Let This Grieving Soul Retire: Volume 8 (Light Novel) (eBook)

Tsukikage (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-9266-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Upon getting back from Kreat, Krai finds that the seventh member of Grieving Souls, Eliza Beck the Vagabond, has once again swung by and dropped off the spoils of her travels. Much to Krai's delight, this haul includes a mysterious Relic, a dark blade unlike any he's familiar with.

However, the Sword Saint is once again feeling very aggrieved, an occupational hazard that comes with being Luke's mentor. In an attempt to placate him, Krai gives the man the newfound Relic as a gift, and thus unwittingly tips the first in a very long line of dominoes.

Meanwhile, the hunt for Fox is on, but Franz has even bigger worries. The Astral Divinarium has foretold a black shadow will fall over Zebrudia, which could mean any number of things. But does it have anything to do with Krai?

Textauszug

Prologue: The Cursed Man

“Woo! Home at last!”

We had returned to the imperial capital of Zebrudia. Finally, I was back in my private quarters at the clan house, somewhere I could relax. I spun around and fell onto the beloved mattress I had missed so dearly. This thing was custom-made to have just the right degree of springiness for me.

The Supreme Warrior Festival was supposed to have been just a little excursion, but it ended up turning into a real ordeal. I had endured Franz’s constant spite, helped train the imperial princess, and somehow managed to keep Little Sister Fox under control (normally, a phantom like her leaving her vault would mean all sorts of chaos).

Then I got dragged into the Fox Mask Fan Club, became acquainted with Krahi and co., and to cap it all off, I managed to restrain Key of the Land (never mind that it was almost entirely my fault it activated in the first place).

My friends did most of the work with the imperial princess, Sitri took care of Fox, I didn’t actually do anything with Krahi’s group, and the Key of the Land thing was largely possible thanks to everyone’s help. When I thought about it, I hadn’t really done much of anything, but that didn’t stop me from telling myself that I had earned some rest.

Lying on my bed, I made up my mind: no matter what happened, I absolutely would not leave my quarters for the foreseeable future. Luckily, I didn’t need to leave this room, because it had everything, even a bathtub. If I needed food, I could have it brought to me. I had plenty of Relics to polish, so I wasn’t lacking for ways to keep myself busy.

I had recently learned that the empire was about to begin talking with other nations in order to coordinate an effort to eliminate Fox. Per the emperor’s orders, he was also enlisting the help of treasure hunters, including me. I flat out refused. Gark and many other people didn’t appreciate that, but to heck with them. I had other things to do.

“Eva! For the time being, I’m not accepting any visitors!” I told her resolutely. She had been watching me from the entrance with a look of exasperation. “Even if it’s Gark, a merchant, or someone from the government, send them away! I don’t care what they want! I’m busy!”

“Um, may I ask what you’re busy with?”

“I’m busy doing nothing.”

“Are you being philosophical?”

I wasn’t. I just needed to rest my brain. Whether I had really used it enough to tire it out was pretty debatable. I twisted my lazy body around on my bed, then gave a long stretch. As a clan master and as a Level 8, I wasn’t supposed to let people see me like this, but it was fine if it was just Eva. My body was reacting too strongly to the events of the Supreme Warrior Festival. I wanted to become one with the bed.

Watching me make myself look as pathetic as possible, Eva let out a deep sigh. “Very well. I’ll turn away all visitors for the time being. Oh, but what if it’s one of your friends visiting?”

“One of them? They can come on in.”

Honestly, they’d barge in either way. Even if I wanted to, I wasn’t sure I had a means to keep them away. It was because I couldn’t say no to them that I was still in the dangerous occupation of treasure hunting! Being swept up in their flow was just part of life for me.

I rolled around on my bed in the hope of revitalizing myself when I noticed a note on my nightstand. I reached over and plucked it between my fingers. It was an old scrap, folded in two. I was fairly sure this hadn’t been here before I departed for Kreat.

I read it, then furrowed my brow. “What’s this? ‘Can’t find Cae’?”

Startled, Eva darted up to me. “Is that a letter? Did someone enter while we were gone?”

I set down the simple note and rolled over. “No, this is fine. Hmm.”

“What is it?”

This note was from none other than Eliza. Cae was a sort of nickname she had for me.

Eliza Beck, the Vagabond was a Desert Noble who was trained as a Thief. She was our party’s most free-spirited member and the only one not originally from our group of friends. She was undeniably talented and was so affable that it was easy to forget she was a Noble Spirit (though you could just as easily call her thoughtless). However, just as her title suggested, she had a tendency to wander here and there, aimless as the wind. I was the leader of our party and the one who recommended her for membership, yet even I had only met with her a number of times.

