Volume 5 Chapter 6: Dragon-san and the Sleeping Things
Translator: Mii
Editor: [QueenieZhuz]
At this case, a simple contract is made by making an oath while holding leaves, then calling each other’s name.
And after splitting the same leaf into half and each other hold the other part, as long as they keep holding the leaf until it dies, they will be tied in a bond.
At the beginning, Haruna-san and Sakuma-san declined profusely, but they received it in the end and accepted the temporary contract.
「I’m sorry, Lava-sama, Nectar-sama, I fully understand the limit now very well!」
「No, Haruna-san, if you’re that worried I’ll feel embarrassed, though!?」
When Haruna-san said those things with red face, I can’t help but to be affected and feels my cheeks redden too.
It’s because they have seen Nectar and I kissed to make the oath.
It’s not like I can say that I was hiding our relationship, and because I don’t have any resistance towards that, I can do those things without hesitation, but I can’t help but to feel embarrassed if they reacted this way.
This is bad, I’m already greatly corrupted, where does my shame as a Japanese person go!? …They’re already thrown to far away!
In the somewhat awkward atmosphere, Sakuma-san, who also had a slightly red-faced face, coughed openly.
「Even so, I feel that my body has eased
somehow.」
「You can say that it’s the change after contracting. As I thought, this may be another kind of erosion.」
According to the nectar is normal operation as usual.
Nectar only responded and behaved like the usual.
I knew. I understood. I shouldn’t feel shy about it, and I wonder if it’s weird for me to feel embarrassed… or that’s what I thought as normal.
No, I feel like if I forget the average shyness while doing it with Nectar, I will lose something important.
…or that’s what I’m thinking about, but let’s look at the village state first.
After we took some counter-measure, we walked into the village.
I already made contract with them, and I tried to clean the erosion with my magic, but the heavy atmosphere didn’t change at all.
As I thought, making contract is a good thing to do.
The houses are not as dense as the ones in the city, so there are some gaps between the fields.
However, despite the sunny day, there are no cooking sounds, and no one goes out to the field. It felt strange to walk in a village where there are no sign of life.
「Anyway, the sleeping people are lying down in their own bed. I thought about putting all of them in the same place, but they’re too many, so…」
Sakuma-san explained with a matter-of-fact tone, but he couldn’t hide his regret and sadness that is shown through his expression.
「For now, we will guide you to village head’s house, my own home. The fog is thinner, and also, there are one of my friend… Touya, that went to sleep this morning. We confirmed his symptoms on our own, so maybe we could understand something.」
We went to the large hall of a big mansion at the back of the village.
In a room with a large tatami that looks like a banquet room at Japanese inn, a lot futons were lined up. There, the people who should be the residents of the mansion from various races, ages and genders were sound asleep.
There are a lot of people from Tanuki clan like Sakuma-san, but there are also human and another beast clan.
If one doesn’t know the situation, it would seem like a peaceful sight where they are having a peaceful sleep.
However, I can’t help but to feel the abnormality after directly seeing the patients of the sleep disease.
「They don’t even sweat, huh? Even though the weather is this hot…」
Sakuma-san replied to Nectar who quickly points up to the patients lap.
「It has been a week since they were confirmed to be sound asleep. However, we haven’t confirmed any form of excretion even once. We tried to supply them with water by using damp cloth…」
「Since it’s currently summer, that won’t not enough. However, these people look healthy, even though they are not dehydrated well.」
While saying so, Nectar checks the pulse of all of the people who are lying down and sleeping, he opens their eyelid and checks their pupil, and puts his hand on above their mouth to check their breathing.
Everyone looked very healthy, but he didn’t show any response.
After that, after finished checking everyone, he took out his staff.
「Wake up from your sleep. Do what you should do at the right time. Dispel the sleep!」
Magic gathers at the end of the staff, and the magic chanted by the ancient language pours over the entire hall.
It was the gentle magic of consciousness restoration.
But I could see that his magic only passed through the sleeping people.
While I’m wondering if Nectar also realized that since he is thinking with a difficult expression, he moves to the balcony and opens the window shutter.
There were a number of plants resembling morning glory that substitutes the sunshade, and the flowers were blooming on a bamboo-like stick.
「It looks like not only humans have this kind of symptoms. Plants also have the similar symptoms.」
「Ehhh? Is that so?」
Haruna-san bulged her eyes in shock and approaches him, and Nectar nods while touching the morning glory.
「I just realized why it was too quiet before. I can’t hear not only the voices of plants, but also the voices of spirits. It feels like the live activities has ceased down… or you can say that this is like a state of temporary death.」
Hearing Nectar’s words, I finally felt uncomfortable.
There are completely no sound of the insects here, even though they are very loud in the branch shrine.
「You mean, the animals inside the forest is also… Uwahhh!」
Sakuna-san who was speaking, moved his body as if he was startled.
It is probably because I suddenly stretched my hand to do an extensive search magic.
Haruna-san also fell on her back. I’m sorry.
However, I was able to roughly search through the mountains near the village.
『The signs of the creatures are very thin. Inside a green mountain like this, there should be more lively and noisy atmosphere, but it is so thin that it feels like there are no one living there, plus the flow of magic is sluggish.』
I wasn’t aware until now about the lack of presence and the eroded Leyline here and there.
I also sat down, and gently touching one of the sleeping people to examine their body’s magic.
All of the things in this world will have a flow of
Both of the inorganic substance and living things have the special flow of magical power towards their type.
As Nectar says, their magical power has stagnated significantly.
The flow aren’t clogged up, but overall, they are dull. You can say that it is almost close to the death.
「To think that it doesn’t spread only to humans, but also to the plants and animals…」
Haruna-san and Sakuma-san was shocked, their face became pale.
I felt a sense of calamity that couldn’t be compared to the white ghost case.
In fact, this is something even more worrying than the erosion.
I can feel the chill on my spine.
The situation was very similar to the event from 5000 years ago that grandpa told me.
It feels as if they are saying that they have decided to give up.
「…If the white fog is the cause of this disease, then…「
Haruna-san’s voice resounded with a sigh, and all of us looked towards her.
『Then… there’s no cure… for it…?』
Haruna-san looked below towards the people who were laying in the futon, her gaze full of resignation.
Since she is a shrine maid who fought in the frontline, she perfectly understood the situation.
The erosion could take anyone mercilessly.
And even though Towa has established a way to 「kill」 the erosion, the 「cure」 to restore what has been taken by the erosion was not yet found.
Because the reason why they are sound asleep is this hazy fog, they will stay like this for a lifetime.
I unconsciously gripped my hand into a fist with strength. There are no pain. But even so, I can’t be bothered to care about it.
『Even though they’re thin, let’s get out from this erosion. Now both of you are still fine, but if you stay here, before you know it, one day you will also feel asleep.』
Nectar responded to my words.
『You’re… right. Even if they couldn’t wake up, it would be better if we move them to a place without the white fog as soon as possible.』
『Then, until we finish preparing, the erosion barrier is…』
Before I finished talking…
『Fu, huwaaaahhh~ I sleep well. But, I’m still sleepy……』
All of us quickly looked towards the carefree voice.
A big young man, who was laying down at the end of the large room, was awake with his eyes still looked sleepy, and made a strange face.
『……Er, why do everyone look that depressing? Huh, why am I sleeping here?』
『T-Touya-kuuuuuunnn!』
『Wahhh, what is it, Haruna-san!?』
The person who shouldn’t have woken up, suddenly woke up.
While Haruna-san jumped towards the confused young man, Nectar and I exchanged our surprised eyes.
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