By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 43

Chapter 2 Episode 43: To the Swamp

The next day.

Today was the day that I would attempt a contract with a limour bird. The duke’s family, Sebas, Jill, Zeph, Camil, Hughes, and I were walking to the abandoned mine. Everyone else was equipped with weapons and armor as they were during training, but I was in overalls, making me stand out. Because this was for Eliaria’s training, though, we weren’t taking the carriage. She had more stamina than I expected. We took the occasional break, but even so, she didn’t complain once.

“Ryoma, are you doing all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“You never get tired, do you?” Eliaria said, trying to not to show her exhaustion. We were walking uphill on an unpaved path, so some fatigue was to be expected. She must have thought she was better off not showing weakness. Camil seemed to notice the same thing.

“It’s OK, Young Miss. Compared to other girls your age, you can walk quite far,” she said to reassure Eliaria.

“That’s right, don’t compare yourself to Ryoma. This guy’s not normal. Most people’d be absolutely bushed by now. Seriously, Ryoma, at least sweat or something.”

“I can’t just sweat on command.”

“Master Ryoma, most people don’t have to be commanded to sweat.”

“You’re walking alongside the Young Miss, so you don’t have to go that fast. I would understand if you had the training that we do, but what kind of training have you done, Ryoma?”

“Well, to put it simply, I would train until I reached my limits, and if I fainted or tried to rest, I got beaten so hard that I could’ve been severely injured. Then I had to choose whether to endure the pain or train some more. When that’s your daily life, this is what happens.”

“Was your trainer some kind of demon or what?!”

“I can’t say for sure that he wasn’t.”

I was terrified of my dad when I was young. Whenever I saw him, I felt short of breath. While I was reminiscing, the time came for us to move onward.

“We have to get moving before Elia stops sweating completely.”

“Just a little bit farther. You can do it.”

We began to walk once more. About thirty minutes from our rest spot, we left the road and proceeded through the forest for another thirty minutes. We began to notice a foul stench, presumably that of the swamp. As we went further, the reddish-brown swamp entered our sight. It was situated right between the forest and the mine. This was still technically within the forest, but the trees were sparser, and the rain carried mud from the mine down to here. The closer we got, the stronger the stench. Eliaria held a hand to her nose.

“This is the swamp. All the rotten leaves and animal corpses create this smell.”

“It’s horrible,” Eliaria complained.

“It certainly is, but if you’re going to travel to other lands, you have to get used to these environments.”

The Jamil family’s territory was maintained by Reinbach, so it was in better shape than most, but I could only pray that other regions weren’t as bad as this swamp.

“Hm, there don’t seem to be any grell frogs or limour birds around yet,” Reinbach said. “There is more than one swamp, so why don’t we check the others?”

We followed Reinbach’s suggestion, and ten minutes later, we found a swamp three times the size of the last one. There were about thirty adventurers and tamers present, along with over two-hundred blue birds.

“Those are limour birds!”

“That’s them?”

“They’re beautiful.”

They looked like big parrots, but what stood out the most about them was their long tails. Their bodies were blue while their heads and tails had green feathers. I could see why they were popular. They looked otherworldly against the reds and browns of the swamp. The birds were absolutely stunning, which made the presence of the adventurers all the more annoying.

“There it goes!”

“Capture it!”

“Ah?!”

“Hurry! Before it gets eaten!”

The adventurers entered the swamp and competed with the limour birds for the grell frogs. The burly men got muddy as they attempted to find the reddish-brown frogs in the similarly colored swamp by using nets or their bare hands. It was tough to watch. Meanwhile, two young men by the edge of the swamp were holding instruments.

“Look, those two are trying to form a contract.”

One of them played what looked like a recorder, but he wasn’t very good at it.

“How much does your musical talent have an impact on the contract?”

“I couldn’t say. It’s the limour birds who make the decision.”

“Some have played songs they’re confident in and failed, and some have gotten so angry that they destroyed their instruments, only to succeed.”

“How does that make sense?”

When the man finished his song, all the limour birds cawed in unison. The sound they made was like that of a human laughing at somebody to shame them. It was aggravating to listen to. I also had the information Caulkin gave me. When limour birds heard a performance they disapproved of, they let out a warning call that was extremely unpleasant. Now I understood what he meant. This must have been a common occurrence, because the adventurers didn’t pay it much mind. Instead, they took it as an opportunity to gather up grell frogs.

