Chapter 13

“Huh, doesn’t something kinda stink?”

“It kinda smells like rotting fish…”

“That’s because the poisoned river and soil are downwind from here. Hey, summoner, that’s the village you told us about, right?”

Seirios, who didn’t seem to have any intention of calling Noah by his name, simply referred to him as ‘summoner’.

Surrounded by the rotting smell, they arrived at their destination.

It seemed that many demon slaying parties had already taken up job commissions here, as there were swordsmen, spear-men, mages as well as warrior monks present.

“Where was the polluted commission area again…? Wait a sec, I’m going to ask the people over there.”

Noah ran off, taking Garm with him. Lion could see signs of the other parties’ fights against demons; there were traces of the black-red demon blood on their swords and spears. Perhaps it was because they were hiding away in their houses, but he didn’t see any civilians. The demons must have damaged this region quite badly.

“…Huh?”

It’s like I can feel stares coming my way from every direction…

Lion had already gotten used to it, but perceptive people could sense it: the presence of a man whose distinct aura drew a distinct line between normal people and himself. He couldn’t afford Seirios’ true identity getting exposed while surrounded by the many fighters gathered here to slay demons.

Lion walked closer to Seirios and whispered to him. “These monks and wizards seem to be close to realizing who you are, Mister Sei. Let’s go over there, maybe?”

“What are you worried about? I’m suppressing my magical powers sufficiently. Besides–”

Placing his hand to the back of Lion’s head, Seirios pulled him close in one smooth motion. Cold lips touched Lion’s ear. “–even if they were to realize, I’m confident that I could take care of all of them in an instant.”

“!!”

His voice was chillingly deep.

From around them, Lion could hear the shocked and squealing voices of girls. When he looked around, flustered, the female fighters and mages were staring at them, blushing. No, it wasn’t just the girls. Wasn’t a considerable number of the guys also looking their way, astonished expressions on their faces?

Whoa, what are we doing standing out even more?!

He quickly grabbed one of Seirios’ arms and fled somewhere with fewer people. Because he ran away in a panic, Lion didn’t notice that these were private grounds of a household. A five year old boy stood in front of the house door, frightened upon seeing the sudden visitors.

“Ah, sorry, we ended up barging in here without realizing that it’s your home… We’re heading right out, okay? ….Huh? You have blood on your arm. What happened?”

“…René was bit and has a lot of injuries.”

“René?”

“My younger sister,” the boy answered him timidly, perhaps because he realized right away that Lion wasn’t a scary person.

Just at that moment, a dog barked nearby and Lion could hear an eccentric voice calling out.

“Hey, hey Lion! Where’d ya go?!” Right after, the slim figure of a red-haired man appeared.

It was Noah.

“Oh, what’s up with the kid?”

“Ah, I wandered into this child’s yard by mistake. Then I noticed he was bleeding.”

“Oh, are you injured, kiddo?”

“I’m not ‘kiddo’, my name is Shal.”

Surprisingly, Noah talked to the child easily. Maybe he has siblings?

However, as Lion listened to their conversation, he felt as though there was a lump stuck in his throat.

Just last night, Shal’s younger sister, René, was attacked by demons who had invaded the village. Shal was unharmed and the blood on his arm was his sister’s. Due to his sister still being unconscious, his parents had been staying in the clinic since the attack. Shal was watching over the house alone, but he grew worried about his sister and he was just about to leave for the clinic.

“Since we gotta run and work for a bit right now, take this guy inside the house and take care of him for me, yeah?”

Noah joined the summoning symbols on his fingers, quickly making the corresponding hand seals.1 There was a small pop, and a tiny cat landed nimbly on its two front paws. It was a common type of summoning beast called Cat-sìth. Since it was a mischievous summoning beast, it understood human speech and loved to play with humans. Shal’s eyes sparkled as he watched the summoning beast run around.

“Look after him, yeah?” Noah said and began to walk, urging Lion and Seirios on.

“Noah, you seemed kinda experienced with that.”

