novelThe Forbidden Fruit
| ← Ch.045 | Ch.047 → |
Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations
3rd Act: The Buisness Trip
Author's Note:
Here starts the 3rd act. Suddenly, it's the climax!
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A month has passed since our tumultuous family trip.
Haster and I were married when we got back to Mareba, and the merrymaking of the village-wide celebration lasted until just the other day.
Since a month has passed, as would be expected, his "uncontrollable" condition has calmed down, and on the surface he has gone back to being as collected as he used to be. Though at night he continues to be a wild animal of course.
While we are married now, since we've already been living together, nothing much has changed as far as our lifestyle is concerned.
I guess the biggest changes are that I call him Haster instead of Master now, and we do a little "work" before we sleep, but that's about it.
Oh right, Yig is staying with Marle right now. Because it would be a problem if she was kidnapped again. And besides, we're newlyweds, right?
"So, that being said, Alec, "
"Y-yeah?"
"At this rate it seems like the nickname, "Sex-Crazed Loli Slut Sage, " is going to stick, so I'm thinking of seriously doing my job."
"Yeah."
In return for spreading that name around I gave an "Electric Jolt, " as a present, to mister Gusta.
That aside, there are many things that I wanted to investigate from our trip.
"For example, during our trip I kept thinking about it, but I felt that our equipment is too big to transport reasonably."
"Yeah, like my Sentinel is definitely difficult to carry around."
"And after thinking about it, I came to this!"
I take a single long armlet out from my pocket. This is the culmination of a month's efforts.
"What, an armlet?"
"This is no ordinary armlet. You remember the [Teleport] trap from that bandit case; it's got that built into it."
"So you mean it's an armlet for teleporting?"
"... I could have used it that way, couldn't I?"
"Uh, you didn't?"
Having the wearer make jumps was a bit outside of my vision.
Or, I guess that would usually be the first thing a person would consider. I had some tunnel vision going.
"I'll leave that idea for next time... This time I made an item that calls forth weapons."
"Weapons... Then you mean if I put this on, I can bring out Sentinel whenever I want?"
"It's not quite that simple. You have to set a [Teleport] magic circle on whatever you want to summon beforehand, then use a command word to call it to you. That's the kind of item it is."
"Hmmm..."
"So let's give it a whirl. If we can call it to us easily enough, then it will make transporting our equipment much easier, see?"
"It's not gonna, like... Explode?"
"Of course not!"
"Y'see, lately all you've had on the mind is sex, so..."
That's a pretty rude thing to say... Sure, lately we've been doing things in the morning to the point of it being really rough, but I haven't been that stupidly focused on it.
Haster has finally calmed down, he's been doing his sword practice and he's even studying traps. It looks like he seriously intends on challenging the World Tree.
He even ordered the latest book in a series called "Traps, " and is in the middle of perusing it.
"Now come on, the command word is "Electroplate!" Hurry and give it a try."
"Ee-lec-trou-playte?"
I'm borrowing the shout of an old time transforming hero. It also has something to do with an aluminum processing method, so it should be fine as far as copyright goes.
"You have to put a little more energy behind the shout."
"It's just kinda embarrassing... "Electroplate!""
He put a bit more strength into the command word this time, and the armlet deployed its magic circle in response. Along with a mosaic tile-like effect, Alec's whole right side is encased.
After the light faded, Alec's right side was clad in an armored arm, and the second weapon I developed, "Cleaver" was equipped to him.
"Yup, I guess it's a success at least—?"
"Whoa, come on, it even equipped my armor. Isn't this pretty amazing?!"
"Next, I would like you to remove your equipment and place it on this cloth please."
I take a cloth out of my pocket with a magic circle etched into it, and spread it on the ground.
Emblazoned there is the same kind of magic circle as the [Teleport] trap. Its destination is the magic circle from which the equipment first came.
"Here we go..."
"—And, "Return"."
Hmmm, the mosaic tile-like effect just seems to always appear.
Is it a result of the teleportation speed decreasing? Maybe because I miniaturized a teleporter and affixed it to something?
"It looks like it takes about 2~3 seconds for the transfer to complete. Alec, try summoning it one more time please."
"'Kay; "Electroplate!""
Once again Cleaver was summoned as his equipment. It seems like it succeeded without any problems.
"Alright, good, we can call it complete. Now I just need to bring your Sentinel over and get it set up. I'll get a summoning armlet and a returning cloth ready for you."
"Seriously?! Hell yeah! Now I can say goodbye to that ridiculously massive look."
"You're saying some pretty mean things about the weapon I made for you."
"Naw, it's a great help for combat, but it's way too huge to carry around."
"Hmph, I suppose I can't deny that."
The size of it is part of what makes Sentinel such a great weapon, so that's the one thing I can't do anything about.
So then, I'll just leave this Cleaver with Master. Though I feel a little bad for interrupting his sword practice.
Well, if I give him a little servicing later, I'm sure it'll improve his mood... Ah, crap. Is this why they're calling me sex-crazed now?
"For the time being, as far as the summoning system is concerned, it's all set now. The returning method isn't very stylish, so I'll need to modify that though."
"Who cares about that? Alright, I'll leave Sentinel here with you... About how long will it take to finish processing it?"
"Let's see... If I hurry, then by tomorrow. I can just switch it out with Cleaver, so I don't need to put anything new together after all."
