1071. Come again
Dunbakel soaked in a bathtub filled with traditional Beastkin fermented apple cider, dried fruit peels, and cloth bags containing herbs.
Dirty water flowed out for quite a while, and upon seeing this, some of the Beastkin began a debate among themselves about why Dunbakel didn’t wash.
Encred, having experienced Beastkin bathing culture a few times, found it to be not as bad as he had expected.
They mainly used methods that left a scent on the body, and they put a lot of effort into each wash.
So why did Dunbakel dislike washing?
“It’s uncomfortable when different body odors mix. Since Dunbakel has a particularly well-developed sense of smell, it must have been even more uncomfortable for him.”
Torsoe’s explanation followed.
Enkrid took turns fighting the beastmen warriors and the elders in place of Dunbakel, who had gone to wash up after being beaten. As
he assessed their skills and opened the path for them to take, everyone screamed with joy.
“Stop!”
“Why do you keep hitting me!”
“Just knock me out!”
It was also a cry that made one realize that there is not just one kind of joy.
Among them, it was what Torsoe said while sprawled on the floor, exhausted.
“Can’t you just distinguish between them?”
“Isn’t it more comfortable to walk around in light clothes than in heavy armor from head to toe? It’s similar to that. For a beastman, the sense of smell isn’t just an organ for sniffing. This part is difficult to explain in words.”
“No, I fully understand.”
Encreed was a man who knew how to listen attentively anywhere. He settled down beside Torsoe, who had collapsed and was staring at the sky.
Everyone had fallen, leaving no one left to deal with. The last remaining one, Tofi, had been caught while trying to escape and was now unconscious.
Tofi’s body trembled intermittently, but there was no need to worry.
A knight is bound to have extraordinary regenerative abilities. In particular, a beastman’s body is twice as flexible and sturdy as a human’s, so recovery would be even faster.
At awareness, the cycle has passed.
After testing him today, he has reached the accumulation stage. Tofi’s greatest weakness was fundamentally his lack of practical combat experience.
Enkrid was proficient in all five sword styles and was capable of transforming his aura into that of a giant monster.
So, I did that for him. Did that only benefit the beastman? That was not the case.
Ultimately, what was intended to help Tofi also benefited Enkrid.
To make a simple comparison, it was like training one’s body and growing strength significantly, but failing to adapt because it wasn’t used properly; now, he has roughly mastered how to use it.
Of course, if he had trained his muscles a little bit every day, he would have naturally adapted and used them skillfully, but Will’s transformation happened in an instant.
This was the area Enkrid found most difficult to adapt to.
Those called geniuses might be used to their skills improving overnight and their bodies changing in a flash, but Enkrid was not.
Consequently, there were several shortcomings. Problems such as tensing his arm when he should have tightened his grip, or tensing his entire body when he should have tightened his arm.
If he had used even a little too much force when dealing with Tofi, he might have actually killed him. Encred had to fight delicately, and he did.
As a result, he became more accustomed to handling pure Will.
In addition to that, he used Will in various ways, such as having it possess his body to fight, or imbuing his will into intimidation to mimic a giant monster.
All of that helped. In reality, since Encred considers everything he does as part of his training, this might have been a natural outcome, even without teaching beastmen.
Still, if your skill level increases, it won’t be that difficult. They call it heavy armor, but in reality, it’s just a little uncomfortable; it’s the kind of thing that feels fine once you get used to it.
This is the conclusion of the words that the lying Torsoe keeps spitting out.
Dunbakel is just not washing.
Encred speculated that Dunbakel did so because he had been used to sleeping and working outside for a long time.
They must be anxious since they have no foundation.
Anxiety must have prevented him from tolerating even minor inconveniences.
Even if he smelled a bit stale, he likely allowed his sense of smell to detect threats in his surroundings at any moment, knowing that his body odor would remain unchanged.
Not washing was likely a habit born of a survival instinct. I understand.
Moreover, things have improved somewhat now. At least, when the smell gets too terrible, he sometimes washes on his own.
