Chapter 292: The Answer: Curry.

Chapter 292: The Answer: Curry.

Sail! Out! Waters still, weather fine! Sail with Melicerthas and Plesias blessing!

Hey! Saori, lets go! Grimnir called out to me, trying to bring my attention back to him, but I couldnt help but to continue watching the workings of the dock.

The sound of sails unfurling and catching the wind, accompanied by the sailors and dock managers confirming ahoys. The anchor was retrieved from the ground of the river before water mages began to push the ship they were on forward. Another cargo ship was sent with boxes full of wares down the river to another country. Another day at the docks of Gleisvale.

Honestly, when I first came here, I thought it was magnificent, worthy of being one of the top three locations to visit when youre in the city. I wasnt able to go to the train station and going to the fort the merchant guild was based in wasnt possible now, as it also doubled as the senates meeting chambers. Acting like a tourist, for me, was more enjoyable than coming here for business.

And, despite only being a river, Gleislane was huge. Far larger than I had thought at first. A huge pond was where the docks were, with its water coming down from the Ankoran mountain, giving the city its distinct water canals. To reiterate, the rivers beginning at the docks was like an inland sea.

And this river went under a hanging hill, which looked like an arch, from the Centipedeclaw rock formation surrounding the capital of Estralia. There were only two suitable entries into this city the valley and the river and both were a sight to behold. I only began admiring it once I saw the ship traffic around the docks. A natural phenomenon.

And then I brought my attention to the docks itself, noticing the seamen hanging around in nearby pubs and inns, waiting for their next voyage. Dock managers and guards would roam the area, making sure everything was working and in peace.

Rowdy sailors and adventurers were a common sight here. They either drank and ate with each other, or were arguing and fighting after a game or two. If you thought about it, sailors were like the adventurers of the oceans and seas, right? I felt that was right in a way, though I didnt know much about it. My opinion only came from observing these people, after all.

Miss Saori!

Coming! I stopped watching after Tasianna urged me back to the group. Sorry about that.

Jeez, Sensei, I never knew you were this interested in the ocean. You never acted like this when we went on the school trips, Daichi commented, resting his staff on his shoulders.

Shes probably still occupied with what Hestia said yesterday, Ellaine interjected. Saori only had a day of rest after what happened at the warehouse, right? We should allow her some time to relax before we reach our destination.The roots of this story extend from novell bìn origin.

You only had a few days of rest, too, lass! You are not one to talk, Grimnir stated, chastising his apprentice.

Three days is just fine! Besides, with Hestia working on whatever shes planning, I cant be the only member of Aurora staying in bed just because I fought a random, ahem She placed her hands in front of her mouth, and mumbled, goddess.

I thanked Ellaine for supporting my decision. It wasnt as if Tatsuya, Kyouya, and Hanazawa were sitting in their beds either despite the trials they faced on their adventure in that beastmen village. They too were doing work, coordinating with Gael and the Shaturein-Layavete cooperation team to find things out about the second demonkin contractor in this city.

My group, on the other hand, were finishing up with what we started out finding the location of the mana battery that Layavete spy found. And this time, it wasnt some place which belonged to a senator we suspected, but the actual place itself.

Grimnir pulled up the note with the location on it, reading it out loud to us. Close to the fifth dock, in an alleyway behind the Groundbait Kleesha. There is a manhole hidden behind a bunch of trash. Hard to detect, as it's covered by an earth mage.

The noise of the docks hid our talking well enough.

Kleesha? I looked at Grimnir.

He nodded, smiling like an enthused uncle. Sliced raw fish, he answered.

So, sashimi.

He then continued, describing it with the hearty voice of a connoisseur. Dipped in pickled rivergrass or seafruit, and you can eat that stuff without getting a stomach ache. But, oh boy, khohoho, that stuff hits you tongue like a bomb. Its so sour and intense that you cant even get rid of it with dwarven mead. Its the good stuff, Saori.

Ha! Then we should try it out once were done, Grimnir. We havent had a drink together since we arrived in this city. Yorshka is also swamped with work from all the company Quests, so lets invite her, too. I was already imagining the aftermath of this tip.

We do still need to celebrate your birthday, Saori, Ellaine pointed out. Haruka-chan, too, so there'll be a ton of things we need to celebrate. A feast!

