12. Growth Sleep

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After losing its leader, the <Black Wolf Fang> was brittle.

As I descended onto the fortress after bringing down Goleth,

“――The Head of the enemy got taken down! Raise the shouts of victory!”

UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Under the orders of the mustached knight, the knights of the fortress thrusted their weapons towards the sky and shouted victoriously.

The mercenaries, who were desperately trying to climb up the fortress before, now scrambled to run away.

Their backs were showered by arrows and spells from the fortress.

“You’ve done well, Edgar-kun! But don’t do anything reckless like that in the future, okay?”

“Ai!”

Julia-kaasan said this, then started the chant for a spell while hugging me.

“――卜・∨・∨・卜・卜・λ・λ(Flame! Become a whirlwind that burns away everything!)――《Fire Storm》!”

There it is, 《Fire Storm》!
There was no need to conserve MP anymore and there is no-one to disturb the chant.
As expected, an accurate decision based on the circumstances.

《Fire Storm》 struck on the vanguard of the group of escaping mercenaries.
A storm of fire suddenly appeared from the direction they were running towards, so the mercenaries are falling into chaos.

“――I said, I will not let a single one of you escape, right?”

Mom had a wide grin on while saying this.

Scary as hell.

“――My wife took down the Head of the enemy! Brave warriors of Ranzrack Fortress, now is the time to show the spirit of a knight! Everyone, chaaaaarge!”

Before I noticed, dad took the lead of a cavalry unit and mounted an assault against the disordered mercenaries to doubly make sure.
The mercenaries are taken down without anything that can be called resistance.

At any rate, the mercenaries are very brittle, most likely Goleth used his ability and fear to unify the mercenaries.
No matter if they are powerful, a pillaging mercenary group that only cares about their own interests is probably not something that usually would try to take a fortress by themselves, right?
As the battle before showed, there is a minimum casualty count to assault a fortress no matter what.
If it’s an official army then it’s understandable, but it’s a bit hard to imagine that mercenaries with only pillaging on their mind would try to take a fortress with the resolve to even sacrifice themselves.
It should be appropriate to assume that Goleth with that 《The Evil God’s Curse of Calamity》 thing bound them with fear.

But Goleth died.
There is nothing that binds the mercenaries to the battlefield anymore.
Of course they start running.

There is no way a mercenary would serve as a rear guard in this circumstance.
Dad and the knight of the fortress are cutting the mercenaries’ heads of like they are harvesting wheat.
――The battle is over.

“….huh? Edgar-kun?”

Julia-kaasan’s voice feels distant.

“Sleepy-time, huh. Still a baby after all~”

Her voice feels even more distant.

“My Lady, it was a superb display of fighting prowess.”

It’s dark so it’s hard to see, but it seems it’s the mustached knight.
Since dad is outside hunting down the remnants, the mustached knight was probably put in charge of the fortress.
…..I want to [Appraise] him too, but …… I’m sleepy.
“――Also the child of you two. Looking at his sleeping face like this, the fierce god like efforts of his from before are hard to believe.”

…hn? Sleepy….? Why am I [sleepy]?
I have the [No Fatigue] skill I got from the Goddess….
“Those knights who saw the fight from nearby think that calling Edgar-dono a baby is too disrespectful, so some of them said that calling him Baby Scarlet would be fitting.”[1]

No good, I can’t think anymore.

“….Baby…..rlet, that……ick name….might……”

My consciousness is fading away.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

When I came to, I was in a familiar space.

The vacuum of space where Marquekt is visible below, it should be clear if I describe it this way.

Yes, after I was stabbed by the slasher and it turned out I would be reincarnated in another world, this is where I met the Goddess that time.
The Goddess simply appeared from nowhere at all.

“――The one you dropped in the lake was this Golden [Enchant Magic]? Or maybe this Silver [Toughness]?”

To the Goddess, who acted out some unknown scene as the first thing after meeting,

“Did your personality change in the short while since our last meeting?”

“You meanie. Even though this is our first meeting in a long time.”

“You say a long time, but …. wasn’t it about 20 days?”

Between waking up after reincarnating and the battle of Ranzrack Fortress, about that many days should have passed.

But the Goddess shook her head.

“To be precise, 1 year 4 month and 20 days.”

“1 year 4 month? …ah, counting from the conception.”

It was 1 year 4 month and 20 days ago when Alfred-tousan and Julia-kaasan did the XX, and I was conceived.

10 month after that, Julia-kaasan gave birth to me, then 6 months after birth was the point in time when I regained my consciousness as a reincarnated person.
And after that, 20 days have passed until the battle of Ranzrack Fortress

“Then, that means I didn’t steal the body of a previously existing fetus, right?”

“Of course that is right. I would like you to trust more in the power of the God that governs the endless cycle of death and rebirth.”

“Well, sorry about that. I thought it should be alright if you are the one handling it, but ….”

I suddenly realized.
I can speak normally now, right?

In a panic, I look over my body, but my body is still a baby.

