Sword of the Philosopher Chapter 9

Translator: Roaclaynous
Initial Editing: Roaclaynous

After settling everything that had to be done, came the next day. At the bar, Fili can be seen gathering different people for a party to dive into the dungeon.

According to what I remember, the dungeon will be cleared a total of four times before the outbreak of the event. Considering that this is this time was only the 3rd one, I should still have enough time to spare. For the time being, the other Heroes are moving that were moving about seemed to be the same and had not gone into any changes yet… so this thing that I have right now should be considered my free time but―

“Uhhmmm… could I bother you for a moment?”

Inside the bar, I was slowly eating the sandwich by pinching at it while thinking of how I’ll be spending my free time but I suddenly heard a voice calling out to me. After I gave a glance at to look at who it was calling me, I was surprised that it was actually Katie.

“…what’s wrong?”

“Well… I wanted to talk to you for a bit”

To me? I tilted my head in confusion while she took a seat at the empty chair at my front. Somehow, I can see that her face was serious so I steeled myself and waited for her words.

“This was regarding the time when we entered the cave but…”

“Aah…”

“Well… getting right into the point… I want to know. The magic you used that time was “Holy Water of the Heavens” right?”

Geeh… so that’s it. d.a.m.n it.

By now, I’ve pretty much guessed what she wanted to talk about. Since she’d already seen the magic I executed, the question that would probably come out from her would be something like ‘Why is such a magic here on such a hard to reach place?’

“Personally, I was only able to see that magic twice, but even so… the degree of difficulty in executing it was among the highest cla.s.s of recovery magic. For someone capable of using such magic, why are you staying at such a village like this?”

“…Is it bad? For me to live in here I mean…”

“It’s not that I’m saying that… I was just interested in knowing. This is the village where I was born so I know full well… strong monsters and the like are lacking on this side of town.”

Uuun… based on what she had just said, it seems like she would show her interest in this until the very end. This would be bad so I need to have some means of somehow deceiving her but… if this ends up becoming some weird rumor…that too will be troublesome.

In the case where all of my abilities were to be known to the public, this would without a doubt invite a conflict with the Demon Lord. So despite her understandable reasons in pursuing this matter, I need to hide what I am capable of… something that wouldn’t end up in a strange rumor and becoming troublesome.

Just in case, there is a method where I can forcibly lead Fili on but… the chances of the scenario collapsing would undoubtedly rise and since there are no ways to redo things, I wouldn’t want to go through with that.

That’s why that plan is a no… I need to be able to appropriately deceiver her but if she does not understand nor consent to the reason I gave out, then that would become the impetus of a rumor that would probably stray off from the original. In order for the scenario to proceed accordingly, it is necessary to keep quiet about this.

“…Well it’s as what you have said”

After that small grumble, I averted my eyes… In one way or another I somehow ended up remembering an explanation that I can give out in its own way. Well there was this conflict of feelings surfacing but… Since there is nothing else, I can somehow consent to doing this―

I don’t really have that much of a choice anyways…

“Etto… It’s fine to talk about my reasons but, I have one request before doing so.”

“A request?”

“Regarding the things that we are about to discuss, I request of you to not tell others about it.”

To my request, Katie firmly nodded.

“It is fine but… is it really that serious?”
“It isn’t but… how do you say this… it’s that! Being labeled as a weirdo… that kind of thing”

Katie tilted her neck in confusion. If we go more into this state, she wouldn’t understand and I wouldn’t be able to go into the details so I quickly opened my mouth to explain.

“First is… let’s see now… I am someone that has traveled to different places around the continent and through my journeys, I encountered someone who called himself a prophet.”

“A prophet?”

“I honestly wasn’t sure if I were to believe what that guys was claiming himself to be but… I had my fortune told anyways, since I was thinking that it would be interesting and all. And then―”

I paused for a single beat as I glanced at Katie who waited for my words.

“That person told me that ‘You will die in the near future’”

“Again with that…”

“Normally, I would say ‘are you an idiot?’ and finish up by laughing at it but… things like what would happen with my lineage, things that would occur from here on out, and various other things all started to come into my mind. I too considered it to be something idiotic but I still ended up carrying out some means in dealing with it.”

