This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and Yeenie.
Sound of the Elf
Time: 3:10pm
I was ashamed to even look at Chifuyu. And for the whole of today, he didn’t say or ask me anything. He pretend as though nothing had happened. Basically I would prefer he took a whatchamacallit explosion charm and vent it on me.
Someone said a dog that doesn’t bark will bite. Chifuyu was currently in the same state as a dog that doesn’t bark, making me really scared.
We didn’t have lunch together, because the five-colored rooster head and I was called to the Magic Array course’s classroom for a lecture, and after coming out from there, because of our elective classes being different in the afternoon, we didn’t get to meet up at all.
Maybe this might still be relatively better, I currently didn’t know how to talk to Chifuyu.
“Hey!”
How should I explain this to Chifuyu…
“Hey!”
I didn’t hear anything.
“You’d better stop right there!”
I didn’t hear anything at all!
“Damn it, I said you’d better stop right there!”
Hurry and escape! I don’t know anything!
Suddenly, the second I wanted to pick up my speed and flee, my collar was firmly held, almost strangling me to death.
“How dare you ignore me!” The five-colored rooster head had already caught up with me, used an abnormal strength to grab hold of my rear collar, and said with a ferocious tone.
You already know I’m ignoring you, so why are you looking for me!?
“Hey, where are you headed to?”
Before I could even open my mouth, the five-colored rooster head had already raised his first question, and then he loosened his grip.
“Library.” I took two deep breaths. When I was strangled earlier, white clouds and small flowers appeared in front of me. My collar almost sent me on my way to heaven, “To find the thing the teacher wanted us to draw.”
Due to my bad luck, I was always writing sentences as punishment. However, this was the first time I was drawing a magical array as punishment.
Who the hell would know how senior’s array looked like? I thought that maybe if I go to the library to look for it, I might be able to find something? I do vaguely remember how it looked like, and if I compared it with the books, maybe I might be able to find it.
“Alright then, I’ll follow you there.” The five-colored rooster head said heroically.
…
“What’s with your expression!” He looked at me with narrowed eyes.
“Nothing, I just felt that this world is full of wonders.” My ears should be clean, I didn’t hear wrongly, did I? The five-colored rooster head wanted to go to the library!? I think it’s going to start hailing soon.
“Hmph, hmph…” The five-colored rooster head issued a strange laughter.
“…”
“Lend me that teleportation charm you’ve used earlier.” The five-colored rooster head rested his hand on my shoulder, and stretched out his claws.
I unwillingly passed the white charm to him. Luckily, the teacher did not confiscate back in the classroom; the luckiness in all these unluckiness. Or else, I could probably imagine how senior would deal with with.
After getting the charm, the five-colored rooster head moved his hand away, and threw the white charm on the ground. In less than two seconds, I saw the glowing array being redrawn on the ground.
“Pen and paper.” The five-colored rooster head held out his hands towards me.
‘You don’t bring pen and paper to classes?’ Although I grumbled in my mind, I still obediently took out my notebook and passed it to him.
The five-colored rooster head casually turned to an empty page, narrowed his eyes, and he quickly drew on the notebook, “This should be it.” He threw the notebook back at me, collected the white charm from the ground, and passed it back to me.
On a page of the notebook, was a hurriedly drawn picture of an approximation of the array.
“I’ve never seen this array before, I think it’s a mixture of a few different arrays, let us go and research which type of arrays were mixed in there, so it’ll be easier to draw.” The five-colored rooster head put his hand on my shoulder again.
Can I say he drew it because he was trying to help an amateur like me?
At that moment, I realized that the five-colored rooster head might not be such a bad person.
“After you’ve finished researching, you can lend it to me. I’m too lazy to look at those fine words.”
You’re really good, you damn dead rooster! So you just wanted me to search for the arrays, so you can easily draw it, right?! F— you.
* * *
The library was located behind the crystal tower. In fact, wasn’t it a little skeptical for the library to be here from the start? It looked really distinct, but the last time I came here with senior, I didn’t realize there was such a shiny object called a “glass house maze” nearby. Was it really originally here from the start!?
