Kays Translations

Chapter 97 – Grand Quest Disclosure

After 80 years, unexpected things have changed. One of the more amusing ones is how national holidays have shifted.

For example, February 6th marks the day the American delegation (the Black Ships) arrived in Japan.

When the 10th anniversary of the reopening of Japan-U.S. relations was celebrated, February 6th was designated a national holiday called Friendship Day.

On the other hand, Constitution Memorial Day, originally on May 3rd, was changed to May 21st to match the enactment of the new constitution after the Gremlin Disaster.

So today is a holiday.

However, since the three-day cluster of fixed holidays was broken up, Golden Week has become a relic of the past—kids today don’t even know what it was. How sad.

As a self-employed man, I can work when I want and rest when I want.

So national holidays don’t matter much, but they do make me feel like taking a break anyway.

While I was in this laid-back mood, Hiyori had been working herself to exhaustion the past few days, steam practically rising from her head as she trained daily by the river to get used to the new model of Kyanos.

I don’t really understand how magic power control feels, but apparently the difficulty leap is like going from operating with Morse code to suddenly being told to use a keyboard.

Hiyori had spent 80 years mastering the chantless casting system of the old Kyanos model—she could input Morse at lightning speed. But with the new keyboard-style input system, she was a total beginner. While she understood Roman letters and could technically type using romaji, her typing was painfully slow, like tapping out one…key…at…a…time…with a single finger.

In other words, compared to when she used the old Kyanos, her chantless magic activation speed had dropped significantly.

She considered this a serious issue and was training hard to get used to the new system as fast as possible to bring her speed back up.

Right now, her input speed has temporarily decreased, but theoretically, keyboard input is faster than even world-record Morse speed. Once she gets used to it, it’ll be a revolutionary power boost. I hope she keeps pushing forward.

Since it’s an issue of personal adjustment, there’s no advice I can give.

But I can support her.

Being a clever man, I asked her, “I want to cheer you on. When you take breaks, I’d like to make you snacks—do you have a favorite?” and successfully discovered that she loves chocolate mousse. Honestly, the fact that I didn’t know her favorite food until now just shows how ignorant I was. Well, better late than never.

Chocolate used to be rarer than the same weight of magic alloy 80 years ago, but nowadays it’s expensive yet readily available.

I made a rich and silky chocolate mousse cake for afternoon snack time, promised a pouty Mokutan that I’d make her a charred fruit cake later, and headed out for delivery. Hello, it’s me—Uber Dairi.

It’s about a three-minute walk from my house to the riverside where Hiyori trains, but as soon as I stepped outside, I spotted a huge spider half-hidden in the bushes and smiled.

Long time no see! Have you been doing well?

“Hello, Spider Witch. You’ve grown so much since last time! Growth spurt?”

“Uuuh… D-Dairi. Long time no see…”

When I called out, the Spider Witch shyly emerged from the not-at-all-concealing bushes and revealed her full, majestic form.

She had grown about twice as big as before, and that alone lifted my spirits. You can never have too big a spider or beaver. I remember reading a manga online where a 100-meter-long beaver built a dam in the Strait of Gibraltar—it was hilarious. I’d love for the Spider Witch to aim for 100 meters too.

“Thanks for helping out while I was dead. I’m off to deliver cake to Hiyori now—want to come?”

“U-uhm… um… I-I’m sorry, Dairi. Because I was… because I was being controlled by Iruma, you… you d-died…!”

“Ah, no worries—I came back to life. Anyway, Hiyori’s down at the river. What’ll you do? Were you not good at talking to Hiyori?”

I asked casually, but the Spider Witch suddenly began to cry, tears falling from all seven of her eyes.

That caught me completely off guard. What!? She hates meeting Hiyori that much!?

Was it really that bad!? Crap—I must’ve said something wrong!

“S-sorry. I didn’t realize Hiyori made you that uncomfortable.”

“No… I’m sorry… It’s not that. It’s just… Dairi, you’re acting so normal… just like always… even though it’s my fault…”

“Uhhh… what?”

Even after she explained while sobbing, I tilted my head—still not getting it.

Hmm, maybe she was just glad that I was okay and acting like myself. Maybe she was afraid I’d come back weird—like a bugged resurrection?

There are zombie spells, after all. If she had come back as a groaning, mindless undead, I might cry too. If that’s what scared her, then I get it. Makes sense.

“I’m perfectly healthy, as you can see. Got my shadow disease vaccine too. Fit as a fiddle. Sorry for worrying you.”

“Yeah… yeah… I’m really glad. So glad…”

She cried for a while but eventually let it all out and seemed refreshed. When I asked again, she said she’d come along to cheer on Hiyori, so I climbed on her back and rode down to the river. She’d grown so big, even the massive thorns on her back had grown, and they made great backrests—very secure.

I wonder if she’d let me attach a saddle? Or would that be rude? Maybe she’d accept it like clothes. Hmm. Hard to say.

