Chapter 2-41. Messenger

###A/N###

The number of bookmarks has exceeded 10,000!

Thank you!

Also, I have something to ask everyone in the activity report, so please take a look if you like ...

########

A week has passed since then.

It seems that Tenda and the princesses have finally become accustomed to the Zenki-village, and now they are talking with the onis in the castle town and the onis working in the fields.

Of course, as Raiki told me, everyone is doing their job properly.

Tenda slammed the information of the castle town, the castle, and the surrounding terrain into his head so that he could command just in case of emergency.

Not only that, he helps Raiki's work.

This is desk work like from my previous life.

I've been shown a little, but it was mostly about the situation in the castle town, the reserve of troops, the number of weapons, and so on.

It's mostly inventory management.

Uchikage goes out and gathers information in order to search for information on the enemy.

He will come back once every three days, so he talked with Raiki at that time and told him the information that he had gathered.

However, it seems that such results have not been achieved yet.

The princess is weaving.

I was impressed that she was doing something like a princess for the first time, but she seems to have made clothes for the people in the previous village.

There are many onis in this village, so the speed of making clothes is not in time.

Therefore, it seems that the princess who becomes an immediate force is useful as an important existence.

Shimu is also helping with that.

Others are also getting jobs that suit them.

Business, management, agriculture, lumberjack, etc.

There seemed to be a shortage of manpower everywhere, so it seems to be very helpful.

And me.

For a week after that, I was basically following Tenda.

The reason is to remember the internal structure of this castle.

Even though I had a hard time remembering something once, I can hardly remember where is this and where is that

First of all, my line of sight is different from a humanoid creature.

I couldn't remember what I could remember when I saw it from the ground.

And on the third day, I finally gave up on how many floors there were in this building.

However, it is not fun just to follow around. So I was training how to hide from everyone and improve my skill level.

The main ones are [Assassination], [Reamed Water Spear], [Water Spear Volley], and finally [Sharp Water Blade].

The [Assassination] practices to hide my presence.

The [Reamed Water Spear] is a practice of skillfully manipulating three spears to capture the target with a thread, and the [Water Spear Volley] is a practice of firing 25 spears at the maximum speed that can be put out now.

And with the [Sharp Water Blade], I just slashed hard objects.

Skill level cannot be seen numerically as to whether or not it has grown like a level.

But that was interesting.

Only I can know how much I can do and what I can do.

Since there are no numerical values, there is no clear specification as to how long to practice.

That is why I keep repeating the endless practice.

Sometimes I noticed something when I was doing the same thing for a while.

And I think that the skill movement became even better when I used the skill with that image in mind.

This week has been very meaningful to me.

I would like to confirm its power in practice as much as possible.

This is also the foundation for finding Satella.

However, there was one problem.

Even though I eat every day, I'm still a Forest Snake.

Apparently Forest Snake is a little special.

It was discovered when I came here for my second meal ... when I had breakfast.

The meal at that time was only meat steak.

Since I’m a snake, I don't have any stomach upset, so it was a nice meal.

However, even though I had finished eating, my level only went up by 1.

The meat looks the same as yesterday.

Yesterday I ate three and my level went up by 30.

It's the same meat, so it's funny if it doesn't go up at least 10 times.

However, the level that went up was 1.

I thought it was strange no matter what, and when I immediately asked the voice of heaven, I got an answer like this.

[Forest Snake reigns as the lord of the forest. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will eat the prey that you have eaten once. It is believed to be to protect the order of the forest. So if you eat the same meat, you will get the minimum amount of experience. Therefore, the survival rate is low. Instead, it is an individual that lives longer as long as it can eat.]

It was said that.

I don't know if the meat served was a specialty of oni village, but it came out every day.

So I ate 21 meals a week, but I was in an unprecedented situation where my level only went up by 21.

My current level is 51.

After level 4, my level finally reaches MAX.

It's take too long ...

I thought I'd go hunting alone, but ... I'm not confident that I'll be back when I leave this castle.

Because this castle is already like a labyrinth.

Even the Ninomaru (The 2nd) Palace, where I was sleeping, I just finally grasped the floor structure ...

