Chapter 177:
What?! It’s Edible?
Probably about five minutes had passed since the guild master and his old mentor were reunited. And I’m not sure why, but the guild master looked like he’d aged a wee bit. It was probably just my imagination.
I was still surprised to see how politely the guild master spoke to his old mentor. Druid was on his best behavior, too…though his mask slipped now and then.
“Let’s leave it at that, Master. If you wear out the guild master any more, he’ll be useless.”
“Dang. Pathetic, ain’t ya? C’mon, how much abuse’ll ya take before ya stand up for yourself?”
Uh, I don’t think it’s exactly fair to insult him just because he didn’t respond very well to the gurbars. The guild master was trying his best, so the least he could do was give his former apprentice a little encouragement. Unless that was his special way of encouraging them? I glanced at the mentor, who looked thoroughly amused.
“So, were all the veteran adventurers wiped out?”
The guild master sighed. “We don’t know for sure. This is the third day in a row we’ve received no word from them.”
Three days, huh… Sounds like this problem is getting much worse than I thought. I’d always assumed that once the veteran adventurers had returned, we’d be able to think of a plan to resolve the crisis. I never even considered they might not come back at all.
“Well, I hope you’ve got a Plan B.”
The guild master fell silent, a harsh look in his eyes. Was there a Plan B? Or was it going to be more difficult?
“Listen, Guild Master, don’t get me involved in this,” Druid spat, in a tone of voice I’d never heard from him before. He sounded so unlike his usual self that I wondered for a moment if someone else had spoken.
“Yeah, I understand. I don’t want to become worthless, after all.”
Don’t get him involved? Become worthless? It didn’t make sense to me, but it sounded awfully complicated. Hmm… I wish I could do something to help. But I’m pretty puny on my own. Whenever I help out with problems like this, I always lean on Ciel. With everything, too. But that’s wrong. I need to find a way to help all by myself.
“What’s this? C’mon, Druid, don’t lose hope now of all times.”
“Master, no. This is one area where I cannot be swayed.” Druid stared sharply at his mentor, which startled him a little.
Then he took a quiet breath, nodded, and muttered, “Understood.”
Wow…the person I admire is just so heroic. I was eager to say that out loud, but I let it go. I’ll just tell Sora and Flame about it later.
“Oh yeah. Ivy noticed something very interesting.”
Uh, something very interesting? I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who’s noticed it.
“And what is that, exactly?” the guild master asked.
“Did ya look into the reason why the monsters started going berserk?”
“Yes, of course. Even though the account I read of it was rather old, I figured we could learn something from it since we were faced with a similar problem…but it wound up being useless.”
“Ya mean the ‘natural death’ part?”
The guild master gave his old mentor a questioning look. “Yes. It’s that stupid writing. If only they’d left some details about the monsters—at least their name—then their report might have been able to help us out. Why did our predecessors even approve such a report? It’s unbelievable.”
Yeah, I figured he’d interpret it that way.
“See, Druid? That’s the natural way to think about it. Ivy’s just a bit bizarre.”
Um, Mr. Mentor, I don’t think now’s the time to prove your point. Also, the part about me being smart flew out the window, and now I’m set in stone as a bizarre kid. Well, I guess the fact that I remember my past life does make me bizarre.
“Master. You’ve reduced Ivy to just a bizarre kid,” Druid sighed wearily.
“Neither of you has been making any sense since I got here!” Gotos sighed. “What about Ivy? What did Ivy find out?”
“Ivy had a different interpretation of that old report,” Druid said before his mentor could get a word in. He probably assumed the old man would say the wrong thing.
“A different interpretation? I…I don’t get it. What do you mean?”
“The report didn’t describe any specific characteristics of the monsters, correct?”
“Right…that’s why I thought the report was useless. Was I mistaken?”
“Ivy thinks the ‘natural death’ part was the important bit.”
“Natural death?” the guild master asked me.
I nodded at him.
“That’s right. If natural deaths were the important part, that means the same thing could happen to any monsters later on. That’s why they didn’t write any details about the monsters who died, and they didn’t describe the ones who went berserk, either.”
“So, you’re saying this could happen to any monster…and that’s why no details about the monsters were written.” The guild master seemed a bit taken aback. “Now I see… So there was a reason why the report was written like that… I see…” He fell deep into thought. If my theory turned out to be wrong, I’d really feel guilty about it.
