Chapter 661 - Chapter Six: The Wetlands Priestess's Banquet Debut
On the way back, after going out to sea, we headed north and got into the bowl off the coast of Engrio. This was because Yorg-sama wanted to introduce Jeanne of Germania to his parents. For our part, we have no obligation to go that far. Or rather, it would be more complicated if we went. After all, Henry-sama and Eleanor-sama are on board. Since it's a family with ties to the Kingdom of Sertoria, it would be disrespectful to stay hidden in the ship, so we declined, saying we were busy, and parted ways in the middle. Incidentally, Sianya went straight ahead to arrange the bridal training with her family, including Yorg-sama and Jeanne.
When we returned to the farm, it was a banquet for our hard work. Lyudmila also said she had done most of what she had to do, so it was also for that. The Wetlands Priestess, who is in the middle of plotting with the delinquent old people, participated for the first time.
"Um, I came from Primordia. I've become a non-regular member of the Henry Party. Please take care of me."
The Wetlands Priestess gives a solemn self-introduction, perhaps intimidated by the spirits lined up. Fiona, a fellow ghost, is by her side like an attendant. Fiona is a former lady-in-waiting and has also trained under the Queen of the Interstice, so her support at times like this is well-practiced.
When Mel flew over, a pale blue flame flared up for a moment, perhaps due to tension. Being a Priestess, she probably knew immediately who it was.
A wind spirit suddenly flies over and judges her.
"Y-You're a Sylph, right?"
"That's right. My name is Mel."
"I see, Mel-sama?"
"No '-sama' needed. That's how it is here."
"Yes. I understand."
I'm grateful for this kind of explanation. They are ghosts, after all. The humans are also a bit tense.
"Aren't you from the Class of 175?"
"No. I'm with the Henry Party."
"I see. Nice to meet you."
"Yes. Please."
"Another very old one has come. From when?"
This time, she seems to have caught Gnome's interest. If she's caught, there's a high possibility he'll start an argument. It would be a problem if he did that to a first-time participant, so I signaled Salamander and Alex to give a "there, there" and a toast. If she's sandwiched between drinking buddies, she'll eventually collapse and sleep.
"Eh? Ah, yes. It was about a thousand years ago."
"Hmm. You said Primordia. Do you know ○○○○?"
"Ah, yes. I greeted them once. They were a far superior person far removed from me, so that's all."
"I see, then it's fine."
"Yes. I'm sorry."
She seems to have been safely released and flew over here.
"What is this place? The Demon Realm?"
It can't be the Demon Realm. Well, there are demons and monsters, though.
She seems quite surprised. She's sweating a lot.
"This is just how it is here. Because Jeanne is here, after all."
It was Dune this time. As usual, it's not an explanation.
"Nice to meet you."
"Hello—"
Violet and Keira also came. Surrounded by different races, the amount of sweat is increasing even more.
"Sorry, but once the greetings are over, could you make some space?"
Matilda, who couldn't watch any longer, stepped in.
"Since Jeanne brought you, you're already a friend. I'll give you this as a souvenir."
"Ah, I'm sure it's the one Jeanne and Sianya are wearing."
She handed over the Class of 175 brooch. Gratefully, Sianya wears it on her chest when she's in her normal priest robes. Of course, it's impossible when she's in vestments.
"I see. You're free to wear it. Well, if you feel like it."
"Thank you."
As she said that, she immediately put it on her chest. It's in the same position as me and Sianya.
"We're wearing them too. Look, this kind of thing is also good."
It was Henry-sama. The three delinquent old people are wearing them on the hand towels wrapped around their necks. They are matching.
"Ahaha, it's true. But I'm a Priestess, so I'll pass on the hand towel."
Please do. Let's keep these matching. Otherwise, they might eventually be taken over and become the emblem of the Henry Party.
Speaking of ghosts, it's Marcelo-san. Recently, he's been gathering various characteristics of ghosts that Fiona taught him and sending them to the church. Since she's a ghost from a thousand years ago, he seems very interested, and is talking to her about various things while offering her alcohol. As expected of a former priest, he's a good listener. The Priestess seems to be getting into it too, as she's responding with a smile. So, I'll leave the new Priestess to him and decided to proceed with the talk with Eleanor-sama here. The opponents are Serena and Renata.
"When I went to the continent, there were really no forests. They were progressing with felling quite a bit."
I had heard the story before, but this trip to West Liber was the first time I realized it. Serena looked away as if she didn't want to hear.
