Friendly Reincarnator Chapter 39: Judgement Stone

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　“Hmm. I’m glad I managed to do it. I might have messed up.”

　I then send a telepathic message to Huey after making sure I was alone.

　(Huey, I’m done. Are you both okay?) (Louis)

　(Yes, we’re okay.) (Huey)

　Hearing Huey’s cheerful reply, I reassured him and told him to bring the woman from before.

　Huey moved back with the woman who was still unconscious.

　The woman appeared to be about 15 or 16 years old.

　I instructed Huey to place the woman on the ground and absorb the goblin carcasses.

　I also instructed him to leave behind the ears, the magic stone, and, this time, the goblin’s equipment.

　Before Huey began his work, I appraised the two large goblins and found that the club-wielding goblin was a Goblin Soldier and the goblin who had cast the spell was a Goblin Mage.

　A soldier and mage, I realize, both were quite strong when they worked together, even if they were monsters.

　I should never forget that intelligent monsters are tricky.

　While Huey was absorbing the goblins, I peeked into the goblin tent.

　The small tent had dry grass inside and nothing else, but there was another woman in the big tent, but she was already dead.

　I decided to leave the tent and the deceased woman there for the time being, and take care of the other girl, thinking it would be better for the woman to hear she was rescued. So, I called out to her to see if she responded.

　Huey’s absorption was soon complete while I was checking the tent.

　He left all the ears, magic stones, and weapons in one place as I instructed, so I thank Huey and throw them into the Magic Bag.

　I checked the number of ears in the Magic Bag and found that there were 50 goblins, 1 goblin soldier, and 1 goblin mage.

　I tried to pick the woman up and call out to her, but it was very awkward because the goblins had torn her clothes and the sight of her bulging bosoms was very distracting.

　Remembering that I had a large cloth in my Infinite Storage, I picked her up and hung it over her.

　Patting her cheeks, I call out to her.

　“Are you okay? You’re safe!” (Louis)

　“Ugh… Gyaaaaaaa!!!” (Girl)

　I call out again to her the moment she stopped to take a breath.

　“Are you okay? You’re safe!” (Louis)

　“Kiya–? Eh? I’m safe? Eh?” (Girl)

　“Yes, you were in a dangerous situation.” (Louis)

　“Were you the one that helped me?” (Girl)

　“Yes, well. I’m Louis, an adventurer, and tamer. Huey, is my familiar, and both of us defeated the goblins.” (Louis)

　That said, I introduced Huey, who was standing behind me.

　“Thank you very much. My name is Anne. I thought I was going to die.” (Girl => Anne)

　I took a potion out of storage and handed it to her, telling her we were just taking a breather after drinking it and will go to town when we had a better understanding of the situation.

　She almost returned the potion to me because she couldn’t pay for it, but I told her to drink it and not to hesitate to use it because it was made through alchemy practice, and I wouldn’t take any money from her. I think this kind of thing is unavoidable, but I think it’s still a little bit difficult to understand the world.

　Later, in the tent at the back, there was another woman’s body, but we didn’t know her identity, and we couldn’t just leave her there, so we asked her to agree to be a witness to the burning and burial of her ashes.

　I asked Huey to gather a large number of dead branches and put the woman’s body on top before I set it on fire.

　It took a while for the fire to burn out, but I was able to finish and bury her ashes.

　As I learned later, I thought cremation here is simple and you just completely burn the body, but in this world, it seems that if you bury a body without cremating it, it may become undead and attack people, so I did this instead, and the result seems fine. It seems everything was good.

　Anne’s strength had been restored by the potion, but she was a woman with little strength, to begin with, and she was so mentally exhausted that she could barely walk.

　After some thought, I returned Huey to his original size, put Anne on top of him, and cast [Physical Enhancement] on him to speed up our travel.

　While riding Huey, I listened to a little bit of Anne’s background.

　Anne was the daughter of a merchant and had been peddling with her father on a horse-drawn cart, but this time they were attacked by goblins on the road and she had seen her father die, so she had no one to look after her now.

　When I asked her about her mother and grandparents, she told me that her mother had died of illness when she was much younger, and she had never seen her grandparents either.

　I understood that this is the kind of world where death walks beside you.

　I returned to the town and went to the guild to give details, but this time the Guild Master asked me about the details in a separate room.

　It seemed that they would need to determine whether or not there was a crime whenever a body has been burned and buried.

　When I entered the Guild Master’s office, there was an object about 30 cm high with a transparent stone like a crystal on the pedestal in the center of the reception table.

　Anne and I sat side by side, with Seth-san the Guild Master, and Sophia-san sitting opposite.

　The Guild Master, Seth-san begins the explanation.

　“This stone is called a Judgement Stone, which changes color to let us know when there is any fallacy in your words. I will ask the questions, Louis and Anne answer. Sophia will be the witness.” (Seth)

　Oh, it’s a magic tool. I begin to wonder if I hold it with my hands, would there be background music playing.

　“I see. I got it. We can start anytime.” (Louis)

　I replied.

　Guild Master Seth asked me to wait for a little and went to the pedestal of the discernment stone and started chanting in a very loud whisper.

　I could not hear everything he was saying, but I could clearly hear him saying, “Seth will ask, Louis will answer, Anne will answer, and Sophia will witness.”

　He then asks a question.

　“Seth asks. Did Louis kill any human in the goblin settlement?” (Seth)

　“No. I haven’t killed people. I just cremated and buried the deceased.” (Louis)

　The Judgement Stone shows no response.

