Chapter 1──Beautiful Girl in the Swamp
Sixteen years have passed since I died as a dragon and was reborn as a human.
And now, I’m standing in a corner of a grassy field that seems to stretch everywhere.
A faint hint of winter’s chill lingered in the air, but a warm breeze that foretold the arrival of spring swayed the knee-high wildflowers and I felt as if I was standing in a sea of green.
There was a faint scent of flowers mixed in with the wind.
Maybe it was a joke by the three goddesses of destiny, or maybe I was the most powerful dragon species in the world, but I was reborn as a human being, one of the continent’s most prosperous creatures, although I was never strong as a person.
I was not triggering the power of reincarnation myself when I was killed by a hero’s hands, so this reincarnation must be due to someone else’s will.
I can only speculate, but during that last battle, magic was used to force me to reincarnate.
I’m not sure how they could destroy my soul, which was the strongest dragon species physically and spiritually, so the heroes or those who ordered my defeat chose to reincarnate me as a way to weaken my soul.
They must have compelled me to repeat my reincarnation instead of only dropping me into the netherworld so that my soul will be drained and ultimately lose its strength and memory as a dragon creature.
If a being of a higher spiritual rank, even if his or her body was destroyed, he or she would be able to rebuild the body from nothing based on the information recorded in the soul.
The body is nothing more than a vessel, and even though your body disappears, as long as your soul is intact, you may recover it as much as you wish.
At that time, they were able to give me death because the heroes had the Dragon Slayer’s Sword in their hands and I had accepted death, an exception, so to speak.
So the people who killed me must have crafted my soul to reincarnate at the moment of my physical death for fear that I would be resurrected, in case I was ever resurrected.
In fact, when I was reincarnated as a human, I was stunned to find that my soul was so weakened.
The quality and quantity of magic power produced by the soul before and after reincarnation are orders of magnitude different.
The amount of magic power and spirituality my soul possessed when I was a dragon was so miniscule that I couldn’t even see it now that I have become a human being, and it has become a shameful thing to me.
And, when my soul is still in the realm of becoming a dragon, it’s still beyond a human’s common sense. Luckily, I haven’t forgotten how to handle my power, so I’m not going to have to suffer a half heart death.
Although the physical body is undeniably human, with the use of enhanced magic, I can withstand the excessive supply of magic power and imitate the non-human aspects of it. Quite fortunate that I had that much power left in me.
I have a woven basket in one hand that is piled high with several kinds of herbs and edible panko. That should be enough for today’s harvest.
Hmmm,” I say, a habit I’ve had since I was a dragon, indulging in a faint sense of self-satisfaction, when I hear small footsteps and a voice calling me from behind.
“Doran-san, it’s time for us to go home,”
” Sure. It’ll be dark soon.”
I look back and see in my eyes a girl with red, frizzy hair stretched to the center of her back.
She’s dressed in a frayed cloth blouse and skirt like a remote villager, with a basket hanging from her shoulders, just like me.
But the smile she gives me is as bright as the sun, and the freckles on her cheeks add to the girl’s charm. The girl’s name is Airi.
In addition to Airi, there were four other children scattered throughout the grassland.
Airi and I are both from Berne, a small village in a remote part of the continent.
I followed Airi and the other children who were a few steps ahead of me on the walk back to the village.
Berne is a small village with a population of around 300 residents. It is surrounded by a thick stone wall with a moat around the village.
It is a common protective measure in the frontier, where the incidence of monsters, robbers and savages is frequent.
The entrance to the village consists of two wooden gates with iron reinforcement on the north and south. There are always at least two gatekeepers armed with spears, swords and bows guarding the gates.
Around here, goblins as tall as a child, kobolds with dog heads and lizards – fully armed bipedal lizards, can often be seen around here.
It is important to remember that, in terms of individual power, the two species other than the lizard are slightly inferior to humans, but they have a high reproductive capacity and expand rapidly, so that their numbers increase rapidly, and there are even shamans who use spirit magic, which is surprisingly not to be underestimated.
The Lizard’s breeding ability is not as high as that of the goblins, but their individual combat ability is high, and a one-on-one battle is a tough one to win, even for the villagers in the village of Berne who have some experience.
