Chapter 19

Phantasmal Roar

 
We carried Aunty to bed and took a rest for a moment.

I couldn't carry her alone and show off, so I had Ilya help me.

I'd already checked her breathing before, but I did it once more to make sure.

 

"Hm... she's alright, isn't she," I murmured, as if to reassure myself.

 

"I believe she will be alright. That was a wonderful spell, Alice-sama."

"T-thank you."

 

Ilya sure acts normally—

 

Should I think of that as something like artificial respiration?

No, I'm sure it was something along those lines, but still.

What on earth has she...?

 

"Ilya, earlier... what exactly was that?"

"I am very sorry, Alice-sama."

"No, it's not like I'm angry, how should I say this, I feel like thanks to that I was able to get better?"

 

Oh Ilya, you're not even my slave yet but you're so polite to me already.

 

"That is, uhm..."

 

While avoiding me with her emerald eyes, Ilya hesitated.

I see, so she can't reveal her circumstances just like that, either. Just like me.

 

"Sorry, forget it. But you really did save me there. Thank you."

 

From the point she saved me from the bandits, actually.

Actually, Ilya is damn strong!

Isn't she stronger than me?

Well, I won't lose at ranged combat though!

 

"No, such praise is wasted on me."

"You're so stiff..."

 

Well, if I do manage to buy Ilya, our time together would increase and we'd could get closer or used to each other, I guess.

 

"By the way, how did you know where I was?"

"While I was fighting alongside the Firm's combat slaves, I spotted you running through the streets right away, Alice-sama... because you stand out."

 

Finding it somewhat hard to say, Ilya turned her face away.

...wait a sec.

 

"... did the bandits coming after me perhaps follow me?"

 

Ilya awkwardly nodded in affirmative.

Ohh.

The seeds that I sowed...

Nono, looking at it in hindsight, I also didn't have a moment to spare.

 

"...ah."

"?"

 

Come to think of it and looking at Ilya's arm, there was a cut after all.

Well, usually speaking stopping one slash from a scimitar with your arm wouldn't lead to just a little cut.

Her arm is so resilient I almost wanted to shout out "What exactly is your body made of?"

 

"Please show it to me."

"Ah, no, such conc-"

"Just do it."

 

I forcibly took Ilya's arm and laid my hand on the cut.

 

"——Heal."

 

 It wasn't such an exhausting wound.

Thus it closed right away

Actually, bruises are scary because of infections and so.

 

"Thank you... very much..."

"No, I wish I could do more for you."

 

To pay her back.

But it was mysterious.

I kept holding Ilya's arm like that and carefully stroked it a bit.

Her skin was so smooth.

It was soft, and you wouldn't call her muscular.

Or rather, her arm was delicate.

 

"Excuse me..."

"Ah, I'm sorry! Curiosity got the better of me."

 

I let go of Ilya's arm as she gave me a troubled look.

Uhhhm.

What's the secret behind her Protection 5?

Something doesn't quite add up.

Is she not human?

 

"Oy."

"Ah, yes?"

 

From beyond the door, Blackie came in to check up on us.

 

"The Firm's combat slaves are looking after this house. Relax, they won't lose to some bandits."

"Eh?"

 

My wonderment at why the Firm went so far must've shown on my face and been seen through by him.

Is there a merit for the Firm in protecting this town?

 

"In return, I'm going to take this one with me. It seems Bertrand is having a tough time on the meadows outside of town."

 

So Ilya alone is more important than the combat slaves outside?

That weird. Wouldn't that mean the price she's being sold for is too cheap?

Is there... something?

 

"Are bandits still left?"

"Nahh, you can probably say the bandits have been wiped from the town. The firm and the guys from the militia are making rounds to make sure."

 

Then what are they having a hard time with?

With the sharp look in his eyes grim as always, Blackie managed to squeeze out one phrase.

 

"———it's a dragon."

 

After reaching the large street, we could bodily feel its stature and roar even if we didn't want to.

The dragon was magnificently reigning over the meadows where I'd been attacked by a puppy in the very beginning.

 

"Tsk, it's already come that close."

 

As Blackie said, earlier I hadn't felt those roars or the tremors coming along with them.

No, had it even existed in the first place?

Had it suddenly appeared?

But as a reality, right now it was there. That phantasmal life form giving off an overwhelming pressure.

This may be a fantasy world, but I didn't expected meeting one quite this soon.

My experiences so far were plenty unreal already, but this takes the cake.

It's so huge I can't quite believe it exists in this world.

Had dinosaurs still been alive, it might've been different, but the biggest I've seen were the elephants in the zoo.

It's still ways away, but... isn't there something wrong with my sense of perspective?

It has the intensity of a moving house...

 

"We have to make Aunty and the people in the town evacuate!"

