Side Story 3: Visiting a Remote Island 10

We continued our investigation of the haunt with Ouna, who was all smiles after receiving the Gold Tortoise defeated by Fran. Her steps seemed so light that she might start skipping at any moment.

She initially gave me the impression of a grumpy old woman, but she turned out to be pretty easy to talk to.

Fran seemed to be wondering why Ouna wanted some strange metal over a giant lump of meat, so she voiced her curiosity.

「Ouna, what are you using that turtle for?」

「Well, it’s a large one, so I think I’ll forge a greatsword. It’s been a while, so my skills will get rusty if I don’t make a proper weapon every now and then.」

「…? You mean you’re going to make a sword yourself?」

「Indeed.」

『Huh? So you’re a blacksmith?』

「I am.」

Surprisingly, she turned out to be a blacksmith. And if she possessed the ability to work with Gold Tortoise materials, then she must be very skilled.

『Could it be that you forged Senbonwan yourself?』

「…I did.」

If so, then “skilled” doesn’t even begin to describe her. She could casually forge a magic sword and consider godsmiths as rivals. I have no doubt that she’s comparable to or possibly even better than Garrus.

That might also explain her dislike of divine swords. Even I must admit that the divine swords are more than a little unfair.

「Well now, I suppose that’s enough small talk.」

「Nn.」

「Arf.」

Our party fell quiet and stopped walking. There was an entity up ahead radiating powerful mana. Most likely an earth dragon.

「I don’t sense evil energy.」

「Woof.」

「I can tell the difference from the earth dragon I cut down earlier. This one has yet to be corrupted by evil energy.」

「Nn.」

After that, we concealed our presence and explored the deep layer of the haunt. Fran and Urushi had always been good at stealth, but Ouna turned out to be pretty impressive as well, especially now that we knew she was a blacksmith.

Apparently, the pitch-black katana “Ananri” in her left hand could be used to enhance her skill in stealth. What’s more, it was another of her creations.

We continued the investigation without being discovered by the earth dragons. However, there was no sign of the contamination’s source.

I thought the deep layer was the most suspicious, but it seemed to be the exact opposite. There was no evil energy in here at all. The earth dragons, plants, and everything else was living just fine in the dense mana environment.

In other words, the earth dragon slain by Ouna was simply a juvenile that happened to wander into the contaminated middle layer and got corrupted by the evil energy there.

Since medicinal herbs were in short supply, I also gathered a bunch throughout our investigation. Rengill will definitely pay us a lot for these.

In the end, we found nothing noteworthy in the deep layer. And after returning to the middle layer, the contaminated plants showed up everywhere again.

『It’s getting pretty late, so maybe we should… Huh? There’s someone over there.』

「I sense evil energy coming from them.」

「Woof!」

Our investigation made little progress for an entire day, then we found something strange right before sunset.

There was a very faint presence that clearly came from a human rather than a monster. Must be someone with stealth skills or using a magic tool for concealment. But the big problem was the traces of evil energy coming from them.

Fran and Ouna quickly washed down the onigiri they’d been munching on with water, then approached the mysterious person. Apparently, the guy hadn’t noticed us at all. We found a man walking through the forest with his back to us. He looked defenseless.

And by defenseless, I mean completely defenseless. His footwork was full of openings, so I could tell immediately that he wasn’t strong. Probably around Rank F by adventurer standards. Barely more capable than an amateur.

Normally, someone at that level would never make it to the middle layer of this Rank A Haunt. As expected, he must be using some sort of magic tool for concealment. Probably the effect of his boots?

The evil energy was clearly leaking out of the big wooden box strapped to his back. That’s not solid proof of his relationship to the incident, but it sure looks really suspicious!

And so…

「Hey. What are you doing here?」

「You certainly seem to be acting awfully sneaky.」

「Grrr.」

Fran and Ouna simply spoke to the man. Rather than wasting time with tricks, they figured it was faster to just interrogate him directly.

The man suddenly found himself surrounded and slammed by the intimidation of three powerhouses.

I’d feel a bit sorry for him if he turns out to be completely innocent, but he’s the one acting suspicious during an emergency. That’s on him.

「Wha…?! Y-You can see me?!」

「Nn.」

「That level of stealth is meaningless against us.」

「Woof!」

「So what are you doing? This place is dangerous. You shouldn’t be here.」

「Oh, um… it’s for work.」

Fran’s questions caused the man’s eyes to swim. As if he couldn’t get more suspicious.

「What work? There’s evil energy coming from the box on your back. You’re really suspicious.」

「W-Well, that’s because I came to gather herbs contaminated with evil energy. There are people interested in researching them, you see.」

『He’s lying.』

「Nn. Did you cause the situation here?」

「O-Of course not!」

『There we go. Another lie.』

Practically everything he said was a lie, so there’s no longer any room for doubt. That means we’re safe to use tortur—I mean, more forceful methods of interrogation.

However, the guy turned out to be extremely tight-lipped despite being so weak. No matter how much pain we put him through, he refused to admit responsibility. On the contrary, he only returned a crazed glare.

「I-I will never… betray my comrades…! All is for the sake of our noble cause!」

He is some sort of fanatic or something? Violence might not be enough to make him talk.

As we pondered our next move, Ouna took something out. It was an ominous-looking dagger with a gaudy pink hilt.

「What’s that?」

「Just watch. Ensnare him, Tsutsumotase1.』」

That’s an awful name for a weapon! But its powers were monstrous. After getting stabbed in the stomach, the man immediately started gazing at Ouna with longing and adoration.

「Well, do you feel like talking now?」

「Yeah, I’ll say anything you want… But first, can you heal my wound?」

「I’ll heal you after you tell me everything.」

「Then I guess I have no choice but to come clean…」

Apparently, it inflicted a charm effect on people cut by it. The man became astonishingly cooperative despite having just gotten stabbed. What a terrifying dagger.

Translation Notes

  1. Meanings for the sword names:

    • Senbonwan = Thousand Arms (usually referring to the Buddha)
    • Ananri = Secrecy
    • Tsutsumotase = Honey Trap

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