Spirit Migration Chapter 5

Blocking the evil magic power (because of the purification), no monster could pa.s.s through the barrier, but inside the site of operations was a demon hound with a green gem in its forehead, laying at the side.

While they were building a base where others could safely rest within the dungeon, Kou had been actively moving around, helping the workers by carrying things for them, or guarding merchants who wanted to open up a business as soon as possible. Through those actions Kou’s existence became a rumor within the town, and was well known among adventurers after a few days.

Wanting to see Kou with their own eyes, more adventurers from other towns came; in order to use the dungeon in the town of Bara.s.s. The rulers of the town were rejoicing since the town’s revenue had increased. However, a number of beginners got injured because they thought an obedient looking monster was the same as Kou, carelessly getting close to it. ‘Then I just have to mark myself’, thinking that, Kou embedded a gem (that was part of the amulet) into his forehead so he could be easily discerned.

Thus, a demon hound with an emerald jewel embedded into its forehead was established in this world.

“It’s about time for the next group of carriers to come. Kou, can you check out the corridor?”
“Woof~” [Alright.]

He could just put luggage, like some construction materials, into his other dimensional storage and carry it over, but it’s bad to steal the workers’ jobs, so he held himself back. Only a very small number of humans knew that Kou has the ability to store things into another dimension.

“Hey Kou, you’re also doing fine today.”
“Woof~” [Yo, Gashe.]

Gashe had just come back from patrolling around the area with the guards of the construction site. After the site had been purified, the frequency of the waves had been lowered, now it was only once every three days —- and only a dozen or so demon hounds would come to attack.

Because of the earlier waves, the number of monsters on this floor may have decreased a lot. Leaving the barrier, Kou went through the path he was familiar with: from the construction site, towards the stairs of the second floor.

Elmel had come over to Rich.e.l.lo’s place, which was an official residence for teachers, in which he was enjoying a holiday inside the room.

“What’s this, so you were sleeping. Even though it is a rare day off, is it alright to spend it lazing around the whole day?”
“I want to laze around, since it’s one of my rare days off.”

Being a former soldier and a sword instructor at the Adventurer’s School, Elmel was doing military style sword training. Rich.e.l.lo prepared some tea that’s popular in Almes from the Eiya region and gave some to Elmel, who had wiped away the sweat she’d gotten from training in the morning, with a wry smile.

“What have you come for? You didn’t just come here to meet me, did you?”

If she really visited to meet him, Rich.e.l.lo would’ve been happy, but he still asked Elmel in a way where she wasn’t able to tell if he was joking or not. She then proceeded to the main point.

“Fu fu, I see you more than enough, so I don’t need to specially visit your room to see you…… Actually, I heard an interesting rumor about Kou.”

It was about how Kou got famous because of the spiritualist’s amulet embedded into his forehead, and that there seemed to be people aiming for the rare and expensive spiritualist’s amulet.

“It seems like a strong adventurer group from outside of town was asking around about Kou.”
“But isn’t that something the spiritualist entrusted to Kou?”

“You think a promise between a human and a monster is going stop some guys that specialize in killing monsters?”
“……. It probably won’t.”

A monster is a monster. The treasure one obtains from a monster is his own. Even if it was something that was entrusted to the monster by someone else, it’ll become theirs after the monster is killed. That is the rule decreed upon the adventurers of this world.

“Kou’s existence has helped a lot with the town’s revenue and the popularity of the dungeon. Using that, I’ll ask the society if they’ll agree to take Kou under their wing.”
“The society….. certainly, rather than outsiders, they’ll be more flexible about it.”

Thinking that Kou also had to be informed about this, Elmel proposed that she should head to the dungeon in order to tell him, and leave the request for the adventurer’s society with Rich.e.l.lo. In fact, as for the adventurer’s society and the military, the relationship is quite tentative, and the girlfriend of the former officer isn’t trusted too much.

“I see, if it’s like that, I can understand. I’ll go to the adventurer’s society branch tomorrow.”
“Sorry, I always trouble you with these bothersome things.”

“Your actions are always precise. I don’t think it’s bothersome all.”
“I see…….Well……. now then, with this I’ll take my le—-”

Having finished her business, Elmel was trying to leave the room like that, but she was caught by Rich.e.l.lo. The drops of the Almes tea that remained on her lips, with a kiss, were all licked up. Her normally calm and collected expression that didn’t break in front of any sudden situation, broke.