"And then, I talked with someone from near there..."
It's Yorg-sama's story. If the forests disappear, the magic power also disappears. As a result, magic beasts and spirits disappear. It's a hypothesis.
"That's probably true."
Renata affirmed it easily.
"Is that so?"
It was so easy that even Eleanor-sama was surprised.
"Because, right? Monsters appear in deep forests or caves where magic power accumulates, right? If those kinds of places disappear, monsters will disappear in the first place."
"Spirits too?"
"A place with only fields is hard to live in. They'll probably change their dwelling place."
That's probably true. Even mice aren't that numerous in a town without underground sewers. Basically, they're in the forest.
"What I heard from Gnome is as I told you before. There's a large swell of magic power once every two thousand years, and a small swell once every thousand years. When I asked Serena before, she said she didn't feel any particular change from a thousand years ago to the present, but is it just a matter of the dwelling place?"
"I think it's not a problem for us spirits, but a problem for you humans."
Serena's eyes are narrowing. She seems to be in a very bad mood. I was prepared to some extent, but it's more than I imagined. It might have been a mistake to try to convey my own surprise as it was.
"In other words, they became invisible to human eyes."
"Yes. Monsters aside, basically spirits have nothing to do with whether humans are there or not. They also dislike conflict, so if possible, they want to live in places far from human settlements. Besides, if we seriously try to avoid contact, I don't think we'll be seen by humans."
Does that mean they're there if you look for them? They might not be found, though.
"I wonder. Is it because the power of humans to see spirits has been lost because the magic power has become thin, so they can't be seen?"
Is that how it is...
Certainly, in fairy tales, there are forests of magic or cursed forests where humans are said to always get lost and never return if they enter. I'm sure there's a model, but the reality might just be that spirits are interfering with human actions. They can't be seen by humans who have lost the eye to see spirits... They modified it into a fairy tale style... It's the same as "Pain, pain, fly away." It might be a remnant of the forest where spirits live.
"Maybe they're saying it in an exaggerated way so children don't enter on their own and get lost. However, if even adults are hindered in their actions, it can't be helped if it's thought that there's something there as a forbidden land."
At Eleanor-sama's words, Serena, whose eyes opened slightly, nodded. According to what Eleanor-sama heard, there are places called that on the continent, and they are feared by the residents. At the same time, there are apparently lands that can only be entered by local people who usually make offerings. Spirits might be there.
"If you go to the continent, both Eleanor and Jeanne can't use magic sufficiently, right? Isn't it the same as that?"
Is that how it is? It wasn't just a matter of faith.
I heard that people who can use magic in Sertogne will have their grade go up if they come to the White Island. Those who can't use it remain unable to use it. The difference is probably the same as on the White Island. Elements inherited from parents like facial features, education after birth, one's own efforts, and faith in the Goddess. In the past aside, now it's said that magic is learned by combining those elements. Recent textbooks apparently say that confidence is important in addition to those. In the village where Beatrix is the landowner, the proportion of those who learn magic is a bit higher than before.
In any case, it seems certain that it's better to leave the forests.
"As I've said many times, a field where only limited types of plants grow is abnormal in itself. Don't forget that the original form is where various living things live in appropriate proportions."
Serena strictly warned me.
From Serena's perspective, agriculture itself is probably not to her liking.
Making a modest field near a forest where a stream flows... and after that, hunting and gathering? Rather than a town, it's a village or a settlement. If you can be satisfied with that much every day, that much might be fine.
By the way, the reason the Wetlands Priestess is here is to go to the place that seems to be the other side connected from the Demon Lord's Temple, attack the gatekeeper or whatever is there, and if possible, defeat it to prevent the Demon Lord from being resurrected from that path. By the time it becomes December, they were supposed to attack with the cooperation of the heroes. I wonder what happened? I asked Eleanor-sama lightly.
"If it's okay with Jeanne, I'd like to move it forward a bit."
Does that mean we're going at the end of this month, November?
The investigation of the secret books was postponed. The next time is the fourth, and it's about time for the Testament to appear. It seems the intention of the Engrio Royal Capital Great Church, which doesn't want to do it when King Seldic is not there, and the intention of the Medioland Royal Capital Great Church, which wants to stop the Demon Lord and reduce the possibility of war when King Seldic returns, coincided. Originally, it was decided not to do it in winter. Since there was a high possibility it would be canceled in November, in a sense, it's as scheduled. Just in case, I sent Highway Cookies and a barrel of honey wine I made to the female demon through the church, along with a letter saying I couldn't go.