Standing in front of the maze, the five-colored rooster head placed his hands on his waist, with flip-flops that seemed to be almost falling off, were dangling on his feet.
The wall of the maze was really high, about three stories high.
“Ah, ah, I haven’t been here for a while.” The five-colored rooster head stretched, and said suddenly, “I wonder how much of the layout inside has changed.”
Wait a moment? It will change!?
“I think I’d better go back and ask senior first.” In less than three seconds, I immediately took a few steps back and turned around.
“Hey, hey, we’re already here, don’t leave now. I’ll look after you, let’s go.” The five-colored rooster head grabbed onto my collar and forcefully pushed me into the maze.
As soon as I took my first step inside, I smelled the stench. What kind of freaking smell was this!?
Inside the maze… It looked nothing like a maze! It was extraordinarily wide, the entire path would be able to fit five to six people walking side by side. All around, there were mirrors, even distorting ones. The five-colored rooster head, who was standing beside me, became an extremely tall and wide five-colored alien.
There were grass on the ground, and the next thing was… F—! Who made that?! The next thing was actually a mountain of swords! And on top of it, were pots and pots of orchids!
“I’d better not go.” Black lines were hanging on my face. When I saw the mountain of swords, I don’t want to go anymore. Next thing I know, there might also be a mountain of knives, mountain of needles, and so on. What kind of sick joke was this?!
The second I turned my head back, there was a whitish object floating past.
…I can’t see anything… I didn’t see anything at all…
The five-colored rooster head stretched out his hand and carried me back, “Once you’ve entered, you can’t leave unless you’ve finished the whole journey.” He smiled really happily for some reason.
Unless I’ve finished the whole journey… Unless I’ve finished the whole journey… I wasn’t certain I would be able to finish the whole journey? I’m as good as dead thanks to you, you damn rooster head.
“Don’t worry, with me here, there won’t be a problem.” The five-colored rooster head patted his chest, and I saw his right hand turning into a huge beast claws again, “Let’s go, let’s go, I’ll use my strength, and you’ll use your brains. Later when we’re inside you’d better work hard on researching.”
In the end I’m just the book slave, right?
At that moment, I was dragged backwards by the five-colored rooster head. His beast claw grazed past my face, and in a blink of an eye, the white skeleton I saw was running around at the entrance just a moment ago, was smashed into powder on the spot. His claws were still hooked to the head, wasn’t smashed into pieces. The head was swaying right in front of me.
The head, turned around… and suddenly started to laugh at me; Kakaka.
“Yang! Nose!”
The five-colored rooster head called out, and I reflexively placed my bag in front of my face. That skull’s mouth bit my bag, “Whoa—!” I immediately threw my bag onto the floor, “Nooo! Wait a minute!” My backpack!
As soon as the skull fell on the floor, it rolled away, biting onto my bag, and continued rolling away.
“Give it back to me!” I held onto the strap of my bag and pulled it up, and in the end, the skull bounced up, loosened his mouth, and flew straight at my face.
The five-colored rooster head’s movement was even faster. With his beast claw, he turned the whole skull into white powder, “You should pay attention to this, this thing doesn’t have any flesh, so it likes onto bite other people’s flesh to use as its own.”
…Before he explained, I had, infact, I wanted to ask what it would turn into after biting someone.
“This is rather easy.” The five-colored rooster head bent down, inserted his claw into the turf, and with a whoosh, he lifted the whole piece of the turf and placed it over the top of the mountain of swords.
Uhh, does this consider as vandalizing the school’s properties…?
The second the turf came off, the both of us were stunned.
OH GOD!!!
Under the turf were mealworms! It was everywhere, thousands of them squirming about!
“Ahaha… never thought there would be blood-sucking worms.” The five-colored rooster head didn’t think he had done anything wrong.
Blood-sucking worms… What I want to do right now is to scoop up the worms and throw them onto the rooster’s head, to let the worms eat up all his hair.