Especially if it is a warrior rank captain in the Lizard tribe, if one does not bring even a skilled warrior or regularly trained knight, one must be prepared for considerable damage.
I’m sure when I was a dragon, all three races were just dust flying through the air, but by human standards, that’s not the case.
It’s a good thing that the Lizard, as a sub-race, also communicates with humans as well. Bern ‘s village once rescued the lizards from hunger, and that’s how they managed to establish a friendly relationship with one another.
They rarely become hostile to each other.
Chatting and frolicking along the way, the kids were happy, and went all the way home. The children of humans are really a bundle of energy.
Just like a baby dragon that has just hatched from an egg, they are also very energetic. With that kind of energy, it’s no wonder they’re the most prosperous on the continent.
After parting from the children in the central square of the village, I walked over to a modest house made of mud, wood and straw mixed with grass.
In the kingdom to which Berne village belongs, the age of fifteen is considered an adult, and in rural areas, all boys except the eldest son are required to leave home at that age and build a house on the land the village or their parents give them to live alone.
I have turned sixteen this year and left home last year, and am currently enjoying life on my own.
Today, the harvest was greater than I expected, so I decided to stop by my parents’ house to share some of my harvest with them.
Even though I’m away from home, we live in the same village, so it’s just a short walk to my parents. To visit my parents’ house I opened a squeaky wooden screen.
“I’m home. I have gathered some medicinal herbs and bread moss, and I have a few left over, so I thought I’d come to share them with you.”
“Welcome back. Well, you’ve picked up a lot. I could make a lot of ointment from this.”
“That’s good to know.”
I was greeted by Arsena, my mother, who is a great person who brought me to this world. My father and brothers seem to be doing field research.
She wears a crude skirt, typical of farmers in a remote village, and her slightly faded golden hair is tied up in a white scarf, with a slightly dirty apron wrapped around her waist, a common sight for my mother.
You might argue that life on the frontier is one where challenges, difficulties, problems, misery, and unreasonably come together and charge you without signs or warnings, but in the smile, my mother still gives me no ounce of tiredness.
The woman of the frontier is strong and resilient. Otherwise, one cannot live.
Because of my interpretation of my time as a dragon, I talk and act in ways that are not fitting for my age, but my mother is a crazy woman who doesn’t feel awkward and loves me, just as she does with her children.
Of course, there are gods who deserve to be revered. They must be the source of these creatures, I thought to myself as I lived among them.
But even so, it’s a shame that humans have a hideous side, or should I say it’s a flaw.
I finished my business and went back to my house after handing over some medicinal herbs and bread moss to my mum.
I ate a simple bread moss and vegetable soup that I had picked from the field and a loaf of chewy black bread that my mother gave me when I left.
It was dinner as usual, but even now, sixteen years after I was born and fell as a human, the human sense of taste and other senses, which are different from those of a dragon, still give me a fresh stimulus.
After all, when I look up at the moon, I can’t even see the hole in the moon, and the information my ears and nose perceive is completely different from that of a dragon. I wonder if I really live in the same world.
Everything I saw, heard, tasted, and smelled was an unforgettable experience that I’m still getting used to.
I offered a prayer of thanks for having eaten that day without any monster raids, and then I immersed myself in making wooden spears and arrows out of spare wood branches before going to bed.
My house consists of a kitchen, dining room, storage room, and bedroom. There is a wooden bed in the bedroom, on which I lay down straw or animal fur wrapped in cloth.
It’s incredibly hot and stuffy in summer, so it’s no joke in winter, so we can’t be too sloppy, because there is a chance of freezing to death if we don’t warm each other up with our body heat or if we don’t cover our heads with several layers of fur.
It’s no big deal to me, having worked in every environment in this world without a hitch, but I can’t help but lament what a mess we humans are in at bedtime.
The village people wake up almost at the same time as the sun turns the horizon into a golden shade and I’m no exception.
I heat up the rest of last night’s dinner and finish my breakfast before heading out to work in the fields again.
My mother and father once gave me permission to go out to the village to collect berries and wildflowers from the trees and fruits during my early childhood, when I was still working in the fields.
I was lucky that I still had my sixth sense as a dragon and my ability to manipulate magic, and with my enhanced senses, I always returned home with success.