Raiki seems to remember all the floor structure ... What's going on with that old man?

I wonder if there is already a map in his head.

That Raiki was running the brush as usual.

I can't read the characters as usual, but I think they are beautiful.

Next to Raiki who was working, I was waiting for Uchikage to come back while watching Raiki working.

Today is the day when Uchikage comes back and tells us the progress.

I also want to hear that story, so I'm always present.

I wish I could understand Satella’s where about even a little ... How about today's report?

When I was waiting for Uchikage with a faraway look, Raiki stopped the brush and put it on the desk.

I don't know if this is his habit or something, but just before people come, Raiki stops writing like this.

I don't know where such a sensor is attached, but ... well, maybe it’s his instinct.

Immediately after that, the sliding doors opened and Uchikage appeared.

Uchikage walked as usual and sat in front of Raiki and me.

"Thanks for your hard work, so how is it?"

"Ha. This time, I went to the Kingdom of Garrot and investigated it independently. From the result, it is black." (*As in code, white is negative, black is positive)

"... Continue"

Black.

This means only one thing.

He probably found who attacked the onis' village.

He found it in this short period of time.

Raiki listens to Uchikage's words and leans forward a little while listening to him.

Uchikage also carefully selects and conveys the words he speaks.

"The Kingdom of Garrot is famous for the amount of ore mined, but the mining is a very dangerous task. It was almost like letting slaves do dangerous tasks there, and there was some oni in there. "

To summarize the story, it seems that Uchikage tried to contact the onis using [Dark Medium].

It is said that the [Dark Medium] of Uchikage can make a clone of any size as long as it has a fixed appearance.

So Uchikage made a small body of himself and attached it to the onis.

He can talk because that is his own body.

When I heard the story, it was said that the onis in there were the onis of the village where the Tenda was.

A powerful and strong oni seems to be a perfect slave for ore mining.

They didn't know why their village was attacked.

It seems that he hasn't heard such a story since he was caught.

After that, Uchikage found out who was treating the demons as slaves and headed for the mansion.

It was a place where he found a certain merchant of accessory dealers, and he seemed to have been accompanied by many slaves.

All of them were slaves that supposed to mining.

He wasn't a slave trader, he was just a merchant, so he didn't know about slave traders.

However, the fact that the onis are here means that there must be a slave dealer who sold the onis as slaves to the accessory dealer.

Uchikage was so convinced that he came back here to report.

Raiki, who was listening , was stroking his chin, then he suddenly jumped like someone in a heart attack.

The reason is the words that Uchikage said earlier.

"But mining is a very dangerous task. It was almost like letting slaves do dangerous tasks there."

This is it.

The hypothesis is that Satella was taken to the Kingdom of Garrot.

I'm not sure yet, but it's most likely.

But now I've heard that most of the slaves taken to the Kingdom of Garrot will be slaves to mining the ore.

However, I have never heard that the ore mining work is a very dangerous work.

What if Satella was taken there?

What if there was an accident?

Satella may be gone.

It must have been a long time since Alena told me to help Satella.

I was taken care of by the demons a lot, but ... I should start moving soon.

But I want to wait only one more day.

Finally, I decided to go looking for Satella in earnest after changing my race once and evolving.

The demons would be okay without me anymore.

These guys are strong in many ways.

Even without me, they should be able to protect this village with their own strength.

I kind of regret not being able to say thanks to them.

But that doesn't mean I can't meet them anymore, so if I help Satella and Alena, I'll come back to this village.

"Well done, Uchikage. Can you get information about slave traders?"

"I haven't talked to all the onis yet, so I think there's a lot of potential for useful information, but then I'd like you to extend my activity time. It's not so good in two days. No results can be expected. "

"Okay. From tomorrow, you’ll hide in the Kingdom of Garrot for a while and I forbid you to return to this place until you get the information. Is that okay? But you should take a rest today."

"I understand."

Uchikage bows lightly.

Uchikage, who did not find much information and reach out to the enemy merchants or help his enslaved relatives, is quite patient.

