I Picked Up the Abandoned Hero

72. If there is no road, make it

I took advantage of the shadow disappearing and quickly escaped from the tomb.

The sight of a half-corpse elf attacking me in an unknown way was truly like a nightmare.

If it weren’t for Alfred’s help, he might not have been able to get out alive.

“…I barely escaped.”

“…What on earth happened here?”

Looking at the circumstances, it seems to be related to Zion.

When that entity from the past mentions the name Magus, it must be referring to Zion, which also explains its hostility toward Stella.

“That elf, he must be one of the elders of the past.”

“Is he an elder from the time when the elves were most powerful?”

“Did you know that?”

“I have read the related history at the Vampire Queen’s territory before.”

A study run by an old man in the land of Clen.

“It is said that the reason the demons did not touch the elf land was because the power of the past remained.”

“That will be so, the current elf may move forward without forgetting the glory of the past. “Because I was in such a bad state that I couldn’t even go back.”

Apart from the identity of the old man, among the books Arcel read there was a history book about elves.

There was a time when the elves shone brightly in the past, and it is said that the elves at that time were like an inviolable territory that no other race dared to touch.

Although it was a story from well over 1,000 years ago.

Cow!

In an instant, the ground shook violently once again.

This time it was heard from that grave.

That strange elf must be running wild.

“Let’s hurry up and get out of here. Going in there now would be tantamount to suicide.”

“I agree, I thought we wouldn’t see any more monsters after the Demon King, but I was wrong.”

Arcel had already gambled his life countless times, but he had no intention of openly throwing his life away.

Although the books left behind are regrettable, it is unclear whether they would have been of much help. There are still several books that Stella brought with her, so we should at least look at those.

Besides, the only one who knows the truth about this is probably Shion.

You probably won’t be able to know her truth without asking her.

“But can I just leave it as is?”

“This land is as good as dead anyway, and there is a barrier, so you won’t be able to escape in the end.”

A barrier is a good way to protect against danger from the outside, but on the other hand, it is also a prison.

In this case, it is to protect the outside world from rampaging elves…

You can think of it like this.

“Let’s go back. If I stay here any longer, I feel like something will happen to my head.”

“I understand. “Let’s get it up and running quickly.”

Arsel went back the same way he and Stella had taken.

Fortunately, the elves didn’t catch the eye this time.

The majority of elves were already focused on another place, and this land was a place that had not caught those who left since ancient times.

“…Father.”

But someone was looking quietly at Arcel as he left.

A girl holding a brilliantly shining holy sword.

The girl looked at Arcel leaving with blue eyes.

†††

“I’m glad they both came back safely. Actually, it was okay if one of them never came back. “I made all the preparations in advance.”

Alfred welcomed the two who returned with Stella’s portrait in his hand.

“It’s not fortunate at all! “I can only say that because I didn’t see you there!”

“Hmm, even if there are, there are thousands of man-eating demons who have lost their senses and are going crazy, right?”

“I think I’m going to throw it to those man-eating ogres!”

As soon as she arrived, Stella fell for Alfred’s provocation and raised her voice.

In fact, the first things that greeted Arcel and Stella when they returned were white lilies and black crowns, so it is natural for them to react like that.

“…But honestly, it is true that my heart was shaking. “Because it no longer seems like paradise, but hell.”

Arcel said, sitting down on her floor.

I don’t know anything else, but the unidentified high elf I saw last was terrifying.

A shadow with blade-like teeth stretched out freely like a tentacle, piercing through everything in its path and swallowing it into the shadow.

It’s probably a type of magic, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen such creepy magic.

If the fire created by the Witch of Ember was purely for destruction, it seemed to have been created entirely to devour living creatures.

“As I went on my own journey, I thought I would no longer be surprised by hell, but I didn’t know that something more terrible than what I saw was waiting for me.”

“That’s because your current condition is not normal. There’s a big difference between facing a monster with a weapon and meeting it defenseless with your bare hands, right?”

Alfred seemed happy that Arcel had returned safely, so he did everything he could to help Arcel sit on a chair, wipe the sweat from her forehead, and prepare a change of clothes for her.

Stella looked at the scene in bewilderment.

“After working hard and coming back, what do you want to do now? Are you going to eat rice first? Or a bath? “There are other things as well.”

“Right now I want to sit down and rest some more. “Because I still have information to organize in my head.”

Arsel leaves Alfred behind and looks through the books Stella brought.

As expected, the same red letters as before obscured all the contents of the book so that they could not be read.

“What is this?”

