Water Magician

Chapter 697 : That Name Is…

Chapter 0697 That Name Is…

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

“Right now, the villagers are all on edge. My apologies.”

The village chief bowed his head.

“On edge?”

In situations like this, the negotiator was Abel.

“Tomorrow, all the men in the village are planning to go hunting.”

“Hunting? So the target is troublesome?”

“Yes. After all, it is a salamander.”

“A salamander!”

Abel and Ryo raised their voices in unison.

Abel was stunned.

Ryo was overjoyed.

Of course, Ryo did not know the salamander monster in detail.

It had not been listed in the “Monster Encyclopedia 101” that Michael (pseudonym) had prepared for him.

But according to Earth’s fantasy knowledge, salamanders breathe fire and live near magma.

A very famous fantasy creature.

And in this ‘Phi’, it was probably a fire-attribute monster.

Up to now, he had never even seen a fire-attribute monster.

No, come to think of it, he had seen a red bear in the Western Countries.

Even so, that was probably just a sudden mutation or a special individual.

But a salamander was supposed to be a fire-attribute monster as a species.

There was no way he would not feel elated hearing about a monster like that!

After that, the village chief was called away by villagers and stepped out.

Naturally, that left time for the two of them to talk alone.

“Abel, it’s a salamander, a salamander!”

Ryo was excited.

“You know about salamanders, Ryo?”

“Of course. It’s a fire-attribute monster, right?”

“That much is true... but where did you see one? They are monsters that do not exist in the Central Countries.”

“Huh? Really? Ah, so that is why I have never seen one.”

“How can you say you know it when you have never even seen one...”

Ryo insisted that he knew it.

Abel had absolutely no idea why.

“Then do you know about them, Abel?”

“No. I know nothing except the name.”

Abel stated flatly that he was ignorant.

His attitude was almost refreshing.

“Abel, you said you were a former A-rank adventurer, but maybe you actually bought that A-rank class with money?”

“As if!”

Ryo looked at Abel with a suspicious gaze, and Abel shot back in a small but sharp voice.

“Yet you do not know about the famous salamander, do you?”

“Famous? I think in the Central Countries, most adventurers only know the name.”

“Just because you don’t know it yourself...”

“Then how much do you know about salamanders, Ryo?”

Abel asked.

“Thank you for asking. A salamander is a fire-attribute monster, and it is supposed to live near lava and things like that.”

“...supposed to?”

“I think its appearance is something like a wyvern, or a big lizard or newt.”

“...I think?”

“It uses extremely high-temperature fire magic. That much is certain.”

“That is all you are certain about?”

“What is that tone supposed to mean? I gave you more detailed information than you did!”

“It is all just speculation, though, right?”

“Grrr...”

Abel shrugged, and Ryo frowned.

In the end, both Ryo and Abel had no reliable information about salamanders.

While they were having that conversation, the village chief returned.

Ryo decided to show how different he was from Abel.

“I have a question for you, Village Chief.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“The reason the villagers are trying to hunt the salamander is that the village was attacked by one, right?”

“H-how did you know that...?”

The village chief was surprised by Ryo’s question.

In response, Ryo gave Abel a smug look.

Was this what one called a triumphant look?

“...Why are you looking at me?”

“I was showing you the difference between Abel and me.”

The fact that he said something like that made Ryo rather straightforward.

“Actually, a salamander came by the other day... and the fields to the south burned down.”

“Oh dear...”

“The southern fields had only just been planted, so the damage was small. However, the grains in the northern fields will be ready for harvest in a month. If it comes back before then and burns everything... the village will be finished.”

The village chief explained the situation, his face twisted with worry.

“Is there no other village or town around here?”

“Yes. The nearest town... Kokori, to the west, is about three days away by carriage. Long ago, there was conflict in that town... and the losers of that conflict were us, who moved here thirty years ago.”

In response to Abel’s question, the village chief explained with a bitter smile.

“So you cannot ask the town for help?”

“Yes. Merchant caravans come here, so I suppose you could say trade is taking place. But no one from the village has set foot in the town for the past thirty years. Perhaps the people involved in that conflict have all passed away by now, or perhaps they have let bygones be bygones...”

“I see.”

After saying that, Abel glanced at Ryo.

Ryo silently nodded.

Seeing that, Abel continued.

“Depending on the conditions, we could exterminate the salamander for you.”

“Eh!”

The village chief was shocked by Abel’s words.

“Earlier, the five men who came to greet us did not look like they were used to fighting. Their weapons were just sharpened wooden sticks, too. If you cannot expect reinforcements, then... you will probably be wiped out.”

The village chief asked, eyes wide open.

“Th-then... what are your conditions? As you can see, this is not a particularly wealthy village...”

