Forgotten ○○
According to what I heard from Kamisaman, this village was built on the premise of accepting—or rather, abducting—so-called “freak blooms”... that is, beastkin with multiple traits. In the past, persecution against freak blooms was much worse; they were either killed immediately after birth or barely allowed to live. Heartbroken by this, my saint-like older sister gathered the freak blooms and created this village.
To protect the village, she set up two kinds of barriers—one that repels those with ill intent toward the freak blooms, and another that distorts recognition. But recently, the recognition-distortion barrier seemed to be malfunctioning.
“I see. I might be able to fix it, so could I take a look?”
“This way.”
I was led to the village center, into a building that looked like a sanctuary. At its center stood a tree I recognized. We have the same one in our garden. Yes, it's Yggdrasil. The area where Yggdrasil stood was covered with soil, while the rest of the floor around it was made of stone. A magic circle was inscribed on the floor, with Yggdrasil at its center.
It seemed the barrier was being maintained by a magic circle powered by Yggdrasil. The inner parts of the circle were fine, but the outer parts had deteriorated. Ah, that missing piece must be the reason for the malfunction. It was probably due to age. The stone was crumbling, and the rest looked like it could fall apart any moment.
“... Alright. I think I’ll do a coating job.”
After considering various things, I decided to only re-carve the missing section and coat the entire thing from above. Pochi is better at this kind of work, but I can manage too. For the damaged part, I poured in some slime material and let it harden. As for the coating, I used... that thing from Chris-kun, melted it down, and hardened it. It looked like glass, but was a sturdy material that could even withstand Geraldin-san’s kicks. It’s weak to heat, but since there’s no fire here and it only melts at high temperatures, it should be fine.
“Might as well do some extra repairs while I’m at it.”
Since I was at it, I figured I’d get Valkyrie to help—wait, Valkyrie looks like a normal humanoid now.
“Ever since entering the village, my magic power has stabilized. It seems the outer layer of the barrier was distorting it.”
“… If it can even mess with an artifact spirit like Valkyrie, isn’t that seriously dangerous?”
“For a normal person… they’d probably go insane. Only those with unclouded souls could enter that forest.”
The ones who came to mind were Aldin-sama and Geraldin-san. Both of them are members of royal families. Geraldin-san aside, Aldin-sama would be bad news.
Just then, the key to the hideout started blinking. It was a signal from Navi-kun. I channeled magic power into the key and only let Navi-kun out.
“Master, thank you. Coordinates confirmed. Confirmed in Kamisaman's area. Master, it’s an emergency. Please go to the hideout immediately. The world is ending.”
“… Huh!?”
Panicked, I rushed into the hideout, where the communication device was ringing loudly. Of all times, now?! I quickly answered the call.
“Rosarin-chaaaaaan! Rosarin-chaaaaaaan!! ROSARIIIN!!”
“Rinka!? Rinka!”
“Rosarin-chaaaaaan! Rosarin-chaaaaaaan!! ROSARIIIIIIIN!!”
“Rinka!! Rinka!?”
“Musclebound ROSARIIIIIIIN!! Rosarin leading muscles ROSARIIIIIIIN!!”
Can you *please* listen?! And stop throwing in new material!! I turned down the speaker volume and switched to full volume on my mic.
I took a deep breath. Then used magic to amplify my voice.
“Listen to what I’m saaaayiiiing!!”
That seemed to get through, and things finally quieted down.
“Rosarin-chan!? Is it really you!? You’re okay, right!? You must be okay! Rosarin-chan would survive even if the world ended, so there’s no way she’s dead!!”
Just when I thought she’d finally calmed down, she started talking again. And casually threw in some insults. Would it be okay to hit her? I think it would. Well, yes, I *am* safe, but she’s annoying.
“Rosarin-chan, the spirits are, to put it mildly, on the verge of rampaging! Even the spirit kings are getting agitated. It’s seriously bad!!”
“Ohhh…”
Now that I think about it, this happened before too. The spirit kings, Darkness-sama, and Holy Beast-sama all got involved, and it turned into a huge mess. Looks like things are seriously bad over there again!!
“The sky is like... it looks like the final boss is gonna come crashing down from above!!”
Now’s not the time to be smacking Rinka. This must be the emergency!!
“Rinka, bring the communication device as close to the spirits as possible! I’m taking over control—speaker volume, max!”
I remotely controlled Rinka’s communicator. Then used magic to amplify the sound. With Valkyrie’s help as a relay, I amplified it even more on the other side.
“I’m!! SAFE!! DOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHH!!”
I heard shattering and crashing sounds over there. Might’ve overdone it a bit.
“Rosarin-chan… Everyone collapsed. The crisis is averted, but honestly, you went too far… my ears hurt…”
“Ahahaha.”
Can’t be helped. I was panicking too. Being popular is tough. Also, please don’t link my absence with the world’s destruction.
For now, I’ve decided to go with a basic “Life is precious” strategy.
What do you think about this chapter?
