Saikyou Juzoku Tensei ~Cheat Majutsushi no Slow Life~

Chapter 198 - Episode Twenty-Three - Devil's Trial (2)

“Okay, done……”

Just as the faint light of the morning sun began to filter in through the window, the Livegrass was completed.

The Livegrass was as blue as the clear ocean that reflected the sky.

When the Livegrass was placed in the vial and shaken, a white haze circled around inside and dissolved back into the liquid and disappeared.

It was like clouds floating in a blue sky, quite beautiful to watch.

Mea was dozing sleepily, but after looking at the clock, her eyes widened and she turned to me surprised.

Mea had stayed awake with me the whole time, too.

Fleur, the daughter of Village Chief Hein, never stayed in this room for long, perhaps because she was concerned about distracting me, and although she is not seen in the room now, she visits every two hours or so to bring me a warm drink.

“Livegrass, is it finished!”

“Oh, no, ……, I missed a bit.”

I bit my lower lip as I looked at the vial in my hand.

“What? I, I can’t believe Abel failed to do that…… B, but it’s okay! If you Nelgliffe-san, I’m sure he’ll share some of it with you if you tell him what’s going on! Because it was Abel who brought Live Fogg back so much……”

I shook my head slowly at Mea for saying that.

It was a shame.

I wanted to have some spare parts for the village, so I made a batch, but it backfired on me.

Because I got more ingredients from Nelgliffe, I was able to make enough for five times, but with a little ingenuity in the manufacturing process, I could have prepared enough for twenty times with equal or greater potency.

“…… There’s a faster way to make a quantity than this method. Even though I didn’t use Live Fogg, I’d seen a similar method of making potions in the Chief’s archives, so I didn’t think it was possible…… but I’d overlooked the fact that it must have made sense when I made it. I pretty much wasted it.”

“Yes……”

“I’ll have to tell you again…… Aaaaah, I’m sure it’s already in mass production over there, too…… Such a waste. Aaaaah…… I just got it too, but …… In the meantime, I’ll tell him in the future …… No, it’s not good for me to know, so I’ll tell Nelgliffe-san anyway …… Haaaaaah ……”

If everything is done by this process, there must be quite a few Live Fogg being wasted.

“That, Mea thinks that it’s best to not say that to Levi Followers…… Maybe you have to be pretty careful how you say it, or you won’t be able to complain when you get hit?”

“What …… why?”

As we were talking about this and that with a glass of Livegrass in hand, the door was discreetly opened.

Fleur had come to check on him.

“Um …… Abel-sama. How is the progress of the medicine?”

“Yes, it’s done for now. Here’s one for Village Chief Hein……”

I had just handed Fleur one of the vials when I heard a loud shout from outside.

“Quickly, help me put out the fire! The church hall is on fire!”

It was a voice close to a scream.

I hurriedly looked out the window and saw smoke rising in the distance.

“No, no way……!”

I had thought enough about the possibility that a group of Levi Church’s extremists might not be happy with the Live Fogg that are brought back.

I had expected a situation where they would come out to interfere by force …… but I thought that was something that Nelgliffe would know, so I didn’t interfere.

I was relieved to hear that the other side also wanted us to leave internal disputes to them.

It backfired on us.

The direction of the smoke was …… the Church hall where Nelgliffe kept the Live Fogg.

It is likely to have been burned down.

It’s probably too late to go there now. The reason they burned the church hall was probably to use it as a marker for the loss of Live Fogg.

There’s a good chance that the Live Fogg’s actual body was disposed of or taken away before they set the church hall on fire.

No, if I knew what I could detect, I’d choose the former first.

“I can’t believe Nelgliffe-san suffered from the opposite……”

I put my hand on the Ortem, the one I was using as an assistant when I created the Livegrass, and cast a spell, showing a magic circle.

The Ortem’s eyes light up and begin rattling.

It’s a strong trembling. This feeling …… something like, a powerful demon was summoned just a moment ago.

It could be the same demon that brought disease to the Palgas Village.

The question is, what was the purpose of this summon again?

There’s enough disease in this village, and if he’s only summoned for a few minutes, it won’t do much good.

The time is a little too short to worsen the disease or bring out a new patient.

He may have been summoned as a force simply because he’s a powerful demon, but …… the biggest hindrance to the Levi Church’s extremists right now is probably me……

“N, no! It’s Nelgliffe-san!”

I couldn’t help but speak up.

The scheduled extremists must have decided that it had become difficult to proceed as planned while letting Nelgliffe take the lead, and decided to remove Nelgliffe, who was the face of Levi Church, without stopping.

That would explain the inability of Nelgliffe to deal with the fire.

“Fleur-san, please have Village Chief Hein drink the Livegrass! I’m going to go check on the situation!”

I and Mea ran out of the Village Chief Hein’s mansion and headed for the church hall where Nelgliffe was supposed to be.

The church hall had already been extinguished.

However, the flames in one of the rooms on the second floor were particularly bad, scorched and blackened.

If that…… is the origin of the fire, that’s where they should have made the livegrass.

There were already crowds of people around the church building.

Many of them were not only church members, but also mere villagers. There were also people lying on the ground in tears.

It seemed to be certain that the Live Fogg had been burned to the ground.

It seems that some of them were patients and were carried out on a stretcher to another church hall.

“I guess I wasn’t thinking far enough……”

I should have known that they were the ones who would do this much calmly.

Even though Nelgliffe had undertaken the work, he should have at least taken measures in case they did.

