Kays Translations

Chapter 104: In the Marketplace

　As for Lady Barbara, all we can do now is send a letter across the sea and wait for a reply.

　I teach Sandor and Albert how to cook every day.

　Sandor, who has a strong sense of responsibility,  frantically taking notes as he listened to me, and I hear that he even practices at home.

“I wonder if I can make it taste as good as yours Miss Mai.”

“You can do it if you try!”

“You’re an optimist, Miss Mai.”

　Sandor says, looking anxious. To ease his anxiety, I wrote out the recipe on paper to make it easier to understand.

　I made sure to measure and record all the ingredients and seasonings for each dish I wanted them to learn.

　I am enjoying the fact that the number of dishes I can entrust to them is increasing one by one.

　Customers are coming back. Everything is going well.

　One day during the day, the three of us took a break from the store and headed to the market to teach him how to select vegetables and meat.

　There was a strong gust of wind, and every once in a while I staggered.

　As I was looking up at the black clouds floating in the distant sky, Albert told me something interesting.

“My grandma told me that storms are God’s messengers who take and give. While heavy rains can wash away human lives and crops, rain and thunder also bring abundant harvests to the earth.”

 “ Storms are messengers of God that take and give. …… that makes sense.”

“Right? Hmm?　What’s that?　It smells like something’s burning.”

　Albert sniffed. It definitely smelled like burning.

“There!”

　Looking up where Sandor was pointing, I saw black smoke coming out of a window on the third floor of a five-story apartment building. The fire was upwind, so the smell of burning reached where we were.

　I took off running as fast as I could with Sandor shouting from behind me.

“Miss Mai, it’s not safe to approach!　Don’t get too close, it’s dangerous!”

“We have to go!”

　I arrived at the front of the building. It was a long way to the third floor, but I had to do it. I lifted my hands.

　The guard who was keeping onlookers away from the fire said, “Hey, you!　You!　Get back!”, but I used water magic anyways.

　A ball of water the size of a basketball appeared in the air at the tips of my hands. “Whoa!” gasped the onlookers around me.

　The ball of water floating in the air slowly rotates and gets bigger and bigger.

　I make it so big that I can’t even wrap my arms around it, then I send it to the source of the fire with wind magic. The water ball moves smoothly and enters the window. There is a splash as the water hits the floor. I repeat this over and over. But this probably won’t put out the fire. I can’t think of what to do, and I become anxious.

“Someone’s there!” came a cry. It was a room on the fourth floor, diagonally above and to the right of the room where the fire started.

　A young woman with an infant in her arms is heard screaming, “Help! The hallway is on fire! Help!”

　I have to help her. I must help her. How can I put out the fire efficiently?

　As I was getting anxious, Sandor ran off somewhere and quickly returned in his ape-man form. Why? There were so many people there!

“Whoa! It’s a beastman! Run!”

　The people who had gathered began pushing and shoving each other in an attempt to escape. Sandor didn’t pay any attention to the crowd and jumped onto the roof of the building’s entrance. From there, he jumped onto a window frame on the second floor and stood up. Once again, he showed his fearsome leaping ability and dangled from the third floor window sill with just his fingertips.

　The fleeing people fell silent. Everyone was looking at Sandor in silence.

　Hanging by his fingertips from the window frame, he swung his body like a pendulum and jumped onto the narrow ledge of the outer wall.

　Using that as a foothold, he moved to the fourth floor, underneath the window where the woman was. The woman was frightened and pulled back from the windowsill with the infant in her arms, disappearing out of sight. Sandor jumped to the side of the fourth-floor window, slipped inside, and disappeared.

“Is she being attacked?”

“No, he went to help, right?”

“Would a beastman do something like that?”

“It’s a beastman, but he’s not afraid of fire.”

　Amidst the flurry of excited voices, Albert suddenly transformed into a large ape-man before I knew it, and was scrambling up the wall.

“Here he comes again!”

　As onlookers and security guards looked up, Sandor appeared first, holding the toddler under his left arm. The toddler was crying. Sandor looks down and hesitates. What are you going to do?　You’re not going to jump off the fourth floor, are you?　That would be dangerous for the child, wouldn’t it?　I, I have to do something… I have to do something.

　I thought about it for a few seconds and came up with an idea.

“Wait!　I’ll build a staircase!”

　Sandor nodded.

　I canceled the water magic. I imagined a staircase in my mind and activated earth magic.

　The soil on the path around began to move. Onlookers nearby screamed and backed away to avoid getting caught in the moving dirt.

　I move my arms to manipulate the soil and create a staircase out of the building. From the first floor to the second floor, and from the second floor to the third floor. A narrow dirt staircase that winds back and forth from right to left.