What made her wanderlust truly frustrating was that she didn’t seem to be aware of her own tendencies. Despite what the poorly phrased letter might suggest, I can say with certainty that I never excluded Eliza. It wasn’t that I was nowhere to be found; it was that she kept disappearing on her own. Though, in all fairness, you could argue this sort of heedlessness was necessary to roll with a party like Grieving Souls.

But where was she and what was she doing? It sounded like the other Grievers ran into her fairly regularly, but for me, Eliza encounters were a rare occurrence. I didn’t get the impression she was hiding from me, nor did I think she disliked me; it seemed like the timing just never aligned. According to Liz, I didn’t see the Vagabond often because she knew how to see danger coming from a mile away. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.

As brief as the letter was, I still had a good idea why Eliza had come while I was out. I sat up and looked around the room, where I found a wooden box at the base of my nightstand. It was a heavy thing, and it took a bit of effort to get the lid open. Inside, I found a pile of garbage.

There was an old worn boot, a rusted coin, a knife without a blade, and a simple gold ring. These seemingly worthless items were all Relics recovered from treasure vaults, most likely items Eliza had found during her wanderings. It was possible some of these were things she had bought at some shop, but it didn’t really matter.

As I understood it, all Desert Nobles were predisposed to traveling the world. Their counterparts in the forests were known for rarely leaving their homes, but the Noble Spirits of the deserts were travelers, though maybe not to the same extent as Eliza.

Desert Nobles were natural treasure hunters. Their exceptional affinities for magic and elementals, as well as their flexible bodies and sharp senses, allowed them to tread many dangerous realms. There were many corners of the natural world still untouched by people, but Desert Nobles could reach those, as well as many treasure vaults.

I first met Eliza at a treasure vault in the desert. She was talented and didn’t fuss over small things, just like a hunter should be. She was also devoid of avarice. Though she went around searching vaults and other perilous destinations, it seemed she was after something besides treasure, as she would show almost no interest in Relics and drops from phantoms.

Of course, her wanderings required money, so she would pick up anything that seemed valuable, but she left just about everything else. The one who put a stop to that was me. I thought it was a terrible waste for her to venture into those dangerous vaults only to then leave the Relics behind. Most Relics were scrap items that were worth next to nothing, but selling them could add up over time.

So we formed a little arrangement. Eliza would bring back Relics, then I would sell them and give her the proceeds. I didn’t charge a fee, but I was allowed to take a Relic for myself if it caught my eye. It was a winning contract for both parties. Sitri managed the spoils during group efforts, so Eliza only brought me what she obtained during her solo operations, but that still amounted to a fair sum.

The incident at the Supreme Warrior Festival was a very beneficial experience for me. Until then, I had no idea that there were Relics powerful enough to cause tremors just by being stabbed into the ground. As a Relic collector, I was compelled to accumulate as much knowledge as I could. While Key of the Land might have been destroyed, I couldn’t write off the possibility of a similar item existing.

I began to think that I should practice so I could properly suppress Key of the Land should something like that happen again. I continued to sift through the items in the chest as I thought about this, when I found something thin and wrapped in a black cloth. I immediately lifted it up and removed the oddly patterned cloth.

Ooh. A sword-type Relic! Don’t see that every day.

“This! This is what I was looking for!”

I gleefully drew it from its sheath and looked it over. The jet-black blade and onyx-like gem adorning the hilt gave it the impression that this was an item of some significance. However, unlike Key of the Land, it didn’t strike me as a ceremonial tool. That it was in the sheath and carefully wrapped in a cloth suggested that Eliza had also treated it diligently. I’d have to have Lucia charge it for me.

I smiled, for my normal life had finally returned to me.

“Please, just make sure to exercise moderation,” Eva said with an exasperated sigh.

***

“Huh?! The underworld has a bounty on my brother?!” Lucia cried.

“It seems he’s attracted some attention,” Sitri replied, perplexed. “With Fox in disarray and preparing for war with the empire, I don’t think they’ll try anything too...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 6.10.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Let This Grieving Soul Retire
• Reihe/Serie: Let This Grieving Soul Retire (Light Novel)
• Illustrationen: Tsukikage
• Übersetzer: Tsukikage
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: action • Adventure • Comedy • Fantasy • male protagonist • Shonen • weak protagonist
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-9266-4 / 1718392664
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-9266-3 / 9781718392663