When Hiyori saw the mighty Spider Rider Dairi arrive at the river, she paused her training and gave the Spider Witch a warm smile.

“So you found your courage.”

“Yeah. I’m glad I got to talk to you again. Thanks for the push…”

“No, thank you—for protecting Dairi all this time.”

The two exchanged kind words, creating a gentle, soothing atmosphere.

Hmm? There’s a warm, fuzzy vibe here. Could it be that Hiyori and the Spider Witch are actually close?

I’m starting to pick up on these subtle things. Honestly, my social skills have been growing scarily fast.

“Oh, right. Spider-san, would you like some cake too? I made it for Hiyori, but it’s a whole cake.”

“Nngh… I’ll pass… You two enjoy it together…”

“Ah, right, you’re a carnivore.”

She glanced at Hiyori and modestly declined. A shame. Next time, I’ll make something she can eat too. A meat cake? Or maybe a meat pie.

As Hiyori and I ate the chocolate mousse cake, the topic turned to resurrection magic.

After all, I had died right here, in this very spot by the river, and came back to life in this exact place. I sort of remembered the resurrection spell, but what kind of magic was it, exactly? It wasn’t some pseudo-resurrection like Iruma’s that cancels out and kills you if the magic is dispelled, right?

I brought up this very belated concern, and Hiyori, slicing up the cake with her fork, firmly reassured me “You’ll be fine.”

“You’re fully resurrected. Healing magic works on you, and even if you’re hit by magic-nullification spells, nothing happens. The user of the resurrection magic said they’d resurrected the same person twice before, and it still worked fine.”

“Oh? So I can die as much as I want then?”

“……I know you don’t take your own death very seriously. But I doubt the same goes for me or the Spider Witch.”

“Ah. Sorry about that?”

“Be careful. Also, resurrection magic has its own limitations.”

According to her, resurrection magic has huge mana costs. But transcendents can handle that.

The real problem is the additional cost.

For example:

The self-enhancing vampire spell consumes mana and blood.

The golem spell using pebble-stones consumes gremlins.

And resurrection magic uses… ghost gremlins.

These are large, spiritual gremlins obtained by defeating top-tier ghost-type monsters (usually B-rank or high A-rank) using exorcism magic. Only big ghost gremlins are effective—small ones from minor spirits won’t build enough mana and cause the spell to fail.

Normal gremlins can be farmed using monsters, but ghost-type monsters can’t be domesticated or bred. They only appear naturally in the wild—and even then, big ones are rare.

In other words, my resurrection came at a serious cost.
Sorry for saying, “So I can die all I want!” like an idiot.
Resurrection is expensive.

“So when you said you made a deal to pay a price for learning resurrection magic… you meant you’d deliver ghost gremlins?”

“Uh… not quite…”

I thought I’d figured it out, but Hiyori hesitated.

Wait. What? That’s not it?

Hiyori’s eyes wandered for a moment, then she resigned herself and spoke:

“The resurrection mage is a witch from the Kingdom of Lusy. As payment to learn resurrection magic, I agreed to investigate something called the Quodenents.”

“Say what now?”

“The Kingdom of Lusy is a country that formed in the former Russian territories. It’s a pretty isolated inland nation—population around 600,000, I think… I hadn’t heard of Quodenents until then either…”

The Spider Witch, usually knowledgeable, tried to help but admitted even she didn’t know the term.
Well, then we’re out of luck.

Hiyori, explain!

As both the Spider Witch and I stared at her expectantly, Hiyori sighed and reluctantly continued.

“What I’m about to tell you… don’t go spreading it around, okay?

The Kingdom of Lusy possesses an artifact called Quodenents. Since the Gremlin Disaster, the kingdom has prospered around this object.

In their local language, ‘Quodenents’ means something like ‘magic sword’—but to me, it looked more like a spear or a staff.

It fell from the sky during the Shantak Meteor Shower and embedded itself in the Russian soil.

Quodenents emits an invisible defense field with a radius of about 10 km. Any monster or demon that enters the field is instantly turned to dust—killed by magic means. No exceptions. It even has anti-air capabilities.

Transcendents can enter, so only humans and transcendents live inside the field. No monsters can get in or spawn within it—making it a safe zone.”

“Damn. That’s wild. It’s like a better version of the Octameteorite.”

There was a theory that the Octameteorite had once formed a monster-repelling barrier in Okutama, though it only worked on weak monsters. Fire lizards and Fuyou passed through just fine. So it was effective, but with vague standards.

Still, thanks to that, I hadn’t been attacked by strong monsters during the early Gremlin Disaster and survived.

Quodenents, however, was far stronger and stricter than the Octameteorite. An absolute monster-repelling fortress.