“Wha…….. Ha~a…….—– I, I told you I’m not used to stuff like this.”
“Yeah, I know.”

Seriously this guy! While spitting curses at her best partner, Elmel ended up staying the night in Rich.e.l.lo’s room this night in his embrace.

Close to the base’s construction site was Kou, who was laying around the storage area for materials after having finished his meal of round rats, as a demon hound. If the base gets completed, it’ll become easier to explore the underground fourth floor, meaning more adventurers will pa.s.s, making it more crowded.

Only a limited number of adventurers had actually gone down to explore the fourth floor. More than thirty of them had gathered in order to protect the select few who would challenge the fourth floor, from the first floor till the third floor, this is what had been determined.

Like that, the fourth floor becomes very hard when you think about finding the needed personnel and the money problems. Even skilled adventurers can lose their lives if they let their guard down on the second or third floor. It’s always important to have a perfect formation when you go in and leave. The effect that the adventurer’s base on the third floor will have, is making the exploring of such floors easier.

“Oh, so you were there.”
“Woof~” [Yo]

Gashe who was once again patrolling the area, had come back for his break. The magical beast dog Kou, who was lying around the block shaped materials that stood against the wall, raised only his neck and waved his tail, returning the greeting.

Because the barrier of permanent purification shuts off the magic power of the dungeon, with the body of a demon hound, it’ll feel as if his strength leaves his body like on the lower floors. For that reason, whenever Kou is inside the barrier, he’ll be either sleeping or lazing around most of the time.

Contrarily to his bored appearance, the person himself is satisfied with his current situation, where he is always in contact with people. Even if his strength has left him, he could still move around his soul, it also has the merit of getting used to the feeling, if he were to leave the dungeon one day.

“Ah, yeah Kou, it seems like there are guys that will come to get the stone in your forehead.”
“Wooo~ Wooof~?” [This thing that Rindora-san lent me?]

“Since there are a lot of people coming from outside lately, you should watch out.”
“Woof~.” [Okay, I’ll be careful.”]

　
It isn’t like Gashe really understands what Kou as a demon hound is saying, but he can guess it from the atmosphere he gives off. His subordinates always talk about it in the bar, ‘the captain talked about something with Kou again’, but there were also some who talked about the conversations that were held with Kou with a look of envy in their eyes, anyhow, Gashe was enjoying the communication-like conversations he was having. Kou himself never felt bored or loneliness at the construction site, he felt happy being able to communicate with people.

The communication between one person and one monster, within the barrier there were shadows that were observing this scene. Even though they were still in the middle of constructing it, it had become an area that cut off the dungeon’s magic power, not allowing monsters inside, because of that, there wasn’t an inconsiderable number of adventurers who were using it at this time.

“I see, certainly it seems like it’s getting friendly with humans.”
“I wonder, is it really a demon hound inside?”
“According to the information, it is being controlled by a different intelligent existence than the collective consciousness.”
“An intelligent existence, hmm….. Isn’t it just some artificial spell a caster made that infested it?”

It isn’t rare for the ruler of the city, who supervises a dungeon, to call a group of adventurers from out of town in order to check out things about a monster. The more people come to the dungeon, the more the town’s profit will go up.

Like the spiritualist that gave her amulet to the demon hound, she was hired for the sake of the base construction mission this time. It is highly possible that the famous monster which has become a hot rumor is a fabrication. That is how they a.n.a.lyzed it.

“Well~, n.o.body cares about that. For now, that means that that stone is the real deal.”
“According to the strength of this barrier, its quality seems alright.”
“A…..Are we gonna do it?”
“Yeah, let’s just take it.”

They, who had asked around about the demon hound that was lazing around the material storage, decided to leave the area of the construction site and meet up with their comrades above ground.

The next day, Rich.e.l.lo, who went to the Bara.s.s’s branch of the adventurer’s society, met with Rindora. She had finished her job and was planning to leave town after receiving her reward.

“Are you going back to Eioa? What are you going to do about the amulet you gave Kou?”
“I will leave that in his care.”

‘If there is a day where he will visit Eioa, it’ll be a good mark to see he’s someone I know’, Rindora smiled. Since the Eioa region has many spiritualists and spell casters, it has a lot of places with barriers set up, having a spiritualist’s amulet will certainly be useful to him, in many ways.

