Huge Holy 31 (Patreon)

31 - That's theft, isn't it?

RAW

He must have figured it out because of my magic.
While sitting down, Heinz timidly asks, “Are you Josiah...?”
For the time being, I see that the familiar spirit's first aid is over, so I send a familiar spirit to contact the hospital.
The corpses of the surrounding monsters were disposed of with a purification type Holy that was incorporated into the wand after I scattered some medicinal herb powder.

Then, I told him.

“Let's withdraw. I will notify the guild to process this quest as a failure.”

“Wait!”

Heinz, a red-haired man of medium build, with a fine, well-built body for a farmer, tried to stand up while using his weapon, a hoe, as a support, when he did, he wobbled greatly.
I caught Heinz with my Shield which I made softer
Is he unaware of this or does he mistakenly believe that he has recovered with [Heal]?
I'm not certain, but I told him clearly.

“You are bleeding considerably from your earlier wounds… you're currently in a state of anemia. I've judged that it's impossible to conquer the dungeon as it is.”

“I can do it somehow with that much recovery...!”

“I am not a healer, but a magician. What I did now was as much as first aid as I could provide. Please receive a diagnosis from a fire-element healer.”

“...Failed. Just let my old man know that we failed and see what’d happen! It won’t end with just a joke!! I won’t be the only one, you will get it too.”

Either I was feeling high because I found a wand that has good compatibility with me, or I couldn't control my irritation because I was in high spirits, I let out my true thoughts.

“We’re all responsible, both you and I, and while we’re at it let’s also add Christoph, who was asked by your father to take care of you.”

“Wha!? I haven't heard of that from my father or Christoph――”

“In the first place, you're the one who's cocky. Just because you got a little stronger you got full of yourself, so you said you could handle a C-rank by yourself and went ahead of them. That's why you're in this mess. I’ve seen countless people like you with my own eyes, idiots who would die like this, so I know really well. If you keep doing unreasonable things like this, you'll just die.”

Maybe I hit the mark, Heinz, who was about to argue, completely dropped his head in the middle of my talk.
Now that he is quiet, we’ll first go to the hospital.
On the surface, the bleeding has stopped so there's no problem, but I can't treat fire-element magic circuits or transfuse fire-element blood.
I carried Heinz on a stretcher made of [Shield].
When I told the receptionist at the hospital that I was the one who had contacted them in advance by using a familiar spirit, they seemed to have made preparations quickly and carried  Heinz into the back.

He won’t die. The problem is his personality, or I guess his mind.
Is it the pressure of being a fire-element farmer? I don't think this is a problem for me to step into.
…Aah. I was also agitated, so I spoke harshly.
I'll have to apologize for that one later…

A little later, Christoph and the others rushed into the hospital.
Christoph asks while catching his breath.

“S-sorry! Is Heinz okay!?”

“Yes. He lost a lot of blood, so he is being transfused right now, he will be given a full examination just in case.”

“Aah... I see. I'm worried, so I’ll go and have a little look.”

Sedoor also panicked and said, “Me too,” and followed after Christoph.
Randy was the only one with a face that looked like it said ‘it’s troublesome’ as he sat down on a nearby seat since he was tired from running.

“Aa―ah. Right when I was looking forward to the dungeon, but now it's ruined… Eh, old man!　What's that, did you buy a wand?”

The topic was unrelated to the worry toward his friend, so I grimaced at that, but I reluctantly answered.

“Because I got a wand that is compatible with me at a low price… more importantly, aren't you going to Heinz… Hankstein-sama's place?”

I intended to implicitly tell him to “Go there,” but Randy casually says.

“Because if the one who went in to save him was the old man, then there's nothing to worry about! Right?”

He was a carefree guy, I thought, and when I looked out the window, it was already dark.
This is bad. Soon it will be time for dinner and the study session at the lodging. I told Randy, “I'll go back and report first,” and left.

When I returned to the guild, for some reason, there were a lot of people.
There was a group of several straight-laced elves who wear armor only for the upper body, as well as residents and guild employees nearby.
Just when I was about to feel stress thinking about what they want now, the elf saw me and raised his voice, “Ah.”

“It’s you isn’t it, the magician who bought the Herkovara wand. I'll take care of it for you.”

“Haa? It's a wand that I purchased properly (from the scammer), you know.”

“Herkovara has the property of sucking up the owner's magical power if you accidentally use magic or channel magical power. It's not usually used as weapons, but for shackles and cages for criminals.”

“Haa, of course I know about it. Even now, I'm constantly channeling non-aggressive [Holy] on it, so there's no problem though...?”

The elf was about to say ‘what are you talking about’ with a surprised expression on his face, but a different elf woman spoke with a stronger tone.

“E, even if you’re fine! If someone else accidentally uses it, how will you take responsibility!?”

“Haa? You mean if a third party uses my wand without my permission? I mean, that's theft, isn’t it? If they were in danger because of that… isn’t that what they deserved?”

“That’s… true, but.”

“This time, the whole country should know what Herkovara is because of the incident about Herkovara weapons. If so, that’s even more reason why no one would be stupid enough to steal my wand and use it.”

For the time being, just possessing Herkovara is not a crime, and there is no problem even if it is used as a weapon.
The elves are stopping me probably because they want to eliminate the uncertainty.
…But more importantly, these guys. That group of elves, are they soldiers? or maybe knights? I don't know.
By any chance, are they E Kingdom’s?
Lastly, I made an important point.

“I think all elves know about this. A wand that blooms the [Wand Flower] has the property of tracing their owner’s magic power and going towards them.”

The resigned elf let out a sigh.

“I guess so... but we can't really ignore it.... We’ll visit again at a later date.”

The group of elves returned with an atmosphere of ‘we have no choice.’
Later, I heard from others that they were dispatched from E Kingdom, and that they were the ones who dealt with the fraudulent dealer.

I vaguely suspected it but, it turns out W Country is a colony of E Kingdom after all.
E Kingdom doesn't want to change their custom, but if they neglect their alliances with other countries, they will be left behind by the surrounding, by the times.
That’s what W Country is for.
Through W Country, they conduct exchanges, friendship, trade, and information gathering with other countries.
W Country is effectively under the control of E Kingdom behind the scenes.

After the preparations for dinner and the study session, which has become my daily routine these days, is finished, I start drawing new technique formulas into the grimoire in my room.
What I'm working on now is a [Training Grimoire], completed by utilizing some of the technique formulas of the familiar spirit spell.
This thing randomly spawns various dummies (familiar spirit) for training. You can decide the difficulty level by using the dungeon rank, and you can set the time and speed at which dummies appear.
Let's use this at tomorrow's study session.

After that――is the Herkovara wand in the center of the room in a mysterious state of floating vertically.
The principle on how it floats is... is it balanced by emitting a weak Holy from the wand flower?
By the way, even now, I'm still constantly pouring [Holy] to it through a magic circle, but there's no problem at all. In A Empire, I was constantly pouring more magic power than this every day for 24 hours. It's not painful

Even so, what should I do… about the wand?
The wand’s shape has changed somehow, making it easy for me to hold and use, but is this what they call the growth of the wand?
Since I hadn’t used a wand for a long time, I was worried about how to use it.

For the time being, I guess I should sleep today…

And after a long time, I had that dream.

――――

Previous | Next