Tenshi Translations

Volume 2 Chapter 1 Part 2

 

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You can grab the PDF here.

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After Shin left the church, everyone remaining began making their own preparations for the next day. Rashia and Thoria also took the time to tell the children about the trip.

Wilhelm went out to buy foodstuffs and other goods for the long journey.
While following the main road and buying everything needed, he also called out to the adventurers with ties to the orphanage. There was no guarantee that the priest aiming to shut down the orphanage would not take advantage of his absence to start something.
Though there were quite a few adventurers from the orphanage, the number of people who knew about Millie’s power was very small. There was the possibility that this trip might take quite a while, so he told all of them to be on their guard. In the midst of all this preparatory work, Wilhelm continued thinking about a certain man.

Needless to say, it was Shin.
Their first meeting was when they had happened to share a table at his favorite restaurant. Though Shin claimed to have only just started as an adventurer, he had not been intimidated at all by Wilhelm carrying Venom, and had talk to him normally. Because of this, Wilhelm had remembered him immediately when he saw him again at the orphanage.

At the church, when hearing that Thoria had revealed Millie’s power, Wilhelm’s first thought was that she was letting her guard down too much. However, even Millie had vouched for him, so it was good enough. Millie had even said that she had seen ‘something.’ She didn’t elaborate on what it was that she saw, but at least it was proof that he was not someone trying to get close to the church to cause them harm. Otherwise, Millie would not have advocated him so emphatically.

None of that changes the fact that he was still a complete mystery.

There were very few people who would talk to himself normally, and that guy’s words and actions just happened to remain in Wilhelm’s memory. The more he thought about it, though, the more strange points he noticed.

When that guy saw Venom, he had asked whether it had been taken for appraisal. He had even asked after the appraiser’s skill level. Thinking about it, that guy’s expression at the time had seemed to say “Ah, that level is not enough.”
It was the same for the requirements to acquire【Purification】. Shin had said “defeat at least 200 undead monsters of level 150 or higher.” Right afterwards, he had said “I will weaken them first, so Rashia will only need to deal the final blow.” From the way he was speaking, he had not intended to bring Wilhelm along when he accepted the request.
If what he said was not a lie, then it would mean that he was strong enough to take on a level 150 by himself. And that would be even while bringing along Rashia, who would only get in his way.

(Has he really become an adventurer only recently?)

Wilhelm remembered that even back at the lunch, Shin had been speaking like he had a lot of fighting experience. If he was so good, though, then it would not have been strange for there to be information about him from before. Word travels quickly about strong people, even if they are not an adventurer. However, when he had asked the information brokers connected to the orphanage, none of them had any information on the guy.
Someone who could single-handedly take down a monster above level 150 easily belonged in Rank B. Making Rank A would not even be strange.
How could such a person have remained under the radar so long?

(Could it be, that guy is ......)

His steps stopped unconsciously.
A certain title floated into Wilhelm’s mind. It was a name known only to a select few.

That phrase represented a group of existences who wielded power beyond the limits of normal people.

Those with this title were born with numerous skills and varying amounts of knowledge already inside their head. This world’s concept of ‘levels’ cannot be applied to them. They were, in general terms, ‘ones who were chosen from birth.’

“Is he ...... a Chosen One?”

It was something that Wilhelm himself already had deep ties to.
Nobody heard what he had unthinkingly voiced out loud; it disappeared into the usual clamor of the city.

The sun dawned on the next day.

Shin finished his breakfast quickly, then told Tsugumi that he would be out of town for a while and got back the rest of his unused deposit. All his luggage was inside his inventory, so he didn’t need any time for packing, which allowed him to set off before long. He wasn’t able to set off immediately though, due to Tsugumi not wanting to part with Yuzuha. Shin felt that her eyes had become those of a hunter with a prey in sight. Was it perhaps because her last name was Bear?

He walked through the relatively uncrowded roads with Yuzuha riding on his head as usual. Due to there being less people than there would be when the city completely woke up, he reached the eastern gate faster than expected. Shin was thinking “Aww, I’m a bit too early,” but he noticed that there was already someone else by the eastern gate.

“Yo.”
“Mornin’. You’re early.”

Shin was surprised that there was someone who had arrived even earlier than himself.
The way most people in this town told time was by the bells that would peal every hour. Therefore, it was really hard to time anything precisely, so if two people agreed to meet up, one person would invariably have to wait for the other. Merchants had clocks, so they were a lot stricter on time with each other, but adventurers were surprisingly lax about it. According to Tsugumi and Douma, it was not rare at all for people to be just barely on time.