It’s even true that I achieved more by playing outside than by immersing myself in farm work.
The behavior of those days has become a habit, and even now, I often walk around the neighborhood of the village to work on the harvest in my spare time.
Even so, my outgoing habits are well known in the village, since I have to make a living by myself these days and work in the fields takes up a lot of my time.
I can use my magic to work the fields for as many as a hundred human adults, but I can’t use my magic in front of my family or the villagers.
It’s a very rare occurrence in such a remote area, and because of this, magicians can’t help but stand out.
However, in the village of Bern, there is a family of excellent witches who has been living there for decades. (TN: wanted to use magicians but this family is that of a female so I used witches)
I learned human magic from them, but unfortunately, they don’t have the power to grow wheat in the field in a single night or to raise the soil with a simple wave of their wands.
So I followed in others’ footsteps and went out into the field with my hoe and other farming tools, working my forehead off to earn my daily bread.
Occasionally, I’d step out into the surrounding plains and forests to lead the children or go out on my own to help with the hunt.
One day.
I wanted to head along to the swamp to the northwest of the village, where the lizards once had a settlement.
The lizards used to be on friendly terms with the people of Berne, but before I was born, something happened to the swamp that made it unsuitable for them to live there, and they have now moved to the lake at the top of the river that runs through the village.
I decided to investigate the swamp and I spent a couple of days preparing to go there.
On the morning of the day I was leaving for the swamp, I was talking with my brother Marco in front of my house. Marco, two years younger than me, looks a lot like my mother and has a delicate face that could be mistaken for a woman.
Still, being a tough frontier boy, he can slaughter a goblin or two if you give him one of the daggers.
I asked Marco, dressed in an eye-catching shirt passed down from my brother and me, to take care of our house and the fields from which we will be gone.
” I plan to stay one night and return around tomorrow evening. I hope you’ll take care of things for a while, Marco.”
“Yeah, sure. Brother Dolan ‘s field is well tended, so there isn’t much to do. Brother Dolan is the one who has to be cautious, since it’s quite a distance from the marsh.”
Since more than ten years have passed after the lizards left, the area around the swamp is infested with beasts and monsters, a dangerous place that even the people of the village rarely go near.
When I said I was going to investigate, I was convinced by my parents, uncle, and even the village chief to give up the idea of going to inquire.
It took me two days to convince those who opposed me to go to the swamp, and today I was able to go there.
I” will bring you at least one souvenir, so please look forward to it.”
“As long as you come home uninjured, that’s all that matters.”
I left the village after I had finished my departure greetings, carrying a leather bag on my back with two days worth of food and water, and a dagger and a long sword for defense.
The path to the swamp was deserted, for the last decade or so it had been cut off from the foot of people, so it was no different than going down a wild path.
Although goblins and kobolds existed, their settlements were further north, and in the vicinity of the village of Berne they were rarely seen in coherent numbers.
Although the occasional stray wolf was seen, they are well aware of the dangers of dealing with humans, so they did not attack me.
I made my way to the swamp without any incident, and I was able to arrive at my destination by the time the sun had passed through the midheaven.
I knew that the Lizards had migrated to the swamp because of the mutation of the swamp, but no one in the village of Berne knew the cause of the mutation or anything else.
The people of the village had no use for the swamp now that the lizards were gone; they were too busy going about their daily lives to investigate the swamp, which was half a day’s travel each way.
I looked down at the vast expanse of marshland in front of me. There were countless tall grasses and trees growing along its banks, and the ground beneath my feet was muddy with plenty of water.
Every time the probably humid swamp air stroked my cheeks, I felt more than a little uncomfortable.
There was no strange smell coming from the swamp, and there was not much sign of life in the vicinity. Looking around, there were the remains of the settlement where the Lizards had once dwelt.
The houses in the settlement have all had their roofs ripped off, walls torn, and doors removed due to years of exposure to the wind and the lack of inhabitants.
I thought it was worthwhile to have some furniture or weapons left by the lizards, but even if they were still around, they would all rust and rot in this kind of environment, making them useless.
”Fumu.”
After stopping by the swamp for a while, I notice that the spirit power in the vicinity is biased towards the earth attributes.
The only reason I can notice these changes in spirit power is because I still have the power and sense as a dragon.