“You’re going back tomorrow?”
Taffy, who had rolled over to Torsoe’s side, asked. He had rolled over because he didn’t even have the strength to stand up or walk.
That’s probably it.
That was the schedule. It was after they had eaten, rested, and finished all the work they had been doing as usual.
Morning dawned again, and everyone, including Enkrid, finished preparing to leave.
Although the beastman society was quite incompatible with people whose daily routine consisted of training and conditioning from day to night, they all felt a fondness for Enkrid and his group.
You were born with the destiny to spread rumors of romance wherever you go.
Sinar scolded Enkrid after seeing the attractive female beastman flirt with him several times.
I don’t think it’s my fault.
Encred scratched his cheek. He had no intention of doing anything with a beastman who, without exchanging a single word, saw only his face and body—or more precisely, sensed his overflowing vitality—and coveted only his body.
“Overflowing vitality will feel like a very fatal smell to all beastmen.”
Temares sorted out the situation. Encred took a step without a word. He was heading out of the Beastman City.
Just before leaving, Taffy handed him a pouch the size of a human head. It was a thin cloth pouch, but strangely, the inside was invisible.
Sinar approached and looked at the pouch in Encred’s hand. Did a fairy ever pay attention to what the person standing next to her received?
At least, it wasn’t the Sinar Encred knew.
“It is a precious fabric. What is inside must be even more precious, right?”
It was because the outer cloth was special.
Yeah. That’s how it is.
Taffy answered.
Encreed glanced inside the cloth. A strong sweet scent wafted out. When he saw Taffy, she nodded.
You take it.
It was a tone typical of a beastman. Encreed thought for a moment whether he should accept something like this, then put it in his backpack as if nothing had happened.
Eat well.
I could tell it was fruit just by smelling the scent emanating from the cloth. As I turned to leave, Toffee approached, bowed his head, clasped his hands together, and knelt down.
Thank you.
Besides her, all the beastmen clasped their hands together and knelt. It was a bit excessive for a farewell.
Encred turned away quietly, and Dunbakel turned away indifferently before turning his gaze to the children.
He saw several little ones shouting, “Here, here!”
One of them, one of the children, opened his mouth and shouted.
Come again! Dunbakel!
It was something that everyone in the Elder Council had wanted to say, and something that any beastman who knew Dunbakel would have wanted to say.
A child with bright, sparkling eyes said just that. It was a little beastman who had just turned ten.
He was cheeky and cheerful. At the child’s shout, the other little beastmen also opened their mouths.
“Tell me another fun story!”
“Teach me how to become pretty too!”
Children are pure. It was a scene that perfectly embodied that saying.
While Encred was tormenting the Beastman Warrior Order and the Council of Elders, Dunbakel mingled with the children day and night.
Born with the energy of nocturnal beasts, children go to sleep late. Dunbakel mingled with such children as well.
Although their activity times would naturally become similar as they grew older, this was the case because they were more vulnerable to instinct when they were young. It is one of the characteristics of Beastmen. Dunbakel looked after even those children one by one.
“thank you!”
A quick-witted child also knows what Dunbakel did.
“Busy!”
Dunbakel shouted fiercely and turned around. Encred saw the teardrops welling up in the corners of this innocent beastman’s eyes, but pretended not to notice.
The brightest jewel in the world is not in a cave, but under the sunlight, right before us now.
Instead, I recited a poem written by Schreiber, known as the Knight of Writing. I remembered all sorts of things.
But there was one particular phrase that I liked, so I didn’t want to forget it.
There is an adventurer who took a long detour to find treasure.
He left his wife and two children behind.
After twenty years of hardship, he obtained the most precious jewel in the world, but only then did he realize what he had lost.
Well, that was the gist of the song.
The gift Encred received was not precious. For the most precious treasure to them was right now, running and singing, crying out of regret, and shouting for them to come again.
That monster.
I thought I knew what the sea serpent that raided the city of the beastmen wanted.
Suin’s children.
He wanted to swallow the city whole after finally starving it to death.
