Chapter 201: New Year's SS - The Shining First Sunrise and New Year's Greetings

“I heard they found the ruins of an ancient town.”

Liliera-san, who had returned from the Adventurer’s Guild at the end of the year, brought back news that a new ruin had been discovered.

“Heh, did they find anything rare?”

“Kyuu~”

Mina-san, who had already wrapped up her work for the year, was in an unusually relaxed mood.

Mofu-mofu was also sprawled out on the heated carpet like a butterflied fish.

“It seems it was a truly ordinary town, so they didn’t find anything significant.”

“Aww, that’s a shame.”

“But instead, they apparently found a lot of books that could serve as research materials for the social customs of that era.”

“What are social customs?”

“To put it simply, it’s the common sense, traditions, and trends of that era,” Norb-san answered while pouring tea, as Jairo-kun tilted his head at the unfamiliar words.

“Yeah, so the researchers immediately translated a part of the materials, and they found some interesting information inside.”

” ” ” ” “Interesting information?” ” ” ” “

When we bit at Liliera-san’s words, she floated a triumphant smile.

“That’s right. Surprisingly, that book was about the New Year’s rituals of that time!”

“New Year’s rituals!?”

“That’s some incredible timing.”

“It is. To hear a story about ancient New Year’s rituals at the end of the year.”

“So, what kind of ritual is it?”

Since the major cleaning and New Year’s preparations were already done, everyone was engrossed in Liliera-san’s story.

“Apparently, it involves climbing a mountain called Mt. Shikoku to see the first sunrise of the year, which is used to divine one’s fortune for the new year.”

“Telling fortunes by seeing the first sunrise?”

“Does climbing the mountain mean it’s a place of worship like the church’s holy sites?”

“Ah, if it’s there, we can reach it in about two or three hours from here using flight magic.”

“Oh, it’s surprisingly close… wait, eh?”

“You know it, Bro!?”

“Yeah, I think that’s the Desma First Sunrise.”

” ” ” ” “Desma First Sunrise!?” ” ” ” “

“Heh, sounds interesting. Let’s go!”

Jairo-kun suggested going to see the first sunrise.

“Eh, what a pain. Let’s just relax at home.”

“Kyuu~”

But it seems Mina-san and Mofu-mofu wanted to take it easy.

“Testing our luck! If we get a good result, we’ll be blessed with money this year too!”

“It might be nice to welcome the new year with a pure heart.”

But Meguri-san and Norb-san seemed eager.

So it’s 3 to 2 now.

“What will you do, Liliera-san?”

The ones left were me and Liliera-san.

“Let me see, I just got back so I’d like to relax, but… either is fine.”

So Liliera-san is in the ‘either is fine’ camp.

“Or rather, I have a feeling something troublesome is going to happen no matter which we choose.”

“Huh? Did you say something?”

“No, it’s nothing. What do you want to do, Rex-san?”

“Let me see, I…”

The Desma First Sunrise… I heard stories about it in my previous life, but I was too busy with my work as a hero and had no connection to it.

Rather, I think the idea that there’s no time to rest for the sake of world peace was a bit too harsh.

…Yeah, I’ve decided! I decided to live a relaxing life in this world, so I’ll go to the Desma First Sunrise too!

This is an adventurer-like New Year’s event, after all!

“Alright, let’s go!”

” ” “Yay!” ” “

” “Eh~?” ” “Kyuu~”

Jairo-kun and the others rejoiced, while Mina-san and Mofu-mofu lamented.

“Yes, yes, then let’s get ready for departure.”

And so, Liliera-san solemnly began preparing to go out.

---

“Why didn’t I object!!”

As we were climbing the mountain, Liliera-san suddenly screamed such a thing.

“What’s wrong, Liliera-san?”

“Don’t ‘what’s wrong’ me! Why do we have to climb a mountain in the middle of a raging blizzard!?”

“Because it’s a New Year’s shrine visit that involves climbing Mt. Shikoku (Death-Cruel).”

“That word is way too disturbing!?”

“To be accurate, it’s the Mountain Range of Death, commonly known as Death Mountain.”

Yes, Desma is short for Death Mountain.

