by Hiro Ainana
“Rogerrr!”
“Sir!”
The trio cut a path through the weeds on their way to the barn.
“Liza and Mia, could you look at the well, please?”
“Understood, sir.”
“Mm.”
Liza had a long-handled scythe to match Nana’s, so they both cut through the weeds as they went.
“Now, then…”
I looked around at the wide-open grounds. It was larger than I’d imagined from the area numbers in the paperwork.
There was a garden as big as any noble’s mansion. It would be a bit of a pain to weed the whole thing by ourselves.
“Arisa and Lulu, could you hire some help?”
“Help, sir?”
“You want to outsource the weeding and the cleaning, I bet!”
Lulu didn’t seem to understand, but Arisa knew what I meant right away.
“There were some kids sitting in front of the west guild who didn’t have jobs, so I’ll go grab them! I’m sure they’ll be eager to help if we offer to cook them dinner.”
I would’ve felt bad having them do manual labor for nothing but food. I decided to pay them the standard daily wage as well.
“How many do you think we need?”
“Let’s see… I want to finish the weeding by the end of the day, so maybe ten or so. A little more or less than that is fine.”
“Okey-dokey! I’ll hire all the kids who can come.”
“Great, thank you.”
With all this extra space, even two or three times the number wouldn’t be a problem.
After I’d seen off the sisters, I went into the main wing of the mansion alone.
Miasma leaked out as soon as I opened the door, but I purified it all with my Spirit Vision.
“Over there, huh?”
Muttering to myself, I used “Skyrunning” to head farther inside without touching the dust-covered floor.
“Looks like it’s coming out of the basement.”
Inside what appeared to be the former master’s study was a door that had been boarded up haphazardly. I forced it open and proceeded downstairs.
There was so much miasma down there that even my spirit light couldn’t purify it completely, so I used a Holy Stone from Storage to do the job.
When I reached the bottom, a dark, transparent shadow emerged from the floor.
“Intruder. I am a shadow of the Undead King Zen.”
This one was even blurrier than the shadow in the basement of Muno Castle.
My AR display called it a Curse Soul. This must be the core of the curse, then.
Changing my title to Hero, I pulled out a handmade Holy Sword from Storage.
I would’ve liked to use Gjallarhorn, the Holy Sword I received from Zen and used to send him and his shadow in the castle on to the next life, but I had already returned that to the Shiga Kingdom.
Zen had a deep grudge against Shiga, which was why I decided on one of my own personal swords instead of using the Shigan Holy Sword Claidheamh Soluis.
“Zen has already passed on, as has your colleague in Muno Castle. It’s time for your role to come to an end, too.”
With that, I flourished my sword at the curse soul, which had probably been forgotten even by its creator.
As soon as the holy blue light of the sword touched the shadow, it disappeared like a mirage.
I couldn’t be sure if it had passed on peacefully, but my log showed that the curse soul had been destroyed, so the curse that had eaten away at anyone who lived here should be gone as well.
Sure enough, the incredibly thick miasma had faded to a point where even my Spirit Vision could disperse it.
Before too long, all the miasma in the house should be gone.
“Problemooo!”
“There’s a big problem, sir!”
When I stepped out of the mansion, I saw Tama and Pochi running over from the barn.
“Emergency, I report! A life is in extremely terrible danger. Immediate relief needed, I request.”
Nana poked her head out from the barn and shouted to me.
I guess the young vagrants weren’t just ordinary squatters.
“Hurryyyy!”
“This way, sir!”
Tama and Pochi led me into the barn, where some grade school–aged kids were slumped in the shadows.
“They seem awfully feeble.”
As I looked at the children, I investigated their condition with the AR display.
By default, the map displayed only race and level, and normally an area search showed only the results’ names, ages, races, genders, and levels.
I’d adjusted it so that all the information wouldn’t take up my field of vision.
Any targets that were enemies, criminals, had unknown skills, or were level 40 or above were highlighted in different colors.
“What do you think? I inquire.”
“Well, I don’t think their lives are in danger, at least.”
However, they were weakened to a dangerous degree. They probably hadn’t eaten much in a long time.
It looked like they weren’t drinking enough water, either. Their consciousnesses were so fuzzy that only one of them reacted when we came in, and even that one didn’t show any signs of moving.
I took out some of the nutritional supplement potions that had been so popular with the hardworking elves and watered them down a bit before administering them to the kids.
Since they were so small and frail, I thought the normal concentration might be hazardous to their health.
“Huuurt?”
“Looks painful, sir.”
Tama and Pochi stared at the children with concern.
They were in a bad way: Many of them had bone fractures, injuries that were starting to develop gangrene, and lacerations festering with pus.
Clearly, Zen’s curse and the miasma weren’t the only causes of their weakness.
“I’ll heal them—don’t worry.”
I used Recovery Magic to start fixing up the children’s wounds, some of which had bones that had healed wrong, causing contusions. Potions and Recovery Magic couldn’t heal such old wounds.
