Chapter 127: Morgue of the Headless Prince (part six)

Again, it will be double update this week! So expect another one either tomorrow or in two days! Enjoy!

TL: clover

ED: xtostos “HA! FIRST!” , eristol (Lol!)


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“This, just what exactly……”

 

Lièvre exclaimed in confusion.

 

“It’s probably an altar which has had its ritual rewritten by somebody. I don’t think it’s a good thing.”

 

I replied while glaring at the altar.

As a matter of fact, it’s not just 「not a good thing」 but 「corrupted」.

 

This would be a corrupted altar, similar to the altars in the nearby religious buildings in Knot Reed.

The difference, I guess, would be that there are many containers that look like specimen boxes.

 

Chloe took out her amulet accessory that was in the shape of a snowflake from her pouch and wore it.

I activated the spell of Levitation on the boots I wear to avoid stepping on a strange trap.

 

“It’s dangerous, so please wait here, Lièvre-san.”

“Y-yes!”

 

Chloe and I slowly approached the magic circle while having Lièvre on stand by.

 

“Erica-san, is that……?”

 

Chloe pointed at the magic circle in the back, so I illuminated it with the pale light of the star crystal lamp.

On top of the magic circle were dozens of white creatures—the white worms.

 

“White worms……no, this is—”

 

Then, in front of us, five of the white worms turned into huge chunks of meat and gradually began to take on another form.

A phenomenon similar to the golem of that time1 is happening.

The mutation curse which overwrites even pseudo-life form, overwrote the body configuration of the white worms.

They undulated as if dancing, increased in size, and several segmented legs grew from the wriggling lumps.

The white worms had changed into something similar to a spider.

 

“Those white worms have become mutated. It’s a corrupt curse that erodes and mutates life forms.”

 

When I said so, Chloe swung her snowsilver sword and stabbed it into the magic circle.

The black light that was gushing out from the magic circle clung onto the sword like tentacles.

However, the snowsilver sword cut through the magic circle with the black light regardless of the bouncing curse.

 

When about 30% of the magic circle was destroyed, the mutation of the white worm mass stopped and the light from the magic circle receded.

The body of the imperfect spiders shrank gradually, leaving only the white worm carcasses.

 

“The monstro we killed up until now, were those these white worms mutated inside this magic circle?”

“Yes, that seems to be the case. Those monstro were made using the specimens and the worms which were stolen by someone……”

 

Chloe quietly nodded to my words.

 

“As expected, did the museum staff or someone around them do something like this in these ruins?”

“That, I don’t know. It would be difficult for us to search for the person who set this up, so we should escape quickly and tell the principal about this place.”

 

The one who has sneaked into this academy is none other than a vampire.

We cannot keep such dangerous facts to ourselves.

 

“But let’s dispose of the white worms before they escape.”

 

I saw some of the white worms moving slowly so that they could reach the place where the magic circle was.

When the lamp was used to illuminate the opposite direction of the white worm’s direction of travel, we found what we were looking for.

Just a distance away, there was a big glass jar.

White worms were overflowing about two meters in radius around the jar.

 

“There is a possibility that someone will use them again, so I will burn them after deactivating them.”

 

First of all, I deactivated them using the wand of Grease.

Next, I baked those white worms using the wand of Lightning Bolt.

 

Just in case, to make sure there are no worms in other places, I activated the Eyes of Overworld.

It seems that there are no other organisms than us on our current layer.

There are some monstro wandering about in the upper and lower layers, but there is no large group that we can’t handle.

We may be able to feel relieved at least for a while, as those monstro do not have the ability to proliferate like white worms after mutation.

 

As I raised my field of vision, I found three lights that mark living beings in the upper layer.

Two humans and one small dragon.

Perhaps, they are Klaus, Auguste and Goldberry.

After confirming it, I could feel myself reaching the limit of the visual information load and ended the demonic eye magic.

 

“There are no white worms anywhere else, and I think we have successfully eradicated them. And it seems that my friends are coming here.”

“What a relief. That would be great.”

 

Why were we transferred? And who created this mechanism in a place like this?

There are many things that are still worrying me, but it appears that this is it for now.

When I informed them of the current situation, Chloe seemed to be calm, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

 

“N-now then, you guys. Let’s go home quickly……!”