“Yeah. Its defense range is about the same, but you could call it an upgraded version. Quodenents is a state secret. I only found out about it after saving the kingdom from a crisis. But now, this national treasure—the very foundation of their country—has been acting strange for the past few years. Quodenents is built with extremely advanced magic technology. It can’t be analyzed through normal means. So, in exchange for learning resurrection magic, I promised to bring 0933, the genius artisan who deciphered the Demon King Gremlin, to Lusy and have him investigate the cause of the anomaly.”

At that, Hiyori went silent.

So did the Spider Witch and I.

Let me try to sum this up:

Apparently, this Kingdom of Lusy has an artifact that’s like if the Octameteorite and the Demon King Gremlin had a baby—a terrifyingly powerful object.
And as a condition of my resurrection, I now have to go investigate it.

That about right?

I raised my hand and asked:

“Can’t we just have them bring Quodenents over to Okutama? That’d be the easiest, right?”

Even the Demon King Gremlin was delivered and analyzed, so I’d really like to get Quodenentz shipped over too. It’s seriously intriguing.

In response to my question—or rather, my request—Hiyori shook her head.

“It’s impossible. It’s a state secret. And even if we could move it, we can’t. Plus, even if we could move it, we wouldn’t be able to move the 600,000 people protected by Quodenents.”

“Ah…”

Yeah, fair point. If Quodenents could just be mailed to Okutama, the Kingdom of Lusy would lose its protection and everyone would die. Definitely not an option.

As I nodded in understanding, the Spider Witch also raised a foreleg to ask a question.

“Is it really okay to be so relaxed about this? There’s a disturbance happening, right? Shouldn’t we hurry to the Kingdom of Lusy?”

“There’s no precedent for resurrecting a human who’s been dead for 80 years. I negotiated a three-year grace period under the pretense of recovery after resurrection and time to persuade 0933. This disturbance didn’t start yesterday or today. We don’t know the cause, and we don’t know what will happen if it’s left unchecked, but the situation isn’t progressing so rapidly that one or two months will make a difference.”

“I see…”

The Spider Witch nodded in agreement.

Hmm.

From the sound of it, Quodenents is incredibly fascinating, and if it really is a culmination of advanced magical technology, then—just like with the Demon King Gremlin—there’s bound to be tons of tech we can reverse-engineer from it. I definitely want to go investigate.

Fortunately, there’s no need to rush. So, I’ll hang around Tokyo for a while longer, collect everything I can from here, and then let Hiyori figure out a discreet way to get me into the Kingdom of Lusy without running into anyone.

“Okay. I’ll stay in Tokyo for a bit longer, but once I’ve done what I need to do, let’s head to the Kingdom of Lusy.”

“Really? I thought for sure you wouldn’t want to leave Okutama…”

“It’s just a trip, right? It’s not like I’ll never be able to come back, so I don’t mind.”

Hiyori looked relieved at my answer.

I may be a bit of a shut-in, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go out.

I take walks, work in the garden, hike in the mountains, and go fishing.

I even moved from my hometown in Aichi to Okutama on my own, so it’s not like I have an aversion to relocating. I’m totally fine with traveling abroad too—so long as Hiyori can get me there without having to meet anyone.

“So, what exactly is this Quodenents thing? You mentioned it being like a magic sword, or a staff, or a spear. But it’s the pinnacle of magical technology, right?”

Curious, I asked, and Hiyori answered after a moment of recollection.

“If I had to describe it like a staff, then the core and the upper half of the shaft stick out of the ground, while the lower half is embedded in the earth like it’s growing roots. According to local scholars, the shape of the core is… what was it again? Oh, right. A regular 24-cell.”

“What?! A regular 24-cell!? Are you serious!?”

Hearing that absurd term, I jerked back in shock.

That’s a four-dimensional geometric structure, isn’t it!?

Come on! What is going on here!?

A four-dimensional structure!?

The Demon King Gremlin was three-dimensional!

Does that mean Quodenents is literally on a higher dimensional level than the Demon King Gremlin!?

“That’s insane. I’m starting to doubt I can even analyze it…”

“It’s that complicated? But if you can’t analyze it, I doubt anyone else could.”

“Well… actually, yeah, probably not. I guess that means I have to be the one to do it.”

I always thought the Demon King Gremlin was the pinnacle of magic technology, but I guess there’s always something greater.

Now I’m even more excited to go to the Kingdom of Lusy.

But first, I need to lay a solid foundation. If Quodenents is based on higher-level tech than the Demon King Gremlin, then I probably won’t be able to even touch it until I’ve fully disassembled the Gremlin.

Man, the world really is vast.

I think I finally understand how other craftsmen, engineers, and scholars must feel when they get overwhelmed by 0933’s super-tech. This is what that feels like.

But I’m annoyed at being overwhelmed, so I’m gonna mess with Mr. Yamagami to blow off some steam.

I’ll send him my new geometric gremlin model—the Sierpinski Icosahedron. Last time, he collapsed just from getting five fractal dodecahedrons. This time, I’m aiming for a blackout.

Quodenents blows my mind. I’ll blow his. Perfect.

Alright, let’s do this!

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