Chapter 276 - 276. Neffie and the Demon's Mythology
The thicket rustled loudly. Before the warning cries could rise, Fam and Mizuki swiftly drew their swords. With them stepping forward without hesitation, Mash and Maira readied their weapons and moved to guard the rear. The creature that emerged was a giant beast, at least twice human size, covered in thick fur.
"A bear?" Mash wondered aloud.
The roar shook the entire forest and the beast bared its fangs, charging down the mountain path on all fours. Its shoulders and forelegs were like massive boulders, accelerating with earth-splitting force. It closed in on Mizuki at an unbelievable speed. Mizuki lowered her stance and thrust her shield forward, gripping her sword against the shield in an attempt to pierce the monster through the opening. However, just as the two clashed, the beast suddenly changed direction and charged at Fam.
"Kyaa!" Fam cried out in surprise, twisting her body, but she couldn't avoid it and tumbled into the bushes.
"Fam!" Mash called out.
"I-I'm alright!" she replied, though struggling to her feet.
"A monster, huh… Maira, help Fam; I'll support Mizuki!" Mash ordered.
"Got it. According to my information, some bear monsters can use magic, so be careful!" Maira reminded him before rushing off.
Catching her movement in the corner of his eye, Mash turned to charge towards Mizuki at the front lines. Just then, Neffie reached out and stopped him.
"I'll go. Mash, guard the rear."
"But you're a mage, aren't you?" Mash asked.
She presented a staff slightly taller than herself. Rotating the staff that bore a dull metallic sheen and striking it to the ground, she continued, "Is this a… staff-spear?" Mash asked, surprised. Neffie chuckled and sprinted towards the beast.
"I thought you were a mage."
"…Didn't you look at her status card?" Marmie said with a sidelong glance at Mash.
"I only ever get mysterious people joining me, you know." Mash muttered while looking at Neffie's back, to which the blue-haired girl shifted her gaze towards him to ask, "Because it's mysterious, they won't show you?"
While Mash and Marmie carried on their easygoing conversation, Mizuki and the monster had already begun their battle. The beast stood on two legs, swinging its log-like arms, their ends adorned with black, gleaming claws. Each swing was powerful enough to incapacitate, but Mizuki dodged them with light steps. She seized the openings and thrust, but her attacks couldn't land effective blows on the monster’s thick, dark fur. Marmie was waiting for an opening to unleash her magic when the beast, sensing her plan, kept the distance.
Then, Neffie joined the fight, aiming her staff at the beast’s eyes and positioning herself opposite Mizuki. She managed to draw its attention, and the monster halted its relentless assault on Mizuki and pulled back. Marmie seized the opportunity, unleashing a fireball. But at the same time, the beast roared and fired rocks. The two magical attacks collided, creating a loud explosion with sparks scattering in all directions. Using the shockwave as cover, the monster regained its quadrupedal stance and charged at Neffie. With graceful footwork, she easily dodged the attack. However, the beast immediately turned and tried to ram into Neffie again with its massive frame. Neffie evaded the attack skillfully, almost as if she were dancing.
The beast tried to change direction again, but its movements were slowing. Mash noticed that countless thorn-like protrusions of earth had risen from the ground around Neffie and the beast. Its limbs were wounded from stepping on them.
"Earth magic…?" Mash muttered, his voice almost overcoming by the beast's growl.
"Guaaaah!" The beast roared, firing rocks from its mouth once more. Neffie swiftly sidestepped the attack and thrust again at the beast.
"Mizuki!"
"Leave it to me!" she replied sharply. Mizuki swiftly moved behind the beast, her sword at the ready. Her eyes burned with red light. As she swung, the beast vanished.
Fam only suffered minor scratches from the fall. As Mash brushed off the fallen leaves and dirt from her clothes, Neffie approached with a magic seed.
"How's the profit distribution from Levante?" she asked.
"Half and half."
"So Mash doesn't take all of it?" Neffie paused mid-stroke as she dusted Fam's clothes, her hand stopping mid-air.
"What do you take me for?"
"Well, I don’t mind if you’re going to do that."
She placed the magic seed on Mash's hand.
"More importantly, will you show me your status card?"
She nodded, not showing any resistance as she opened her status card. Party Name: Levante, Adventurer Rank: A, Name: Neffie, Social Status: Commoner, First Job: Mage, First Job Level: 35, Race: Demon, Age: 23.
"A-rank...?!"
"What’s so surprising? You have two isekai’d adventurers in your group, so it’s that easy to reach that point, right?"
Mash looked away at her words. He had cleared up to the fourth or fifth layer of the Crystal Palace, so he must have surpassed the B-rank qualification line. However, to reach A-rank, he would have to conquer the 60th floor of the dungeon. He wasn't planning on risking his life for a rank, but it was embarrassing when asked about it with such a matter-of-fact tone.
"I prefer C-rank..." Mash mumbled weakly. Only Mizuki gave him an unreadable look. Returning his gaze to Neffie's status card, Maira leaned in to peek at it.
"Is her second job staff-user?" Maira asked, prompting Neffie to fully reveal her stats. She didn't seem to have a Special Skill, but her second job, boxer, was level 20.
"So it’s not staff-user," Maira said. It was peculiar that she mentioned staff-user when imagining a different kind of staff. As Mash pondered, Fam started staring intently at him, so he cleared his throat in a panic to change the subject.
"Do you guysreally plan on joining us?"
"Well, no matter how many times I affirm it, you males don’t seem to believe me…"
Her shoulders sagged slightly as she said that. Mash's hand instinctively reached towards her chest. Wrapped in loose robes, her body lines were difficult to discern, but during the earlier battle, her slender legs had been visible as she moved. The moment his hand brushed against her, a soft, almost melting texture conveyed through his palm. Her size was slightly smaller than Mizuki’s, and the elasticity or firmness was less pronounced, but it held a certain... mature comfort—an indescribable softness that was both gentle and clinging.
