Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Three: Mystery in Blue
“Sorry, Rin. Could I take a look at that for a moment?”
“Oh, yes, of course!”
With a slightly tense voice, Mr. Ville reaches out his hand. Unusually, his brow remains furrowed. Well… unlike Gomamiso, Mr. Ville wouldn’t suddenly try to eat this stone or destroy it… And as our party leader, managing loot like this is part of his job, right?!
Ignoring Gomamiso’s resentful gaze and irritably swishing tail, I handed it over without hesitation… though by the time I wondered if it was okay to give him something covered in giant hornet fluids, the blue stone was already in Mr. Ville’s hand.
“It’s a bit sticky, is that okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine…”
When I nervously spoke up, Mr. Ville, undeterred by my hesitation, casually wiped the fluid off the stone with his glove. He also cast a cleaning spell on my hands.
Oh right! Come to think of it, cleaning magic exists! But wait, did he only cast it on my hands? There’s something oddly jarring about the contrast between my now-clean hands and the stone still gleaming wetly with an eerie sheen…
“By the way, aren’t you going to cast magic on the stone? Also, everyone’s staring at it with intense expressions—could this be something significant…?”
“Well… how should I explain this…”
Watching Mr. Ville hold the stone up to Mr. Ed’s light orb, I see that there’s definitely something solemn about the atmosphere… Could this be some kind of cursed stone or something…?
When I nervously asked Mr. Ville, who was scrutinizing the stone from every angle, a growling sound emerged from his throat. His strawberry-colored eyes moved back and forth between the blue stone and me several times…
“This stone is, with about 80% certainty, what we call a ‘magic stone’.”
“A magic… stone?”
“To put it simply, it’s a concentration of magical power…”
Oh! Well, that’s certainly a term you hear a lot in RPG circles! And Mr. Ville’s explanation sounds familiar too! I guess he didn’t cast magic on the stone to avoid adding unnecessary magical power to it.
Still, a concentration of magical power, huh… Thinking back to Gomamiso’s behavior, it did say the stone looked "delicious"… It must be an attractive item for monsters. Maybe it’s like a power-up item that increases abilities when absorbed. And if my theory is correct… the hornet probably grew giant and powered up by absorbing the magic stone, and the bat that ate the hornet was affected by it and grew giant too.
…However, that raises a question…
“Um, Mr. Ville… are magic stones commonly found?”
“No… I’ve heard about them, but this is my first time seeing one.”
“I’ve heard they’re found deep in dungeons or among treasures collected by dragons.”
Right? Such a valuable item wouldn’t just pop up everywhere!
While scratching my head and staring at the actual thing Mr. Ville is holding, based on what he and Mr. Xenon who took over the explanation said, it seems like quite a rare item.
…So why would such a seemingly precious item be here? There don’t seem to be any dungeons around here or dragons… Did a hornet that absorbed a magic stone somewhere else make its nest here? But that hornet… seemed pretty ferocious. If it had absorbed the magic stone from the beginning, it probably would have built its nest near some human village and attacked people frequently…
Maybe it makes more sense if we assume it absorbed a magic stone that accidentally formed in this area?
“I’ve also heard that they tend to form in places where mana easily accumulates…”
“But there aren’t any such places around here, right?”
“Mana-rich spots are like snow drifts… but this area has both rivers and wind. The flow here is too strong for magic stones to form.”
Hmm… from what Mr. Ville and Mr. Xenon are saying, the possibility of a magic stone forming here seems extremely low… Glancing to the side, I see Mr. Ville and Mr. Xenon tilting their heads in thought just like me.
If even the brains of the Gourmands are stumped, this must be quite the puzzle.
…Though, there is something that concerns me…
“…Could this be another effect of the ‘saint summoning’?”
At my murmured words as I picked up Gomamiso, who had seemingly given up and was rubbing against my feet, Mr. Ville and Mr. Xenon turned toward me with incredible speed.
…Well, considering all the inexplicable monster incidents that have been happening, I thought maybe that could be it… I don’t want to think about it either, but…
The atmosphere freezes. Even their red and blue eyes remain wide open as if they have forgotten to blink.
After what feels like an eternity… Mr. Ville finally let out the breath he had been holding. He takes several deep breaths, his red eyes lowered… then lifts his face as he opens them firmly.
“…In any case, we’ve figured out why the bats grew giant, and we prevented any damage from the hornets. Let’s prioritize defeating the giant bats and reporting back to the village.”
“Should we check if anything else was left in the nest before we go deal with the bats?”
Right! I know I’m the one who brought it up, but I think it’s best to deal with the immediate problem first!
Following Mr. Ville, Mr. Xenon, Mr. Ed, and Ms. Aria who have started moving as if to change the mood, I also head toward exploring the nest.
The Translator’s Corner
This is the final chapter on syosetu, T_T. Although the light novel version already has six volumes. But I don’t have them, unfortunately. Anyway, it's time to translate something new. UPDATE: Thanks to a kind reader, I now have the volumes of the Light Novel version. So I'll start translating the LN version soon.
If you need help obtaining digital copies of the LN, you can send me a DM on Discord. Same username.
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