212th
Newspaper Villain
212 ? Newspaper Villain #4
Ugh, ugh-.
Ugh… .
Ugh… .
Goblins that had been seen crawling out of the bone jars scattered throughout the lab began to appear. At the same time, a gust of wind blew, closing the windows and turning off all the lights inside.
Under the shining moonlight.
Dead figures with surreal blue eyes crawl across the floor.
Crackle-.
The sound of them scraping the wooden floor with their sharp nails was so loud and bizarre that even I, watching it, got goosebumps.
“What, what, what, what, what, I don’t understand, I don’t understand, I don’t understand-! What! What! What is this!!”
Of course, the confusion seemed even greater for Vinas. Like a radio that had pressed the wrong switch, she could only rapidly repeat the words “What?” and “I don’t understand.”
After seeming to panic for a while, he finally opens his mouth wide and laughs.
“I get it! I get it! You, you’re the necromancer! The blue-eyed necromancer! The rising adventurer Rookie, turns out to be the necromancer of a cult! This, this is news. This is a scoop!”
“Yeah, that would be a scoop. Of course, if you can survive here.”
“That, what does that mean…?”
“Don’t you know it even after seeing it? This is one of my biggest secrets. I can’t let anyone who sees it live.”
“…!”
As if thoughts were finally beginning to form in his flustered mind, Vinas’ short, blue-hair stood on end.
This is the first time I’ve seen a person’s hair stand on end. I guess that’s what happens when someone feels their life is in danger.
“You all, hold on-.”
At my short command, five bone goblins that had been crawling on all fours on the ground began to dash towards Vinas.
Geeeeeeeeeee-!!
“Whoaaaa!”
The sight of the undead rushing towards the living is a visceral fear, let alone a naked woman who would do nothing but scream.
Is this the end?
As he was thinking that, Vinas quickly got up and threw the beakers he saw around him at the goblins.
Clang.
Chiiik-.
Then, the yellow fluorescent beaker shatters, a strong acidic smell comes out, and the goblins’ bodies melt.
“Rice, it’s nothing special! Come if you want!”
Indeed, it seems that Vinas was not an opponent to be taken lightly. After all, there must be many potions with strange ingredients that she is familiar with around here.
I have the advantage right now, but if I continue to stall for time, she might cause some variables since she has the advantage in space. Also, people around me might show up because of the commotion.
So I raised the fallen bone goblins and at the same time raised all the bones lying around.
About ten bone goblins filled the lab.
“You, you have too much….”
Perhaps shocked by that sight, Vinas, who had been confidently breaking the potion until just a moment ago, also stopped his actions.
Geaaaak!
“Ugh!”
One of the Bone Goblins, who hadn’t missed that opening, pounced on Vainas’ body and knocked him down. At the same time, all ten of them rushed at him and restrained his arms and legs, finally subduing him.
“Hey, let go of this, let go of this- ugh!”
Although Vinas resisted, every time she moved her body, the sharp claws of the goblin scratched her flat body, leaving only red scars.
The goblins, excited by the smell of blood, press down on the back of her neck with even greater force.
Clang.
“My, my glasses-, glasses-!”
“I guess you can’t see without your glasses?”
“Ugh, ugh, oh, don’t kill me, save me, save me… .”
Humans rely on sight for most of their senses, so if their eyes are covered or they become blind, they become quite panicky.
It seems that the same was true for Vinas.
She was subdued by the dead I had summoned, and even her vision was sealed. Her proud demeanor from before had disappeared, and she was trembling as if she was about to die.
He even peed between his legs.
“Please save me…! Please, please save me…! Please, please, I was wrong. Please just look at me once…!”
In fact, this is what happens to anyone who is in a life-threatening situation. That’s why I didn’t find her particularly funny or ugly.
But in the end, it just turned out like this – a languid feeling.
“Alchemist Vainas. Your sins are deep. You will now be cast into Hell, Tartarus.”
“Heeeeeeek-!”
Vinas struggled like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web. The more she struggled, the more the goblins pressed down on her neck, causing her to feel even more pain.
“Hell, hell! I hate hell! Please forgive me-! Please forgive me-!”
The name Hell, Tartarus, has a considerable impact on the people of this world. It must be scary to think that you will be condemned to eternal punishment.
Of course, I have no right to throw this woman into Tartarus.
On the one hand, since the goddess Nox who rules that place is Luna’s mother, I thought that the woman who harmed Luna would be personally taken care of by Nox herself. If that’s the case, then what I said is not a lie.
“You will be thrown into Tartarus, you fraud.”
