v1c9 (1/2)
Hi everyone,
Thanks for all of your support so far. I had a lot of fun translating this teaser, but as expected, I’ve become far too busy to continue. It’s truly regretful, but there’s no helping it.
I hope you enjoyed the first volume! If anyone picks it up, please support the continuation. Though, if no one picks it up by the time summertime rolls around again, I might return to translating it. Haha. Shout-out to Masadeer for proofreading!
-Lei
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Translated by Lei
Proofread by Masadeer
“Phew!’
“You’re truly impressive!”
“Ohhh! We finished the work easily thanks to you, Kyre.”
‘Pant pant! The side effects of mana are&h.e.l.lip; arggh!’
Greatly uplifted by the everyone’s surprised faces, I had upturned the field like a crazy filly. And thus came the state of mana exhaustion. Characteristic of spells like Lighten, mana was constantly drained while the spell was being maintained. The result was that I exhausted my mana within one hour and only had enough strength to pick up chopsticks.
‘I don’t have enough mana. I have to expand my circle to the utmost and increase the mana.’
According to the Law of Mana Drainage, differences in the amount of mana in the circle were very subtle at first, but as soon as you became an upper circle Mage, the differences were like heaven and h.e.l.l. I was able to fill my circle with mana far more easily than others thanks to the remarkable channeling method Master had taught me, but I couldn’t fill the 4th Circle all the way yet.
“But Hans, why don’t you cultivate the land over there? It’s a pretty large area.”
About a kilometer away from the village, fairly expansive plains stretched out unused. The slope was decent, and from the looks of the thickly growing gra.s.s, the plains definitely had good soil as well.
“Our harvest last year was small, so we can’t cultivate it.”
“Huh? What does the harvest have to do with cultivation?”
‘What in the world is he saying?’
“Where are you from, lad? Are you not a person of this continent? Or did you come from an island where there aren’t any monsters?”
“Ha, haha! I don’t remember, so I don’t know where I lived.”
When something was hard to say, the best excuse was amnesia.
“I see. So that’s why you say such things.” Even as he spoke, Hans gazed at the expansive land with eyes of regret.
‘I’m not some kind of fortune teller, so I’ll only know if you say it.”
Having upturned the field with the plow, the women carefully stored the potatoes. Hans and I were able to rest a bit on the gra.s.s.
“There was a drought last year, so the crop harvest, including the potatoes, weren’t good. We couldn’t catch fish, so we were depending on the field crops&h.e.l.lip;”
‘Why can’t you catch fish? The sea looks perfectly fine.’ I still couldn’t understand Hans’ words.
“Do you see the Zarre Mountains over there?”
“Yes.”
A number of mountaintops were cl.u.s.tered side by side in the Zarre Mountain range. The range boasted an exceptional appearance that was reminiscent of a man’s spirit.
“There are mountains there and mountains behind our village, as well. And&h.e.l.lip; the monsters and demons that exist in the mountains can easily come to our village.”
[T/N: Demons refer to demonic beasts. ]
‘Wait, so what do demons and monsters have to do with the harvest?’
Instead of explaining with ease and clarity, Hans sighed regretfully as he spoke. “Besides the taxes we must pay to the lord, we must also acquire potions from the temple.”
“Potions?”
“That’s right. Blessed by the sacred G.o.d, potions aren’t just for healing wounds– it’s also precious holy water that greatly repels monsters, especially demons.”
‘Ohh, I see.’
“But usually, a potion only remains effective for a year. So every year, after paying our taxes, we acquire potions with the remaining money. For independent villages like us that don’t receive the lord’s protection, potions are even more necessary. If we don’t put a potion on the land we’re cultivating or on the boat we use to catch fish, there’s no knowing when a demon will appear and slaughter us.”
‘That’s ridiculous!’
Hans was saying that farming and catching fish were only possible if potions were acquired with the money left after paying taxes. If the harvest wasn’t good, like it had been last year, then there was less money for buying potions, and that could result in not being able to cultivate the land right in front of you.
“But aren’t there the villagers standing guard over there? Can’t they win against a demon?”
“Lad&h.e.l.lip; so you’ve really lost your memory. How could you think that farmers like us can take on Demons, which can face knights using Aura Blade? The people over there are just for blocking monsters like Orcs.”
‘Aura Blade!’
No exact knowledge of demons came to my mind.
