Volume 2, Epilogue 1.3
Volume 2, Epilogue 1.3
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
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「Ye done talkin’?」
Once they had reached a reasonable decision, a reasonably handsome middle-aged elf cut into their conversation. He looked as if he had been drinking.
「Pretty much. What’s up?」
「Nah, I’m just here cause I heard that girl over there’s good at singin’, eh.」
「Ah, want me to sing something?」
「It’s alright with ye, eh?」
「Of course.」
Responding to the elf’s request, she stood in front of the biggest fire there, which was intended to be a substitute for a stage. Haruna already had an aura that mercilessly sucked in all who were around her, which was all it took to gather the attention of everyone at the venue.
「I got a request, so if it’s all right, I would like to sing several songs from my hometown.」
She told everyone beforehand, starting out with two songs of a solemn, but not quite somber nature. The songs were sung in a melody reminiscent of an Okinawan musical scale, with lyrics like “Smile or cry all you want, but one day flowers will bloom” or “Dear Spring, far away”. You could feel the beauty of the Japanese language in the songs she sang.
Haruna, who had been singing those two songs in acapella, succeeded beyond her wildest expectations at firmly grasping the hearts of the audience. Now, it would have been splendid had she continued on this route, but when it was time for the third song, she suddenly changed the direction of her music. Perhaps it would be best to give her the award of “The Girl Who Betrays Expectations”.
「Hey lady! Sing that one song I like!」
「Kaaay!」
Haruna decided to listen to a request, so for the third song, she began singing a popular song among the forest giants about a woodcutter. However, it turned out to also be well-recepted by the elves, fairies, and goblins, which convinced Haruna to enter into a series of dances while singing slightly modified lyrics.
For example, one song was about someone who hated the countryside and left for Tokyo to raise cattle. Haruna changed vocabulary words like television or cars into more suitable words for this world, much like how she changed Tokyo to Wulls. Her singing resounded through the area as she continued to sing of an apple farmer who called out to his lover to come back. There were also songs about cute grandchildren, passionate female stories about overcoming difficulties, and so on.
「Yer songs’re inferior to them fairy songs, but I gotta admit that them human songs be not too bad.」
「Well, I wouldn’t assume that all human songs are like that if I were you……」
「Nay, don’t misunderstand. Cause no matter what, fairy songs be the best. I ain’t sayin’ dat yer songs be SUPER good.」
「C’mon, you don’t have to act all tsundere about music too……」
Makoto made a grimace at these fairies, who always behaved like stereotypical tsunderes and spoke with heavy accents. These 60 centimeter tall adult fairies flew around with fairy wings (no better word to describe it really) and hummed the ballads, only to turn red and begin speaking in a thick tsundere accent whenever someone spotted them, hiding their embarrassment. Honestly, even though she knew full well by now what kind of race they were, she did not know how to react to that sight.
However, it went without saying that the biggest concern was the fact that an attractive, voluptuous western-looking girl was singing ballads loudly.
「Ah, looks like she shifted routes.」
「But even if she’s no longer singing ballads, it still feels like…y’know……」
Haruna had now begun singing a song from a skit about how fun it is to draw the ghost leg lottery (renowned for being one of the funniest comedy shows). Even though she appeared to be occasionally playing the straight man, it was evident that her role as the fool was more fitting, observed Tatsuya and Makoto. And in that fashion, the lively banquet continued to go on.
「You’re really okay with this?」
「Aye, we are in yer debt. Plus the security be nice and tight, so there won’t be any weird things happening.」
The next day. Receiving permission from the chief, Hiroshi and the others remodeled the shed that had been used to erect the transportation circle, beginning with making sure that it was off-limits to the majority of people. As the chief and Archem widened their eyes at how heavy the security was, Hiroshi got right to burning the transportation circle into the ground, transmitting mana into it and returning to the workshop in Wulls before everyone else.
『Test, test, mic test. Can ya hear me?』
『Test, test. Can you hear us? You’re coming through loud and clear.』
After an hour or so, a transmission had come to them from Hiroshi, who had returned to the workshop. This wasn’t the game world, after all. The distance between Wulls and the border of the elf village was too far for transmissions, which was why Hiroshi had to go to the trouble of making a specialized communication device. Incidentally, Haruna was usually the one to whom these sorts of items were entrusted. It was no understatement that Hiroshi had been with her the longest.
