Chapter 1063 – Good Service

000

At Schrödinger’s bitter cry, the group must have been engulfed in silence for a moment.

Aside from suddenly appearing and protecting the guardian.

This is because there was ‘something that must be confirmed’ from Schrödinger.

“… Schrödinger, you…”

Leila looked at her and opened her mouth with a slightly trembling voice.

Then he raised his hand, pointed at her, and asked a question carefully.

“What’s that on your nose…?”

“…”

Schrödinger was silent for a moment.

“Clothespin?”

It was Lila who asked, and Schrödinger was the one who received it, but the person who answered it was, of course, Kuon, who had the closest living distance to the object among the group.

“Ah, no… This is… Arty…”

And Schrödinger would be taken aback by that point for a moment, then suddenly come to his senses and answer.

“Artifact… Yes! Artifact! This is a special artifact!”

“No, no matter how you look at it, it’s a clothespin…”

Lila’s face seemed to have cooled down at the lie that didn’t work, and she straightened up her staff to point it at the guardian.

“Somehow, I feel stupid.”

“Yeah. I think we were a little too excited…”

When Lila spoke as if she had lost her energy, Kuo agreed with that and relaxed her arms that were holding her holy sword.

“Ugh…”

Although he succeeded in calming the group down, Schrödinger couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been treated like a fool, so he suppressed his anger while making a resentful expression.

“Ahahaha! Run away some more! I’ll show you what real hunting is!”

And in the meantime, Sasha, like a wild child, is still excitedly chasing after monsters… No, Ruben.

Then, the gaze of the companions looks there for a moment and then turns back to Schrödinger.

‘Well… Is everything okay over there?’ The same common perception spread among the group.

“More than that! What are you guys doing? It looks like a battle broke out, so the remaining members of the expedition were worried!”

As Schrödinger raised his voice and pointed a question at the group, Lila, Amelia, and Kuon looked at each other for a moment.

“What do you mean… As you can see, we were just repelling the monsters that were attacking us.”

“Joe, it’s undeniable that I was a little excited…”

Unlike Lila, who speaks without any shame, Amelia blushes when she remembers swinging her hammer wildly along with them.

“No… No matter where you looked, this guy was being lynched by a group.”

But Schrödinger would shake his head and point to the guardian he had taken with his arm.

She was moaning ‘Ugh’ as if she was in pain, but-

Only then did Schrödinger notice that, except for some scorching, she had no significant injuries anywhere.

Perhaps, the scorch is just the charcoal lumps created as a result of Lyla’s fire magic hitting once again while the dirt sticking up from the attack stuck to it.

In other words, I don’t know about the mental part, but in reality, the physical damage was close to 0.

The equipment she was wearing was the same type as the guardian seen earlier, so there was no doubt that she was a guardian.

“Wasn’t it important to avoid fighting with guardians as much as possible…”

“No, but it was suspicious that he suddenly appeared and made a loud noise…”

Even Lila scratched her face and answered in a hesitant tone to the following argument.

“Just for that reason…?”

After hearing the answer, the guardian in Schrödinger’s arms stood up staggeringly.

“That’s the only reason you attacked me like this!?”

She raised her voice as if she was being wronged, and the three people who heard her cry fell silent for a moment.

To be honest, it was difficult for all three to know why they were so excited and attacked her.

Of course, it is true that she had accumulated stress, and it is also true that she was able to relieve that stress to some extent through violent acts.

Should I say it was worse than usual?

However, at the same time as that question, Lila will voice another question that has popped into her head.

“… Now that I think about it, why is the guardian outside the entrance to the underground?”

According to the information obtained by Artis, the guardians cannot escape from the area around the entrance they are in charge of.

Therefore, all the guardians who have appeared in front of the party so far have been ‘illusions’ created through magical power, or alter egos created by projecting the main body.

But, the girl in front of her-

She, a guardian in the form of a beast with the same characteristics as a black cat, was walking around outside of her as if it were natural.

Then, he blinks his eyes and then answers.

“Hehe, hehe. I’ll tell you. That’s right. The large arena itself is my ‘territory’. This whole place is recognized as being near the entrance to the underground.”

“Hey…”

In other words, the entrance to the underground is near here.

From the looks of it, this guardian doesn’t look that strong, and maybe even if you don’t go to Jade Dragon Mountain, wouldn’t it be a good idea to subdue this guy and go underground?

