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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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After finishing my daily training routine, I returned to the cabin. For some reason, Master who usually came out to greet me was nowhere to be seen.
Though I had told her not to bother coming out to meet me, now that she wasn’t here it felt empty. Human duality was truly contradictory like that.
“Master?”
After entering the cabin and quickly washing up, I knocked on Master’s door. Hearing what sounded like murmuring from inside, I opened the door and went in.
The moment I entered, I noticed some strange sand-like substance scattered all over the floor. Looking closer, it wasn’t sand but ashes.
“What’s this… did you burn something in here?”
“Nooo… Johan, sorry but… can we skip breakfast today…”
“What were you doing all night…”
“Hehe, it’s a secreeet-”
Master said this and promptly passed out. After examining her face for a moment, I noticed dark circles had formed under her eyes.
Though it seemed unbelievable that a witch could end up in such a state overnight, I didn’t think much of it and went to get a broom and dustpan from storage.
After neatly cleaning up the ashes from the floor, I scattered them in the vegetable garden. I remembered hearing on YouTube that spreading ashes from burned things helps crops grow better.
Having dealt with the ashes, I skipped breakfast lightly and considered what to do.
“Great- Master’s sleeping… and since Miss Marguerite will be sleeping too─ shall I go a bit far today?”
I looked toward the back of the cabin. The place Master had insisted was dangerous and absolutely forbidden─ where I had first been summoned when I fell into this world.
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The girl playing with dolls noticed the link with her doll had been severed and traced back the broken connection.
The moment she discovered the severed connection’s owner was a vampire, a monster that even witches couldn’t easily kill─ the girl raised the corners of her mouth in a deep smile.
“I wonder how it died. Maybe it ran into a witch with bad compatibility, or might have been ambushed by human armies!
Yes, Master. That bat, being stupid, could have done something like that!
Hey! Eli! How dare you insult your friend? Keep that up and you’ll be punished!?
I-I’m sorry, Master…”
The girl let her imagination run wild while conversing alone with the doll on her hand. Though she was curious what had happened to the vampire, there was no need to risk checking personally.
She possessed magic that made such risks unnecessary. With a swish, the girl threw the polar bear doll she had been talking with, and after confirming it had become a bipedal polar bear, gave a light command.
“Now then, go check─ what happened there.”
The doll moved immediately according to her will.
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High.
High and far.
Only after starting to climb did I realize just how difficult mountains were to ascend.
It hadn’t seemed this hard going down─ but somehow this cursed mountain drained my stamina with every step up.
‘No, am I sick or something…’
I wondered if I had altitude sickness, but the possibility was extremely low. Though this mountain was tall, it wasn’t that tall, and I hadn’t even been climbing for 30 minutes yet.
Therefore, it was wise to assume there was some other reason the mountain was so difficult to climb. That something here was draining stamina and mana.
However, given that Master hadn’t bothered removing the cause, it was safe to assume I had no way of finding and removing it myself.
Just as I was thinking I should stop wasting energy and head back down, I very unfortunately lost my footing and fell.
“Ugh-!”
The slope was steeper than expected, and I tumbled toward the ground without any chance to react.
Since none of Instructor Ludwig’s taught techniques covered how to handle rolling down a mountain, all I could do was protect my head with my arms and try to avoid head injuries.
While rolling for what felt like forever, I suddenly felt a powerful impact against my back that knocked the breath out of me.
“Guhk!”
Finally my tumbling body came to a stop, and I realized I had collided with a massive tree.
When I shakily stood up, my entire body ached from rolling down the slope countless times.
This, something was definitely broken. I could sense it instinctively.
‘I’m really fucked…’
I was certain Master would be furious. Even I would act the same if someone went somewhere they were told not to go without saying anything and came back injured.
But I couldn’t exactly not tell Master either, so I sighed heavily while looking around.
Trying to head back to the cabin, I finally noticed one problem.
“Where am I?”
Having rolled down from partway up the mountain, I had no idea where the cabin was.
I could determine my current location using Boy Scout survival techniques learned in childhood. By calculating the sun’s position now versus what I’d seen from the cabin earlier, along with the angle between sun and mountain…
I was either to the left or right of the cabin.
‘Really fucking screwed.’
I didn’t doubt that Master would find me. I was wearing the necklace she had made me, which had her magic cast directly on it.
It wouldn’t be difficult for Master to locate me by sensing her magic, and she also had Marguerite who could spatial travel at her side, so they could quickly come rescue me once they realized I was missing.
Yes, that was the problem.
‘Until lunch… at least four hours left…’
Master had fallen asleep complaining of fatigue for some reason.
She’d said to wake her at lunch at the earliest.
I had left the cabin without telling Marguerite where I was going. With her curse making her invisible to others, she had no way of waking Master.
I had to survive in these treacherous mountains for four hours.
In an extremely dangerous place where who knew what monsters might dwell.
“Fuck.”
I was stranded.
Please save me.
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Slap!
After some time passed, the real Johan regained his senses by striking his cheek with his palm.
Getting excited was absolutely forbidden in such extreme situations. Hadn’t the famous Bear Grylls said that excitement and anxiety were emotions that ate away at oneself?
‘Right, who am I? A modern person with cheat powers who fell into another world. The genius who taught atomic theory to witches!’
