Chapter 31: Chapter 31: The City’s Troubles

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

“At last, we’re at the border city! But doesn’t it seem like there’s some heaviness in the air?”

“Quiet over there. Calm down and line up.”

Rahon doubles as a border checking station, so anyone entering or leaving is subject to a thorough inspection.

You might even say the long queue in front of the gate is the local specialty.

“We are not inside yet, but the city seems kind of dead, Master.”

“I recall it being much more lively in the past, too.”

“Yes, you’re right. When I passed through here half a year ago, it was pretty crowded. I wonder if something happened?”

According to mister Elric’s information, it seems this town was flourishing.

Let’s wait a bit, and ask about the situation here after we’ve handed Arim and his bandits over.

“What’s up with these guys?”

“These folks were robbing people on the mountain road to the south. When we were attacked, our escorts here turned on us.”

“Aah, I’d heard there were bandits there. We couldn’t find ’em when we searched.”

“We also investigated their headquarters, so we should have them all rounded up. We’ll tell you where it’s at, so you can check… also, they were using a vicious trap.”

“Sounds like you’ve been through a lot. I’ll dispatch some soldiers to check the area. We appreciate your cooperation.”

Mister Elric and the gatekeeper continue the bandit hand off, and then they’re checking our border passes.

While that’s happening, my Master asks a idle-looking soldier about the situation here.

“It would seem the city isn’t very lively, did something happen?”

“Aah, there’s a bit of an epidemic, an illness going around. It’s not dangerous, but…”

“That’s something to worry about for us travelers. What kind of illness?”

“It’s Randa fever.”

Randa fever is a sickness with symptoms of fever, sweating, fatigue, and some paralysis of the limbs. If you contract a high fever from the sickness while lying in bed, then you won’t be able to move.

The most important characteristic of this illness is that it has a low mortality rate, but it has a long duration.

Sleeping normally will eventually heal it, but in that case it’ll take almost a month of staying in bed.

During that time, the sufferer wouldn’t be able to move, so if there’s nobody around to take care of them, then they won’t even be able to have meals. It seems there are many cases of people growing weak and then dying from it.

Since it’s also pretty contagious, it’s important to watch out for it, but… if I’m not mistaken, wasn’t there a special medicine for it?

“If it’s Randa fever, then shouldn’t some dried and infused zipacna leaves cure it in less than 3 days? And I’m pretty sure there are plenty of those trees in this area, aren’t there?”

“Yeah, there’s plenty of them on the mountainside just north of the city. … The problem is, a flying dragon is taking residence there.”

“Flying dragon?!”

IT’S HERE! It’s a wyvern, a WYVERN!

I have the chance to see this classic part of a fantasy with my very own eyes!

“If we aren’t careful going near it, it’ll roast us with its ridiculous fire and then eat us… On top of that, when we sent for reinforcements, they ended up contracting Randa fever too.”

“You… have my condolences…”

“To get rid of the dragon, we have to call for help. When we call people for help, they contract the illness. If they contract the illness then we need the medicine. And the dragon is in the way of getting the medicine… It’s an absolute nightmare.”

Yeesh, that’s a pretty vicious cycle.

“But you can’t take it easy with a wyvern near the city, right?”

“Yeah, we have to keep a 24 hour watch, we have to regularly patrol to check on the ill, and we have to give everyone crossing the border a thorough inspection. It’s rough.”

“What about the adventurers? Wouldn’t there be some who are raring to take on a wyvern?”

“They would get a lot of money for killing it. But we don’t have anyone who can take it on in the area right now.”

“I see, and they aren’t gonna come by when there’s a disease going around…”

Isn’t this a little much?

If a flying dragon invades the town to cause a bunch of destruction, the whole place could be ruined.

Well, with this being a key point on the border, the national army could probably move to exterminate it as a last resort…

“What, is that all? It’ll be fine. In that case we can—HEBUCH!”

With Jack getting carried away, remarking that they’ll handle it, he was beaten up by miss Bella.

If it was you guys alone, then you’d be going to your deaths.

“The hell are you doing! We’ve got—GEFUH!”

This time Alec kneed him.

For what reason does he think my master used a pseudonym? What a dimwit!

“Haa, why did we make this idiot our leader again…?”

“You have my sympathies.”

To be honest, I think mister Oreas should be the leader, but… while thinking that, when I asked the man in question…

“I’m the secret mastermind.”

Is what he said. So in the end…

~*~

While we were doing that, mister Elric finished with the procedures and came back.

The rest of us also presented our identification, and were allowed to enter the gate. Marle, who didn’t have an ID, had one made for her right there.

Entering the city, we left our carriages at the inn. We were dismissed for some free time until our departure the day after tomorrow.

Since we were traveling by carriage without a roof over our heads, we’re spending a day here to relieve our fatigue.

The inn was mister Elric’s recommendation and everyone is staying there.

“Mister Haster, let’s go sightseeing, come on!”

“Sir Alec, want to take a look around the city?”

“Absolutely not! Master is going sightseeing with me!”

“We could all go to…”

“Absolutely not!”

For some reason my master was speaking nonsense, so the three of us quipped at him.

“When a woman is inviting you out, ‘let’s all go’ is the worst response you could give, mister Haster.”

“Ah, well then, I’ll be heading out with sir Alec.”

“Take care, Marle. Now Master, do you intend to make me walk around alone? Not to brag, but I’m confident that I’ll be kidnapped by slave traders or the like if I walk around alone, you know?”

