Chapter 84: Fruit of the Heavenly God Tree

The surrounding enemies have been dealt with. The Commander General and the knights suffered minor injuries, but Estelle healed them with her magic. That level of injury can be healed by a normal healing magic user, so Estelle‘s ‘Gift’ probably won’t be exposed. The only one remaining is the Dullahan Lord the Commander General is fighting… Until just a moment ago, it was a back-and-forth battle, but gradually it felt like the Commander General was being pushed back. After all, the opponent is undead. Possessing inexhaustible stamina. The more time passes, the more disadvantageous it becomes. The Commander General must know that too. He looks like he’s being pushed back, but he also looks like he’s aiming for an opening. The Commander General dodges the Dullahan Lord’s slashing attack by a hair’s breadth and kicks the shield held by the opponent. The Dullahan Lord, having lost balance, still slashed at the Commander General. But that strike from an unbalanced stance was, even to my eyes, a checking attack without momentum.

“This is… the end!”

The Magic Sword Pesante held by the Commander General deflects the Dullahan Lord’s flaming greatsword, and with a returning blade, cleaves the headless armor.

“Gah…!”

The slashed Dullahan Lord is enveloped in the red-black flames peeking from its body and falls to the spot. Along with the blazing eerie flames, the Dullahan Lord turned into particles of light and disappeared.

“Phew…”

The Commander General kneels on one knee and crouches. As expected, taking on a Dullahan Lord, a high-ranking species of Dullahan, seems to have been quite tough. Estelle rushes over and casts healing magic on the Commander General. After a while, perhaps recovered, the Commander General stood up abruptly.

“Thank you, young lady. I feel much better.” “No, please don’t mention it.”

He managed to win against the Dullahan Lord, but the Commander General didn’t escape unscathed; apparently, the bone in his left arm and several ribs were cracked. Uumu, if it was going to be like this, maybe I should have used physical enhancement and fought… But he looked like he was having so much fun fighting… He said he felt frustrated for not being able to participate in the Dullahan subjugation when he was a novice knight, so maybe his long-cherished wish came true. If so, maybe yielding was the correct answer after all.

“Are you okay?” “Yes. Struggled a little, though. If it follows convention, I don’t think another will appear for several years now.”

The Commander General answers laughing. A Dullahan appearing periodically… is there some curse on this place? I casually thrust the [Holy Sword] I was holding into the ground. Then, through the sword, I understood there was something bad in this land. Straining my eyes, black root-like things are spreading in the ground. This is the same as with Ritsu…! Is it cursed after all? Umm… like this, maybe? I pour magic power into the [Holy Sword] stabbed into the ground. Then, just as I felt a sensation like popping—Pan!—inside the ground, the root-like things of the curse that were there until just now were blown away easily. As usual, outrageous power.

“L-Lady Sakuraile, what was that just now…?” “Ah… I lifted the curse of this land. With this, undead shouldn’t be born in this land anymore.” “I-I see…”

With a slightly twitching expression, the Commander General nods slightly. Perhaps he wanted to fight again next time a Dullahan appeared? But for the safety of this territory, I think this is better.

“By the way, where is the Fruit of the Heavenly God Tree? I don’t see any tree that looks like it though…” “That is…”

The Commander General knits his brows and directs his gaze to a fallen tree in the corner of the ruins. Eh… wa, wait a minute, don’t tell me…!

“That fallen one is the Heavenly God Tree, and what’s scattered and trampled are the Fruits of the Heavenly God Tree.” “No way…”

That’s too much. To think it was cut down even though we came all this way to get it…! The tree presumed to be the Heavenly God Tree was miserably fallen and emitting smoke—busubusu—as if scorched. Was it cut by the Dullahan’s sword… Around it, covered in mud and many footprints, I find round fruits about the size of ping-pong balls crushed and messy. Some were burnt out and turned to charcoal.

“Those are the Fruits of the Heavenly God Tree. There might be some usable fruits, but most are infected by the undead’s miasma. Using these might worsen the curse disease…”

Miasma. That red-black flame-like thing emitting from the Living Mails and Dullahan. Certainly, the rolling fruits are also clad in a faint red-black haze.

“Can’t this be exorcised with the [Holy Sword] like earlier…” “Not impossible I think, but those fruits are already separated from the tree, so to speak, dead fruits. All of those fruits are already dyed in the nature of miasma. If you use the [Holy Sword], they will likely be blown away entirely along with the fruit, just like the undead.”

