CH 120

T/N: Short explanation about Brave and Hero. Sword is being called an eiyuu (英雄) while the one with the duty to slay the demon king is called yuusha (勇者). In English you could call both of them hero. But eiyuu is more like a great person who did good for their country and its people, or a great military commander. You could call Gandhi or Martin Luther King eiyuu as well, for example. Yuusha on the other hand is mostly a gaming/fantasy term, pointing to someone needing to be brave (勇気) as the kanji already gives away.

“Is it really true that Indra Springcoat can be labeled as a great magician and, at the same time, great sorceress? No, if she can contort a special-grade healing potion through self-study, it is undoubtable that she’s a great sorceress.”

“Yep…”

I scratched my head, “There’s a clear difference between the magic we use and the one she uses. We cast spells that use our own mana, right? She doesn’t. That’s why she’s never goin’ to run out of mana. She can cast magic on end.”

Shadow froze. He had apparently grasped how dangerous a trait it was.

“Plus, she uses spells based on theoretical principles only she understands. She doesn’t chant like we do. For this reason, she probably can’t use spells that she doesn’t understand theoretically, even if she wants to. A good example would be how we release lightnin’ and ice spells from ourselves. That’d be the usual way how things work, but she lets ’em fall from the sky.”

Shadow became pale while the king’s eyes widened.

“Is Indra Springcoat possibly the incarnation of a god?”

“Nah, she’s not. Accordin’ to her, there exist theories for things to happen like that. And she releases her spells based on those theories. …Sir Dungeon Core might be capable of understandin’ what she does. After we defeated the boss on the last floor, he expressly invited us over and told her to teach him a spell she was usin’. Immediately after she did so, he could reproduce it. If you had seen the magic she used, Shadow, even you wouldn’t have said somethin’ like that, you know? As long as she doesn’t run her mouth, she’s just like a divine manifestation of a goddess.”

――As long as she doesn’t run her mouth, seriously!!

Arkhide revealed a playful expression, “My goodness, is that so? …By the way, Sword, when are you going to marry Indra Springcoat?”

“”Haah?””

As I cried out in concert with Shadow, we looked at each other.

“What’s with that reaction? So far as it goes, Earl Springcoat is known for being a womanizer, so she ought to be quite the looker herself, no? I don’t know about her mother, but I didn’t hear anything about her having been an extremely ugly woman either. You as well haven’t changed much…or wait, don’t you look younger than before? Anyway, with your appearance, she probably won’t really feel the age difference, and you’re so protective and full of praise for her because you’re willing to marry her, aren’t you? I’m certain she must be a lovely noble lady, seeing how she made your heart sway so much.”

Shadow and I waved our hands.

“…Shadow, did she look like a woman to you?”

“No. To be frank, I would not have considered her a woman if I had not heard about her being one. Though I still do not think of her as a woman, even after knowing that she is.”

“I’m with you on that. Even though I’m aware of her bein’ a woman, I can’t think of her as one.”

The king looked at us dubiously.

“…Oh well, whatever. But, you’re quite popular, aren’t you? Don’t do anything that would make such a talented lady cry, okay?”

“She won’t cry. Both of us plan to remain single. She says she’s plannin’ to spend her remainin’ years by playin’ ’round with the golems she built, you know? Her sayin’ that she wants to be surrounded by golems and not humans is what should make one cry, don’t you think?”

“……So she can build golems too?” Shadow spat out, desperation colorin’ his voice.

Yep, so you finally realized that you wouldn’t win if you fought her, huh?

“The rumored spider and caterpillar golems, eh?”

“Yep. She loves bugs. But, those are the only ones with a weird shape. The golem she built as a replacement for a horse is really awesome! Ah, this here as well.”

I showed them the wristband-shaped clock.

“It’s a wristband with the functions of a clock! You see, this thing here allows me to talk with Indra and my Ryoku…ah, Ryoku is the name of one of her golems…from far away! Moreover! It can also display maps! Look!”

