by Okina Baba
Although part of the reason was to overwrite the name that horrible man gave me.
Still, I could have changed it back to my old name. The reason I didn’t was that I felt I’d tarnished it, that I could no longer use it.
So I guess deep down I thought I didn’t have the right to go back to that village anymore, either.
To be honest, I still feel that way now.
But another feeling has overtaken that: exhaustion.
I’m absolutely spent. It’s time to stop being stubborn and rest.
The other part of me, the half that’s being controlled by anger, screams that it hasn’t had enough fighting yet.
But that just makes me all the more determined.
I have to go back to my home village.
If I don’t do it now, while I still have my sanity, then I’ll never be able to go back again.
There’s no time like the present, then.
I know being here in this village will be good for nothing but stoking my rage even more.
This village is abandoned now, except for me.
I’m here in this horrible, half-destroyed house.
It’s the exact place I should want to avoid, but perhaps because of all the time I spent here, my feet just naturally guided me right through the door.
I was forced to make magic swords in this house.
Day after day, as my rage and hatred built up inside me.
I don’t have a single good memory of this home or this village.
Just being here dredges up unpleasant memories that eat away at my sanity.
I need to get out of here as soon as possible.
Leaving the house, I find the sky covered in dense clouds, like an omen of doom.
My mood darkens even further, but I still start moving forward.
To the Mystic Mountains. To the goblin village.
Home.
As the air gets colder with every step, I abruptly stop in place.
Huh?
Where was I going, again?
I get the feeling I was heading toward somewhere very important…
But I don’t remember where.
…Oh well. It doesn’t matter.
If I can’t remember, I’m sure it didn’t matter much.
All that matters right now is finding a way to vent the rage overflowing in my heart.
Ah…so much hate.
Hate… Kill… HATE… KILL!
“GRAAAAAH!”
The boiling wrath erupts as a howl.
As the howl ripples across the area like a shock wave, I can sense the living things nearby start to flee.
But I won’t let them get away.
The only way to sate this anger is to kill.
I’ll kill, and kill, and kill.
I’ll kill every last one of them.
I’M MOUNTAIN CLIMBING
After spending the night in the abandoned village, we set out into the Mystic Mountains.
Huh?
Did we see any ghosts?
Of course not, dummy!
No matter how creepy and ill-fated this place might be, there’s no such thing as ghosts in this world, period.
’Cause when you die, you’re forcibly sent home to the goddess.
If you wanted to stick around here as a ghost, you’d have to be able to defy the gods somehow.
In fact, if you were strong enough to do that, I don’t think you’d even be a ghost anymore.
That would be a serious problem.
So yeah, our night went perfectly fine, thank you very much.
The puppet spiders are one thing, but I don’t know whether to be impressed with how fast Vampy passed out or appalled by her lack of girliness.
Wouldn’t that have been the perfect time to go up to Mera, like, I’m too scared to sleep. Can I stay with you?
She’s still just a little kid, so it wouldn’t be that weird to sleep next to her caretaker.
Even without a paranormal encounter, we could at least get some drama going.
Anyway, that’s the kind of stupid thing I’m thinking about as I bounce along in the carriage.
It’s cold out, so I’m all wrapped up in a blanket.
Why don’t I walk, you ask?
Yeah, right. You think I could walk on a mountain path like this?
I guarantee you I’d be down and out in less than an hour!
The Demon Lord knows that, too, which is why I’m on standby in the carriage right from the start.
My role in this mountain expedition is to sit still inside the carriage, just like this.
Yep. I’m basically luggage!
While everyone else laboriously drags themselves up the mountain, I get to ride in luxury all by myself.
Mm, it’s good to be me.
Still, I wouldn’t say the journey is very easy.
For one thing, it’s cold.
Weather in the Mystic Mountains is so intense that the snow never melts here.
We’re still traveling at a relatively low elevation, but it’s already pretty damn cold.
Even wrapped up in this blanket with heat-emanating magic stones, I’m still freezing in here.
Okay, technically, this used to just be an ordinary stone.
But with the help of Magic Conferment, a skill that lets the user fill an object with magic, it’s been imbued with Fire Magic.
The Demon Lord made it, of course.
Since it was just some rock to start with, it came at the low, low price of absolutely free.
Talk about a bargain!
She made a bunch of these magic stones while we were in town, so each of us is carrying a few.
Incidentally, I got the most, since I don’t have stats to protect me from the cold.
I’m still using only one right now, but when it gets colder, I’m planning on using a bunch at once.
To be honest, I’d like to use all of them right this second.
I’m cold!
But if I start complaining when we’ve just gotten started, I feel like I won’t be able to make it through the rest of the trip, so I’m forcing myself to bear with it.
The cold isn’t the only problem, either.
I’m getting carriage-sick.
