Chapter 155
Land of the Dead
When I followed Elonen out of the house, I saw Gerard and Bessie sitting on the dirt ground.
Bessie was playing with a wooden doll I had never seen before, and it seemed Gerard had taken it out of his subspace. I had thought it looked somewhat familiar, and it was similar to the ones dangling from his staff.
Whether Gerard had soothed her well, or because the screaming had ended quickly, the child didn’t look very anxious.
“Is Mother… alright?”
Bessie spotted Elonen and me and rushed over in a fluster as she asked. Elonen let out a sigh and shook his head.
“I’ve only done a simple temporary treatment. She needs to be taken to the Grand Temple to receive proper help.”
“Then Mother is still sick?”
Bessie, who had been playing well with Gerard and the doll just a moment ago, began to tear up again.
“It’s not that there’s no way at all. It will just take some time. Her condition won’t get any worse for now, so you need to put your mind at ease and wait.”
“By the way, where did Sal, Kyle and Kakaros go?”
While Elonen soothed Bessie, I asked Gerard. He turned his head and pointed toward the residential area.
Just then, the three people who were coming over with a ladder and repair tools spotted Elonen and me standing outside the house and hurried over.
“What happened?”
Kyle asked with a bright face, as if he had naturally expected it to have ended well.
“For now, I’ve only taken temporary measures to keep it from getting worse, and we decided to take her to the Grand Temple on our way back.”
“What? Even you couldn’t treat her, Elonen?”
As expected, Kyle seemed to have assumed that Elonen would have solved it, and he asked in bewilderment.
“The contamination is more serious than I expected, so it’s too much for my strength alone. I think we’ll need to go to the Grand Temple and seek help from other priests.”
“Really? For it to be beyond what you can handle…”
Kyle, who had grown serious on his own for whatever reason, muttered to himself.
“I heard briefly earlier that Sal seems to have a rough idea of what the situation is like there. I was thinking we should ask him for his opinion.”
I spoke carefully because he didn’t seem to like Sal very much, but instead, Kyle lightly clapped his hands as if he thought it was a good idea.
“Then shall we hold a short meeting?”
Kyle gathered the party members, including Gerard. Thanks to Sal kindly lending us his house as a meeting place, we gathered closely together inside the narrow cabin.
“These are homemade tea leaves that I personally grew and dried. Please have a cup.”
On top of that, he served us warm tea. The tea the Fairy King had served came to mind, so Kyle and I secretly exchanged glances.
Around the time the atmosphere had warmed and relaxed to a certain degree, Sal stood beside the table where the party members had gathered.
“First, let me introduce myself. I’m called Sal, and my full name is Salamander. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of me.”
Because the original novel was a generic fantasy novel, there were also spirits based on the four elements. Among them, Salamander was a fire spirit.
But even I hadn’t known that Sal’s identity was that fire spirit. To think the Black Flame Dragon and a fire spirit were old friends.
It was somehow a fitting yet fascinating combination. Salamanders were lizards too, so perhaps reptiles of the same fire attribute had some kind of connection.
“If you say Salamander, do you mean the fire spirit? I thought you were only an imaginary being…”
The knowledgeable Gerard was the first to ask in surprise. Only then did Kyle let out a small exclamation, as if he had realized Salamander’s identity.
“Yes. I heard the hero’s party came here to enter the Land of the Dead.”
“That’s right. Speaking of which, have you perhaps heard any rumors that the Black Flame Dragon is inside, or anything like that?”
Sal slyly looked up into the air and put on a thoughtful expression.
“Hmm, the Black Flame Dragon… I think this is the first time I’ve heard of that. I’ve lived here cut off from the outside for a long time, so I don’t know much about outside news.”
“I see. Then does that mean the Black Flame Dragon didn’t come here? What do you think?”
Kyle looked around at the party, seeking their opinions. At this rate, it seemed we would turn back without entering the Land of the Dead.
Their goal had been the Black Flame Dragon from the beginning, and there was no time left now either, so it was a natural reaction.
However, I had to enter the Land of the Dead and uncover the secret about the mana crystals. After coming all the way here, I couldn’t turn back without learning anything.
“But you said the Black Flame Dragon once told you he would come to find the sacred relic.”
