Chapter 17: Crossing

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

Three days have pa.s.sed since my true form was revealed .

We’ve had a few magic beast attacks along the way, but so far our itinerary could be considered progressing smoothly .

As for right now, in this prairie with beasts called stalking dogs facing us, we were going through a defensive battle .

“Hoi—, whoosh—!”

Stalking dogs are magic beasts who take residence in plains, and their feature characteristic is their fur being the same color as the gra.s.s .

From spring to summer it’s green, at the beginner of autumn it turns yellow, and when winter rolls around it becomes gray . With their fur having distinct appearances every season, they can be traded at a high price .

Their color changing fur is really useful for their keeping unnoticed, and visually spotting them is incredibly difficult .

While lacking any special abilities, they can run faster than horses, and have bottomless stamina .

They hunt by silently approaching as a pack, giving chase until their target is worn out, and attacking once the target can’t move anymore .

Though they were named dogs, their sense of smell is weak, but instead their vision is ridiculously good .

The only way to get away from these magic beasts is to notice them as soon as possible and get away from their line of sight .

However, in light of my magic power sense, their camouflage was as good as useless .

More than likely, they used magic power in changing their fur color . I noticed weak magic power waves coming from them, and managed to foil their surprise attack .

“Eeh—ya—, hoo—!”

The pack was only about thirty strong .

If they’d caught us by surprise, then we might have taken some damage, but with the initiative on our side, coping is easy .

Fleeing on the carriages would have been hard for us, so we stopped there and entered a defensive battle .

“Eir…”

“Hwa—, rah—”

Pick up a stone, throw it .

Pick up a stone, throw it .

Pick up a stone…

“I know that you’re strong and all, but could you put a little more effort into it?”

“Making all the effort I need . ”

Normally the orthodox approach would be to hold my s.h.i.+eld up and repel attacks while delivering counterattacks, but I suddenly thought of a fighting method I wanted to try .

Which was using “Magic Power Bestowal” how I learned just the other day .

It’s a technique for covering a weapon with magic power to strengthen its abilities, but “what counts as a weapon?” is a question I wondered about .

So I covered a ‘weapon’ known as ‘my own left arm’ in magic power, picked up rocks and started throwing . The result—unbelievable power sprung forth .

As a test I threw lightly, and yet the stone turned red-hot from friction in the atmosphere, and flew while melting .

And so they flew, one by one, through the heads of the stalking dogs lurking in the plains .

“Honestly, I didn’t think it’d be this strong . ”

“Yeah, I didn’t think your nonsense went this far either . ”

Eventually, when about a dozen of them were blown away, the dogs tucked their tails between their legs and ran .

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

By the time we skinned and butchered the defeated stalking dogs, the sun was setting .

Having the blood draw in other beasts would be problematic, so everyone, including the escorts, were loaded onto the carriages and we left the area in haste .

Due to my detecting abilities, I’m sitting up with the driver .

“But man, that strength of yours is really something else, little lady . ”

Holding the reigns, Moto said that in amazement .

It’s a lot better than him being afraid .

“Yeah, I was surprised too . All I did was try changing how I used my magic power a little bit . ”

Master put me on a gag order regarding “Magic Power Bestowal,” so I’m talking about it with nuances toward it being a dragon person tribe technique .

According to Master, it’s the same in principle as a magic technique lost from the age of legends called [Body Reinforcement] .

If that kind of thing was suddenly brought back, it would cause a huge ruckus .

Since Master seems to have some kind of reason for not wanting to stand out, he wants to keep this discovery under wraps .

“I wonder why he doesn’t want to stand out so much? I hope he hasn’t stuck his neck in something dangerous . ”

Being a slave, I share the same fate as my master .

My main feelings are that I’d rather not get caught up in something and die .

While I was gazing into the distance thinking about that… The lead carriage came to a sudden halt, and people got down from it .

“Wonder what’s up?”