No good then… Listening to Kohaku-san’s explanation, I looked up at the sky. [Holy Sword] is too powerful! An image of washing small dirt on ice with boiling water came to mind, and it might not be far off. Still, there seem to be some safe fruits though…

“According to Lord Traumerei, what is needed is dozens of salted fruits. Even scraping together safe ones, the number might be insufficient.”

Salted. Not used as is. If I recall… the three major elements necessary for alchemy are ‘Mercury’, ‘Sulfur’, and ‘Salt’, right? Learned in Teacher Strum’s class. The three principles of alchemy or something. Like saying ‘Mori-shio’ (piled salt), ‘Scattering salt’, or ‘Purifying salt’, maybe salt has the power to banish evil. There must be such a reason for salting ‘Fruit of the Heavenly God Tree’ too. …Huh? I picked up one of the relatively decent broken fruits scattered at my feet. This is also faintly infected by miasma but… this is… Yellow fruit, but some red parts too. About the size of a ping-pong ball, round… Wait, isn’t this a plum (Ume)!? No matter how you look at it, it’s a plum fruit. My grandma in my previous life made plum wine every year so I know it well. Ah! If I recall, the embryo inside the plum seed is called ‘Tenjin-sama’, right? I feel like I heard from my senior something like it derives from Tenjin-sama—Sugawara no Michizane liking plums. Salted version of this fruit… Isn’t that Umeboshi (Pickled Plum)? Eh, wait a minute wait a minute. After coming all this way! If it’s Umeboshi, it’s inside the onigiri of the shop I can summon! Watching the knights crawling on the ground looking for fruits not infected by miasma under the Commander General’s instructions already makes me feel very sorry. Goddess-sama, instead of ‘Heavenly God Tree’, name it ‘Plum’… W-Well, since we defeated the Dullahan Lord appearing in this land, maybe the result is all right. But I don’t know yet if the plums in this world and the Umeboshi I summoned are the same. Just in case, have to go back and ask Viscount Traumerei. But I think they are probably the same… According to the Goddess, this world was seemingly made referencing Earth things. It’s a food good for health, said to be ‘Plum escapes the day’s trouble’. In the sense of warding off misfortune, it might be close. Pickling that with purifying salt… It’s the best material to make a dispel potion, right. Well, if the collected plum fruits… no, Heavenly God Tree fruits are insufficient, let’s propose it. Let’s do that.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Unbelievable… This one has stronger components, and the preparation is perfect… Whether even I can pickle it in salt this perfectly…”

Viscount Traumerei, analyzing the Umeboshi obtained by my Store Summoning, groans—gumumu. What is that difference, I wonder? Type of plum? Quality of salt? Or is there some secret to the onigiri shop’s homemade Umeboshi? In the end, the Heavenly God Tree fruits didn’t reach the target number, so I ended up providing my Umeboshi. If anything, apparently my Umeboshi is superior as material. Meaning it can be used for the dispel potion.

“If the preparation is finished to this extent, we can enter compounding immediately! Can I take charge of this!?” “Please, please. If you like, you can eat the onigiri there too, you know?” “Then gratefully!”

Viscount Traumerei ran to the compounding room holding a mountain of plum onigiri and Umeboshi in plastic containers. With this, that parent and child will pull an all-nighter again… But we must make the Silver Demon Disease dispel potion as soon as possible… Fortunately, no deaths yet apparently, but I think the people in the village infected first are in danger soon. Might not die, but might have aftereffects. Also, no matter how much ice water checking is done, the possibility of infected people already being in the Royal Capital is not small. If so, there is a possibility infection is spreading without being noticed. I think it’s okay for people working in the castle since they are thorough about that… Announcing Silver Demon Disease to the whole country now would cause panic. If things go bad, some lords might think of killing infected people to suppress the disease. In the game, there were several victims. Trying to make that zero, I’m prepared for some unreasonableness. Though the Traumerei parent and child are taking a large percentage of the unreasonableness…

“I hope the dispel potion makes it in time with this…” “Once completed, we will have Oboro take the dispel potion to the infected village. Before victims appear. To the Royal Capital, let’s take it by kitchen car.”

I answer the Commander General’s mutter. Kitchen car can reach the Royal Capital in three or four hours. Of course, have Ritsu and others drink the dispel potion beforehand. Because that medicine also has an effect of preventing infection. Only effective for Silver Demon Disease though. We did what we could. Now just praying for the completion of the dispel potion believing in the Traumerei parent and child. After eating dinner and taking a bath, perhaps the fatigue until today came out all at once, I was so sleepy, so sleepy, I decided to go straight to bed. Sorry for the Traumerei parent and child pulling an all-nighter, but I’m at my limit. Good night… Guu.