 

Just as I said so, the fragile body of Lièvre suddenly fell on the ground.

 

“……!?”

 

Confused, I stood still for a few moments.

Sounds like metals colliding with each other could be heard in the immediate vicinity.

I realized that Tirnanog had gotten in between me and Chloe unnoticed.

 

I finally understood that Chloe attacked Lièvre.

It seems the reason I wasn’t hurt the first time was because Tirnanog helped me.

 

“Two criminal candidates.”

 

Hearing Chloe’s words, I was able to understand her intentions.

If there is a perpetrator involved in the altar of vampires, it should be among the people in the museum tonight.

 

There is me, who had mobilized together with Chloe, and unintentionally enticed her to follow me to this place.

And Lièvre, who went to a dangerous area when one normally doesn’t have to.

 

It may be inside the gray area, but from Chloe’s perspective we are both black.

It’s not strange that we would be misunderstood as vampires or manipulated human beings.

 

(Uwah, even looking at this situation objectively, I’m on a suspicious level that cannot be explained……!)

 

Lucanrant’s people seem to have a mindset of sealing the movement of anyone suspicious.

 

On a second look, Chloe’s sword is sheathed and Lièvre is not even bleeding.

Perhaps, Lièvre is only unconscious.

For now, it seems determining the identity of the suspect is the utmost priority and she has no intention of killing us.

 

(If so, it would be better to surrender completely rather than deny things unskillfully.)

 

Deciding so, I called out to Tirnanog.

 

“Tir. Don’t protect me.”

『……!?』

 

After flinching for a bit, Tirnanog loosened up his stance.

 

“You don’t have any intention of taking our lives, do you? If so, do as you will.”

 

Turning towards Chloe, I held up my empty hands and smiled.

I surrendered without a fight.

Will she believe me a little with this gesture?

 

Then, the depths of Chloe’s eyes that look like a lake of ice shook for a moment.

 

“I thought that there is no way that you’re the culprit……that this person is more suspicious, but Erica-san……it’s really you?”

 

Chloe murmured with hoarse voice.

Even though I intended to raise a white flag, it seems I was strongly misunderstood.

 

“How did you come to that conclusion? You see, I’m surrendering without a fight, you know?”

“……Because you’re not good at pretending to be a human being, right?”

“Pretending? It’s not pretending, I’m very much a normal human being……”

 

It seems that I have dug a grave, but I don’t understand what went wrong.

 

“If you were an ordinary human, I don’t think you would give someone else like me the right to take your life. That’s just like a young bloodsucker who is not good at pretending to be human……”

 

Hearing Chloe’s words, Tirnanog nodded his head repeatedly in agreement.

I feel like my shoulders are becoming narrower and narrower as even my friend finds fault with me.

What am I to do with this feeling of feeling out of place.

 

“I don’t want to believe that you’re a bloodsucker, but……”

 

Chloe pulled out her sword out of its sheath while showing a bewildered expression.

She closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again.

This time, there was no more doubt in Chloe’s eyes.

She was full of deep murderous intent to the point that I could even feel them with my skin.

 

(There seems to be no room for excuses. I just wanted to get along well, so why……!)

 

『Erica, this woman is serious.』

“Yes, it can’t be helped since this has happened. If possible, capture her without hurting her.”

 

The moment I jumped back with the spell Leap that was charged into my boots, I released Tirnanog’s restraint.

Tirnanog transformed from a small golem to a horned dragon that is about the size of an elephant with armor coiling around him.

Chloe and Tirnanog’s battle began.

Tirnanog mowed down and deflected the sword which Chloe swung towards him many times.

 

Tirnanog is naturally better in terms of physical strength and magical power, but Chloe is agile and hits with powerful blows.

It will be difficult for him to adjust his power so as to not hurt her.

 

(In addition, Tirnanog’s scale-like armor that was hit by Chloe’s sword is flaking off……!?)

 

The golem character carved on the starsteel has been invalidated by the snowsilver sword.

Tirnanog seems to be careful so as to not let her hit him directly, but she is still scraping off his armor little by little.

If the battle cannot be settled quickly, the damage on Tirnanog will increase.

 

I took out the wand of Gust to support him.