“Ugh, ugh, sob… .”
“But if I die like this, I won’t be able to apologize to Luna. I’ll give you a grace period. A grace period of one day. Correct the articles you wrote, and apologize to Luna. Then leave the city and live alone, holding onto all these secrets in a place where no one can find you. For the rest of your life.”
“Straight, all my life… .”
“It’s your whole life. If you end your life like that, I’ll put your trip to hell on hold.”
“… .”
Vinas did not answer.
She had been looking sad for a long time, and then she slowly asked.
“Who are you, who the hell are you…?”
Swish.
Soon, her blurry eyes, unfocused due to the lack of glasses, looked up at me. What do I look like in her eyes?
So I ended up asking back.
“What does it look like-?”
“… .”
This time, Vinas didn’t answer. He just slowly moved his body, which was crushed by the dead, and crawled towards me.
Grrrr-!!
The goblins who saw him crushed Vainas’ body even harder, perhaps thinking that he would do something dangerous to me.
However, with just a snap of my fingers, the goblins that had been restraining her body relaxed and let her go.
“Swear on the River Styx.”
“Huhhh… .”
Thus, Vinas, who was able to move his body freely, slowly crawled towards me on all fours like a small animal. Then, he put his head close to my feet sitting on the sofa and kissed them.
This was an answer that anyone could know for sure.
* * *
Early morning.
The owls and the crows chirp excitedly outside the window.
Home, home, home.
Kkwiing, kwiiing-.
They were so noisy that it would be more appropriate to say that the birds were chattering or barking rather than chirping.
Normally, I would have woken up with a frown on my face, but I had a clean night’s sleep. The sound of birds chirping at dawn filled me with emotions of my own.
“Luna, it’s morning.”
Normally, Luna would wake me up by shaking her hair, but today I woke her up in the early morning by shaking her.
“Luna, it’s morning.”
“Eww, eww, it’s not a fake leap-. I worked really hard to make it…”
However, Luna, who was sleeping deeply, showed no intention of waking up no matter how many times I tried to wake her up. Judging from the way she was talking in her sleep, it seemed like she was having a headache because of the problem of leaping in her dreams.
“Luna, it was a dream. Wake up now.”
“Ugh-.”
“I fried an egg. There’s also some sausage and vegetable stir-fry.”
“Sausage and vegetable stir-fry?”
Luna opened her eyes, perhaps awakened by the conversation about food. Her sleepy emerald eyes looked up at me.
I brought breakfast on a small tray in front of Luna.
A small plate holds the sausages, fried eggs, and cold lemonade that I got up early in the morning and brought in, steaming on ice.
“Wow, there’s ice floating in it! Drinking something like this in the morning! Hassan, what’s going on? What day is it today? Why are you up so early?”
“It’s not a special day. It’s just something-.”
I thought a lot about what kind of cool comment I would make if Luna woke up and asked, but when the opportunity actually came, I was so embarrassed that I decided to just beat around the bush.
While I was awkwardly standing there, Luna ate the food on the plate she received from me in a hurry like someone who was very hungry.
It’s said that people often lose their appetite when they go through something hard or are stressed. Fortunately, Luna didn’t seem to have that problem.
When you are feeling tired from hard work, it is good to force yourself to eat well to replenish your stamina.
“It’s delicious. But Hassan didn’t make it himself! He bought it at the inn!”
“Yeah, well. I wanted to cook myself, but I was a bit busy.”
“Are you busy? It’s morning? Hassan, did you stay up all night?”
“More than that, Luna, look at this. The newspaper has arrived again.”
I held out a piece of leather to Luna, who was sitting half-covered with the blanket and examining my complexion.
“Poetry, newspapers… .”
However, Luna’s expression upon seeing it was only a slight frown, as if she had strongly felt the sour taste of cold lemonade.
“Again, is my story written again?”
“That’s right. There’s a lot written down. A lot.”
“Huhhh… .”
Luna trembles as if she is scared.
Perhaps because she had read newspapers with harsh reviews about her several times, Luna now had a strong image of newspapers as something scary and unpleasant to look at.
“Ugh, I, I don’t want to read it. But I shouldn’t make a big deal out of it like last time by saying I don’t want to read it-.”
Swish.
Soon, it was Luna who took the leather newspaper from me.
Flutter.
Luna’s eyes, which were turning the thin leather pages with her hands, soon grew wider and wider until they were indescribably wide.
“Hey, what is this?”
“It’s a newspaper.”