"——thou can leave that to the people who are supposed to deal with that"

 

I was talked to from the sky.

The one who landed next to me was Till.

Her way of movement is really too peculiar. She keeps surprising me, this girl...

But more importantly!

 

"Till!"

 

There was any number of things I wanted to say to her, but her eyes signaled me to shut up.

Uhh... she's only a little child, but somehow I can't oppose her.

 

"You bitch! Are you an elf!?"

 

Seeing Till, Blackie got furious.

Which reminds me, Till doesn't try to hide what she is.

Couldn't she easily hide those lovely, pointed ears if she wanted to?

She just has to let down her hair.

Well, the twintails are cute though.

I suppose Till doesn't care much about our circumstances.

At any rate, my ears aren't particularly pointed, I arbitrarily confirmed by touched them.

 

"Thou are noisy, black one. Can't thou understand now is not the time? Before barking, thou would better help with the evacuation."

 

With a jerk of her chin, Till called attention to the dragon.

And I completely agreed with her.

 

"Oy, Alice, right! We're going to talk about this later!"

"Ehh—"

 

But I only just met her, too—?

Even if we talk about her, nothing will come of it...

Blackie gathered the nearby people from the Firm and instructed them to help as many people escape as possible.

Actually it would be better for Aunty to rest, but I asked them to help her take refuge, too.

But seeing that dragon, I couldn't stop where I was.

And when we had finished giving some rough orders and it was finally time to do something about the dragon...

 

"——Oh my, oh my, having a little chat all together? How very relaxed of you."

 

Suddenly a voice came from the empty air.

 

"Teleportation magic? Thy ways are vulgar as always..."

"I don't appreciate you deprecating the legacy of the past... I am a researcher of the truth. There is nothing vulgar about it."

 

A little distance away from where we were gathered, a magic circle formed in mid-air.

It reminded of the magic circle seen at the Ruins in the forest.

Then the air warped——and a woman appeared.

 

"It's been a long time, hag of ice and snow."

"So thou dare come and show thy face, Libra."

 

Only Till responded like it was normal; Ilya and I, even Blackie were too taken aback to be able to move.

The woman had dark-brown skin and eyes red like dripping blood.

Her hair was silver, or rather, white.

Only, it was so glossy it didn't look white, and it was long.

That hair was gathered in a loose braid.

 

"So, just how many souls did thou use?"

 

Cold surged up from Till's body.

Her obvious anger made me swallow.

 

"Let's see. Less than I thought I would, I guess? All because of you, hag. That's why the dragon is half-assed, too."

 

I reflexively looked at the dragon that ominously made the earth rumble.

For the moment, the dragon was rampaging over the meadows outside town and it was probably the people from the Firm who were still fighting it, like Blackie had said.

Frankly I had no idea how to deal with it, and she called it half-assed.

But against something I was planless against... Till would?

 

"Thou really are a shame. It was one's failure to let thee live!"

"Ahaha, you're wrong, I'm a huge success! Thanks to you, hag, I'm revealing more and more of this world's truth!"

"Thou... what are thou searching? Why did thou come to a remote region such as this?"

"You're asking me? Ahaha, I've been itching to tell you, too! Having people who understand you listen is my greatest pleasure!"

 

Exposed to Till's cold anger, that abnormal woman continued laughing without concern.

She gave me the shivers.

 

"Right, right. I observed something! Just nearby, a little while ago there was a 'singularity'."

"A singularity, thou say?"

 

Lately...

Just nearby...?

 

"Isn't it an old story? People being spirited away, or on the contrary people suddenly appearing? I want to solve that mystery! Don't you think it's negligent for anybody with wisdom to ignore that, hag? You do, don't you!"

 

Now I trembled.

 

"For that sake, thou guided those ruffians, gathered souls, summoned the dragon and ransacked this place, is that it?"

 

I didn't want to think of it.

I didn't want anything to occur to me.

 

"Hmm, I guess that's how it is? No matter where I go, there are stocks of more than enough souls. I also don't know how to find the singularity yet. So all I can do is repeat trial and error like always, right?"

"——Thou are garbage."

"Oh! Ahaha! I'm not so overconfident to slug it out with you directly, hag. Bye!"

 

The instant Till raised her hand, the woman called Libra opened a magic circle and jumped in.

 

"I was happy, I really was, hag! So happy to meet you, you're cute as ever. Now enjoy the dragon to your heart's content! It's made from the town's precious souls! And while it's half-assed, it's a special one summoned where a singularity happened!"

 

Her figure faded, so Till lowered her hand.

———but there was another person charging.

 

"YOU BITCH! YOU BIIIIIIITCH!!"

 

With a loud scream, Blackie jumped at the disappearing woman.

But his attack only futilely cut through air.

Till had already lowered her hand.