A detailed map of the royal palace emerged.

Oops, that’s slightly bad, isn’t it?

I quickly erased it.

“…’nyway, it can also show your body information. And she said it’d warn me if one of ’em reached dangerous levels,” I rattled on to gloss over my blunder with the map, but Shadow narrowed his eyes, scowlin’ at me.

“…Wait a moment. Mr. Sword, was that a map of the palace just now?”

“It’s just your imagination. …So, yeah, she’s creatin’ all kinds of toys.”

“Toys, eh?” Arkhide looked very envious.

“The one I like the most is a golem which drives on two wheels. She named it Bronko. …Though, if I say it too loudly, my Ryoku might feel offended. That one’s no golem ‘nymore. He’s one of my comrades.”

Somehow feelin’ like he was listenin’ in, I added a supplementary explanation. Or rather, I’m damn sure he’s hidin’ out somewhere ’round here.

A map of the palace bein’ available inadvertently means that a Ryoku has come here and mapped out the place.

“You see, I wanted to consult that genius girl Indra Springcoat about a certain matter…” Arkhide admitted with a sigh.

“What is it?”

The king suddenly straightened himself, “The braves were summoned.”

“……..Hah?”

The braves? Summoned?

“…As a matter of fact, braves are being summoned from an ancient magic circle set up in the royal castle’s temple. Of course it’s not like we wanted to summon them or anything. Or to be precise, we actually wanted to stop it. We looked for a way to stop the summoning over many years, but…to no avail.”

……For real?

“The magic circle will start shining as omen of the summoning magic being invoked. As if it’s being filled with mana. In reality, it might be just that, though… And then, once the magic circle rises with all of its parts shining, 『you must summon』. If you ignore it, the magic circle will run out of control, resulting in the palace being blown up.”

…Is that really true?

“Therefore, we’ve summoned them. This time it was slightly earlier than usual. The summoned braves are apparently forcibly called over to this world. The conditions for how the braves are chosen remain shrouded in mystery too. For a time I thought we might as well relocate the capital and let the magic circle run out of control, but that thing is really old. It should be there for some kind of reason, and as long as we don’t know that reason, we can’t act carelessly,” explained the king with a grave expression. “The books only mention a part about 『summoning someone to defeat the demon king』, but we don’t know why we would need to defeat the demon king and we have no means to stop the magic circle either.

That part also includes a warning that 『we’ll be destroyed if we divert from that procedure』. That’s why we must continue summoning braves, even if it’s unfortunate for them. There exist no past records of the demon king having been defeated by a brave, and it’s never happened that the demon king attacked the capital in retaliation either. So basically it has continued since there existed no reason to stop it.

…But you see…if the braves were someone like you, it’d still be fine. If the braves were people who didn’t flaunt their power, possessed a dutiful heart to save the weak, and had some character, you could regard braves and hero as equals. …But, the real brave is…”

The king sighed.

Well, I get his feelings. The summoned 『braves』 so far had many troublemakers among them. The previous generations seem to have suffered the same issues as well. Back when I was still a brat, a brave was selected as well, but…he was such an utter failure that he made me think that I never ever want ‘nythin’ to do with him.

I thought that the braves got all stuck up after bein’ chosen for their position, but I guess they’ve appeared in this world after bein’ summoned over from somewhere.

“The current brave is especially terrible. We had him train at the palace for a while, but he caused a mountain of problems, and thus we got him to depart quickly. …Those accompanying him as companions basically are sacrifices. We had some of those who knew the situation follow the brave in exchange for a ridiculously high reward.”

Whoa, that’s quite the depressin’ story.

“So, since you want to stop the magic circle that produces all those worthless braves, you’re tellin’ me to lend you Indra?”

“If it’s someone who can use magic capable of causing an effect as they’d be performed by a god, they might know a method to stop that thing, don’t you think?”

――Makes sense. That girl will most likely have a clue.