Perhaps he didn't do anything meaningless to ensure that the following things were successful:

"Raiki-sama. Are you free right now?"

I suddenly heard a voice from outside the sliding door.

It's a female voice, and I'm familiar with this voice.

It was the voice of a maid who always brought us food.

It's a gentle voice, but I'm a little unfamiliar with it because the tone is too hard.

"What is it?"

"I'm sorry if Raiki-sama is busy, a human messenger is coming."

"Messenger?"

"He wants to meet Raiki-sama in person and explain it, he said it won't take a long time because it’s just a small matter."

What is that messenger?

Isn't he too conspicuous?

If he doesn't tell us what their business is, isn’t most of the time they'll be rejected ...?

"It's okay. Let him through. Uchikage, Ran. You guys should hide and wait so that you can get your hands on it right away."

"" Ha ""

"Ouren-sama should hide behind the hanging scroll"

With that said, Raiki turns over the hanging scroll.

Then there was a rectangular hole that one person could pass through.

I've been here for a week but I didn't know at all.

This is like a mansion for ninja.

I enter the hole as prompted.

Uchikage and the maid are standing with erased presence.

The maid seems to be quite strong.

Her presence was disappearing like Uchikage.

When everyone was in place, two men entered the room, sticking to the guide called by the maid.

One man is a bearded man with rough hair.

There is a feeling of being out of place as if a bandit had entered the beautiful mansion.

The other has a washcloth around his head.

This person is quite heavy equipment and came in while shaking the heavy armor.

The two who came in seem to be unaware of the maid and Uchikage.

I'm in a place that's pretty easy to see, but ... different from Uchikage, the maid is ... hiding in a dignified manner.

No, it's not hidden anymore.

How confident are you to get rid of it?

So what are these guys who don't notice these two?

Is this something wrong with me?

Is this the usual way to hide?

The guys talking make me put a retort in my heart.

"Hey, where's the chair?"

"... There will be cushions"

"Is this it? Hmm. Isn’t this just a pillow?"

While complaining, they sat down to crush the cushion.

It's a rough sitting style with no etiquette.

The maid who saw it was a little disturbed.

Besides, the atmosphere of Raiki changed a little.

This is similar to the atmosphere I had when I first met Raiki.

When they have a conversation, he collects a little and then says a word.

Is he on the alert … is he trying to find the bottom of their guts ...?

"Where is tea? We are guests, no?"

The first person to open his mouth was a bearded man.

"... I don’t like you lot, it seems that our culture is different from yours. We only treat the mannered guest"

"Khe. What a rude dude"

"... What? What is that for? Didn't you go here just to curse? Is it a young man who can't even say hello in the first place?"

He just said what I wanted to say, probably just to pissed him off.

It's also ironic.

Maybe Raiki is a little angry?

"Ah? Ha. Then I'll just say it straight to your face. We're slave traders. Today I got a few onis to be slaves from this country. You all are sinner, so can you move in all of them?"

The words changed the eyes of all the demons here.

Uchikage is gripping his right hand down and holding it firmly.

The maid's smile did not break, but there were many blue streaks on her forehead.

It's scary.

However, Raiki does not seem to be upset.

That’s too straight forward.

"... We don’t get merit there. I refuse."

"Merit? You want some merits? You can talk back to me is already a merit you know ...?"

Finally, Uchikage dexterously lowered the claws on his left arm with his right rake.

He was completely angry.

His eyes are still blindfolded and invisible, but I can see that they are waiting to be cut off immediately from that posture.

"... I'll say it again. I refuse. Are you a fool who can't understand unless you say the same thing twice?"

"... Huh. Hey, Let’s go home."

"Aight"

The man stands up by calling out to the man wearing the armor next to him.

I was wondering if he was going to do a little more, but he gave up unexpectedly.

But I didn't miss the man's expression, laughing invincibly.

The men left the room, but for a few minutes no one tried to move or talk.

When I come out from behind the scroll, no one responds.

Uchikage and the maid desperately endured something, and Raiki was pondering something all the time.

"... Ran. Call Tenda and Shimu."

“………… understand”

The maid left the room to call them