Chapter 101. Granting Freedom (8)
Chapter 101. Granting Freedom (8)
The hunt was over. At least for the next six months, this Field Dungeon would no longer be dangerous. Although it was only temporary, Windermere had regained its peace.
From what I heard, the tourism would reopen as well. As A rank or higher Awakened had to continue observing the lake, the tourists would go along with them. However, in a situation of life and death, the tourists’ lives wouldn’t be guaranteed.
With such danger, I doubted whether any tourists would come. However, the moment people found out that the Field Dungeon had been cleared, tourists flocked to the area. Amazing, Windermere. In a way, it made sense. Supposedly, running into a monster once a dungeon was cleared was the same chance as being hit by lightning while walking in the rain.
“Hwaya, what are you doing?”
On the night we cleared the dungeon, I visited Hwaya as usual to teach her how to control mana, and saw Hwaya packing her belongings into boxes.
“Isn’t it obvious? Since we cleared the dungeon, there’s no reason for me to stay here.”
“Oh, right. Did you get the permission?”
“Of course. I ended the negotiation with the government myself. Thanks, Shin. You’re the reason I could regain my freedom.”
“Freedom, you say… It’s thanks to me?”
I asked with a grin.
“Yep. We could clear the Field Dungeon thanks to you, and you even found Brightman’s wrongdoing. I can return to Korea because of it. The info on Brightman was especially useful in the negotiation.”
It seemed she complained and revealed everything about Brightman’s misconduct. Brightman had punched a famous ranker (though it’s embarrassing, that was me) that Hwaya invited for aid, and put him in a life-threatening situation. Hwaya was incredibly angry at the time. It was the same for her party’s S rankers, although the other countries’ S rankers only turned a blind eye as Brightman had likely paid them off.
Brightman himself had made a ridiculous excuse, that he thought he was being attacked and acted in self-defense. Hwaya’s anger had reached its limit at that point, but I calmed her down. Nothing good would come out from Britain’s strongest rankers fighting. More importantly, I couldn’t let her take my revenge away. Brightman smiled, and so did I.
In any case, with this incident, Hwaya could easily detach herself from Brightman and the British government protecting him.
Although the incident had not become public because of the British government’s desperate beseechment, but with my approval, Hwaya used the incident to put heavy pressure on the British government. She said that a friend she specially requested to help had suffered a humiliation from Brightman that couldn’t be washed away, and that she had no plans to step a foot in Britain unless it was a national crisis. In other words, just as Hwaya had warned them before, Britain had lost Hwaya in exchange for Brightman. No matter how I thought about it, Brightman’s actions were incredibly foolish. I wondered how an idiot who was blinded by his desire for a woman could rise to such a position.
“Are you coming to Korea?”
“Yep. I was planning on going to Korea anyways when I was done. Mom said she’d rather die than come to Britain. I think she wants me to come live with her in Korea. I was originally going to try convincing her again, but… with what happened this time, I really didn’t want to stay in the same country as Brightman. If it’s him, he would come visit me no matter where I was in Britain. …Do you not want me to go to Korea?”
Hwaya complained, then asked after a bit of hesitation. Her cheeks had turned red just like her hair.
“Not at all. We can meet more often too. I’m glad.”
“… Right. We could. Kuhum.”
Hwaya looked away and let out a dry cough. Did she breathe the wrong way? I got up with a grin.
“You must be busy with all the packing, so I’ll go back for today. Ah, don’t forget to give me the melting tuna later.”
“You’ll save some for me, right?”
“Of course. You can eat to your heart’s content. Grilled, sashimi, stewed, steamed, I’ll give you the full course.”
“Good, excellent.”
We made an expression of camaraderie and gave each other a thumbs up. The melting tuna I was talking about was none other than the giant melting tuna I killed! Hwaya put it in her inventory, using the ridiculous extradimensional storage magic excuse, and said that she’d give it to me later. In exchange for her performance in front of the others, I promised her an unlimited refill on melting tuna dishes. In truth, I didn’t know how long it would take me to finish such a giant melting tuna, so I was glad Hwaya was there to help.
“Ah, by the way, Hwaya.”
“Yeah?”
“Where can I get a good apple pie around here?”
“Apple pie…?”
Although Hwaya tilted her head, she still gave me an answer. I thanked her and left her lodging. I then went to the place Hwaya told me about to buy an apple pie. Because of the enticing smell, I ended up buying two apple pies, one of them for the obvious reason and the other to share with Yua when I got back home. Then, I summoned my elementals and circulated Peruta Circuit, waiting for dawn.
Once the night had passed, I could enter the dungeon again. There were things to take care of, a person to find and questions to ask. I also had to stick my spear in the damned reaper’s face as a reunion gift.
Then, a little before dawn, when no one was around, I went on the lake using Ruyue’s power. Just by freezing the area of the water I was stepping on, I felt a strange sense of omnipotence. Lady of the Lake had finally blessed me!
“I brought the apple pie~.”
After walking deep into the lake, I shouted in a rather loud voice. Although I felt like I was being stupid, but I couldn’t help it.
“I said I brought apple pie—!”
[Show me!]
“Uwoah!”
A girl’s face suddenly appeared above the surface. I almost fell underwater from being startled, but Ruyue saved me by instantly freezing the water around me. I thanked Ruyue, and since I was lying on the ice anyways, I observed the girl’s face. Simply put, she had a unrealistic appearance.
Her sky blue hair, half submerged underwater, was shining as if the entire thing was an LED light, and it was the same for her blue eyes staring at me. She looked like a beautiful woman in other areas, but I was surprised by how mature her face looked. I had expected her to be a young girl.