“This is a book I brought from a place your maternal grandmother told me about. “There were more books than the 12 here, but I met a strange high elf there…”

From the looks of it, Alfred didn’t seem to know much about what happened in the land of the elves.

In the first place, he didn’t go there himself, and his magical clone made sacrifices to enable him to escape, so it’s natural that he doesn’t know.

Arsel told Alfred in detail what he experienced there.

All the books in the study were in an unreadable state, including the high elf I met there and the girl with the holy sword who came into the land of the elves.

After hearing the story, Alfred nodded his head.

“Hmm, I see. Are you saying all the books were in this state? “I don’t know who you are, but you have unique tastes.”

Alfred chuckles as he looks through the books he brought.

When Arcel and Stella saw it, it wasn’t just creepy, it even made their heads hurt, but it seemed like nothing was wrong.

I examine the book with a little more effort, and look through the remaining 12 books without missing a single one.

“I think I understand roughly.”

And then that brief effort finally paid off.

“Could you possibly read the contents of this book?”

“I have no idea!”

“Why are these demons making people have unnecessary expectations?!”

Alfred smiled broadly and conveyed only the facts.

Honestly, Stella, who was secretly looking forward to it, is even more devastated and embarrassed than Arcel.

“This is the same as someone deliberately placing a curse on the book so that they cannot read its contents. In the end, anyone who does not know the contents of this book will not be able to read it.”

Then, he takes out a new book from his pocket.

It was not a special book, but one of the useless magic books I bought before.

“This is a method that old ears often used to hide important records. Look. “Does the book look fine now?”

The content of the book was ordinary.

The standard of curse.

If you just read this, you too can kill your enemies.

If you want to kill someone painfully and cruelly, read this book right now!

“But if you curse me like this…”

Alfred opened the book again.

From Noble mtl dot com

“What do you think, is it not at all different from the first content?”

“What on earth did you do to the book?!”

In the opened book, the contents of the book disappeared and Arcel was seen changing her clothes or sleeping peacefully.

“It’s amazing, is it possible to change the contents of a book like this? As expected, elves’ magic seems to be different.”

“Why are you okay again?!”

“It’s surprising, but is there something else to it?”

“…No, that’s enough. “I think I’m the only one who’s weird.”

Stella blushed and immediately closed the book, but Arcel was calm as if nothing had happened.

“Anyway, the only way is to break the curse in the book, but I’m tired of trying to break another curse when I’m already running around trying to break it…”

Arsel It was already a sight that everyone here had seen often, so I didn’t pay much attention to tidying it up.

“Usually, this type of curse can be lifted relatively easily, but it is simply for security purposes, not to prevent people from reading the contents of the book. “Maybe there is a way to read the curse without having to do it.”

I was simply surprised that the contents of the book were changed at once.

“…But I did something useless.”

“Are you saying it’s useless?”

“These books are useless in the end, so there was no need to bring them in the first place.”

But Alfred threw away the books he had brought.

For someone who had risked his or her life to take care of it, it was beyond absurd and beyond absurd.

“Those books are all about the magic of ancient demons written by my grandmother. “I don’t know the content, but I can roughly guess it by looking at the material of the book and the handwriting left behind.”

“What does that mean?!”

“What?”

Besides, it was truly absurd.

According to Alfred, those books were all written by Zion.

This was the same for all 12 volumes, not just one.

Stella and Arcel were very disappointed that they didn’t have anything they needed right away in the books they had brought with them.

I roughly expected something like this to happen, but facing it as reality is another story.

“It’s at least an original, but it’s a copy, but if you go to my mother’s library, you’ll find books with the same content. “You can go through the door in the tree over there, so if you’re curious, come and check it out later.”

“Hmm, but that doesn’t mean I can go there again…”

In the end, I have no choice but to go there one more time and find what I need.

But returning to the land of the elves is difficult in itself, and more than anything, there will still be a crazy elf in the tomb who is just as crazy as the one who created it.

Alfred is probably the only one here who doesn’t mind hurting himself on purpose.

“But were these really the only things there were?”

Alfred shook his head and wondered at the fact that these were the only books he had.

“Yes, I looked through all the books in the library, but they were all in this condition, so it wasn’t helpful.”

“In this situation, there is no way her grandmother wouldn’t have told her…”

But really, among the books Arcel had read, these were the only ones.

I quickly looked through all the books in the library, but there wasn’t a single one I could read.

“She said from the beginning that she could tell that it was a book that could curse her if she pretended to be a grandmother. Are you sure you really looked at the tomb closely?”

“As I said before, all the books in the study… no way.”

“Did you just look in the study?”

If you think about it, there were many places in the tomb other than the study.

