Tenshi Translations

Volume 1 Chapter 3 Part 2

 

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You can grab the PDF here.

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Shin continued observing the town while waiting towards the guild. When he had come through this route last night, there weren’t a lot of people due to the late hour. Now, though,the road from the western district to the southern district that also goes through the eastern district was the very illustration of the word ‘variety.’

 

All kinds of food stands were lined up at the side of the street, with people looking for breakfast or buying lunch bustling about. There were also stalls selling armor, magic items, other things needed by adventurers, and even tools that Shin couldn’t make heads nor tails of.
It almost seemed a lie that daybreak had been only two hours ago.

 

Staying within the shadows of the stalls, Shin continued making his way towards the guild. There were a lot of other adventurers wearing their weapons, so Shin with his katana on his hip did not draw much attention.
It was Shin’s habit to keep【Search】activated. There was also the matter of the letter of introduction, so Shin decided to not deactivate it after all.

 

After walking about 40 minutes, the signboard of the Adventurer’s Guild finally came into view. Due to his efforts to avoid the crowds, the trip took him longer than it did yesterday.
Shin walked in as a group of adventurers came out. Even though he had waited a bit before coming, he felt like there were still quite a lot of people left.

 

The reception desk was currently being manned by Selica and a female elf. She had small, pointed ears like Tiera, so he was probably not wrong. Drawing closer to the desk, Shin spoke to Selica first.

 

“Good morning. I came to get my guild card.”
“Good morning, Shin-sama. We have that prepared, please wait a moment while we fetch it. By the way, this is Els, whom you were looking for. Els, this is Shin-sama, who I was telling you about earlier.”

 

As Selica called out to her, the elf lady seated at the neighboring reception desk came over towards Shin.

 

“Good morning, Shin-sama. My name is Els Balt. I heard that you’ve been looking for me. May I ask what business do you have with me?”

 

Els was a classic example of elven beauty who looked 24 to 25. She had vivid, green hair that reached all the way to her waist and blue eyes reminiscent of a lake shore. Slightly taller than the average woman, her height appeared to be somewhere in the late 170s. She also had enough style and good looks to put models to shame. Her being an adventurer on top of all that made Shin think that the world was much bigger than he’d thought.

 

It wasn’t right to just keep on staring, so Shin immediately began talking to her.

 

“It’s this. I was told that it was most likely addressed to you.”

So saying, he retrieved the letter of introduction from Tsuki no Hokora and handed it to Els. He had already taken anti-theft measures on it.

 

“Addressed ...... to me?”

 

Tilting her head at the strange description of “most likely addressed to you,” Els opened the letter and began looking over its contents.
The moment she opened the letter, her eyes widened. After reading it, disbelief and shock colored her expression.

 

“It can’t be ...... no, but ......”

 

Selica looked slightly worried at her coworker. Shin was curious what was written. Considering that it was from Tiera, it was likely about the curse, but he thought she had kept the curse a secret. Nothing else came to mind, though.

 

Els was so shocked that she forgot about Shin and Selica and began muttering to herself in a low voice. With a start, she returned to her senses and looked at Shin.

 

“Umm, what is it?”

 

Shin slightly winced under Els’s steady gaze. Under the piercing stare, Shin wondered why he was being glared at and started to feel flustered.

 

“You ...... for Tiera ...... thank you. Please also accept my own gratitude.”

 

She abruptly bowed to him. For some reason, she also started using casual speech.

 

“I’m sorry, I am not quite following the situation ......”

 

Things were happening so suddenly that Shin was lost.

 

“My apologies, I lost my composure. Selica, I will need to leave my seat for a bit, so please take care of the reception desk. I’m sorry about this, but the conversation from now on will need to be in somewhere private. I will lead you to a room in the back, so can we continue this conversation there?”
“Understood. I will have someone else come to take your place at the desk.”
“Okay ......”

 

Perhaps due to using casual speech, Els was giving out instructions with a practiced hand.
Still wondering if something was wrong, Shin slightly dropped his shoulders while acquiescing to Els’s suggestion.

 

Going through the same hallway behind the reception desk as yesterday, he again entered the room that looked like a parlor. After Shin also came in, Els closed the and locked it. She came and sat on a sofa after doing a little something.

 

“Once again, please allow me to express my thanks. I’m truly thankful to you for dispelling Tiera’s curse.”
“Aah, so it really was about that after all.”

 

It seemed that Els had already known about Tiera’s curse. The runes on the letter of introduction were probably about him dispelling it.