According to Shin’s ingame clock, there were still 20 minutes before the meet-up time. He had been regretful about being so early, but it appears that it had not been a complete waste of time after all.

“Do you always arrive this early?”
“No, it’s just that there’s something that I wanted to confirm before the trip. Lend me your face for a sec.”

Shin was bewildered at the inexplicable gravity with which Wilhelm was speaking. He followed behind while wondering what had happened. Yuzuha continued to lull on his head. It had probably decided to leave the situation to Shin to handle.

“Oh yea, where’s Rashia?”
“Off on a little errand that I asked of her. Well, she’s late half the time anyways.”

So this was a talk that he didn’t want Rashia to hear.

They continued walking for a few more minutes. Wilhelm then stopped in front of a certain shop.
Judging by the signboard, it was a restaurant. The picture of a glass and a spoon did not make it clear what this place served, though.

After knocking the door three times with set intervals in between, Wilhelm opened the door. It was dim inside, but lighted enough to not hamper movement. Shin noticed three tables and a five-seat counter, and rows of wine bottles all lined up behind the counter. There was also a bartender wiping a glass.
This place was, undoubtedly, a bar.

“Sorry, man. Gonna borrow your place.”
“............”

Nodding once in acknowledgment of Wilhelm’s words, the bartender left the shop through a door behind the counter. He must have noticed Yuzuha, but had not said anything. Shin had expected him to protest against allowing the cub inside for sanitary reasons, but it seems that hygiene was not a big issue for people in this world. Perhaps he had thought that Shin was a Tamer.

“Your acquaintance?”
“Someone from the orphanage. You’ve already heard about those guys, right?”
“Aah. Wait, does it mean that person just now is also an adventurer?”
“Yes he is.”

There was no need to remain standing while they continued their conversation, so they both sat down at the counter.
Without any hesitation, Wilhelm began to talk.

“There’s one thing I want to confirm. Are you a Chosen One?”
“...... What’s that?”

Shin responded in confusion over the word that he had never heard of before. The brief pause in front was when he had mentally run through all the Gifts that he knew. To his knowledge, though, there was no Gift called Chosen One.

“You don’t know it?”
“Haven’t a clue.”
“............”

Wilhelm was carefully watching the way Shin was acting, but concluded that he was not just playing dumb.

“Chosen Ones are people who are born with skills, Gifts, and knowledge that they wouldn’t have known. They hold power that completely belies their level.”
“They were born with it? You’re not telling me that as a baby, they were already talking and firing magic everywhere?”

What Wilhelm had said made Shin think of the reincarnation genre web novels that he had read where characters who got to restart and could already speak and understand complicated concepts as a baby.

It was indeed true that after learning it, even a child could freely activate a skill, but Shin was doubtful that it could actually happen.

“I have heard of incidents like that, yes. There was also apparently a kid under 10 years old who killed a Tetra Grizzly bare-handed by using a skill that can even be described as a secret technique. Those stories are worth a dime a dozen.”
“So these are people who were born with power. How to put it, sounds like they would get derided as ‘monsters’ quite often.”

It would still be understandable if it was just strength that these babies were born with, but the same can’t be said for skills and knowledge. Depending on the way of looking at it, for the residents of this world, these people could indeed only be described as ‘the chosen ones.’

“So, by ‘knowledge,’ do you also mean memories of a previous life?”
“No, most of what they know is on items and monsters. I’ve never heard of any of them remembering a past self.”
“I see.”

While listening to Wilhelm, a single possible explanation came into Shin’s mind. Though there were a few points that didn’t match up, it was something that made him think “Couldn’t it be this?”

(Able to use several skills from the start, already possessing titles, great strength ...... No way, the reincarnation system is still working?)

Back in THE NEW GATE, players would go to a temple to reincarnate, and would reappear at the temple. Here in reality, it probably made more sense for the person to restart as a baby. Thinking like that, the possibility of them being born into a random family could not be ruled out.

The degree would depend on the number of reincarnations, but generally speaking, reincarnating would allow the person to keep a few skills and Gifts, as well as provide a stat bonus. If he closed his eyes to a few large questions, Shin thought that this was the most fitting explanation for the phenomenon.
The biggest question of all, though, was that the temples where one would go to reincarnate are currently deep within danger zones that no one could go into.

“Ringing any bells?”
“Sort of yes, and sort of no.”

Shin was at a loss for an answer.
The reincarnation system was from the game, and it was not like he himself had entered this world as a baby. However, Shin’s power could only be described in this world as that of a Chosen One. Also, he had already registered himself as a human back at the guild, so it was too late to try to cover things up by claiming to be one of the long-lived species.
He didn’t think he would be believed if he plainly told the truth, and it would be troublesome in a different way if he was believed. It was widely known that high humans are all extinct.