“….so, what is with this situation exactly? I didn’t die, right?”

The Goddess nodded.

“Of course. Your current state is called 『Growth Sleep』”

“Growth sleep?”

“Right. When it’s time for a level up, the people of Marquekt are assaulted by a desperate need for sleep, then enter a state of deep sleep, called 『Growth Sleep』. With this Growth Sleep, they adapt their body to the newfound power brought by the level up.”

“In other words, since my level went up, my body demanded sleep to cope with it.”

“Not quite right. You reach a state where you can level up, then after experiencing the Growth Sleep, your level goes up as a result.”

“….I don’t understand the difference.”

“Let’s see, take a look at your status for a bit.”

As the Goddess said, I used [Appraise] on myself.

《Edgar Chrebl (Viscount Chrebl’s fourth son, Noble of Santamana Kingdom, 《Baby Scarlet》

Level 1/31 (Level up standby state)
HP 63/63
MP 752/752

Condition Growth Sleep

Skills
•Mythical class
[No Fatigue] –
[Instant Interpretation] –

•Legendary class
[Appraisal] 9 (MAX)
[Database] –

•Master class
[Physical Magic] 5
[Mana Control] 4
[Letterless Invocation] 5

•General
[Lance Throwing Technique] 1
[Fire Magic] 1
[Water Magic] 1
[Wind Magic] 1
[Earth Magic] 1
[Light Magic] 1
[Mana Manipulation] 9 (MAX)
[Telekinesis Magic] 9 (MAX)
[Simultaneous Invocation] 9 (MAX)

《Goddess of Virtue’s Blessing》

Certainly the ‘Level up standby state’ is there, but …. 31?
Also, what the hell is that 《Baby Scarlet》?

“You defeated many mercenaries with Goleth, an Apostle of the Evil God, on the top of the list. Moreover, as level 1. Of course it would go up at least that much.”

The Goddess says.

“That’s right, I wanted to ask about that. 《The Evil God’s Curse of Calamity》 was it? What on earth it that?”

“There is nothing more than what you’ve found out with [Appraise]. The Evil God contacts people who are fitting and grants them various kinds of powers in exchange for a part of their lifespan. As expected, since it’s gained by exchanging their lifespan, its effect can only be described as powerful. Since the same extreme piling up of abilities can’t be done with a Blessing on the Virtue side it’s really troubling.”

‘It is really good that you defeated him’, the Goddess said.

“He is different from the what’s-his-name slasher, right?”

“Kizaki Tooru, right. But then, in this life he was probably given a different name. Yes, that is right. The Apostle this time is an entirely different matter from Kizaki. The fact that you happened upon it was also by chance.”

“You didn’t set it up for it to happen this way, right?”

“I don’t have that kind of power. Since the one who governs fate is a different God. The only things I can do are in the domain of souls.”

“The domain of souls…..?”

“Reincarnation and the bestowal of skills.”

“Why are skills related to souls?”

“To explain that, first I need to talk about what skills are.”

“Please, by all means!”

I vigorously asked the Goddess.
Well, it’s a chance I can’t let escape.
I can hear about what skills are from the Goddess that governs skills, you know?

The Goddess started talking after clearing her throat with surprisingly cute ‘ehen’.

“――first, what do you understand about skills?”

“Isn’t it a certificate that proves ‘I have learned this kind of technique or magic!’, or something like that?”

“No”

The Goddess brought over a whiteboard for newscasters from absolutely nowhere, and hit its surface with a board marker’s back end, making a kotsu kotsu sound.

“Skills are in fact rewards from the Gods.”

“Rewards?”

I got confused by that unexpected word.

“In proportion to the degree of acquisition of expertise, from the Gods ―― well, mainly from me, a power of God is granted. This power of God and the person’s own polished expertise harmonize together and make what is known as a Skill.”

“The power of God…..”

“We simply call it 「Power」, but if it’s difficult to understand, then let’s see…. right, you can call it a Gift.”

In other words,

Skill = that person’s expertise + Gift

is what it comes down to.

“If you ask for what reason are we doing this, then the answer is obviously to enable people to oppose monsters and the Evil God. People with only their expertise and inborn physical abilities are no match for monsters in any way, not to mention the Evil God. Therefore, we send people Gifts, raise their expertise and physical abilities, and have them gain the ability to fight monsters.”

People acquire 「Skills」 after receiving Gifts based on their expertise,
and people also acquire 「Status Points」 (HP and MP) after receiving Gifts based on their physical abilities.
Skills and Status Points are cataloged in something called 「Status」, which can be viewed by Skills such as [Appraise], and it is something like a report card from the Gods (as the Goddess explained).

“But if you can do that, why not send much more Gifts and strengthen the people?”

“If we could do that then would be no need for these troubles. To begin with, do you know where the Gods’ power come from that is used in those Gifts?”

“Used in Gifts….”

In short, where does that power come from that should be granted in times of level up?

If that’s the case――

“….experience points!”