“Please raise your head. I don’t really consider what I did to be something this huge.”
“Even so. I also searched for a way to remove the curse, but only came up empty handed. You did it in my place. It is only natural for me to express my thanks.”

 

There was indeed an item that could remove the curse, but as thought it was probably really hard to get. Maybe she had even gone onto adventures related to the curse.

 

“If possible, I don’t really want this to become a big deal. Oh, and also, are you comfortable speaking that way?”
“I understand. By the name of the spirits of the forest, I swear to never leak this information to anyone else. Frankly, this isn’t a topic that I can talk about in public anyways. About the way I speak, this is most comfortable for me. It was written that you are the kind of person who doesn’t really care about things like this, but does it actually bother you?”
“Please speak in whatever way you like. I’ll also do the same. So, what then? I don’t think this is the only reason you had for bringing me to this room. I also noticed you doing something just now.”
“That was magic to prevent eavesdropping. What we are about to talk about must not be heard even by other staff of the guild. With that said, it’s actually something that I really want to ask you.”

 

It was clear that there was something that Els really wanted to ask, but in Shin’s eyes it felt a tiny bit like an abuse of authority.

 

“I’m going to say this ahead of time, but I might not be able to fully answer your questions.”
“I am aware of that. However, I just can’t hold myself back when I think that I may finally learn the method of dispelling the curse after searching more than 50 years without coming across even a single clue.”

 

Although intellectual curiosity was definitely a part of it, but Els’s eyes were also trembling with an expression that included envy and longing.
Fifty years. He didn’t know if she had been at it the entire time, but the time that she had spent for Tiera’s sake was more than twice the length of Shin’s own life. Even though the curse was already lifted, he could understand why she still wanted to know.

 

There could be other people who are still affected by this curse.

 

“The letter of introduction didn’t mention how I did it?”
“It appears to have been written in quite a hurry. It didn’t go into details. So, how was it. I will recompense you to the utmost of my ability, so would you teach it to me?!”

 

Els pressed him while leaning forward. It was not altogether unpleasant to have a beautiful girl lean so close, but she did have a slightly bloodcurdlingly menacing look on her face.
As Shin was still not familiar with this world’s ‘common sense,’ he couldn’t judge whether he should so easily disclose information about【Purification】.
However, Els was someone that Tiera had trusted the information about her curse with, and Tiera had even taken the effort of writing onto the letter to let her know that it was gone. Rather, she was someone who had been searching for this dispelling method for Tiera’s sake. He concluded that it would be fine to tell her.

 

“Fine, very well. I’ll tell you, so just calm down and take a seat.”

 

Els sat back down on the sofa, and Shin readjusted his posture to sit more comfortably.

 

“The way to lift the curse is to use the Holy Arts-Type Skill【Purification】. There are other methods, but to my knowledge this is the most reliable one.”

 

He knew about the item that could also dispel the curse, but since he had never confirmed it himself, he decided to not go into details about it.

 

“【Purification】, you say ...... To think that that skill also had such an effect.”

 

Els had a regretful “if only I had known” expression on her face.
From what Tiera had said, most of the people who could use【Purification】were high-ranking members of the clergy, so there were probably strings that she could have pulled.

 

“The people who have learned【Purification】...... no, in this case I should say ‘inherited.’ How many of them are there?”
“Only clergymen of relatively high status know the requirements for acquiring【Purification】. They also don’t know every single effect of the skill. In the first place, I’ve never even heard of someone outside the Church who could use【Purification】.”
“What ...... did you say?”

 

At Els’s words, Shin thought, “Again?!” and dropped his shoulders. He could easily imagine how bad the situation could get if word got out that he could use a skill valued so highly even within the Church. He was already conspicuous enough for being able to use skills, but being able to use this specific valuable skill would only lead to being forced into becoming a part of things that he would much rather not be involved in.

 

“(This only seems like it’s going to lead to more trouble ......) I’m begging you, please don’t tell anyone else about this, okay?”
“Of course. I’m also a skill holder myself, so the guild won’t press me too hard. If they really try to force me, I’ll just leave the guild. So don’t worry about it.”

 

Els said it like it was nothing. Shin had been worried that it might be hard for her to defy orders from above, being part of an organization, but it appears that his fears were unfounded.

 

“Well, as long as you’re careful about it.”

 

He won’t say “protect this secret with your life” even as a joke. Even if he meant it as a joke, he might be taken seriously. Shin didn’t know how far he hoped that she would go to keep the secret. In the first place, he didn’t want to be involved with troublesome things, but he didn’t consider this secret severe enough for anyone to die for.

