upstream, he saw a large waterfall basin.

There was no sign of monsters in the area. There were no bones of devoured monsters scattered about, as there had been in the case of Thief Wolfen.

All he could hear was the sound of a clear stream echoing through the area, and the scenic landscape.

“There's nothing to see here-......."

He got off Io and looked around, just in case.

But still nothing. Maybe it was just their imagination that the Little Boars ran toward the village from the upstream.

As he was about to conclude this, Ren's body tensed up.

He readied his iron magic sword and turned his eyes to the waterfall basin with a furrowed brow.

(----)

Something is there. Something powerful.

Holding his breath, he slowly approached the basin of the waterfall.

And then…

"Hmm?"

I thought there was a monster in the water, but instead I found something beautiful and shining.

Ren summoned his wooden magic sword and used nature magic to create a path of tree roots on the water.

He approached the waterfall basin and visualized the true nature of the beautiful radiance.

“...... Star Agate?"

There was no mistaking it.

The gleam of the gemstone that he had just seen in the winter in the Baldor Mountains was indeed at the bottom of the water. Ren felt the tension he had been feeling disappear, and he smiled dryly and said, "Why?”

Let's just pull it up out of the water for now.

Ren swung his wooden sword toward the bottom of the waterfall, produced ivy, and wrapped it around the star agate. He grabbed the ivy with both arms and began to pull it up.

But it was strangely heavy.

Ren put more physical strength into his arms and legs because it was much heavier than he had expected.

Little by little, the star agate came closer to the surface of the water and finally,---

“Wait………..eeeeeeeeeeeeh….!?”

The star agate, which emerged from the waterfall as if being dragged, was much larger than Ren had expected to see.

Perhaps a large portion of the star agate was buried in the waterfall basin.

Ren pulled the star agate onto land with it tied up with ivy.

"It's ...... big."

The size of the star agate I saw was about the size of four horses in a row.

Its shape was shattered in places, but it was roughly elongated and twisted into a shape with a sharp tip.

Regardless of its shape, one would wonder how much such a huge star agate would fetch.

"Hi-hin!"

Lo, who was waiting on land, was also surprised and neighs beside Ren.

“Oh, it's huge. But why’s a star agate so close to the village..... this shouldn’t be possible unless it’s a very special environment, like the Baldor Mountains ----."

Ren who had so many questions in his mind twisted his head and looked down at the star agate with his arms folded.

There's nothing wrong with having money for the village, but I'm still curious.

“............"

Ren's eyes, which had been looking at the star agate, turned to the opposite side of the sharp tip.

The other part of the agate was damaged more severely than the rest of the agate, and there was a section that looked as if it had been cut open by something sharp.

『---- ----!』

The dragon's voice came back to Ren's mind.

He thought, "No way," and as he approached the section of the star agate, he remembered it vividly.

Surrounded by hellfire, I threw the iron magic sword at this horn. I am pretty sure that I cut it off from the base of the horn, as if it were shattered.

A moment after Ren recalled this, a crack appeared in the star agate.

The star agate covering the horns shattered as if it were emerging from a cocoon.

"Why ......?"

Ren, who let out a muffled voice, crouched down on the spot.

I also understood.

If something like this was in a waterfall basin, little boars would run away in fear and it would be natural.

"...... So how did it flow from the Baldor Mountains all the way down here? Was there a river connecting them somewhere? I can’t seem to put the pieces together."

Ren remained crouched in contemplation for a while.

He looked at Asval’s horn in front of him and pondered.

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After much pondering, Ren once again headed into the woods near the village to call for a knight.

Since he couldn’t carry the horn he found to the village, he and the knights worked together to somehow secure the horn in other to carry it to Clausel.

The knights stayed in the forest to guard the perimeter of the village, as Ren had requested.

The story therefore progressed very quickly.

“Wha---what a magnificent star agate… huh ......!”

“But what’s this? Is it stuck to weathered monster material or something?"

The voice of the knights who had come upstream showed surprise.

After listening to their voices, Ren proposes to them.

