Third Outer World Story Series: Pumpkin Sorcerer - Chapter 38

Translator: MadHatter Editor: MadHatter

“Hyulololooo! I’m back.”

“Welcome back. You took a long time.”

After flying at high speed over Lean Forest from Kunukihappy’s gate in about half a day, Pumpkin landed on the shores of Lake Accumulate where he spotted Mizuki and greeted her.

“Well, actually, I was just planning to do some shopping and leave at once but…”

“Did something happen?”

“Yeah. A lot of things happened…”

While converting the magic in his body from the specifications outside of the forest to the specifications inside of the forest, Pumpkin drove his roots, which suppressed the release of magic power to the utmost limit, into the ground as several bears and boars appeared to be approaching from within the forest.

“Buhii!?”

“Gumaaa!?”

After that, the screeches of the beasts reverberated within the forest, and the sensation of piercing flesh and sucking up delectable blood transmitted through Pumpkin’s roots.

Yup. The creatures in the forest are, after all, in many ways piquant. Thank you for coming all the way here after hibernation.

Huh? You are wondering what I did? By suppressing all discharge of magic power, I simply propelled the beasts up from the ground with my stealthy roots while simultaneously reinforcing them by restraining any release of magic power.

“Anyway, do you mind explaining?”

“Yes.”

With that said, he began to tell Mizuki about what had happened at Kunukihappy while refreshing himself with the delightful water from Lake Accumulate.

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“And that’s why it took me so long to get home.”

“Sounds like you’ve had a rough time of it… or rather, with that Rio girl’s situation… If you get caught up in it, you’re sure to run into a lot of trouble.”

“Yeah. So, if I happen to get involved, I’ll resign myself to it and give it my all, but I have no desire to be actively involved.”

After the conversation was over, Mizuki expressed her opinion about Rio, to which he responded.

Well, you know. If someone asked me to accompany them on a request or help them when I went to town, then I would associate with them, but I would not be willing to go out of my way to find out where Rio is.

In fact, such involvement would be regarded as stalking.

“Oh, and by the way, here’s a souvenir.”

“Ah, you bought it for me.”

Pumpkin took out the bag of souvenirs which he bought for Mizuki at Kunukihappy and threw it to Mizuki, who caught it in the air by maneuvering the water.

“Which one is mine, this is… candy?”

“Yeah.”

Mizuki tilted her head as she took out the candy from the bag and looked at it.

“Hmm?”

“Is something bothering you?”

“I’m not really bothered. But I didn’t expect this to be bought by you, Pumpkin. Because we spirits are magical beings possessing a will, even if we are given clothes or accessories, they are unusable, while ordinary sweets are difficult for us to savor directly. There are various other things that could be potential souvenirs, but most of them are of no worth to spirits. Among these things, you managed to choose a candy that a water spirit like me can savor… It is quite unexpected.”

“O-Oh…”

I’m sorry, Mizuki-san. I didn’t put that much thought into it. I simply bought it after seeing it at a stall and figuring it would taste good since it had more magic power in it than other sweets, sorry.

Well, not that it really matters, as long as you were pleased with it.

“Yeah. It’s sweet and tasty.”

There wasn’t an issue; in fact, it appeared as though she was experiencing the candy’s sweetness through its dissolution in water.

“So, you got the parchment and ink over there?”

“Yeah. Looks like it’s under some kind of preservation magic.”

“Hmm.”

Mizuki put her face close to the parchment and ink and observed them carefully.

Her eyes were quite serious.

After the observation, Mizuki spoke up.

“This… this isn’t magic from this world.”

“What do you mean?”

A question mark floated over his head at Mizuki’s words.

If it’s not magic from this world, then the “Outer World,” as Lean-sama refers to it, may be at play… Based on her magic power, that woman is undoubtedly not a normal human being, but what kind of stationer would be affiliated with something like that?

No, first of all, why did Mizuki rule out the magic as not from this world?

Pumpkin turned his attention back to Mizuki. After giving a nod of affirmation, Mizuki began to explain to him, her face clearly reflecting her wariness.

“Spirits are beings that originated in this world. That is why if you show me the actual thing, I can ascertain whether the magic is based on the laws of this world or not. And the magic on this parchment, if it were to be invoked according to the magic laws of this world, would not be exempt from its collapse.”

“And yet the magic is invoked without any problem… so you are saying that it is not the magic of this world?”

“Yes. While I do not have any idea who made this, it was created with advanced techniques and a vast amount of power. But only a spirit would be able to understand such a thing in the first place.”

“Hmm.”

Yeah. Perhaps I should do some probing the next time I have a chance to visit the town. As long as they don’t turn hostile, it’s fine.

Well, provided there’s a next time anyway.

“So what are you going to do now? I noticed some humans came to your house while you were gone. Oh, nothing has been ransacked or anything, so you can rest assured.”

“What?”

Mizuki-san… why are you only mentioning it now!?

“Well, if you’re worried, why don’t you check it yourself?”

“Oh yeah. I’ll do that. I have to figure out what I’m going to do from tomorrow onward as well.”

So having parted company with Mizuki, Pumpkin hurried back to the egg-shaped boulder.

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T/N:

All three protagonists have been revealed already, though two of them are not made apparent as a protagonist yet. Try to guess who the other two are apart from Pumpkin (????)?