NOVEL NEXT Chapter 33
Chapter 33 – Moofy Lives!
The morning of the next day.
Collette went to play with the other children, while Millet went out to the townsfolk to provide medicine.
Vi-Vi pulled at my sleeve.
「Al, could you come with me a second?」
「What is it?」
「I finished the magic circle that I couldn’t finish yesterday.」
「Ok, sure.」
I’m sure Luka heard as well, because she also came close.
「Wait a second! You’re not doing this without me.」
「Go away, Luka! You’re just going to mess this up!」
「I won’t.」
「I can see that you don’t trust me. I don’t like this.」
「Don’t worry. I just have to be there if it gets out of control.」
「NOTHING’S GOING TO GET OUT OF CONTROL!」
If anything, Luka wanted to be cautious about all of this.
I could understand why, seeing as Vi-Vi was originally one of the sub bosses of the Demon Lord.
「Sounds fun! I want so see too!」
Said Cruz with a smile. Unlike Luka, she innocently just wanted to see what was going on.
And no ulterior motive…
…she was just curious what it looked like when a skeleton was brought to life.
「Okay, okay, Vi-Vi. Just let the other folks watch.」
「I will if you say so, Al.」
「Thanks.」
「But NO ONE MESS WITH ME WHILE I DO THIS!」
「We all know. You won’t try to stop her, right? Luka? Cruz?」
「I promiiiise.」
「Dammit. I told you I won’t.」
I looked for Femm, but Femm wasn’t around.
I knew that Femm would want to see this so I was surprised.
And just as I thought that, Femm came out of Millet’s house.
「Rawf」
「Eeeep!」
Femm stepped out and waited by the entrance to Millet’s home.
Vi-Vi jumped a bit in surprise at the sight of Femm.
「Don’t SURPRISE ME YOU MUTT!」
「Warf?」
Femm turned its head in confusion. It seemed a bit taken aback at all the yelling, but still shuffed its tail back and forth.
「Just take it easy, okay?」
「Ruff ruff.」
Femm walked towards us slowly with a happily waving tail.
Femm wanted to see what was going on as well.
Vi-Vi’s pouting face seemed to say no closer, dog, but she never said a thing.
We all walked a little more and arrived at where Moofy’s bones were located.
It was right next to the hole where the meat was stored.
It would stink to high heavens if we had left Moofy with any meat on its bones, so all of the bones had been cleaned.
I had cleaned all the meat and blood of the bones with magic to prevent that, so all the bones sparkled white.
「How far do you get with the circle yesterday?」
「Well, about 80% of the magic circle was finished until this warrior low-life ran up to me!」
「I see.」
「And it took me about two hours to draw it. She messed up everything.」
And with that, Vi-Vi looked over at Luka.
Luka had her arms crossed and said blunty,
「I’m not apologizing for it!」
「You don’t need to!」
Vi-Vi said with a bit of a mellow tone.
「I was going to wait until Al was there to see it anyway.」
「I see.」
I was happy that Vi-Vi had the sense to wait for me before she tried this.
If she messed up, it would be better that I was there.
I could contain any damage that happened to the village.
「Thanks.」
「For what?」
Vi-Vi looked confused.
I just scruffed her hair.
She gave me an embarrassed look of, 「Stop it! I’m not a kid!」and it was cute.
From that, we watched her resurrect the bones with her magic circle.
Just as Vi-Vi said, Luka had messed up a lot. The effectiveness of the circle was pretty much wrecked.
Just like Luka…a superior warrior.
「You should probably retrace the whole thing…it’ll be faster.」
「I’m going to!」
Vi-Vi started re-scrawling the circle with magic emanating from her finger.
「Just watch me!」
「I am.」
Vi-Vi started etching the magic circle in the earth.
Her finger flowed over the ground – quite beautifully, actually.
It was an exquisite magic circle that had minute flourishes of the hand all throughout it.
「Quite superb.」
I found myself saying, unprompted.
「You like it?」
She asked Luka.
「Yeah, it’s good.」
I wouldn’t lose to Vi-Vi when it comes to writing magic circles in battle – in power and speed.
But when it came to writing them slowly and deliberately, Vi-Vi was clearly better, I thought.
「You’re right, Luka.」
Luka was watching the whole process intently.