　As soil continues to shift from the road, the mortar-shaped hole in the middle of the street gets bigger and deeper.

　People at a distance also noticed the large hole in the road and looked at me with puzzled glances.

　Sorry, I’ll do something about the hole later.

　Dirt moving from the road, stairs stretching out, me moving my arms. Many people are pointing at me and saying something.

　I have to compact the earth I moved and make it stiff so that it won’t collapse.

　I can make a ladder fast, but it won’t do any good if that child or woman falls.

　Hurry up, me!

　I feel nauseous from the anxiety and tension. Calm down, calm down. Breathe. Build the stairs carefully and evenly.

　Sandor waited until the dirt stairs reached the fourth floor, then picked up the toddler and stood on the stairs. He ran down the stairs and left the toddler standing on the ground. After making sure that Albert and the mother were standing on the stairs, Sandor ran off. The mother was too frightened by the height and the beastman to move.

 “Trust the boy!　Go down the stairs!　Those stairs will never collapse!”

　I shouted, and the woman looked at Albert. Albert, in his ape form, said something to the woman and held out his hand. The woman took her hand and the two of them walked down the stairs, one behind the other, holding hands.

　Once Albert and the woman were safely on the ground, the child ran over to them.

“Mommy!”

“Oh Vista! Thank goodness! 　Thank God!　Thank you!　Thank you for saving me!”

　Albert nodded and ran  off, cutting through the crowd to the alleyway where Sandor had disappeared. As Albert approached, the crowd quickly parted to let him through.

　I wanted to feel relieved, but the fire was not extinguished. Flames are now billowing up from the room on the fourth floor where the mother and child had been. A strong wind was fanning the flames. There was no sign of the fire brigade entering the house.

　It was impossible, of course, since there were no flameproof cloths or oxygen tanks.

　With this strong wind, if the fire spreads, it will be a disaster.

　I was so engrossed in using magic that I didn’t notice, but Victor was among the security guards controlling the crowd at the front. He looked at me worriedly. Don’t worry, I’ll make it disappear.

　I used water magic to create a thick cloud the size of a tatami mat. I manipulated it and sent it through the open window. Once the cloud was inside the room, it spread thinly and widely, causing rain to fall. I can’t see what’s going on inside, so I can only imagine.

　Please! Get out! I don’t want the fire to spread!

　As I repeatedly created and sent the cloud, the pitch black smoke that was spewing out eventually began to turn into whitish smoke.

　Gradually the amount of smoke decreased. My arms were tired from being continuously held up. I wondered how much time had passed since I had started using magic. It must have been an hour.

　The smoke had almost stopped coming out and Victor came over to me.

“Mai, the fire brigade will take care of the rest.”

“okay”

　I ran through the crowd and hurried to the hideaway. When I arrived at the store, Sandor and Albert, who had returned earlier, all bowed their heads.

“I’m sorry for acting without telling you anything, Mai!”

“I’m sorry too!”

“Why? There’s nothing to apologize for. You guys were admirable. You showed them that beastmen are not scary and that you have courage. And you were smart enough not to let them know who had transformed. You must have been scared too, but you saved a mother and her child. I was so proud of you.”

　The two of them are fidgety.

“Seeing the fire reminded me of the night we got caught. It was stupid of me to try to set fire to Riddick out of hatred for him. If Mai and the others hadn’t stopped me, I might have killed a lot of people by now. I never thought a fire would be so terrifying.”

“I guess the problem is me, having exposed my face. But I’ve decided not to hide anymore, so it’s fine. I hope it doesn’t cause any trouble. Anyway, what about burns? You didn’t get any, right?”

　They both had burns on their backs and arms.

“Come on, just say it,” I said as I gave them the potion and doused it over the burns.

“If someone asks me who that beastman is, I’ll tell them I don’t know.”

“Please do so.”

　I made a promise to the both of them to do so.

　I was prepared to do so, but they remembered my face. When I went to the market, people would say things like, “Thank you for the other day, Wizard,” or “Wizard, you did a great job.” I also often heard people say, “That person, during the fire the other day…”

　It’s okay. I don’t mind. I put the dirt stairs and the pothole back together later that day.

　At the castle, the Prime Minister told Henry, “I hear your fiancee did a wonderful thing,” and that was when he found out what I did at the fire. I thought he would get angry and ask why I hadn’t told him, but he didn’t get angry, he just seemed worried.

　

“Now that many people know your face and abilities, please make sure to lock the door properly.”

“Yes, I will.”

　Since the day of the fire, I make sure to surround the entire house with a barrier when I sleep.

　However, I later learned that the barrier disappears when I fall into deep sleep.

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter