Chapter 83 - Volume 9 (2/2)

“Wawawa!”

In order of screams, there was Kaori, Myuu, and Shia. Met with a strong centrifugal force, Kaori turned behind, worrying about Myuu in the back seat. But her balance crumbled and she fell into Hajime’s lap with her hip on Yue’s lap.

Blinking her eyes, Kaori’s cheeks were flushed, and as she was, she clung tightly to Hajime’s waist. Her position was actually pretty bad. It made Hajime’s cheek cramp. Incidentally, the other half of Kaori’s body was crushing on Yue.

“Oi, Shira-… Kaori! What are you doing in such a situation!”

“It’s a dangerous! A dangerous situation! So, I’m just clinging to Hajime-kun!”

“…Damn you, Kaori. To pin me under, is it… a surprise attack?”

While receiving an ambush from the sandworms, Kaori used this chance to hug Hajime. Yue was slapping Kaori’s butt even now, but the blushing Kaori was still clinging to Hajime’s waist, not moving at all.

While they were like that, the three appearing sandworms, with their upper bodies out of the ground, were glaring at the four-wheeler that evaded all of their ambushes. This time, those gigantic figures came forward to attack from overhead.

If it was a normal carriage, everything would’ve ended with that attack. However, it was an artifact created with a portion of Hajime’s otaku soul. It wasn’t even daunted at being made out as prey.

Besides…

“Ah, this is the first time I am using THIS!”

Saying so, Hajime turned around the four-wheeler with a drift, advancing backwards, he poured his magic and activated the installed function.

CLANK! KA-THUNK! KA-THUNK!

At the same time the mechanical sound effect rang out, a part of the four-wheeler’s bonnet slided open and an arm with a set of four rockets came out. The arm moved as if looking for its’ prey and when it turned towards the incoming sandworms, wooosh!, such an sfx rang out accompanied by the deadly warheads scattering their sparks.

Shining in an orange color, the rockets entered right into the sandworms’ opened mouths and after a moment, they created great explosions as they destroyed the sandworms from the inside. The sandworms’ crimson blood and flesh poured down like a shower and some stuck on the windshield of the currently back running four-wheeler.

“Uhee… Shia, don’t let Myuu see it.”

“I did that already~. Anh! Myuu-chan, was it painful? But please hold on for a while.”

Hajime asked Shia to do so at the time the rockets were fired into the incoming sandworms because the stimulation might be too strong for Myuu. Like that, in synchronization with Hajime, Shia was already embracing Myuu closely to her chest so as she would not see it. However, maybe because she could not breath from her face being buried in Shia’s breasts, Myuu tried to sip out and inadvertently touched a part of Shia’s body. Inadvertently, Shia moaned. Hajime decided that he did not hear anything.

Currently, although Kaori was clinging onto Hajime’s waist, Yue was finally able to fix her seatbelt. Indeed it was not a situation where he could be defeated by his own impulse, even though his ears were dyed in red with his face cramped.

“E-Excuse me, Hajime-kun. I am sorry. That, that I impulsively… there’s no perverted meaning to it. That is, for a bit, I just wanted to hug…”

“… then if things go well, are you going to satisfy Hajime like that?”

“Un, that is so… wait, no! Yue, don’t put such strange things into my mouth. I am not as lewd as Yue.”

“…You said I am lewd… certainly, I can’t refute that when I am alone with Hajime.”

“…Girls, please shut it already. Also, Yue, please don’t talk about night activities because it’s embarrassing.”

With the three sandworms crushed by the rockets installed in the four-wheeler, Hajime sharpened his gaze because the sandworms on the dune before could be seen moving due to perceiving the explosive sound and impact.

However, on his side, Kaori and Yue were conversing just as usual which reduced his tension. Inadvertently, he admonished them due to him being embarrassed.

To begin with, in his mind, the “night” Yue was certainly a lewd one and, when he was alone with her, he thought of her as pretty erotic. Kaori who seemed to have seen through him was teary eyed. Yue, with a bewitching smile, was looking at Hajime while licking her lip. Kaori, who saw that, raised a cute groan. Unconsciously, her fighting spirit blazed further.

From the back seat, Shia said, “I understand your feelings, Kaori-san. We are comrades here,” while patting Kaori’s shoulder with sympathetic eyes.

Hajime ignored them and the moved four-wheeler above another dune. He could see the group of sandworms on the lower side of the ground with their lower parts still underground. They didn’t hide anything as they slightly raised the sand. They might have guessed that they had been noticed by Hajime’s party, so they chose speed over another surprise attack.