“Huh? With dealing with kids you mean? Well, that’s cuz I have a lot of siblings. Since Cat-sìth’s with him now, the kiddo will be able to play with it at home and wait there.”

Given the current situation, it was dangerous for kids to walk alone in this area. Now that he’d been provided with a play buddy, he won’t try to go outside. Noah seemed to be an unexpectedly obliging person.

“Either way, demons are seriously the worst; attacking regardless of whether it’s children or not. Earlier, villagers told me that they get attacked because they’re children or the elderly, people who can’t move fast. I really want to beat every single demon to death, one by one!”

“…”

When Lion glanced at Seirios, he didn’t seem to be upset at all, walking beside him at a brisk pace.

“Bu…but, I think there are some upright demons as well…”

“Huh, what, Lion, are you part of the demon co-existence faction? Seriously? Ah well, the eastern demons are being properly supervised by their Demon Queen, so they’re less bad. Fundamentally, there’s no way humanity is compatible with demons, though.”

That was correct. Up until a few days ago, Lion had firmly thought of demons the same way. In fact, he was nearly killed by the demon from the lake ruins, as well as the demon from Rowan.

But his inner thoughts were filled with uncertainty.

Since I have met demons such as Mister Sei and the Eastern Demon Queen, and we had come to an understanding once we talked to each other….I simply can’t think of all demons as villains anymore.

Travelling together with Seirios, and slowly becoming unable to wholly agree that ‘all demons are evil,’ made Lion feel somewhat guilty.2

“What’s wrong, Lion? Are you feeling unwell?”

“Ah. No, I’m alright, thank you.”

Apparently, Seirios noticed Lion was walking with his head low, so he called out to him and patted his back. He looked worried.

Mister Sei is… surely not a demon who enjoys killing people. So it’s definitely going to be alright…

Lion himself wasn’t quite sure what was supposed to be ‘alright,’ but he shook his head and decided not to dwell on his gloomy feelings.

After walking for a short while, they began to smell that familiar rotting stench. The smell became stronger and stronger. It was suffocating.

“Ugh, what a terrible odor! Seems like the forest near that tall pine tree over there has been polluted by the poison.”

Pinching his nose, Lion looked in the direction Noah was pointing. The vegetation was clearly withered in that whole stretch of land. There were small animals and birds laying dead, rotting, with flying insects gathering around them. The river that wasn’t even one meter wide, as it seemed to be a tributary, had turned reddish brown with fish corpses floating up in piles.

The fishy stench was the smell of rot.

And, the main source of this smell was most likely the black-green tanuki-looking demons. An innumerable amount of these slain demons were scattered around. Their bodily fluids were highly toxic, so retrieving them seemed to have been difficult.

“The area that’s been poisoned seems pretty wide, huh. We have to detoxify the poison that’s soaked into the soil and the river, but how are we going to clean up the toxic bodies as well?”

“Oh, that’s it! Let’s get Gulon3 to devour them. That one’s always hungry, will eat anything, and is fine with poison.”

Although the appearance of the summoning beast Gulon was that of a big wildcat, it was said that it would eat anything it was given and that it had a formidable appetite.

“Also, for detoxifying, I guess I will summon Carbuncle. What about you, Lion?”

“I will summon Sylphide. It has detoxifying abilities.”

“Roger that. And besides Sylphide?”

Right, Lion hadn’t told Noah.

“….I’m sorry for telling you this late, Noah. I can only summon one summoning beast.”

“Huh, just one? What the heck, what does that mean? Sylphide isn’t a summoning beast that would use up so much of one’s stamina, though? Oh, are you feeling sick?”

“No. It doesn’t really have to do with my physical state, it’s always been like that.”

“Huuh? Really? Since you’ve said you’re a Shray I was wondering just what kind of incredible summoning you’d do!”

Lion felt like he’d been stabbed, but he also knew that Noah held no ill will. Lion got used to being talked about like that, but it’s been a while since a fellow summoner had said this to him and the words laid upon him heavily. Noah, who was traveling to gain experience, had already summoned Garm, Cat-sìth, and was just about to summon two more beasts. This was pretty standard for a summoner, it was just Lion who couldn’t do it.