 

“You have removed a huge weight off my mind. Even though it was safe, being stuck inside that house for so many years must have been really hard on her.”
“I thought so too. I decided to help lift the curse because of a similar reason. By the way, how do you know about the curse? I can’t imagine Tiera opening up about it on her own.”

 

She was even chased out of her village. Shin imagined that Tiera would be even more disinclined to share it with a fellow elf.

 

“Tiera and I came from the same village. I had become an adventurer and was going around the world, and one time when I came back for a visit we met each other. At that time, she was still a normal elf. She was a young girl with beautiful silver hair.”
“I see, I see.”
“When I returned after hearing about her falling under the curse, she had already been driven out of the village. When I was asking around about what curse it was, I didn’t even think that she was still alive until I met Schnee.”

 

It would probably be hard to imagine someone still surviving while affected by a curse that continued to call such powerful monsters. In fact, if Schnee hadn’t taken her under protection, her survival rate would definitely have been zero.

 

“She got cursed, but then got saved by Schnee ...... I’m not sure whether her luck is good or bad.”
“The only one to decide that would be Tiera herself. Thanks to you, the curse is gone now, so I think it’s fine if she can become happy from now on.”
“That’s true. It’s not our place to make the judgment. So, that’s about it for this topic. Is there anything else that you want to ask?”
“Nope, you’ve already given me answers for all of the questions that I had. Sorry for taking up your time.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not like I couldn’t understand how you were feeling.”

 

They hadn’t even been talking for 30 minutes, so it wasn’t that big a deal.

 

Leaving the parlor behind and returning to the reception desk, they found Selica and a different receptionist lady talking together. Noticing that Els had returned, the other receptionist left Selica and bowed lightly before returning to the second floor.

 

“Is everything fine now?”
“Yes, we finished our talk.”
“Sorry about that, Selica. You were a great help.”

 

With a simple thanks, Els went back to the neighboring reception desk and began to process the request form of an adventurer who had been waiting.

 

“Well then, Shin-sama, here is your guild card. It is also your ID card, so please take care to not lose it. In the event that you lose it or require a reissue for any other reason, the fee will be 10 J silver coins.”
“Understood.”

 

Shin received the guild card that Selica had prepared. On the card was his name, rank, affiliation, party, and other such personal detail. Shin remembered Silica explaining that this information could only be seen by himself and someone with a specialized tool.

 

“Let’s try picking up a request right away.”

 

He looked over the requests stuck onto the bulletin board. G rank requests were mostly harvesting or routine tasks, and thus were very safe but also yielded very low rewards. With that said, the average reward was still 1 J silver coin, so Shin learned that adventurers indeed had pretty high incomes.

 

“Let’s go with this.”

 

He removed a page from a request book stuck onto the board and returned to the reception desk with it. With his low rank, he wouldn’t get very far if he tried to go around gathering information. He intended to raise his rank a bit as preparation.

 

“I would like to take on this request, please.”
“The harvesting of Hilk grass, very well. As this request is usually always available, there is no time limit on its completion. When you bring back 30 pieces, then you will receive the reward of 1 J silver coin.”
“If I bring back 60 pieces at once, will I get paid 2 J silver coins?”
“Yes, Hilk grass is an ingredient for potions, so there is a constant demand for it. There is also the option of picking them on the way while fulfilling another request. Please confirm that this is the request you wish to adopt.”
“Yes, please. Oh right, I don’t actually know what Hilk grass is, would you happen to have an illustrated reference book?”
“We do indeed. Please wait a short while.”

 

In truth, he had seen it while in the game, but he wanted to double check. Selica went to a bookshelf behind the reception area and fetched a book even thicker than Kojien.
(T/N: Kojien is one of the definitive Japanese dictionaries. Google it.)
 

Transferring the book from her arms to the desk, Selica muttered a soft “nn, sho.”
(T/N: Yokkoisho is a phrase Japanese people say when exerting effort, i.e. bringing a heavy book over. Selica used an abbreviated version of it.)

 

“Fuu~, here is the illustrated reference book on plants. Hilk grass ...... here it is.”

 

Thanking Selica for putting in the effort of even turning the pages to the Hilk grass entry, Shin confirmed the shape of the grass and where it grew. Its appearance was pretty much unchanged, with jagged leaves 10~15 cm long. They grew in clumps, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find 30 of them.

 

“So they’re inside the Eastern Forest and Northern Forest.”

 

According to the reference book, Hilk grass grew most frequently deep within the Eastern Forest and Northern Forest.

