Elven Castle
—Raust—
Never let your guard down, the warning Master said to me before crossed my mind.
I now understood that was a genuine warning from Master.
If what Master said was true, then Mist was responsible for the labyrinth city getting isolated.
……Then letting Mist go free might have been a mistake, isn’t it? Thinking so, my face distorted.
The thought of asking Master to go after Mist immediately crossed my mind, but at the same time, Narsena opened her mouth, unable to hide her confusion.
「Branch chief? Elf?…… What is this about, Onii-san?」
After she voiced the question, I looked around and remembered I hadn’t reported about Branch Chief to Narsena and the others.
「Sorry, I haven’t reported about that yet.」
After apologizing to Narsena and the others, I started to talk about the branch chief.
Starting from when Master and I found his hiding place to how Branch Chief was an elf.
And then about the united front with Mist and now that he was able to move freely.
「The Branch Chief is Ralma-san’s elven master, you said!」
「No way……!」
After I finished my report, Zieg-san and Narsena muttered in blank amazement.
In that indescribable atmosphere, all I could do was stand still awkwardly.
It completely escaped my mind due to the escaping adventurers, but maybe I should’ve immediately talked about it when I remembered.
I regretted revealing such troublesome information when their heads were already full from what Master had said.
The most discomposed person in that room, Armia, raised her voice.
「W-Wait! What does it mean that an elf, a race that didn’t receive God’s favor still alive?!」
It was then I noticed something strange.
Looking around again, frustration and turmoil were shown on both Zieg-san and Narsena’s faces.
…However, they felt calm when considering they just heard a race that was supposed to be extinct still existed.
「……Can I get some words in?」
My mind latched on to that for a moment, but Laila-san’s words took my mind off that.
Laila-san, while comparatively calmer than Armia, continued while sounding anxious.
「I do think an elf with lost technology is a problem, but do we really need to cooperate with him? With this much power, detaining him instead would be…」
What she said was something I had thought too.
Especially now that there were not only me and Narsena but Zieg-san, Master, Ronaldo-san, and the others were here too, surely we were not short on combat abilities compared to Mist.
Even so, after meeting him once, I didn’t think we should fight him.
It wasn’t about strength, but it seemed to me that Mist had something more to offer than that.
He is not someone we should make an enemy of.
With that as my basis, I tried to warn Laila-san and the others.
However, before I could,
「Don’t even think about that, Laila.」
「He’s right! Fighting him in his castle is bad!」
「Eh? What?」
Zieg-san and Narsena began to persuade Laila-san in a hurry.
Laila-san was bewildered by Zieg-san’s threatening attitude and he was putting it on even more.
It was then Ronaldo-san stopped Zieg-san.
「Zieg, I will explain this.」
「I Understand.」
After confirming Zieg-san obediently backed down, Ronaldo-san turned his slit eyes at me and Laila-san.
「Speaking of which, I haven’t told both of you about Elf, didn’t I?」
I could infer the reason Zieg-san and Narsena obviously seemed to know about elf existence from what Ronaldo-san just said.
Yes, Ronaldo-san clearly had taught them about Elf.
I’ve heard Master had a long-standing relationship with Ronaldo-san, so it wouldn’t be strange if Ronaldo-san knew about Mist who was my master’s master.
「Well, Raust seems to already hear some of it from Ralma.」
I was thinking about that when Zieg-san smiled at me.
I felt uncomfortable with Zieg-san’s attitude, as if he had seen through my thoughts, I stirred.
Without further mentioning me, Ronaldo-san began to speak.
「Well, first of all, I’m going to have all of you get a certain premise drilled into your heads.」
It wasn’t just me, Laila-san, and Armia that Ronaldo-san looked at when he said that.
He also turned his eyes toward Narsena and Zieg-san who already knew about elves and announced,
「——The branch chief of labyrinth city’s guild, an elf called Mist, is a monster.」
「…!」
He said with the same calm tone as usual, tension ran through everyone’s faces with the exception of Master.
Without paying attention to our change of behavior, Ronaldo-san continued,
「Having said that, he’s on par with me or Ralma in terms of ability. He’s not weak, but with these members, we can win in pure combat.」
That’s definitely not on the level where you can call him 「not weak.」
Those words were on the tip of my tongue, but judging they were not important right now, I refrained from voicing them.
If What Ronaldo-san said about Mist’s ability being on the same level as his or Master’s, then it was true that these members could win against him.
「But we wouldn’t be able to challenge Mist to pure combat in the first place. After all, Elf’s true strength was not in pure combat.」
When I heard Ronaldo-san say that, the words I had heard multiple times but didn’t understand the meaning of crossed my mind.
I didn’t know what it meant, but I thought it was an important keyword, elf in their castle,
「…Elf’s Castle, huh?」
「That’s the one. That’s the true nature of Elves, and why they’re so feared in the place they take root at. As for what that is, in short,」
「Elves can set magic in place, something like that.」
It was then Master who had been silently watching the talk progressing until now opened her mouth.
