Chapter 373

An altar that can control Jiangshis?

Ruber continued speaking quietly in a pleasantly low voice, just as he always did when explaining something to me. While the child’s eyelashes fluttered softly, my gaze lingered on his neat brow for a long time.

“You know when we entered the hall where that altar was, there was blood spread underneath it and various magic circles everywhere, right. Among them, two or more were similar to the ones engraved on the bodies of the monsters that had been turned into Jiangshis.”

“…Ah.”

When I look at a monster, I search for and examine the engagement distance according to its size, its attack method, and the optimal cutting point to neutralize it.

It meant that in the meantime, Ruben had examined and memorized the shapes of pictures or letters engraved on the flesh of the monsters. I knew the child’s field of vision was wide, but I marveled once again.

“But, how could you, when Ruben is not even a mage.”

“If I were a mage, I would have also known what function each magic circle performs. I just memorized the shape itself entirely. With the thought of asking Lady Philodendron later.”

“Are there no mages in Yulan?”

“There are mages, of course. But… there are no black mages. For one, black magic is also a lost magic…”

I understood the latter words the child hid.

Right now, the Empire was confronting and in the midst of battle with black mages.

Even black mages whose identities are clear are in the midst of being careful to avoid the Empire’s suspicion. If it were a mage who had never acquainted themselves with us, it was even more natural that they would try to hide it even if they knew something. Most of the mages dispatched to this Yulan would be like that.

My gaze touched the corners of Ruben’s bitterly smiling mouth again. Looking into the child’s deep, black eyes, I asked again.

“…Yes, so?”

“We saw incomplete Jiangshis and freshly made Jiangshis in that hall, and at the same time that hall collapsed, the Jiangshis that attacked the Grimsvein Duchy lost their power, didn’t they? I think that suspicious altar was the control stick itself.”

“…Mm.”

“The source of the ninth god is a human, isn’t it? Let’s assume the altar can be restored even if it collapses. The God of the Sun told us to kill all thirty black mages, but even though we killed four of them, an unusual event, a phenomenon of Mana movement caused by divine power, did not occur.”

“Yes.”

“So I think one of the black mages who succeeded in escaping must be harboring the god’s source. For example… that black mage who was said to be unable to keep his senses. The God of the Sun doesn’t know the names of those who don’t believe in him, right? So wasn’t it that he didn’t know who among them was the source?”

It was a plausible hypothesis.

Whether Ruben was trying to give me enough time to think, he waited quietly holding his breath. Wanting to hear the next words, I pulled the child’s hand.

“Then now we…”

“It is right that matters of gods must be asked of a god. If my expectation is correct, it seems Miss Philodendron will be at the holy site of the Sun right now. Wouldn’t Miss Philodendron converse with the God of the Sun separately, organize the answers, and send them to us?”

“…How do you know that?”

“Right after parting with the God of the Sun, Miss Philodendron went all the way to that cave while planting magic stones, right. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] In an emergency situation, nothing catches the eye as fast as one’s own Mana. And if she went out following the magic stones, she would have reached the God of the Sun’s domain, where she can receive the God of the Sun’s help, within a week.”

“…Mm.”

“Probably by now, isn’t she expecting that we have arrived in Yulan too?”

I didn’t know Ruben trusted Marianne this much.

Right, if they properly moved only the distance the God of the Sun could move… That would be so. Thinking of Marianne swaggering and boisterously boasting about the things she had accomplished, I felt proud and satisfied in advance. It was funny and cute, so I let out a small laugh.

At that time, the child swept and stroked my hair.

I knew Ruber was sitting on the edge of the bed, but I only noticed just now that he had approached this closely.

He swept the bangs that should rightfully be scattered over my forehead completely back with his hand comb. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] I stayed still thinking he was checking my temperature. However, something… isn’t it suspicious? The child’s hand crossed my forehead and temple and grasped my cheek, I stopped laughing without realizing it.

Ruben was quiet, not continuing his next words. I was blankly watching the child’s black eyes sink even blacker. The moment the child opened those pretty lips part to say something, closed them tightly, and swallowed his saliva.

I couldn’t hold back and raised my body.

“…Qi Cultivation.”

“…Huh?”

“I must do Qi Cultivation. That, it is a sound argument that the body becomes robust when Mana gathers, and we can’t just let time flow vainly like this either, and also.”

“…Ah.”

“Because I think it will heal faster then.”

Even I know my voice is faster than usual.

Ruben’s face slowly turned red. Both of the child’s cheeks heated up red like apples first, and his nape ripened blood-red enough to be peeked at all the way inside the shirt that wasn’t deeply cut. I felt that if I kept looking at that sight, I would cause a big accident not once, but twice.

When I hurriedly went down below the bed and sat, Ruben also looked at such a me for a moment and moved to the desk.

Even after sitting cross-legged, the child’s gaze was touching my cheek. I spent a long time again on catching my breath. It was fortunate there was plenty of time. Letting the scratch, scratch sound of the pen flow past the back of my ears, I barely managed to catch my breath and catch it again.

I desperately hoped the Ranunculus we sent flying yesterday would come a bit more hurriedly.

******

I did Qi Cultivation, had a meal, did Qi Cultivation, and had a meal.

After eating dinner, I requested that lying down immediately after eating was uncomfortable, so I could sit facing the child on the sofa. On the table, there were two pieces of cake topped to the fullest with a sweet, yellow fruit said to only grow in Yulan. The white cream and sweet fruit matched exceedingly well, making my tongue delighted.

Ruben brought up as a topic of conversation the stories he had asked around and heard while I was doing Qi Cultivation.

“It is natural, but… there are no stories at all about Yulan’s divine relic being lost or anything like that. Because the story that only divine blood can handle divine relics is told here and there… If a rumor circulated that the divine relic was lost, the foundation of the kingdom would be shaken.”