These natural phenomena in this world called the material world have a great impact due to the work of spirits that live in the spirit world in a different dimension.
The effects of the activities of spirits in the spirit world are manifested as natural phenomena in the material world.
The strengthening of the earth’s attributes may have weakened the attributes of water, and this may have affected the terrain, leading to the swamp becoming muddy.
As I recall, my father told me that before the lizards moved to this area, there was a big earthquake that occurred in this area. Is it possible that the earthquake caused a change in the earth’s attributes?
If the spirit power is harmonized well, over time the swamp will become clear again, and the environment will return to be suitable for the lizards to live in.
However, since the lizards have already found a new place to settle, they may not bother to come back.
But yeah, when the swamp regains its original shape, maybe I’ll do some fish farming or something.
If I can give them a reason to visit the swamp at some point and tell them that it was clean and fish were living there, it will provide a new source of food for the village.
However, it’s not necessarily true that there won’t be any attacks of demons on the road, and I should think about countermeasures against that.
It’s something that can be solved quickly with the use of my power as a dragon, however, it’s also coming to be fun to bother my head like this.
I was lost in thought for a while with my arms crossed and lost in thought, but I was interrupted from my thoughts by a sound like a giant snake crawling on the muddy ground behind me.
I turned to see if any of the large snakes that the Lizards had left behind.
“Ho”
And I let out an honest exhale of admiration.
What I saw in the corner of my eye was a beautiful girl with long, golden hair that shone brilliantly in the sunlight.
There is no question that a master sculptor made the design of the eyes , nose and mouth, and her blue eyes beautifully shine like a sapphire.
She was wearing a plain light blue dress and a hooded white cape and she was wearing a slanted bag from her left shoulder.
A puzzled look appeared on the girl’s face, still in her late teens, and a long tongue with a two-pronged tip tickled in and out of her red lips.
We looked at each other but the face of the girl was well above mine and the torso of a giant snake with green scales sprouting from her dress hem.
The snake’s body, that twists and turns, is the lower half of the body of the girl.
Lamia, I muttered inwardly. It’s a monster that only exists in the human-faced snake body of a woman.
While the ancestors claim to have cursed the princess of the lost kingdom to alter her look, I had no idea she lived close to my hometown.
I’m not sure if he’s a demon at mid-level. They are known to live longer than humans, and even the highest-level monsters will surpass them if they live long enough.
A movement of the lower half of the snake’s body, in addition to manipulating strong magic, can easily snap a human’s neck and destroy the bones of the whole body if bound.
Lamia is a human-faced serpentine demon that is said to have the form of an exceptionally attractive woman in general, her human upper body. Before me the Lamia girl proved the theory right more than ever before.
Also, the scaled lower half of her body, judging from my Dragon senses, felt like that of a female in the process of maturation, still retaining her blue color but emitting a lustful charm that was intriguing to us.
The scale’s luster and smoothness, the versatility of the undulating snake body and the flesh displaying its youthfulness are all quite appealing.
In this case, my definition of a beautiful girl refers to both the upper half of a human being and the lower half of a snake, and in a double sense, I thought Lamia was beautiful.
Lamia looked at me and flicked with her long tongue over her red lips while keeping her smile intact. A new coat of saliva lipstick has been added to make Lamia ‘s lips even glossier. It was quite uncomfortable though, and her cheeks seemed to twitch slightly.
She sees me as a kind of tasty prey, I ‘m sure, but then again that’s a bit of a strange answer.
I’ve heard they can maintain life on a diet that’s no different from a human one, but the staple food of Lamia is the energy of other animals.
I’m not sure if this is because the ancestors were human women, but it’s said they prefer human men ‘s vitality.
If that’s the case, I must look like the best prey for Lamia.
“You are a very brave person to come alone in this place. Is there anyone else here?”
Her voice was so soft. Although she was a child who hadn’t become an adult yet, her voice sounded like a melting honey that made the brains of people hot and happy.
The voice has added the charming magic power to it too. Fumu, if they eat human energy, that’s the sort of trick that you can do.
But still, what a great way to read a stick. The root of her tongue doesn’t seem to be working properly because she is frozen in tension.
If she tries to stand on the stage as an actor with this, she may never see the light of day again.