"If possible, when the recovery of the Northeastern Forest is over. Actually, if this operation is successful, it will be a formal request from the Medioland Royal Capital Great Church."
"If it's successful?"
If it's successful means there's a third time?
"If it's successful in one place, it'll be successful in other places too, right?"
"Er, do you intend to go to the remaining four places too?"
No matter how I think about it, won't we die?
"Price and the others will be considering that. Since the end of the year and the beginning of the year are near, they want to reach a conclusion by then. Also, there's one more thing."
"One more thing, what is it?"
"You remember seeing a building like a palace, right?"
"Yes."
"We might break into there."
"Isn't that too reckless?"
"It seems that's not the case."
"Is that so?"
According to Eleanor-sama, it's in short Teleport.
"The scenery we saw from the window was the exterior of the palace-like building."
"Yes."
"What happened when you were looking?"
"The window kept getting closer, and just as it felt like I was being swallowed, I was jumped to the room where the fake Demon Lord was."
"Did Jeanne think the window was getting closer?"
"Eh? Isn't it?"
"It's an optical illusion. We were the ones who got closer. Since the surroundings were pitch black, you were mistaken."
"So that's how it was."
"Yes, and then, do you remember what happened?"
"It was as if Teleport had been activated and the surroundings blurred... Ah, I see!"
"Did you understand?"
I understood. I see, that was a trap. In other words, it was set up so that Teleport would be activated on the way to the window.
"That's right. That was a device to drive away those who approach the window where that palace can be seen to a completely different place."
So that's why it was different from the patterns until now. Until now, in a sense, even in Gnome's case, we reached the place we saw.
Eleanor-sama also apparently noticed that device after being taught by the Wetlands Priestess.
"As expected of the generation that was affected by the swell. She herself said her rank wasn't that high, being in the middle, but now she would be chosen as a favorite as a hero candidate."
Even if her rank is low, the population itself is fundamentally different from now. If the area were the same as the current Primordia, how many mages of advanced rank or higher would there have been? Since it was a generation of abundance, even if it was half of twenty people, she would be in the top ten.
After all, she uses dark magic. In particular, Undead and Necromancy can turn the dead of both friend and foe into soldiers. If it were only one or the other, another person would be needed, but she can use both. She can even manipulate ghosts. The harder the battle, the stronger she is, so she should have been placed in a key border area. Her knowledge of magic is also that deep.
"So, we tried an experiment by visiting the Earth Dragon's cave."
She easily brings up the Earth Dragon's name. She's completely taken him in. The Priestess who went with her must have been quite surprised.
"There was a time when you were shown the Earth Dragon's true form, right?"
"Yes. When the door was opened, the bottom of the vertical hole could be seen."
"That's right. We placed a Simple Teleportation Magic Circle in that place and moved a fragile pot just like when we opened the door back then."
I see. If there's an impact, it'll break.
"It could be moved without any particular problem."
Hmm. Well, that's probably true. Otherwise, long-distance movement couldn't be done.
"Next, I asked Harold to jump with Teleport. I thought he could jump because it was within visual range."
In theory, that's true, but the fragment Roberts-sama threw disappeared somewhere. It takes a lot of courage for a living human to do it. Unless it's a former hero, it's absolutely impossible.
"According to the Priestess, the principle is the same whether you jump by sight or by a magic circle. In other words, the one who jumps is not moving at ultra-high speed, but is connecting spaces and moving directly from one space to another. In short, it's fundamentally different from trying to go outside by walking from a door."
I'm starting to lose track, but in short, it seems he was safe.
"Could it be that you intend to jump to that palace with Teleport?"
Are we going to slip through the trap that jumps to the space where the fake Demon Lord is and go to the mysterious palace? It's extremely dangerous. It's like throwing away your life.
"Originally, that's the resolution."
Are you serious? I'm sorry, it's impossible for me.
"That's what I'd like to say, but there are also the instructions left by the First King, and I can't just throw it away so easily."
"R-Right."
"So, we'll do several experiments. They were thought of by the Priestess, me, and Harold. They're worth seeing."
"Is that so?"
Worth seeing, eh. No matter how I think about it, it's something the three on the dark side thought of. I don't think it's anything decent. I have no choice but to go see it, but I hope they don't make the Demon Lord angry and make him resurrect.