 

“People often unintentionally wander deeper and deeper into the forest while searching for Hilk grass, so please be careful. If you go in too deep, you might get attacked by ferocious monsters.”
“I’ll be careful.”

 

When he had been heading towards Tsuki no Hokora, he had cut across the Eastern Forest, but he thought it better to not mention that. The so-called ferocious monsters had already been converted into rent money.

 

“Take care on your way.”

 

He left the guild while being sent off by Selica.
While thinking that he should have bought a map in advance and other similar thoughts related to planning the near future, Shin turned his feet towards the eastern gate.

 

 

 

♦♦♦♦

 

 

 

—— Inside the guild’s break room after Shin left

 

After organizing documents, Els and Selica were drinking tea while talking about Shin.

 

“Selica, it took me a while to finally get around to asking, but do you know who that guy is?”
“Thinking about it, I never did tell you, did I. But truthfully, I don’t know much either.”

 

Shin had showed up at the guild only yesterday, so Selica didn’t know much either. Since Els had already seen the letter of introduction herself, the only thing that Selica could tell her about was the exchange with Balkus.

 

“The fact that he won handily against『Blue Wolf』is about all I can tell you. Even I can tell that he possesses very considerable fighting strength.”

 

As she was speaking to a colleague, Selica dropped the formal speech and spoke casually. She had planned on telling all this to Els in the first place, so there was no problem bringing it up now. Just in case, though, both of them took extra precaution by not naming any names.
Incidentally,『Blue Wolf』was Balkus’s nickname.
There wasn’t much information on ‘that person’ — Shin. The reason why Selica was telling Els all this was because of Els’s official position in the guild.

 

“I see, no wonder I couldn’t see anything.”

 

Els nodded her head with an understanding look on her face.

 

“Really? You couldn’t see anything?”

 

In response to Els’s look of understanding, Selica’s face registered disbelief.
Els was an executive staff member with authority second to the sub-master. She had this position because she was a skill inheritor who could use【Analyze VII】and also held the Gift『Observer』. As a result, she could see the level and name of even people with a higher level than herself, allowing her to know immediately when someone was using a fake name. In actuality, she could see Balkus’s exact level with a glance.
Who on earth was Shin that even Els couldn’t see through him.
They didn’t even know if the name ‘Shin’ was his real name or not.

 

“Well, there probably isn’t much cause for concern. I can’t imagine Tiera handing a letter of introduction to a bad person, and when I personally talked with him there didn’t seem to be anything shifty about him.”
“『Blue Wolf』was of the same opinion. We do think that he is a bit weird, though.”

 

The last comment was muttered by Selica while remembering the inexplicable sense of security that she felt from Shin.

 

“ ‘Weird’ ...... huh. Indeed he is. His real strength and the aura around him doesn’t really seem to match.”
“I know what you mean. I don’t know how to say this, but I feel something like a sense of security from him.”

 

The two of them chattered on with a carefree atmosphere.

 

“I really don’t get it ......”

 

The more they thought about it, the more the image of the person called Shin blurred.

 

They would normally feel unease in such a situation. However, no trace of such feelings could be found in either of their chests.

 

 

After leaving the guild, Shin went straight towards the eastern gate without making any significant detours. He followed the road for a while, but eventually left it to enter the forest. It was standard for beginner adventurers to head towards the Eastern Forest, as it supposedly didn’t have too many ferocious monsters.
Beid had taught him that ‘supposedly’ was the key word here as he passed through the eastern gate. Several beginners had already set off towards the Eastern Forest today. Beid had been guarding the southern gate up till yesterday, but apparently the guards rotated positions at set intervals. For a while, Beid will be posted at the eastern gate.

 

Back in the game, this was an easy quest that could be finished within 30 minutes. Intending to finish quickly and go to the library afterwards, Shin stepped forward.

 

Though it was a place for beginners to go to, it was a dark and gloomy forest with very dense vegetation. Beid had told him that only low level monsters and wild beasts appear here, but Shin’s impression was that someone not used to the place would definitely find it scary.

 

Refusing to blindly accept the information at face value, Shin kept his guard up while searching for Hilk grass.
 

If his memory served him right, they preferred to grow in places easily reachable by sunlight, so he focused on that point in his search.

 

He had heard that there was plenty of Hilk grass all over the place, so at this time Shin was still expecting to finish quickly.

 

 

 

♦♦♦♦

 

 

 

“...... not here.”

 

It’s been almost 3 hours since he entered the forest.

 

“...... Not here either!”

 

His current score ...... 0.