Rich.e.l.lo told her about how there were people aiming for Kou with the amulet as their target, and he told her how he came to the adventurer’s society in order to request the protection of Kou’s life.

“So it’s like that. But, I think your worries are unneeded, don’t you think? Since he’s an immortal existence and the amulet probably won’t get stolen.”
“An immortal existence….. Do you mean in the sense that even if his body gets destroyed, his soul will live on?”

“You people have only seen the tip of the iceberg, what I’m trying to say is, that his existence is something larger than what you think it is.”

‘Then I’ll leave with this.’ saying that, Rindora left the adventurer’s society’s building and began her journey to go back home. Rich.e.l.lo, who felt that he lost sight of what was important, was dragging his feet inside the society and at the same time he was twisting his head, thinking about the hints he just got.

At the moment, the only one who truly understands Kou’s form and existence, is Rindora. In the first place, the only parts that she knows of, are the parts where she knows that he can posses monsters and control them, and that he is able to put items into dimensional storage. Because of that, Rindora, who knows that the magical beast dog is only a vessel to Kou, wasn’t particularly worried about Kou being targeted.

Kou, who once again had brought a merchant party who wanted to open their shop, in the morning today; was going to laze around the material storage place, was called out to by someone who seemed to be an adventurer.

“Ehm, does he understand words?….. When I came here, I was asked by someone to give this to you.”
“Woo? Woo~ooof~? [Eh? What is it?]

Knowing of the magical beast dog that is able to talk with humans, the man brought out a small box and told him about how he got a request to deliver this to someone for a high reward. Inside the box was something filled with magic power. It was a request to deliver the box of a man at the exit of the dungeon.

“C-Can I request this?”
“Wo~of.” [It’s okay]

Kou, who had accepted the small box, ran through the corridor aiming for the higher floors.

The entrance of the dungeon of the town of Bara.s.s, it is an open place looking like a lonely shrine with a tall iron fence around the entrance, it is a quiet place with gra.s.s growing, seen from afar, it may seem like a small playground.

While Kou forgot about the warning concerning the ones who are aiming for the spiritualist’s amulet, Elmel, who had come close to the dungeon’s entrance, saw a number of fully armed adventurers in front of the entrance. At first Elmel thought that they were meeting up, but she found it strange that she felt their preparedness to fight. Looking at their stance and equipment, it could be seen that they were outsiders.

Feeling some kind of ill premonition, Elmel headed towards the dungeon, at that time a black shadow appeared.

Kou, who had carried the small box thought ´can I go outside?´, while nervously taking the stairs towards the surface, and for the first time he takes a step outside. His body got heavier because he didn’t have the dungeon’s magic power, but he was already used to it so it didn’t pose any problems. Leaving the shrine-like entrance of the dungeon, he could see a pavement on the other side of the fence.

[Oh, I’m outside.]

While Kou was looking at the scenery of the town, a fully armed adventurer-like man stood before his eyes. Behind him was a person dressed like a magician with a wand in his hand, it seemed like he was muttering a chant or something while rubbing the tip of his cane.

“Alright, looks like you properly brought it with you.”
[Is this the human that is supposed to receive the package?]

The moment the demon hound Kou held out the small box, as if saying ‘I have a delivery for you~, thinking that the magician-like person was who was just rubbing his staff, moved and suddenly cold air came from within the small box, freezing the area around the mouth of the demon hound.

“Now! Do it ~tsu.”

At the same time the man in the front gave his order, a shock wave was felt, the demon hound’s head fell. The tilting black body fell over, as if it were a fountain, it spouted blood all over the shrine-like entrance and the gra.s.s around it painted it in a deep black red.

“I did it ~tsu in just one blow!”
“It’s only obvious, since it got frozen.”

“Oi, go and retrieve the amulet quickly!”

While hiding his body in a blind spot from the entrance, the swordsman took pride in killing it in one blown on the leader’s order, which got him a retort from the calm warrior, who was the support. To the two of them, the leader ordered them to get on with it.

[Ah, so that’s what it was about.]

Kou who had understood the situation in mid air reached out his hand, calling forth the amulet embedded inside the demon hound’s head within the sea of blood.

The moment when they were going to begin their job of retrieving the stone from the demon hound’s head—-

“You guys, to Kou……”
“Hah?”

—– The local adventurer-like person who had presumably seen their ambush spoke up to them. The leader who had already seen something like this coming, had pulled back his subordinates.

“Do you have something you need from us? Little girl.”