“What a vague answer. Well, it’s fine, I’m not trying to get you to confess everything to me. Everybody has things that they don’t want to reveal.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
“It just seemed to me that you have too little self-awareness. Only high ranked adventurers can handle level 150 monsters by themselves. It’s not something that you should claim so easily, you G ranker.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s true. Man, how careless of me!”

“Damn it, damn it!” thought Shin as he outwardly displayed a wry smile. He had thought that he was aware of how the way he judged things by stats was out of place in this world where people judged by levels, but it seems that he had slipped up after all.
His response was a bit flippant, but internally he was far from calm. He had already told himself to be careful after seeing Rashia’s reaction the other day. Be that as it may, he had only been in this world for a few days, so it was absurd to expect him to already fully understand the standards of this world. In was, in some sense, a world even more severe than the game had been. Perfectly adapting to this world’s value systems and common sense within such a short period of time was outright impossible.

“There aren’t many who actually know the name ‘Chosen One.’ But if word of your strength gets out, annoying things might start going your way. It wouldn’t hurt to be careful about it.”
“...... It ...... might be a bit late for that.”
“Oi, what did you do?”
“I won in a practice match against the guildmaster and reported subjugating a Jack class Skull Face with the level of a King class. In addition, I also recently wiped out a group of almost a hundred Skull Faces composed of Pawn and Jack classes.”
“...... That sounds so insane that I don’t even know where to start, oi. What the fuck is up with those ridiculous stories?”
“I couldn’t help it. Even I didn’t expect things to become like this. I didn’t rush into those annoying situations myself.”

Although it was Shin who had approached the Skull Face that had turned out to be a unique monster, the fight with Balkus was because of the letter of introduction from Tsuki no Hokora, and the army of Skull Faces had appeared almost as if it had been timed. Shin insisted that it was not his fault. He couldn’t very well have left those Skull Faces as they were.

“Man, I had thought that you had done something, but those are no joke. Seriously, be careful, man. Chosen Ones easily earn people’s respect due to their strength. But as you said just now, there are those would ostracize you because of it.”
“Makes sense.”
“There was even a guy who spouted nonsense like an oracle had foretold of his birth. There is an enormous difference in treatment when compared to those who just normally get stronger as they grow up. But well, there’s no need to spend too much time thinking about the other Chosen Ones, because most of them are already under the church’s or a country’s protection.”
“I see. By the way, around how many Chosen Ones are in each country?”

If Chosen Ones are truly who Shin thought they were, then there was the possibility that there were tons of people around who had enough power to wipe out an entire country.

“The number varies by country. If you go by official accounts, then there are a total of four in this country, one of whom is the guildmaster. The neighboring countries might not even have one in each. There are pretty large differences in power between each one, and not every Chosen One is specced for battle, so their numbers is not necessarily a reliable benchmark by which to judge which country has the advantage. If it’s battle power that we’re talking about, then Berylricht is probably on top, but carelessly over-deploying our Chosen Ones would prompt the surrounding countries to ally together to deal with us. No matter how strong Chosen Ones are, even they can’t annihilate an entire army, and all countries probably have other cards up their sleeves. Everything is in balance for now. Well, it’s pretty much a tacit understanding that every country has more secret Chosen Ones hidden away.”
“Put in another way, countries are keeping their aces face down. So you said that even Chosen Ones would be hard-pressed to wipe out an entire army alone, huh. Just for curiosity, how many can the strongest Chosen One take on?”
“From what I know, our First and Second Princesses would probably be the likely candidates. If we’re talking close combat, then it’d be the Second; if we’re talking magic, then it’d be the First. The First Princess has wide area spells, so she could probably handle thousands at once, but it would be over if someone got close to her. As for the Second Princess, it would depend on her condition and the enemy’s tactics. She would probably have a hard time if she was continually bombarded with long-range magic. There are very significant differences even between Chosen Ones specced for battle. The Berylricht princesses rank pretty high on the scale.”

From Wilhelm’s description, Shin could roughly calculate the strength of the Chosen Ones. A simple soldier would not have the bonuses from reincarnation, so even if they trained their entire life, their stats would not go above 300. Of course, with equipment and weapons, they might be able to overcome that limit, but considering the present situation where there aren’t so many who would level themselves up so high, someone who reaches 300 with only one or two of their stats after piling on lots of equipment would already be a notch above the rest.
Humans have an especially high resistance to magic, so if the First Princess could handle thousands of soldiers at once, then she must have at least 500 points in INT and a relatively large pool of MP. Wilhelm had said that she has spells that can simultaneously attack multiple targets, so the power that she holds is probably considered exceptional by this world’s standards. Paired with her was the Second Princess, who Shin speculates has high HP and STR, VIT, and AGI around 500. He could not suppress a wry smile at how they were such a picture-perfect illustration of a tanker and DPS duo.

