Volume 3 - CH 29

Act 3-29: Minstrel 2

「I somehow managed to meet the person I wanted to meet…」

Kuroki heaved a sigh of relief. He had disguised himself as a minstrel to infiltrate Algore in order to meet Omiros. He wanted to know what kind of person Omiros was. He was really relieved upon knowing that Omiros was truly a kind person.

He now knew that he could entrust Regena to him. Thus, he gave him the enchanted shield made by Dario the dwarf.

But of course, not all went according to his plan. He never expected that he would be captured the moment he arrived in Algore. If they had decided to send him over to Shirone and the other girls, he would have probably had to escape right away.

Kuroki touched his broken musical instrument. It was a harp that he used for these sorts of occasions.

「I heard that I could enter this country easily if I’m a minstrel, and yet…」

Kuroki heard from Regena’s wet-nurse that he could enter the country much more easily as a minstrel. Thus he had decided to disguise himself as one when going to Algore. He could’ve of course used his invisibility magic to simplify the process, but he wanted to meet Omiros and understand his personality through an interaction. Omiros’ real personality would’ve been hard to figure out if he had decided to sneak around.

As a result, though he ended up being captured, he achieved his goal to gauge Omiros’ personality. The only thing left was for him to get rid of Goz, who was masquerading as Parsish, and confirm Regena’s will. But, this was easier said than done since Goz was now away, and Shirone and co were always staying by Regena’s side.

（Goz’s aim is most probably to kidnap Regena when Shirone and co’s attention focuses on me. I have to prepare another countermeasure…）

Kuroki was thinking about how to solve the Goz problem. He then started thinking about Kuna.

""

Kuna had left after saying that she would do something about Shirone and the others. Kuroki had no idea where she went, but he somehow had a bad premonition about it. Yet, he felt that the matter between Kuna and Shirone wasn’t something that he could interrupt. He could only prevent the two from going too far, but he was afraid that when that happens he wouldn’t be able to act when Parsish made his move.

If both these things happen at the same time, it would be a disaster, he needed to add an extra layer of protection for Regena, and Omiros was the most suited person to do the job.

Kuroki wanted Regena to forget about the past, settle it, and move on. But, helping from the side was all he could do for her. Thus, he could only entrust the job to Omiros, which is why he gave him the shield.

In the first place, that shield was something he had originally prepared for Regena for when she left. Thus, he didn’t see any problem in entrusting it to Omiros. Moreover, Kuroki was adamant to make sure to remove as many obstacles as possible for the pair.

After much thought, Kuroki started looking at the werewolf, who was chained by his side.

（I heard about this werewolf from the guards’ conversation, but he should be those ogres’ comrade. And, for some unknown reason, the ogres are targeting Shirone and the other girls. I wonder what happened between them?）

The werewolf was bound with numerous chains. The ogres might become an unexpected obstacle for Regena and the others. Thus, Kuroki unfastened the chain around the werewolf’s mouth to make him spit out all the information he knew about the ogres.

「KUHA!! UNTIE ME, NOW!! IN DOING SO, I’LL AT LEAST SPARE YOUR LIFE!!」

The werewolf, who could speak again, was taking deep breaths while ordering Kuroki to free him.

「Eeh, sorry… I only want to know about the ogre called Kujig.」

Kuroki apologized to the werewolf as he asked.

「HAAH! DON’T F*CKING SCREW WITH ME! RELEASE ME, NOW!!!」

And yet, the werewolf ignored Kuroki’s question and tried to force him to untie him.

（I guess he won’t speak if I ask him normally. He said that he would spare my life and yet, he keeps releasing his killing intent toward me. It seems he never had any intention to keep his promise.）

Kuroki heaved a sigh. Gentle methods wouldn’t work on the werewolf.

「I have no other choice I guess…」

Kuroki placed his hand on the werewolf’s head, and invoked a spell.

He actually didn’t wish to use such a forceful method.

Fear magic.

