Volume 2 - CH 326

Chapter 7-47. Things we’ve been looking into

We finally returned to the Kingdom of Salettana from the dungeon, and Alena and I came to the guild to meet up with Houen.

About three days had passed and we had conquered two dungeons. ……

It was unexpectedly easy.

Well, I would say that we had some difficulties.

Especially that crab dude at the end was quite a tough foe.

But thanks to that, I was able to evolve and return to my human form.

Well, I had a surprisingly great experience!

But I don’t want to fight them again. ……

“Ouren. Where’s Houen?”

“Hmm, we didn’t decide on a meeting place or anything. Well, it’s him. If we wait for him in the guild, he will come.”

“That’s right.”

Being able to talk without worrying is wonderful …….

Not being able to communicate is pretty tough.

But it’s not like I’ll never be able to go back to my human form again.

I’ve become a solid dragon.

The next evolution destination …… is Shenlong (Ouryuu).

I’ve been told that the conditions for evolution are insufficient, but I really don’t know what those conditions are.

Lize is apparently at the final evolution destination, so she might know something about it.

Maybe I’ll ask her when I see her again.

Not sure what she’s doing right now, though.

Anyway, I enter the guild and sit down on the chair that is prepared for me.

Ah, I should have told Alena about the Bamil territory.

And now that I’m back in human form, I have to explain it to her.

However, this is not a good place to do it.

After meeting up with Houen, I’ll set up a place where we can explain.

“Hey, it’s you, Ouren-kun. It’s been a while.”

“Oh, Maria.”

The person who called out to me from behind was Maria, the guild master of the Kingdom of Salettana.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her for a while.

“Where have you been?”

“You can say that I was gathering information.”

“Ah, Huen-kun also did some kind of search, didn’t he?”

“We’re looking for him now. Do you know where we can find him?”

“I know where he is. He should be at the Castle of Salettana.”

The Castle of Salettana?

That nobility-hating Huen?

Hm, I guess it would be faster to head that way then. ……

“Then I’ll head there.”

“That’s fine, but you need to do a couple more C-rank quests, right? Otherwise, you can’t raise your rank.”

“Opps, well, sounds like a pain. Alright, Alena, let’s go.”

“Yes! Bye-bye, Guildmaster!”

“Ah, wai-, ……. Sigh, well, whatever.”

Maria seemed to have something more to say, but she only sighed without saying anything more.

After seeing Ouren off, she went back to her room to organize her paperwork.

◆

When we arrived at the castle, Alena and I talked to the gatekeeper and asked him to take us to the place where Houen was visiting.

Apparently, Houen had locked himself in the library and was doing research on his own with orders not to allow anyone to enter.

He has been in charge for a while, so I should help him out somehow.

Well, since I’m here, I’ll check Reizen later.

If he’s awake, I may be able to hear what happened.

“This is the way, sir. Houen-sama! Ouren-sama and Alena-sama are here!”

One of the soldiers knocked on the door and loudly informed Houen who was probably inside about my arrival.

A moment later, I hear footsteps coming from the back of the room.

The door opened and Houen appeared.

“……, you’re late, damnit.”

“My bad, I’ve kept you waiting.”

Houen came out of the room with dark circles under his eyes and a sleepy look on his face.

How long had he been researching in this place,……?

“Good work. We will continue our research, so please stay on watch again.”

“Yes, sir! Understood!”

“Okay. Come in, both of you.”

Houen told us to go inside.

The room was surrounded by rows of neatly arranged bookshelves, which were so high you had to use a ladder to reach them.

I was impressed that they were now renting out the place, but there was something more eye-catching to me.

At the back of the room, there is a large desk.

On top of it were a large number of books, bottles, and some sort of magical tool.

I felt uncomfortable with the fact that there were things lying around that clearly should not be in this study, so I looked around again.

Then, I saw that a few of the books on the bookshelf had been pulled out.

With such a large number of books on the desk, it would seem that there should be some space on the bookshelves in this room, but there was no …… space.

“Where did you get this from, Houen?”

“From Lequam’s lab.”

“Lequam ……?”

“Let’s start with something simple.”

“But first, drink this.”

I handed Houen the recovery water.

He immediately drank it and put the empty bottle on the desk.

The recovery water can heal a physical ailment from within.

Originally, it is used in case of organ damage, but it can also be used in this way.

This is like an energy drink.

By using it, the dark circles on Houen disappeared, and his complexion seemed to have improved.

“As usual, it’s a good one.”

“It’s the recovery water. I heard this is also a dangerous skill, so don’t tell anyone okay. ……?”

“I thought it was M*nster *nergy!”

“At that time there were people around and I thought it would be better to put it that way.”

“Good call.”

After nodding once, Houen makes a serious face.

Then he shared with me the information he had gathered so far, as if verifying it one by one himself.

“First, …… Irza, but she didn’t know about the magic crystal.”

“No way-“

I’m not lying. I don’t know if she tried to hide it or if she really didn’t know. If Reizen could move, he would be able to track it down, but he’s sleeping right now. It’s not easy to move him during the winter.”

“…… I see.”

I feel like it’s odd that she doesn’t know.

Well I haven’t actually observed or heard anything about it either, so I can’t really say too much about it. ……

“So, I was stuck, and I remembered that Lequam was possessed by the devil.”

“…… yeah.”

“Ouren, when you fought Lequam, he wasn’t already possessed by a devil, was he?”

“From what I saw, yes. His personality was the same as it was then.”

“I see. After Lequam died, the devil came out. They must have had some kind of cooperation.”

“Speaking of which, he came out with a devil called Dacia or whatever.”

Something like that. …….

I can’t recall much of what they said, ……?

But I do know that Lequam and Dacia had some kind of deal.

I think it was actually those two guys. …… something about …… Lequam said he made a deal with the devil.

“And so I stepped in to see if there was something in Lequam’s lab, and I went looking for it.”

“Ah. Oh, by the way, there is a room at the far end of that basement dungeon.”

“How did you know about that?”

“Eh?”

Because I saw it in a …… haze manipulation.

I was too busy saving the kids at that time to check it out.

“You know that the door was covered with magic and you couldn’t see it? I mean, when did you go in there?”

“When I helped Alena ……”

“That was quite a while ago.”

I’m not lying.

“Well, whatever ……. So I got this pile of material there and met …… the devil.”

“”Huh?””