There’s nothing to be done about it. Don’t get so down every single time. Get yourself together and accept your uselessness already.

“It’s normal that you’d think so. My older brother is fine with summoning a rare type beast and then five other beasts on top of that. I’m sorry for not really being too helpful.”

“Ah, no, I don’t think you’re not helpful or anything…”

At that time, a tall man took a step forward, a withered branch snapping with a crack.

“Is there something you should be apologizing for? I do not know the standard by which you summoners measure ‘normal,’ but you are powerful enough to splendidly finish this commission, correct? There is nothing wrong with a summoner like yourself, someone who always gives his all in order to succeed in what he’s doing.”

Suddenly, this growling, low voice chimed in. Seirios was staring at Lion, frowning a little in anger.

Then, he sent a sharp look Noah’s way, too.

“Eek! Th-that’s right. I also think so, with all my heart! I really do!”

Sensing Seirios’ displeased mood, Noah’s shoulders trembled.

“L-let’s do our best and get to work without any more delays!” he said, and stiffly walked off.

Gulon, the big wildcat summoning beast that Noah had conjured was such a glutton it made one feel somewhat refreshed. It swallowed the corpses of the regular animals whole, purring like it had eaten truly delicious food. So rather than the scene being eerie, it made one want to laugh.

Carbuncle and Sylphide were both summoning beasts with a very cute appearance, and the scene of them dancing around the faded forest as they put their detoxifying abilities to use, was like something out of a child’s dream.

Seirios’ efforts were especially extensive.

Seirios was getting rid of the withered grass and trees whose roots were rotting, affected by the poison — things that seemed like something Gulon wouldn’t eat– with a purifying flame. Only burning the vegetation contaminated by the poison and not harming any of the living things in the slightest, those blue licking flames were spreading quietly.

Seirios himself simply had his arms crossed, watching, and after half a day of burning, the fire extinguished itself.

Noah, who was gazing at the spectacle of the withered trees getting purged in amazement, poked Lion’s shoulder repeatedly, whispering to him, “Hey, who is this mister really?! Those are purifying flames, right?! That’s something you can’t use unless you’re considerably high-ranked, even among black mages, right?!”

“Really? Sorry, I don’t know too much about magic.”

“I’m sure they are! I’ve heard about it before!”

Lion left the somewhat excited Noah alone, and as he watched over the efficacy of Sylphide’s abilities, the day ended. In the end, he still felt guilty about the clear difference in Noah’s workload and his, no matter what he did.

One week later, commuting from a village inn to the commission area, the surrounding area of that single pine tree was enveloped by fresh air. The corpses of the animals, fish and demons disappeared, and the stagnate river and soil, discolored by the poison soaking into it, both returned back to their usual color. The withered vegetation was done away with and only signs of the new sprouts and tree saplings remained.

That day, Noah’s summoning beast, Gulon ran around the area, and because it seemed like there was nothing for it to eat, it came back, disappointed. Therefore, they knew their work was finished.

“We’re done!”

“That took a while, huh.”

“Yeah, the affected area was unexpectedly big! Say, Lion, to celebrate that we’ve finished the commission, let’s go out and drink to our heart’s content! Sounds good, right, mister?”

“If Lion is okay with it, then I have no objections.”

Thank you for reading! Seirios always has Lion’s back huh.

Footnotes

Literally to intertwine/join up his hand as fingers according to the tradition, I thought describing it as hand seals here might suffice.

Specifically, this word means being guilty about straying from the moral/ethical path, like when you tell a lie, cheat on someone etc. So Lion is probably thinking his way of thinking is somehow unethical/immoral, I am guessing because demons are shown to be hurting a lot of people in this work.

グーロ – ‘guuro’, gu is pronounced like in ‘good’ but the sound lasts a little longer, and ro like in ‘robust’. Like many of the mentioned beasts, this one comes from an existing legend as well.