“If that’s all true, then the way they solved the problem…what does all that mean?”
Yes. That was the problem. If the monsters who died natural deaths were eaten, that meant their corpses would be gone. And yet, the solution to the problem was to burn the bodies of the monsters who’d died of natural causes. It didn’t make a lick of sense.
“Aaand there’s the problem… That part’s a mystery.”
I had a feeling whoever wrote that report included only the most important parts so as to avoid causing a misunderstanding. Which meant they must have written down the solution to the problem very concisely.
“Was there more to the part about the monsters getting eaten? Were they…actually not eaten?”
“Ivy…do you have an idea?”
Hm? Uh-oh, was I thinking out loud again? “I was just wondering, is there something that won’t disappear even if it’s eaten?”
“Um…is that a riddle?”
“No, sir! Um…” Maybe I phrased my question the wrong way. How should I ask it…? “If the monsters were eaten…but then they were burned…wouldn’t that mean that eating them didn’t make them go away? Oh! Or maybe the corpses weren’t eaten. Maybe something belonging to the dead monsters was eaten instead?”
That’s it. Surely this will lead us to something, right? But I still can’t understand why the report’s writer didn’t say what that thing was.
“Now I get it. I guess ya could think of it that way. This bra—Ivy’s sure got a funny brain.”
And the old mentor sure has a funny face when he’s nervous. He almost called me a brat again. Not like I really care what he calls me anyway.
“Yikes! Stop staring daggers at me, Druid…”
Hm? The old mentor’s saying something, but his voice is too quiet for me to hear it.
“Master?”
“Er, never mind. Now, can any of ya knuckleheads think of what that something could be?”
The guild master and Druid fell deep into thought. And after pondering for a long time, they shook their heads. Their old mentor gave it a good mulling over, too, but he came away with a big empty sigh. What was it that caused the monsters to go berserk? It was…a very difficult question.
“Um, is it unusual for monsters to live to a ripe old age?”
I have always wondered about that. If monsters could go berserk just because other ones died a natural death, that should have been a much more common occurrence. But the report said it had only happened once, and very long ago, too. Which would have to mean that it was monsters rarely lived to a ripe old age…maybe?
“Nobody really knows much about that. But it’s survival of the fittest out there—if you get even slightly weaker, you’ll become dinner to whoever’s stronger than you.”
That makes sense. No matter how powerful a monster is, it will grow weaker in its old age. That’s when they get hunted and killed. It’s a harsh world out there.
“Just how long do monsters live, anyway?” I asked.
“Well, according to our reports, their life expectancy is over two hundred years.”
Two hundred years! Wow, that’s impressive. They can live two hundred whole years? Any monster who makes it to the end of its natural life must be really powerful. So powerful that it won’t be attacked, even when it gets old and feeble.
“Strong monsters inherently have magic, right?” I asked.
“Well, of course. All monsters do.”
“Of course. Um, so, say there’s one so powerful that it lives all the way to the end of its natural life. What happens to that magic when it dies?”
“Hm?” The old mentor cocked his head sideways.
“Imagine a monster who’s been alive longer than two hundred years. A monster with so much magic power that it’s never been killed, even in its old age. Surely, it must have a huge amount of magic, yes?”
Does magic spill out of monster corpses? If it does…
“What if, say, somebody could eat this magic power…?”
All three men gasped.
“Magic spills out from a dead monster. Monsters who eat that magic go berserk… Yeah, I know, it’s a silly idea. Oh! But if my theory is true, the corpses would still be there, so you would still be able to burn them.”
Wow. That’s really a stretch.
“Ivy!”
“Yes, sir!” I yelped in shock. Hey, Druid called my name out of nowhere! Wait, what? Did I cause some sort of problem?
“Ivy, ya really are amazing. Ha ha ha! That’s it. The magic,” the old mentor said, staring at me with the most awestruck eyes I’d ever seen.
Eek! I’m kinda scared…
“Thanks, Ivy. That’s it. The magic.”
Um…Mr. Guild Master? Why are you thanking me? I don’t understand.
“Come to think of it, the scouting party did say something about magic in their report. I’d dismissed it at the time since I didn’t think it was connected to our current crisis.”
Magic? Oh, right, my theory that the thing the monsters ate was magic… Wait, huh?! Is magic actually edible?
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