Kays Translations

Chapter 127

“Thank you very much for everything up until now.”

“Thank you so much!”

After that, it took us two days to finally reach the border gate.
The wagon driver, who was originally supposed to part ways with us at the field hospital, kindly carried us all the way to the border.

The massive gate guarding the border bore the scars of war, half-collapsed and crumbling.
At the same time, the Scorched Gorge had disappeared, its path down the cliffs cut off halfway.
What remained was nothing more than a great fissure in the earth.

“Wow… so this is what happens to a dungeon when it disappears.”

“Seems so. The Great Forest hasn’t been tampered with, so it still looks the same, though.”

“I see… and the border gate—it’s broken down.”

“They’ll probably demolish the whole thing. After all… this is no longer a border. Golda is going to be part of Lendia’s territory now.”

“I see… so that’s what war does.”

History of conflict. The marks that war leaves behind. Seeing it up close, both Melt and I couldn’t help but feel a little somber.

“It’s strange… The last time I came here, a Golda soldier told me, ‘Those without a permit, begone.’ At the time I thought, why would anyone need permission to travel freely through such a wide, open world? But now… I understand. I get why such systems exist, and how things like that can even spark wars. I guess I’ve gotten a little smarter.”

“Yeah. That’s proof you’re adapting to how this world works, how its society is structured.”

“Hehe, is that so?”

The way she saw things had shifted from when she knew nothing.
And I, too, was realizing little by little that this world was not Earth—that common sense from back home didn’t apply here. War was natural, almost ordinary, and always nearby.

“Well then, from here on we’ll be walking. It’s still a long journey, so no overdoing it—we’ll take it slow.”

“Right. But it’s a bit chilly, so maybe we should prepare camp a little earlier than usual?”

And so, slowly, leisurely, we continued our journey back to where everything began.

At camp, I sometimes got nostalgic and made Piccata Sandwiches, or teased Melt about the time she pulled her hood up and tried to lower her voice, thinking it made her look like a man.
We kept reminiscing as we camped, day after day, moving forward on this journey.

On the third day of walking, at last, a village in Golda’s territory came into sight.

“Melt, just in case, keep your hood up. Don’t let your ears show.”

“Got it! This is Golda, after all…”

I just hoped the people’s attitudes here would start to change, even little by little.

“…I thought this was supposed to be a village.”

“Yeah… me too.”

What should have been a village didn’t look like one at all.
Weeds and vines crept over the houses, reclaiming them. It was more than enough evidence that people no longer lived here—that the place was being swallowed back into nature.

“Maybe the villagers abandoned it and fled to Lendia’s side?”

“But why? If weeds are growing this much, it means the land itself is fertile, right? And yet… there aren’t any traces of farmland here.”

“…Now that you mention it.”

Melt stepped inside the village, examining the scene.
Abandoned household items, a broken-down well, laundry still hanging as if left mid-dry, a withered flowerbed.

It felt like one day the villagers had simply vanished.

“…Same, Golda doesn’t like beastmen, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard. Though apparently some worked for merchant guilds.”

“I see. I think… this was a beastmen village.”

Checking the laundry still left hanging, Melt nodded as if certain.

“Maybe they were segregated here. Even this far from the capital, at least they still had a place within the kingdom’s borders.”

“I get it… That also explains why there aren’t any fields here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Something like, ‘Beastmen are forbidden from cultivating crops on their own.’ They were probably banned from living self-sufficiently, forced to exist purely as a labor class.”

Just speculation, but it seemed likely. Otherwise, why would there be no farmland in such a remote village? Buying from traveling merchants could only go so far.

“Do you think people will ever come back to this village?”

“I’m sure they will. This isn’t Golda anymore—it’s Lendia’s land now.”

“I see. Then… I’ll make sure they can come back anytime.”

With that, Melt placed both hands on the ground, and a faint light spread outward.
The weeds and vines covering the houses shriveled, shrinking away, retreating back into the earth as if the scene was being rewound.

Within minutes, the entire village was free of overgrowth, making it at least somewhat habitable again.

“Phew… this should keep plants from growing back around the houses for a while. The weeds will just grow outside the village instead.”

“…That’s incredible. You can affect such a wide area?”

“Of course. As long as we’re in nature, I can make requests pretty far out.”

“Requests, huh… I see.”

It wasn’t really control—but in practice, wasn’t she commanding nature itself?
Maybe her magic was far more extraordinary than I had imagined.

“This way, when the villagers return, they won’t have as much work to do fixing up their homes!”

“Yeah. I’m sure they’ll be happy.”

“All right, let’s leave a note! Something like: ‘We cleaned up the village for you. Payment can be in shrimp.’ Perfect!”

“That’s not perfect at all.”

“I’m kidding! But if we leave it, they’ll know it wasn’t some official order from higher-ups, but just a kind stranger’s goodwill. Maybe that’ll put them at ease?”

“…Well, maybe you’re right. Let’s stick it onto a scarecrow in the central square.”

Perhaps a little playfulness like this could be what saves people when they’re at their lowest.

And so, with this small prank left behind, our journey continued on.

A few more days passed after that.

Camping out along the way, and with Melt’s nature magic helping us tremendously during the journey, we finally reached a spot where we could see the royal capital of Golda in the distance.

“Oh… from afar, it’s really obvious that the castle is gone.”

“You’re right… Golda’s castle is completely gone… That wasn’t your doing, was it, Silent?”

“Ah, no. That’s right.”

Oops, I almost slipped. That was the work of ‘the mysterious fanatic Still’.

But looking at it again now… wide-area attacks from games are absolutely brutal when done in the real world.

Back in the game days, Soraga Ochiruhi was a wide-area spell whose destructive power could even rival a mage’s area magic.