I mean, this thing really sways.
Back and forth, back and forth.
Can you blame me for feeling gross?
Urp!
Why is it swaying so much? Because this carriage isn’t touching the ground.
For those of you who are thinking What the hell are you talking about? your reaction is justified, but think about it for a second.
How would a carriage be able to traverse an uneven mountain path?
It can’t, that’s how!
So how is this carriage moving, then? Good question.
The answer is: It’s being carried.
By whom? By Ael.
She looks like a little girl, yet she’s carrying this carriage on her back as she walks.
If any outsiders saw this, I’m sure it would look pretty crazy.
But despite her appearance, she’s actually a monster with stats in the quintuple digits.
Lugging a carriage up a mountain is a simple task for her.
Unfortunately, that means that jostling around a bunch is all part of the ride.
Of course being carried on someone’s back means bouncing around a lot.
In fact, she’s actually being pretty careful, or I’d probably be suffering even more.
If it was any of the other puppet spiders, I’m sure they wouldn’t even think to carry it gently.
Yeah. Without going into too much detail, that wouldn’t end well.
Urp!
I have to bear the cold and the swaying somehow.
That might sound like a nice problem to have compared to the others who are walking outside, but I don’t have stats, so gimme a break.
If I could walk on my own two feet, I’d be doing it right now!
Besides, technically they’re not all wa
lking on their own feet, either.
Vampy and Mera are riding on the earth wyrms that were pulling the carriage.
Since Ael’s carrying the carriage now, that frees up the two earth wyrms for riders.
Mera tamed the pair with a skill.
While he was a human, he apparently boasted all kinds of butlering skills, including driving a carriage.
A butler as a coachman? Yeah, I know. Don’t worry about it.
Anyway, that’s why he had the Creature Training skill to start with, but by taming the earth wyrms, he was able to evolve that skill into Summoning.
See, there are two ways to win over a monster.
One is using a skill to force them to obey you.
That means Creature Training or its advanced form, Summoning, to force the monster to do your bidding.
The other option is to get them to acknowledge you and enter into a contract with you.
With the former, you’re basically enslaving the monster by force.
Of course, the tamer has to be stronger than the monster in this case, or the skill will bounce right off.
If you weaken the monster beforehand, though, sometimes it’ll still work.
You don’t need the monster’s consent, so you can just force it to do stuff right away.
But since you’re forcing it, that means you’re suppressing the monster’s free will.
After it’s enslaved, it’s practically a whole different being that happens to have the same specs.
Once you control its free will, the monster is like a machine that only obeys orders.
On the other hand, if you get a monster to recognize you as its master and enter into a contract, then that monster retains its free will.
Of course, that means the monster might rebel against you.
But since you have a real bond linking you together, you gain a far more formidable ally than if you just force it to obey you with a skill.
Ah, the power of friendship!
So Mera is using the latter, a contract with monsters who’ve accepted him as a master.
Earth wyrms as a species tend to be loyal for life to anyone they acknowledge as their master, so it’s much better this way. They’d probably fight to the death for him now.
Although frankly, they’re the next weakest members of this party after me, so they probably won’t get the chance to do that anytime soon.
Their main job is to be beasts of burden.
That being said, if it gets too hard on them, the two riders will probably get down and lead them by the reins.
After all, the riders have higher stats than the wyrms.
Even when the earth wyrms get tired, the bloodsucker duo will probably still be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
So far, though, the earth wyrms’ steps seem light.
Straining my ears, I can hear the bloodsuckers and the Demon Lord chatting.
“Are there any monsters we should be wary of up here?”
“Hmm? As long as I’m with you, you don’t need to worry about any monsters, but I suppose this is ice dragon territory.”
“Anything else?”
“Well, I suppose there’s always goblins.”
“Huh?”
Huh?
I’m just as confused as Vampy.
Aren’t goblins basically the poster children for super-weak monsters?
“They’ve got just as much warrior spirit as any old dragon. Or should I say determination? They’re weak on their own, all right, but they’re not afraid to stare death in the face. And they always attack in groups, so they’re a pretty serious threat to an ordinary human.”
What kind of a world has goblins like that?!
This world, I guess!
But that doesn’t sound like the goblins we all know and love.
Unreal.
“Oh, and I guess there are the monkeys.”
The Demon Lord and the baby bloodsucker keep chatting as they walk.
Yeah, they’ve got enough energy to spare for chatting as we climb this mountain, if you can believe it.
I guess that’ll probably change when we get higher up, though.
But that’s a long way off, I’m sure.
Oh boy, do I miss the time when I still believed that.
It’s so c-c-c-c-cold!
Not just cold, it’s freezing!
In fact, it’s straight-up painful!
I knew these mountains were gonna be rough, but this is way worse than I thought.