“That means… what would those be?”

“A search for those persons that are capable of defeating the Demon Lord”

After saying those word, I took a cup of water and drank it. Since Katie is being silent, I continued more and more into my story.

“In other words, the fortune that was told to me was I would likely die within the battle against the Demon Lord. Whether I would die by actually partic.i.p.ating in the battle or by just getting dragged in to it… Is something not yet known to me. And so, what I’m doing right now is to search for a person with such qualifications.”

“Then… were you able to find such a person? To begin with, considering the magic that you had used, the people in this area that would have the capability to defeat you would be very few.”

And even though I’ve explained that far… Katie is still looking at me with doubtful eyes so I gave up.

“…On that cave as well, If you had taken the lead as the vanguard, we wouldn’t have that much troubles and would have been able to fight more comfortably right?”

“I needed to find a person with the qualifications I speak of so wouldn’t it be strange if I took up the role of being a vanguard? …since you weren’t able to see through my abilities, there was no reason for me to do so.”

Katie doesn’t seem that much convinced and is making a facial expression of doubt. And yet, in order for me to deceive her, I had thought of something and spoke out an “aah!” sound from my mouth.

“Well… I somehow remembered something. It’s him! It’s Fili that I’m talking about. If it’s him, there’s a high possibility of him getting stronger and fitting the qualifications.”

“That is… as the one capable of defeating the Demon Lord right?”

“It’s a latent-like ability. Well… It’s just according to my intuition but whether you believe it or not is up to you.”

I just answered her with a shrug and looking at Katie, she is still having an ambiguous facial expression… before long.

“I understand. You have your reasons for being here and seeing it as it is, I can somehow understand your reasons for doing so”

“Aahh… I see”

The answer she gave me was somehow contradicting the facial expression that she was showing. As expected… does this means that I wasn’t able to make her understand? However, arriving at a point where she no longer had any means of probing more into it, she no longer said anything else.

I myself felt my heart pounding but I somehow managed to keep it from showing along with a frantic face. In one way or another, I’m still being dragged along by the first exchange I had with Fili… The things that would affect the protagonists from now on are here and the quick progression of it is making me nervous. But correcting this at the early stages would still by far be for the better.

From then on, what happened afterwards was more or less idle talk. To begin with, what were discussed was the current state of the environment around the village followed by those of the other places in the continent. The current stage is where the Demons are observed to have an increase in numbers. However, there was never a situation yet where the humans had a serious conflict with the forces of the Demon Lord.

Even so, the scenario that I know of had without a doubt already entered the ‘Countdown Stage’… It seems that moving out seriously from here on out was already needed.

For the meantime, I’ll need to clear the objectives of the scenario in order for it to progress. Afterwards would be the aftertaste of avoiding the bad events… I’ll be needing to establish a connection as this will end up changing the scenario so it’s essential that I move out accordingly in order for it to have an impact with the Hero―

After some time, Katie stood up from her seat. However, she added a few words before taking her leave.

“Sooner or later, I may or would somehow be requesting your a.s.sistance”

― I think she was referring about the thing where the Mazoku would attack but… It’s different. The thing about the Mazoku attacking is set so it’s something like ‘In a case where a wat is at hand, I’ll have you partic.i.p.ate’ is what I felt she said.

After I answered back with an ‘Aah’, she left the bar. From that point on, I gave out a deep sigh… Somehow, I felt much more tired than the time we dived into the dungeon.

Should I continue to interfere this way from now on? No… In the first place, different depressing events will now be avoided that meeting with those of the people above was natural. Among the things that can be done, I started to think about it.

I continue to hold this uneasiness within my heart so for now, I should leave the bar to divert my mood.
And now, I was looking around this village… After a bit of time, I remembered that this village would be met with an attack.

There was a reconstruction of this place at the end of the game but… the attack itself was originally avoidable but in doing so, the motive of Fili engaging a fight with the Mazoku would vanish. However, leaving it as it is even though I know it would happen was somehow…

It’s there that I remembered one thin. The ‘Village Raid’ was an essential requirement for the story to move according to the scenario. If so―― As I thought, I recalled what it was and immediately returned back to the Inn.