“Alright, I’m heading out with Marle. We’ll be back by dinner!”

“Ah, you’re headin’ out sir Alec? Should I accompany you?”

“You stay put, got it…?”

Th-that last line, spoken in a voice filled with intimidation, was that Marle…?

I got some goosebumps there.

“Well then, let’s go mister Haster. There’s a great cafe just a little ways from here, shall we?”

“Uhh, but…”

“Ab-so-lute-ly not!”

“Oh, then how about going with me? It’s just about lunch time.”

“What are you bouncing in here for, mister Kale…”

“Wait a- You’re gonna stretch my clothes! Stop pulling me!”

All of a sudden, mister Kale left the room, dragging miss Bella along with him.

I’ll have to buy him a drink later. You have my appreciation.

“Well then, Master, shall we?”

“S-sure…”

“… eh, does that mean I have to take care of Jack?”

“The hell do you mean take care… I’m perfectly fine on my—“

“If we leave you alone then you’ll start bragging about certain topics and bring trouble on us, won’t you?!”

“What ‘certain topics’? The sage of wind—GUHAA!”

I sent out a [Wind bullet] that wouldn’t injure the bird brain who immediately made a slip of the tongue.

But it seems like mister Bhav is one of those types… the kind of person who always meets with misfortune. The scout being unfortunate is a bit worrisome.

It seems like he’s interested in miss Bella, so I think he should just invite her out. For my sake too.

~*~

And so, together with my master, we went to the tool shop.

Why the tool shop, you ask? We were thinking of having them buy a magic tool that we thought up and made during our journey.

“Which is this stone here.”

“Sir, I’m not interested in buying rocks…”

“Wait, this isn’t an ordinary rock. Look, there’s this pattern carved on the surface.”

“Indeed… is this a magic circle?”

“Yep, this is actually a magic tool. When you say the magic word, it emits light. ‘Oh light, shine’.”

At my master’s words, the rock lit up, and the inside of the shop was brightly illuminated.

The light it gives off is brighter than a torch, but not enough to hurt the eyes.

“Ohh, my my…”

“It can be used in homes, and if you throw it in a lantern it can even be used on adventures. Using the magic word once will make it light up for 6 hours, and it should last about 100 uses before the magic runs out.”

“If the price is kept low, then it will be very convenient.”

“The catalyst is a simple stone, so all we need to do is carve the circle in and give it some magic power. And since the magic power required isn’t very much… how about 50 silver coins?”

“That’s pretty cheap for a magic tool. However, to put it into the hands of ordinary households… I would like to keep the selling price down to that level.”

The [Ball of light] magic tool is equivalent to 5000 Japanese yen? Well, it’s a product that my master can make in 30 minutes of manual work, and the materials are free.

By the way, I can make one of them in less than 5 minutes with my ‘burning the circle in’ method.

The homes of this world are lit by candles and lamps, so if they can get 6 hours of light for this price, it goes into the unbelievably cheap class of goods.

“In that case, how about I take 60% of that and get 30 coins for it?”

“Very well. How many of these products do you have?”

“All together, we made about 200 of them.”

Doing that, we obtained 60 gold coins of pocket change.

It’s hard to put this on the level of pocket change though?

~*~

With our substantial income in hand, we went to a nearby sidewalk cafe for lunch, where I sat happily together with my master.

I had wild vegetable pasta. My master had some kind of grilled rice dish that looked kind of like… paella?

Somehow it seems like he’s having less than usual, but I guess he’s fine with it.

“Master, if we did something like this in the first place, then we would have avoided getting involved in all this.”

“Ahh, don’t say that. This is an item we wouldn’t have thought of if we weren’t on a journey without a place to stay.”

Fire is convenient of course, but light is definitely necessary at night.

That’s why, instead of striking the flint over and over and over again for 10 minutes, saying some magic words to light up the surroundings is much more convenient.

If you think about it, as magicians, at the cottage we could say a single word and have all the [Balls of light] that we needed.

And for fire we used [Heat balls], so you could say our utility costs were practically nothing.

So up until now we never even realized that an item like this would be necessary.

“In any case, for it to be this deserted at this time of day… I guess it’s pretty bad here, huh?”

“Indeed. I guess we’ve got the place to ourselves.”

There’s barely even a shadow of a person in our surroundings, even in a sidewalk cafe with as bright an atmosphere as this one.

Moreover, many of the surrounding shops are closed. It’s practically one step away from a ghost town.

“Master, I want to try looking for the wyvern.”

“That’s rather sudden… well, turning a blind eye to them is weighing on my conscience too.”

“And I hear wyvern scales are a great material.”

“That’s your reason?”

That’s an important point for a magical engineer you know?

“Let’s see… I guess tomorrow we’ll invite Alec along and take a look?”

“Have you ever fought a wyvern before, Master?”

“Many times. Well, it’s not even hard for me to win against something like that.”

“Oooh, just what I’d expect.”

“I can fly too, so that takes away their biggest advantage.”

“I see, so fly-by attacks don’t work on you.”

“You can do the same thing you know… cough”

Hm, Master, isn’t your face red?

“Master, what’s wrong? Your face is kind of red.”

“Just, a little dizzy… ah, the ground is shaking…?”

“Master?!”

And with that, my master collapsed.

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A/N: Maybe I should have called this the Rahon arc?

T/L: Slow translation because bingeing on Tensei Oujo wa Kyou mo Hata wo Tatakioru. On another note: YAY, DRAGON!