Chapter 347

“Until Lady Luna returns and a fair duel is held, you must not approach Lord Hassan any closer than three steps…! An alien species, Keng Keng, this is your first warning…!”

“What are you talking about, move aside.”

Of course, Elpride attempted to shove that person away as if she didn’t care about them. Just then, Paranoi added one more thing.

“Keng Keng, I will inform Hippolyte about your foul play…!!”

With that statement, it seemed Elpride also had her suspicions, furrowing her brow and glaring at Paranoi.

Goooon—.

A subtle tension flowed between Paranoi and Elpride.

Paranoi appeared to deeply dislike Elpride. Being an alien from a far-off land, it probably bothered her that a Nymph like herself was looked down upon.

Of course, that wasn’t what mattered to me right now.

*

“So, you’re saying the Gravekeeper sold you land.”

Fleur seemed intrigued by my story.

Though his face was hidden beneath a black top hat, I felt I could gauge his emotions now from the gleam in his blue eyes.

“But there was a giant spider there?”

“Yes, it was a really huge spider. Like, so huge. Really….”

I recalled the memory of what I saw under the moonlight. A spider’s web larger than a decent-sized house. The enormous white spider that had attacked me from above.

If I hadn’t been wielding my beam shovel, I would have been immediately devoured if I had been an ordinary adventurer.

However, Professor Fleur’s thoughts seemed quite different.

“A giant white spider, huh? If I remember correctly, it might be a relic of Goddess Ceres.”

“A relic of Goddess Ceres? What does that mean?”

Goddess Ceres is a powerful goddess who governs grains, harvests, and changes in seasons. Was she the one who brought that terrible winter to this continent 30 years ago?

Fleur added a few more words.

“There’s a shrine of Ceres on the south gate of Sodomora. Up until the big winter 30 years ago, it was quite a popular place.”

Swooosh, swooosh—.

The gleam in Fleur’s blue eyes began to shimmer.

“If I remember correctly, there used to be a white spider the size of a puppy being raised at the shrine.”

“They raise spiders at the shrine?”

“Spiders, ants, grasshoppers, silkworms, etc. Goddess Ceres governs insects and bugs along with the seasons or harvests. Perhaps the spider that disappeared with the fall of the Ceres shrine has been living in the graveyard.”

“d*mn, so what, can’t we drive it away…?”

“No need to drive it away. If you build a shrine there, you could consider it a guardian spider as a relic of the shrine.”

d*mn, so it means I have to coexist with a really huge spider.

I was already at my limit with just the small spider Keng Keng.

No, to be honest, Keng Keng is also a huge spider the size of my palm, but compared to that white spider, you could say it was practically the size of an ant.

“More importantly, Zigress. I find the story you mentioned earlier more interesting than the spider.”

“Do you mean that my breakfast was Kyuung meat?”

“No, not that. It was about how you said you couldn’t use sorcery. Didn’t you say you raised roots?”

“Ah—.”

“If my memory serves me right, I believe there was such sorcery. When I think of Goddess Ceres, something comes to mind. Let me see.”

Fleur soon began rummaging through various books in his study.

He flipped through dusty, ancient books, and even some leather scrolls and slabs that could hardly be called books before he finally shouted as if he had found something.

“Hassan, once, the Bashikir bees followed you very well.”

“Yes, but?”

“The swamp of Kalan you visited has regained its vegetation.”

“Oh, is that so—.”

“Don’t the plants you tend to grow particularly well?”

I recalled the garden that Luna and I cultivated together. The potatoes I planted had grown like vines, getting tangled up here and there, causing me some consternation.

“That seems to be the case.”

“It seems a person of my stature made a mistake. Hassan, it seems you won’t be able to become a Necromancer.”

“No, is that really true…?”

“According to this ancient stone tablet, it states: there are powerful earth priests who cloak themselves in beast skins, wield wooden sticks, communicate with fairies, and command beasts.”

“What does that mean…?”

Drrr—.

Fleur presented the wide stone tablet he was holding to me.

“It’s an ancient stone tablet. The priests mentioned here would eat the flesh and meat of the beasts they hunted and transform into beast-like forms.”

On it were drawings that resembled the crooked paintings of cave walls.

It depicted a man like me, with the skin of a beast covering his head, wielding a club or staff and shouting something at a tree.

If it resembles me, then it does.

“What is this…?”

“Ancient sorcerers, the origins of aura and mana. Not much is known about them, but if there is a name referring to them, it might be—.”

Swoosh.

Fleur opened his slender eyes. His gaze fixed on the drawing on the stone tablet.