Episode 48.9

Lecan made a long deep sigh as he sank down his chair.

Then he grabbed his cup and sipped the cold tea.

It's cold yet deeply flavorful.

"A success huh? I see. So that's how. Still that's quite a fine line you straddled on."

"Sure is. But I won."

"Against whom?"

"You, duh."

"What?"

"Let me ask you this once again. I was born and raised as a human and even today, I still possess memory, mind, emotion and even physical body of a human. And I'm sure I'm displayed as a red dot in your <Life Detection>. Am I wrong?"

"Yea. It's red."

"Of course it is. And <Purification> doesn't harm me now. It heals me. So am I human or not by your standard?"

After a some moments of silence, Lecan squeezed a word.

"You're human."

Shira laughed. Smiling full of satisfaction.

"I wanted to hear that word straight out of your mouth."

"Doesn't matter if you're red or blue, you're still my master, someone I owe a great deal of debt."

"That's a whole other matter. You were the sole living human who dared to tell me I'm an apparition straight to my face. I made it my mission to absolutely make you recognize me as human. And that mission was accomplished. It also got me closer to the secret of life. This moment calls for a celebration. Ah, right, your left eye is still missing, isn't it. Should I cast <Purification> as a gift?"

Shira produced a thin wand and pointed it at Lecan.

"Lookie here. It's the zenith of <Purification>, see. Probably gonna cure that eye of yours. Aren't you happy."

She twirled the wand around while keeping it pointed at Lecan.

"You must want a cast, no? Eh? Come again? Oh my, but of course. You're waiting for Eda-chan's growth, aren't you. But oh look, my hand slipped. <Purification>."

A blue light emerged at the tip of her wand. That light flew and stopped right in front of Lecan's face and started to go round and round there.

"Uri, uri."

Shira looked so gleeful.

Her smile irritated Lecan.

(You damn hag.)

(Forget sympathies.)

(I ain't got one for you ever.)

(Not with her top class obstinacy and mischief.)

"Ahahaha. Truly a wonderful day today. Now then. I'm in the mood for some drink. Hang on a bit."

Shira went in and then back with a wine bottle and glasses on a tray. The wine has already got its cork off. Must be to aerate it. There's also jerky, beans and stuff on the tray.

Shira poured the wine on the two glasses.

"And now, cheers."

Lecan lifted his glass to match Shira.

"To my return as human. Jo Jood."

"To the rebirth of Grand Mage Erushira. Jo Jood."

Shira drank down an entire glass of wine.

"This is really good."

Lecan poured wine in Shira's glass.

"What happened to Barifoa's magic stone."

"Broken down to dust."

"I see. What about Vurs?"

"It's alive. Pretty small though."

"Hou. Where's it at."

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

"Well now. I wonder where."

"What did you use Earth Dragon Toron's magic stone for. Don't tell me you resurrected that one too."

"Ah, yeah that's it. You lied to me."

"I did not. I might have not told you everything however."

"You said there was nothing left of Toron mats."

"Yea. I took the magic stone before the mats."

"But there were thorns left."

"What? Ah, thorns huh. Didn't those disappear when the main body did?"

"Of course not, the rule is for the thorns to be left intact when they're shot out by the body while it's still alive."

"There's one such rule? So how'd you know about those thorns anyway."

"A messenger from Zaidmahl came and sold those things to Chaney, see. Chaney recognized them as profitable, but he couldn't tell a thing about them. You can't simply Appraise them after all. Thus he came to me for a consultation."

Meaning Chaney has some means to contact Shira. Or perhaps it's Shira who's been regularly getting in touch with him.

"Those thorns turn into first-class weapons, and most importantly, they've got the best possible magic defense. Get enough of them and it'll turn into a monster of equipment."

"Magic defense?"

"You must know about it since you fought Toron and all. The one thing that made that so tough is its magic void."

"Magic void?"

"Did you really fight Toron at all?"

"I couldn't use offensive magic at the time."

"Ah right, right you were. You see here. Magic don't work on Toron. Shoot a magic and it's just gonna vanish before it touches Toron's body. Toron's thorns are especially destructive toward magic. Scrape down those thorns into a sword or a spear and it'll erase most magic or at least reduce their power by half."

"Hou. Really."

His <Gust> did disappear instantly when a thorn hit his abdomen back then. And strength got sapped out of his body.

"There's a lot of Grace Gear and Magic Tools that can defend against magic, but they let attacks over certain power level pass through, also, running out of mana means the end of them. But since Toron's thorns don't actually put up a barrier, instead simply erasing magic itself, they work against even some pretty strong magic and these effects persist even without mana."

"Sounds like it's gonna sell for a lot."

"They do. But you must be picky about the buyers. It's gotta be someone affluent who know the true value of the goods and how to make good use of them."

"Speaking of, Chaney said he was allowed to trade with Wazrof. Said it was thanks to me or something, guy was probably there to sell those thorns to Wazrof."

Lecan never spoke of his battle against Toron to Zaidmahl people. He just discovered it by chance. Toron should have shot out quite a lot of thorns back then. If those turn into a source of income to Zaidmahl, all the better.

"Used as weapons, they're better made into swords or spears as you can make a lot per thorn. That said, there's no craftsmen who can process those things. So it was up to me to turn them into swords and spears. I received a few thorns in exchange. I've always wanted those even way back. Oh I also gave some to Yacklubend. Really ecstatic about it."

Lecan pretended he never heard that, he wasn't eager to hear more.