However, this wasn’t the most terrible thing. I don’t know when, but the stench was getting stronger and stronger, making me feel rather nauseated, “What’s with this strange smell…” I started feeling dizzy because of the stench.
The five-colored rooster head extended his finger, pointing downwards. The smell of the worms?
“You knew there were worms underneath and you still lifted the turf!?” I wanted to freak out.
“I wanted to say they might be below the mountain of swords.” The rooster head shrugged, “But seems like I guessed wrongly.” He took out a small bottle which looked like those bubble container, opened it, and then poured the white liquid inside onto the worms were under the turf.
In less than half a second, gold reddish flames burst out right in front of me.
“But these worm can be roasted with fire.”
…Alright. I noted this down!
Looking at the mirror covering the sky, I suddenly felt like sighing. Why was it that I need to work so hard for a book…? This world is really so full of wonders…
“Come on, let’s head to the next station!” The five-colored rooster head, who was obviously having the time of his life, dragged me and started moving forward. After being burned by the fire, not only the worms, but even the mountain of swords were reduced into ashes.
If we need to pay for this, I wonder if Zachary would send the bills.
* * *
However, the catastrophe didn’t last for too long.
Just as the five-colored rooster head cheerfully wanted to continue on towards the next checkpoint, I vaguely smelt a fragrant scent, a very familiar scent; a scent I had smelled somewhere before.
“Ah, he is actually here?” The five-colored rooster head looked very surprised. His beast claw twisted and turned back into its original form, “Sheesh, it’s been so long since I’ve come to the library, only the maze was interesting, but now I don’t even get to play anymore.”
You came to the library not to read books but to play in the maze? A drop of cold sweat fell from the top of my head.
I soon understood the meaning of his words. The answer was the thing that we saw after we turned at the corner.
There was a huge tree, a tree with human face. Several of its roots were coiled on the mirrors on the wall and some of the roots were buried underground. What made me feel glad that I didn’t have to go face to face against this tree were the blood stains all around the trunk of the tree.
I didn’t know which martyr students, who were on their way to the library, were sacrificed.
…Why was there a killer tree inside the library…
The person standing in front of the tree turned around. It was obvious he knew of our presence, “Nn, two young students.” He smiled, a very elegant smile.
I glanced at the killer tree, which looked really stiff as though it had been coated with glue. I suspected its roots were supposed to be moving about.
Standing in front of the stiff tree was none other than, “Restua?” Honestly, I was rather surprise to run into him here, especially when the background was actually a dead stiff killer tree.
The dark green eyes looked at me, he was smiling as usual, but it looked like his face had cramped up and was then fixated as such, because from the first time I saw him until now, he still had the same expression.
“Young student, you’re not together with black robe today?” He asked a question, however, one could tell it was nothing but bullcrap.
“Uhh, senior has work today.” And he even found a crazy, violent angel, as replacement. But I was able to lose him in the end.
“Both of you want to go to the library?” Another bull crap question.
“It’s just so happen that I need to go to the library, too. Let’s go together.” Restua extended a helping hand.
“No need…”
“Great! Let’s go together!” I quickly interrupted the five-colored rooster head. I knew what he was going to say: he definitely wanted to say something like “no need for you to follow us, we can go by ourselves”, but after experiencing the turf and mountain of swords, I had completely lost all confidence in him.
He definitely just wanted to have fun! Nine hundred percent!
Restua smiled slightly. The strange thing was, the five-colored rooster head actually did not create any trouble for him, not even uttering a word, he just kept quiet and walked behind us. So he also knows how to act according to who he was going to go up against?
“I have also not been to the library for quite some time. I never thought there would an additional tree here.” Restua was walking in front of me; walking while smiling, “Earlier, I was also shocked, because I wasn’t acquainted with that tree, so I could only subdue it first.”
‘Acquainted? You’re acquainted with what!? You’re acquainted with what in this maze!?’
With eyes wide open, I looked at Restua who was walking in front. There was a feeling of maybe he’s not as simple as he portrays outer smiling self to be.
