CH 4

One of them was around my age with blonde hair and had equipped an iron armour. She also wore a metallic headband or tiara like accessory on her head. It could also have been a part of her armour. Nevertheless, she was a beautiful girl. The other person was also around my age, with brown skin and short white hair. She wore a short dark brown dress and a black stole around her neck. If the blonde girl was considered beautiful, handsome would best describe this girl. I felt the brown skinned girl was too lightly dressed for a dungeon, but I am really in no state to talk about others while standing in my underwear. When the girls noticed me, they frowned in disapproval.

“Is it a new type of Goblin?” asked the brown skinned girl. She was the one with the husky voice. Which meant that she was Cornelia.

“Of course not, it is a person.” replied the blonde girl after which she began to worriedly ask me, “Are you alright? What are you doing here? That too in your underwear.”

“My clothes got wet, and I felt cold after removing them. I ended up here while searching for a place to warm up.”

The blonde girl was really shocked at this.

“Don’t tell me, by ‘wet’ you mean in the river nearby?”

“That’s right.”

“You didn’t drink the water right!? Tell me you didn’t!”

“Well… I drank it.”

She got really flustered and dragged me closer by my hands.

“Eh!! What!?”

“That river is called the “River of death”! It has lot Animium dissolved in it! You need to quickly hack out any water you drank from it.”

“Aaa…”

The blonde girl was practically brimming with impatience.

“What are you waiting for?! Quickly!”

“No, well… It’s a bit too late. I’ve already been injected with Animium.”

She knitted her eyebrows in confusion and asked, “What do you mean?”

— — —

After leaving the dungeon, we started a fire by gathering firewood and throwing the goblin’s torch into it. While my clothes were drying in front of the fire, I told them about everything that happened until now. The blonde girl sitting front of me was called Allison. Cornelia, was her Servant who was originally in the form of a shield. Allison had a cloth wrapped around her nose and mouth to prevent any accidental inhalation of Animium mixed with the water vapour. Once she finished listening to my story, Allison rubbed her hands together for warmth and said,

“What happened to you was really horrible.”

“For a while I thought that this was the afterlife. After all, even my body is healthy now.” Hearing that, Allison showed a lonesome smile.

“Of course not, but how did you suddenly become healthy?”

“Yes, that. I’ve been thinking about that.” And then I told her about my hypothesis. Allison nodded like she concurred with it.

“Yeah, that could be the case.”

“If this isn’t the afterlife, where are we?”

“This is Entour. If you were the eldest son of the Leslie count household, you lived in Leslie right?” I nodded in assent.

After thinking for a bit Cornelia asked, “I wonder how you came so far.”

Allison tilted her head in doubt and replied, “Wasn’t he just carried by the river?”

“I wonder if that’s the case, the distance seems too far. It takes two days by a fast carriage to Alucorada1, isn’t Leslie even farther than that?”

Cornelia then looked at me and said, “You floated so far down the river, and that too while unconscious? I am surprised that you’re alive.”

Even if I am told that… I thought back to vomiting a large quantity of water right after I woke up. I’d expelled so much that it was strange I had managed to breathe until then.

“I am sure he was able to float really well.” Once Allison said that, Cornelia muttered, “I suppose that’s possible.”

“Nicola, you don’t have anywhere to go right? I bet you don’t want to go back home either.”

I nodded in assent to Allison’s words. Right now, I only have the clothes on my back, of course, I have no money either.

“You’ll be able to get work if you register with the Adventurer Guild. You don’t have a Servant, so you might only get small jobs, but that’s the case for me too, so it’ll be fine. I’ll bring you along.”

I glanced at Cornelia and asked, “You can only take small requests despite having Cornelia?”

“Yeah, that…” Allison smiled wryly and touched her necklace. Hung by it was an oblong tag that shone bronze in colour.

“I seem to have a constitution that lacks mana. Since I can’t use my Ability that much, no one is willing to form a party with me.”

“It’s the exact opposite of me.”, I replied and returned her wry smile.

Both, the quantity of our mana, and the relationship with our Servants were opposite. If it were Katrina, I am sure she would have abandoned me even if I were healthy but lacked mana instead.