“That makes things easy to understand. More like, if the two of them worked together, then wouldn’t they become invincible?”

The First Princess would shoot the enemy with her magic, and the Second Princess would defeat anyone who got close. Considering how much power each one had, a battle against the two of them together could only end with a laughable result.

“You’re right. But no matter how strong their teamwork, in the end, they are only two people. If other Chosen Ones similar to themselves also shows up, they could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers of normal soldiers. It’s the same for every country, which is why nobody dares to lay hands on anyone else.”
“I see, I see.”

If every country was in a similar situation, it meant that there wasn’t much of a difference in the stats of Chosen Ones with similar builds from each country. He had no solid proof, but Chosen Ones — by Shin’s definition, reincarnated people — all had at most 500 in a few stats, even with the reincarnation bonuses.
Shin now understood why so many requests came to Schnee. Instead of only a few, all of her stats were above 800. He didn’t know what weapon she was currently using, but adding it to the equation would probably bring her STR over 900. If she used the wide area annihilation magics that Shin remembered, then she could definitely wipe out not just thousands of troops, but tens of thousands. It was not hard to imagine that if she ever came into the service of any one country, then the neighboring ones would all be annexed within the blink of an eye.

(If it was such a big thing, why didn’t I hear about it from Els or Selica-san?)

As staff of the Adventurers’ Guild, they probably knew about it, but Shin guessed from Wilhelm’s wording that it was probably told only to staff and adventurers of a certain rank or higher. The real reason, though, was that he had left too deep of an impression, what with lifting the curse and subjugating the Skull Faces, so they had simply forgotten.

“Thanks for the heads up. It might already be too late, but I’ll be extra careful from now on.”
“You do that.”
“More like, you’re a surprisingly nice guy who takes really good care of the people around you. Are you sure that there are people scared of you?”
“Those people are just coming up with their own conclusions. I’ve got nothing to do with it.”

Shin accidentally voiced out what he felt from the talk. There was a large gap between the impression that he had heard and the impression that he himself got after actually meeting up with Wilhelm. Now he could tell that the common image seemed forced, almost as if Wilhelm was purposely propagating it.

“But it’s your reputation that’s protecting the orphanage, isn’t it?”
“It’s the other guys who’re all gung-ho about it. It was bad enough that the Father kicked the bucket, but now there’s that greedy fat pig who’s here to mess up the place. Thanks to all that, the kids started crying. The sound of crying kids hurts my ears.”

Wilhelm’s face was scrunched up in a scowl. Perhaps due feeling earlier that Wilhelm was purposely acting like this, Shin thought that it was probably not the sound of the children crying that bothered him, but the fact that the children were crying that bothered him.

“Therefore, you’ll shut down anyone who would meddle with them?”
“You got that right. But lately, I don’t know what got into them, even the brats have started coming up with weird ideas. Brats should just eat and sleep and run around like the brats they are.”

Facing Wilhelm, who was making such a brusque declaration, Shin could not help thinking “Damn, this guy is such a good guy!”.

In other words, what he was saying was that the children should stay innocent and enjoy their childhood, and that he would show no mercy to anyone who makes them cry. It was such a “big brother” thing to say.

“Dear me, you’re just not honest with yourself, are you?”
“You fucking with me?”
“Oops, I said nothing~. By the way, there’s something bugging me. Does the ‘fat pig’ being able to have a say in the succession of the church mean that he also has【Purification】?”

Shin couldn’t help smirking with mirth.
Returning his face to normal, he asked to confirm something that had caught his attention. Though they might not like their opponent, if he had truly gained【Purification】by his own power, then they could not afford to take him lightly. A pig who could fight would be no ordinary pig, after all.

“It pisses me off to admit it, but it seems like he does. However, to be blunt, that guy is trash when it comes to fighting. The method that you spoke of yesterday is impossible for him. Level-wise, no way.”
“Do you know his exact level?”
“From what I’ve heard, it’s 40.”
“I see, that would indeed be impossible. Which means he used a Book of Secrets, then.”