　“Seth asks. Did Anne see Louis kill any human?” (Seth)

　“No. The woman was already dead when I saw her, but I don’t think Louis-san killed her at all.” (Anne)

　The Judgement Stone shows no response.

　“Seth asks, is Anne sure that she was rescued by Louis from the goblins?” (Seth)

　“Yes. It’s definitely Louis-san who rescued me after I was kidnapped by the goblins.” (Anne)

　The Judgement Stone shows no response.

　The Guild Master Seth then said,

　“That’s the end of the questions. The response of the Judgement Stone confirms that what Louis-san said is true.” (Seth)

　The discernment stone glowed white for a moment, and then the light subsided.

　It seemed that the questioning was over.

　The Guild Master Seth then followed up with,

　“Good work. Louis, you will be rewarded for your investigation and subjugation. Also, I would appreciate it if you could return any weapons and armor that can be identified to the family as their mementos?” (Seth)

　“I originally brought it back with that intention, so would can the guild please check it out and return if possible? I don’t expect you to buy back weapons and armor, so I’m grateful with just that.” (Louis)

　“Oh, okay. I knew you would probably say that Louis. The reward for the defeat will be given tomorrow, so please stop by the guild. I’ll take Anne into the custody of the guild for the time being.” (Seth)

　I thanked him and decided to leave the guild.

　For dinner, I ordered a large portion of Orc steak with the most delicious sauce.

　Huey was pleased with the taste, but I was surprised that he could still eat after absorbing so many goblins.

　I wonder if Huey’s body is connected to a black hole or something.

　The next morning, I went to the guild to pick up my reward, but they told me to stop by in the afternoon because they hadn’t finished their calculations.

　I decided to just check the quest board aside from everything else.

　The F-rank quests are much the same as the G-rank quests, which are gathering and defeating familiar pests, but now that I’m up to F-rank, I can even take on E-rank monster subjugations.

　However, I thought it would be safer to do gathering for the time being, since the mass killing of Big Rats and Big Cockroaches has made me stand out from the crowd.

　I can now do the gathering faster than other F- and G-rank adventurers with exploration magic, and if I can add attacking to my ability to use magic for assistance, I will be better prepared for future monster subjugation.

　I’ll finish my gathering quickly, practice my magic, and then enjoy my bath. Great.

　Thus, I spent three days in the East Forest, gathering, practicing magic, and enjoying the baths.

　By the way, the reward for the Goblin subjugation was 80 gold coins.

　One ordinary goblin was one gold coin, fifteen for goblin soldiers and fifteen for goblin mages, and I declined on receiving the weapons and armor. I just asked them to sell off the ones that could not be given to the bereaved family members…

　My grandfather died in the war and I was told that he did not even have any of his belongings left, so I am thinking that just having the items returned would make a difference to the bereaved family.

　It doesn’t matter what the source is, it’s still an object, but it’s my feelings that matter.

　I collected Hirupo Grass and Cure Grass in the East Forest, and I was able to gather a large number of wild berries again, so I made jam the same way I did the other day.

　It is stored in my Infinite Storage without telling the Tiger’s Tail Inn.

　It’s good enough to put in the sauce, but I thought it would be difficult to keep stock of them.

　One of the uses is to occasionally take out 10 bottles from the storage and exchange them for dinner.

　It was also a good thing that during these three days, I happened to be able to collect five bundles out of the Sixteenth Night Grass, which are good for paralysis and one of each is worth five gold coins.

　This medicinal herb blooms only one night when the moon is not shining, but since it is the root that is used as a medicine, it is not necessary for the flower to be in bloom, it is said that it is difficult to find, and five plants are rarely collected together.

　Even so, it’s probably because I’m a reincarnator that I find it strange that it blooms under the new moon where the moon doesn’t come out even though it’s called Sixteenth Night Grass.

　As for magic, I have been able to control the amount and power of fire and water for daily use of Life Magic without any problems.

I can pour water the size of a large bus several times in a row without getting fatigued.

　I can control as many as 1,000 water balls with uniform movements.

　I could make up to 300 balls of water move in different trajectories without any difficulty.

　Magic Arrow can now produce enough power to knock down a tree.

　The second layer of the Magic Shield was only small at first, but now I can make it the same size as the first layer.

　I think that if I continue to improve my skills, I will be able to make triple and quadruple-layer Magic Shield.

　The effects of Support Magic have become a little stronger, and the time it takes to work has become a little longer.

　However, I think the reason why the number of types has not increased is due to my lack of imagination.

　I was taught that if I encounter something that stimulates my imagination, the magic I can use will increase, but I want to wait until I have the ability to deal with the risks involved as much as anyone else.

　If I don’t repeat the basics and become able to naturally produce the movements I have practiced in case of an emergency, it will lead to a quick death because the value of life is cheap in this world.

　Then I realized after using the bath every day that the soap is no good.

　It doesn’t lather, it doesn’t have a scent, and it doesn’t remove dirt.

　Aside from the cosmetic benefits, I want it to fulfill the minimum function as soap, so I will consider making one myself.

　The homemade soap would have been caustic soda, oil, and fragrance.

　I remember Machi (my ex-wife) helping me by saying she would use a milk carton as a container to make it.

　This is not something I want to try right now, but I will give it a go with time through trial and error.

　Huey is able to make an alkaline solution, so we’ll probably be fine.