Chapter 161: Prophecy

Translator: Tseirp

I woke up to the gentle caressing of my head.

“Fwua~, hn? Hermit’s Key?”

I noticed that I was on a bed when I woke up and was clenching onto the Hermit’s Key for some reason.

“Since when? Leaving that aside, it seems like both my eyes and ears are fine. I don’t feel anything abnormal with my body too!!”

Getting off the bed, I once again stretched myself and I checked the condition of my armor after recalling the battle I was in but it was not damaged at all.

“So was that stinging pain really from a curse after all? Or was it a different injury that 「High Heal」 couldn’t keep up with?”

s.h.i.+sho and the others entered the room just as I was making my conjecture.

“Luciel, we were worried you know? Even though you couldn’t see, you still rushed to slash that demon, I really thought that my heart was going to stop.”

“Eh? Demon?”

I recalled the hair-raising sensation once I was told that I fought a demon instead of something like a goblin king.

So I probably would have died if I slipped up? So they are that strong if I do not set up 「Sanctuary Circle」?

“Yeah. Nevertheless, to be able to knock down a demon with a single attack that Sen’oni and I couldn’t deal serious injury to even by cooperating, as expected of my disciple.”

I could tell that s.h.i.+sho was delighted from the bottom of his heart but recalling the scene of this person crying after I defeated the demon, perhaps he conducted the training under tremendous conflict within his heart.

“Luciel-sama, I’m glad that you are safe. Whirlwind, don’t you have something you have to say properly?”

Lionel showed a relieved expression seeing that I had recovered but he immediately said that after glancing over at s.h.i.+sho and s.h.i.+sho looked at me with a determined expression.

“I was about to say it. … Luciel, regarding the training this time, I’m sorry.”

Then, s.h.i.+sho abruptly sat down and prostrated to apologize to me.

My thought process grounded to a half for a split second.

I couldn’t articulate well from the shock and somehow squeezed out a question.

” … For?”

Lionel replied to that instead of s.h.i.+sho who was prostrating on the ground.

“Apparently, the Prophet in the guild headquarters made a prophecy. That soon he would protect somebody and die. That’s why he lowered his head to us to proceed with that unreasonable training and hushed us.”

A prophecy from a Prophet of the guild … but I don’t think he would normally believe it?

But since the mines between Meratoni and Grandol disappeared and the incidents with dragons, spirits, demons and reincarnated person happened one after another, I guess it’s not unreasonable that he believed it.

So everyone did not tell me about it because he asked them to keep quiet about it?

I felt the story begin to add up.

It’s true that it was a severe training but I couldn’t wipe away the feeling that I ended up pressuring s.h.i.+sho.

I spoke to everyone after helping s.h.i.+sho up.

“Perhaps we’ve also mentally pressured s.h.i.+sho into a corner? Furthermore, I’ve somehow survived anyway.”

After becoming the guildmaster of the Adventurer’s Guild branch, he’s not been active as an adventurer for at least 7 years so it can’t be helped that he had weakened from inactivity.

Since s.h.i.+sho is the type to do what he’s set his mind to thoroughly.

“Nevertheless, I was still shocked when he crushed your eyes and destroyed your eardrums nya. I could only view the person who still continued training in that state and the person who conducted the training as abnormal nya.”

“It was the first time I observed Luciel-sama’s training but I feel like I had a glimpse of what people call a spirit of steel.”

Kefin immediately followed up after Cathy’s honest opinion but I could tell that he was trying to draw attention away from her.

Maybe they weren’t enduring their laughter but actually killing their thoughts that he had gone crazy?

“Well, normally one would use an eye mask instead of crus.h.i.+ng the eyes and ear plugs instead of breaking the eardrums but since s.h.i.+sho does not do anything meaningless, I decided to trust s.h.i.+sho.”

When I said that, s.h.i.+sho gave out an awkward aura for some reason and absolutely did not make eye contact.

“s.h.i.+sho?”

But s.h.i.+sho remained silent.

“I understand the relations.h.i.+p between mentor and disciple. Even so, it was too excessive and I couldn’t help but worry.”

“The spirits and I were worried too.”

Lydia and Nadia broke the silence and there were no smiles on their faces as they were still worried even now.

My heart squeezed a little after seeing the expressions they made.

While noticing that Estia wasn’t present, I asked about what happened after that.

“What happened after that?”

