Manowa Chapter 57

Maddy here once more with another Manowa chapter
FencaR promised the edits get better so Banzai to him.

Chapter 57 – Let's talk about the black history.

「Yos.h.i.+/alright, Zinray-san. Is this good?」

Kazane dug a hole using Golem Tebasaki-san, and buried the corpse of the adventurer.

「It might be dug up by a monster. Once we hand in the guild card the rest will be taken care of by the guild.」

「Roger. Is there no/any materials from Diablo?」

There was an amorphous black ma.s.s in front of Kazane. It was the『Corpse』of the monster named Diablo that they took out a while ago.

「Even if it says/is a corpse, someday it will revive. Sorry, it's best to have it all sealed.『Louise-onee who killed Diablo』right?」

So Zinray said. Louise standing next to him nods. They don’t doubt it.

「I have finished collecting the fur/pelt of the Elder Cat over here s.h.i.+shou/teacher/master. There's only a little bit of a hole in it.」

「That should be fine. Burn the corpse. If it becomes a zombie that's no joke.」

「Understood~」

Yumika moves back to the corpse of the Elder Cat where Tiara and Mefirs are standing.

「Tiara looks to be working diligently ne.」

「Even if you're a princess, you must not hold the party back. Mefirs knows that too.」

Kazane nods to Zinray’s words.

「The remains are this ChildStone ne. I examined it a bit, but after all it seems that the owner has changed to Kazane.」

Louise says so and holds the childstone out to Kazane.Then, the child stone flashed slightly.

「Eh?」

Kazane grimaces and asks Zinray her thought.

「Is this bad?」

「No, the child stone unlike the heart Ball is recognized as privately owned. It is unusual to be chosen as a host/owner, but it is not a bad thing. There will be no problem. However, I'm still concerned about the reason why the Elder Cat come to this level na.」

「It caught/snagged something?」

「Perhaps there is a monster with a quite powerful childstone in the lower levels, so it tried to move its territory to this side? The expansion period is happening in earnest. Louise-onee, give that child stone to Kazane.」

「Righto~ (TL: lit is Haina, so like a semi sarcastic/playful 'Yes sir'). Kazane, don't lose it. 」

「For sure.」

Saying so, Kazane receives it. When she touches it, the stone sphere s.h.i.+nes faintly.

「You are popular/You are liked. Kazane~」(TL: Louise is saying the stone likes her, but at the same time referring to how she/everyone likes/wants Kazane)

「Is that so?」

The light feels strangely ticklish.

「Oh, it can also be used to call an Elder Cat like that one earlier.」

「It’s a summoned beast, is not it?」

Kazanes eyes light up.

「That’s right. When the owner changes, the characteristics of the Elder Cat would also change based on the summoner, basically you can't expect one that fights on intuition like the one we fought.」

「Well, I’ll try to use it later.」

Kazane puts it away in the item box/storage.

「So, are we returning today?」

「That’s right. With a devil as an opponent it is exhausting indeed. Honestly, without Louise it would have been horrifying.」

「Well, that's what I was called for ne.」

Their conversation was based on the premise that Louise had defeated Diablo. Yumika and Tiara would both agree with the same story.

『Is this OK?』

「Un, Grandpa(Ojii-chan)/Old man. Keep the silence/Lie quiet.」

Kazane had a whispered conversation with Mefirs to the side.

Louise was able to solve the Diablo situation….it was Kazane who told this lie. It took place right after Diablo was overthrown.

◎Rock Hold Cave – Level Four – 1 hour ago

Gyahahahahahaha … extreme laughter was heard.

The fight was no longer able to be called a fight. Unilateral one-sided slaughter, just a trampling. Diablo was tormented like a worm and was killed with no apology, no groan of hatred, no screams of grief, only fear.

「Level up. I got the skill『Cheat Death』? Is that the reason Diablo didn't get defeated before?」

Kazane opened her status window and saw that her level went up and a new skill was added.『Cheat Death』, a skill that literally cheats death, recovering from an otherwise fatal condition. This is the reality behind the strong "Const.i.tution" that Diablo self-conceitedly claimed before. For this pa.s.sive skill to have been triggered proves that the opponent's power far exceeded his own. Activation alone had damaged Diablo's pride.