“I’m sure you could tell from the sound, but he failed. He’ll never be able to form a contract like this. He can attempt to do it a few more times, but they’ll attack if he tries too much, so it’s best to stop after one or two performances,” Reinhart explained as the other man began to play his flute. He was even worse than the last man, to the point that the limour birds began to laugh before he finished. It enraged the man so much that he pulled out a dagger, jumped in the swamp, and approached the limour birds.

“Oh dear, that’s no good. Stand at the ready,” Reinbach commanded.

“Yes, sir!” four guards responded and stepped forward. Even Sebas and Reinhart were on guard. Elise approached me and Eliaria. The limour birds nearest the man with the dagger sensed danger and cried out. A moment later, a shallow gash appeared in the man’s shoulder and made him scream. It was caused by wind magic. The rest of the limour birds looked at the man as well, turning his anger into fear and panic. He turned to run, as did everyone around him. Several limour birds cast Wind Cutter and aimed at his back. They all missed, but now the man ran even more desperately.

“Don’t be like him. Limour birds are gentle monsters, but they aren’t weak. If you try to make them submit by force, of course they’re going to fight back,” Elise warned us, but I was worried that the man would run toward us. He made it up to the edge of the swamp, but slipped up and came to a stop. Another attack headed toward his leg. Camil and I cast Earth Wall to create a barrier between the man and the limour birds. Dozens of Wind Cutters sliced the wall, but it managed to block all the spells. That brought the Wind Cutters to a stop, but now there was a loud cry all around, making many of us scream or recoil.

“What is this?!”

“Keep it together, everyone!”

Everyone was in pain. Even Eliaria was trembling and about to topple over, but Elise and Sebas rushed to hold her steady. I looked around and found that even the adventurers in the swamp were suffering and losing their sanity, wailing and falling to their knees. It had a wide area of effect, and I felt some powerful magic energy. I could only assume that this cry was the cause, but I had no idea which bird it was coming from. I searched for the source of the sound and the energy, and seconds later, my eyes stopped on one bird in the flock. Much like my own wind magic, it was manipulating the air to generate the sound. Thanks to that, I was able to find it surprisingly fast.

I cast Silent on the bird. If the sound was the problem, then using wind magic that stopped the vibrations in the air would be a solution. The sound stopped as I had planned, and the anguish on everyone’s faces disappeared. It seemed to be effective, but it was hard to keep up. The bird was resisting, of course. It was using magic similar to my Big Voice spell to amplify the vibrations in the air. I was using an opposing wind spell to stop it, so it became a competition of who had more magic energy and who could control their spells better. If I let up for an instant, the sound could come back. Its control over magic was as good as mine, if not better, so I had to overpower it. I exerted more magic energy than before and cast the spell a second time. After a few seconds of resistance, the limour bird got the sense that it was at a disadvantage and flew away. The other limour birds followed suit. I remained on the lookout for any attacks from the sky, but the flock receded into the distance.

“Are they gone? Is it over?”

“Camil, heal that man! Jill, Zeph, Hughes, drag the unconscious adventurers out of the swamp! Sebas, how is Elia?” Reinhart asked, but Eliaria was the one to answer.

“No problems here.”

“Elia, are you all right? How do you feel?”

“Fine, I was simply scared. I’m calm now.”

“I see, that’s good. Ryoma, thank you. You were the one who did that, weren’t you?”

“It was caused by a limour bird’s cry, right? That’s what it seemed like, so I made it stop, but what was it doing to you anyway?” I asked. Elise and Eliaria gasped.

“Ryoma, it didn’t do anything to you?”

“Not really.”

I thought the sound was annoying, but that was about it. Thanks to that, I was able to look for the source, but I was shocked to see all the suffering around me.

“Nothing? Really?”

“Really,” I answered. Elise cocked her head.

“The bird that Ryoma stopped was likely no mere limour bird,” Reinbach explained. “It was a higher class of monster, a nightmare limour bird, I presume. They can use both wind and dark magic. Their most unique feature is their cry, and the dark-elemental mind attacks that they unleash along with it.”

“Hearing it can inflict fear, confusion, and even hallucinations, causing some to pass out. Like them,” Sebas added and pointed to those lying at the edge of the swamp. They were saved by the unaffected people, but some of them were still unconscious or curled up on the ground in terror.

“Looking at them now, they’re in a pretty awful state.”

“That’s just how powerful this mind attack is. A strong body doesn’t necessarily mean a strong mind, so even veteran adventurers may pass out. Most of these adventurers are novices, so this was a predictable result.”

“You can train yourself to deal with it, but it’s still painful. You just learn to endure it better.”

