kscans

Chapter 167 - Adon Arrives in the Village

The day after Yuri visited End Village, Adon, escorted by the "Lucky Footsteps," visited the village.

"Adon-san, and everyone, it has been a while."

"Oh Yuri-kun, it is good to see you are well. Anything unusual happen… I am sure there was, wasn’t there?"

"Ahaha…"

To Adon’s tone, which was convinced that he had absolutely done something, Yuri could only respond with a dry laugh. Looking back on the past six months alone, he had done all sorts of things that were hard to bring to light, such as particle board, assault rifles, artificial magic stones, magic bone tools, magic iron tools, mutations… and so on, and so on, to the point where it was almost overwhelming. Making tofu was a cute little thing in comparison. And hearing that dry laugh, Adon and the others renewed their conviction that he had indeed done something. And… while that was within their expectations, they expected that what he had done was surely beyond their expectations.

"Well… it seems bad for my heart, so I will refrain from pursuing it here…"

"At the very least, Yuri-kun, please refrain from making them public without consulting us first."

Seeing Adon and Kudol admonishing Yuri with a somewhat distant look in their eyes, Yuri was seized with a feeling of guilt. That being said, he had not the slightest intention of holding back on technological innovation.

"...So, Kudol-san, did you increase your party members?"

Yuri glanced at the young elf man standing behind Kudol and the others.

"Ah, no, he is not one of our companions…"

"Allow me to explain. He is an elf from the same village as Katra-jou and Dalia-jou, and his name is Nagara. For the time being, he is my guard."

Adon explained the circumstances to Yuri, who had a blank look on his face, not understanding the details. When he explained the fervor of the elf village that he had heard from Nagara, Yuri recoiled with a look of disgust. He had a vague idea from what he had heard from Katra and Dalia, but he had not thought they would be that enthusiastic.

On the other hand, Nagara, meeting Yuri for the first time, was uncharacteristically nervous. After all, he was the creator of the magic stone tool that the elves coveted. He must not be rude, and he must not do anything that would displease him. In addition to the silent pressure from Katra and Dalia behind him, he felt as if he was about to be crushed by the weight of the expectations and mission placed on him by his home village. In addition to that, the aura drifting from the distant Salt-Sour Mountain was also unsettling. The village where Nagara and the others lived was also deep in the mountains, and a considerable number of magical beasts lived there, but this Salt-Sour Mountain exuded an aura of magical beasts that was no less than that.

Meeting Yuri in person further stirred Nagara’s anxiety and confusion. Since he was living alone in that Salt-Sour Mountain, he had thought he would be a formidable warrior, but the person introduced to him was a boy who still had a childish look. Nagara was also a member of the long-lived and magical elf race. He thought he knew well enough that appearances could be deceiving, and he had a certain degree of skill in judging an opponent’s strength by the strength or weakness of their magical power instead of their appearance. However, this time, that technique was completely useless. For some reason… he could only get a vague and unclear impression that his magical power was large but also not so large, and he could only feel a sense of unease and eeriness that he could not grasp. This was a situation that occurred because he was falsifying his status with the unique skill [Status Board] that he received from God, but Nagara, not being a god, did not know such behind-the-scenes circumstances. He was being tormented by the stress that came from tension and anxiety.

As a result, what happened was that Nagara, who was introduced to Yuri, out of a reaction to his tension and anxiety up until then, spoke, appealed, and insisted with a torrent of force about how much the elves longed for the magic stone tool… and as a result, for the crime of making Yuri recoil, he received a stern lecture from everyone.