Disciple of Immortal

===Act 2 : Spider’s Demon King===

One week has passed since the incident caused by 《Evil God Apostle; Notes》. The chaos caused by that incident had already somewhat lessened.

It seems that the story about 《Evil God Apostle; Notes》 hiding in the city lord’s mansion while creating that barrier had been spread around by Garland’s subordinates who’d escaped the mansion that day before the incident occured.

But, maybe because the said subordinate had no idea what really happened, the story became that Garland was being threatened by Notes instead of working together as accomplices.

「… But, the truth is different from the story that’s been spread around, right?」

Pomera, who was currently sitting beside me in a carriage, asked me a question.

「I can’t say for sure since Garland had already died by the time I arrived at the center of the barrier but… according to what I heard from Notes, Garland was actually in cahoot with Notes only to end up getting mercilessly betrayed by the latter.」

「So where does that threatened stuff come from?」

「Maybe it’s for the sake of convenience for the one who replaced Garland. The one who came to replace Garland is Garland’s own relative after all. But… if for example, the fact that Garland supported Notes got out, not even the head of the subtitute city lord could escape from capital punishment.」

Though I had yet to investigate all the details, I’d heard that the perpetrator of a treasonous act towards this kingdom would have their family, including branch families, executed as a lesson. That’s why, rather than Garland’s surviving subordinates telling a lie, it might be more appropriate to say that every single subordinate who’d seen through Garland’s plot had already been disposed of.

In fact, I thought that this end was better since executing the entire city lord’s family would only prolong the ensuing chaos.

While it might be true that the former city lord’s crime had been overlooked, it was related to the deterioration of the public order. Maybe it was a well thought out judgement since no one profited from having Garland’s relatives executed.

But, of course, this was all just my own speculation.

… By the way, there’s various speculations surrounding the reason for Garland’s mansion being destroyed, but none of it was related to me.

There was a rumor that said that it might have been destroyed because Notes’ ritual had failed or that Notes simply destroyed it and left after he’d accomplished his goal. There was even a theory that said that Saint Pomera had destroyed the mansion after she reversed the curse cast by Notes along with many other rumors.

「… But, Pomera never expected that Notes managed to summon the evil god… only to have Kanata-san dispose of it so easily.」

「That evil god is more like a homunculus though. Notes isn’t just a priest, his tribe used to serve the royal family long time ago.」

Maybe his real goal was to crush anyone who tried to put up resistance with even greater power and ended up becoming some sort of religious symbol.

「Well… let’s forget about that matter for now. I mean, things are bound to get more troublesome if this story is known by someone else.」

Pomera and I had left Aarburg and were currently in the middle of our journey towards another city.

Since the majority of the adventurers guild’s activities were halted due to the sudden change of the city lord, Pomera and I decided to use this chance to move to another city. Plus, I’d ended up using most of my miracle drugs for Pomera’s training and Aarburg was overwhelmingly lacking in terms of capacity for finding the ingredients for the miracle drug.

I’d literally visited every single store in Aarburg with Pomera only to see the bitter reality and filled with astonishment that none of the ingredients that I needed were available. I even wondered for a moment whether I should go back to 《Cocytus》 to gather the necessary ingredients.

I mean, the miracle drug was my lifeline. Almost all of my recovery methods were reliant on the miracle drug.

I mean, if I met someone as powerful as me right now, the difference between the winner and the loser was only the difference between me and the other party’s mastery of white magic.

Though I can postpone the matter of white magic as long as I master 《Retrograde(Healing Reversal)》 of time-space magic, I’ve still got a long way to go before I master it.

I guess I’ve got to increase my study time.

Moreover, having met Notes after Lovis, I’ve come to the realization that opponents with their levels in the hundreds weren’t that rare in this world.

Maybe I should raise Pomera’s level again for her own safety.

Thus, we left Aarburg city towards another city with a properly functioning adventurers guild to gather the necessary ingredients required for the miracle drug. In the end, we’d accepted an escort request for a carriage that was leaving the city.

Since this world was overflowing with monsters, no carriage or bottom ranking adventurer could safely move between cities. For this reason, the merchants, adventurers, and commoners who wanted to leave the city usually matched their schedules to form a large caravan and leave the city together.

The merchants provided carriages, the adventurers provided manpower, and the commoners provided money to tag along.

In my opinion, the area around the plains wasn’t that dangerous. But then, since the merchants who knew about Pomera came in, bowing to Pomera and saying that he wanted the saint to come along, we had no reason to reject such generosity.

Currently, we’re heading towards the magic city, Manarak.

It has a magic academy and a large scale alchemy laboratory. Since it had these facilities, I concluded that it would be easier for me to gather the ingredients for the miracle drug in this city.

「By the way… how long are you going to take that child with you? Are you sure it’s okay to do that? Pomera can accept the reason since she knows more about Kanata-san but… can you tell me the details about that child and where you met her? You’re not hiding something from Pomera right?」

Pomera looked at Philia, who was currently frolicking by my side, with a piercing gaze.

「It’s not like I don’t want to tell you but, I’m afraid that I can’t explain to you without causing some sort of misunderstanding… anyhow, I absolutely mustn’t take my eyes off her.」

… Thus, it was only natural that I’d taken Philia along with me.

Rather, I’m afraid that there will only be a vacant lot left where Aarburg city is located right now if I just left Philia in that city to her own vices.

「Kanata! Kanata! look, there’s huge bird-san far outside!」

Philia spoke with an admiring voice as she looked at the sky outside the window.

Fortunately, the one she hugged in her excited state was me.

I looked at the scenery outside of the window, looking for the huge bird that Philia had mentioned.

「Don’t let out your body from window Philia-chan, that’s dangerous! And the carriage is running at full speed too!」

Pomera left her seat in a hurry, grabbing Philia by the shoulder.

The carriages in this world could run at a constant speed even when loaded with heavy luggage. The stamina of the horses here also far surpassed the horses on Earth.

The horses being used to pull the carriage seem to be high-leveled ones.

I have no idea about the others, but the carriage we were currently on was moving even faster than a car.

But, to be honest, I could run faster than this carriage.

「You too Kanata-san, please pay more attention to Philia-chan. Since this child is brimming with curiosity… she might be in danger if you’re not paying attention to her.」

「Don’t worry, she’ll be alright, maybe.」

「She’ll be alright… maybe.」

… There’s no way Philia would be injured even if she were to fall from this carriage. I mean, she revived just fine even after I’d sliced her apart with the 《Hero Sword; Gilgamesh》

Though, the same attack might kill the current lolified Philia, I’m sure that she would just get up and chase after the carriage with a beaming smile on her face if it was only at the level of falling off the carriage.

===

TN : New Act New Mascot, An Adorable Loli!!! The journey started, To be continue next week!!