『I wonder if I can get an explanation for this situation. Kazane…』

Next to her is Mefirs, in front of them is the black object that resembles the corpse of Diablo, and the rest of the companions are on the ground behind it. Kazanes second character was responsible for the companions being knocked out as well. This monster of an avatar knocked her companions unconscious using the demon eye of forgetting immediately after defeating Diablo.

「I was also surprised when he suddenly did that, but I think he probably erased their memory of him.」

『Erased?』

Kazane nods to Mefirs’s question.

「If it were me…let's see ne. When Louise shot the anti-demon magic at Diablo, I think he removed the memory from that attack onwards.」

「Yeeees, well doneee.」

The second character agreed.

「When they wake up, the story will be that Louise defeated Diablo, grandpa(Ojii-chan) please go along with this.」

『Why do you need to do so?』

Hearing the words of Mefirs, Kazane looked at the second character and smiled sadly.

「This is my black history. The forbidden past which should not be touched, should not be forgiven by nature, there is no need to exist.」

Kazane's eyes contained no light, making Mefirs think of the/an abyss.

「Yumika, you are the (main?) one who must never know.」(TL: note, sentence is a little ambiguous, could mean 'Yumika is the only one who can know' as well, time will tell.)

（What eyes…）

Mefirs was horrified. He felt fear toward this one girl who had been shouldering the burden of (being an/such a) abnormal/different existence up until now. However, Mefirs judged that since this girl in front of him said so, he should not dig any deeper.

『I understand. As long as there is no danger for Tiara, I am good with anything.』

「Thank you, Grandpa.」

Kazane laughs lonesomely/sadly. As the second character became light and faded away, the companions woke up one after another.

◎Rock Hold Caves – Fourth Level – Present

（Hmmm, well I was wondering what I was going to do since everyone except him forgot, but since I have pursuaded Grandpa, this is fine.）

Kazane, who actually knocked down Diablo, concealed a great relief. It was partly for Kazanes own piece of mind, but it was mainly because she was able to avoid having Yumika find out about it, a thing which must be avoided at all costs.

Let's talk about it/Let's talk about the story.

In the game Zexiaharts there is a rumour whispered among the players of the『Bookcase of Resurrection』. This is a bug/trick where after using a status upgrade enhancement book, if you put the used book in this bookcase, the consumed book would be restored/usable again. There was a rumour that said the bookshelf in the farmer's house in Hibern was the one, however many had tried it and it was concluded to be a hoax.

However, in fact, that bug did exist. However it was a trick that only worked on version 1 during the beta and was fixed/patched with the release version 2.

Because the version being sold to the public on CD was version 2, for most players this was impossible, but if you were able to get a copy of version 1, you could install it and stop the update by force, then creating a character, if you used this bug/trick, it was possible to boost all of the stats to max in a few hours. Among the few players that knew of this method, using it was considered to be such a malignant, abusive act that you could only be considered as the 『Garbage of humanity』. There was also the point of avoiding the dangerous character fraud detection launched with the MMO version of Zexiaharts, to prevent players having an unfair advantage in the game.

However, Kazane who was a second grader at that time, had dabbled in the forbidden technique.

And in the 『Fallacy of youth』Kazane believed that there was no harm in trying it out for a round.

All restraint was lost. She ransacked the shopping districts warehouses, leaving them in flames, and robbed the casino blind.

Chuunibyou syndrome was in full effect. Living for the sake of achievements, all manner of evil/villain plays/acts/scenarios were played. Kazane was already a killing machine without feeling that existed only to acquire achievements.

Over seven nights, seven cities were razed, her avatar began to weep tears of blood from the eyes due to the curse of the departed. Sieg was even made to carry a bomb in the form of the Legendary Summoning Ring by invading alliances/cities and summoning the devil/second character.  In Kazanes mind the relations.h.i.+p between the second character and Sieg had a 「Oi Gramps, come buy this.」「Sir, Yessir!」kind of feel. It’s a hidden caste system. What is the strongest?(laughs)

And when Kazane regained her sanity, everything was too late.

