Chapter 92 Alfred's Leisurely Weekend (1)
(I’ll ask Rose-san and Aeril-san to plead for me then… If that doesn’t work, I’ll ask Michelle-san to help me figure out a way to get away with it. After all, I’ve cleaned her room for free so many times.)
Alfred thought about what might happen and decided to set off immediately.
"I'm going to the nearby Warner Fairy Forest to hunt monsters, and also to exercise. Emilia, do you want to go with me?"
he asked.
"Yes! I'll go too."
"Then let's go."
Alfred first took Emilia to the shopping street to buy simple weapons and some tools needed to obtain monster materials.
There are also cloaks and masks that hide identities.
"Hehe, I feel so happy wearing the same mask as Al. This feeling is really wonderful."
Emilia was like a crazy girl, gently stroking the half-face mask on her face and smiling foolishly.
"Um... we're just wearing the same mask, no need to be so happy, right? Also, there aren't many types of masks in that store, and there might be many people who have the same mask as us."
Alfred sighed helplessly.
Although she was usually quite normal and reliable, it seemed that Emilia was damaged by Tina in some way...
As Emilia's past guardian, he felt deeply regretful.
"Woo, Al you're an idiot."
Emilia puffed up her cheeks angrily and turned her head away.
"Okay~ I was wrong. I'll go back and buy you some dessert from Miss Mei's shop, so don't be angry, okay?"
Alfred rubbed Emilia's head and said.
"Humph~Al, don't think you can get rid of me with some cookies or cakes."
"How much do you want to eat, little girl? Be careful or you'll turn into a fat dragon."
Alfred complained in a dumbfounded manner.
"Woo! No way~ I won't turn into some fat little dragon, Al you (super big idiot)..."
Emilia seemed to notice something and stopped the joke she was saying.
Alfred also noticed a somewhat strange aura and became slightly more alert.
Because it was the weekend, there were quite a few students in Warner Fairy Forest.
But that uncomfortable aura obviously did not come from the students and their puppets.
The two followed the scent for a short distance and found an open space in the forest.
There, a group of dark-skinned goblins were dismembering the corpses of monsters, taking out magic cores and materials that could be sold.
From time to time, a few wolf-like monsters would come back from the forest carrying the corpses of monsters, and then enter the forest again to look for new prey.
It looked like a slaughterhouse where monsters were used as laborers.
"These are someone's contracted puppets, Emilia. Can you see the nameplates on their necks? Who are the owners?"
"Well, their owner's name is Roderick E. Zimmerman."
Emilia replied with a disgusted expression.
However, the object of her disgust was not Roderick, but the puppets themselves.
"Their owner is really a troublesome guy... By the way, what's the problem with these puppets? Emilia, you seem to really hate them."
"They are all twisted things."
Emilia answered briefly.
"Twisted thing? I have never heard of this term."
"Their souls were forcibly merged with the souls of other lives in some way, and the means of fusion were extremely low. Mother called these creatures twisted creatures."
"Ah, now I understand... But why does Zimmerman have a puppet with a fused soul?"
Alfred felt a little puzzled.
Soul fusion, this is a word he heard mentioned by the goddess Noya, with whom he had a very good relationship, once in his life.
It is said that a long time ago, even the goddess was still a little loli.
In order to become the most powerful god, there was a god who tried to merge the souls of his wives, children, and subordinate lower-level gods, angels, and other messengers with his own soul.
As a result, before that guy could even challenge for the throne, he lost his mind, turned into an extremely powerful monster, and almost destroyed the universe where the gods lived.
It is said that the war against him was extremely brutal.
Emilia's mother, the Dragon God, should have also participated in that subjugation war.
That's probably why she used the hostile term "distorted thing" to describe creatures whose souls had been fused together.
"If we leave it alone, will there be any problems for the time being?"
Alfred inquired.
Emilia seemed to have gained a lot of knowledge from the library left by the Dragon God, and should know more about soul-fused creatures than he did, so he wanted to hear Emilia's thoughts.
"Hmm... there shouldn't be any problem for now. Although the method is crude and despicable, the degree of fusion of the souls of these monsters is very deep, and we have also done some processing on the fused souls."
Emilia put her fingers on her chin and thought.
"If the number of soul fusions is controlled to a certain level, the main souls of those monsters should not get out of control, and there will be no danger in the short term. But Al, are you going to just leave them alone?"
"Even if I want to manage it, I don't have a good way to do it for now."
Alfred sighed helplessly.
The owner of the puppet is Roderick.
He harbors an inexplicable strong hostility towards Alfred, and may also be a reincarnation.
If I tell him now that your method of strengthening the puppet is very dangerous and you should give it up as soon as possible, Roderick probably won't believe it and will be more wary of Alfred instead, right?
It is not impossible to destroy all these puppets here without leaving any trace.
But Alfred didn't know how Roderick merged his soul with the props.
If you act rashly, you will only alert the enemy.
If things go wrong, Roderick will go even further with the soul fusion and create troublesome monsters.
“I think the best way is to wait and see… If possible, I hope these puppets can get out of control in a controllable situation, so that I can find a reason to control Roderick.
It will not only help us find out how he merges souls, but also stop him from doing anything dangerous."
"Is that so... Al, do you want someone to monitor him?"
"Well, but I can't think of a suitable person right now."
Alfred lowered his head and fell into deep thought.