“No, I am not asking for money or anything like that. If we hunt the salamander, we want all of its skin and meat, including the magic stone. How about that?”

“Th-that is enough?”

The village chief was astonished by Abel’s proposal.

In practice, the village would give up nothing.

They were saying all they had to do was defeat a troublesome monster and let Abel and co take the corpse away.

“My companion and I have never seen a salamander either. In the sense that it is also a chance to gain adventuring experience, it is not a bad deal.”

When Abel said that, Ryo nodded with a smile as well.

They would help people, and their intellectual curiosity would be satisfied.

There was nothing better than that.

“Then, please take care of it for us.”

And so, the agreement was made.

“Before actually going out to hunt it, there are a few things I want to know.”

“Yes, ask anything you like.”

At Abel’s words, the village chief nodded and answered.

“Was the salamander originally living nearby?”

“Yes. There is a cave about two kilometers south of the village. There had been rumors that monsters lived in the depths of that cave ever since we first moved here.”

“And yet you built a village here?”

“Yes. That monster... after a while, it was confirmed to be a salamander, but that salamander never came out of the cave. More importantly, this place has a large patch of medicinal herbs to the north.”

“That is useful for trade through merchant caravans.”

“Exactly as you say. We can be self-sufficient for much of our food, but salt and the like are another matter.”

There is a reason villages are built far from towns.

There is a reason that particular location is chosen.

But this time, that balance had been broken.

“So this is the first time the salamander has come out of the cave?”

“To be precise, it is the second time. The first time was about three or four months ago, I believe. It came out of the cave for the first time then.”

“And what did it do then?”

“It stayed near the cave entrance the whole time... but a few weeks later, a traveling woman came from the east. The moment it saw her, it attacked.”

“A traveling woman...”

“From the east...”

At the village chief’s explanation, Abel and Ryo muttered to themselves.

In both of their minds, the woman named ‘Marie’ appeared.

At the same time, they both realized why a salamander that had not come out for thirty years had suddenly left the cave, and why it had attacked the woman.

(When the “invisible wall” was opened, the salamander became active? Or angry? Either way, that must be the cause.)

Ryo shook his head slightly in his mind.

“And... what happened to the woman who was attacked?”

“Yes. To be honest, I saw the scene from a distance as well, and when the salamander leapt at her, she cut it down in a single stroke with her sword... it seemed the salamander suffered a fairly deep wound. The woman then left toward the west.”

“...She wounded the salamander? And then left without delivering the finishing blow?”

“Yes.”

Abel frowned and asked, and the village chief nodded.

“A wounded monster becomes more ferocious.”

Abel forced the words out with a sigh.

“A race of humans that wounded it... or beings that merely look human. It would harbor resentment against them. The reason it has come out again now is probably that its wounds have healed. But its grudge has not disappeared. If it had been an adventurer, they would certainly have finished it off...”

“She was not an adventurer, after all.”

At Abel’s words, Ryo shook his head slightly.

That’s right—Marie was a general of the Phantomkin.

“You two know that woman?”

“We know of her, but...”

“I fought her a little while back.”

In response to the village chief’s question, Abel answered in the affirmative, and Ryo clearly stated that she was not an ally of theirs.

“So we understand the first attack. What about the second?”

“It was four days ago. Since the first attack, we had been keeping watch on the cave entrance, and then it came out. It was slow, but it came straight toward the village... We had no choice but to meet it outside the southern fields. However, we could not stop it... and in the end, three villagers died.”

“How did you drive it back then?”

“We could not drive it back. But when it started to rain, it ran back to the cave.”

“Rain...”

Abel nodded slightly.

If it were a fire-attribute monster, it would not be hard to imagine that it would dislike water.

Thinking that way, Ryo, a water-attribute magician, seemed like a perfect fit for this request.

“It was shortly before the second attack. A merchant caravan came by, and they brought some troubling news.”

“Troubling news?”

“Yes. Around the town of Kokori too, monsters had become more active... or rather, more ferocious. Monsters that had never come out from deep in the forest were now coming close to the town, and they were attacking people more often.”

“For the past three or four months?”

“Yes. Just like the salamander.”

The village chief said that and sighed.

Even if the matter with Marie had not happened, perhaps the salamander and the village were destined to clash sooner or later.

To be sure, it was Marie who opened the invisible wall, but it had already been said to be quite close to breaking down.

If it had eventually collapsed, something like this would have happened anyway...

“So the fact that we passed through here at this time was, in a sense, lucky?”

“That is the only way to think of it.”

Abel seemed to have given up on many things and shrugged, and Ryo likewise shrugged and agreed.

Things made by human hands will eventually break.

Perhaps even alchemy could not avoid that.

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