It was a gentleman-like response towards a fellow adventurer, but with an intimidating gaze. As if to tell her they were a group that specialized in killing monsters, he showed off his Relieve medal with a ‘war axe and snake’ on it. Medals that contain Relieve* within, are something the adventurer’s society gives adventurers if they possess a certain amount of strength. By the way, the medal they have with a ‘war axe and snake’ on it, is ranked fifth, meaning that they’re pretty skilled.
TL note: Relieve is a sort of metal that is used to produce the medals -Tensaiz

“Why, Kou…… Why did you kill him?”
“Him? We have but slain a dangerous demon hound that came outside the barrier, something wrong with that?”

“Don’t play dumb ~tsu, you should’ve known that that demon hound wasn’t dangerous.”
“Well now, could it be that you are a beginner? A monster that isn’t dangerous doesn’t exist, could you stop it with the false accusations.”

It was true that they lured out Kou, in order to obtain the spiritualist’s amulet, however you can’t say that that is a sin. Today Rich.e.l.lo should be requesting the adventurer’s society to guard Kou’s life, but it isn’t known if it’ll be accepted or not. Supposedly, even if it got accepted, it would be hard to bring judgment upon the group of adventurers who killed him this morning.

The leader accepted Elmel’s glare with a smooth face, while sending looks towards his comrades, who were busy with the retrieval of the amulet, to hurry it up. They dismantled demon hound. From within the dungeon adventurer parties came out and became onlookers, thinking about just what was happening.

“Oi, still not done.”
“Well….. about that.”
“That’s weird, it isn’t heeeere.”

He had wanted to finish this as soon as possible, before more onlookers appeared, but for some reason, he couldn’t find the amulet.

Elmel, who was well known around town as an adventurer and instructor at the adventurer’s school, got asked by some onlookers and acquaintances about what had happened here, so she told them everything that had transpired. There were many reactions like: ‘they did it smoothly’ and those that just openly raised their eyebrows. Adventurers who had been saved by Kou once sent harsh glares towards the adventurers group.

“Any more than this’ll be useless….. Let’s fall back.”

No matter how much they searched and looked, they couldn’t find what they were looking for. In the end they hadn’t been able to obtain the amulet, and began their preparations to leave town. They probably won’t return to this town until the heat dies down. They went as far as to use an ice magic trap, yet all they obtained were some skin and fangs. Because the long fangs that were valued highly got damaged through the ice magic, it’s worth got lowered a lot. Including the costs of the local magician they had gotten to make the ice trap, they had suffered a great loss.

Since the birds and insects would get mutated if they ate the demon hound’s corpse, they silently tossed it inside the dungeon, While being bathed in the sharp gazes of the onlookers, the adventurer group left that place.

After they left, there were many adventurers, whom were going to descend the dungeon, who rushed towards the entrance to obtain the demon hound’s skin. The skin of a monster of the third floor, to experienced and skilled adventurers like them it was equal to trash, but to beginners and normal people, it was a precious material. Normal people took it as a souvenir, and adventurers that got saved by Kou took some as a memento to remember him.

To the side of such a scene, Elmel, who was questioning herself hard to answer feelings Rich.e.l.lo had, got interested in a single cat that kept scratching her boots with its paw while looking at her. The teachings of a swordsman, she had been careful towards animals ever since she started her training, so there weren’t many times where they came towards her, thus she picked up the cat.

“What is it? Do you want something to eat?”

She asked with a gentle voice, while her face became scary with her muscles twitching. When she did—— A green stone appeared on the cat’s forehead.

“Tsu….! Could it be, you’re Kou?”
“Nyaaa~” [It’s me.]

Elmel asked in a hushed voice, and the cat answered her.

“Nyaaa~ Nyaa~nyaa Nyaaa~aa Nya~Nya Nya.” [Well, that surprised me, suddenly getting my head cut off.]
TL note: Yes, this is how I learned how to speak neko -Tensaiz
“Sorry but, I have absolutely no idea what you’re saying…… Anyway, let’s go to Rindora’s place for now.”

She had decided to ask Rindora, who could directly speak with him, but she found out that Rindora had already left for her return trip, when Rich.e.l.lo had returned from the adventurer’s guild when his request of guarding Kou got rejected.

TL notes:
Yep, that’s the end of volume 0~
On to volume 1 (Chapter 6-8) out of the 17 volumes!
-Tensaiz