I’m wrapped up in a blanket with all my magic stones, and I’m still freezing my butt off.
Just bouncing around inside the carriage like this seems to be draining my stamina.
This is rough, all right.
It’s been a few days since we started our trip across the Mystic Mountains.
We’re still moving at a steady pace, but the farther we go, the colder and more painful it gets.
The snow whirling around in the air is pretty, sure, but it’s also the worst thing ever.
As the snow falls, it piles up on top of the carriage.
Too much would make the roof collapse, so it has to be periodically removed.
Which Ael accomplishes by shaking the carriage around.
Really, just whipping it back and forth.
It’s like some kind of amusement-park ride, except I’m not sure I’m gonna survive.
I feel like I’m gonna be sick.
So every day I beg the snow: Please just stop falling!
My prayers go unanswered, though…
I’m still getting whipped back and forth!
Ugh, this seriously sucks.
And of course, snow is piling up on the ground, too.
It’s piled so high, it’d practically be up to my ears if I was walking.
And since it’s new snow, it’s super-soft, too.
If you dropped Vampy on top of snow like that, she’d probably be buried on the spot!
So the Demon Lord is leading the way, tunneling through the snow for everyone else.
Damn, she’s more efficient than a snowplow.
Must be nice having stats like that.
“Hrmmm. This is a little bit strange, though. I wonder what’s going on.”
The Demon Lord mutters to herself as she forges a path through the snowdrifts.
I’m guessing she means it’s strange that the snow is falling nonstop like this.
The biggest reason the Mystic Mountains are considered impassable is because of the dragons that make their home there.
A whole family of ice-controlling dragons lives up in these peaks, encamped right smack in the middle between human lands and demon lands.
If the humans or demons want to invade each other, they’d have to cross through ice dragon turf first, making an invasion by way of the Mystic Mountains nearly impossible.
In fact, the ice dragons are the reason it’s so damn cold.
They perpetually generate cold, freezing the land around them.
Of course, the closer you get to the source, the colder it gets.
So going to the heart of the mountains is especially scary.
But that’s exactly where we’re headed—in fact, we’re nearly there—but apparently this situation is unusual.
I guess I can see that.
I’m using all these magic stones that the Demon Lord made, but I’m still shaking like a leaf in here.
The outside of the blanket that I’m wrapped up in with the stones is actually starting to freeze.
So without the magic stones, this blanket would probably be a block of ice, and so would I.
And yet, it’s snowing outside.
At this temperature, it should definitely be hail by now.
Talk about a fantasy world.
That means this snow must be a magical creation, not natural.
So who do you think is making it snow, hmm?
Obviously, that’d be the lords of the mountain, the ice dragons.
“Maybe they’re trying to k
eep you away, Miss Ariel?”
“Nah. Even the ice dragons must know they can’t beat me. Plus, we have an unspoken agreement that I won’t pick fights with them. They didn’t try to intercept me last time I passed through this way, so I’m guessing we’re not their target.”
Outside the frozen blanket, I can hear Vampy and the Demon Lord talking again.
It’s way too cold for a conversation at this point, but I am interested in what they’re saying.
I open up a tiny gap in the blanket so that I can hear them better.
Immediately, cold air blows in through the hole.
Too cold!
I’m gonna freeze!
“There must be another outsider in the mountains right now besides us. Maybe it’s that ogre?”
Without waiting to hear more, I plug the hole back up.
Whew. I thought I was gonna freeze to death.
That ogre again, though? This guy’s pretty aggressive.
It’s causing problems all over the place.
Must be nice to be so young and carefree.
Although I’m technically a little kid, too, like the baby bloodsucker.
Still, first elves and now dragons? This ogre must be a battle maniac.
Why does it keep challenging one strong opponent after another?
Is it on one of those “gotta find someone stronger than me” types of quests?
If so, I’ve got news for you, pal: The Demon Lord, the strongest person in the world, is right here.
She’ll be so much stronger than you, you’ll be saying lines like, Ngh! I can’t get in a single blow…!
That is if you even have a chance to say anything before she turns you into mincemeat. Either that or smithereens anyway.
If that ogre is the reason for this freakish weather, then frankly, I hope that does happen.
This ogre has been a huge pain in the ass, to be honest.
First we get stuck in that town, then we have to deal with this godawful weather, all thanks to one stupid ogre.
Oh, I guess it did kill those elves for us, so that’s one positive.
Still more negatives overall, though.
Like, can’t it just disappear already?
If this was a hero story, the ogre would probably defeat the ice dragons and stand in our way, and we’d have to drive it away with the power of friendship or whatever.
Although if the imperial army was able to chase it off, then I don’t see it beating a dragon anytime soon.
Dear ice dragons, please just smack that ogre down and put a stop to this snow already.