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Chapter 1 – 22

A New Journey

[Author's Note]

This is the conclusion of chapter 1.

Within the forest, Tenma was still lying there, fallen. Tenma's bag suddenly started to stir and s.h.i.+romaru's head popped out from inside. He came out of the bag and checked his surroundings. Slalin also came out with him, stuck to his back.

s.h.i.+romaru licked Tenma's face, but there was no reaction. Slalin went up to his face and wondered what to do. Suddenly, he noticed that the zombies were headed towards them.

s.h.i.+romaru and Slalin worked together. Tenma was placed on s.h.i.+romaru's back, and Slalin held the two of them together, so they could escape riding on s.h.i.+romaru. However, because they were moving away from the zombies, it meant they were also moving away from the stronghold and village.

After traveling along the edge of the forest for 4 days they came across a river. Slalin and s.h.i.+romaru decided to let Tenma down nearby. Slalin had been occasionally taking water stored in the bag and making Tenma drink some, but since they had found a safe s.p.a.ce, they decided it was best for Tenma to rest. Tenma finally woke up 3 days after that.

“Where… mother, father?”

Tenma said as he looked around, his head still covered with the fog of confusion.

Something white appeared in front of his eyes after rubbing them, and Tenma unintentionally fell backwards. Looking closer, it was only s.h.i.+romaru. s.h.i.+romaru licked his face while wagging his tail. By the time s.h.i.+romaru had pulled back, somehow the fog had cleared from his thoughts.

Ah… mother and father had been killed. Just as these thoughts depressed Tenma and his mood sank way down toward the very bottom of a deep pit, Slalin moved away and started to cough something up…… It was the dark metal that had been growing on the zombie dragon's shoulder.

“Whoa! What did you just spit out!?” Tenma said, shocked.

The sinking feeling had vanished by being overwhelmed with surprise. If Slalin had a face, he would have chosen to put on a supremely smug expression. Somehow, he had an “I did it for you” att.i.tude…… At least it felt like it.

Anyways, thanks to Slalin, Tenma was able to calm down considerably. He used Investigation and it seemed as though Kukuri village was well outside of his range. There was no sign of monsters or large beasts around, so it seemed he was at least in a safe area. Just as he was going to let his mind relax, a reaction suddenly appeared on the radar inside his head.

“It's close! What can hide their presence perfectly like this, right up until they're this close?!"

He became fl.u.s.tered and hastily readied a fighting stance. Studying the reaction more closely, he realized it was coming from inside the river.

“In the river! A monster?!”

Just as Tenma became ready, the water swelled up and a fish appeared.

“I'm not yer enemy, so you don't gotta be so hostile.” 1

“It talked!”

Tenma was overly surprised and accidentally shot out an Air Bullet.

“Hmph!”

Yelled the fish as he somehow gracefully? jumped to dodge the attack…… His jump revealed that he was actually huge, as his body was easily over 3m long.

“A carp!” Tenma exclaimed.

“That's right, I'mma carp. Everybody's fave carp!” The fish said air-headedly.

“Well, I'm certainly not a hawk or anything.” He replied (to himself).

“What the heck are ya sayin'?” He said, sounding suspiciously close to Hiros.h.i.+ma Dialect.

“Are you from Hiros.h.i.+ma?” I asked him right away. 2

“No, I'm from Niigata!”

“Dat's differn't than Hiros.h.i.+ma!”

The fish said, sounding strangely like a two-man comedy skit. 3

His audience was only s.h.i.+romaru and Slalin though, so naturally n.o.body laughed.

―~――~―――~―――~――~― This chapter was translated by Refulgent for [ FourSlimes . com ―~――~―――~―――~――~―

“Huh, you wouldn't happen to be the previously reincarnated soul, Namitarou, would you?” 4

“Oh, so ya knew huh. But aren'tcha also a reincarnated soul yerself?!”

It was apparently the same Namitarou that I had heard about from the G.o.d of Creation. I was full to the brim with doubt though, so I tried asking him some questions.

“How is it that you can talk? And just how old are you? I thought you had died?”

“Don't ask me so many questions at the same time! I'll answer 'em but…” He said and started explaining.

His being able to talk was because he had lived for a very long time in the previous world and had acc.u.mulated a certain degree of knowledge. When he was reincarnated, it seems he made sure he would be able to speak this time around. His age was somewhere over 1,000 because it seems he hadn't kept track since then. Right after being reincarnated he had been hooked, but as just he was being reeled in, he thrashed violently and he was able to escape. It certainly seems like the G.o.d of creation thought he had died.

“Wah~, even counting my previous life thish is the first time I've talked to a person, ya know~”

“It's also my first time speaking with a fish…” I muttered, but he ignored it.