Thinking about how it managed to completely flatten a kingdom’s castle in one blow… maybe learning that kind of magic isn’t such a great idea after all. Its range is just way too wide.

One of my main characters, Rent, is a pure magician, but since I’ve barely raised her, she hasn’t learned any of these area spells yet.

Now I’m hesitating about training her… maybe I should only focus on single-target spells when choosing her skill tree.
Wait… how does character training even work in this world? Can you just open up a menu screen and pick skills or something?

“I really need to test things out more…”

“Hm? Test things? Oh! Like a crime scene investigation? I read about that in a book. When an incident happens, a person called a detective goes to examine the site. Are we going to check out the remains of the castle?”

“Oh, no. I don’t plan on approaching the capital. Let’s just keep heading toward the Great Forest.”

“I see. …But if we did investigate, maybe we could learn more about Still’s power… I mean, to destroy such a massive castle in an instant like that…”

Hahaha… yeah, exactly.
If someone like Still of all people can do this much… then what about that strongest character…?

We left the road to the capital behind and advanced down a lush path through the mountains.

Up ahead lies the Dreamhill Great Forest. Now that I think about it… weren’t soldiers deployed around this area too?

…Wait. Don’t tell me this whole side has already been taken over by Lendia’s forces…?

A bad feeling crept in, but we resumed our march toward the forest anyway.

Maybe we should prepare horses or a carriage next time.
Where would we even buy a carriage, though?

“Melt, it’s possible that ahead of us… there might still be lots of soldiers’ corpses left from when Silent killed them. I want you to be mentally prepared.”

“Eh? You left all those corpses lying around? Then probably… the monsters have eaten them by now.”

“Ah—yeah, that could happen too.”

“Yep. Monsters eating corpses—remember when you and Silent got that subjugation request before? Human corpses don’t have as much lingering power as monsters, but they still hold some residue. That’s why monsters are drawn to them.”

“…Seriously? So then the monsters around here might’ve gotten stronger…”

“Maybe. We should be careful. It’s possible stronger monsters headed into the Great Forest. Dungeons naturally attract monsters, you know.”

“I see… so it works differently than artificial dungeons, huh.”

In other words, thanks to me, the dungeon’s difficulty might have gone up.

“Also, before we go into the dungeon, I’ll purify the land around where all those bodies were left. That way monsters won’t keep gathering.”

“Purify… Melt, you can use holy magic too?”

“Hm? No, not that kind of purification. I mean cleaning up. Blood and leftovers—those can cause disease, you know? So I ask nature to take care of it, turning them into nourishment for the earth.”

Ah, so not purification in the conceptual sense, but in a biological one.

Plants breaking down corpses and blood into nutrients, huh… This might actually be useful for something else too.

After that, just as Melt predicted, the mountain of corpses I had hidden in my tent had been completely devoured, and as expected, the inside of the tent was filled with an unbearable stench.

Melt’s magic wrapped the entire tent in roots and vines, and she said it should be fine to just leave it for a few hours.

“In about two hours, the roots will vanish on their own, and everything left will turn into fine, dry sand.”

“I see. Honestly, Melt, you could totally make it as a mage. That spell seems ridiculously powerful.”

“Hmm… but using magic makes me really hungry, you know? I’m already starving right now.”

“Is that so. Okay, here, take this.”

Is it fuel inefficient? I take out an item from my item box called “Full Stomach Sandwich X.”

Full Stomach Sandwich X
“A special sandwich implemented to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the service.”
“Chosen from among photos and recipes of real-world sandwiches submitted to the official site.”
“Created by the grand prize winner, ‘Nissy Yossy.’”

Yeah, this was one of those food items the devs handed out at every opportunity.

It only has about the same healing effect as a low-grade potion, but it also has the useful perk of reducing stamina consumption for several hours. So it ended up having a fair amount of demand as a sort of “gourmet lite” item.

…It looks tasty, so I’ll eat one too.

“Wow! It’s huge! Thanks for the food!”
“I’ll dig in too!”

A thick sandwich. Inside is… honey mustard chicken, salsa sauce, avocado sauce… and cheese.

Definitely a serious portion. Alright, here goes.

“…Wha—this is delicious!?!”

Seriously!? Were in-game foods always this good!?

“This is amazing…! I’ve never tasted anything like this before! So good!!”
“Yeah, I can’t stop eating this…”

The two of us chow down like crazy. It’s delicious, filling, and honestly the best portable food item ever.

I still have seven stacks of these in storage… because they’re so useful.

But wow, this might get addictive. I should start pacing myself.

“Alright, let’s head into the dungeon. The restrictions I set before the war should be gone by now. Even so, only you and I can enter your house and the village, Melt.”

“Oh, that’s true… So, should we go straight through the forest to my home?”

“No, before that… I want to check out the ruins of the Greedy Mansion—the former lair of the Dungeon Master. There’s a big piece of equipment from my world left there. I want to recover as much of its contents as possible.”

Last time I didn’t have time to deal with it, but the microbus is packed with modern technology.

I can’t risk letting it fall into the wrong hands, so I intend to reclaim it.

…Actually, could I just store the entire microbus in my inventory? That might actually work.

“The ruins… so you really did defeat him. And Same, I’m curious about the tools from Shizuma’s world too! Then let’s go there first, and afterwards we’ll head to my house.”

“Yeah, sounds good. As for the route… do you need me to guide?”

“As long as the layout hasn’t changed, I’ll be fine. This great forest is my backyard, after all.”

“Haha, true enough.”

For her, it’s both a homecoming… and a return to a place filled with painful memories.

But even so, she walks toward the dungeon with a smile, her steps full of energy.

Alright then… let’s go home, Melt. So that we can move forward—

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