Just like charm magic, it was the type of magic that manipulated the other party’s mind. Those who were exposed to fear magic would feel an indescribable sense of fear toward the caster. Thus, Kuroki left this magic as the last resort. Manipulating someone else’s mind wasn’t a good thing, even if the other party was his opponent.

But depending on the situation, he wouldn’t hesitate to use this hateful magic.

「Y-Y… You… Are…」

The magic was working, resulting in the werewolf to tremble in fear, his eyes and mouth wide open.

「Now, can you first tell me your name?」

「D-… Daigan! O Dreadful One!」

「So, Daigan. Will you pledge your allegiance to me?」

「Y-YEEEEEEEEEEES!!」

「Then, Daigan. You know what you have to te-…」

Just when Kuroki was about to extract the information from Daigan, the door suddenly opened.

「Meals are here.」

A ten year old girl entered the house. The girl was pushing a cart with two plates on it.

「Thank you, little miss.」

Kuroki expressed his gratitude toward the little girl. Yet, he hadn’t fished the information out of Daigan due to her appearance, so he really wished for her to leave as soon as she placed the meal for them.

The meal brought by the girl was bean soup. Lacking the land to cultivate, beans were the only thing that could be grown within the sphere of the fortress, thus becoming a staple food in Algore and many other countries in the world.

Kuroki had eaten such dishes many times before.

The beans of this world had large grains and were easy to cultivate. He even heard that some breeds could grow so high till they reached the cloud.

「Beans again. I actually prefer me–」

Maybe because he had guessed it was bean soup from its smell, but Daigan muttered such a rude remark right in front of the one who brought them food.

Thus, Kuroki glared at Daigan.

「–But forget it, beans are good. I LOVE BEAN DISHES!!」

Daigan, who was scared sh*tless of Kuroki, changed his remark immediately.

「Wolves are carnivores though… how can you say that you love beans?」

The girl said so with a dumbfounded look on her face. Then, she suddenly started sitting down in front of them.

「Eh?」

Kuroki tilted his head in confusion upon seeing her action. The girl was staying inside instead of leaving the house.

「Hey, you’re a minstrel right? Can you sing something?! The song of the minstrel that came before you was interesting. Uncle must have something to sing too, right?!」

The girl was looking at Kuroki with eyes full of expectation.

（Come to think of it, I am masquerading as a minstrel. But, uncle huh… Well, I might look like an uncle from the perspective of a girl as young as her.）

Kuroki was saddened a little bit by the fact that he was called uncle.

A minstrel’s song was a tale of some event that was matched with music. The songs were usually about tales of love, heroes, or the myths of this world.

The only problem was that Kuroki had always gotten extremely low scores in music—he was most probably tone deaf.

「My bad… I can’t sing a song for you right now since my musical instrument was damaged during my journey by monsters.」

Kuroki said so while looking at his broken harp.

Naturally, that was a lie. Even if it wasn’t broken, he would use other lies to not sing. But, he specifically brought a broken harp in order to have a simple cover-up story. Kuroki just needed to show his broken harp if anyone asked him to sing a song.

「E~h, bori~ng! Everyone is so busy and no one wants to play with me… Hey, can you at least tell me a story?」

Kuroki was bewildered by the words spoken by the girl. He actually wanted to put the girl to sleep with magic but he hesitated to use magic on such a young girl.

「Uhm, you’re right… Then, how about I tell you about thunder dragon who lives in the sea of clouds…」

「Sea of clouds? Dragon? What’s that? Tell me please!!」

The girl’s eyes were gleaming.

Before the fiasco in Velos, Kuroki had gone to visit the sea of clouds located in the southeast of Nargol with Kuna. There was land in the sea of clouds with numerous thunder dragons inhabiting it.

Kuroki had received the power of a thunder dragon in that place. As such, he told her his story with a slightly dramatized twist.

「Eh, no way. You received powers from a dragon. That’s so cool!!!」

Naturally, the girl thought that this story of him visiting that place was a lie. In the first place, it wasn’t a place that a normal human could visit. So of course, she understood that this was a made-up story. But, she still decided to enjoy it.