Namitarou told me things I had never heard before. He said things like like, in the previous world he was known as “Midori”, and he had lived in a pond up on a mountain. It was like his life was a fis.h.i.+ng manga, he described all his friends, and influenced by them he decided to seek revenge. He had a cute gra.s.s carp girlfriend and many other random unimportant things.

“But, why is Tenma in a place like this?” he asked.

He had heard something happened to the village. By the time I had finished explaining it all, I had been able to straighten out my thoughts somewhat. Namitarou, who had been listening to my story very quietly, tried to wipe his eyes with a pectoral fin…… but couldn't quite reach.

“What a saaad story. You must be hurtin', c'mere and have a cry on uncle's chest” He spoke with a pseudo Kansai Dialect while raising himself onto the sh.o.r.e. I threw a pebble at him to stop him.

“By the way, where are we?” I asked.

“Don't it hurtcha?” Namitarou said, but I decided to ignore it.

“Hm~ 'cause I've only been swimmin' around this area lately, I don't know where Kukuri village or many other places are~ Hold on, I'm gonna ask.”

He looked to the sky.

“Heeey, Chii-chaaan!”

A small bird, resembling a sparrow was called. The little bird flew down right in front of Namitarou and started chirping at him. Namitarou responded with “Hmm hmm, I see… Ah, I get it” as he listened.

“Thank you Chii-chan~ Tenma, I figured it out. It seems we're about 180km away from Kukuri village here.”

“You understood all that just now?!”

So Namitarou really was able to talk with that little bird, suspiciously similar to an ability you might receive from a G.o.d.

“A friend of Chii-chan's just came back from the direction of Kukuri village. Yesterday morning, for some reason it seems everyone from the stronghold was leaving for somewhere else.” he informed me.

―~――~―――~―――~――~― This chapter was translated by Refulgent for [ FourSlimes . com ―~――~―――~―――~――~―

“Huh, wonder what I should do now.”

“Well first, aiming for a place with others, or maybe following the people from Kukuri would be a good start, right?” He replied, giving the most sensible sounding options.

I worried about what to do. With father and the others no longer being around, I had no desire to go to the village. I also didn't want to be in a place that was under Hausto Frontier Earldom's control, as they had partially been to blame for the current situation. So, I decided to leave the Earldom and aim for a large village outside their jurisdiction. I told him of this and,

“Ah I see, that might be good too. Getting away from harsh situations is one way of dealing with it.” he replied.

…Why am I even asking for advice from a fish? I thought to myself.

“Since it's getting late, you should camp in this area for today and in the morning, you can start your journey. If you follow the river, eventually you'll leave Hausto Frontier.”

He explained in great detail that this river goes all the way down and joins up with the ocean. It seems Namitarou spends several decades in one place, goes downstream to the ocean and then leaves to move into another river.

That night I camped by the river. Dinner was a simple dried meat and vegetable soup with bread.

Because my body couldn't stomach the meat yet, I gave it to Slalin but for some reason Namitarou also seemed to want some. Even thought I gave him some he complained the flavor was bad and things like that, so I threw another pebble at him. s.h.i.+romaru had caught a deer on his own so I bled it and stripped the hide with my Dismantling skill, then gently roasted it over the fire.

Hi, Refulgent, your translator here, if you like my translations, you can show your support by leaving a comment or constructive feedback at Four slimes . com I'd love to hear from you directly~

The next morning, as I was preparing to leave Namitarou gave me a farewell present of several dozen Magic Cores and Magic Stones. It seems he had collected them all after they had been washed downstream.

“Take care, Tenma. If fate wills it, we'll meet again”

“You take care of yourself too, Namitarou.”

We exchanged our farewells and I started walking.

“Uh, why are you coming with me?”

30 minutes after I had set out, Namitarou was still swimming alongside me.

“Uhh, well… no reason?”

We continued on this way for 10 days, following the river until I had to leave.

[Author's Note]

Finally, I can end the first chapter. It feels like it's become long, releasing slowly drop by drop, and I apologize.

For some reason, it took this long for Namitarou to finally make his first appearance, even though his name was mentioned way back in the prologue.

[Translator's Note]

The bit of dialect in this one was tricky! There was also more j.a.panese cultural things to explain here than usual.

I'll post a small “chapter” tomorrow, but it's really just a snapshot of stats, before going into the second chapter properly on Monday.

Still trying to decide on a second project~

Hi, Refulgent, your translator here, if you like my translations, you can show your support by leaving a comment or constructive feedback at Four slimes . com I'd love to hear from you directly~

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Translator's NotesThe fish speaks in Kansai Dialect, often a.s.sociated with people who are funnier or more talkative than speakers of other dialects. Map of j.a.panese Prefectures for referenceThe author is referencing Manzai here: a two man comedy skit (a.s.sociated with Kansai Dialect) typically with one no nonsense man and one man playing the fool. is the name of a mysterious fish said to live in Niigata prefecture in j.a.pan, in the same vein as other mysterious beasts like Bigfoot or Nessie.