Volume 2 - CH 301

Chapter 7-21. Side -Houen- Information Gathering

I wish there was such a place as the Great Library in the Kingdom of Salettana ……, but unfortunately there is no such place in this country.

Thus, when gathering information, small used bookstores are the main place to go.

I’m currently collecting information by visiting five different bookstores, while grumbling in my head about why there are no used bookstores here while there are ones in the Kingdom of Garrot.

Then…….

“It’s not there!!!”

Closing the book I was reading as hard as I could, I let out a loud bang.

The lack of useful information is frustrating.

Although I have figured out the location of all the used bookstores, it is a very difficult task to go from one to another and look at books at random.

Even if we go to the bookstores, we have to deal with the following people: Ouren, who cannot read books, Reizen, who is sleeping, Lize, who does not know our situation first, and Alena, who is still too young to grasp the contents of the books.

According to the process of elimination, I’m the only one who can collect information, so I’m doing my best ……!

I can’t even find a single shred of it!

Why in the world is this happening?

There is no information, literature, or fables about devils, and I keep trying to find out about white snakes, red birds, black turtles, and white tigers, but there are none of these either!

I knew that they had relations with Oni, but this is a place where humans live, not a village of Oni.

Since there is no way to pass on information between other races, etc., I can’t get any information along those lines either.

“Is there anything else……? I don’t care what it is…… at least something…….” 

Shall we get the information straightened out again?

First, I found out about this because of that devil …… his name was Dacia, right?

His words to us added to the mystery.

The reincarnator……. they did it all for our sake……

And that devil called Igar or something like that was screaming.

He didn’t say ‘too early’ …… is it ‘shouldn’t be awakened’ …… for a few hundreds years or so?

That was so long ago I don’t remember much about it.

Dacia certainly said it was acting on our behalf.

But what does that have to do with the attack on the Kingdom of Salettana?

I don’t understand how the raid on this country is for our benefit at all.

The devil hasn’t acted since then, and I haven’t heard him mentioned by name.

We know that he is probably somewhere preparing for something, but …….

If we don’t even know where they are, there’s no point in even thinking about it.

Next is the one we encountered in the Zenki-village.

That Oni, Hinata, knew many things.

She is a valuable person who actually met the previous White Snake.

I think I can still get some information from her, but her memory has been erased by the skills.

All she can recall are fragments of things …….

And that’s just a few.

It’s not that I can’t rely on her, but I don’t think there’s much hope.

She is five hundred and seventy years old.

The last time she met the previous White Snake, Niwa, was 500 years ago.

It is unclear why she regained her memory only recently.

If that were true, I would have liked to hear more about him, but the place where Akki lives becomes poisonous if we stay there for a long time.

It didn’t seem to work on us, but I was worried about Lacc the flying dragon at the time.

Ah, that’s right, …….

I remember Hinata telling us.

[Cooperate with the same people as us], was it?

This statement implies that Hiwa has foreknowledge of our reincarnation.

How she knew about it is also a question, but this too is not …… I don’t …… know …….

But in fact this is how we have been reincarnated.

It is more than possible that they too were formerly an Earthling.

The Oni no Armor is a good example of this.

I don’t know what era they are from, though.

…… and the previous white snake and the devil had some kind of relationship.

I think they must have been something important to the devils, as far as the polite talk goes.

The devils knew about us as reincarnator.

No, they didn’t know about us until they saw us.

Then…. Why do they hide?

It would be easier to tell us if there is something you want to say.

Is there a reason they can’t tell us ……?

I’m in a bind though, …….

I really can’t find any more information on …….

I feel like it would be faster to just find the devil, finish them off, and interrogate them.

Is he out there somewhere?

I don’t think so. ……

“Ah, um, dear customer …….”

“Hmm?”

“You’ve been reading a lot. Did you find …… to your liking?”

“Oh, yes, I did. …….”

After all, this is a used bookstore.

As I thought, standing around reading is not so good in this world either.

It’s a hassle, so I pick up a random book and hand it over to the owner.

” Please give me this one.”

“Thank you for the patronage.”

The price of the used book was quite reasonable.

After all, I heard that books are very valuable.

Since I had not bought any books before, I did not know much about them.

For now, I left the store and decided to go to the next used bookstore.

However, what was this book that I took at random?

I took it out of my magic bag and looked at the title of the book.

There was only “War without Meaning” written in the title.

“War Without Meaning ……? Was it meant to convey the evils of war? Perhaps it’s about valuing life or something like that.”

I shoved the book back into my magic bag, thinking,  how could you put out a book like that?

I made an odd purchase.

Next time I’ll look for a book a little quicker. ……