Still, at this rate, they would have a hard time walking.
Keeping in mind the flow of magic from the “Self-Healing” skill, I attempted to heal their bodies.
“Nnn, nnngh…”
It seemed to hurt a little, but at least it had gone well.
> Skill Acquired: “Magic Heal”
> Title Acquired: Spirit Healer
I acquired a useful-looking new skill, so I activated it and set my new title as I continued healing the kids’ wounds.
The maxed-out skill turned out to be very effective: By carefully manipulating my magic, I was able to restore their bones to their normal states.
“They should be fine now.”
“But they have not regained consciousness, I report.”
“That’s just because they’re tired from the healing. Let’s let them rest for a little while, then give them water and another nutritional supplement potion. Tomorrow morning, we can feed them some thin rice porridge.”
“Incredible, master. You are truly the greatest, I praise!”
“Hooray!”
“Thank you, sir!”
I left Nana in charge of nursing the kids back to health.
I didn’t want to leave them lying on the ground, so I produced a fluffy felt-lined sheet from Storage that we used for camping and put it under them.
Just then, Liza and Mia came running inside.
“Master, we heard Tama and Pochi shouting. Is everything all right?”
“Satou?”
“It’s all fine now.”
“Some children who were taking shelter here were weakened by the curse.” Giving them an abbreviated explanation, I asked about the state of the well.
“The well required some repairs.”
“Mm. Pulley decayed.”
As we spoke, I accompanied them back to t
he well, along with Tama and Pochi.
The broken remains of the pulley were lying on the ground, and a bucket with rope was resting next to the cover that kept junk from getting into the well.
The bucket looked a little wet; most likely, the children had been using it.
I used Magic Hand to put the garbage in the well into Storage together with the water, separated out the garbage into a Junk folder, and repeated the process until the well was full of clean water.
“This should do the trick for now, I think. We can hire a professional to take care of the rest.”
With that, I unlocked the back door to the kitchen.
“This is going to be difficult to clean.”
The dust was even worse than the main wing. It was clear that no one had been here for ten years.
“Explore.”
“Want me to go in first?”
“I’ll do it.”
Mia excitedly led the charge into the kitchen, with Tama and Pochi in tow.
That didn’t last long, however.
“Satooou.”
“Spiderweeebs?”
“So sticky, sir.”
Mia came running back with tears in her eyes and spiderwebs in her hair; Pochi was in a similar state, her ears flat on her head.
Tama hadn’t been caught, but I still had to calm the three of them down before we made another investigation attempt.
With me in the lead this time, of course.
I used Magic Hand to touch the spiderwebs and mountains of dust and put them away in the Junk folder in Storage.
“The stove still looks usable.”
“Is this black stuff coal?”
The stove was full of black piles of what appeared to be coal, as well as ash. It would probably be better to replace the other equipment with magic tools.
“Lots of rooooms?”
The main building was three stories, as well as an attic and a basement. Excluding those, the total square footage of the building was probably around ten thousand square feet, almost ten times bigger than the average modern Japanese home.
“Lots of chairs and bureaus, too, sir.”
There was a ton of garbage in the attic and basement especially, like broken chairs and tables. Again, I used my Magic Hand to put them in Storage, which was nice and easy.
“There’s quite a bit of usable furniture here.”
“Mm, sturdy.”
After exploring the rooms, we found that aside from one area where the floor was rotted, there wasn’t too much work to be done besides cleaning away the dust and cobwebs.
There was a lot of expensive-looking furniture still intact, too, so we probably needed to replace things only in the kitchen and the main bedrooms.
“Basemeeent?”
“I smell cheese and dried meat, sir.”
The cellar connected to the hallway seemed to serve as an emergency shelter and food storehouse. There were areas for casks and even wine shelves.
The basement where I’d purified the curse soul before didn’t seem to be connected to this one.
I decided to use that basement to set the seal slate for the Return spell. Maybe I could make a research lab there, just for show?
“Looks like the cellar is connected to the main hallway and the kitchen.”
There were two sets of stairs, the second of which led to the kitchen.
“I think that’s it. There doesn’t seem to be a bathroom.”
“Yes. What a shame.”
Liza loved baths, so she seemed disappointed.
For her sake as well as mine, I decided to sacrifice one of the first-floor rooms to add a bathroom.
“We’ll have to make a new one, then.”
“Yes, master!”
Liza perked up immediately with a big smile.
There was probably no bathroom because water was a precious resource, but for a Japanese person, a house really wasn’t complete without a place to bathe.
Like I did with the labyrinth vacation home, I could probably have Arisa carve out a large tree trunk with Space Magic to make a big wooden bath.
It looked like the Space Magic spell Create Bathtub I’d created would come in handy once again.
“Heeeave?”
“Ho, sir!”
Tama and Pochi had started weeding in the garden, and Liza was checking on Nana and the children.
“Satou.”
“What is it, Mia?”
Mia tugged on my sleeve from behind me.