It wasn’t a big deal for an ordinary warrior to learn this, but she was watching the process closely.
Luka was a very intellectually inquisitive warrior.
On the other hand.
「Come on…FETCH!」
「Rawf Ruff!」
Cruz was bored, and was playing with Femm a bit away.
Cruz and Femm were going to be help if Vi-Vi messed up, so that was fine.
I guess it was better than Cruz getting interested and asking a billion questions.
After about two hours, the magic circle was done.
「Al! Please check it for me.」
「Roger.」
There was still a chance that she had missed something.
So Vi-Vi was very careful.
I analyzed the whole circle carefully. It was almost perfect.
She had asked for advice here and there throughout the creation of the circle.
That’s why I knew how the circle was constructed, and it only took a little extra look at it until I was finished.
「Yeah, it’s one hell of a magic circle.」
「I thought the same thing!」
「You did some great work here and over there. I actually learned something.」
「Heh heh heh.」
Vi-Vi blushed.
「So is the thing done?」
「Ruff?」
Cruz and Femm noticed and ran over from playing around.
「Just the invocation is left.」
「This is going to be FUN!」
Cruz looked really excited. Acting just like a kid again.
「Here it goes!」
Vi-Vi pressed her eyes almost shut, and began chanting magic into the circle.
Moofy’s skeleton began to shimmer with magic.
And after a moment,
「MOOOoooooOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
Moofy mooed…even though I thought skeletons had no ability to make sounds.
It must have been the magic she imbued it with.
The massive skeleton rose.
The magic circle was perfect. Moofy was reborn as a skeleton.
Vi-Vi stood before the rerisen Moofy.
「Moofy! If you harbor a grudge against me, take revenge NOW!」
Vi-Vi pressed her eyes shut and waited for Moofy’s response.
No matter what Vi-Vi was prepared for, there was no way Moofy was going to kill Vi-Vi.
Even so, I was ready to let fly with some magic in case something went wrong.
However,
「MoooO?」
Moofy bent its skullbone down and caressed Vi-Vi with its skeletal nose.
「You’ve forgiven me, Moofy?」
「Moooom.」
Vi-Vi touched Moofy’s nose.
The giant Moofy responded with a long, plaintive moo.
I was happy that Moofy was pretty peaceful.
Skeleton retain the will and memory it had in previous life.
They can move on their own and an in no way bound to the caster.
Because of this, even if the skeleton spell goes off without a hitch, they still can wreak havoc.
That’s also why Luka flipped out and erased most of the circle the first time.
「Moooo…fy?」
I called…a bit cautiously.
It had forgiven Vi-Vi…but I was the one that finished it off in its…first life.
「Mooo…」
Chomp.
Moofy cried out and bit lightly over my head, but there was no damage.
Something like a teething bite. No hostility.
「Waaaaah!」
Cruz started to freak out.
It was still biting over my head, and I petted the bottom of its jaw.
After a bit of this, Moofy was satisfied and let my head free.
「Mister Al, are you okay?!」
「Sure.」
It seemed that Moofy wasn’t upset at me either.
「Thank you, Moofy.」
With all forgiven, we all led Moofy out to the storage house outside the village.
Inside of the village walls was a bit too constrained.
「We can let Moofy run around out here. Not too far though.」
「Mooo.」
Moofy happily laid down next to the storage shack.
The children of the magic wolves came up without fear and sniffed Moofy.
Usually all of the adult wolves were there as well, but for some reason, only the children were there today.
「What does a skeleton like this eat?」
「It has no organs of any kind, so basically, it just absorbs residual magic.」
Cruz asked and I answered.
「It pulls the magic from the circle I made.」
「I see. But, doesn’t that make you tired, Vi-Vi?」
「Why would it?」
「Well, Moofy is HUGE! Doesn’t it eat up a lot of magic?」
「It doesn’t pull any magic off of me, really. In fact, the magic circle extracts most of it energy from the magic that flows through the hot springs that get their magic from the stones inside the mountains.」
「Whoooaa…」
Cruz was genuinely impressed.
I was surprised that Vi-Vi had engineered this when she explained it to me while drawing the circle as well.
Just then, Femm’s tail and ears straightened out like pins.
Femm was visibly anxious.
「Femm! What is it?」
『I think my pack has found the hydra.』
「I see.」
Well, then another thing need taking care of