“So you’re thinking…?”

I don’t know what they did, but the guardian reads Lila’s thoughts and speaks what she thinks.

Lila then looked startled and looked at the Guardian with narrowed eyes.

“Mind reading?”

“Wrong. It’s science and magic. Well, I’ll explain it to you too. What I was experiencing up to now was just that I couldn’t control my body due to my carelessness and embarrassment.”

She shakes off her own body.

“And no matter how much pain you feel, this body is not damaged. It is impossible for you to hurt our guardians unless you meet the ‘conditions’.”

“… Now that I think about it, I was going to say something earlier, when we had just arrived here.”

And Amelia will remember what she was trying to say when the Guardian first appeared.

“Yeah! You guys were affected by the ‘liberating gas’ faster than I thought, so I couldn’t explain it properly!”

“Liberation… Gas? Are you really referring to the identity of this stench?”

If Lila asks a word that she has never heard before, the guardian will nod and answer.

“You can’t see it with the naked eye, but it’s a craft floating around here. If your senses are as good as that of the girl who is excitedly chasing monsters over there, you might be able to see it.”

“… Sasha!”

Then Lila called Sasha’s name, but Sasha – no, Ruben didn’t even listen and was just chasing the monsters.

“It’s a futile effort. They’re probably under a lot more stress than you all. That means they’re under the influence of the gas for a much longer time…”

“… It seems like that gas has an effect on the ‘stress’ we had.”

When Lila expressed her guess based on the information revealed up to this point, the guardian gave her a thumbs up.

“Oh! As expected, a wizard. Compared to other humans, his mind works quite quickly, right?”

“Ugh… Don’t make fun of me, answer me properly.”

Lila frowned at such a playful attitude.

Then, Schrödinger’s ears and tail perked up without realizing it, a feeling of intimidation that he himself had once felt.

“…?”

And the same goes for the guardian standing next to Schrödinger.

‘What is this guy… Why is he so scared of Lila even though he is a guardian?’

Schrödinger might think that way and have doubts, but…

The guardian also seemed to think that he didn’t know why he was doing this.

‘Huh, why does my body get so tense just hearing this woman’s voice!? This is the first time I met him!”

“So? What on earth is this ‘liberating gas’?”

“… Literally, it is a gas that helps the person who inhales it relieve stress… To be precise, the purpose is to release the accumulated magical power of wealth by expressing negative emotions.”

The guardian answered with a grunt.

“Stress, anxiety, betrayal… When negative emotions such as these accumulate in the body, the magical power generated takes on a quality close to ‘black magic’, or turns into dark magic itself. To summon the devil, Edo, that kind of magic is also the cause.”

When Amelia secretly goes to exorcise demons outside the capital as a Saint Princess, she can be said to be the culprit – such characteristics can be felt in every demon summoner.

“Well, it’s a story about the basic nature of magical power.”

Lila also nodded her head at Amelia’s words.

“That’s right. This gas was created with ‘good intentions’ to prevent magical power from accumulating in that way. Of course, it also creates unintended sacrifices…”

“What do you mean?”

Amelia asks, as if the word unintentional sacrifice is mentioned.

However, it was not the guardian who gave the answer, but Kuon, who was by Amelia’s side.

“… If reason is weakened due to the release of stress, dissatisfaction with people around you may explode… As the shackles that were normally suppressed by reason are lifted-“

“… There may come a situation where colleagues who seem to be on good terms on the outside may point weapons at each other.”

When Kuon spoke that far, Amelia couldn’t help but frown as if she knew.

Although the intentions may have been good, the brutality of what was happening was impossible to contain.

What if─ It’s something I don’t want to even think about.

If only the four of us had ‘unspeakable complaints’ towards each other now.

Maybe, if they had been influenced by the gas and forced it against each other.

Boom boom.

Amelia shook her head from side to side, shaking away those thoughts.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen, so they were just trying to reassure themselves that they would be okay.

“Then what about the monsters around here? Looking at this, it looks like you are controlling them.”

Meanwhile, Laila asked the guardian the next thing she was curious about.

Then the guardian answers calmly.

“Ah, these guys are not monsters.”

“What?”

“Eh?”

“Such…”

As well as the three people who heard those words—

“What, what—!?”

Even Schrödinger, who reported these people as monsters, would be surprised and raise his voice loudly.