 

“...... Can’t find iiiiiiiiiittttttt~~~!!!”

 

He still couldn’t find a single blade of Hilk grass.

 

The memory of entering the forest with high spirits seemed so long ago. Despite walking around the forest while keeping an eye out for sunlit places, there was absolutely nothing to be seen for his efforts.

 

“This is strange ...... no matter how hard it is, how can I not have seen a single one so far?!”

 

He had gone quite far into the forest, so it was about time that he started seeing them around. He didn’t sense the presence of any adventurers nearby, so it wasn’t that someone else was picking them before him.

 

“I guess I’ll try going a bit deeper, then.”

 

Trusting in the reference book’s claim that it would be easier to find them deeper in the forest, he dove in deeper. Naturally, his surroundings grew dimmer and he began to feel the presence of wild animals here and there.

 

So far, he had encountered no monsters, and was able to focus on his search. He stopped at a depth right before where he thought monsters would show up and started looking around.

 

From where he started, he saw no patches of sunlight anywhere, so he decided to a fine tooth comb of the entire area. He looked through thickets, next to tree roots, and literally everywhere that he could see, but the herb was nowhere to be found.

 

“I’m pretty hungry now ......”

 

The sun had risen high in the sky, indicating that it was already around lunchtime. He had been walking nonstop the whole time, so his stomach had already been crying for food from a while back.

 

“Let’s eat, shall we?”

 

He wouldn’t make much progress searching on an empty stomach, so also as a change of pace he decided to have a lunch break.
There was a conveniently placed stump nearby, so he brought out some food from his inventory and began eating. The menu was hotdog and Coke. Food stored inside the inventory won’t ever go bad. When he was going through his inventory last night, he had discovered that the food in his inventory were still good to eat, so he didn’t have to really buy lunch for today.

 

Originally, the food also gave stat increases or recovered HP, but apparently all such effects had been removed, or he just didn’t feel them.
He also had more expensive foods, but he would probably just eat them as mere food. It’s not like he’s going to have time to eat them in the middle of monster fights.

 

“Mugu, mmm, fuu~. Well then, let’s get back to work.”

 

He finished his lunch quickly. Why he ate so fast was partly because it was just junk food. The other part was because it would be troublesome if wild animals or monsters were drawn over because of the smell

 

He resumed his search for Hilk grass, but still couldn’t find any.
Three more hours passed after his lunch. By this point, it was more refreshing to not find any. He suspected that the Eastern Forest had already been picked clean of Hilk grass.

 

After one more hour, Shin was starting to feel tired, so he decided to go back to the inn first. His physical body wasn’t feeling much fatigue, but his mental self had taken quite a beating from not finding anything after such a long search.

 

When he got back to the town gate, it happened to be the time for guard change. Apparently, the ones on patrol and the ones guarding the gate were exchanging roles.
Shin found Beid among those getting off from patrolling. While checking Shin’s guild card, Beid struck light conversation.

 

“Yo, you look pretty tired. Did something happen?”
“Listen to this. I went to the Eastern Forest to look for Hilk grass, but I haven’t found a single blade after a whole day of searching ......”
“Oi, oi, you can easily find those just by randomly looking around. Even today, I saw several beginners coming back with them.”
“Whaaaaatttt???”

 

The other beginners came back with them. This sentence struck Shin dumbfounded. Beid delivered a finishing blow.

 

“I think every single one of them came back before noon. Don’t tell me, you searched the entire day ......?”
“........................ aaaaa ......”

 

Shin covered his face with his hands and dropped his shoulders, all crestfallen. He had been a rank SS adventurer back during the game. Despite the consolation that this was a different world, his pride was still completely shred to pieces.

 

“Well, what can I say. Cheer up.”
“Ku, your words of encouragement hurt ......”

 

Beid didn’t know anyone else who searched so hard for Hilk grass without finding any, so he didn’t know what to say and just said whatever came to mind.

 

“Well, you know, luck is a pretty big factor too. Just think that today was a really unlucky day, and try again tomorrow.”
“Yea, I guess ...... maybe I’ll try going a bit deeper into the forest tomorrow.”
“Don’t go in too deep. I don’t think you’ll make that kind of mistake, but there have been a ton of beginners who went in too deep and died.”
“I got it. Alright, seeya.”

 

He understood Beid’s worry. There was no time limit on this request, so there was no need to hurry. However, not wanting to back down after having gone so far could be said to be a very common state of mind. “Now that it’s come to this, let’s try the Northern Forest,” thought Shin as he immediately started planning tomorrow out.

 

 

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