Hold, Disarm and material creation spells that are magical layer-only spells would not work on Chloe.

However, since this wand compresses air with magic and generates gusts in the physical layer, it should be effective.

 

(Rearrange the spells in a configuration that will not kill her, but able to stun her in a single shot—)

 

As I interfered with the wand and rearranged the spell composition, a loud voice came out from the darkness.

 

“Wait a second! Are you serious about killing each other? That would be such a waste of human body!”

 

Lièvre, who was supposed to be unconscious, was getting up and said so.

 

At that moment, she was blown away by the gust I reflexively released.

Her body was blown about thirty meters away and she slammed against the wall on the other side of the room.

 

“……Chloe-san, I guess your reasoning wasn’t wrong.”

 

Lièvre was laughing as if nothing had happened, even though she was supposed to have slammed against the wall.

Her lips look redder than before, is it just my imagination?

 

“Most likely she is the vampire who was trying to corrupt this altar.”

 

In response to my words, Chloe and Tirnanog instantly turned around towards that direction.

 

When I thought that Lièvre was trying to get up, the distance to her was halved at the next moment.

In just one step, she had closed the distance up to fifteen meters.

 

“It’s troubling that I’m going to be exposed in this way. Aah, I wanted to avoid abducting my students, but—”

 

While her eyes were showing a sorrowful expression, Lièvre’s mouth curled up into a smile.

 

“You guys are going to become my sacrifices.”

 

Her mouth was as red as a split pomegranate, which made her pure white uneven teeth stand out even more.


1 Referring to ch 89: Altar of Vampires.

#that moment when you fail so bad at life that your acquaintance thinks you’re a vampire (your friend too!)

Changes this past week:

So, there are two terms the residents of this world call vampire with:

血啜り (bloodsucker) and 吸血鬼 (vampire). The first one has an insulting connotation, and the people who usually use this term are Palug and now Chloe. Until now, I didn’t differentiate how I translate them as on ch 89 血啜り has the reading of ‘vampire’. But now I have changed a few of them to ‘bloodsucker’ depending on the emotion of the speaker.

Join the discord chat to discuss the novel~

https://discord.gg/egTVngn


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36 thoughts on “Chapter 127: Morgue of the Headless Prince (part six)

  1. The editor notes were funny. Haha. So, as expected Liévre was the culprit. I am curious as to what do these vampires want to achieve through this cursed altars? Is it merely to increase their powers? Do they have a goal? Or is it to resurrect their king? Hope we will find out.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Well, from what we know, one of the reasons are to weaken the angels. Since the power of faith is gathered by the altar, when it is corrupted the power of faith does not reach the angels thus weakening them. No angels = a good thing for the vampires. And from ch 89, I guess the souls are used to awaken this ‘Lord of Mausoleum’ or something to that effect.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Yo, that fight with Chloe was unexpected (at this point in time anyway), and it’s hilarious to see Erica’s airheadness almost screwing things up.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. That’s kinda sad that she was the culprit 😦 seemed to obvious, and she seemed a bit stupid about how she went about doing things… It would be smarter for her to see who Palug was by setting up a trap, but instead she got 2 inquisitive yet powerful students.
    I was also surprised that it would be just her… either she is a really powerful Vampire or a stupid cocky one… She doesn’t seem smart enough to have been there so long and avoided detection… but then again, being a low key type would be smart I guess…
    Why would she steal those worms? was it to lure Palug? but why would Palug even bother to get involved? She made such a huge ruckus by stealing that, it caused the museum to go under lockdown with multiple patrols on guard, it seems so reckless? but then again I am assuming that the stolen material was those white worms when it could be something else entirely different…
    I need a refresher on what Vampires can do in this story, I don’t want to corrupt the stories version of them with outside influences that might cloud my thoughts lol… She must be confident in her abilities when she saw those girls in action, if I saw how competent these girls were I would find a way out of there and escape lol, but since she stayed and felt capable of taking them both on then I look forward to the battle…
    I feel so bad for Erica lol hahaha… shes mistaken for a Young Vampire who is not very good at acting human 😦 my heart bleeds for you Erica truly it does… 😦 but still, I can’t really fault Chloe’s logic lol… Everyone looks at her strangely 😦 not in admiration either… argh come here Erica you need a hug! You are Human!! you are!
    I look forward to the Battle Royale that is incoming lol, the urge to read the MTLS is stronk! Next week The Heroine Chloe vs Vampire vs Erica the unfortunate Cannon fodder… whoooooo wiillllll wiiiiinnnn!! or perhaps Klaus and Auguste will intervene and save the day… I doubt it, since this is now Erica’s time to shine 😀 her damsel this time is Chloe… maybe?