Hajime put the rocket launcher away and activated another piece of weaponry in its stead. The center of the bonnet slid apart and a rectangular machine appeared from inside. Following that, the rectangular box extended its barrel with kashun! sound effect, and it became a rifle was similar to Schlagen.

Next, bright red sparks gushed out from the four-wheeler’s Schlagen. With its arm adjusting the angle, DUuuoo!!, came a roaring, firing sound as a line flashing line tore through the brown world.

The bullet, which was fired at a high-velocity, advanced as it raised the sand on the ground upon impact and grandly raised a dust storm. On the sand column that was raised just like an eruption was, of course, a lot of sand colored meat and red blood.

The Schlagen installed on four-wheeler continued to fire bright red flashes, one after another. The sandworms that were hunting their prey exploded on the ground and became small bits of nourishment for the barren ground.

“Hajime-kun! Look at that!”

“…A white person?”

When four-wheeler’s Schlagen, which was trailing white smoke, was stored back, Kaori let out a surprised voice and pointed her finger. In the place Kaori pointed at, just as Yue muttered, was a collapsed person who was wrapped in white clothing. It was probably the one the previous sandworms were looking at. However, from their distance, it was unknown as to why it wasn’t eaten.

“Please, Hajime-kun. Let’s go there… I am a “healer” after all.”

Kaori looked at Hajime, petitioning. Even Hajime was interested as to why that person was not attacked by the demonic beasts of the desert in such a situation, so he accepted Kaori’s request. It was possible that the person carried a method or item capable of keeping demonic beasts away. And in actuality, there was a mineral called the Faeadren crystal that carried such an effect in the sea of trees. The crystal only made it difficult for demonic beasts to approach, but there’s a possibility that even stronger items exist.

As such, the four-wheeler came near the collapsed person. The person wore clothing that was similar to galabeya (egyptian clothing), and it wore a hood that was large enough to hide its’ face. Its’ face couldn’t be seen. Falling prone, the hood hid it.

Getting off the four-wheeler, Kaori ran with short steps towards the fallen person.

“!… This is…”

When the hood was taken off, a man’s face could be seen, a young one that was still in the middle of his 20s. However, what surprised Kaori was not that but the young man’s state. With a pained expression, he was drenched in sweat, his breathing was rough, and his pulse was fast. He generated an intense heat from all over his body that could be felt even through his clothing. Moreover, blood vessels could be seen as if they were being pressed from the inside of his body, and he was bleeding from his eyes and nose. It was obviously an abnormal situation. It was neither a sun stroke nor cold.

Hajime became cautious towards the virus-carrier like young man, but he decided to keep quiet and watch as the healing specialist was examining him. Kaori activated “Infiltrate and Examine.” Using magic power to infiltrate the other’s body, she could examine one’s state and the result could be seen on her status plate.

With one hand placed on the young man’s chest, Kaori’s other hand was holding her status plate where the result of the examination was displayed. The result was…

“…Rampaging magic power? Does it mean the magic power inside his body is out of control because of poison?”

“Kaori? Do you understood anything now?”

“Y-Yeah, but this is…”

Saying so, Kaori shown what was displayed on her status plate,

ConditionExcessive release of magic power, unable to release it outside.SymptomFever, hazy consciousness, pain in whole body, rupturing of blood vessels and hemorrhageCauseAbnormality in bodily fluid.

“It is just my guess, but he must have drunk something which resulted in his magic power going out of control… moreover, because he can’t release it outside, his magic power was pressuring from inside his body and his body couldn’t endure it… if this keeps up, his internal organs and blood vessels will explode. It is also possible that he will be weakened to death due to a large amount of hemorrhaging… I am requesting a blessing unto this location, “Ten Thousand Heavens.”

Concluding so, Kaori chanted her healing magic. “Ten Thousand Heavens” was what she activated. It was onne of the middle-ranked healing magics with the effect of curing abnormal conditions. It was the magic used to undo Suzu’s petrification.

However…

“…There’s almost no change… why? For it to be incapable of curing it… does it means too much time has passed?”

Apparently, “Ten Thousand Heavens” could not cure the man, it could only delay the progression. Next, maybe because of the pressure from inside his body, the young man groaned in pain. His bleeding didn’t stop. At the moment, because she didn’t have any clear treatment method, Kaori ground her teeth and decided to use her emergency measure.

“Here I declared the light of grace, here is my realm, my sanctuary, which crushes all evils just as I intended to, “Holy Ground.””