“The layout of the things inside the maze will change every week.” The five-colored rooster head rested his hand on my shoulder and said, “That person had already familiarized himself with all the things inside the maze.” He softly whispered right beside my ear.
…Was he too idle? I don’t know why, but I suddenly had a misconception that Elves were very idle beings. And he even mentioned subduing something? How did he subdue it? Why did that tree become dead stiff!?
Just as I snapped out of my trance, the five-colored rooster head had already rested his hand on Restua’s shoulder, and the two of them were whispering about something, but they were using another language I didn’t understand.
He was currently doing something that I was not able to do. I was very jealous that the five-colored rooster head could naturally rest his hand on an Elf’s shoulder.
But having said that, isn’t our journey going on too smoothly? I felt that it would only right if a little something were to happen. While I was thinking about it, the two people who were walking in front of me suddenly stopped.
“Nn, another new one?” Restua slightly raised his head. We were surrounded by mirrors all around, and our figures reflected on the mirrors looked rather twisted.
“Let me handle this alone.” I saw the five-colored rooster head brimming with excitement.
Restua, I beg of you, handle this before he starts doing anything! When I was about to say it, my entire vision suddenly turned upside down. The ground became the ceiling and the ceiling became the ground, and the other two people were still standing on the ceiling.
“Whoa!!!” The one who was upside down was me!
* * *
“It’s here!” At that moment, the five-colored rooster head looked like a dog who saw a bone getting thrown at him. In the next second, I even suspected he would blast me off together with that thing. The thing that was grabbing onto my leg was an octopus.
Why was there an octopus on land!? Who left the octopus here!? And it was even a pink octopus!
“Ahhhh——!” I almost had a head hyperemia, feeling completely faint. Just as my soul was about to leave my body, I saw the octopus opening its mouth… If that was its mouth! Why are there teeth inside the octopus’s mouth! And they were the teeth of tiger’s! What the hell is this octopus!?
“Don’t move!” The five-colored rooster head caught up to us. The octopus’s legs were stuck on the mirrors while it moved backwards. It was actually moving backwards while sticking on the ceiling, that’s a pretty skillful action!
Restua also caught up to us.
I was feeling rather nauseated, being held by an octopus. While dangling left and right, it really made me want to puke.
When I saw the front brightening up, I thought it was the usual illusion of my grandma coming around. However, the light wasn’t the light from heaven. It was a faint silver spot of light.
Restua, who had overtaken the five-colored rooster head, did a perfect jump; with one hand holding onto my shoulder, he hung onto my body. The weird thing was, I didn’t feel any weight at all, “Please bear with it for a little while more.” He was still smiling when he said that, then he continued hanging onto my body. His sight was on the pink octopus that was stuck on the ceiling.
When the Elf came closer to me, the fragrant scent became stronger, and was even more similar to the smell that was often on Senior’s body; very gentle and hard to describe, kind of similar to the sun.
The octopus suddenly came to a halt, heavily swayed once, and it stopped moving.
I slightly lowered my head to look at Restua, whose mouth was slightly opened. It looked like he was talking, but then he wasn’t. Maybe in the next second a beam will shoot out of his mouth!?
I suddenly felt my feet being let go. The octopus suddenly loosened his thick leg, and before I could even scream, I had already fell down. Restua, who was firmly holding onto me, was already standing on the ground, “Are you alright?” He used his hands to pat off the dust on my clothes.
“I, I’m fine.” I imagine my face being really red. So as soon as he retrieved his hands, I immediately backed away.
“Now that you’ve turned that thing into this, how am I going to play with it now?” The five-colored rooster head walked over to us, took a look at the ceiling above, and complained.
I followed his line of sight and looked up. I was stunned.
The pink octopus became similar to the tree found earlier; stiff and not moving. However, it was still glued on to the mirror on the ceiling above, with its mouth open wide and full of teeth.
“He would be able to move again in a few minutes, it didn’t cause any harm to its life and safety.” Restua gave an irrelevant answer and then smiled again. He smiled again!