“An even more directly dangerous word came out!?”

“That being said, isn’t this too dangerous? The blizzard is dangerous, but the monsters have been ridiculously strong for a while now… Wouldn’t it be better to fly through the sky with flight magic?”

Norb-san suggested we fly to the summit while enduring the attacks of the monsters swarming us.

“No, we cannot fly.”

“Why can’t we?”

“Partly because the blizzard makes for poor visibility, but also because a magic power storm that causes magic to go berserk is raging in the sky above Death Mountain.”

“A magic power storm!? What is that!?”

That’s right. Because of this, you can’t just cut across Death Mountain to get to the land on the other side, so you have to go out of your way to detour around it.

Neighboring lords took advantage of that to collect tolls and cause endless trouble, so it was also called Death (in a war sense) Mountain for that reason.

“Everyone’s equipment has cold-weather protection, so the cold should be mostly covered. Also, there’s an underwater breathing function, so rest assured you won’t suffocate even if you get caught in an avalanche.”

” ” ” ” “That’s not reassuring at all!!” ” ” ” “

“Now then, let’s hurry to the summit before dawn!”

“I want to go hooooome after all!!”

---

“W-We finally made it…”

We somehow managed to reach the summit of Death Mountain before dawn.

We were attacked by packs of mutant monsters and those mutants caused avalanches; a lot of things happened along the way.

“Haa, I’m exhausted.”

Everyone slumped onto the ground and let out heavy breaths.

“Here, good work.”

I pulled out hot potions from my magic bag and handed them to everyone.

“Thanks.”

“Haa, it’s waaaarm.”

Everyone drank the hot potions with relieved faces.

“Now we just have to wait for the sun to rise~”

“Kyuu~”

Mina-san wrapped Mofu-mofu around her neck like a scarf and sat down on a nearby rock.

“Yes, now we just have to wait for that guy to come.”

” ” ” ” ” “That guy?” ” ” ” ” ” “Kyu?”

Everyone looked at me with faces asking, “Eh? What are you talking about?”

“Yeah, because a New Year’s shrine visit hasn’t really started until that guy shows up.”

“Hey, who is that guy? Is someone coming?”

Ah, did I forget to explain about that guy to everyone?

“Well, you see…”

It was right when I was about to explain about that guy.

A dazzling light suddenly illuminated us.

“Eh? Is it dawn?”

“But isn’t it strangely bright for dawn?”

“Or rather, the sunlight feels awfully close… Is it because we’re on top of a mountain?”

“…Over there, there’s something glowing.”

While everyone was surprised wondering if morning had come, Meguri-san pointed out the thing that appeared before us, saying that wasn’t it.

“A Great Spirit that comes from the Spirit Realm, aiming for the moment the magic power storm stops, which only happens once a year on New Year’s Day. Its name is the Rising Elemental, commonly known as the Spirit of the First Sunrise. That’s that guy.”

“The Spirit of the First Sunrise!?”

In reality, it’s a light spirit that just closely resembles sunlight.

“Defeating that guy and obtaining the first materials of the year is the New Year’s First Material Hunt that was popular among adventurers of that era!”

” ” ” “What the heck is thaaaaat!!” ” ” ” “

“Interesting! A New Year’s First Material Hunt, let’s do this!”

Brimming with motivation, Jairo-kun immediately charged at the Rising Elemental.

Utilizing his specialty, fire-attribute enhancement, he challenged it head-on with maximum acceleration and maximum power.

“Eat thiiis-bepo!?”

“Jairooooooo!?”

“Ah, Jairo-kun took a counterattack and got blown away!?”

“Amazing, he’s tumbling down the mountain slope, bouncing boing boing like a slime.”

“Jairoooooo!!”

While Meguri-san and the others were commentating, Mina-san hurriedly ran off to retrieve Jairo-kun.

“Ah, right, right. The Rising Elemental is a Great Spirit, so it’s quite strong. Use your attribute enhancement at full power.”

” ” “Tell us that kind of thing first!!” ” ” “

And so, our New Year’s first hunt began.