[Hurry up, show me!]
“Ah, here.”
I took out the apple pie from my inventory. The woman then made happy exclamations and crawled up onto the ice. Although I thought she wasn’t wearing anything, she actually had a translucent light blue dress, which stuck to her body tightly. Although her slender, yet bountiful, figure was in full-view, because I had seen Hwaya’s voluptuous figure for about a week, I could act aloof.
[Apple pie! It’s really apple pie!]
“Yeah, it is.”
[Can I eat it? Can I eat it?]
“You don’t have to ask twice. There’s only one for you anyways.”
[Yay!]
Her long, slender fingers reached forward and took the apple pie whole. Feeling the coldness of her skin for an instant, I was reminded once again that she wasn’t human. It was then that she took out a slice of apple pie and handed it to me. She blinked her eyes, glimmering with shining particles of light, looking unrealistically cute.
[Here.]
“Thanks.”
[Thanks for the meal!]
When I accepted the slice she offered, she took the rest of the apple pie and took a bite. Then, the light in her eyes gathered and made a clear star shape. I was truly surprised. She was showing her non-human side too much! So she could control those shining particles!?
[Delicious! So delicious! Delicious, delicious!]
“Y-Yeah, eat lots.”
[Yeah!]
She munched on the pie, making me wonder just where it was going in her slender body. The pie was gone in the blink of an eye, and she stared at the apple pie in my hand with longing eyes. The particles of light in her eyes were repeatedly scattering and regathering.
“Do you want it?”
[Wooooow!]
As if she was waiting for me to say it, she snatched the slice of apple pie and ate it. After that, she made a satisfied expression and lay down on the ice.
[Thanks! I’ll forgive you for hurting me!]
“Yeah, thanks.”
[I like you now!]
Ye-Eun, be happy. There’s someone similar to you here. But I got her heart with just a single apple pie. The difficulty was lower than even Ye-Eun! I thought about all the fries I had to feed Ye-Eun before she said she liked me. Ah, not that I was doing it so I could hear that. Really.
“Y-Yeah. If… If you don’t bother other people anymore, I’ll like you too.”
Although I couldn’t be completely sure, she seemed different than the other bosses who showed clear hostility towards humans. She really just wanted to let them listen to her singing.
Not knowing the danger of her own actions was foolish and it was annoying that she chose to appear during the boss fight, but since she hadn’t killed anyone yet, it wasn’t too late. She could still be redeemed. Her following words served as proof.
[But I never bullied anyone! Besides telling me to kill you, everyone said I could just sing like I wanted! I don’t bully anyone that doesn’t bully me first!]
“Right, right, but who’s the one that told you to kill me?”
[I don’t know, I can’t remember! I forgot when I came here!]
“… Do you know why you were told to kill me?”
[Because you’re a Hero! That’s all I know! But I won’t kill you. I won’t bully other people either!]
She was told to kill me… because I was a Hero. I suddenly felt chills, but nodded my head regardless. Then, I answered her question.
“But you see, people are bothered by your singing.”
[Why? Is my singing that bad?]
“The problem is that it’s too good. It infatuates people because of it.”
[Is that bad?]
“If people become infatuated by your singing and lose their consciousness, they’ll fall into the water. What would happen after that?”
[Wouldn’t they come play with me underwater?]
“They’d die.”
[They’d die!?]
“Yep.”
At my words, she became noticeably sad. The particles in her eyes also spiraled around in shock.
[I hate killing, but everyone else tries to kill people. I’m scared. He said I was special, but he didn’t try to understand me.]
“Special, huh… Since you hate killing people, you are indeed a special monster. But who is this person you’re talking about?”
[I don’t know, I forgot!]
Huu, there’s really nothing I can find out… I wanted to tell her how she almost killed people out of anger, but I held myself back. However, she seemed to be angry from what I just said.
[Also, I’m not something like a monster!]
“Ah, sorry. Then what should I call you?”
[I’m me.]
“You don’t have a name?”
[What’s that?]
“It’s a mark that defines you. It’s a way to separate you from everything else in this world. Something that can prove that you are you.”
[Wow.]
Huu, it really was like teaching a child. In truth, I hadn’t planned on talking to her so leisurely… Although I didn’t get the information I wanted, I couldn’t chase her away, so I decided to stick with her for a while longer.
[Then you can give me a name.]
“I can?”
[Yeah! If it’s you, it’s okay.]
For a moment, I hesitated. However, when I saw her innocent eyes, a word flashed across my mind. Since it wasn’t a fitting name for a girl, I took off the front of it.
“Plene.”
[Waaa, pretty! Is that my name? Yay!]
She seemed to like the name I gave her, as she raised her hands and jumped. At that moment, messages I never expected rang out.
[You made an achievement of taming the A+ rank boss monster ‘siren.’ You obtained 1 skill point. Current skill points: 16]
[You can obtain the subclass ‘Tamer.’ However, you must give up your current subclass ‘Skill Collector’ to obtain a new subclass. If you give up the Skill Collector subclass, you will no longer be able to use the Collector’s Pocket Watch. Would you like to change your subclass?]
[If you do not obtain the Tamer subclass, you will not be able to use your tamed monster in Event Dungeons or the normal dungeon. However, you will not need to give up your tamed monster, and it can accompany you in Field Dungeons.]
Author’s Note:
I’ll say it now. Siren Plene isn’t a harem member. She’s just a slightly important support character! I mean, ICDS isn’t harem in the first place!
PS – Lady of the Lake Blessing: Fate/Zero animation’s Saber servant reference. (truly a short explanation!)