Chapter: 178
Rescuing Maybelle’s mother wasn’t really that hard.
Honestly, if it had been difficult, that would have been a problem. After all, we already got a general idea of her location from dowsing, and now that we were this close, I could figure out her exact position through spiritual means.
The rat beastmen we ran into? I just suppressed their minds, casually skimmed their thoughts, and manipulated their perception so they wouldn’t recognize me and Maybelle, allowing them to keep doing whatever they were doing.
I felt a bit uneasy freely playing with the minds of rat beastmen, but… well, it couldn’t be helped. Just a little adjustment to their perception would do.
So, without any hiccups, Maybelle and I made our way towards where her mom was.
“Is Mom really here…?”
“Isn’t that what the dowsing rod in your hand is saying?”
Maybelle kept asking, looking all anxious.
It was a dark and dreary prison. It made sense that she’d be worried about her mom being stuck in a place like this.
So, I patted Maybelle’s shoulder and urged her forward.
“Come on, let’s hurry. We need to get your mom out of here as fast as we can.”
“Got it!”
And then we arrived at our destination…
“It’s a dead end.”
“Hmm, seems so.”
Unlike other prisons, this area was entirely walled off except for a tiny hole at the bottom.
And inside, I sensed the soul that was probably Maybelle’s mom.
“There’s no entrance, is this really the right spot?”
“Yep. No doubt about it.”
I could clearly feel the presence of her soul beyond that wall, so it was definitely legit.
“But… there’s no way into this room.”
“Looks like they built a new wall here for the purpose of locking her up.”
This room was completely sealed off, save for one spot on the wall that had slightly different materials.
Apparently, they just slapped up a new wall to convert this old prison space into an even more secure cell.
“Why would they go to such trouble?”
“Who knows? Seems kind of over the top to imprison her like this, but… maybe there was a situation that called for it?”
“What do you mean? A situation that required locking her up like this?”
“Like, for example… if they needed to squeeze some specific information out of your mom and had to make sure she couldn’t escape, even if she was totally weakened? Ordinary bars might not have been enough to keep her.”
Even in a frail state, I didn’t think she could break through regular prison bars, but you never know. There are always those little kids who can swing around oversized hammers.
“Maybe they thought that walling her in would keep her from escaping.”
Even the rat beastmen we ran into on the way didn’t seem to know the full scoop about Maybelle’s mom.
They were just shoving food through that little gap at the bottom of the wall and taking orders to record any responses.
They thought they were doing this for the sake of the rat beastmen, but…
“So, should I break down this wall?”
“With your strength and that hammer, it might be doable. But be careful! If you start swinging it, the debris might hurt your mom inside.”
We came all this way to rescue her; we definitely don’t want her getting hurt by flying rubble.
So…
“In a situation like this…”
I raised my index finger and touched the wall.
“This is how you do it.”
I drew a big circle on the wall with my finger and when I pulled it away, the section I’d traced was cleanly sliced off.
I made sure the bits that fell went outside, not into the room. Nice and tidy!
“Cool, right?”
“Cool? No, it’s not! Regular folks can’t just do stuff like that!”
“Is that so?”
“Yes!”
Well, in this era, magic use really hasn’t been refined yet. So, it makes sense they couldn’t manage something like this.
Once you get the hang of magic though, you can pretty much do anything. As of now, humans are still mostly focused on scroll-making.
If you get the tricks down, magic is basically an all-in-one tool for doing anything.
“Anyway, I’ve made us an entrance now. Let’s go in.”
So, Maybelle and I stepped into the room.
“Mom…?”
A cramped, desolate space. Just one sad little slime rolling around in the corner.
In that corner laid a gray-haired rat beastman, utterly wrecked.
“Mom!!!”
Maybelle rushed over and wrapped her arms around the rat beastman.
A weak breath. A flimsy life force. Like a candle flickering in the wind.
“Calm down. At least she’s still alive.”
“B-But…”
“What’s going to happen if you squeeze her too hard in this feeble state?”
At my words, Maybelle hesitated. I understood her feelings, but still.
So…
“Just hang on a second.”
I summoned magic to wrap around Maybelle’s mother.
Her body was in rough shape. Her limbs were practically falling apart.