I replied, slightly dumbfounded.
” I am the only one. There’s no one else.”
“Oh, well, that’s good.”
In front of me, Lamia puts her hands on her ample breasts and exhales in relief.
In this case I should be frightened as a human being to meet Lamia, but the girl before me is very different from the Lamia I’ve read of.
Once again, when I review the Lamia girl’s appearance, she appears to be on a journey.
In that case, she may not be inhabiting this swamp, but just happened to stop by it on her journey.
Now, what should I do here? I can’t sense any harm or evil intent from the Lamia in front of me. Rather, she is wary of me, or perhaps I should say frightened.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that Lamia is a dangerous creature for humans. I extend my right hand to the long sword at my waist and gently grip the hilt.
Noticing my motion, the color of fear clearly appears on the face of the Lamia child, and the lower half of the body of the snake retreats sharply.
Apparently, she doesn’t like conflict or has a feeble disposition. More and more, she is far from the Lamia I know.
”Well, wait. I am a human–
Without waiting for the lamia girl to finish, in one breath I drew the long sword at my waist and swung around with the force of the wind on the muddy ground, slicing through the arm of mud that had come from behind us.
The arm of mud that grew out of the swamp neatly split into two, both of them returning to just mud and falling to the ground with a wet sound.
”──I’m not going to attack you…….eh?”
With my back to Lamia, who seemed unable to catch up with the rapid progression of the situation, I tried to quickly clarify the situation, sloppily holding the tip of my long sword down to the ground.
I figured that this lamia didn’t seem to have any intention of being hostile to me, and that perhaps she would cooperate with me.
“The Lizards used to live here, but one day the swamp started to get muddy and moved to another location. That’s what forced them to migrate. It’s a mad earth spirit. It might have increased in strength over time. It’s a good thing that everyone in the village has remained so far away from the swamp.”
As I told Lamia that, in search of the place where the spirit power was gathering, I cut off the arms of mud that spread from my surroundings one after another and sharpened my senses.
As well as the knowledge I could feel from my five senses, I scrutinized any piece of information that penetrated my network of spiritual awareness, looking for the earth’s mad spirit.
I felt the ground under my feet turning into a baseless mud bog, and I leapt to the left side of Lamia, knocking down the ground that was still barely stable right before my body sunk.
”Eh, Uh, that!?”
The Lamia girl looked terribly flustered and disoriented. Hmm, she looked very pretty apart from the time and circumstances.
“I have heard that Lamia can handle magic, how about you?”
When I ask as I look back at Lamia to my right, the Lamia girl finally swallows her confusion and tightens her expression.
”I can use it. But, um, they are Lamias that belong to the earth clan, and my clan is closer to water, so if you’re dealing with an earth spirit, not much…”
The power of the spirits had their own advantages and disadvantages. The power of the earth is good against water, and it is indeed quite unfavorable to deal with the earth with the power of water.
It’s common knowledge that if you’re going to deal with the earth, it’s best to hit it with the wind.
“Come to think of it, most species of Lamia are of the earth element. I’m sure you’ll find it hard to reach them with your spells, hmm.”
I do not think you can get anything done. But in my sixteen years of being reborn as a human being, I have discovered that with the best circumstances, we can’t always face risk.
I’m not discouraged or disappointed, but I’m turning my attention back on the mass of mud writhing ahead. One, two , three, three .. Though I am counting, they are increasing in number and there is no point in counting them now.
”Ah, um, but… There’s a magic specific to Lamia’s race, so I think that would work on the earth spirits as well!”
‘Well that’d be great. I have a suggestion: Why aren’t you and I working against the Spirit here together? That way, it will be more effective than battling one at a time. I’m going to move forward and I want to give my back to you.
It might be a reckless suggestion to make against someone I just met, and of a different species, but even with just a short exchange, I had decided that this Lamia girl was worthy of trust. At the very least, she would not be hostile under the current circumstances.
As a result, I received an answer that was half as expected and half more than expected.
”Yes, please take care of me, although I’m a bachelor!”
“That’s what you say when you are supposed to be married.”
“Uh, uh, oh, I’m sorry.”
Interesting girl, I just murmured in my head, and ran off toward the mud arms with a longsword in one hand.