A right arm armored in dragon scales, and a sword exceeding his own height; his equipment ended up being filled to the brim with 8th grade illness. Well, he is actually 14, so that shouldn't be a big deal.
"Do you have a replacement sword?"
"I have the one we bought during our trip. It's not [Enchanted], so it's a little heavy though."
"Well then, please come back tomorrow. I'll have it ready for you by then. We have Haster's practice sword, so you can take that with you for the trip home."
"Thank you!"
Thus, having finished one task, and after chasing Alec away, I proceeded to get ready for my next undertaking.
~*~
Feeling good about the success of my experiment, I transition to the next matter.
Descending to the cottage's basement, I open the door to the storage room. I head towards the wall even further in the back of the room, and recite the command word.
The wall makes a sound as it opens, and beyond it is a wide room with a sarcophagus stored within.
Inside the sarcophagus is the remains of a demon dragon.
After we got back to the cottage, we buried Fafnir from above ground, and then made a passageway connecting it to the basement.
It's so huge that it wouldn't fit in the cottage, so this was a desperate plan.
The outside of the sarcophagus is made of stone walls, and the walls have [Toughness] cast on them, so breaking into it from the outside is probably impossible.
I cut out a large chunk of the flesh in front of me, and pull out the thing I came here for... Namely, "Fafnir's Heart".
A normal knife's blade wouldn't have been able to handle this, so I used a knife with [Sharpness] cast on it to cut apart the flesh.
Right... Haster and I have a rather difficult problem standing in front of us called a "lifespan". However, I had one idea regarding how to solve that.
—The hero who ate the World Tree's sprout gained eternal youth and immortality, and became the progenitor of dragons. His dragon species descendants house the "eternal youth and immortality" power in their hearts.
Fafnir, who is extremely close in his direct lineage, is highly likely to have a large amount of that power remaining in it.
To be honest, I thought it was just a fanciful bit of folklore, but in light of Alec and the others' bodies being strengthened, I can't necessarily think it's just some horror story.
In fact, the results of looking at it with "Appraisal" are as follows...
—Fafnir's Heart.
Those who partake of this flesh will be granted infinite life.
"That's quite a rough explanation it's giving me. I'm not really sure if this is something I should be putting in Haster's mouth or not..."
A proper interpretation would be "Eternal youth, " and "Immortality, " except it doesn't guarantee a single thing besides that.
The powers in this world are filled with malice. I'm well aware of what happens if you jump into these things, swallowing whatever story it tells you.
"Yuuri, what's going... Hm? What's that?"
"Haster, are you done reading?"
He unexpectedly showed his face in the kitchen, and I tried to divert the topic by answering with a question.
How might I explain something like this...?
"Yeah, I took a brief look through it already. Rather than that... What is that huge thing?"
"This is, ummm... Something that will probably grant you "eternal youth" and "immortality"."
"Wha?!"
He opens his eyes in astonishment.
Of course he would. What he sought to eventually obtain, after breaking through the thousand layer labyrinth in the World Tree, was rolling around right in front of him.
"However, I'm not confident in it. In fact, the perfunctory explanation for it only makes me have misgivings."
"... Tell me more."
"This is Fafnir's heart. The heart of a demon dragon that is extremely close to the originator who received the power of the World Tree. According to folklore, the power of "eternal youth, " and "immortality, " dwells within it."
"Come to think of it, there was a story like that. Perhaps because it's the first time I've seen the real thing in front of my eyes, I didn't think to make that connection with the legends."
"The problem is, there are no other points of reference for it. A definite possibility is that it could reduce you to a lump of flesh that "is merely alive, " if things go poorly."
"However... With this, we could both..."
Haster's eyes are quivering with some kind of obsession. No, I'm probably only seeing it as an obsession because I'm projecting.
Yes, it's what I desire. With him... Forever... Which is why—
"Haster, this thing is dangerous. But it's also what may contain a way to extend your lifespan within it."
"... Yuuri, "
"I... Even though this is dangerous... I think I want you to eat it."
"You don't even need to tell me. The thing I hoped for is right in front of me, after all."
"... I'm sorry."
He was sure to accept it, and I knew that. And yet I, the one who suggested it, now feel sick to my stomach.
I shake my head to cast away my distress. I don't give a damn about the morals behind it. As long as I have him by my side, that's all I need.
"Do I have to eat this raw?"
"Most likely... If it's processed in any way, then it'll turn into some different kind of "dish" I would think."
Haster pokes at the springy meat with his finger.
Of course, it seems to take courage to eat a heart bigger than a person's face.
"Rather than the risk of putting some unknown substance in my mouth, that's the part making me resist this the most."
"Certainly... I'll be sure to make a delicious dinner for you, so please pardon me for this."
"I'll be looking forward to that."
With the same knife I used to remove it, I cut a large mouthful of the heart's meat off.
The dark red meat of the heart looks like it could still move at any moment. In spite of repeated [Freezing] and [Thawing] after its death, even now it appears to be fresh.
In a certain sense it looks delicious... All the more reason I think of it as eerie while I look at it, and unconsciously swallow my saliva.
"Alright... Here I go."
And thus, he took the forbidden fruit to his lips.
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| ← Ch. 045 | Ch. 047 → |