    Liked by 3 people

  4. Oof Erica wring choice 😂
    Even tir was like, “No, no Erica. Bad Erica”
    Though, I was surprised Chloe had no reaction to Tir’s transformation. I gotta say, it takes guts to fight a random elephant sized dragonesque golem.
    Thanks for the translation!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Probably because she thought it was some vampiric power/trick or something when Tir first transformed and then she doesn’t have time to be surprised in combat.

      Like

  5. I had just picked up this novel, and I felt weird with its battles. Magic and spells ‘partly’ (barely) used dnd system, though it was significantly changed. The weird part was how tens, hundreds, or even thousands charged were used in a single cast regularly. And Erica spent thousands in a battle.

    Common dnd sensibility would think a regular 50 charge wand could last the whole trip and more. Erica’s 1000 charge wand last less than a battle.

    If one uses a dnd spell cost calculator (Used to calculate npc cast service cost, scrolls, wand, etc. Not exactly the ‘mana’ cost as there is no such thing as mana.) the cast service of a 9th level spell at effective caster level of 20 is only 180 times of the 1st level spell at caster level 1. A 10th level spell at caster level 40 would cost only 400 times.

    Even if Erica was casting at five times the cost, her 1000 charge spell would still have the power of a 9th level spell of level 20 caster.

    And Tir was a dragon and Paluk was an angel. Erica’s party has enough power to challenge multiverse level threat in dnd campaign.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s because she uses wand alteration. Please take a look at the explanation for wand alteration im the third arc. When one uses wand alteration, the spell inside becomes distorted so from 1000 charges, not all of them actually become a spell. Um, like during the wand trial in ch 61, Erica used a 100-charges wand to create 30 rain of stones. Instead of leaving behind 70 charges, the wand was left empty. Well, you can just reread around that chapter.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes I remember that the wand alteration cost efficiency to drop drastically. But seriously, common unaltered 50 charge wand should be enough for ‘normal’ fight. And even if 1000 charge could only produce 31 1st level spell, that is still an overkill for most situation. I doubt level 20 creature without special immunity or resistance could survive 31 level 1 spell.

        That’s 31d4 at the very least. Higher caster level could see many times that number depending on the edition. As high as 155d6 is certainly possible 31 1st level spell and effective caster level 5.

        And she cast multiple of that against a student.

        Like

          1. Yup, the magic used in this novel is vastly different from dnd. There was nothing ‘wrong’ in the novel. The power scale was just too different than what I used to. Spending 1000s charge in a major fight is understandable considering her opponents.
            The duel against the student was poor though. That was a young apprentice. She spent thousands in a duel while most alchemists, including her brother, only have access to 50 charge wand (even if well made). And her brother was wreaking dungeons with these reasonable wands. (Though it seems he made and used higher spell level wands.)
            It’s like she doesn’t know how to economize the charge or pick effective spells.
            And that student was OP despite supposedly being a student. He was somewhere around supporting character OP or even MC OP.

            Like

          2. Oh I want to clarify something about Eduard. So while Eduard only uses the 100-charges wands, the wands are custom made. Remember, there are 2 kinds of wand alteration: the maker and the user. While erica uses 1000 charges wands to compliment her high inhibition value, Eduard and Ernst use altered wands, you can see it when Eduard used the wand of Mage Finger in class and when Erica used Ernst’s Raptor Sight wand in the second arc.

            Like

          3. Eduard used a 100 charge wand? I don’t remember that part. I only remembered that his were custom-made of better quality and higher level spells than Erica’s. And Ernst’s were specially customed for long range spells (extended metamagic?).

            As for spell alteration, I know alteration itself is common. Erica’s scale of alteration is just much higher.

            But that still meant they were using charges more sparingly than Erica. We are talking about hundreds compared to thousands. And a dungeon dive/war compared toa duel with a student.