As he thought, that guy had acquired the skill through an item. Otherwise, it would be inconceivable for someone with such a low level to have【Purification】. If he was a reincarnated person — ‘Chosen One,’ by this world’s terminology — then it might be possible, but judging by the way Wilhelm was speaking, Shin didn’t think he was one.

“There are a lot of secrets in the church. It wouldn’t be odd at all for that to be true. More like, that’s most likely exactly what happened. I’ve heard that every single one of the higher ranked clergy serving at the headquarters are really strong.”
“Either they have a really bad eye for people, or it was the power of money ...... No matter how you think about it, it’s obviously the latter.”

There was no way that everyone in the position of leadership had such bad eyes. There could be a few other explanations, but money was the most common and easiest to understand.

“At first, I had thought that you were sent by that bastard.”
“I can’t fault you for thinking that.”

Exactly when they were in desperate need of the【Purification】skill, an adventurer shows up with perfect timing. It would be weirder to not be suspicious. It was especially true for someone who knew the situation.
There was no telling what would have happened without Millie.

“There is usually something up with anyone who Millie shares her visions with. I had thought that there was probably some kind of greater thing going on.”
“Heeh~, what other people has she talked to?”
“You curious?”
“Well, yea, ‘cus she did talk to me too.”
“Fair enough. I won’t go into details, but there was a black dragnil, a blond pixie, and a silver-haired elf.”
“Heeh~”

Shin had been lightly continuing the conversation making the appropriate sounds, but it suddenly struck him that he had heard of this grouping before.

(Black dragnil, blond pixie, silver-haired elf ...... I’ve heard of all of these traits before. Wait, no, this grouping isn’t that rare in and of itself. But it’s not just one, it’s all three of described together ......)

There were a few missing, but the question “Isn’t it those guys?” refused to leave Shin’s mind.

“Hey, is that silver-haired elf that you mentioned Schnee Raizar?”
“The fuck? What made you think that?”
“Intuition ...... is the only way I can describe it. It just felt that way.”
“Intuition, huh.”

Shin stared right back at Wilhelm, who was looking at Shin with a probing eye.

“May I ask what she said at that time?”
“............ It was『He’ll be back soon』. I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, though.”
“I see.”
“You know something about that?”
“Nope, not a clue.”
“You look strangely convinced but you’re telling me ‘not a clue’?”
“How do I even begin to explain.”

After unexpectedly disclosing what Millie had said, Wilhelm now looked so surprised that Shin couldn’t tell him that it was about himself. It might be possible that Millie had predicted a while ago that he would be coming.

“Umm, I ...... Nn?”
“What is it this time?”
“Sorry, give me a minute.”

A blinking message had suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision. It was apparently from Tiera.
While asking Wilhelm to wait, he mentally gave the instruction to open the message.

『To Shin,
       Master replied back.
       She’s bombarding me with a lot of questions, so for now I’ll just tell you

       what I understood.
       When she is done with her work, she will return as quickly as she can.
       Please give me notice if you are leaving Berylricht.

       P.S.
       Master is asking me so many questions that I’m getting a bit scared.

       Exactly what did you do to Master?』

“............”

While thinking “How many is ‘so many that I’m getting scared’?”, Shin wrote back “Understood.” Schnee was probably just really worried, since five hundred years had passed without any news from him, but it wasn’t something that he could do anything about, so he decided to just meet up with her first.

With a wry smile on his face, Shin was about to close the menu window when he noticed the『Important Things』tab blinking. After clicking on it, he saw the icon for『Letter of Introduction from Tsuki no Hokora』glowing with a silver light.

“Nn? ............ Ah!”

While wondering why it was glowing, Shin suddenly remembered what Balkus had said when they had first met. One way to confirm the legitimacy of a letter of introduction from Tsuki no Hokora is to check if it resonates magically with another letter of introduction nearby.

“Which would mean ......”

He took out the letter in card form. He had done it on purpose, as the letter in card form did not have any recognizable patterns, making it impossible for someone who did not know what it was to guess its true form.
Even in card form, the letter was still giving off a silver light.

“This is ......”
“Oi, don’t tell me that what you’re holding is a letter of introduction from Tsuki no Hokora?”

Wilhelm’s question cut through Shin’s thoughts.
Shin was about to ask “Why do you think so?” when he realized it.
The only people who know that the letter of introductions would glow are ——

“You also have one?!”
“So that glowing thing really is a letter of introduction!”

With shock plastered on his face, Wilhelm also produced a card out of nowhere. The card in his hand was also glowing with a silver light.

“...... Could that be ......”
“...... No way ......”

Shin and Wilhelm stared at each other’s face.
An indescribable atmosphere filled the place.

 

 

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