（YEAH!!）

Kuroki made a gut pose in his mind upon seeing the girl enjoying his story. He was proud of himself for managing to cheer her up since she looked so depressed a while ago.

「Tell me more, uncle!」

「Let’s see…」

Just when Kuroki was wondering what tale he should tell her next, Daigan suddenly started to look restless.

「What’s the matter, Werewolf-san?」

The girl asked Daigan.

「This smell! Those ogres are coming!!」

Daigan shouted.

「Come to think of it, there’s a sweet smell…」

「Come to think of it…」

She was right, he did smell a sweet scent since a while ago.

Daigan, who had a sharper sense of smell, detected it before the other two.

（Dammit, I got distracted since she looked like she was really enjoying the stories.）

Kuroki stood up.

He decided to make his move.

◆

「What the heck? There’s a moving castle moving towards our direction.」

Shirone approached the window and looked outside. Since the outside was bright thanks to the cloudless sky, it was possible to see far away. As such, she had spotted something huge approaching under the moonlight.

「Is that the sweet castle?」

Shirone nodded upon hearing Kyouka’s question.

Shirone and co had gotten extremely good eyesight after arriving in this world. The castle was still far away but they still knew it was a castle.

「Maybe that’s ogre Kujig’s castle. Sure enough, according to the story, the wall is made from lebkuchen, the roof is made from all kinds of sweets, and the windows are made from transparent sugar. Though I have no idea about the type of sweets we can find in this world, but those sweets do resemble the ones we have in our world.」

Kaya started to explain. Lebkuchen was a type of cake made with orange & lemon peels, spices, and honey. Shirone had once heard that Kujig would make the lebkuchen in her sweet castle.

「What is that?! Are ants carrying the castle?!」

It was just as Kyouka had said, there were a lot of myrmidons carrying the sweet castle, as if they were carrying a portable shrine.

The sweet castle came until it was close to Algore, and then stopped.

Shirone focused her eyes on it after it came close.

The spire was made from cream, the windows made from various kinds of pastries, the walls made from sweets that resembled the lebkuchen, and various forms of lanterns were lighting the inside of the sweet castle under the moonlight.

Another light appeared from one of the spires. The light distorted and formed some sort of screen.

It was image magic, and that image magic was showing someone’s figure.

Shirone knew the person in that image.

「KUNA-SAMA?!!」

""

Regena, who saw the image just like Shirone and the others, shouted the name of the woman in that image.

Yes, it was just as Regena had said.

The person reflected in the image was the silver-haired girl that Shirone saw back in Velos.

（How did she get into the ogres’ castle? Could it be that she is working together with the ogres?!）

Upon a closer look, Shirone did find the figures of the ogres standing at the edge of the image, which confirmed her suspicion about the silver witch being in cahoot with the ogres.

「GET THE HELL OUT HERE, SHIRONE! FIGHT KUNA! DON’T BLAME KUNA FOR ORDERING THESE ANTS TO DESTROY THAT COUNTRY IF YOU CHICKEN OUT!!」

Kuna challenged Shirone, and just as she said, the myrmidons around the castle were ready to invade the country.

「It’s a challenge for you, Shirone-san.」

Kyouka said as she looked at Shirone.

「Indeed… Well I do want to talk with Kuroki, but I want to talk with that girl too!」

Shirone drew her sword from its scabbard as she declared so.

「It’s way too dangerous to go by yourself, Shirone-sama.」

「DON’T WORRY, KAYA-SAN! I’LL RUN IF THINGS GET TOO DANGEROUS! RATHER THAN THAT, PLEASE HELP ME STOP KUROKI WHEN HE ARRIVES!!」

Kaya failed to stop Shirone who leapt from the window along with those words. She unleashed her wings and flew straight toward the sweet castle.

Seeing that, the myrmidons also unleashed their wings, trying to stop Shirone.

「OUT OF MY WAY!!」

Shirone sent a single slash, bringing down the myrmidons.

「BRING IT ON, SILVER WITCH!!!」

Shirone raised a war cry as she headed straight toward the sweet castle.