Of course it would've ended like this.

 

"Solt... san..."

 

His back trembling with anger seemed smaller than usual.

 

"... one does not approve of thy methods. That is one's absolute truth."

 

Till's whisper seemed somewhat sad, but she immediately directed her eyes upwards, at the dragon.

 

"Alright, we're stopping that. Lend me thy help, Alice."

"...of course. We're going to stop it. That is... something that I have to stop."

 

I was balling my fists so hard the nails cut into my palms.

 

"...? Oh, well. The black one over there and——the dragon lass. Thou are going to help, too."

"——!"

 

Ilya, who for some reason had hidden her presence so far as if to hide from Till, trembled.

 

"Dragon...?"

 

Really, just how many circumstances does everyone here have?

Making Solt-san tremble with anger.

Making Ilya scared.

Making Till sad.

Most likely, they all had hidden pain, but we all worked together to stop the dragon.

No matter how we felt inside...

38 thoughts on “Chapter 19

    1. krytyk Post author

      I'm not krytykal (that's the blog's name), and I'm not the one who did Alice Tale, thank Kadi for that one.

      Reply
  1. FlameStrike

    I just binge read all the available chapters, and I gotta say this story is great! I mean seriously there's SO MUCH FLUFFINESS I'm gona die! HNNNNNNngggg. What's with this Alice?! She's so freakking cute I don't even... wasn't she supposed to be a guy? I don't get that impression at all. Blargh oh well, just gona enjoy this supreme fluffiness delight!

    A ton of thanks to Kadi for his hard work in translating this series! I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

    Reply
  2. Amanomurakumo

    If you are going to have Till speak Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe,
    instead of Thou, what are thou searching for?
    Thou, for what art thou searching? is more correct.

    Reply
  3. RoflCat

    Dragon + Lancer for Ilya...hmm

    can't decide if I want to imagine Iya as akin to TERA's Elin lancer or just Final Fantasy's Dragoon class (the jump into sky and stab ur face one)

    Reply
  4. Rockmosis

    Thanks for the translation! More proofreading from me :)

    '"I am very sorry, Alice-sama"' requires a period at the end.

    'From the point where she saved me from the bandits, actually.' might be better with 'when' instead of 'where'.

    '"You're so stiff..."Well, if I do manage to buy Ilya' to '"You're so stiff..." Well, if I do manage to buy Ilya' (add a space in between) (Now that I think about it, a new paragraph might be the actual fix).

    'I spottet you run through the streets right away' to 'I spotted you running through the streets right away'.

    'there was a cut after all.#' remove the #.

    'My wonderment why the Firm went so far' to 'My wonderment at why the Firm went so far'

    'With his sharp look in the eyes grim as always, Blackie managed to squeeze out one word.' first part might be better as 'With the sharp look in his eyes grim as always'. Also, maybe 'one phrase' is better than 'one word'; 'it's a dragon' is a bit more than a word.

    'it was probably the people from the Firm were still fighting it' to 'it was probably the people from the Firm who were still fighting it'

    'It was one's failure to let thee live!"' I feel sounds better as 'It was this one's failure to let thee live!"'

    '"Thou... what are though searching?' I think is '"Thou... what are thou searching for?'

    '"YOU BITCH! YOU BIIIIIIITCH!!"With a loud scream,' to '"YOU BITCH! YOU BIIIIIIITCH!!" With a loud scream,' (needs a space in between) (could also put in a new paragraph instead).

    Also, I feel like it sounds more middle english-y if you changed the 'are' to 'art'. Like 'Thou art noisy, black one' instead of 'Thou are noisy, black one'. There are a few other words where adding 'st' behind makes it sounds older like 'thou darest'. It's been a while since I read Shakespeare though, so I might be wrong.

    Reply
    1. Kadi

      Thanks for these. ...why does the blog eat line breaks every now and then? I don't get it.

      As for Till's manner of speech... I know it's half-assed. I considered making it more consistently out-of-date English, but it didn't work as good as expected. Going all the way with it was too much. If I go a little bit further than I currently do, it's hard to find where to pull the line. Still, I'll think about it again.

      Reply
      1. krytyk Post author

        Never ate any of my line breaks, but when you port lines from a different source and the line break looks like this:


        Line
        Break


        It'll go into one line. So it should be like this:


        Line

        Break

        Reply
  5. Coma

    Half elf girl... elf girl (actualy lolibaba)... human girl... and now dragon girl... Way to go Alice ^^

    and as always... THX Kady, We reader apreciate very much all your work ^^

    Reply
  6. Shiku

    Its so good that I might die ... Such a trilling chapter, but deeem cliffhangers!... Oh well, this what the series gets more exciting!!!