Our small talk was great for the mood of our group, save for one person. Tasianna, hadnt participated in any of our talks as we walked, staying silent even after we reached the fifth pier of the dock. The revelation of the real mastermind behind Princess Shcuris death was affecting her.

Then again, maybe it really wasnt much better for us, either. At our current location, we had a perfect view of the warehouse at the first dock where that slave auction happened. Burned down, but its rubble and remains hadnt been removed yet. Looking at it gave me a terrible headache.

The fire, the smoke, the heat; I thought I had gotten used to it with being around Hestia and inside a real magma chamber, but watching those slaves being scared within it was something else. Their coughing, their unanswered pleas for help, and their weeping filled the crackling warehouse in noise.

I felt as if I was suffocating in the [Shadow Armament] cowl I had on to ward off the smoke. Maybe I lied to Hestia a bit about taking my armor off to not scare the children I saw in their cages. I felt light-headed back then. I wondered if this was what my father always experienced on the job. He rarely told Mother and me about the tragedies on his job, always the moments when the hero saved the people.

Father

My memories from when he was still alive began to creep back up, but I pushed it back before continuing with the others to the tavern. I wished the slaves we managed to rescue good luck inside my mind, hoping their slave contracts were burned down with the whole warehouse so their tattoo would disappear.

Hoyoooooo loooong! On a wave of the river, the grass is tangling round. Air full of life and cold, that makes the mead taste so sheit. Ooooh, but so divine, at the docks with all the maidens~! Sailors were singing sea shanties, jolly as they ate and drank despite it being in the middle of the day.

Like most inhabitants in this city, the sailors were mostly just humans and land- and air-based beastmen. There were no levianewts or merfolk among them. I thought there would be at least one or two water-based beastmen, but I guess we were too deep inland, and a single river wasnt enough. Then again, I was just guessing and had no real idea about it.

After walking past the Groundbait Kleesha, we moved into the alleyway behind it, ignoring the shady-looking people around us. We were all wearing robes and hoods, but we stuck out quite a bit due to Tasianna and Grimnir.

Even with our hoods, Tasiannas pointy elven ears and Grimnirs large ram horns and height made their races a bit obvious. Dwarves were normal citizens in this city, but most stuck to their neighborhood around the train station, while elves were entirely devoid in this city. Not even half-elves.

At this point, all the power players likely know about us or whatever. Some probably know we were at the warehouse, too.

We continued on without caring about them.

The trash and junk in this alley reeked. Drunk sailors and puking homeless people populated our path forward, making it hard for us to look around the area. Some of them even came close to us, wobbling around as they swung their bottles almost to the point I was worried they would hit us.

A few of the sailors hit on the women in our group, but most of them were so unhinged from the alcohol that they thought we were here to party with them. Thankfully, Grimnir knew how to take care of drunks and Daichi was quite assertive when hes annoyed. Teachers pet he might be, but he knew how to fake his confidence whenever he needed to speak.

This note is worthless. I threw the note away into the trash around us, now realizing how unspecific the directions were We should have just brought the spy with us because hidden underneath the trash leads us nowhere.

Let it be known, Im willing to dive through the trash I lamented with everybody before using [Shadow Armament] on everybody so they didnt have to smell this.

After a grueling time searching around, to the point we made a mountain of trash at another location, we managed to find a spot where the ground looked weird. Ellaine cracked the ground with the beginner-level custom spell [Create Crack], revealing a metal disc underneath it.

Pulling it up, we discovered the manhole, and sure enough, I was glad I had my shadow mask on. One whiff of it, and I already had a terrible feeling with how atrocious it smelt.

I dont think anybody is in there. I couldnt find anybody with [Detection Sensor] and I thought it was suspicious that the smell was this bad.

Yeah Grimnir nodded. If a beastman were in there, they would try to make it smell less terrible. Most of them have extremely good noses, and I dont think you would want to wear a mask all the time.

To not enter a trap, I took out a wooden slate from my storage. On it, there was a magic circle and a chant for the custom spell [Manalocation]. Muraina had given it to me when I was still sparring with her. Not like I won any of the spars, but it was still a good learning experience.