The world of Zexiaharts that she loved had collapsed.

Viewing mankind’s destruction, Kazane who stood in place surprise disregarded the achievement of immortality. The development team, which had prepared for such an incident, was quite a wise one.

Later, Kazane became frantic, and in an attempt to beg for Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kuns forgiveness, prostated herself/knelt infront of Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kuns home. Anyone would desire forgiveness. It can't be denied, that there was the reason of「My/Yukko's sister will not forgive me.」.(TL: … I can't even, google fails me – oh, might be a manga quote from x.x.xHolic, too meta for me.)

And there was no doubt that Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kuns mother, who opened the front door and discovered her, was dumbfounded/outraged. It was inevitable that Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun was yelled at by his mother without getting the story straight. And if you think about Kazane's state of mind at the time, whether it be, a cat Mimi costume, a maid outfit or even prostrating in the nude, she was resolved to do any of it. She might have even let Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun take pictures with a camera as punishment. However, Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun might have been arrested.

No arrests were made.

The conscience of Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun overcame evil. No, Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun never considered such a thing in the first place, who would write such a splash/hit piece/article. It was a terrible time. And so, Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun was brought the prostrate girl who kept crying and, while being glared at by his mother, the circ.u.mstances were heard.

Listening to the actions of Kazane, and watching the replay videos from before and after the achievements that had been uploaded, as well as the NPC kill camera videos, Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun was completely amazed, saying 「Oh wow」. And so, Kazane's second character was have the door shut on it's story, after all, it's the second grade of junior high-school (TL: CHUUUUUU-). Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun persuaded Kazane that she should put it behind her and try to walk a third life of good.

Seeing the Kazane was unconvinced, Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun admonished「Living for those you killed」「Enrich them」「Plant Flowers in the city」「Make a peaceful world by eliminating conflict」. Zexiaharts also allows players to develop cities and partic.i.p.ate in diplomatic play. You can play that way if you take time. It is a difficult route because it is slow, and the profit return rate to players is also low, so few people do it.

And so, Kazane decided to start fresh for third time with a love-and-peace route. Incidentally, the king boss of the devils, who would only sp.a.w.n when all of the countries were in prosperous conditions was made to never appear.

At any rate, the truth of the incident remained only known to Kazane and Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun. The game ident.i.ty would be put to death, and Kazane would run from it. Hence the presence of that second character itself is a black history.

（I'm glad it wasn't exposed to Yumika）

So, Kazane feeling relieved, started on a fresh path.

Name: Yuihama Kazane

Occupation: Magic Swordswoman

t.i.tle: Ogre Killer

Equipment: Staff [[White Blaze]], Two Handed Sword [[Black Fang]], Silver Breastplate, Silver gauntlets, Silver sheep Clothing, Carapace Bull trousers, Berserk Ogre Greaves, Indestructible Cloak (and Futons), Mystery Pouch, Crimson Saint Casket, Legendary Spirit Summoning Ring

Level : 22

Vitality: 77

Magic Power: 132+300

Strength: 33

Agility: 27

Endurance: 17

Wisdom : 34
Dexterity : 20

Spell : [[Fly]] [[Torch]] [[Fire]] [[Heal]]

Skill : [[Goblin Language]] [[Night Vision]] [[Crus.h.i.+ng Blow]] [[Dog's Sense of Smell]] [[Golem Maker: Lv2]] [[Rush]] [[Fire Principle: Second Chapter]] [[Healing Principle: Second chapter]] [[Air Jump]] [[Killing Leg]] [[Fear Voice]] [[Invisible]] [[Tiger Eye]] [[Wall Walking]]『Insight』『Cheat Death』

Yumika「This story. I am locked out and I can not see it.」

Kazane「Well, there is something like that. It's just a side story about Tatsuyos.h.i.+-kun.」

Yumika「What kind of story is there talking about that guy? Is my presence decreasing that fast?」

Kazane「Well, I’m going back to the main story after four episodes of two stories a day. This is the 39.5 side story.」

Yumika「Oh, the writer left himself as a phantom.」