            It is one thing to spend thousands against Tir or Paluk level threat. Against a student though? Erica spent multiple wands. Which was why I say the charge scale was weird.

            Like

          4. One of the reasons would be Erica uses crystal cluster both for offense and defense and in a versatile manner like creating crystal walls or missiles, which ends up with high cost. Unlike Eduard and Ernst who rely on different wands for different purposes, and secondly, since their wands have altered effects right at the time of creation, they don’t have to waste additional charges to create altered effects unlike Erica who uses a wand with common effect but mass filled and uses additional charges to create suitable effects depending on the purpose.

            Liked by 2 people

          5. Yeah, both Eduard and Ernst packed better wands. Erica could’ve packed better wand for each situation consider she didn’t lack resources or wandmaker. She probably couldn’t get Eduard or Ernst level wand, but getting more wands more suitable for specific jobs should certainly be possible. Instead of packing proper control/area denial wands, she packed multiple 1000 charge crystal cluster wands and use them for everything. She brought 20k charges to a duel which normal person would probably use less than 10 (In a few boring rounds of control/counter spell which end when one struck.).

            And Haearn was super strong himself defending against that many crystal clusters in their duel. That much crystal clusters could have wiped out a regular company of infantry. I expect an average mage doesn’t fare that much better.

            Like

    2. Oh and about Tir and Palug. They were nerfed, so they don’t have their full power. Tir’s power was restrained, and to actually release it Erica needs to say the spell. Plus Tir is similar to a homonculus, which is a forbidden art of Aurelia, that’s why Erica disguises him as a golem. Palug’s power is weakened due to the corrupted altars. Although the corrupted altars are being destroyed one by one, her power is much less than her original one due to the accumulated years of the altars being corrupted.

      Like

      1. I understand they were nerfed, but Erica went against that level of threat every major arc (and survived due to some story reason.). Even after being nerfed, they were still regularly going against kraken and such. A party that can do that is in no way ‘regular’.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Tir and Palug are still Phantom Beasts while Krakens are magical beasts so even in their weaker form they have the upperhand here.

          Like

          1. Yup, and that’s why I said her party was powerful enough to challenge multiverse threat campaign in dnd. Her party was probably a bit lower than 20, which is when a party starts playing those hard stuffs like world ending or intervention from outsiders.

            But then again, she was fighting continental level threat which is not too far from her party level.

            Erica is an alchemist with more than enough 1st and 2nd level spell wand for any reasonable campaign. Lack of high-level spell hurts her utility. But her nukes were strong enough to contend any 9th level spell. Her level was probably only ten plus or minus.

            Auguste dragon rider with three dragons. (Too young, the dragons are probably level 10 or less?) He mind-controlled a whole city though. I would consider him at least a level 10.

            Klaus is a wizard(?) with time stop. That’s 9th level spell! He has been using studying ancient/eldritch spells. That’s at least level 17.

            An angel like Paluk even after being nerfed was still around ten something. With how she act, I would assume she could fight Klaus and thus near 20.

            Tir seems to be a match to current Tir, so there, near 20.

            So we got:
            2 level 10 (with unique feats)
            3 level 17+
            3 level 5~10 dragons.

            Like

    3. Oh! You are a great D&D player.
      You will surely write a wonderful D&D-like Great Fantasy Novel.
      I am expecting you to present a great novel 😉

      Liked by 2 people

  6. Thanks for the chapter.

    Can’t say this development is the most unexpected one, just hope that Lièvre is not the final boss for this arc (she is too stupid)….That would be so underwhelmimg.

    There are many references of Harry Potter in this school arc which in a way is not bad but this development doesn’t feel like Shini Yasui! Also there is the fact that biggest flaw of this setting has been carried out from HR: if such a dangerous secret was hidden under school are you seriously saying that no one thought in solve the issue or move the school to another place? Like SERIOUSLY?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. There is a issue regarding that which will be revealed next arc. Let’s just say the school itself isn’t exactly a saintly one.

      Liked by 2 people

  7. I know this is late and I don’t care if it was obvious, but this is the first time I have discernible proof on hand for me to do this, so I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that I CALLED IT!!! I knew that she was suspicious~

    Okay, now I’m off to play catch up. ^^

    Liked by 2 people

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