Chapter 196: Medicine to Sweeten the Mouth
Link: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7583de/
Author: Hirukuma
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
The Generals of the Netherworld are as follows:
Left Arm General | Right Arm General
Pinky General | Ring General | Middle General | Index General| Thumb General
Sulrim was described as ‘Medical General’ in the previous chapter, this was because the fourth finger was 薬指 (literally medicine finger) and Sulrim’s title was 薬将軍 (medicine general). In this case, we decided to go with ‘Ring’ for ‘ring finger’ since we used names for the fingers instead of numbers.
“Well, have you had a change of heart yet?”
I had been wondering why he came in so early, so it was just more of last night.
“No…”
“Nu-uh” [1]
“I am not sure what [1] ‘na-ah’ means exactly, but I understand you are refusing?”
Hmm, looks like certain [1] onomatopoeia slang doesn’t compute. Oh well, too bad I can’t show these people just how cultured I am, haha.
“Hey, you need to think about this seriously. So long as I am here to recruit you, you will be left alone. However, Sulrim and the Ruler of the Netherworld won’t be as lenient. You’re being spared now because I have asked them to hold back so that I can try and persuade you. However, you have only one week at most.”
In short, if we continue to refuse him, the Demon Army will resort to violence and force us, eh? Well, that makes sense. There was no need for them to allow enemies to do as we liked.
“Do you understand? You have one week.”
With that final cryptic warning, Leader Keyroil left.
Oddly enough, his words had a ring of reminder rather than a threat. Was he…
“It sounds like… he is telling us to… get out within the week.”
Well, if Pitee thinks so too…
If we only have one week at best, we must do our best to secure a way to get out. While I do have high hopes that Ramis and the others would try to rescue us, it’s unlikely they’d suddenly turn up…
Well, since we’re in unfamiliar territory, we should learn as much as we can about the layout — and the number of enemies. Now then, how should we go about this?
Think, think, what can I, as a vending machine, do at times like this?
“Mister Hakkon? Can I… have some food? Hungry…”
Oh, sorry, sorry, it’s long past breakfast time.
They say you can’t fight on an empty stomach, so let’s fill up that belly first.
As Pitee stuffed her cheeks happily, the shape of a plan started to form in my mind.
That was when the door was thrown open again and the Red and White twins made their appearance.
“Hakkon! Food! Drink! Also, how ‘bout a discount?”
“We’re broke! Please, please, Hakkon!”
It felt annoying to have those two clinging to me. So, after some thought, I gave them the money from yesterday’s purchase. Minus the normal price of goods they have taken.
“Ooohh, Hakkon’s the best!”
“You’re the best! Let’s have a feast! A feast!”
The two of them gobbled up the food they collected, looking like a starved Shui.
[2] After a while, I dropped a couple of cans of cocktails. These were sweet alcoholic drinks that go down real easy. As easy as juice or water. [2] “Fr-ee”“Ou, thank you!”
“Hakkon is the best magical tool ever!”
Yup, you boys drink up now. Have some of these Japanese sake, it has a slightly higher alcohol content than… oops, down the hatch it goes. Well, go ahead and drink, there’s more where that came from.
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An hour later, the two of them were thoroughly sloshed.
“Yo, Hakkon. Listen here~ we’re really important you know~ the people in the dungeon are important too~”
How many times has he talked about this? White gets drunk too easily, he should watch his drinking.
“Hic, sob, the Director took real good care of us, ya know. I feel so bad, ya know? Wahhhhhh…”
Red’s a crying drunk it seems. He had always been a crier each time I saw him drunk, but it had never been this bad. The stress must be getting to him.
More importantly, I managed to collect some information from these loose-lipped duo.
First, Leader Keyroil’s party was not really welcomed here. They were tolerated for their ability to conquer the dungeon.
[3] This answer puzzled me, especially since they have fully capable subordinates like Sulrim. So, I prodded them for more answers.Well, it looked like when monsters from outside of this dungeon were to fight the local monsters, their power drastically weakened. So, sending a party of monsters from outside the dungeon would only result in a unilateral annihilation in the hands of the local monsters.