Ronaldo-san, who was suddenly interrupted, smiled wryly. Deciding that a magician would be the better person to explain about magic, he closed his mouth and said nothing.
Without paying attention to Ronaldo-san, Master continued,
「Well, it’s probably hard to imagine with just words alone, let me give a demonstration.」
「Wha-!」
Immediately after that, we heard an explosion behind us.
When I turned around, dumbfounded, there was a burnt mark about 10 cm in diameter.
Master continued indifferently while we were fascinated by that.
「As I just demonstrated, I can cast magic from a distance, and Elves can do the same when the magic they set is nearby.」
I was astonished deep inside at the light tone with which Master said so.
Master made it sounds like it was easy, but, in truth, the difficulty level was extraordinary if we tried it.
In particular, those like Armia who only knew the magic that was activated using skills were dumbfounded.
However, Master continued to speak without paying particular attention to Armia.
「The principle is completely different, but did you understand what the elves can do? Incidentally, they can activate magic on a bigger scale than the one I showed.」
Saying so, Master created a fireball in her hand.
Size aside, that fireball had a power that could rival phoenix’s fireball.
「Elves can put their magic on the walls and the ground in advance to set them up and then activate them later without any risk. For example, they can do something like this.」
Along with those words, multiple fireballs, more than ten, appeared to surround Master.
Moreover, each of them was the same as the fireball floating on top of Master’s hand.
「With magic they set, Elves can do the same thing without the need for any magic power. Having said that, Elf is no different from ordinary magicians without the magic they set beforehand. ——On the other hand, fighting an elf in a place with a lot of magic set increase their threat level significantly.」
In response to Master’s explanation, I couldn’t say anything and fell silent.
Even without Master saying anything, I knew which of the two Mist was.
Now, I understood what Elf’s Castle meant.
「……So, Elf’s Castle is a term to indicate a place surrounded by magic set by an elf?」
「Indeed. Instead of castle walls and soldiers, it’s a castle guarded with numerous magic. When it comes to Mist, I won’t be surprised if he has tactical magic set in the labyrinth city.」
「…!」
I didn’t know exactly how long it has been since Mist became the branch chief of labyrinth city’s guild.
However, I was certain he had been the branch chief for 10 years, that was 10 years period in which he could set magic all over labyrinth city.
「That’s not a castle, that’s a fortress…」
I bit my lip at the words Laila-san muttered in dismay.
The words Master said when she was short of invoking her magic in Mist’s hideout came to my mind.
Now I knew that was no exaggeration.
If the magic set in that narrow hideout activated…
A chill runs down my back from the imagination that popped into my head.
While we were stunned, Ronaldo-san opened his mouth to take over from Master.
「If we show our hostility, Mist could destroy the labyrinth city. Of course we can leave the labyrinth city to reduce Mist’s threat, but that means dealing with the labyrinth runaway without a base. We’re in a situation where we need to keep our guard up against Mist but not be hostile either.」
In the silent room, Ronaldo-san pointed his finger at his head before continuing,
「This cunning is the reason why Mist is a monster. Let alone Zieg and Laila, even compared to me and Ralma, the difference in experience is too great.」
Silence reigned in the room as Ronaldo-san aired his annoyance.
……That was why the next words that came out from behind resounded well into the room.
「That’s quite a statement.」
「……e?」
The voice was so powerful and memorable that it was impossible to mishear it.
Still, I couldn’t believe that person was here, I looked behind in a daze.
All while praying that it was just my imagination.
Alas, that wish was not granted.
「You also can be called a monster, Ronaldo.」
When I saw him standing in a room that could be described as hostile territory for him, laughing all the while, I finally knew it was not just my imagination.
——Standing there was the main character of our discussion, the labyrinth city branch chief, Mist, and Hanzam.
It’s been so long since I updated the translation of this novel, or even posting translation in general, really sorry about that, I’ve been going back and for the between mine and my aunt’s house, leaving me exhausted from the journey alone, I barely have any time to translate in my aunt’s house is the bigger problem though, I have like, 2 weeks before I need to go there again, hopefully not for too long, preferably less than a week, but I can’t say, there won’t be any translation at that time either, for now I will translate as many chapters as I can before I’m busy again
Some change in translation: Elf in their castle, originally translated as elf in their home base in chapter 32 and 33 but have been updated to fit this chapter title, well, I changed the term in chapter 32 and 33 in the first place, so that’s my bad for not confirming if my change would be called upon again in the future or not
I already made the announcement in my discord, but I will resume, or rather, restart the translation of Headless Dullahan again, I will post volume 1 in full (29 chapters in total) on my birthday on 4th of May, I will post the finished chapter 1 by 1 as I finish them in my patreon though
Please consider supporting me by whitelisting this site on your adblock, or become my patron.
Join my discord for Announcement Channel and if you want to have a chat with me at: https://discord.gg/aQ3H299RSj
< Previous | ToC | Next >
The Strolling Rhea 
Thank you for the chapter !
LikeLike