“Cornelia is a fine Servant.”

“Yes! She’s such a nice girl that she even tags along with the likes of me!”, exclaimed Allison as she held Cornelia’s hands in hers. Cornelia blushed slightly and turned away in embarrassment.

I wanted to build such a relationship with Katrina. However, forget protecting, she actively plotted to cause me harm.

Cornelia stood up quickly to hide her embarrassment and said, “We should get going, it’ll get dark soon. We need return before the number of monsters increase.”

My clothes were only half dry, but it was much better than being soaking wet. I dressed and put out the fire. It was at that moment, “Shh!!” Cornelia silenced us. “Something is there.”

Allison grasped the hilt of the sword on her waist, but she would soon be made to let go of it. As I heard the sound of grass and bushes being pushed aside, the monster appeared in front of us. Standing, its body was so huge that it felt like it hid the sun. Its black eyes looked down on us from a height that was at least twice mine.

“A Red Grizzly.”, muttered Cornelia. “We were unlucky.”

Its nose and mouth were stained black. The stain travelled down until its abdomen, like it had just been eating something. Looks like the meal was not satisfying. Its roar, which felt like the earth rumbling, froze my spine.

“CORNELIA!” Allison shouted and Cornelia immediately transformed into a shield. “Nicola! You can’t use Ability now right? Hide behind me!”, saying that Allison braced herself using Cornelia.

Flustered, I ran and hid behind Allison by sticking very close to her.

“It would be great if it runs scared by this.”, muttered Allison before she shouted, “Lightning Shield!”

An attribute endowed Ability. A defensive one at that. It’s the same second grade that Riley could use. A semi-transparent Lightning Shield manifested in front of Allison.

“Eh?”, murmured Allison. “What’s with this size? Moreover… ”

The Lightning Shield was twice my size and as tall as the Red Grizzly. A sound like clothes ripping reverberated in the surroundings. Sporadically small arcs of lightning rose from the shield and bored into the ground. But that wasn’t all.

“Why is the water attribute…?”

The shield was also endowed with the water attribute. Water flowed and coiled helically around the Lightning Shield. The Red Grizzly faltered for a moment, but soon roared and attacked the shield with its arm. Its sharp claws collided with the shield. In that instant, the water coiled around the shield shot forward like a snake and struck the Red Grizzly. It felt like that in itself had very little penetrating power, but the next instant an explosion resounded causing me to cover my ears. I was forced away from Allison, and as the surroundings filled with light I could see her shield suddenly shrink to half its size.

As the light faded, I could clearly see the figure of the Red Grizzly. Smoke rose from its stiffened form, and it soon staggered and fell over. Allison’s Lightning Shield was present, but its size was still halved.

“Did I just defeat it?” asked Allison with an unbelieving expression on her face.

My heart was still racing, and I couldn’t believe that I’d survived being attacked by such a huge bear type monster. Allison is amazing. Not only can she use the second grade of her Ability, but can also grant it two attributes simultaneously. I am sure that she committed very few sins in her previous life, and was just being humble when she said she couldn’t use her Ability that much.

“Thank you for protecting me Allison, you really saved me.” I thanked the still dumbfounded Allison. “To think that you could use two attributes and create a shield that large…” When I began to praise her, Allison shook her head vehemently denying it.

“No! No one can do that! At most, you can only have one attribute! I have only one you know!? Yet, why was the water attribute mixed in? Why… Why is the shield still being maintained? Even though it disappears well within ten seconds usually!”, shouted an utterly perplexed Allison.

And then, Cornelia said with an excited voice, “Oi! Oi Nicola! Try touching Allison!”

“Eh?” I tilted my head in incomprehension.

“Just do it!”

I touched Allison’s back like before and the Lightning Shield suddenly expanded to its original size. It was the same for the water attribute.

“Wow! This is crazy!” exclaimed Cornelia in high spirits. “I feel like I am overflowing with strength! It feels like it’s rushing into me from Nicola!”

Once I removed my hand from Allison’s back, Cornelia erased the Lightning Shield and returned to her human form, and exclaimed to Allison, “Allison! Nicola is amazing!! With him just being around we can use our Ability as much as we like!!”

T/N Notes: