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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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“There won’t be any more rampaging wolves from now on.”
Mr. Cliche, who had been eating breakfast, briefly had a dazed expression before his face brightened up.
“Really? Did you take care of all those bastards?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you. Really, thank you so much.”
Mr. Cliche continued to express his gratitude for quite a while after that. Valian nodded vaguely and headed towards Auntie Ransia’s inn. He was tired of pretending to be a drunkard who couldn’t even get drunk, so he planned to pack his belongings and leave. Auntie Ransia handed Valian two bottles of honey wine.
“You said you didn’t need any gold coins, right? Then take these at least. They’re well-aged, so the taste won’t be bad.”
He put them in his bag. It seemed like they would be good to drink alone later. However, Feyna was waiting for him at the inn.
“…Did that guy beg for his life?”
“Ah, yes. He cried and begged pathetically to be spared. It was an ugly sight.”
Valian answered, but he didn’t look at her face. Feyna watched Valian put the bottles in his bag and tighten the strap. After a brief silence, she nodded her head.
“Thank you. Kun will be able to rest in peace too.”
Well, the lunatic might just cry himself to death instead. Since he’s still alive, should Valian tell her to go find him? As he had this dreadful thought, Valian slung his bag over his shoulder and spoke to her.
“Live well.”
“…Goodbye.”
The last time their eyes met, Feyna’s eyes were dry and devoid of any moisture, both literally and emotionally. That sight left a small impression on Valian. A very small one, small enough that he would forget about her the moment she passed by. Whether she would move on and forget her ex-lover or hold on to him until her death was up to her. Valian didn’t care.
He walked out of the village with heavy steps. The villagers beginning their daily routines looked at Valian passing by. Most of them just glanced at him, but someone spoke to him.
“Hey there, you’re the one who said you’d hunt down the werewolves, right? Are you going hunting now?”
“I already caught them.”
Valian lightly answered the man’s question as he passed by him. The man stood there dazed for a moment, not understanding, before saying to Valian’s back:
“Really? You really caught them?”
Valian didn’t answer and left the village. The man also didn’t bother to stop Valian and get an answer.
In front of Valian stretched a vast wheat field. The forest where he had caught the werewolves was on the opposite side of the village. The wheat was ripening and turning a dusky shade.
The sun rising in the east scattered fleeting golden light, and the things on the ground kept reflecting the fading sunlight. Valian suddenly stopped and recalled the sunset he had seen in Noiphe.
The sight of the city bathed in a reddish glow. It was quite a contrast—the red city and the golden wheat field. And to Valian, those scenes seemed to protest that they were not fake landscapes of a false world. That there were no counterfeits anywhere here. That all these things were not just clumps of polygons made up of a few gigabytes.
“…So where should I go next?”
If he came down a bit from Noiphe in the northeast, there was this Black Tree Village. This world was vast, and there was an overflow of lands Valian had not seen yet. He didn’t know whether that was fortunate or unfortunate. In the original world, he didn’t really travel much, but in this land, he was a wanderer.
“Valian!”
Then someone came running and called out to Valian. It was Mr. Cliche when Valian turned around.
“What is it?”
Standing in front of Valian, Mr. Cliche caught his breath while panting, then shouted:
“We need your help, Valian!”
“What kind of help?”
Mr. Cliche’s expression had turned ghastly pale.
“There’s a monster rampaging in the church right now! Several people have already been injured!”
His expression was so urgent, and since people had been hurt, Valian ran with him for the time being. When they arrived, the situation seemed odd.
The villagers were surrounding the entrance of the church, and several people with minor injuries to their heads or arms were sitting off to one side. To Valian, their injuries didn’t seem too serious. Why are they making such a fuss over this?
The people were peering into the church in front of the door and murmuring, but they fell silent when Valian arrived. Valian glanced at Mr. Cliche before approaching the wide-open church entrance. As he neared, the people stepped back a bit, creating some space. Feyna was among them. Like the others, she looked at Valian with caution, yet relief that someone had arrived to resolve the situation.
Valian surveyed the interior of the church to see what kind of monster could cause such a commotion.
The situation inside the church was also odd. A middle-aged man, apparently a priest, was sitting with his back against the wall, clutching his bleeding abdomen.
And a youth, maybe in his early twenties, was glaring at Valian as he entered the church. Lastly, the monster—it was shaped like a goblin that had been enlarged about ten times.
Its face was clearly that of the mole demon Valian knew, but its body resembled the green giant from comics in the original world. It was slightly taller than Valian, with exaggerated, twitching muscles that could only be described as overstated. What the hell is this?