She wanted to go to the Ivy Manor, so I set a Return seal slate at the mansion’s entrance and teleported us to the Ivy Manor.
“Lelill, clean.”
“This broken-down old house, Lady Misanaria?”
“Mm.”
As it turned out, Mia wanted to go to fetch Lelillil here. She was a house fairy and had the “Cleaning” skill, so she probably would be helpful.
“Satou.”
“What is it?”
“Turn the pretty on.”
“All right.”
She was asking me to unleash my spirit light, which I normally kept suppressed.
There wasn’t any more miasma in the mansion, but Mia probably had some reason for asking, so I did as she requested.
“Mm, pretty.”
Because Lelillil didn’t have the Spirit Vision gift, she was just confused.
“Lelill, House Magic.”
“A-as you wish, Lady Misanaria.”
Lelillil obediently began a lengthy chant.
“ ...... House Cleaning Ie Senjou.”
When the long chant finally ended, the room was sparkling clean. Curious, I raised my foot and found that somehow the spell had even cleaned the spot I was standing on.
For some reason, Lelillil was also staring around at the clean floors and windows, as if she’d never seen her own spell before.
> Skill Acquired: “Spirit Magic: House Fairy”
Apparently, the magic Mia had called “House Magic” was actually a kind of Spirit Magic.
So Lelillil could use Spirit Magic, even though she couldn’t see spirits. I thought Miss Lua the elf had told me that you couldn’t use Spirit Magic unless you had Spirit Vision…
Maybe Lelillil acquired the “Spirit Magic: House Fairy” skill as an innate skill or a gift?
“Great.”
“Th-thank you for your kind word, my lady… However, it appears that my magic was more effective than usual.”
“Mm.”
Most likely it was the spirits that gathered around my spirit light that had boosted the effect, but Mia didn’t seem too motivated to explain. I kept my mouth shut.
If she wanted to explain it as a surprise later, I didn’t want to ruin it.
“Next.”
“J-just a moment, please, Lady Misanaria. Unlike the blessed elves, we have precious little power. That spell used most of mine. I will not be able to use magic for some time.”
“Mm, Satou.”
Lelillil looked apologetic as Mia tugged my sleeve again.
She probably wanted me to use Mana Transfer to restore Lelillil’s magic power.
I didn’t particularly mind, so I went ahead and did so.
“Huh? What was that? What did you do to me, wh…? Erm, Mr. Satou?”
“I restored your magic, since Mia asked.”
“Restored it? This much?” Lelillil looked perplexed, but she used other strange spells like Clean Up House and Heal House at Mia’s request, until the whole mansion looked like new.
Even the areas where there had been holes in the walls and floors were closed up. It must be some kind of Healing Magic, although I was a little unclear on how it worked.
“This is very impressive.”
“Mm, amazing.”
“Why, thank you very much.”
Lelillil blushed a little at our compliments, but she did seem proud of her work.
“Let’s do the outside next!”
The brownie was raring to clean the outside now, too, but I stop
ped her, asking her to leave it as it was.
“The leaky roof and such are a problem, but I’d like to keep it that way for now, please. This doesn’t seem to be any ordinary magic, so I wouldn’t want to surprise people too much.”
“I simply don’t understand you humans. Surely you have a difficult time following their foolish logic, too, Lady Misanaria?”
“Mm.”
Lelillil being rude was nothing new, but shouldn’t Mia have disagreed or defended me instead of nodding in agreement?
At any rate, Lelillil looked a little grouchy about having been stopped when her enthusiasm was high.
Since she was here, I decided to ask her to help with something else instead.
“I’d like to ask for help with the guesthouse and annex, too, but…”
Aside from the main building, the grounds also contained a separate guesthouse and an annex for servants and help to live in. The guesthouse was two floors, while the annex was one.
The annex consisted of many small rooms, several of which held bureaus and wooden bed frames.
“…maybe we should save that for another day?”
“Lelill, you can do it.”
“Yes, my lady! As long as you keep the magic coming, I’ll take care of the rest!”
Mia’s encouragement set Lelillil’s enthusiasm aflame; just as I requested, she cleaned and repaired all the extra buildings.
Leaving the exhausted Lelillil in the main wing, I went back to the barn.
As soon as the beastfolk girls saw me, they followed me back in.
“Looks like the kids have recovered a little.”
The color had returned somewhat to the children’s skin, so I used Everyday Magic to clean them up.
“Let’s change their clothes and get them to the main wing, then, shall we?”
“Yes, master.”
“Allow me to help.”
Nana and Liza changed the kids’ clothing, and Tama and Pochi carried them on a stretcher.
I set up some simple beds in one of the now-clean rooms, allowing the kids to rest there.
As we were putting the last kid into a bed, I saw Arisa and company on my radar.
“All right, we’re here!”
Lulu was leading her horse and Arisa riding on hers. They had brought twenty-odd children with them.
Around half of them were human, while the rest were assorted beastfolk like weaselfolk and rabbitfolk.
“Welcome back. That’s more than I expected.”