“I’d say the river maybe? Just ahead should be a pretty big river called the Randa river . ”

The Randa river is a giant waterway running to the west of Sokaris, and is well known as a source of water in this area .

It’s about thirty meters wide, big enough that building a bridge across it alone was quite the effort .

In another sense, this river could be considered a defensive wall for Sokaris’ western side .

We drew close to the carriage to try and ask the boss what happened .

The boss is riding on the lead carriage, so he should know what’s going on .

“Mister Maxwell, what’s happened?”

“Oh, Rimuru… See for yourself . Part of the bridge is collapsed . ”

Upon taking a look, around the center of the river, more than half of the left side of the stone bridge had come down .

“Rimuru, healing magic couldn’t ‘heal’ the bridge, could it?”

“That’s definitely not how it works . ”

“Yeah, I figured… Now what do we do?”

It wasn’t completely collapsed, so it’s not as if we couldn’t cross if we were walking, but the carriages wouldn’t make it .

Plus, even if we go on foot, we don’t know when it might collapse further, so going right across is dangerous .

“Now that I see this, those stalking dogs from before appeared in what should be the patrol area of the knights, and I thought that was strange . ”

“Yeah, come to think of it… The watchtower is up ahead . So they were wandering over there because the bridge collapsed and the surveillance lightened up . ”

The bridge collapsing must have interfered with the surveillance work .

“Which means the knights must know the bridge is out of commission . ”

“Which means the knights must know the bridge is out of commission . ”

“Waiting for repairs is kind of annoying . Let’s think of some way to cross . ”

“You say that like it’s easy…”

Considering it’s crossing over a huge waterway, this bridge is pretty big .

A huge portion of the left side is gone, so repairs are going to take a whole lot of work .

“It’s not like we need to repair the bridge . We can leave that to the country . The important thing is that we get across to the other side, so…”

“Even then, we’re talking three carriages here?”

“Eir, can you fly across with a carriage?”

“Uwha?!”

I made a weird noise because of his sudden and ridiculous request .

Sure I can fly, but flying while holding a carriage is just—

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

—Done .

I mean, I couldn’t do it with the horses connected, so it was just the load-carrying parts though .

This body’s nonsense just keeps amazing me .

Crimson went ahead to the other side on foot, and then I brought the carriages over one by one .

When heading back I stretched a rope across to serve as a lifeline for the walkers when they cross .

All that was left was to have the people and horses cross, and we were done .

“Hrmm, useful too . ”

“Mister Maxwell, I’m not giving Eir to you . ”

“Yeah, I know, but…”

“I’d like her in our party too . The flight alone would give us an advantage . ”

“Hey you guys, don’t be trying to steal a march on our yellow party in your scouting . We’re pulling rank on you . ”

Not just the boss, but also the leaders of Crimson and Moonlight joined in the battle to try and recruit me .

“Rank has nothing to do with it!”

“Like I said, she’s not…”

“We don’t have a marksman in Crimson, and we want that stone throwing . ”

“And we don’t have enough front-liners! We’d welcome Rimuru into Moonlight as—”

“Don’t you take her! She’s going to be my body pillow!”

“Hey, no fair Carla! Then I’m going to have her be my dress-up doll—”

“Oh, I like that idea too . Can I join in Amy?”

“Then she’ll sit on my lap and I’ll give her all my love .  Gufufu”

“Amy… You’re scaring me a little . ”

“I want her strength for the props too . ”

“GRAAAHHH! All of you cut the bulls.h.i.+t! Eir belongs to me!”

Ah, Master snapped .

“I’m not giving Eir to anyone!”

Saying that, he pulls on my arm and holds me to his chest .

Saying that, he pulls on my arm and holds me to his chest .

This position… Is a little embarra.s.sing .

Actually, when I took a quick look at everyone from there, everyone had the same complacent smile on their faces .

