Chapter 88: “Respecting Independence” is a useful phrase

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Translator: Soafp

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I returned to the camp together with Christina.

“Hey… is that really okay?”

“I-I don't know. But the other wyverns have stopped attacking and are behaving themselves too…”

“What if it goes on a rampage again?”

“At that point… we can only pray that Princess Christina will somehow deal with it.”

“How completely reliant on others…”

The knights and soldiers weren't looking at us as we came back to camp.

Their eyes were fixed on the black wyvern lumbering along behind us.

Kutama was sitting neatly on top of its head. Adorable.

“So, Mother, can I keep the wyvern?”

“Hmm… Very well. But you must take proper care of it.”

“Okaaay.”

“You're allowing it!? He just asked out of nowhere if he could keep a wyvern and you nodded!?”

Gina's “Our household values independence” left Christina speechless.

Independence is such a convenient word.

Anyway, it seems this black wyvern was the boss of the others.

After talking with Kutama, it lowered its head to me and let out a roar—and at the same time every wyvern fighting the knights and mages calmed down.

Because of that, the battle ended with far less damage than expected, but…

“Gururu, gru.”

“Kyu kyu!!”

Kutama and the black wyvern were talking about something.

I wonder if there's a way for me to understand their language.

…Oh, right.

“If I do this, and this, and this…”

I tried tinkering with my own soul using spirit magic.

Then Chloe, who had been silent until now, suddenly shouted in alarm.

[W-Wait!! What are you doing!?]

“Huh? I'm trying to connect my soul with Kutama's and the wyvern's so we can communicate.”

[Stop, you idiot!! If you do that the boundary between souls becomes vague—you'll lose your sense of self, and even if you're lucky you'll end up a mindless wreck that can only groan!!]

“Eh? I already connected them.”

…Nothing feels different, though.

[Eh? Huh? Why? No, wait, wait. When I did it I went insane…]

“Does this have any bad effect on Kutama or the wyvern?”

[Ah—n-no. Souls normally have a shell that protects them from everything. What you did was pry open your own shell and get as close as possible to theirs. You're defenseless, but they still have their shells, so they should be fine.]

Hmm?

So because I removed the shell protecting my own soul, I could have lost my ego?

“…If I remove the shell from someone else's soul and deliberately plant my own soul in it, would that make another me?”

[Absolutely do not do that.]

“But if there were a hundred of me, I could heal a hundred times more injured people, right?”

[…The only saving grace is that your mind doesn't go toward things like taking over other people's bodies to achieve immortality.]

Chloe muttered something under her breath, but I couldn't catch it.

[But how is this possible? Since your soul is the same as mine, its existential strength should be equal… No, a soul that was once shattered should be more prone to madness than mine…]

“Stop muttering, you're being noisy.”

[Or is it the opposite? Because it was once broken apart, its strength increased during the process of being repaired? Like physical super-recovery…]

She clearly wasn't listening to me.

Then suddenly she stared at me and said, utterly creeped out,

[Eww… What is this kid? He's disgusting…]

“That's rude to say to someone.”

[But you are. Your body aside, your soul has completely gone beyond the realm of humanity.]

“…Explain that in simpler terms.”

I'm not the smartest type.

I don't understand all this talk about souls.

What matters is whether I can understand Kutama and the black wyvern.

“Kutama, can you understand me?”

“I can, my lord!!”

“Oh, it worked. What about you, Wyvern?”

“…I am astonished. It sounds as though my lord is speaking in the same tongue as I.”

“I'm just speaking normally in human language… I see. So this is what happens when souls are connected.”

How convenient.

Depending on how it's used, it could improve coordination and make healing more efficient.

I'm getting excited.

I'll try it next time I go on a healing date in the royal capital with Victoria.

“My lord, I have one request.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Please… grant me a name.”

Apparently, monsters normally don't have individual names.

And the amount of magic put into the naming affects their growth.

…Let's pour in as much magic as possible.

“Since you're a black wyvern… Noir.”

“!? Y-You fool!! That's too much magic!! At that rate the wyvern will—”

“Huh?”

“—explode…”

The moment Chloe said “explode,”

cracking, splintering sounds that should never come from a living creature rang out from the wyvern's body.

Ah. This is bad.

“—Extra Heal.”

No one was looking, so I desperately cast healing magic over and over.

I also numbed its sense of pain with mental magic.

The wyvern—no, Noir—let out a scream.

It was so terrifying that veteran knights collapsed to their knees and the mages lost control of their bladders.

Even I couldn't move.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

When the scream finally stopped,

the wyvern's body—once nearly ten meters long—had grown to more than twice that size, its whole silhouette becoming far more massive.

“Haa… haa… haa… this power…”

[…You've got to be kidding. Even for a highly intelligent mutant, it evolved into a Cataclysm Dragon Typhon just from being named? Uh… is this okay?]

“What's Typhon? Is it bad?”

[A dragon with a hundred lives. There was one in my era too—it nearly drove the planet to destruction…]

“That sounds awesome.”

[Don't sum it up as ‘awesome',] Chloe said with a bitter expression, but I ignored her.

“My lord, I thank you. I swear to wield this power for you alone.”

“As expected of my lord!! To command even a Typhon!! Kutama is moved to tears!!”

Typhon can cover a distance that would take a carriage several days in just a little over ten minutes.

Apparently it's many times faster than my full sprint.

If I use it well, I might be able to travel to other countries for healing work.

No—not just other countries. I could cross the sea.

And Noir is over twenty meters long.

He can carry everyone from the indiscriminate healing mage corps, Nightingale.

This time I was too busy making scarecrows to do any roadside healing, but…

I'll get paid for the scarecrows, Noir has joined me—no complaints.

“Then Mother, I'll head back to the royal capital first.”

“Very well. I'll return once I've finished treating the wounded… And no staying up late.”

“'Kay.”

And so I returned to the royal capital.

Normally I might have stayed behind with Gina and secretly healed the injured.

So why did I go back first?

…It's not because I wanted to rush back to do something naughty with Victoria.

If I had to give a reason—

I had a bad feeling.

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After returning to the royal capital, I received shocking news from Gal.

“Huh? Princess Victoria is missing?”

“Yeah. Apparently she suddenly disappeared a few days ago.”

“…You're kidding.”

My chest tightened.

Where in the world did Victoria go?

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TL: I put this on hold because the story is not that interesting anymore.