And it looked like she hadn’t eaten properly, which left her malnourished and extremely weak.
Hmm… she’s definitely hanging by a thread.
“Let’s see…”
First, I used magic to restore her weakened body, repair her battered muscles, and revive her faint spirit.
Even in such a half-dead state, she would soon be as good as new! Calling it “new” is a little iffy, but hey.
Anyway, she’s healthy now!
“Is it done?”
“Yep. Her physical recovery is complete, so now it’s time to wake her up.”
And so, I revived the consciousness of Maybelle’s mother, Ella.
Ella’s previously tightly shut eyelids slowly began to move.
And then…
“Mom…?”
“Maybelle…?”
Their eyes met.
“Ah, Mom…”
“Dear God…”
Maybelle buried her face in her mother’s embrace, while Ella slowly started to stroke Maybelle’s head, sobbing.
“Dear God… why did you send this child to me?”
Huh?
“I’m not scared of dying… but I wanted to protect this child… why… why did you let her die…”
Oh, I see. She’s under the impression that she’s dead.
She thinks not only she but also her daughter, Maybelle, is gone, too.
“Uh, Mom?”
“Don’t say anything… you poor thing… how much you must have suffered… I wanted so badly to protect you… even if it meant parting, I wanted you to grow up safe…”
“No, Mom?! It’s been 10 years since we last met, why would you say that?! I’m not dead! Totally alive!”
As Maybelle yelled that, it seemed to snap Ella back to reality, her gaze slowly clearing up.
“Huh…? I’m not dead…?”
“Nope! Alive and kicking!”
“…….”
Once she realized what she had said, Ella merely covered her bright red face with both hands.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Maybelle’s mom couldn’t lift her face for a while. She must have been supremely embarrassed.
Even Maybelle felt a bit shy about it.
“It’s a touching reunion between mother and daughter, but let’s move to another spot for now.”
Honestly, we could stay here all day, but if we did, they’d just get more and more embarrassed for hours.
For now, I had suppressed the minds of all the rat beastmen inside the building, but if any new ones show up from outside, that’s a different story.
Well, I could take care of them too, but to conduct a calm conversation, we should definitely change locations.
“Another location?”
“Yep. Let’s see… first, I’ll restore this wall…”
I lifted the section of wall I had cut and firmly reattached it, lightly melting the rock with heat to keep it snug.
“Perfect! Now no one will have a clue about what’s going on inside.”
“Maybelle? Who exactly is this person…?”
“I’ll explain later. Right now, just know that this person is helping me.”
Ella nodded at Maybelle’s words.
Hmm. Looking at her, Ella actually seems quite young. Is it a beastman thing? They seriously look more like sisters than mother and daughter.
Oh wait, no time to waste on pointless thoughts! Let’s get somewhere else.
Hmm… The inn where we were staying should work just fine.
I snapped my fingers lightly, and poof, the dark space flipped into our inn room in the blink of an eye.
“W-What is this?!”
Ella, who was experiencing spatial movement for the first time, wore a flustered expression. Meanwhile, Maybelle, used to it by now, calmly began to reassure her mother.
“It’s okay. The person just used magic to move us to another place.”
“Spatial movement? That’s not magic; it’s a miracle…”
Only then did Ella seem to have time to take a closer look at me, and she exclaimed,
“Could it be, the Dragon’s Priestess…?”
“Yeah, good instinct you’ve got there.”
At this point, it was only a matter of time before they figured out what was up.
“Anyone who experiences the miracle of spatial movement would notice, especially when it’s a young girl with giant horns doing it.”
“I see, that makes sense.”
I wonder if I should seal that magic to keep my identity under wraps. But that sounds like a hassle.
“What in the world happened that led the Dragon’s Priestess to come to aid you…?”
“Seriously, I’m wondering that too…”
Just a series of coincidences that feel like someone set the stage for all this.
“I would love to let you two catch up after 10 long years, but let’s save that for later.”
I looked at Ella and said,
“I have a rough idea of what the rat beastmen are trying to do, about wanting to create new deities, but just in case, could you spill everything you know?”
I also want to find out why they’re targeting Maybelle, and why Ella herself ended up locked in that cell.
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