Everyone challenged the Rising Elemental with their attribute enhancements at full throttle, but struggled against an opponent that could move at the speed of light.

Specifically, Norb-san, who had the earth attribute, showed a noticeable bad compatibility in terms of speed.

“Everyone, don’t be fooled by its speed. The opponent is light, so strike at light’s weakness!”

“What is light’s weakness!?”

“Or rather, how do you defeat a spirit!?”

Huh? Does everyone have no experience fighting spirits?

I see, so that’s why they were struggling so much.

Battles with spirits are vastly different depending on whether you know the trick or not.

“Due to its nature, a light spirit weakens when it’s dispersed! So… WATER JAIL!”

I trapped the Rising Elemental in a cage of water using the water magic, WATER JAIL.

The water cage covered 360 degrees all around; it felt more like a room without doors than a cage.

The trapped Rising Elemental fired rays of light trying to destroy the cage, but the light diffused and failed to destroy it.

“…If you trap it in a water cage that diffuses light like this, its attacks diffuse and it weakens significantly. And by the same logic, if it tries to pass through the water, it will temporarily weaken greatly and its speed will drop.”

Since its light rays didn’t work, the Rising Elemental tried to pass directly through the water cage.

In reality, this cage is just water, so as long as you solve the breathing problem, you can get out easily.

But, because the Rising Elemental’s power decreases by the amount its light diffuses, this magic is highly effective.

“Then, aim for the moment it comes out of the water cage and… Hiyah! See, you just defeat it like this.”

I aimed for the moment the weakened Rising Elemental came out of the cage and pierced its core.

“Wait, ‘like this’, you say, but you literally just defeated it.”

“Ah.”

Oops. I thought this was perfect for everyone’s anti-spirit combat training, but I accidentally defeated it!

Or rather, the Rising Elemental is surprisingly weak.

Based on the stories I heard about the New Year’s shrine visits in my previous life, the Rising Elemental was supposedly quite formidable.

Was it just coincidentally a weak Rising Elemental this time?

While I was wondering about that, the Rising Elemental’s body suddenly shined even brighter.

“Oh no! Everyone! Collect what comes flying!!”

“Eh!?”

Simultaneously, the Rising Elemental burst, and several lights flew off in all directions.

I grabbed one of them, and everyone also snatched the lights in the same way.

“Uwoooooo! Prepare yourself, Rising Elemen-uwoah!?”

“Kya!? Eh? What is this!?”

And Jairo-kun and the others, who had just returned, also obtained fragments of light.

Yeah, in Jairo-kun’s case, it smacked him right in the face.

“What on earth is this?”

Liliera-san asked me while holding a glowing fragment in her hand.

“These are the Rising Elemental’s materials. When defeated, a Rising Elemental bursts its materials like just now, so you need to collect them immediately. But because the materials are fragile and fly quite far, the ones that fall to the ground break and become useless. And as you can see, the materials are glowing, so it’s impossible to specifically aim and collect the rare ones.”

I held up the still-glowing material so everyone could see it.

“When the actual sun rises, this glow will subside. Then you check what kind of material you obtained, and look at its rarity to divine your fortune.”

“I see, so obtaining a rare material means you have good luck.”

“I mean, I didn’t even get to fight it properly…”

Jairo-kun, who hadn’t been able to participate in the battle, came over, dropping his shoulders in disappointment.

As everyone regrouped, the true first sunrise of the year rose from beyond the horizon.

“Wow…”

“Amazing, you can see incredibly far.”

“This is amazing…”

As the sun’s light illuminated the earth, a vast world spread out below us, gazing down from the high mountain range.

“Not bad.”

“Right, with this, it was worth coming to see.”

Even Mina-san and the others, who had found the New Year’s visit a hassle, seemed to feel a stir of excitement in their hearts at this sight.

“Oh, what’s this!?”

Turning toward Jairo-kun’s voice, a yellowish, translucent chunk of stone was resting in his hand.

“Ah, that’s a chunk from around the Rising Elemental’s arm. It’s perfect for making light-attribute equipment.”

“Heh, light-attribute equipment. Sounds interesting.”

“Rex! What about this!?”

“Rex-san, what is this?”