“Yes, yes, thank you for the delicious sight . ”

“Ah, to be young again . I’d like to be held like that too . ”

“Oh, then how ’bout I…”

“Moto, you’ve gotta learn how to get a good mood going first . ”

“Rimuru, how about a rental? Would renting be okay?”

“Well if we need her, then we can just put in a request with her boyfriend I guess . ”

“By the way, could I use those lines just now in one of my plays?”

I peek up at Master’s face . Whoa, he’s going completely red .

“Ah, th-… th…”

“No need to say more . The bittersweet and fleeting love between a young couple is one of my favorite types of stories!”

“Carla, I’m not sure that’s in the best of tastes?”

“Come on, Rimuru! I want to do all sorts of this and all sorts of that to Eir!”

“Ya need to come back to your senses, dumba.s.s”

“What?! You’re being awfully cheeky for just being Kevin!”

“Say what?!”

In any case, I can tell they were messing with us .

Master got even more red in the face than I’ve seen before, and—

“Dammit! I hate you alllll!”

He screamed while running away .

“… Did we tease him a little too much?”

“Immature . ”

Receiving my slightly blame-filled gaze, Carla shrugs her shoulders .

“I mean come on . He was always looking at you like he was obliged to you . ”

“Master said he’s never liked slavery . ”

“I’m sure he doesn’t . But you know, he seemed to be keeping you at a distance for some reason . It didn’t really sit right with me…”

“Hrm . ”

It’s true, Master does feel indebted to me because of the fact that he ‘bought me’ .

That turned into a wall in our master and slave relations.h.i.+p, and yeah, I felt some cold distance from him .

Carla must not have been fond of that wall .

But… The others? When I looked toward Crimson, their leader answered .

“We adventurers fundamentally don’t use slaves . Well, there are plenty of people who use them though . But that ends up being ‘the power of slaves,’ and not ‘our own power,’ right?”

“I guess, yeah?”

“Yeah . What we’re going for is to be great pioneers who climb the World Tree with our own power . We’re not like those wicked people who use and throw away slaves on our way to the top . So we feel some aversion to those types at first . ”

They thought Master might be the type to use me and toss me out…?

“Well, we realized he doesn’t have the temperament of that kind of trash over these few days of course . ”

“Well, we realized he doesn’t have the temperament of that kind of trash over these few days of course . ”

Kevin averts his eyes when hearing that .

He used slaves to do his work, so he’s probably looking back on that .

“Well, there are people who realize what they’re doing and release the slaves of course . ”

Saying that, he grinned over at Kevin .

“Release? I heard you returned them though . ”

“It’s the same either way . Don’t nitpick . ”

“As a slave, I can tell you it’s not the same . ”

“Shaddup . What I do with my slaves is my own business . ”

Come to think of it, back then Kevin didn’t use the slaves as bait or sacrifices, but ran in himself, didn’t he?

The safest move at that time would have been to have the slaves draw its attention and attack from a blind spot .

Surprisingly enough, this guy may have been a ‘good master’ too .

“More importantly, is it really okay for you to leave your master, who can’t fight, all alone?”

“—Ah”

In a panic, I chased after Master .

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

Thankfully I found Master right away .

He’s a weak and scholarly type of boy by nature, so he can’t exactly go far .

“Master Rimuru?”

“Eir, huh… That’s, uhh… It’s not like that, okay?”

“I know . ”

At the very most I’m ‘a slave he bought’ .

Of course I’m trying a lot of tricks to have him release me though . Like the honey traps?

After Master stared at me, he heavily opened his mouth .

“There’s… There’s something that I have to do . ”

“Be admitted to Raum’s school?”

“That’s the method . ”

“Then, mastering healing magic?”

“That’ll be the result . ”

“… Then, what?”

Master doesn’t give an answer to my question .

“… Not yet . Once we get to Raum, I’ll tell you everything . Could you wait until then?”

“Mm, got it . ”

I guess it’s fine if he’ll tell me eventually .

With my hand offered to Master, we went back to everyone .