“Don’t come any closer!”
At the youth’s shout, the giant goblin also let out a guttural roar. Damn, the face is definitely a goblin’s. When Valian turned around, Mr. Cliche and Auntie Ransia were making fighting poses with raised fists.
In truth, Valian had no reason to fight that monster. The villagers weren’t offering him anything to do so, and the giant goblin wasn’t chasing him, determined to kill him. Under such circumstances, drawing his sword would have made him look rather foolish.
But Valian unsheathed his sword nonetheless. The relic longsword smoothly slid out with a metallic sound, revealing its white blade. Mysterious characters in the middle exuded an air of presence. He gripped the sword tightly with both hands. The leather grip, whatever kind it was, hadn’t frayed at all over the long years. He just liked the feeling of it wrapping snugly around his entire hand.
Valian said, “The first time you defeat a new type of enemy, you get bonus experience.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
The puzzled voice came from the gloomy-looking youth. He had dark shadows under his eyes, and his unkempt, long hair covered much of his face. His downturned mouth looked disgruntled. In his hand was a short wand with a purple crystal at the tip, emitting an ominous mist like the youth’s gloomy face.
“Shit, whatever, you’re that barbarian then? The one who spent the whole week just drinking, but managed to hunt down the werewolves in a single night?”
Valian nodded. But the youth sneered as he spoke.
“What bullshit. Fucking hell. You took down that monster? A lone human? Without even being a mage, just a sword-swinger? You scammer, I might have believed you if you’d at least lost an arm or something. But you came back without a single scratch? You think that’s even possible? A legendary warrior who single-handedly slayed an evil demon? Scammer, you’re done for.”
While his barrage of insults was uncalled for, his next action posed a real threat. When he pointed his amethyst wand at Valian, the giant goblin charged with a roar.
Its steps shook the wooden floor, splintering it with every powerful stride as it rushed forward. Its hands were outstretched as if to tear Valian apart. Bloodlust filled its crimson eyes.
But to Valian, its movements were too slow and simple. So he just raised his sword and then brought it down in a single stroke, cleaving the goblin’s head and upper body in half.
Thud. The once rampaging goblin fell forward, dead. Valian sheathed his sword, and the gloomy youth was dumbfounded.
“Wha… What happened? Is that… really it?”
Valian approached the youth with heavy steps. He wasn’t in a good mood. He didn’t get much bonus experience for a new type of enemy.
As expected, a goblin was still a goblin. But to his credit, the youth immediately started chanting a spell. He muttered rapidly in a low voice, then aimed his wand at Valian again. In an instant, an immense force assailed Valian from all directions—front, back, left, and right. A force that would have petrified an ordinary human like a statue.
But Valian simply brushed it off like swatting away an insect and grabbed the youth by the collar, lifting him up. The youth had been grinning confidently, but now he let out a choked sound as he was seized.
“Impossible, you dispelled my spell with brute force?”
The strained sound of his voice was pitiful—not Valian’s impression, but Iziniki’s thought.
Valian considered snapping the youth’s neck then and there, but since no one seemed seriously injured—Priest Iziniki’s wound also didn’t look too bad up close—killing him would be excessive. So instead, he slapped the youth across the face with his palm.
Even though it was just a light slap by Valian’s standards, his strength was at a destructive level. The youth’s cheek split open in an instant, and several of his teeth scattered across the floor. He was almost knocked unconscious by that one blow, dribbling blood-mixed saliva and letting out pained groans. Valian said:
“Well, want to call me a scammer again?”
“Ugghh…”
“What was that? You want me to finish you off, you piece of shit?”
Valian raised his hand again. The youth trembled violently, clearly terrified. Seeing his pitiful state, the seated Priest Iziniki spoke up.
“That’s enough, please. If you go any further, Miller might die, both physically and mentally.”
“Didn’t this guy stab you?”
Iziniki nodded, then clasped his hands in prayer. A faint light emanated around his abdominal wound, and the bleeding stopped. Valian was slightly surprised. It had been a long time since he’d seen a priest capable of healing prayers.
“You have quite the skill. So he stabbed you over that?”
“No, I didn’t let myself get stabbed intentionally. I was just trying to calm him down when he got agitated. But the result was about the same in the end.”
“You’re quite composed. Then could you explain the situation here to me?”
“…So you just barged in and killed the monster without even knowing what was going on?”
“Well, the people said it was dangerous, and it was a new kind of monster that piqued my curiosity.”
“So when you see an intriguing new monster for the first time, you just split its head open and see what happens?”
“That’s how I usually handle most of them.”
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