Chapter 297

The boy who called himself Juga was a Redhat.
A type of Goblin that was especially fond of fighting.

The fact that he had come from the Coast of Everlasting Summer meant that he was either driven out by the anti-Yamato forces, or he had run away by his own free will.

“I don’t have any intention of fighting.”
I said, nipping that idea in the bud.
Even if there was trouble, I would try and settle things peacefully.

In the first place, could I even fight in this body?
I would have to test it and find out later.

“Is that right? But I heard that you were going out in a disguise in order to journey while punishing the wicked.”
Juga looked at Pojun as if to say, ‘wasn’t that the case?’

Journey in disguise… Did he think I was some lord from an adventure story?

“There aren’t many high-rankers in the Forest of Everlasting Autumn, and so hardly anyone has appeared that could be put into a Personification.”
Pujun added.

Apparently, Juga thought that I was some high-ranker who was using this body to hide my own identity.

I could just tell him that I have been reincarnated from the Under World, but it would take too long to explain all of that.
And so I just insisted that I was doing this as a ‘hobby.’

To others, I would just say that I was a high-ranker who was on his way to meet King Yamato. And I just happened to be in this body because I was eccentric.

I didn’t know if Juga believed any of this, but I wouldn’t elaborate any further.

“Hey, Pojun. How much does my power decrease when I’m in this body? What happens to my special abilities?”

“You will not be able to use your special abilities and anything unique to your original body. Aside from that, it depends on the strength of your soul. There is mana here, so it might be the same.”

In other words, someone like Nehyor would not be able to extend his nails or fangs or make venom.
The body was not capable of doing that.

On the other hand, you could still use magic attacks and strengthen your body by charging it with mana.
These were all imprinted into the soul. And so you could make use of your power through mana.

The reason that you couldn’t extend your nails, was because even if it was imprinted into your soul, the flesh could not react to it.
Just like how there would be no point in transmitting a signal if there was no one to receive it.

However, if I went down to the Human World, there would be no mana around me. And so everything would be restricted. It was very inconvenient.

“I can strengthen my body. But I suppose strengthening my old body and strengthening this one will be very different?”

“Indeed. And if you become reckless without understanding that, your body will break. And it will be very difficult to repair a broken body.”

Apparently they had spares for these bodies a long time ago. But since they kept breaking at a fast rate, they didn’t have as many left now.

“…Hmm? Didn’t King Yamato make these?”
That had been my assumption.

“No. I was told that they were made in the Celestial World. They used such bodies when they had business in the Human World, and King Yamato stol…borrowed them.”
“…”

So he stole them from the Celestial World.
I liked him already.

Now that I thought about it, I had heard that holy power in the Celestial World was based on faith and the power of prayer in the Human World.
Well, a fallen one had said that, so it must be true.

And these bodies were made by residents of the Celestial World. What else did this reveal?
They must have been going down to the Human World in order to strengthen the faith of the people.

“It’s said that once the barrier was put up, the Celestial World no longer had sufficient holy power.”
Perhaps it was because once they could no longer go down there, people’s faith weakened. And so did the supply of holy power.

“Well, nevermind the Celestial World.”
I would find no answers no matter how much I thought about it.

“More importantly, where in the Field of Everlasting Spring is King Yamato? Also, can I really meet him if I go there?”

I would be very annoyed if he lived at the top of some tower, and I had to fight my way through every floor in order to earn the right to meet him.
And they will tell me, ‘sometimes there will be more than one guardian on each floor.’

“I cannot say for sure, as I myself have never been to the Field of Everlasting Spring. But it is said that King Yamato lives in the Crystal Palace.”

“Crystal Palace? That sounds very fancy. Crystal Pala…”

“Yes, the Crystal Palace.”
“Right.”
Pojun’s eyes looked a little scary.

“But I do think you will have a chance of meeting him if you go in that body. After all, there are not that many high-rankers here. They are quite rare, in fact.”

“I see.”

It wasn’t like the Demon World, where there seemed to be Lesser Demon Kings and Demon Kings everywhere.
In comparison, this place was the size of a cat’s forehead.

If such strong people fought over lands in this place, the entire Other World would become a wasteland.

After all, it meant that enemy Lesser Demon Kings would be in arms reach at all times. People would be fighting every day.
So it was no wonder that high-rankers were rare here.

“Also, there is one other thing. What is in the center of this world?”
Pojun had explained to me that this place was separated into four areas.

At first, he said to think of it as a cake, but then he changed it to a donut.

But as you could not go through the center, I had to go around.
Still, I wanted to know why.

What is in the center? A barrier? Or a wall?
“There is a mountain in the center.”

“A mountain? Then wouldn’t it be easier to climb it?”
It was true that mountain climbing was difficult.

But surely it couldn’t be any worse than taking the much longer route through the Coast of Eternal Summer?

“It is a mountain of salt. A looming, giant mass of salt. No one is able to get close to it.”
“…”

A great mountain of salt.
Yes, I could imagine that.

Also, was it what I was thinking about?

“And what have you been told about this mountain of salt?”

“It’s the heart of the barrier…no, not the mountain of salt. But the thing that is inside of it.”

The heart of the barrier was inside of the mountain of salt… What if it’s a dead body?
I had an idea of whose.

—That would mean he used Zeus’s corpse to make this world.

This Yamato was crazy.
He just used anything.

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Makai Hongi