A single finger of mud is as big as my arm, and if I were to be struck by one of these arms, it would easily break a bone or two.
This mud weapon itself is not an earth spirit. It was just a pawn operated by an insane earth spirit, and it would only absorb some of the owner’s powers until it was defeated.
It was merely a pawn possessed by an insane earth spirit, and it would absorb only some of the owner’s powers when defeated.
The normal way to defeat a divine entity like a ghost is by using the opposing ghost ‘s power to combat it, or by using magic power to combat the force the enemy expresses in the material world.
The long sword in my hand is not originally powerful against spirits, but it does contain the magical power of the dragon species that my soul has created.
The human body also produces magic power, but in my case, using the magic power of the dragon’s soul is much more powerful.
I gathered it together with a swing of the long sword that held the mystical strength of the dragon species and cleaved it free, the arm of mud that assaulted me like a snake leaping at its prey.
Then the long sword’s magic power immediately counteracted the earth’s spirit-force that pushed the mud arm, and the mud arm returned to dirt.
However, it was immediately restored to the shape of the arm and attacked one after another.
I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to find a solution to this problem.
The arm on me which is just closing in. If I were a human or a subhuman, at some stage I would have been consuming my resources, my body would have been heavy and I would have been attacked due to a lack of focus.
But the negative effects of a prolonged war won’t come to me, as I can use my dragon species’ magical power to strengthen my body and produce an infinite amount of physical strength.
After a short period of conflict, the chanting of the Lamia girl who was imbued with magical power began to shake the surrounding atmosphere.
”Cursed demonic serpent that flows through my body, now arise and give the curse to my enemy, Jaram!”
A clear picture of the serpent emerged between the mud ‘s paws, which he considered an adversary, and instantly took on material shape as it clearly screamed out a threatening cry.
Every time the snake, which in one fell swoop could swallow two or three human beings, opened its jaws and wiggled its tail, a number of mud-arms were swept away in one fell swoop.
Furthermore, the snake’s curse interferes with the spirit power and contaminates it in the blink of an eye.
“Fumu.”
It’s a “fumu” with an expression of admiration.
Although a species-specific magic has its own habits, and its power is determined to be strong to the point that it is hard to use, the magic power called “Jaram” was greater than I expected.
Considering the power of the girl combined with her abilities, she seems to have quite a strong talent as a witch, as opposed to her fearful attitude.
In the time it took for the cursed serpent to disappear from its form, all of the mud arms had been defeated and returned to the soil.
This is much faster than me wielding my long sword and whiningly taking down the mud weapons. I had reasonable reason to hope for cooperation.
I saw the Lamia girl relax her shoulders at the edge of my vision as the mud arm didn’t seem to appear anew and let her mind wander.
“Don’t relax yet. It looks like the spirit of the earth is finally ready to show itself.”
“Yes, sir.”
I was impressed with her, an honest girl, and then the power of spirit started to increase rapidly around the swamp ‘s centre. The black and turbid surface of the water rose up like a mountain, and the Lord of the Swamp, the Earth Spirit, appeared before us.
The earth spirit, once driven insane by the effects of the earthquake, seemed to have increased in strength in the past decade, draining both the earth and water’s energies.
Like the earlier mud-arms, his temporary mud-borne body was probably as wide as a two-story home.
At the top was a scarcely identifiable projection as the upper half of a human body, and the head had dimples and ridges that looked like eyes and a nose.
The spirit was flowing alarmingly fast towards us. We could sense her restrictive and threatening feeling as she closed on us in order to fill our vision.
Particularly the Lamia girl gasped under the pressure and shrank.
If it’s this big, even the 【Jaram】 just now can’t be expected to have much of an effect.
I am going to have to be more diligent in that situation. I filled my long sword with more of my dragon race magic, and called the lamia girl before running off.
“You should be able to distract the spirits with appropriate magic so that they don’t hit me.”
“Hey, it’s too dangerous!”
The accumulated mud made my feet very slippery, but I kept running regardless.
The crazy earth spirit stopped in approach and then stretched two arms towards our path, sending a shell of mud from the tips of those arms straight at me.
The mud bullets were fired two, three, and four times in succession.
I dodge those bullets that are so swift that it’s hard for the human eye to track them, and sometimes with my long sword I cut them in half, closing the gap between me and the spirit of the world.