High-ranked light attributed healing magic, “Holy Ground.” It was a magic that transfers peoples’ magic power to the others within the area. Basically, by transferring one’s magic power to one’s companion, that person would temporarily escaped from magic power exhaustion. It was a magic that aimed to supplement another if s/he didn’t have a sufficient amount of magic power to shoot a strong magic.

Moreover, it wasn’t limited to the user’s magic power, so it could forcefully transfer someone else’s magic power to another within the area. It held the same principle as magic drain. However, it needed a lot more time to extract the magic power from another person and it was impossible to extract a lot of it at once. This was the reason it is only a “High-ranked magic.”

To begin with, it only became practical because Kaori was capable of activating magic which originally needed ten notes with only three notes of chanting. It showed how capable Kaori was.

The reason she used this magic on the suffering young man was of course to release the rampaging magic power that was building pressure inside his body towards the outside. It was displayed on the status plate that the young man was in state where he “cannot release magic power to outside of the body,” so she decided to try “if” it could be solved by forcefully draining it using high-ranked magic.

The pure-white light expanded from the center of the young man’s body, and firefly-like, fleeting lights sprang about. It was a mysterious sight. With her eyes shut, the appearance of Kaori, who placed her hand on the young man’s chest as she concentrated and was wrapped by the fleeting light, was divine.

Kaori, who easily activated high-ranked magic, made the ones well versed in magic, Yue and Tio, inadvertently leak “Hou…,” voices of admiration. While being held by Shia, Myuu watched Kaori in an entranced expression and muttered, “Beautiful…”

Without noticing that her new comrades in the surroundings were raising voices of admiration, Kaori put the magic power extracted from the young man into the bracelet made of God Crystal that she received from Hajime. Apparently, the forced drain from the high-ranked magic was effective.

Incidentally, the reason it was not a ring was because Hajime didn’t want to repeat the past misunderstanding.

Gradually, the young man’s breathing became steady. The redness of his body also disappeared as it seemed the bleeding was also stopped. After deactivating “Holy Ground,” Kaori activate beginner-ranked healing magic, “Blessing,” which healed the young man’s blood vessels.

“For the time being… I don’t think it will have an immediate effect as I don’t see any real solution for it. There’s also the possibility of a slow death from over magic power extraction, so I only extracted it until the level where the pressure inside his body is decreased. If this keeps up, I think the possibility of a slow death from either pressure from inside his body or fatigue is… high. I also have no memory of such a symptom from the things I studied… Do Yue and Tio know anything about it?”

With the young man out of the crisis, Kaori was somewhat relieved but anxious as she could not heal him completely. Thus she asked Yue and Tio whose knowledge was deep. The two’s gazes wandered around as they searched about it inside their memory, but there was none. In the end, it became a situation where they could not even say that it was a disease of an unknown cause.

“Kaori, just to be safe, try to examine us too. After all, there’s also the possibility that it is an unknown disease that is spread by aerial infection too. Well, there’s no need to worry about it if it is just a rampaging of magic power.”

“Un, you are right.”

Nodding at Hajime’s words, Kaori examined everyone and didn’t find any abnormalities. Therefore, because it seemed not to infect anyone from respiration, Hajime’s party patted their chests in relief.

When they did that, the young man raised a groan and his eyelids trembled. Thus, he woke up. Slowly opening his eyes and then looking at his surrounding, the young man saw the nearby Kaori was watching him in worry and he said, “Goddess? I see, so this that world…”

Following that, the young man began to heat up for different reason and tried to reach out towards Kaori only to have his stomach trampled by Hajime, who didn’t conceal his irritation from the already annoying heat and sand.

“Ufffph!?”

“H-Hajime-kun!?”

Leering at the groaning young man, whose body bent into <, and Kaori, who raised a surprised voice, Hajime began to question him.

Hajime knew that the garaveya-like clothing and overcoat worn by the young man was a specialty of the «Dukedom of Ancadi» that was located in the biggest oasis of «Guryuu-en Great Desert». He studied it as way of escaping reality at the time he was called “incompetent.” If the young man says that a kind of disease was spreading in Ancadi then they would change their next destination due to the current one being a danger zone. Thus he asked the young man.

Regaining his senses after being trampled by Hajime, the young man didn’t even look at Hajime’s party surrounding him and stared at the black object, blinking in confusion. After hearing the rough circumstances from Kaori,and understanding that Hajime’s party were his life benefactors, he bowed his head, said his thanks, and began his story.

Hearing the young man’s story, is it those Gods playing tricks on us?, Hajime was looking at the sky doubtfully because trouble always followed them wherever they went.