“Then what do you mean these unpleasant-looking guys aren’t monsters!? Hah!? Seriously, they’re converted humans!?”

“W-don’t be scary! Laila!”

How many, no, how many people did I defeat!

Looking at Kuon talking, the guardian speaks.

“Ah, this is a homunculus. I intentionally made it in a simple combat form. Well, it’s not bad, right?”

For a moment, there was silence among the group.

And.

“What~? It’s a homunculus. I’m glad.”

“Well, that’s right…”

Although Lila and Kuon react as if they were relieved.

“Uh, hey… Both of you…”

Amelia glances at Schrödinger.

There, Schrödinger was there, crying with his cheeks puffed out after seeing the two people’s reactions.

And Laila and Kuon also said ‘Hot’ and came to their senses.

“I’m sorry~ Schrödinger. I didn’t particularly discriminate against homunculi!”

“Oh, that’s right. So don’t be so offended!.”

Schrödinger, who received the two people’s apologies, still had his cheeks puffed out.

“These guys were created to use the liberation gas efficiently. The materials used to make them – that is, they were born with the negative magic contained in the plants and soil of this mountain, so they are stressed from the beginning. “

Just as negative emotions create negative magic, the opposite is also true.

Therefore, many of the dark demon clan, including Cleon, were emotionally unstable because they had a strong adaptability to black magic from birth.

“And the homunculi who inhaled the release gas release their stress by fighting each other. And as the stress is relieved, the ‘negative magic power’ inside them is purified to some extent. The magic power remaining in the body can be used by other homunculi to eat the corpse. Then move on to the next guy…”

“… Finally, the magic power is completely purified through several homunculi and returned to nature.”

“Just as you said! This arena is a large septic tank of this Narong Mountain—no, the entire Four Dragon Mountain Range!”

The guardian spread his arms and spun around as if he was proud of the system he had created.

Why is it necessary to purify magical power in this way?

Of course, it goes without saying – as magic pollution accumulates, unfavorable changes occur in that place.

Mutation of plants, mutation of animals, perhaps mutation of monsters.

Isn’t it a good thing that the number of visits by humans is decreasing? You’re welcome, if the Four Dragon Mountains themselves were to turn into an alien world, that would be the worst outcome for the guardians protecting this mountain and ruins.

The Four Dragon Mountains basically do not accept intruders, and at the same time, negative magical power easily accumulates due to problems with the spiritual veins and bad energy flowing from ruins buried underground.

In order to solve it, the guardian in front of me was purifying the land, spirit veins, and magic of this mountain through the homunculi that were constantly being created.

… She looked similar to Schrödinger, and her appearance was unreliable, but perhaps she was the guardian most worthy of the name.

At least, more than the person who showed maternal love since we met just before.

However.

Considering Kuon’s concerns earlier, this place is definitely not friendly to ‘intruders’.

If you have to go to the next mountain, you must pass through this place, and while passing through this entire large arena, there was no way they wouldn’t be affected by the gas like they were.

If that causes internal strife…

Even just imagining it was a story that gave me goosebumps.

“─Okay then.”

If the party understands that fact and accepts the seriousness of the situation.

As if he had been waiting, the guardian opened his mouth.

“You have something to say to me, right? ‘Intruders’.”

Now, who has the upper hand? With a confident attitude that seems to say-

The somewhat sloppy and loopy appearance from before was as if it was for the purpose of a turnaround at this time.

“… We just want to pass through this mountain. So – temporarily get rid of the monsters and gas here.”

I had no choice but to say that.

Unless her guardian knows the conditions to unlock her ‘absolute defense’, she herself cannot completely defeat her.

Moreover, even though she was a little self-sufficient, she had used up quite a lot of her magic power when she was beating her up without mercy.

In a state where most of the main power had consumed a large amount of magical energy – if the stench felt by the waiting expedition was also due to the faint gas.

Staying on this mountain for a long time will one day cause the same condition as the four of you.

So as quickly and safely as possible.

I had no choice but to pass through this arena and cross to the other side.

Lila made her request and kept her mouth shut.

Here, if the guardian refuses.

What should I do? With that, her head was full.

And, the guardian slowly opened his mouth with a natural smile, as if he was confident of victory.

“Oops!”

“──?”

Seeing the guardian raising his thumb, her group’s thoughts stopped for a moment.