Technically, as a Snow Spirit, Sulrim was a ‘different race’ rather than a ‘monster’, which meant she could fight against the local monsters. Kikoyu had been the same. [3] No wait, what’s this? Ah, it looked like Snow Spirits’ powers are only half as effective against local monsters.
Well, since they could fight at full strength against humans, they were still quite the threat.
“Then, there are these so-called Five Finger Generals–!! They are seriously stuck up, I tell youuuu!”
Five Finger Generals? How many of them are here exactly? Just one or two or all five of them? It would be quite troublesome if all of them were here.
“Hey, I haven’t seen the King of the Netherworld or the General recently, yeah?”
“The Pinky, Index and Thumb are all missing, ya know… why’s that?”
The two drunkards squinted at each other, tilting their heads in confusion at the same time as they wondered out loud.
Well, Pinky had been captured on Dark Forest Floor and was now imprisoned in Clearflow Lake’s dungeon. The whereabouts of the Thumb and Index fingers are unknown, but it looks like they are not around?
Still, the Ring General Sulrim as well as another mystery general could well be here. So let’s keep that in mind.
“Mon-ster”
“Bon-es”
“Bones? Yeah, the monsters here are mostly Bone Demons. They are a sorry lot, ughhh…”
“I think there’s a hundred of them. Not much good for talking, sadd…”
I was the one who got them drunk, but they were kind of a pain.
Still, I managed to get some useful information. So, the Ruler of the Netherworld has a skeleton army? Or rather, a Bone Demon army?
“Oth-er”
I inquired.
“Hm? Other than Bone Demons? I guess they were humans? They wear these really dreary-looking coats. So drabbbb…”
“Sob sob, can’t tell if they were really human or not, sob.”
If it were just the skeleton monsters, they probably can’t carry out any detailed orders. The real problems were these human or human-like entities.
I managed to squeeze a bit more information out of them before they fell into a drunken sleep. It had cost me quite a bit of effort, but I managed to record everything on my <Security Camera> function. So, I’d be able to retrieve the information as necessary.
“The door’s not locked… they’re drunk… what should we do…”
Under normal circumstances, [2] these two pieces of information would meant an excellent opportunity for escape. Unfortunately, since we still have no idea what the physical structure of this place was like, it may be best not to rush things yet.
“Pi-tee”
“Are you saying… my name…?”
“Bo-dy”
“Lo-ok”
“Body look? You… want me to look through their… bodies?”
“Ye-es”
Looks like she was starting to get the hang of understanding ‘Hakkonese’. Well, we had plenty of time to chat after getting shut up here.
“I… I can’t look… at a sleeping man’s… body…”
[2] Oi, what’s with that blush? It’s not that kind oc body check.“He-lp”
“Get-out”
“Help get out… for escape?”
“Ye-es”
Nice, you shall soon be certified as a beginner in Hakkonese.
Thankfully, she also started searching through the twin’s clothes. [3] There’s no point if she understood me, but still refuse to do anything.
[3] After a while, she paused to pull out a folded piece of paper.“This…”
“He-re”
She brought the piece of paper to me, helpfully unfolding it between us.
[3] I was shocked.It was a floor plan.
Not only that, locations of various enemies were marked and from the looks of it, it must be the twins’ patrol route. After recording everything, I asked Pitee to return the paper where she found it.
She searched through the twins a bit more, but nothing of value could be found. After a while, Pitee returned to her shield while I stood in place and thought.
Now that I have the positions of Leadery Keyroil and his party sorted out, all that’s left is gauging the abilities of the skeleton monsters and the human-ish foes.
As I pondered over what to the next, the door was pushed wide open.
“What are these brats up to now?” Vice-Leader Felmina glared coldly at the twins.
She conjured up some water and splashed them onto the twins’ face, causing them to leap to their feet.
“I shall be speaking to you two later. For now… Hakkon, Lady Sulrim wants to speak with you? Would you come with me? Pitee can remain here.”
So, she only summoned me?
Refusing would do me no good, it is best to comply for now.
I am also curious what she would want with me. If push came to shove, I could still protect myself with <Barrier>. Well, I can endure for a while… probably…
[Gumihou: Uh oh] [1] stuff that don’t translate. It was supposed to be Japanglish ‘No-sankyu’, but let’s go with slangs [2] Adjusted the paragraphs for smoother delivery [3] Added details
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