“There’s a newspaper article about me? It says, ‘Luna Noxdotti buys Sodomora for 50 gold from Horomable. Suspected of land speculation.’ What’s this?”
“Read more.”
“Hey, let’s see, ‘The Watchman of the Hut, Kkungkung’s Love Affair… The Other One is a Small and Younger Spider.’ Huh? What is this? What is this?”
Luna blinked as if she couldn’t understand the contents and continued to turn the pages. Of course, the contents of the newspaper were-.
Luna Noxdotty, who is tending to the yard, declares war on the raccoons.
Luna continues to win against Hippolyte, now I’m in the gold tier?
-There were only puns that were not newsworthy, like this.
Swish, swish-.
Luna, who was turning the page, finally seemed to have found the reporter’s name written at the end.
“The reporter’s name is Hassan! This is a newspaper created by Hassan!”
“What do you think? Do you like it?”
Last night, while Luna was sleeping, I diligently erased the contents of the leather newspaper and wrote other stories over it.
But since I wasn’t good at writing and this was something I was new to, it took me a whole night to write something that simple.
Although it was an idea that came to me in one day, I put a lot of effort into it.
As I was watching Luna’s reaction, wondering if she really liked it, Luna’s large eyes soon began to fill with tears since morning.
“I, I’ve never received anything like this before. It’s the best gift I’ve ever received in my life! A newspaper that only tells my story!”
Luna seemed very moved.
Somehow, I also feel a tingling sensation in my nose. I wonder if the things I imagined when I got a girlfriend and did these kinds of events helped.
I said it as if nothing had happened.
“From now on, our story will be on everyone’s lips, not just in the newspapers. This is like a rehearsal.”
“Yeah, yeah-.”
Luna smiled brightly, repeatedly wiping away her tears with the backs of her hands. I felt like the slight animosity that had remained between Luna and me in the past was slowly melting away.
If you have any thoughts about this incident.
Fighting and reconciling were more difficult than expected.
I have to be careful from now on.
As I was thinking about that, Luna spoke as if she had made up her mind.
“Of course, I want to proudly reveal the recipe to people…!”
“Really? Really? Is that okay?”
“Yeah. It’s not like you can just copy it and make it like that. Also, if you keep hiding it like this, the conspiracy will only get bigger. I guess I’ll just reveal everything lightly.”
“Okay, then what… .”
“And Hassan-.”
“huh?”
Luna was biting her lips with a very hesitant expression. Something seemed to be about to slip from her throat to her lips, but it didn’t move even a single step.
“why?”
“… Th, uh, thank you. And I’m sorry I got mad… .”
“No, it’s not my fault.”
Swish.
“… .”
At that moment, Luna tightly closed her eyes and spread her arms to the left and right. I suddenly wondered what was happening. Then I realized that Luna was telling me to hug her.
Luna also seems to feel embarrassed in her own way.
I also gave Luna a light hug, feeling a bit awkward.
It felt really good to have her heart pounding in front of me. And maybe because she was sweating while sleeping last night, Luna’s body smelled sweet and peachy.
As a result, Juji becomes magnificent.
“I, that, Hassan… .”
“This can’t be helped. It’s a physiological phenomenon.”
“No, it’s not that. I smell like an older sister I know from Hassan. Sister Vinas-.”
“… It must be my imagination. The smell might have been there when we went to the lab together.”
“Is that so-?”
Dating isn’t always easy.
So.
An afternoon when time had passed.
Luna, Paranoy, and I stood in front of the large gate of the headquarters of the Alchemist’s Guild.
It looks just as good as other temples. You can clearly see how much wealth the Alchemist Guild has amassed through potions.
This may be because treatment is subject to many legal restrictions, or because many people buy and drink things like recovery potions.
“Hassan, I’m nervous about actually going in like this. I’ll be embarrassed if I make a mistake while making it. Is that okay?”
“Just do as you usually do. Then let’s go in.”
So, just as I was about to open the huge gate and step inside, what I encountered was a face I had never expected to see.
“Hey, you’re a Samaritan, right? You have funny pink hair too. Why are you in the Alchemist’s Guild-!?”
A woman who panics as soon as she sees us, as if she saw something she shouldn’t have seen.
It was the leader of the Calcata adventurer group, Delphina, who wore a Silver Tier necklace around her neck. I heard that she has been quiet lately, but I never thought I would meet her here.
[Work Review]
Now I have to hurry up and use the parts that I’ve been putting off… I haven’t used the cat fight machine and the canfried machine for a long time, so they might get rusty, so I’m going to take them out and use them often now…!!