After this self-affirmation, Johan moved forward proudly yet cautiously. If he found footprints or droppings on the ground, he went around them widely.
Whether thanks to his careful movements or thanks to Evangeline’s necklace─ he hadn’t encountered a single monster yet.
‘That’s actually cause for concern…’
Evangeline’s necklace was an item that made monsters avoid it by radiating a threatening aura, not something that prevented encounters with monsters entirely.
In fact, when Evangeline had blown away part of the forest with her nuclear explosion, monsters with less to eat had attacked Johan.
That’s why he needed to be even more careful. If a monster came after him despite having such a necklace, it meant the monster was confident in its abilities─ and was likely a beast that could easily tear apart someone like Johan.
‘Please don’t meet any, don’t meet any…’
As if betraying Johan’s prayers, he heard rustling around him and carefully gripped the handle of the weapon he had brought.
If he couldn’t avoid it, he would have to fight. And naturally, striking the moment they revealed themselves would be most effective.
However, the other side seemed to realize Johan had noticed their presence, as they stopped approaching and began biding their time.
After a very long standoff, the other side moved first.
“Don’t move─!!”
“Eh, ehh?”
“Drop your weapon! Surrender! My companions have you completely surrounded!”
Johan froze in shock seeing who emerged from the bushes.
It wasn’t fear of the bows they held. Though he had stiffened at their appearance.
‘…Elves?’
Johan’s gaze went to their elongated ears. Then back to their faces.
Faces so refined that the long ears didn’t look strange at all. The faces of elves, commonly revered as the forest people or race of beauty.
Standing there dumbfounded, Johan was quickly subdued by the approaching elves, who then bound him and dragged him into their village.
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“Get in!”
Bang!
Thrown into the prison cell, I rolled across the floor several times before glaring fiercely at the elf who had thrown me.
However, the elf ignored my gaze as if not afraid of a bound and imprisoned human, casually leaving the prison.
Carefully maneuvering into a sitting position, I became lost in thought recalling the elves I had just met.
‘Elves… they were real. But Master said such things didn’t exist…’
This world wasn’t supposed to have other races like elves or dwarves. While there were beasts grown large and powerful from receiving mana, and witches who could use magic, non-human races weren’t supposed to exist.
Yet I had met elves while thinking this.
‘They weren’t fake. That many elves couldn’t all be fake…’
Being dragged to prison, I had seen countless elves. At least several hundred elves.
They couldn’t all be fake. If they were fake, there should have been some sign, but there wasn’t.
However, if they were real then Master’s words about there being no other races would be lies, and I didn’t want to doubt Master.
‘They couldn’t have suddenly appeared in the last few hundred years either…’
As questions kept piling up, the prison door opened again. The elf who had thrown me in here lifted me up and began dragging me somewhere by the rope.
Being dragged like cattle to slaughter, I looked at the elf taking me.
“Excuse me, where are we going?”
“Be quiet.”
“Come on, when someone asks a question you should…”
“Open your mouth without permission once more, and I’ll stab you with this.”
The elf said this while lightly raising the spear in his hand. Even with mana enhancement, getting stabbed by a spear would hurt. Beyond hurt, it could kill.
Following the elf’s advice, I kept my mouth shut and walked slowly. After walking for quite a while, the elf untied my bonds and pushed me into a building.
“Chief, I’ve brought him.”
“Ah, you’ve arrived?”
Inside sat an extremely benevolent-looking lady elf. With an appearance seeming to be in her early thirties, she had the ageless beauty characteristic of elves, along with a voluptuous figure beneath her face.
If this were Earth, many would have rushed forward crying “Mommy─” at her appearance. This elf gestured for me to sit in the chair before her.
“Please, have a seat.”
“Yes…”
“Could you give us some privacy?”
“Understood, Chief. You─ if you try anything strange with the Chief… you won’t get away with it.”
After watching the elf disappear with that warning, I looked at the mommy elf seated before me.
If I had met this elf first instead of Master, I might well have been in her embrace crying “mommy, mommy” by now.
“A pleasure to meet you. I serve as chief of this village.”
“…I’m Johan.”
“You’re human, yes?”
“Yes.”
“We’ve never seen humans before, so we’re quite unsure how to handle this situation.”
The mommy elf spoke about my treatment while caressing her cheek. I was relieved she hadn’t immediately declared she would execute me.
While I was thinking this, the mommy elf extended her hand to me and spoke lightly:
“So… I’ll need to test you.”
“…Test?”
“Yes, I have special magic that lets me know whether someone will harm the village or not.”
“How do you tell if they’re harmful…”
“When I hold their hand, I can see their heart. If they’re good nothing appears, but if there are problems I see a demon’s form.”
Hearing this, I nodded lightly and extended my hand. With magic like that, there was no way I would fail.
After all, I possessed magic nullification.
If good people showed an angel’s form that would be one thing, but nothing appearing? Then I could just secretly nullify the magic.
“Well then, shall we check?”
“…You’re quite bold.”
“Because I have nothing to hide.”
The moment I took her extended hand with a grin, I activated my magic.
And in that instant, the mommy elf’s body burst into white smoke with a poof!
“…Huh?”
Mommy?
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real
System Notification 
Did Johan trigger Mikey’s curse?