NOVEL WEB Chapter 15 - Eryllion's Gift
< Chapter 15: Eryllion’s Gift >
“Perr.”
「‘The Exiled Prince’ expresses his gratitude to you.」
Eryllion gracefully bowed to me.
As expected, was it the royal bloodline?
It was the first etiquette I encountered in this other world. I could sense that he paid meticulous attention to every action and expression.
Since the basis of such an attitude was a feeling of respect for the other person, it surprisingly didn’t seem entirely unpleasant.
Typically, royalty tends to be unlikable, but he felt a bit different.
Instead of being arrogant and rigid, he was dignified and polite.
Moreover, Eryllion was as generous as befits royalty.
The rich are always the best.
Eryllion, you’re the best!
「‘The Exiled Prince’ asks to be allowed to repay the favor of saving his life.」
“Growl.”
Yes, of course.
Feigning polite refusal, I extended my paw.
He stared at my jelly for a moment, then chuckled and drew something on my paw pad.
Fwaaah!
“Grr!”
Ah, what’s this! It stings!
Along with a tingling sensation on my paw pad, a suspicious pattern was engraved like a tattoo.
As I wondered what it was, Eryllion and the status window kindly explained.
「You have obtained the ‘Token of Friendship’!」
「‘The Exiled Prince’ tells you to concentrate your magic.」
‘Magic?’
I gently summoned my wild instincts.
Then, it opened.
A portal!!
“Grrrr!!”
I leaped at the sight of a small portal the size of my head.
Because as soon as I saw it, something came to mind.
Could it be, could it really be that?!
With trembling pupils, I confirmed the name of the portal.
【Subspace of 1 Lumen】
-Can store a few small items.
My goodness!
A real subspace? No way!!
I never imagined I would obtain this here.
Because, right now, the item I needed most was precisely this.
I looked at Eryllion once and then set down Brother Beak’s egg that I was carrying on my back.
“Grr?”
Can I put this in?
Haha, it’s a living thing, so of course it won’t fit, right?
Nod.
As expected, it won’t work.
Shake.
“Grr?”
“Perr.”
Eryllion shrugged his shoulders, sparkled his body once, and spoke again.
Ah, so that also required using mana.
「‘The Exiled Prince’ says it is possible to store the egg in the subspace.」
“Grr!”
Hooray!
This time, I roared with joy.
“Grr!!”
Ah, finally, I got rid of this cumbersome load.
Brrrr,
For some reason, Brother Beak’s egg seemed to glare at me once.
* * *
Subspace.
Subspace was a kind of inventory-like concept.
It was a virtual space separated from reality, usually requiring a massive amount of mana to place a ‘living creature’ inside.
[When an egg is stored in subspace, a penalty is applied to the incubation time.]
[An egg close to hatching will be summoned outside of subspace.]
The ‘egg’ could offset that mana cost with a simple penalty.
This was tolerable.
Even with the incubation time penalty, it was better than not having a safe place to store it.
I could safely store Brother Beak’s egg in a space called 1 Lumen.
“Grrr!”
Now, I could fight to my heart’s content!
“Frrrr!”
“Frrr!”
Just then, the goblin guards on patrol burst into the holding room.
Well done finding this place, you foolish guards!
The fairies here were no longer the slaves the goblins knew.
I’ll show them the synergy between a tiger and fairies!
「The ‘Exiled Prince’ activates [Leadership Lv.3]!」
“Grrr!”
Leadership was a stronger skill than I had thought.
The Ellafae lined up behind me gathered their strength and used [Digging] to support my battle.
“Krukk?!”
One leg of the goblin guard charging at me suddenly sank into the ground, causing it to lose its balance.
“Grrr!”
I gave a thumbs-up to the Ellafae and immediately finished off the goblin, using ‘Leg Strength Enhancement’ to weave through the other goblin guards.
Without needing to worry about the egg, I became a truly furious beast.
My claws, enveloped in wild energy, could cut through anything, and the exceptional balance and flexible body I had gained by chance were particularly effective in this chaos.
“K-Krukk?!”
Combining Leg Strength Enhancement with Magnification, my new form darted swiftly between the goblins and the terrain like a cat.
Unpredictable movements using my small frame.
Sharp claws striking at weak points!
I looked at the goblin guards and said.
‘Slow.’
Thud! Whack, slash!
「Level has increased!」
「Level has increased!」
.
.
.
[Overall skill proficiency has increased!]
It didn’t take long to take care of the guards in Skrillzhak’s hideout and rescue the remaining Ellafae.
* * *
“Frrr!”
“Grrr!”
Following Eryllion’s guidance, I gathered the items left inside the hideout.
The fairies, having shared potions and food to regain their strength, illuminated the surroundings like lanterns.
“F-Frrr, FrrrFrrr”
They began to sing the ‘Song of Liberation,’ a truly sweet melody and voice that was music to my ears.
Watching the fairies dance and sing in communion with the land around them, I felt my fatigue melt away.
[The influence of ‘Ellafae’s Hymn’ restores your mental and physical stability.]
The status window confirmed that it was not an illusion.
Even Brother Beak, taken out for the prenatal care, seemed to enjoy it, swaying the egg in rhythm.
Those wicked goblins.
To enslave such kind and precious fairies…
【Exiled Young Prince Eryllion (Eryllion) Lv.6】
I looked at Eryllion, who had leveled up to 6, and suddenly became curious about why he was exiled.
Judging by how the other fairies treated him, they didn’t seem to dislike him.
Was there some other reason?
“Grrr.”
“Frr?”
Well, it was hard to learn the details in this situation.