『Loud and clear over here too. I’m all ready to connect over here, but are ya cool with that?』
『Wait a moment, I need to confirm that.』
After Hiroshi had spoken, she began the final confirmation.
「Says he’s ready and just needs to connect. Can we do that now?」
「Wait a sec. I need to check just to make sure.」
Receiving the message from Haruna, Mio checked once more to make sure that everything was ready. Now, it wasn’t like the place would explode or anything if they messed up, but going back and forth between Wulls and Ortem via transportation stone was simply unbearable in every sense of the word. They really just wanted to get this out of the way.
「Kay. No defects in the circle. Mana status favorable.」
「Confirming one more time, is it okay to connect now?」
「Mhm. No problem.」
The chief, supported by Archem and standing upright (which still was quite the feat) kept a serious expression on their face and nodded. Now that the chief had given the ok, Haruna confirmed once more with Hiroshi.
『Says it’s okay to connect.』
『Roger. I’mma connect right away, so git away from there just an itty bit.』
『Kaaay.』
Telling everyone Hiroshi’s directions, she made sure they all stepped a sufficient amount of distance away from the transportation circle, watching as it changed.
After about 15 seconds from contacting Hiroshi, the circle began to shine, and after about 30 seconds, mana was emitted from the six mana crystals that had been set up as an assist system. The ring of light spread out, as if deciding on the range of the transportation, and once it had gotten to a certain point, this time it stretched to the ceiling. After a minute, the string of events had ended, prompting the rising of a symbol-like pattern in the air.
「Seems like the connection’s been established.」
「Wow, I thought it’d take longer.」
Haruna conveyed the feelings of everyone present. But it was perfectly reasonable to be dumbfounded at just how short a period of time it took to make this crucial item.
「This was only possible because of the sheer volume of your mana, Sensei.」
「Ya think?」
「Normally, even setting everything up takes more than an entire day even with three people.」
「Ah, that right……」
Hiroshi was not the type of man who typically used mana for anything other than making things, so you might not think it, but Hiroshi’s mana was greater than even Barold’s, who was able to destroy Wulls at the snap of a finger. The ability point for knowledge wasn’t as high as the attribute for mind, so his attack power was only in the lower percent of the upper class, but when you considered the fact that he couldn’t use anything other than crafting or lifestyle magic, his mana count was absurdly high.
Furthermore, the Knowledge stat in game terms closely resembled the Sense stat. In other words, rather than judging whether one is smart or not so smart or one’s ability to study or lack thereof, it was a stat that determined whether your senses were keen or dull, whether you could comprehend things with intuition or not. If this particular stat was high, then not only would one’s magical attack power rise; various hints would emerge here and there, much like Sense. So the difference between Knowledge and Sense was comparable to the difference between reason and instinct.
「So you can use it now, right?」
「I can.」
「Ah, but wait a moment. Hiroshi-kun says he’s coming back here for a test.」
And just as Haruna finished that sentence, the transportation circle glowed, revealing Hiroshi.
「Alright, looks like that there transportation test’s a big hit.」
「Still, you don’t have to suddenly go through the test yourself. Just throw a small object or something.」
「Nah, that’s a drag. We good like this.」
Immediately brushing aside Makoto’s warning, Hiroshi muttered something in a low voice as he approached the transmitter. Right after that, the transportation circle started glowing again, and this time Teres and Nora appeared.
「Wow, we can actually get from one side to the other……」
「I know I should not be surprised by how quickly the Boss Man works, but still, I feel like the mood has been ruined……」
Upon walking out of the circle, the two of them immediately began saying their rude thoughts as they looked around the perimeter. When the chief and Archem saw just how unappreciative Teres was of being able to finally return, they simply gaped and could not recover. As soon as her eyes met theirs, Teres gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. After an awkward silence, she coughed in order to break said silence and turned to face the chief who she had not seen for two years.
「Well, it has been some time since I last saw you.」
「I-Indeed. I am glad to see that yer alive and well.」
「You too, Archem. Have you gotten better at speaking Farlanish?」
「Well yes, at least to where I don’t sound painful to hear……」
「Mm. Yeah, I can’t hear any accent.」
Teres was the best doctor not only of Ortem, but of the entire elf race. And yet, for some reason, her return felt like something shoddy.
Also, digressing a bit…
「……I sense that Deary has returned to Wulls……」
Riding in a stagecoach bound for Darl, the former assassin’s wild intuition was at work as she murmured that comment. But that is just between us.