    Aaaand this makes me think that Blackie's(Solt) revenge focuses on Libra. Basing on Solt's action, I kinda get a gist of truth on Solt's dark and hidden past.

    Also... Ilya's a DRAGON?!, well that's unexpected... so many questions to ask, but oh well... it will be revealed in later chapters though...

    Oh... Also thanksies for the translations Kadi-san~~

    Reply
  7. Owl

    Ilya: "Ok, let's fight the dragon!"
    Dragon: "Woo, another dragon, girl too! Hey cutie, you free for lunch?"
    *Fight ends*
    *Ilya gets Creepy Stalker Dragon*

    :)

    Reply
  8. jacobpaige

    I'm getting a strong impression that that kiss was some sort of bonding ceremony. Not really sure yet though. If it was, I wonder if the slaver will be able to tell? It would definitely lower her value.

    Reply
  9. Azaira

    Arigatou Gozaimasu! (Can never appreciate free-translations enough)
    I started trying to translate this chapter myself today, just to get to learning the words and remember the kana.
    However, a few hours and a release later proved that just looking up the meanings as you go doesn't work very well.
    My translations had similar meanings and structures, but were poor in the fact that I seem to miss key pieces.
    I assume that has a little bit to do with the sentence structures in Japanese, possessives and such that I haven't figured out, among other things.
    On top of that, it seems some words are broken apart, or stopped halfway, in which case I can't even figure out whats missing unless I know the word well enough to guess.
    Learning a language is slow and hard(wish I had better memory), but I'm enjoying learning so far. :D
    *Prays for a once a day release even knowing it wont happen*

    Reply
  10. kirindas

    Interesting chapter. Battle with a dragon when Alice is still a newbie. That will be interesting. And surprise that Ilya isn't actually a human. O_O

    Reply
    1. kirindas

      Oh yeah. Typo.

      "Her arm is so resilient I almost wanted to should out "What exactly is your body made of?""

      'Should' change to 'shout'

      Reply
  11. einshart

    Every chapter is so interesting!It makin me imagine what happen next time! Please translate faster and Thank you for it.

    Reply
  12. Courage

    Didnt see alot of those circumstances happening. Chances are the antagonistic lady is an elf.

    Reply
  13. Pestanejando

    Funny that the 'singularity' are the spawn of the players.... LOL. This description she gave reminded me of Log Horizon.
    Now we have yet to see who else is a player...

    Reply
    1. Abravalis

      I think those "Singularities" are for those who chose the option "yes" for the question in the beginning. So not every "normal" player will cause such a thing I guess. I also wonder: is Alice still in the game? Or did the game become it's own world? What I mean is: can Alice meet other "normal" players at all? Because I think this was still a desktop game and not a VR game (but iirc it was never really mentioned), so interaction with them would be hard. It also seems like Alice was the only case so far, else they wouldn't make such a rukus about ONE singularity since there should be a ton of ppl who chose "yes" for the initial question.

      PS: the first time I read "dragon lad" and I was like "suspicion confirmed: very girly man kissed Alice, romance commences". Then I read again... damn it's a girl after all. XD

      Reply
      1. Pestanejando

        The dark elf lady stated that there had been other singularities, and that she was researching them. And said also that there were people appearing out of fresh air, and also people disappearing. That leaves a hint: there's a possibility that Alice may eventually learn how to "log out"... Hehe, the author also seems to have been inspired in the Alicization arc from SAO, read it if you have time xD

        Reply
        1. Abravalis

          You could take it that way. But I think it didn't happen in recent times because:

          "Isn't in an old story? People being spirited away, or on the contrary people suddenly appearing? I want to solve that mystery! Don't you think it's negligent for anybody with wisdom to ignore that, hag? You do, don't you!"

          That's what she says. It's in "old stories" so it didn't happen in recent times (at least that's how I read it) and now she sees the cahnce to solve the mystery behind those old stories.

          I also read Alicization arc of SAO and I had the same thought at one point hahaha ^^

          Reply
          1. Kadi

            Just because it's the "same old story", it doesn't mean it doesn't happen anymore. And thank you for pointing out the mistake there.

  14. Loco15

    Damn, this is getting more awesome with every chapter, I NEED MOAR!!!

    "Next chapter: Fluffiness Vs Dragon battle, and secrets of the mysterious 3"

    Reply
  15. Kensei Seraph

    Thanks again for the chapter.
    So Ilya is a half-dragon then?
    Things keep getting more and more interesting.

    Reply
  16. Oddmoonlight

    O.o Am I actually first for a change? Anyways thanks for this cliffhanger chapter Kadi. Now another scene that needs a illustration has appeared. The four of them vs the dragon. How epic that would be.

    Reply
  17. Bubbles

    Thanks for your hard work, really enjoyed the chapter, looking forward to the next one when have the time :)

    Reply

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