Non-commentated version of this chapter here for those that don’t want to interrupt their reading of the story with my rambling.
Chapter 24 – Talking mouse
“…..it spoke!?”
Yuuri raised her voice after hearing the mouse speak.
The mouse noticed us right away.
(TN: You just forced a probably mind controlling and highly transformative magic on it, how the hell would it not notice you after all that? And it’s not a mistranslation either.)
“Chuu!! Please forgive me-ssu! It wasn’t my intention to shift its attention to you like that…..”
(TN: It has a speech tick with the -ssu, I was really torn on whether to include it or not, but I guess I’ll do it for now. If it doesn’t work out, then I might remove it later.)
The mouse trailed off after getting pinned by the gaze of Elysia and Yuuri.
It seems it really did want to dump the Arrow Crow on us.
I spoke to the trembling mouse.
“We won’t hurt you or anything. I just want to ask you about the current state of this island.”
“T-then I will tell you anything you want, but…..why did I become this large-ssu?”
“It’s because you became my Servant. It’s something like a subordinate.”
“I-I see. Well…. you all seem pretty strong, so I’m fine with it-ssu. In exchange….”
It must be thinking that by keeping close to us, it will be able to get its paws on food.
I took out a fruit from my PB and handed it over.
“Ooh, you really know the deal-ssu!”
I speak again to the mouse currently munching on a fruit.
“You can listen while you eat. First of all, do you have a name?”
“…..name…..what’s that-ssu?”
“If I called you Tia for example, then would you be fine with that?”
(TN: Yeah…..not kid ourselves here, a name like Tia basically guarantees a spot in the ‘harem’. Despite the fact that it wasn’t even established that the mouse is female.)
“Yeah, I’m fine with anything-ssu.”
“I’m looking for the biggest building on this island. Do you know where it is?”
(TN: Why would the government office be the largest building on the island? Warehouses and the like are usually much larger. Or maybe temples.)
“In that case, you need to go straight first, then turn right and go straight again-ssu! There should be a wide open area there. Ah, but….maybe it would be for the best for you to avoid that place-ssu.”
Tia said the last part as if it just remembered it.
“Why?”
“There are a lot of fire balls there-ssu. Those like me or the crows all die from a single touch from them-ssu.”
“So it’s a gathering place of Wisps.”
I turn to Elysia.
“Please, leave the exorcism to me.”
“I could absorb the Dark mana as well. I think we’ll be fine if we go.”
(TN: Is this supposed to be a hidden xianxia story or something? Come to think of it, the whole premise fits the general cliches for it scarily well. A well liked character getting ostracized after some kind of awakening does not turn out good enough results. Getting exiled, using past life’s knowledge. Another scary thing is that I also just described Heavy Knight as well. Still, the point I was trying to make is that absorbing mana like that was never established for other attributes, so why can he do that with Dark Magic? This is very much like cultivation style qi absorption.)
Yuuri spoke up to ask a question despite her clear trepidation.
“U-uhm, by exorcism, you mean….”
“Ghosts.”
Elysia said with a grin, making Yuuri shake in her boots.
“If you’re scared, then you can wait in Lobrion if you want.”
“I-I’m fine! For Alec-sama’s sake, I can go on!”
Yuuri spoke out loud, mainly trying to convince herself.
“Then, let’s go I guess……Tia, what about you? I can release you from being my Servant if you want.”
“No no! I will go with you-ssu! I rarely get to eat something this delicious! Let me lead the way-ssu!”
After saying that, Tia started walking in front of me in a cheerful manner.
“Maybe it’s because my body got bigger, it’s a strange feeling-ssu, but….I can walk faster now-ssu!”
So it became able to speak and walk on two legs…..
(TN: What’s this guy smoking? A mouse on two legs being able to walk faster than crawl on four?)
It’s closer to being human now after becoming my Servant.
Then, the fact that Elyc the slime didn’t change at all is somewhat concerning.
Perhaps there are individual differences on a case by case basis.
There were some among the blue hair brigade that didn’t end up with any hair as well…..
Maybe it would be a good idea to have Tia bring another of its kind and recruit them to be my Servant too.
As we were traveling on the road, slowly a wide open area came into view. That must be the central public square of Alus Island. I could see a bunch of governmental office looking structures standing next to each other.
I could also see a bunch of fire balls, or Wisps in other words, floating around the place.
“Let’s take care of this quickly.”
“Yes! Then, allow me!”
Elysia’s hands immediately lit up, she then spread the light to the whole area.
As expected, she is used to doing this. The Wisps disappeared one by one.
I feel like this fits Elysia much more than simple fighting…..
“Elysia, amazing! So fighting wasn’t all you could do!”
Elysia had a proud expression on her face after hearing what Yuuri said.
“I could do something like this in a jiffy. Anything else I can help with?”
Elysia said while looking at the square where the Wisps disappeared from.
“Nothing for now. Thank you, Elysia.”
“Alec-sama…..such words are wasted on someone like me…..”
“T-that’s an over exaggeration.”
I moved my gaze from the rapidly reddening Elysia to a temple-like building with a number of characteristic white pillars.
“This must be the main office. Good, let’s get inside.”
We opened the large double door and peeked inside.
Sure enough, it’s dark inside.
(TN: So no windows exist I guess.)
So I used a Holy spell called 《Holy Light》 to create a ball of light to illuminate our surroundings.
“…..hmm? Two?”
There were two balls of light rising into the air.
Before I came back, one of those was my limit.
That now doubled.
(TN: Thank you, Captain Obvious. Teach us how two is twice as many as one.)
“Is there a problem, Alec-sama? Ah, how rude of me….I will make some light right away.”
Elysia used the same 《Holy Light》 to light up our surroundings. She ended up creating ten in total.
Clearly, for someone with a Holy Crest, this isn’t a difficult spell to use.
However, for me who’s subpar with everything beside Dark Magic, this is a pretty surprising result.
It seems that perhaps with my Servants growing in numbers, my mana have increased.
(TN: It was clearly spelled out by that devil right after you gained your first Servant and you clearly remarked on the fact that you noticed your mana capacity increase multiple times since then you damn chutney cheese sandwich.)
So not only the amount of my dark mana, but the conversion ratio into other kinds of mana seems to have increased as well.
However, it doubled with only around thirty people.
If I were to develop this Tialus and bring a lot more Servants under my wing, then….
(TN: So he finally realizes the thing that should’ve taken him about 10 seconds flat, if I’m generous, after hearing about the benefits of a Servant.)
I can’t even imagine what will be the outcome of that.
(TN: I honestly don’t know how the occasional devils didn’t conquer everything by now. All it would take is to keep their head down and gather as many animal or monster Servants as possible, making them eventually unbeatable before having to come into contact with anyone at all.)
I was mulling over those things, but then I noticed some mana ahead of us.
There was something covered in Dark mana…..
Then, when it was illuminated by the balls of light…..
“A suit of armor?”
In the great hall of the government building, a single suit of armor appeared.