“About half a day has pa.s.sed since that battle. Right before Luciel’s swing, the demon mustered the last of its strength to craft a mixed magic of Darkness and Wind and countless small holes appeared throughout your body. But it gave the feeling that they would remain there without disappearing. Since it was impossible for normal healing magic to cure that, I permitted the use of 「Extra Heal」 that is capable of healing everything.”

I would have died if I made even a slight error. Feeling terrified at that thought, I changed the topic.

“By the way, I don’t see Estia around?”

“Estia?”

s.h.i.+sho acted like he could not remember Estia.

Although Lionel and the others remembered her, their memories for these couple of days were hazy.

There’s no doubt that the Darkness Spirit used quite some power.

Among them, only the Spirit-user Lydia properly grasped Estia presence.

“If it’s Estia-san, she’s sleeping in the neighboring room. It seems like she overused the Spirit’s power. She was reckless to the point that the Light Spirit had to be called forth.”

The Darkness Spirit might have planted the suggestion in me to take my Hermit’s Key from my item bag while I was asleep.

I vaguely sensed that Fornoir was the Light Spirit I saw but if the Darkness Spirit did not overdo it, there’s a high chance I would still be unconscious.

Even though I didn’t trust Estia, thinking of how Estia used her power for me to the point of collapse, I thought maybe I’ve been unconsciously looking at her with prejudice from the Empire slave and Darkness Spirit incidents.

Thanking Estia in my heart, I decided to also properly thank Fornoir and the Darkness Spirit.

I asked s.h.i.+sho about the training since I had to end the training halfway.

“So s.h.i.+sho, what kind of training has been planned for the future?”

” … Once you can sense your opponent without relying on your vision and hearing to a certain extent, you can have your vision and hearing back and the plan would be to have repeated mock battles. Your opponents would be one-vs-one with me and Sen’oni and against the remaining 5 simultaneously. I’ll say it beforehand that winning is not the goal. The finish line would be when you can see and remember Sen’oni and my combat well and we can gradually increase Luciel’s limit value by hunting monsters. Your goal was to become the strongest Healer but … you might already have become the strongest among Healers …”

s.h.i.+sho stumbled for words for an instant but he happily said that with a smile.

Don’t tell me he plans to cancel the training? Unfortunately, I don’t have the intention to do that at all.

Then, if I can secretly drag him into the party as a helper, won’t I be able to break through all the labyrinths that have dragons in them? I began envisioning that blueprint.

Even so, I totally don’t feel like I can win in the mock battles that s.h.i.+sho put together but thinking about the prophecy that s.h.i.+sho would die protecting somebody, that somebody would probably be me.

If that’s the case, once I become stronger, s.h.i.+sho would probably be able to calm down.

I decided to show some filial piety to my mentor.

“Then, we’ll rest for today and the training will start from tomorrow. However, s.h.i.+sho, is the Adventurer’s Guild in Meratoni really fine?”

“Yeah. If there are any problems, I’ll be notified through this.”

s.h.i.+sho said that and took out a magic communication bead.

“Magic communication bead huh? But isn’t that the type that has a certain range?”

“That’s right. That’s why I also asked the Adventurer’s Guild here if they received any messages and they said that the monster attacks at that side have ceased so there’s no problem. Furthermore, it’s been half a month since the training started.”

“Half a month? I thought 20 days has already pa.s.sed? Since we’ve had more than 60 meals?”

“Yeah. Since halfway through I changed to 5 to 6 meals a day so you might have been mistaken but since your stress levels would acc.u.mulate with little sleep, I distracted you with meals.”

I’ve not heard of such logic? s.h.i.+sho?

But I did not dispute it.

Since I was not able to hide my surprise that my perception abilities rose to Level III in just half a month.

As expected of a spartan training, it seems like it was quite a considerably useful special training.

After that, we talked for a bit before they invited me for dinner but I decided to refrain this time.

After checking that everyone had left the room, I opened the Hermit’s stable and perhaps Fornoir was tired, I saw that she was sleeping.

I don’t know if it has any effect but I activated 「Extra Heal」 and 「Purification」 before I closed the Hermit’s stable.

“The training will start from tomorrow so even if my opponents are those I definitely cannot win against, I will at least obtain the strength to definitely be able to escape.”

After swearing to my heart to clarify my aims, I took out the Transformation Dresser from my item bag and took off my armor before continuing to eat the meals in my item bag until I had my fill.

After that, I took out Angel’s Pillow, prepared to sleep early so that I could be prepared for tomorrow and proceeded to consolidate my mental image on Presence Perception and Magical Power Perception.