"H-hey… Seriously? You said you were ready, but not here…"
She pulled her waist back slightly and widened her eyes with a confused expression, but didn't pull away from Mash.
"Neffie, how many men have you shown these…"
Just as Mash reached for her waist and tried to pull her closer, Mizuki whacked him in the back of the head from behind.
"Idiot, what do you plan to do in a place like this?"
"Ack! Oh, right. I guess I lost myself in how convenient this was developing… Maybe I should calm down by groping Mizuki’s chest first."
Mizuki pushed his face away and shoved him back the moment he approached.
"What were you even thinking?!"
She sighed.
"Mizuki, you can't talk either, right? I heard you were a top student at school, verdad?" Mash asked expectantly.
"Hm? What does that mean?" Mizuki blinked.
"Neffie fights smart, right? You just fight like a brute, verdad. So I'll just have to grope you to loosen you up!"
"Mmm~, you're right, but wouldn't punching me be faster in my case?" Mizuki smirked, forming a fist and clenching it in her other hand.
Arriving at a place with monster-deterrent pillars, the group finished their camp preparations. While the sun was still high, they couldn't push Marmie too hard as she was still getting used to the mountain roads. Furthermore, the timing of the monster-deterrent pillars was not particularly convenient. Deciding to prepare the storage's rations for dinner, Mash made omelets with mushroom dashi to lift Fam's spirits, but she didn't produce any shiitake. Her face looked smug, but she still seemed unhappy.
Thinking they had plenty of time, the sunset painted the world by the time dinner preparations were complete.
"Going back to what you said earlier…" Mash slurped the oatmeal-like soup mixture Mizuki had made.
"Earlier?" Mizuki asked, looking at him.
"Neffie mentioned Okita Souji. Is that monster still in the mountain where Fam used to live?" Mash wondered aloud, glancing at Fam.
Summarizing the legends Maira had heard from the people of Migul and Fam, Okita Souji fought bravely but died of his injuries, but the rest of the story was unclear. Considering that Fam’s ancestors, the dog-eared people, later settled in the mountain, the monster must have either died or been defeated by someone.
"I think the guardian deity worshipped in Fam's village is him. He's somehow sealed, but someone must fall ill in return."
Fam, who had been silently devouring the omelet, looked up at Mash’s words. According to Neffie, Okita Souji died in battle with a demon in the mountains. But Fam said the demon was actually the God of the End, and Okita Souji died of illness. Granted, the legend of Okita Souji included not only the hero of the dog-eared race, but also the founder of Migul. It was impossible to know what had happened or how, but the sword kept in the Migul government building was proof that he existed. That sword was the same one that Akizuki Uta, the hero who had defeated the Demon King, held, and that Racshell had given to Mizuki.
"Master. As I said before, the guardian deity is not Okita Souji who fought the God of the End. I was told the name of the God of the End by the guardian deity, and told to defeat it."
Come to think of it, she had a tendency to consider Mash as the God of the End. She hadn’t answered his questioning back then, but did she still think that way?
"So, whether the monster is really the God of the End is unknown, but it's still alive. Yet Fam's ancestors started living in the place where that God of the End resided."
Mash turned to Maira, who stopped her spoon and looked up at the sky. The surroundings were dusky except for the area illuminated by the bonfire, but the sky still retained the brightness of the sunset.
"If I remember correctly, the Five Pillars of Genesis' victory over the Five Goddesses resulted in the Five Pillars being defeated and expelled from this world, and the God of the End weakened to the point of being unable to return to the divine realm. That place where Fam lived is… uh…"
"The Land of Beginning and End. That's not it. That place is far to the east of the Demon Kingdom's capital. The God of the End is still believed to be hiding somewhere on earth. So, it’s possible that Okita Souji fought the real God of the End… but…"
Maira also didn't believe that the one that had been hiding in the mountain where Fam lived was the God of the End.
"Speaking of which, I heard that demons worship the God of the End. Does Neffie worship the God of the End too?"
Neffie nodded at Mash's question.
"Yes. But that doesn't mean I reject the worship of the Fifty Gods or the Five Pillars of Genesis. You can think of that as the same as ordinary demons."
She smiled as she gazed at the bonfire. But she was the first demon Mash had ever met. Mash couldn't understand the standard of demons. Lost in such thoughts, Maira stopped eating. Before she could say anything, Neffie spoke again.
"In our demon philosophy, the God of the End is considered to have come from the same other world as the isekai'd adventurers. Adventurers bring in various concepts to this world. For example, the status card you saw earlier."
"The status card?" Mizuki asked before Mash could.
"Yes. Jobs are the same. They are thought to have been born from divine power."
"The status card and jobs didn't exist in the past either?"
"That's what I've heard."
Neffie slurped the soup and wiped the soup from her mouth with her fingers. The tip of her tongue seemed strangely alluring.
"More, have you never heard Marina or other elves tell you about that kind of change?"
Mash asked, thinking that the elves, being long-lived, might know about such changes. But she held the soup bowl and started ladling it without hesitation. Her eyes were slightly open.
"… I have heard that both the status card and the job were concepts that did not exist in this world. But I don't know if the isekai'd adventurers brought them."
"That's right. Both the status card and the jobs were given to us by the Fifty Gods."
Maira interjected, continuing Marmie's words.
"I feel bad asking someone who serves the Church, but Maira, how much of the Church's teachings do you really believe in?"
Maira stared back at Mash.
"I want to continue traveling with Mash to find that out. Everything starts now."
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