“Mm.”

“But it also doesn’t seem like the God of the Sun would have lied with the divine relic, so I looked up Yulan’s sea legends and whether there were any bad rumors circulating in Yulan’s sea over the recent 10 years.”

“Sea’s… rumors?”

“Ung, the Cieron Empire obtained a divine relic that can control Mana density because it’s directly bearing the Unique Mountain Range, right. Then I thought perhaps Yulan’s divine relic helped govern the sea.”

Although I thought we had to find the divine relic, I was someone who had never thought in the same way as Ruben. It was just purely fascinating. I, who had thought that since Ruben is a Prince of the Empire, wouldn’t anything work out if we just barged into the royal palace and brought up the story of the divine relic, felt like an absent-minded fool.

Regardless of what I was thinking, the child continued to explain for me in a calm tone.

“So I looked into it, and from about 3 years ago, the number of ships getting stranded in Yulan’s sea has increased, they say.”

“…Is that a strange thing?”

“It’s strange. The continent looks like this, right.”

Ruben roughly drew a picture on the table with his index finger. The continent had an appearance making one wonder if it would look like this if the character for human (人) was inflated very thickly. Or it also looked like the bottom of a rounded triangle was pressed tightly with a finger and crumpled. Once upon a time, there was also a time this continent looked like a butterfly…

The left side is the Saturn Desert, and the right side is the Cieron Empire. Between them are the five kingdoms… The most bottom tightly pressed part was the Indus Gulf. Ruben drew a line down the eastern and western seas with both index fingers, clashed them in the middle, and moved both fingers as if pushing them inside the triangle he had drawn.

“The ocean current starting from the East Sea moves westward like this, and the ocean current starting from the West Sea moves eastward like this. Because the two ocean currents clash right below the Indus Gulf and their forces are offset, the waves coming inside the Indus Gulf are low and not threatening. Because the fish driven in from both ocean currents are always in a form trapped in the fishing grounds, the catch is also abundant.”

“Mm.”

“Moreover, there are no reefs in the Indus Gulf either. It is only fine sand and mud. Regarding this, the people of Yulan say they have received the blessing of the Saras River.”

“The blessing of the Saras River?”

“The God of the River, I mean. It is said to be a gift given for humans by that god who loves tranquility and peace.”

The first goddess was said to be in the Demonic Realm beyond the Unique Mountain Range right now to stop the ninth god.

The God of the Sun, the second god, is being terribly anxious in the Saturn Desert, and the third god, Oasis, chased after the first goddess and went up to the Demonic Realm.

The fourth god, the God of Records and Lakes, was said to be wandering around the human realm.

Then is the God of the River the fifth, or the sixth?

Ruben gave me enough time to think, then continued his explanation in a calm tone.

“Because launching a ship is relatively tricky in the East Sea and South Sea, I heard that even in the Cieron Empire, most large-sized ocean fish are caught and brought from the Indus Gulf. Because the East Sea’s waves are too high, and the South Sea has too many reefs and islands.”

“…I heard they launch ships in the Valentia Duchy as well.”

“Because the Valentia Duchy also includes the islands of the South Sea, that is natural. It’s a bit different from Yulan’s case. In Yulan, if you’re over fifteen, you launch even a small boat you made yourself.”

“…Hmm.”

“So the people of Yulan think the stranded ships were bewitched by mermaids, they say?”

“…Mermaids?”

The heroes in the fairy tales of the Cieron Empire climbed the Unique Mountain Range and saved the world. It was because the Cieron Empire bore the Unique Mountain Range on its head. The Empire’s people believed there were dragons in the Unique Mountain Range, and wanted a hero to dispatch the monsters coming down from the Unique Mountain Range.

And in the land of Yulan, since ancient times, there were many stories about heroes exploring across the sea. The heroes of Yulan would kill monsters that crawled up from inside the sea, or cross the sea and receive a mermaid’s help, or find treasures from an enchanting palace located deep inside the sea.

Didn’t Marianne also chatter excitedly upon hearing rumors about different races in the land of Owen in the past?

The most commonly appearing different races in the continent’s fairy tales were dragons, elves, dwarves, and mermaids.

Then… What does it mean we should do now?

Truly fortunately, there was no need for me to agonize over this matter anymore.

“So I decided to first check how many are claiming to be bewitched by mermaids, and how many stranded ships there are in total, and in what direction they continued according to chronological order. It’s just a hypothesis, but because you never know.”

“…Mm.”

“So tomorrow I’m planning to meet a merchant from the Empire who is said to be active in Yulan’s capital. Of course, the informants of the Imperial Nobility Almanac have a good knack for secretly collecting information, but…”

“They would only be interested in the trends of the nobles.”

“Probably.”

Ruber put the cup down again, a bitter smile was steeped on the child’s face.

It was like that in Owen too. While the informants of the Imperial Nobility Almanac acted extremely sensitive and delicate toward the daily lives and relationship diagrams of nobles, they were neglectful regarding information about mercenaries or commoners. It was due to the limitation of that information collection method. The more I experienced matters, the more frustrating I considered it.

“It just so happens Baron Bikoff contacted me first saying he had content he wanted to inform me of. Since he would be spending time closer to the fishermen of Yulan, I want to hear the word of mouth among the commoners of Yulan.”

“May I be together with you too?”

“Ung. Since there won’t be a need to pull out your sword, let’s go together. Still… You must always pay attention and be careful.”

“Yes, I will do so.”

We arranged the bed and lay down side by side.

Saying he was afraid he might perchance touch my arm while he was sleeping, the child lay on my right side and invited sleep. I thought ‘Isn’t this a matter where we can just use separate beds?’, but not wanting to scratch and make a sore (make a fuss), I just let him be.