“I need to take this to Clausel because it's something important and I need to talk to Lessard-sama.”

“Yes, but something this big ......."

“We'll have to do something about it. Fortunately, we are in the process of building the roads and outer walls. The wagons carrying the materials we need are larger than usual, so if we link two of them together, they should be able to carry this as well.”

“It’ll still stick out. But this is one thing that must be carried to Clausel, no matter how reckless or time-consuming it may be.”

"Yes, we must put it on a coupled wagon and cover it tightly with a cloth.”

Thinking that it would somehow work, Ren remembered that he had once planned to carry Asval’s horns all the way there by himself.

The previous Ren would have found it extremely difficult, but the story changed when he gained the benefit of physical ability UP (medium) with his increased level of magic sword summoning technique. The benefit was even more effective than when he had physical ability UP (small).

(In any case, it was better to do it secretly over here.)

The conclusion was settled on that.

After this, two wagons were somehow brought to the upstream of the river, and everyone worked together to link them up.

Ren stayed with the work until the end.

Of course, the shattered star agate was also secured. When the horn was placed on the wagons, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

Next, everyone worked together to transport the wagon to a location near the village----

"Ren-dono, leave the rest to us. Please take your time and enjoy your return home.”

“Yes! Then, please take care of the rest!”

Ren rode alone on Io's back and started to run.

Soon I reach the suspension bridge that connects the village to the forest, and my cheeks relax at how different it looks from before.

The road leading to the village was being built just like the road to the town, and a stone wall was under construction to protect the entire village from the outside world.

I then run through the road as if the wind is blowing through the village, and I’m delighted and moved by the different appearance of the village.

(...... wow!)

The road laid in the center of the village was paved with cobblestones and turned into a muddy road on rainy days

The farm road is no longer there. It was an imposing road that led to a novelty mansion perched on a small hill at the back.

Also, most of the old houses have been rebuilt.

Ren's hometown had undergone a remarkable recovery after the attack a year earlier.

"Is that the young master!?”

“You've grown up! Welcome home!”

“Hey, hey! You look great on that big horse!”

The villagers who were working in the fields called out to Ren as they saw him riding along the road on Io.

Ren answered them with a smile and rode further down the road.

Eventually, he came to the gate of the mansion, which stood in the same place as before.

The battered wooden gate, which looked as if it could collapse at any moment, was gone, replaced by a stone gate.

Outside the gate stood his parents, waiting for him.

“Ren!"

Mireille left the gate ahead of Roy, who had been reunited with him a step earlier.

She couldn't resist and hugged Ren at the moment he got off Io by the gate.

“Mom! I'm home!"

"......Yes! Welcome home!”

Mireille was moved to tears at seeing him for the first time in a long time.

Roy also came to them, and the three of them were happy to see each other again after a long absence.

The three of them were so happy to see each other that it took several minutes for their embrace to be over.

Mireille wiped the tears from her eyes and said to Ren, "Come on, let's go inside,"

On the grounds of the mansion were the stables, which weren’t there before.

Ren thought it would be better to take Io there first, so he told Mireille about it.

“I understand. By the way, this is a horse with a fine body.”

“......Right, he's magnificent.....yes.....”

“Oh, what's the matter? You suddenly looked away.”

Ren was tormented by complicated emotions.

Because Lo was the horse of a criminal who attacked this village.

While he was wondering how to explain it to her.

“Shucks, you got a good horse for the taking.”

Roy said something that surprised Ren.

“Dad?  You knew?”

"Yes. This was the horse of the beast tamer who attacked our mansion, wasn't it? If it is, then it must have been stolen.”

“How do you know that!?”

“I heard about it from a knight who has been in the village for a while. You seemed reluctant to tell me yourself, so the knight was very considerate.”

The two of them don't seem to be concerned about Io. Mireille was stroking Io's mane playfully.

“The horse is innocent, Ren. You don’t need to worry about it either.”

That’s what she said.

Roy said the same thing, and he stroked Ren's head somewhat roughly.

The nostalgic sensation made Ren relax and he said “That’s  good.”

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