There is plenty of mud and water in this swamp that makes up the temporary body of a spirit, so there is no end in sight if I continue to chip away at it.
If that’s the case, destroying the core of the spirit with a single blow would be the quickest way to do it.
“Serpent in my blood, thrust your venomous fangs into my enemy, Jadouk!
The Lamia girl’s strong words echoed up behind me. The serpent ‘s image again emerged, entwined with the spirit, its fangs peeking out of its wide open jaws, thrusting violently into its huge body.
One could see a purple liquid flowing from the fangs of the transparent snake. It was clear it was a concentrated curse poison.
Even against the enormous power of the spirit, the curse poison seems to have created some effect, and with a shake the giant body of the spirit starts to tremble.
But beating it with only the curse poison isn’t enough. I immediately exploited the gap created by the apparent slowness of its movement and came within a foot of it.
The demon, sensing my presence, turns to attack me with its massive arms and strikes me down.
It’s a huge arm that could easily destroy a house. A direct hit would turn my body into a chunk of meat.
I avoided the right arm by flying to the side. However, after a while, its left arm fell toward me in the air.
I heard a little scream from the Lamia girl, as she saw me without any way to stop it.
I let out a brief, sharp exhalation as I sliced the spirit’s left arm which filled my vision with a white blade light.
In an instant, the left arm crumbled back into the mud and crumbled down.
I quickly kicked the void and made more leaps in the air, and at once jumped up to the human-shaped part of the body in front of me.
I saw that the eyes, which looked like mere hollows, had indeed caught my face.
I don’t know what the thoughts of a spirit tainted with madness are, but it’s for this spirit’s sake to be released from its temporary body as soon as possible and to return to the spirit realm where it should be.
Countless mud spears emerge from the base of the earth spirit’s human-shaped pieces, and attempt to skewer me. But even before that, with a flash of my long blade, which emitted white light even more magically, I cut off both sides of the humanoid portion from the top of the head to the base.
Beyond the length of the long sword’s blade, the spirit of the earth was sliced in half.
Eventually the spirit of the earth, which could no longer maintain its life in the material world, left behind its temporary mud body and returned to the spirit realm.
”Yes!”
I heard the Lamia girl’s cheering voice, and I let out a little boastful remark, along with pity for the earth spirit.
“Fumu”
This should have done away with the problem of swamp muddling. The rest would be harmonized by nature and force of spirit, and the flow of time would solve the question.
And for a few seconds, and so on. Just as I was relieved, the immense mass of mud that was cut in half fell confidently and engulfed me and the girl Lamia behind me.
Just before I was swallowed by the brown tide, I covered the surface of my body with my magic, and played with it to prevent my clothing and skin from getting soaked in the rain. After about seven counts the mud waves subsided.
The Lamia girl looked back behind her to see if she was safe.
“Ugh, I got mud in my mouth. Ew, my clothes and hair are stained…”
There was a lamia girl whose beautiful golden hair and clothes were miserably covered in mud.
I approached the girl who was busy spitting the mud in her mouth and pulled a leather-bagged water bottle out of her back pocket and handed it to her.
“You can rinse your mouth out with it,”
“Oh, thank you.”
“Thank you for your help. You were extremely helpful. I don’t even know your name by the way. My name is Doran, from the village of Berne, in the south. I’d be glad to know your name.”
I handed her in both hands holding the water bottle, the lamia girl twisted the lower half of her snake’s body to meet my eyes as she bowed her head and told me her own name.
“My name is Serina. I am Lamia, as you can see.”
“Hmm, Serina. Nice name you got from your parents.”
Serina gave a bashful smile at my words. I think she was pleased to be appreciated by her parents, and they seem to be really close from her looks.
It’s awesome to see parents and kids get along so well. I was born again as a human being and had my own parents and I believe it from the bottom of my heart.
Today, I ended up battling together with Serina and we got to introduce ourselves, but in the corner of my mind I was wondering what to do with the girl Lamia before me.
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Thx for the chp!
Fuck yeahh 😉 love it. Thanks for the translation
Thanks a lot for the update
Thx for thr chapter
Thanks a bunch for this chap man, I hope you’ll maintain regular releases.
ありがあとうございます