There’s a separate guy who sent the sea snake, isn’t there?
Dunbakel usually used the top of his head only for headbutting, but this time was different.
On the way back, he suddenly hit the nail on the head and asked.
As we stepped out of the cave, the sunlight shone. It was still hot and windy during the day.
When would it get cooler?
Encreed answered, lost in thought.
“He’s probably just one of those guys scratching his belly fat in the Demonic Realm.”
“Won’t those bastards just do the same thing again after some time?”
“Just like all those guys who strut around as rulers in the Demonic Realm, as time goes by, a cult group will appear again, and something like a sea serpent will show up again.”
It was a statement made after a cool-headed judgment. Encred roughly understands the habits of the creatures living in the Demon Realm.
What is their most powerful weapon?
‘hour.’
Since they live for such a long time discussing immortality, their greatest weapon is time.
That is why, even if they have brought down a cult and killed a few demons, they do not easily unleash their full power.
This was also the conclusion of the conversation I had with Crys.
“If a hundred years pass like this, who among us will be able to fight like this? Will our hundred years be the same as their hundred? Again, if just fifty years pass, we will lose. Time is not on our side.”
Yeah, that’s right.
They will just watch. And when the right opportunity arises, they will repeat the same thing.
Unless the Mirror of Evil is erased and those demons are killed, they will send something resembling a sea serpent again to swallow up the City of the Beastmen at any time.
Dunbakel let out a sigh, looked up at the sky, and muttered that the sunlight was damn stinging. Then he asked.
“You’re going to kill all those devil bastards, right?”
Encred raised his right hand and placed it on Dunbakel’s head.
“Okay.”
“Yeah.”
No need for lengthy words. Dunbakel would pour everything she had into protecting the beastkin kids who had come to stand behind her.
That was the parenting she would provide for the children living in the city she had forgiven and accepted. Since beastkin society practices communal child-rearing, she was simply lending a hand in this way.
“You won’t be able to leave me out. All demons are enemies of the fairies.”
Sinar interjects with a smile. She has been smiling more frequently lately. It was a way of letting go of her emotions, a change occurring during the process of renewal as she altered the purity of her vital energy through the changing seasons.
Sinar focused on these emotional changes as a clue to how she was altering her own vital energy.
Then let’s go.
Encred left out the rest of the sentence, and Esther said it instead.
To catch the devil.
* * *
The Father of All the Dead sent a message to those who divided and ruled the Demon Realm.
It was a question asking if they had seen any crazy bastards lately establishing their own territory by slicing up monsters inside the Demon Realm.
“What do you mean by that?”
The White Destroyer asked the three subordinates. One of them answered.
He’s a lunatic, but his fighting skills are extraordinary. He even brushed past our territory, and two of them got taken down then.
It wasn’t that a high-ranking subordinate died, but the fact that he sliced him in half with a single stroke meant that his skill was no ordinary feat.
If it’s not our territory, we’ll just watch.
Pure White did not even send a reply.
The Loner of Distrust sent a few ‘eyes’ to assess the situation, but there was no particular benefit.
The Father of the Dead did not expend his energy dealing with the fellow who had lingered in his territory. Instead, he gave up a part of his domain.
You have no pride whatsoever.
The Burning Crow cursed the Father of the Dead. The
swordsman, positioned near the boundary of the four demons, did nothing in particular. He broke off branches to build nest after nest, as if his goal were simply to secure a place to stay in the Demon Realm.
The air in the Demon Realm would be fatal to humans, yet he acted as if nothing were wrong, behaving as if he belonged there by nature.
None of the demons, including the Father of the Dead, had the time to pay attention to this single blonde swordsman.
The informants who had gone outside to the continent were cut off one by one
, and then all contact was lost. Of course, things would recover quickly with time, but the situation had become such that it would be difficult to touch the continent for at least half a year, or at most several years.
It is a turbulent time.
The father of the dead murmured. He had absolutely no intention of stepping forward to do anything first, even though he had discussed the turmoil.
