“Hm.”
“How careless of me…”
Eisen pulled his beard back.
Although…
It had been hanging over the flames for a while.
And it hadn’t burned at all.
What exactly was Eisen’s beard made of?!
After chatting with Eisen for a little longer, Yakumo returned to studying magic.
He was still experimenting with the spell that created a field of flowers, testing various crop blossoms to see how many could be reproduced successfully.
Rice flowers.
Rapeseed flowers.
Peach blossoms.
And many others.
Yakumo wanted to test all of them.
These were all flowers that eventually produced fruit or crops.
But most such plants required pollination before they could bear anything.
Whether magically created flowers possessed separate male and female structures was difficult to say.
Yakumo could only test them individually.
“Yakumo.”
Eisen, who had remained silent for quite some time, suddenly spoke again.
“Is there anything you want to accomplish on this journey?”
“Or some personal goal?”
Yakumo lowered his book and stared at him in surprise.
He even checked whether Eisen was definitely speaking to him.
Eisen seemed unusually talkative tonight.
Normally, it was almost impossible to get him to say much of anything.
“Why ask that?”
“Wasn’t our purpose obvious from the beginning?”
Yakumo closed the grimoire.
“Defeat the Demon King.”
“Save the world.”
“Isn’t that our party’s shared objective?”
“No.”
“Not ours.”
“Yours.”
Eisen looked at Yakumo.
“Are all mages indifferent to worldly desires?”
“Neither you nor Frieren seems to possess any particularly strong desires.”
“Someone without desire finds it difficult to progress.”
“One reason I’ve survived this long is because I wanted to live.”
“I wanted to live longer than everyone else.”
“But whether I look at you or Frieren…”
“I don’t see much of that kind of desire.”
“When we accepted the Demon King subjugation quest from the kingdom, Himmel and I nearly got executed because of disrespectful things we said to the king.”
“If not for you, Heiter, and Frieren, perhaps our journey would have ended before it even began.”
“But unlike Heiter and Frieren, who panicked…”
“You were calm.”
“Almost too calm.”
Eisen began stroking his beard again.
“You seemed extremely confident that you could persuade the king.”
“I couldn’t understand that either.” The source of this chapter is g.com.
“So that’s been bothering you?”
Yakumo closed the grimoire in his hands completely.
“Maybe it’s because I never felt much awe toward kings in the first place.”
“When I spoke to him, I simply treated him as another person.”
Yakumo was immortal in practice.
Even if he’d been beheaded, he would simply revive inside the city.
Naturally, that made him considerably less fearful.
“Besides, the only thing I needed to confirm first was whether the king was a competent ruler.”
“Even an average king is fine.”
“As long as he isn’t an insane tyrant who immediately has someone executed the moment he hears something unpleasant, there will always be room to negotiate.”
“Besides…”
“That king was clearly waiting for us to give him a way to back down too.”
“And couldn’t the entire thing also be considered a test?”
“A way to see whether a Hero truly possesses the courage to continue forward?”
Yakumo picked up some hot water beside him and took a small sip.
“Still, I really dislike talking to important people who constantly look down from above.”
“On that point…”
“I agree completely.”
Eisen looked at Yakumo with slightly greater respect.
Then—
Grrrrr…
His stomach suddenly growled at the worst possible moment.
It couldn’t be helped.
All they’d eaten for dinner was fish soup and bread.
Perhaps that was enough for ordinary humans like Yakumo and Himmel.
But for a warrior like Eisen, maintaining that kind of body and sustaining his energy expenditure required far more.
“Pfft…”
Yakumo couldn’t stop himself from laughing.
“Sorry, sorry.”
“I just never expected something I thought would happen to Frieren to happen to Eisen instead.”
“It appears I really am hungry.”
Eisen touched his stomach.
“I haven’t eaten anything since we left the royal capital.”
“Here.”
“Late-night snack.”
Yakumo handed him two pieces of fried chicken and a large hot dog.
“Someone fighting on the front line needs a lot of energy.”
“Tonight’s dinner probably didn’t provide enough calories for you.”
MapleStory’s economy was truly bizarre.
Fried chicken and hot dogs were surprisingly cheap.
Perhaps because the game treated them as healing consumables.
But when Yakumo physically took one out…
It was an entire fried chicken.
“Interesting.”
Eisen spoke bluntly.
“I never saw you prepare these before we left.”
“Just consider it one of my special abilities.”
“After all, my own safety depends on the warrior standing at the front being well-fed enough to block the enemy.”
“Call it selfishness.”
“Selfishness?”
“Heh.”
“That doesn’t sound bad.”
“But save some for the others.”
“Taking the second watch is exhausting.”
“Don’t worry.”
“I’ll prepare something for them too.”
“I’m not actually going to favor one person over everyone else.”
Of course, someone waking up in the middle of the night shouldn’t immediately eat greasy fried chicken.
The shop sold fruit and other lighter foods as well.
They weren’t expensive.
Being able to purchase anything at all in the middle of nowhere was already extremely convenient.
After switching watches with the people taking the second half of the night, Yakumo went to rest.
The next morning, everyone hurriedly ate some bread before continuing their journey.
It didn’t take long before they found the dungeon Himmel had mentioned.
“They call this a dungeon, but it looks more like some kind of temple built by an ancient kingdom.”
Yakumo examined the entrance.
Its design had a distinctly European-temple feel.
“Dungeons are generally ruins of some kind.”
Heiter explained.
“Many contain traps or magical beasts and have never been completely explored.”
“However, one thing is beyond dispute.”
“Most dungeons contain treasure.”
“Is spending this much time here really a good idea?”
This time, Frieren was the one beginning to hesitate.
“The place looks rather large.”
“Himmel, do you think there are grimoires inside?”
Yakumo asked curiously.
“Usually?”
Himmel thought for a moment.
“Humans have already been using magic for around a thousand years.”
“Ruins like this should contain old magical records or grimoires somewhere.”
“All right!”
“Let’s go!”
Frieren, who had been completely uninterested a moment earlier, immediately walked to the front.
“Uh…”
For a moment, nobody could process how quickly her attitude had changed.
Then Himmel sighed in realization.
“I see.”
“So this is what Frieren is like.”
“The instant someone mentions a grimoire, her attitude completely changes.”
Yakumo sighed as well.
“That’s Frieren for you.”
“Still…”
“If there really are grimoires inside, I’m curious too.”
If Yakumo remembered correctly, some fourth-job Magician skills in MapleStory required mastery books or similar items to learn.
So logically speaking…
He should probably be able to create or use grimoires too.
Of course, as always…
All of that would require time to explore.