“Oh, now that I think about it-“

Stella reacted as if she had forgotten.

There were rooms where elders used to hold meetings in the past, a sanctuary where the highest elders were enshrined, and other places to pray to ancestors, as well as other places as large as they were.

“Okay… I was short-thinking. “In the first place, your maternal grandmother never said that books were only in the study.”

Arsel frowned and sighed.

Actually, if you think about it, you could have found it if you took your time and searched slowly.

Did I have to rush out of the tomb because of that strange high elf?

“Life doesn’t always go as planned, and that’s why life is fun.”

At least Alfred gave me words of comfort and I got better.

But strangely enough, Alfred suddenly seemed to be getting ready to go out.

“Alfred, are you planning to go somewhere?”

“Yes, since you couldn’t get the book, you have to go and get it yourself.”

However, I heard that Alfred could not enter the elf land because of the barrier.

For the barrier that excludes the opponent on a soul-by-soul basis, at best it is best to send a very weak familiar using magic.

Nevertheless, Alfred said he would enter the barrier himself.

“I told you, right? I am a magical genius. I don’t lose to the old-fashioned barriers created by those old-fashioned idiots. “While you were in, we found a way to destroy the barrier.”

“By what method-“

“For example, this method.”

Alfred smiles and transforms.

Alfred’s body glows and his shape and clothes change.

Arcel looked at the scene in amazement, and Stella pretended not to be interested and then watched in fascination.

“The demons’ barrier has a mechanism that identifies specific souls and automatically repels them, expelling any demon that enters their land. “Is it to this extent?”

And then Arcel heard a familiar voice.

A slightly younger voice, more delicate than before.

When the light cleared, Alfred, looking like a child, stood there with his nose raised.

“Then all I have to do is change my soul and body to the state they were in before I was exiled. Of course, only I can do this. “Only my body can change not only my appearance but also my soul to the past.”

In addition, it is said that if you try to enter with only the outer appearance changed, you will see that the body and soul are separated.

Then, they say that the body that has lost its soul must remain in that state until someone takes it out of the barrier.

If you think about what the elf land was like, it was virtually as good as dead.

“What do you think? When I was young, I was handsome and cute, right? “I’m not supposed to show this to anyone…”

Alfred smiled brightly and hugged Arcel.

“It doesn’t make sense, that kid is that unlucky demon who doesn’t even have a conscience…?”

Stella reacted in disbelief and shook her head to come to her senses.

Still, it was very different from what he knew.

“Is there any problem? “You’re a useless idiot who can’t even do simple things like this.”

“…I think it’s true, seeing as you’re teasing the snout.”

But after listening to Alfred’s usual words, I could tell that the kid was Alfred.

Afterwards, Alfred took Stella and Arcel into the land of the elves and approached the border of the barrier.

Crack!

Then, as a test, he put his foot down and Alfred was able to enter the barrier without any problems.

“Now, just trust me. “I’ve always wanted to legally clean up the ghosts at least once, but now I’m thinking of having some fun to relieve my stress.”

Alfred speaks confidently.

“Let’s go to the quantity exhibition first!”

Alfred stretched out his hand and summoned skeletons, his usual specialty.

“Everyone jump out, have you been having fun so far? “Let’s go hunting for demons for the first time in a while!”

In the past, Alfred once summoned tens of thousands of skeletons to stop Arcel.

Considering their status at the time, no matter how many elves there were, they were able to advance without being pushed back.

I still thought that way.

“…Huh?”

Until I confirmed that there were only dozens, let alone hundreds, of skeletons summoned.

Among them, there seemed to be some who had been called in to clean Alfred’s castle.

“That’s strange, why am I lacking magical power? Even if you return to your younger form, you usually have enough magical energy… Ah, is it because you changed your soul to that of a child?”

I was confused and tried using different magic, as if I hadn’t expected this, but the scale was reduced to the point where it couldn’t be compared to usual, probably due to a lack of magical power.

“Wait a minute. I’ll just return my soul to its original state. “If you change things back to normal for a moment and go back to when you were young, you’ll be fine.”

“Alfred? “If you did something like that-“

Sharp!

Alfred collapsed even before Arcel finished speaking.

This is because the soul was thrown out of the body by the barrier.

Somehow, there was strange black smoke floating around Arcel and it felt like the temperature had dropped.

In the end, the skeletons came out of the barrier holding the fallen Alfred.

“…Is this an unexpected problem?”

It was a bonus that Alfred, who quickly came to his senses, scratched his head and smiled innocently.

Arsel and Stella sighed deeply at the same time.