“Hans, but this is the Kallian Continent, right?’
“&h.e.l.lip; Have you forgotten even that?”
Past being dumbfounded, the hairy Hans looked at me with an expression of pity.
‘Argh. I’ve become a birdbrain.’
The one and only Kang Hyuk, the reckless kid who lived with pride, had been reduced to an ignorant amnesiac who only knew his own name.
“Then the potion I drank was&h.e.l.lip;”
“Th-that was a potion we bought the year before last. The chief was holding onto it because it was a waste to throw it away&h.e.l.lip;”
“Geh!”
‘W-what the h.e.l.l! Doesn’t that mean I drank a potion that was past the expiration date! Uwaahh!’
“Thanks to you, a potion past its prime didn’t go to waste. Thanks.”
Hans, who had briefly turned me into a guinea pig for drug experiments, bowed his head.
‘If&h.e.l.lip; it hadn’t been effective&h.e.l.lip;’
It was a gruesome thought.
“Dad! Come eat lunch~!”
“Let’s go. Our work this morning was quickly finished thanks to you, lad.”
“Yes&h.e.l.lip;”
“I’ll leave the afternoon to you as well. Ahem.”
“&h.e.l.lip;..”
Hans spoke as rose, dusting his hefty bottom.
While getting up, my body stiffened right then and there.
“Maybe it’ll rain tomorrow&h.e.l.lip;” Hans slowly walked towards Cecile and the villagers without looking at me.
‘I’m not just a birdbrain, I’ve totally become a cow today.’
The potato field, which had become wider than before.
“Siiigh!”
I breathed out a long sigh.
I had consumed a potion past its expiration date, but I had to be thankful that I lived after drinking it. It couldn’t be helped that I had consumed it, after all.
* * *
‘I can’t live like this! I want to eat meat!’
Completely labeled as the village livestock, I’d been forced to due plowing work for the past three days. Even so, it was fine. After all, I was using magic and repaying my life debt to the people.
But the problem was food. I didn’t know how much the territory tax was, but I caught a glimpse of fear from the people– fear that they might not even be able to subsist with grain for meals, much less potatoes.
And so, I decided on an ambitious plan.
It was the grand ‘I’ve gotta eat meat’ plan. If things went wrong, I could die of malnutrition before I left this world.
‘So the thing is, in the past, before there was the big threat of monsters, they hunted and harvested greens in the forest and caught fish in the sea all year round.’
Since I’d worked hard to upturn the field for three days, the villagers were friendly to me, and I was able to hear a lot from them. In the past, this Luna Village was quite a well-off in the territory. At one point, it was a village that had a population of over a thousand people. But ten years ago, on Luena’s Moon, a day when monsters became more ferocious, monsters like Orcs and Ogres appeared and attacked the village.
Because they had always been prepared, the village watch was able to drive away the monsters, but they suffered a ma.s.sacre from the demons that cunningly appeared like wolves after that. The demons had invaded because the ignorant Orcs had laid waste to the bottle holding the potion. Thus the village was brought to near destruction, and the survivors were now working hard to cling to life.
‘So they can’t hunt if they can’t buy potions, yeah? Huhuhu.’
They didn’t know, but I was a kind Mage who had come from another world. How could a Mage like me ignore the village’s crisis?
Flop flop!
‘Ah! Th-that is!’
I was on a seaside cliff, where I could see the village in one glance. I had discovered it today, and it was quite a nice place. I could see the blue horizon extending endlessly, and upon seeing a huge object suddenly jump up above the horizon, my jaw dropped.
“TU-TUNA! Oh my G.o.d! It’s tuna!”
Very rarely, when my mother was in a good mood, I was able to taste tuna sas.h.i.+mi. Even then, it was a frozen tuna caught in the Pacific Ocean, but I still remembered the taste.
The tuna’s fatty belly meat, streaked with white stripes, called the supreme tuna belly.
That incredible, unforgettable taste of the meat slowly melting in your mouth.
The huge fish that was jumping up from afar by the horizon was definitely called a tuna. Somehow I’d unknowingly activated Magic Eye, allowing me to confirm it with my own eyes.
“One! Two! Ohhh! This is a sea of tuna!”
Tuna, the luxury fish whose more expensive individuals could reach prices of over 1 million in the neighbouring island nation known as j.a.pan!