Holding the Rising Elemental materials whose glow had subsided after bathing in the sunlight, everyone asked me for explanations.

“Let’s see, this is the Rising Elemental’s eyeball. If you process it into a tool, you can make a convenient tool for seeing far distances.”

“Ooh!”

“And this is…”

I appraised everyone’s materials and taught them their uses.

Spirit materials are good for selling or using, so everyone can do whatever they want with them.

“Crunch, crunch, crunch… Kyuu.”

…Mofu-mofu, spirit materials are not food.

“Now, what’s my material… Huh?”

“What’s wrong, Rex-san?”

When I tilted my head looking at the material I obtained, everyone came over wondering what was going on.

“Well, this is…”

“What is this, a jewel?”

Yes, what I obtained was a perfectly spherical stone, so beautiful it looked as if it had been polished.

Or rather, it wasn’t just a stone, but a highly transparent yellow jewel.

“If so, isn’t it quite large?”

“Yeah, if this is a real jewel, it’ll fetch a considerable price.”

Yeah, that’s right. When talking about a palm-sized jewel as a Rising Elemental material… this is probably that, right?

“This is probably the Rising Elemental’s Spirit Core.”

“Core?”

“Yes, it’s the literal core for the Rising Elemental to manifest in the human realm, but…”

“That sounds like it would be incredibly expensive…”

Liliera-san pointed at the Rising Elemental’s Spirit Core with a guessing look.

“It’s the rarest material… I guess.”

” ” ” ” “As expected.” ” ” ” “

“Kyuu.”

Eh? What do you mean ‘as expected’?

“So Bro got the best material after all, huh.”

“Well, it is Rex-san, after all.”

“It’s decided that Rex-san is the luckiest one this year.”

For some reason, everyone accepted me getting the best material as a matter of course.

“Rex defeated it anyway, so we can’t really complain.”

Well, that’s true when you put it like that, but it wasn’t really that strong of an opponent.

---

◆ Liliera ◆

“Well then, we’ve seen the first sunrise, so shall we go home?”

Having finished checking the materials and watching the real first sunrise, Rex-san stood up to go home.

Haa, how depressing.

“Ah, we have to go back through that hellish animal trail again…”

It really is true.

To think there were such strong monsters in a mountain not even that far from the Royal Capital…

According to Rex-san, the monsters around here are highly territorial so they won’t come out, but it still makes me anxious.

“It’s tough…”

“It is.”

Everyone also let out sighs, wanting to avoid fighting those monsters again just like me.

“What are you saying! Aren’t we gonna train so we don’t hold Bro back this year!”

Amidst all that, only Jairo-kun was full of energy.

In the previous battle, he was suddenly blown away, and by the time he got back, the battle was already over, so it’s not like I don’t understand how he feels.

But my true feelings are…

“I want to start that from tomorrow…”

Yeah, this is it.

I really just want to sleep already.

“Then, shall we fly back through the sky today?”

Rex-san, who was listening to our conversation, proposed that we fly back.

Right, flying back is the best… wait, eh?

Everyone seemed to realize the oddity in Rex-san’s words and tilted their heads going, “Huh?”.

“H-Hey, Rex-san. What do you mean we’ll fly back?”

Are you saying we didn’t have to go out of our way to climb the mountain!?

“Because, look, today is the one day a year the magic power storm stops. We can fly back on the way home.”

WH-AT-DID-YOU-SAY?

Wait, wait, wait! My brain can’t keep up! We climbed the mountain because the raging magic power storm made it dangerous, but because the storm has stopped, we can fly back!?

” ” ” ” ” “Why didn’t you tell us that before we climbed!!?” ” ” ” ” ” “

This was our genuine, unfiltered true feelings.

“Eh? Because it’s better to aim for the Rising Elemental right after it appears to defeat it. If that’s the case, we needed to be at the summit before the magic power storm subsided, right?”

” ” ” ” “We didn’t climb it to exterminate monsters in the first place!!” ” ” ” “

In this way, having gotten massively exhausted right at the start of the new year, we returned to the mansion in the Royal Capital, collapsed onto our beds, and slept like the dead.