That reminded me that I had a Mental Pain Resistance skill, so maybe that explained it. When I mentioned that, it cleared up Elise’s confusion. My resistance was so strong that I didn’t seem to feel anything from the attack. I was told that I would likely be unaffected by any mind attacks, but I had never done anything to counter these sorts of spells. It was nice that they didn’t affect me anyway, but I didn’t even realize I was being attacked, so that was something I had to be a bit wary of. While we were chatting, Jill and the others came back. They were finished moving the unconscious and treating the injured.

“What are the damages?”

“Only one person was injured, the man who started all this. He’s already been treated, so he should be capable of returning to town.”

“But what’ll we do now? All that commotion caused the limour birds to fly away.”

“We could look for their nest.”

“That’d be tough, Master Ryoma. Limour birds use wind magic to create gusts while they fly, then ride those gusts. They can fly faster and further than most monsters. It’d be impossible to search everywhere they could be.”

“That’s why anyone who wants a contract with a limour bird waits for them in this swamp. Dunno if they’ll be coming back today, but do you want to wait and see?”

“Yes, considering we came all this way. I at least want to attempt a contract once,” Eliaria said, so we decided to wait a while. The adventurers by the edge of the swamp eventually recovered, and even the unconscious ones awakened. But they didn’t seem to have the energy to keep hunting, or maybe they wanted to leave because the duke’s family was present. Soon enough, we were the only ones left.

We created stone chairs a short distance from the swamp and chatted to pass the time. During our conversation, I heard that nightmare limour birds had powerful mind attacks, but if you attack one to try and stop it, all the limour birds around it will fight back. The standard methods of avoiding that are to either endure the attack, or to run away and come back later. My Silent spell wasn’t an attack, as all it did was stop sounds, so maybe that meant it was fine. Caulkin and the duke’s family had previously told me that harming limour birds was taboo, and thankfully I listened. They also said that higher classes of limour bird were only sighted about once a decade, making them extremely rare monsters. What it put us through was awful, but I suppose we were lucky to see it.

“What did it look like?”

“I think its colors were somewhat darker and more vivid than the others. Its deep blues and greens made it look luxurious. As far as other unique features...”

We passed the time chatting about random subjects. After a while, the mood suddenly grew solemn.

“Ryoma, we’re going to part ways for some time, aren’t we?” Eliaria asked. Her family had come to see the limour birds and try to make a contract with one, so now they had done most of what they traveled here to do. They would return home after this, so we had little time left together.

I didn’t know what to say in response, but I knew I would be lonelier without them. I could say, ‘Yes, that’s true,’ but that would be a bit detached. I could say, ‘Don’t leave me!’ but that would be kind of disturbing coming from a man over 40. Maybe that didn’t matter given how I looked, but my mind wouldn’t allow it. I settled on reassuring her that we would meet again someday.

“It’s not like this is the last time you’ll see him, Elia. Right, Ryoma?” Elise said, while I was still mulling it over.

“Of course.”

“You can always exchange letters to keep up with each other,” Reinbach suggested.

“Yes, you’re right! We will meet again someday! Ryoma, remember to write letters to me! And I’ll write some for you!”

“I will, promise.”

“You fool! You’re a man, at least give her a hug!” Hughes said and struck my back, almost making me fall out of my chair.

“Hey, what are you doing?! What are you thinking?! You’re a guard, you’re supposed to be the one who stops the attacks!”

“Eh, it’s just fun to see how he reacts!” Hughes said and gave a thumbs up.

“Can I give her a hug?”

“Well, as friends, sure. Strictly as friends. Yeah,” Reinhart said, somewhat conflicted.

“It would be nothing to get upset over. They’re both ten years old or so,” Reinbach argued.

“See? C’mon, be a man and give it to her. Quit hesitating, you’re embarrassing yourself― Gwah!” Hughes yelped. He was getting annoying, so I gave him a hard whack. When I turned around, my eyes met Eliaria’s. She blushed, not the response I wanted. I looked to Elise for help, but she only seemed interested in watching to see what happened. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying it.

“Hey, the hell are you doing?” Hughes said with a grunt, holding his stomach.

“Oh, I was just being shy,” I answered without thinking about it. Maybe that was the wrong thing to say.

“Like hell you were, that was a serious blow! If I were some average guy, you would’ve knocked me out. Man, you hit my armor, so why does it hurt so bad?”

“Sorry, it’s a force of habit,” I said. It was the sort of strike meant for armored opponents, so the pain was to be expected. At any rate, I was strangely worked up and needed to calm down. There was an awkward silence until we heard what sounded like a loud whistle. The flock of limour birds had returned.