I planned on learning the spell at an earlier time too, but I never had the chance to do so. [Manalocation] was easy to understand and use, so I had no problem reading everything. It was simply using wind mana to send a wave out and having it return to the magic circle as a signal. Like a bats echolocation. Thankfully, you didnt need to have [Wind Magic] to cast it.

The magic circle only has a few letters, unlike what Hestia and I make. Is it more efficient, I wonder? Or just easier to learn?

I released my mana out through my fingers as I looked and memorized the magic circle on the slate, before beginning the chant for the translated version of the spell. Obviously, I couldnt read elven.

Seek thy mark within obscurity and the unknown, fill the air with wind goddess magicks. Call forth thy mana of pure, for thourt the conduit of the storm. Thine will, the gods commandest. Manalocation.

Custom spell gained: [Manalocation]

The green magic circle began to morph, changing from its standardized form into what looked like a spider web with a large circular plane in the middle. Tapping into it hard for a second, the magic circle wobbled around, and nothing really happened. However, since I knew from watching Muraina use this spell, I understood the spell was working. I just couldnt see it without [Mana Eyes] like Hestia had.

After a few seconds, the circle began to vibrate again, but this time on its own. Certain words on the magic circle lit up, informing me there were multiple medium sized targets down the manhole. I informed this to the rest and we decided to venture down.

Climbing down it with the ladder next to it, we eventually made it down to the bottom. Daichi conjured up a flame to use as a torch and we began to move forward. I still couldnt detect anything with [Detection Sensor], but [Manalocation] kept repeating something was in front of us.

After a while, I finally understood why the information was conflicting. All of the people the spell was detecting were the rotting remains of beastmen and humans. And as we kept looking around, this whole place looked like it was burned down or something.

Tasianna? I wondered if she noticed any faefolk around, but she simply shook her head.

There are a few, but none of them want to speak with me. Most of them are simply celebrating that they could finally leave this place, since we opened up the hole.

A bit ungrateful.

We pressed on. [Detection Sensor] wasnt notifying me about anything, and I couldn't hear anything else but the breathing of my companions. The silence of the dead was too eerie to fully ignore, though.

Some of them have their version of the Hairetis armor on them, Tasianna noted, pointing at the dead beastmen. Some were burned, but others died through other wounds.

Same thing could be said about the humans, Ellaine noted as she picked up a sword with dried blood on it.

[It seemed like a battle ensued here. The bodies have become quite stiff already, from the looks of it. We probably missed them by a few days,] KleaHatma added. [Guess all of you were too late. I dont think we can find anything else here.]

Hmph. Who knows. However, Grimnir decided we should look into it more, leave no stones unturned. But, I guess if this base belonged to the Resurrection, then the attack they made on the warehouse probably was retaliation for whatever happened here. If more of those mana batteries were around, then the attackers probably took them. Any emblems on the people?

Uhm, I mean I wanted to agree, but the levianewt lived in his own present.

Oi, you men! He called over the sailors from before. You want curry, too, right? Then come! I shall pay for your meals and drinks for today! This is worthy of celebration with mead, ale, and food! Jubilation! We sail, seamen!

Ahoy! Blessed the Goddess!

Blessed water to you, Captain!

And just like that, the previous animosity was bribed away. And for some random reason, my group and I were now leading a pack of cheering sailors to our bistro. They sang sea chanties together as if they have been friends for years.

Welp, I guess were gonna have our drink sooner than I thought, Saori. Gahahaha! Grimnir joined the seamen despite hating oceans and lakes. Men were men.

Miss Saori, dont forget, this is a good opportunity to find our next clue.

Yes, we need to get information from him, Saori. We might be able to solve who actually is our second enemy here.

Both Tasianna and Ellaine urged and comforted me that this was the correct decision, but all I could wonder was how this came to be. How did we end up going from a stinky manhole to leading customers to our bistro?

A note from AbyssRaven

I do like eating curry. Warms me up.

If you guys want to support me, Hestia and "A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale" (or just read up to 20 advance chapters + any Patreon-only chapters) please check out my Patreon: Rawr!

For two dollars, for the cost of a coffee, you can read up to four chapters for the whole month! You will have my eternal gratitude for any support you can give me! Please.

Thank you for reading this chapter.

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Thursday, April 28, 2022 1:04:18 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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