“There you have it. Well, in this world there is no such concept as『Experience Points』, but rather the power of the Evil God that is enclosed in the Statuses of monsters and villainous people is released when they are defeated, something like that. At any rate, if a monster or villainous person is defeated, a part of the power from their Statuses circles back to me. With my power, I purify that power of the Evil God that has circled back to me and I share a part of it as a Gift with the one that defeated that being.”

Conversely, if the Evil God side defeats someone from the Virtue side, then the power from their Statuses ends up absorbed by the Evil God side.
In this way, the Gods of Virtue and the Evil God distribute those Gifts(or Curses in case of the Evil God) and strengthen their followers.
And then, with those strengthened followers they defeat the other side’s followers and take the power of their Statuses.
In this way, they fight over this limited resource called 「Power」, and try to expand their influence and compete with each other.
“Here I return to the original topic”

The Goddess extended both her hands in front of me.
In one of her hands is some semi-transparent mana, whirling in complicated ways, and in the other hand a pink colored heart looking thing, that is beating strongly.
[Appraise].

《Gift of [Enchant Magic]》

《Gift of [Toughness]》

Uh huh, a Golden Gift and a Silver Gift.

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TL notes:
[1] : Baby Scarlet is 《赫ん坊》(something like glowing or brilliant or generally awesome baby) in the original text, which is read the same as 赤ん坊, which just infant/baby. Also the 赤 kanji means red/scarlet, and this is doubled to make the 赫, the first kanji in Baby Scarlet. The Baby Scarlet name is written in furigana so when the characters speak it is said this way, but the deeper meaning is conveyed with the kanji version.

35 thoughts on “12. Growth Sleep”

    1. The people in that world sure is a bunch of naive guy. In our world, If a child manage to kill an adult effortlessly they will call him Devil by now. It doesn’t matter what is the reason behind the action, after all human are an ugly creature that hate anything which is slightly different from them.
      If they are really the human I know then they will be in fear, anger, and envy. They will blame everything on the fact this world is unfair like ‘How can that baby be that strong?’ or ‘He is a threat he will hurt us next!’. Well anyway what I want to say the knight should react more, and eventually try kill the baby.

      1. To attempt kill something that you don’t understand just because you fear it may turn on you is a naive and idiotic solution to a problem which is only a ‘problem’ as long as you view it as such. Said reasons are why the people of this world are so stupid

      2. You should look at it from another stand point. Humans, or should say humanoids from another world may not be the same as the humans you know. Different en ironments breed different thought processes. Especially when humans aren’t top dog. As mentioned that monsters are alive and many times stronger in this world. Just saying, not gonna believe there are no corrupt and/or power hungry types in this world. Since there is always the constant: “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. “

      3. I think your just looking at the worst examples, which tend to be brought up more simply because humans seem to be the only species with a love of self-criticism.

        Think about it. What your saying is the same as the arguments about anything being “unnatural”. You can’t say something you do is unnatural because you are a part of nature so your nature is defined by what you do retroactively.

        In the same token, you can think that being envious or fearful of a powerful child that just saved your ass is stupid. You are part of humanity so your own action of criticizing humanity, in fact, vouches for it’s goodness.

  1. Thanks for the release, after seeing the previous chapter was really looking forward to seeing how the rest of the battle would turn out. Now I’m looking forward to seeing the reaction of a level 30+ baby, this should be good.

    1. toughness is bad tho aswell since you cant tell if you get hurt, the real awesome skill is the enchant one.

      1. Toughness keeps you together and a little unable to feel pain. No fatigue will allow you to function to 100% of the state you’re in allows you to and Toughness stops you from feeling the pain from being dismembered etc. Imagine being hurt/puking blood or other ailments, you’ll feel perfectly fine and hardly effected so you can carry on normally. Hence it’s pretty cool.

        1. at max you feel no pain at all, thats how that idiot died since he couldnt feel it he thought it was doing no damage

  2. Thank u always for ur great work…
    ^^…

    The baddass baby I’ve seen till now, no fatigue remove the necessary to break and toughness support the ability to withstand pain etc…
    XD…

      1. which is exactly how the story worked. You refuse both because you didn’t drop either. You honestly say they aren’t yours. If you pick one, you find that gold is to soft to save you from the immediate challenges so you can’t get that big profit later and silver only breaks even. You get a better reward for rejecting them both.

  3. More cheats~~ Welp, inb4 that goddess is just using him..to bring ruin to the world or something but do not share interest with the Evil God.

    Thanks for the chapter~~

    1. It’s not like she is Hito-gami-sensei… Although I can see where you are coming from, its more proper to think about it as they do a mutual beneficial pact with their followers against others with different ideologies…

      After all, there is nothing like true justice, only subjectivity and causality which makes you determine what it’s for one…

  4. Was I the only one that got the reference from: “Hero of God Eyes”?
    When she (the goddess) said: “――The one you dropped in the lake was this Golden [Enchant Magic]? Or maybe this Silver [Toughness]?”

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