Starved for meat, the sight of the tuna drove me crazy.
“With one&h.e.l.lip; all the villagers could throw a party.”
The feelings of the villagers, who couldn’t go catch the tuna despite seeing them right before their eyes. Now I thought I could understand why the vitality in their eyes had disappeared. Not only did land monsters exist, but there were underwater monsters in the water, too. Because they were a number of fairly big ones, you could only catch fish if you had a few potions.
“GRAAAAAAAHH! You’re all dead!”
I had never craved for meat this much in my life. No matter how cold-hearted my parents were in disciplining their offspring, they gave me meat at least once every three days.
“This is no time to be sitting around!”
The tuna, appearing like a mirage– I couldn’t miss them!
“The freedom of mana shall soon be the freedom of the wind! Fly!”
Today, after finis.h.i.+ng the potato harvest, the villagers had all gone out to the field to sow wheat. Atop the cliff, away from their eyes, I cast Flight magic.
Swoos.h.!.+ My body floated into the air.
Flap flap!
Having become a bird, I flew towards the sea. In my hands was the small spear Hans had given me for ‘self-protection.’
* * *
“Have you found him?”
“No! He’s nowhere to be found in the village&h.e.l.lip;”
“Hrgh, this lad, where did he go? Tomorrow, Luena’s Moon will rise.”
Thanks to the black-haired young man who had suddenly appeared in the village, Kyre, the villagers had been able to finish the potato harvest early and even sow the wheat. Though they had planned on returning home with their tired bodies and resting, when Hans cried out that Kyre had disappeared, everyone set about to comb the village. But the young man named Kyre was nowhere to be found.
“S-surely he didn’t go into the forest, right?”
“Surely not. We seriously warned him that it was dangerous.”
“He didn’t run away, did he?”
“Whaddya mean, run away&h.e.l.lip; it’s not like he racked up a debt with us or anything&h.e.l.lip;”
The two hundred or so villagers were gathered and whispering amongst themselves in the village square, where the chief’s house was. The sun had dropped at some point and night was about to fall. It was too much for the village watch to go outside and look for him now.
“Kyre&h.e.l.lip;.”
When the villagers were talking amongst themselves, Cecile had her hands together and was praying to the G.o.ddess of Mercy while thinking of Kyre. Kyre, a boy with uncommon black hair. It had been just a few days, but she had grown fond of Kyre– he made a smile that refreshed her heart whenever she looked at him. Especially because he had dripped sweat while dragging the plow in the place of her father, Kyre was a man to whom Cecile was grateful. She was so grateful to Kyre, who did the hard work instead of her father, whose strength had waned because there was little to eat these days.
‘Dear G.o.d&h.e.l.lip; please let nothing bad happen.’
Closing her eyes, Cecile prayed to Neran.
“H-he’s here! Kyre has appeared!”
“He’s walking from the beach!”
Just then, the name of Kyre came bursting out of the mouths of the several guards standing on the village palisade.
“The beach? Why from such a dangerous place!”
All the villagers swarmed towards the part of the palisade where the door to the beach was. Since the people of Luna Village thought of other people’s problems as their own, everyone was sincerely worried about Kyre.
Tmp tmp tmp!
Cecile’s eyes flashed open from praying ardently to G.o.d. And then, grabbing Deron’s hand (he’d been standing at her side) she ran towards the door facing the beach as the villagers swarmed to it.
* * *
“Hng, hng&h.e.l.lip;!”
‘Argghh! So hard, tch.’
My hunger had driven me to fly recklessly above the ocean. Then, like the grandpa main character in ‘The Old Man and the Sea,’ I underwent a desperate struggle to catch tuna. So many tuna were swimming about that the ocean one kilometer away from the village was half water, half tuna.
But the problem was that the only weapon in my hands was a feeble spearhead lodged into a st.u.r.dy wooden shaft. Moreover, I wasn’t securely in a boat, but maintaining Flight magic to catch the leaping tuna– it was as hard as a blind man catching a pheasant with a stone.
I looked for chances and stabbed in vain hundreds of times, all while in midair. Whenever my mana fell, I retreated to the beach to catch my breath, then went flying off again to catch a tuna. I absolutely wanted to avoid eating a few potatoes floating about in a clear soup and the teeth-shattering barley bread. And then, I was finally able to stick my spear into the head of a blind tuna.