kscans

Chapter 169 - The Hourglass of Life and the Little One, Part Seven

"Alright, I’m counting on you guys."

The underground lake forest, where they had once fought a dragon-shaped Dark Spirit, had changed considerably.

A small house with an orange roof had been built, and inside was a set of modest furniture. It was a simple house with only a kitchen, a private room, and a bathroom. But it was well-equipped with everything one might need and was a warm, pleasant home.

"It is just me, after all."

Abdahil laughed, fufu.

Apparently, the three Castrato brothers had it built in a hurry for him, who lived alone by the underground lake. They had actually planned something much larger, but the monsters had intimidated the craftsmen, who became frightened, so they had to hastily build something of a size they could manage in the shortest possible time.

The three brothers were apparently quite frustrated.

"They are cute, aren’t they? In return, I have been able to receive better food and other things."

Only Louis Charles was not intimidated by the monsters, so he was the one who transported the goods.

Well, of course. No monster would dare defy Charles, with his high magic power and dark attribute.

Basically, monsters that hadn’t been driven mad had the intelligence of a toddler. They wouldn’t be foolish enough to challenge an opponent they couldn’t beat.

Smiling wryly, the Little One stood before the fissure sealed with spider silk. She then gave instructions to the spiders and had them undo the silk. Instantly, there was a gotsu sound, and she felt a considerable wind pressure from behind. A deep darkness that swallowed everything. The closer she got, the more strongly she was drawn to that something. In the underground lake where only a faint breeze blew, an eerie air current swirled.

"This is..... quite, ghastly."

Despite his skin crawling, Romel narrowed his sharp eyes. Chihaya nocked an arrow on his shortbow, and the knights readied their weapons with a zan.

Come if you dare.

The Little One Corps bared their teeth, their eyes fierce. However, their expectations were off, and the darkness, from which something was expected to leap out, remained quietly silent.

"There’s..... nothing?"

"I don’t think so. After all, there’s someone who wants me to meet the Dark Spirit King. It’s like we’ve received an invitation."

Still cautious, the Little One had a knight skilled with a spear check inside. Just as she had imagined, the spear he thrust in shattered into smithereens. The spearhead burst with a pan sound.

".....Didn’t we get an invitation?"

"This means ‘come and get over it.’ Fine by me."

They wouldn’t attack or block the way, but this was likely the normal state of the Abyss. It seemed their host wasn’t so kind as to make it easy for them to pass. The Little One asked the frogs and spiders to proceed as planned.

The spiders gathered to form a large bag, and inside, the frogs put up a protective barrier. The result was something that looked like a hot-air balloon laid on its side.

"Alright, get inside."

The Little One scurried into the bag, teko teko.

Following her, the Little One Corps and Romel also entered, though with some trepidation.

"What..... is this?"

"A bag."

".........."

Well, anyone could see that.

The bag was spacious enough for the entire Little One Corps, whose eyes were fixed in a stare. The bees held the top of the bag’s rear, while the spiders and snakes held the bottom. The Little One, pulling Katsumi by the hand, began to walk forward. The rear of the bag was also sealed, and the whole thing, like a large soap bubble, swayed, poyo poyo, supported by the protective membrane and began to rotate.

"Whoa..... that’s scary."

Looking around at the others who were walking hesitantly, the Little One, with a look of amusement, relied on the buzzing of the bees outside, who were leading the way with the frog’s protection, and cautiously proceeded forward. They didn’t even need to advance on their own, the further in they went, the more they were pulled by a strange, zuzutto, oppressive feeling.

It seems Mugi-ta and the others’ protection is unbreakable.

An annoyed look on her face, the Little One looked at her own arm, where a faint red line was visible.

That time, Pochiko-san had almost been sucked into the fissure. The two of them had been safely rescued by Joker’s single line, but despite the Little One’s right hand being torn, the two bees were unharmed. This meant that the frog’s protection could repel the wind blades swirling in the Abyss. And the fact that they were repelled from Joker’s side might mean that this side was a black hole and that side was a white hole-like structure.

As they proceeded in silence, at a certain point, the pressure suddenly vanished, fut. The oppressive feeling that threatened to swallow everything disappeared, and their steps became smooth. Then, for some reason, Mugi-ta released the bag’s protection. The faces of the Little One Corps froze for a moment, but there was only silence.

True darkness, so black that nothing could be seen.

In the darkness that seemed to swallow even sound, Katsumi used the distant light spell. It was a magic that created a faint, lantern-like light in his hand. One of the everyday spells.

"Is magic fun?"

"Is that sarcasm? Well, at first it was. Now..... yeah."

Katsumi, his brows furrowed like a mischievous child, illuminated the surroundings with the light. But at that moment, the light in his hand vanished. "Huh?"

Surprised, Katsumi tried to cast it again and again. But the light would vanish with a shun sound before a second had passed.

‘It is useless. This is the Abyss, which swallows all things. Light is no exception. The space itself consumes it.’

Cesare, having taken over from Chihaya, brushed something from his leg with a bitter expression. Now that he mentioned it, they realized that the ground beneath their feet had turned into a messy sludge. No, the sludge was moving. It was squirming, zo zo zo, and slowly creeping upwards, an unidentifiable something.

"Hih?"

"Whoa?! What is this!"

The other members also kicked their feet in a panic.

Amidst this, a calm Romel muttered something, and the bodies of the Little One Corps floated into the air.

A carpet of wind.