They might have been buoyed by the Livegrass thing.

“Is, Is Nelogliffe-san still alive? Somebody, please tell me where Mr. Nelogliffe is now……”

“It looks like you’ve finally got your tail out, Abel Belek.”

I was about to ask the nearby followers for the safety of the Nelgliffe when I was approached from behind.

When I turned around, I saw a short woman holding a large staff in her hand…… It was Chloe, a close associate of Nelogliffe’s, standing there.

Unlike before, her hostility was evident.

Behind Chloe stood four badly patterned Levi followers.

“Chloe-san…… Nelgliffe-san is……”

“Don’t play dumb! It was you who attacked Nelgliffe-sama and set the church hall on fire! Nelgliffe-sama had faith in you people, though!”

Chloe shouted at the top of her voice and pointed her large staff at me.

The eyes of the crying villagers and believers gathered around Me and Mea at once.

“W-Wait a minute! You’re misunderstanding! Is Nelgliffe-san safe?”

“It’s not a misunderstanding! We were working on the Livegrass with Nelgliffe-sama! Then all of a sudden, that guy showed up and opened fire without a chant! We were protected by Nelgliffe-sama and ran out to call for help, but Nelgliffe-sama was ……!”

The Levi followers behind Chloe point their fingers at me and argue with me.

“A, Abel…… this is not good ……”

Mea shrank back and clung to me, frightened by the hostile eyes around her.

“I see, so that’s what you plan to do next……”

I’m even more impressed when it comes to this point.

Chloe, you’re finally showing your true colors.

“Think about it calmly! Why do I have to do that! Who do you think it was that went to get the Live Fogg!”

I shouted aloud to appeal to the people around me as well.

In the first place, if I’m serious about attacking, all I have to do is throw an Abel ball into the air and blow up the church hall and all and then flee with teleportation to cover my tracks.

I wouldn’t do something so futile.

“Don’t play dumb! You must have after the High Priest’s life and Livegrass all along!”

The church members will always argue with me.

It’s no use. I’m not going to be able to get away with it now that there are so many of them.

“You should check out Village Chief Heil’s house. We have a witness that they were there yesterday. You might find something interesting.”

Chloe gave an order to one of the followers.

The follower nodded and ran off in the direction of the village chief heil’s mansion.

“Ah ……!”

There is a Livegrass in the Mansion.

I was told that the process of making Livegrass is an important secret within the Levi Church.

The fact that the Livegrass is in Village Chief Heil’s mansion where I stopped by could be a fatal weakness for me now that …… Nelgliffe’s condition is unknown.

“Oops …… please don’t move. Or is there really something bad in the mansion?”

“Guh. ……”

The situation is too bad.

I didn’t expect coincidences to work so badly……

No, Nelgliffe is not very vigilant about their people.

There is a good chance that Chloe knew that Nelgliffe taught me how to make livegrass.

It was a neat set up.

“Li, Livegrass is …… there…… in Village Chief Heil’s mansion. But that’s the portion that Nelgliffe-san entrusted to me for Village Chief Heil’s sake.”

There’s no point in hiding it.

It’s better to say it first.

There was a groan around me.

“You attacked and robbed us!”

“Nelgliffe-san would never violate such a commandment! Making fun of him!”

The flag is bad …… too bad.

If I’m alone, I can’t get the villagers to trust me.

If we continue to have a hostile relationship with the entire village, we have no choice but to shoot the worst magic and run back to Lark’s place.

The opponent is completely one time better…… rather, the board was too much of a disadvantage.

We were checkmated when they were able to hold down Nelgliffe.

“But certainly …… around not striking out on violence even after being suspected so much…… Abel, there is room to believe you.”

Chloe lowers her slightly large staff.

“W-why, Chloe-sama! Are you suggesting that you doubt me!”

The follower’s expression tightened and he crowded over to Chloe.

Wh-, what ……? I don’t think Chloe will cover for me ……

“You …… you said earlier that Abel opened fire without chanting, didn’t you?”

“Oh, ahhhh……”

“In fact, Nelgliffe-sama, who is in critical condition and unconscious, is showing symptoms similar to the sick demon that is attacking the village of Hargas. Whether it’s Abel or not, it must have been attacked by a demon. Only a demon or a spirit beast, or even a god for that matter, would be able to conjure up a phenomenon similar to magic without a chant and without a magic circle.”

Chloe said that much and thrust the tip of her large staff at me.

“Abel Belek. I accuse you of being a demon.”

Instantly the followers around us began to make a commotion.

“This is a prosecution!”

“Chloe-sama is going to start the devil’s trial!”

D-, Devil’s Trial……?

I’ve never heard this word before.

Maybe it’s a tradition unique to the Riveras Nation.

It is true that the only people who can produce similar phenomena to magic without going through a magic circle or chanting are the demons or spirit beasts, which are collections of spirits.

Because from the beginning, sorcery is something that causes peculiar phenomena by giving the spirits magic power and instructions.

If it is a demon or spirit beast that is a spirit itself, it can naturally handle magic by using its own magic power without giving instructions.

In that case, though, it’s common to call it magic rather than sorcery.

“If you’re not a demon, then you shouldn’t have any qualms about undergoing a devil’s trial, right? What better way to prove your own innocence?”

“…………”

It was brought to me by Chloe herself.

I don’t think it’s anything like what Chloe says it is.

But…… judging from the atmosphere around us, if we refuse, the only thing we can do is abandon Pargas Village and flee.