I needed to figure out the ‘communication’ method Eryllion used soon.
“Frr!”
At that moment, Eryllion, having arrived, spun around in the air.
Oh, is this Skrillzhak’s room?
Creak.
“Grrr!”
Indeed, it seemed he was a ‘genius’ shaman.
The first thing that caught my eye as the door opened was a large number of ‘books.’
.
.
.
And they were also incredibly useful to me right now.
* * *
The reason I needed human books.
Of course, acquiring knowledge was part of it, but I had a more urgent task at hand.
It was to learn the ‘language’!
I had a cutting-edge AI-level cheat translator, which was the ‘status window.’ However, even the status window had its limitations.
【Research on Black Magic and Shamanism】
No matter how intently I stared at the contents of the book, only the ‘title’ would appear.
The status window seemed to provide words that defined specific objects or living things.
In other words, I couldn’t fully understand the contents of the books with just the status window.
But I could understand the titles.
So, if I had multiple books like this.
【Report on the Great Forest – Verdant Grove】
【Types and Characteristics of Monsters】
【Understanding Basic Military Tactics】
I could record these titles in the status window and learn the words used in the ‘titles’!
By learning these words, I could eventually grasp the language of this continent.
How about that! The genius sense of this tiger!
“Grrr!”
Everything is fun when you do it after a long time.
Immersed in the joy of ‘reading’ after a long while, I swiftly perused the books in the room.
In fact, it didn’t take much time since I was only reading the titles.
‘Oh, there are quite a few useful books?’
Among the miscellaneous books, I stored the ‘Report on the Great Forest’ and ‘Types of Monsters’ in subspace.
Unfortunately, my subspace, which was only 1 Lumen, was nearly full just with those.
Humans, no. Tigers can be so greedy.
Even after acquiring a subspace artifact that would be hard to buy with money, I was already dissatisfied and wanting more.
But is this really an artifact? How did it get engraved on jelly?
Well, it’s a problem I can’t solve by worrying about it.
Shaking my head, I rummaged through Skrillzhak’s quarters and grabbed the most ‘useful’ items.
“Grrr!”
Just as I was about to leave Skrillzhak’s dwelling, satisfied with my looting,
“Frrr!”
“Grrr?”
Something resembling the crystal orb that Skrillzhak used began emitting a faint magical power.
Eryllion retreated, wary of the crystal orb.
But my thoughts were a bit different.
“Frrr?!”
「The ‘Exiled Prince’ warns of danger!」
I hesitated, pausing with my paw extended towards the orb at Eryllion’s caution.
Hmm, right.
If I recklessly touched it and revealed myself, that would be a disaster.
‘In that case…’
I decided to try something only I could do.
“Eek, eek!”
To supply magic power without touching the crystal orb!
Frankly, at my current level, this was nearly impossible.
But I didn’t just have hands!
‘Hup!’
I stood on my front legs and delicately brought the tip of my tail to the crystal orb.
I began infusing it with wild energy bit by bit.
[……]
At first, it was hard to make out what it was saying.
So, as I infused a bit more wild energy,
[To the forest!]
[Marching!]
[Human village there.]
A voice, similarly clumsy as Skrillzhak’s, began to be heard.
Having started eavesdropping late, it was hard to understand their conversation fully.
However, the words that did come through were impossible to ignore.
[To Verdant Grove…!]
[Find him…]
Verdant Grove.
And,
[Where Skrillzhak died!]
[Verdant Grove.]
.
.
.
[Find him!!]
Hearing the words about where Skrillzhak died and the command to find someone made my heart sink.
Was it because of the emotional disturbance?
[Who?]
[Kraaaw!]
A strange gaze was felt from the crystal orb, and I quickly withdrew my tail, retracting my wild energy, and crouched down.
‘They didn’t notice, right?’
Since I positioned myself where I couldn’t see the crystal orb and only brought my tail close, they shouldn’t have seen anything.
But there was a more pressing issue now.
‘The place where Skrillzhak died, Verdant Grove.’
This meant that the forest where I killed Skrillzhak was called ‘Verdant Grove.’
[Find him…]
They were looking for someone in Verdant Grove.
Damn, who else would they be searching for at this point?
‘Me.’
The one who killed Skrillzhak.
They were likely looking for me.
Wait, was Skrillzhak that important? Are the goblins coming to avenge him?
It feels unfair. It was self-defense!
Alongside the unfairness, an uneasy feeling arose.
Those goblins. They mentioned a nearby human village and used the word ‘march.’
My mind went blank.
‘No way, a war between humans and goblins because of me?’
……
Really?!
It’s unjust. All I did was struggle to survive!
‘What to do?’
Actually, the answer was clear.
Even if I think of myself as a tiger, ignoring this isn’t right.
‘I need to take some responsibility.’
The task was set.
If things go well, I might be able to preemptively block the goblins coming after me.
‘Alright. Let’s move!’
I prepared to leave the hideout, taking the selected books, the mysterious ring, and Brother Beak.
Of course, I didn’t forget to take the crystal orb they used for communication.
“Frrr!”
“Grrr!”
Before leaving, I took one last look around the hideout.
I did gain a lot from coming to Skrillzhak’s hideout.
Fairy friends, subspace, various loot, and valuable information.
This was like visiting a treasure trove.
Thank you, Skrillzhak.
I’ll carry on your title as a genius!
“Grr?”
Just as we were about to leave the hideout, we sensed ‘presence’ guarding the entrance.
What is it? Not goblins?
“Frrr!”
Making eye contact with the fairies, I carefully began to exit the hideout.