And it was a wide area, including the Mononoke Corps. A normal magician’s limit would be a five-meter square. A net of wind that supported and lifted people. This required delicate magical control, a delicate magic that the Little One, who was good at powering up and going ‘boom’, could not imitate. Romel, who effortlessly deployed such a spell over a ten-meter square, was undoubtedly a top-class magician.

"Amazing, it’s like there’s a floor."

There was a slight, fuyon, softness to it, but it was a magnificent spell that didn’t budge even when they stamped their feet.

"Don’t jump around, you’re a girl. Well, this is my only talent, after all."

The knights stared at the slightly abashed Romel with fixed gazes.

Was that a line for the man who controlled almost all the internal affairs of the royal palace, had authority in diplomacy, and was the head magician of the Royal Knight Order as well as the head aide to His Majesty the King?

The members from Frontier, their eyes now fixed in a stare, no longer had time for their eyes to stand on end.

With the Little One, Romel, and Chihaya, Frontier had too many people who were off the charts. Fortunately or unfortunately, since they were currently in a period of chaos, it was incredibly reassuring, but.

And the Little One Corps glanced at Katsumi.

He seemed to be in shock that Romel’s magic was working while his own had been swallowed by the darkness. The Little One Corps looked at Katsumi, who was trembling at the corners of his mouth in frustration, with an exasperated gaze.

Katsumi himself was well off the charts.

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. The Little One was almost universally competent, but Romel was completely hopeless at martial arts, and Chihaya’s reasons for acting were so skewed towards the Little One that he was honestly unreliable. In the field of technology, there was no one who surpassed Katsumi. His knowledge easily exceeded the Little One’s. Nowadays, even the Little One would request work from Katsumi of Kilfan rather than Frontier’s technicians.

The so-called pipe organ that had been gifted at the recent Crown Prince’s wedding, the Little One’s explanation had been too abstract for Frontier’s technicians to understand. Like a piano but not a piano. What? It uses magic stones? Is it a magic tool? And so on.

The Little One, her eyes welling up with tears, had flown straight to Kilfan.

And about a month later, the so-called pipe organ arrived from Kilfan.

The Little One played it happily.

Listening to the songs and melodies played with kyakkya, the people of Frontier finally understood what an organ was.

The knowledge to answer the Little One’s impossible demands was something extraordinary. Yet Katsumi was completely unaware of it.

What was particularly noteworthy was that most of the power this group possessed was acquired through their own efforts. Even the Little One, apart from her golden magic, had obtained her abilities through her own efforts. To be blunt, the golden magic was the power of the gods. Outside of matters related to the Lords of the Forest, it was completely useless. What was useful in daily life was, after all, the fruit of her labor. People cannot lie to themselves. Effort does not betray oneself. Stumbling and falling, becoming pathetic, becoming engrossed, feeling joy and sorrow, the power one acquires to the point of being able to move on reflex is what enriches one’s life.

In this world, there are people who do not shy away from effort, who do not even think of effort as effort. Such people are generally unaware that they are exceptional.

For some reason, such people had all gathered in Frontier.

While thinking it was a good thing, the Little One Corps was also struck by a terrifying sense of disappointment.

Amidst such lukewarm gazes, the unaware individuals began to move.

"Should we burn this stuff on the ground?"

"No, wouldn’t it be better to freeze it?"

"Honestly, it’s just one person after another getting in the way. Cesare, this is dark-type, right? Want to eat it?"

‘You..... you don’t think of me as a trash can or something, do you?’

Something appeared before the Little One, who was making a racket, gya-gya. No, she hadn’t felt any movement. Had it been there from the start?

As the people instantly took a defensive stance, the something twisted into an eerie, nyah smile.

‘Don’t bully them too much now. They’re children of the Abyss too. Just curiosity.’

A big, egg-shaped something. Its face wasn’t clear.

Children? Are these spirits too?

While her spine tingled at the sight of the sludge still squirming like earthworms, uzo uzo, the Little One looked at the something before her.

"Are you a Dark Spirit? Or a monster?"

‘Neither, nope. I’m just an observer. I can tell you if you want to know something, but first, I have something to tell you.’

"Tell me?"

‘Yep. This one does.’

With a pan sound, the surroundings lit up.

And the members from Frontier were left speechless.

Before them were two grotesque forms. One was the egg-shaped something they had been conversing with. Under the light, it had the appearance of a hedgehog. What was different was the large eye that took up about half of its face and the mouth split open like a thin, horizontal crescent moon. Inside the stickily opening mouth were sharp fangs, and saliva trailed in glistening threads. The Little One couldn’t help but stare, wide-eyed, but what surprised her even more was the large mass next to the creature. It was a slimy, shapeless creature like a slime that inhabits wetlands. It stretched vertically, then fell with a bashan, squirming restlessly.

《.....Is this the Golden King?》

‘That’s right. The spirits told you, didn’t they? It’s the child we were observing together.’

Swallowing hard at the sight of the two seemingly friendly creatures, the Little One, Romel, and even Cesare could do nothing but watch in silence.

Around the time this miraculous encounter was taking place.

A figure rose up in the wasteland.

《The time has come.》

Legion the oni looked up at the sky, and a single tear traced a path down his cheek.

《This time..... I will open it.》

There is a sacrifice, and there is a blessing. This time, the door will surely open.

Legion, who was once an O-saki of Hayslope. There, in that land, he had missed a once-in-a-millennium chance.

This time.....

Legion, who stood up with his wild eyes trembling with joy, was unknown to the Little One of the present.