“How did you do that?” I looked at the stiff octopus, feeling very uncertain. Coat it with glue?
The five-colored rooster head came over and rested his hand on my shoulder, “No one but Elves can learn how to use that; sound of vibrating the air.” He clicked his tongue twice and looked at the stiff octopus, with a very strong feeling of wanting to challenge it, “Roughly, like some sort of wavelength we won’t be able to hear; moving through the air and paralyzing the thing he wanted to paralyze.”
Sounded like the ability of something that paralyzes its prey and then eats it after.
“I only requested them to stop moving.” Restua said.
“If the wavelength is just right, I heard it could directly destroy the opponent’s head.” The five-colored rooster head said.
…In fact, Elves are biochemical weapons, right!?
“We won’t do those kind of things.” The Elf retorted.
That’s to say, you Elves are in fact able to do those kinds of things, right? I suddenly felt that if I don’t have any business with them, it would be better for me to stay away.
“Ah, ah, with Restua here, I won’t get to play at all.” The five-colored rooster head regretfully stretched his body, and I heard some enigmatic cracking sounds, “Then I won’t be going to the library anymore, lend it to me after you’ve found it.” He waved and headed back towards the place where we came from.
I froze on the spot. He really came just to play in the maze? …That’s not right, wait a minute… Just now, who was the one who said that once we entered the maze, we can’t turn back!?
Damn you five-colored rooster head! You liar!
* * *
“You don’t look too happy.” Restua was still walking a small distance in front of me.
No, I think I was the one who was deliberately keeping a distance, “Not much, it’s just my friends…” I don’t know why, but when I looked at Restua I had the urge to tell him everything. And thus, I did; regarding the five-colored rooster head and Chifuyu.
Both of us had unknowing stopped walking. He hesitated for a while, as though he was thinking about something, and it seemed like he wanted to tell me something, “I think maybe your friend are actually not as mindful about it as you think he is.” In the end, it was all he said before he started walking again.
Chifuyu doesn’t mind?
It seemed like he was very mindful about this. I could clearly imagine the expression on face if he sees me together with the five-colored rooster head. Surprised, stunned, and also traces of being betrayed.
I knew of the same horrible feeling, because I had also gone through the same thing many times. After everyone had confirmed I was an unlucky person, including my closest friend, I became the mockery and betting object of their mouths. They would also mix together with the people I hate, and when I saw it with my own eyes, I felt really uncomfortable. I think that’s how Chifuyu felt, too. And thus, after the Magic Array class had ended, he left in a hurry, very different from usual where he would stay back and explain this and that to me.
“But I think… he was be very mindful about it.” I followed Restua and mumbled softly.
Then he stopped, it was only then that I realized we had already arrived in front of a big glass door. The transparent door was full of drawings and words I couldn’t read. I guess we’ve reached our destination.
Restua turned around and smiled at me, “Guys are not so narrow-minded.” Then he pushed the glass door open. At that second, my eyes hurt a little. I wanted to cry.
The person we were discussing was standing at the entrance of the library, looking like he was on his way out. In his hands, was a thick ancient looking book, rather dusty, with a white thick cover and gold text.
Ryan was following right behind him. When he saw me, he was also stunned for a moment and then he curved up a smile.
“This fella said you definitely won’t know how to draw senior’s teleportation array, so he spent the whole afternoon looking until he found the book.” He said and patted Chifuyu’s shoulder, “Both of us also skipped our classes in the afternoon, so how are you going to repay us?”
How can I repay them?
Chifuyu shifted his black glasses issuing a glaring reflection, “Anyway, it’s not like we’ll die if we missed a few afternoon classes.”
I was suddenly feeling very thankful that the five-colored rooster head had left earlier.
Speaking of the five-colored rooster head, I suddenly thought of the Restua, who came together with me. I wanted to thank him. Perhaps he was right, or maybe the people in this school will always be special.
I turned around and was stunned. There was not even a trace of the Elf?
He had already left.