Reset Life – Chapter 90

Chapter 90: Even I Was Deceived (1)

July 2nd, Imperial Year 375.

In the northern part of Restart lies the Leotasia Mountain Range, which forms the border with Orknesia.

The name is a haphazard mixture of the names of the two provinces located to the north and south, clearly demonstrating the lack of effort put in by the person who named it. What’s wrong with a nice name?

As a mountain range, it naturally divides the two provinces, but calling a mountain range stretching 60 kilometers north to south a border ‘line’ is something the Imperial government should be held accountable for.

Sure, on the map, the Leotasia Mountain Range is just a single line, but consider the scale!

How many people do you think live in a place that’s just a pinprick on the continental map?

The reason I’m complaining about this complacency is none other than this:

Because I have to find Levidian, who is somewhere in this mountain range, which resembles the thick and short life of a man.

The information Lucy gathered indicates that Levidian headed north.

According to the plan, I was going to go to Prema and check on the progress of establishing the AJOR branch, but Levidian headed in a direction almost perpendicular to Prema.

In the end, I gave up on Prema. Currently, I’m staying in a village located at the entrance of the Leotasia Mountain Range, as one would expect.

And like I did earlier, I’m venting my frustration by looking at the map.

“As expected, when you look at the enlarged map, it looks like someone just dipped a brush in paint and swiped it without thinking.”

“The problem is that even a single flick of that brush represents an area that would take three people three or four days to search.”

I responded to Lucy’s words with a crooked smile.

Levidian and her suspicious companions passed through this village and headed into the mountains.

And coincidentally, after asking a merchant who came here from a village in the mountains, we found out that her group did not stop by that village.

There was no other conclusion than that they entered the mountains.

“Al, are there any sights to see in this mountain range?”

“Not really.”

“Hmm, you lived there for three years and that’s all you have to say? You’re still as dry as ever.”

Al once lived in this mountain range for three years.

According to him, that is. He must have been lost for three years. Yeah.

The village the merchant departed from is 20 kilometers away from here in a straight line.

If you consider the mountain path, it’s two or three times that distance.

The official length of the pipe road that goes across the mountain range from here is 157.47 kilometers, and the village is located about 1/3 of the way into the mountain range.

Anyway, I want to give 30,000 compliments to the Imperial Road Bureau’s passion for building a proper pipe road to such a place.

Thanks to that, it’s become relatively easier to predict.

Lucy pointed at the map and said,

“First, for about 4 kilometers around the village, forest rangers and hunters roam around, so they must have moved within this 12-kilometer section in a straight line. They walked, and we came on horseback, so the gap of about three weeks should have narrowed down to about a week. However, considering it’s summer, I doubt there will be any traces left. Especially at this time of year, plants grow explosively.”

That 12-kilometer section was about a hand and a half span on the map. The mountain path stretches windingly along the ridge, making the actual distance 26 kilometers.

Of course, those 26 kilometers include the length based on the elevation difference.

I stroked my chin.

“Wouldn’t there be some traces left if a group of about 30 people passed through?”

“There’s a high probability of that. But from what I saw, they each seemed to be carrying a sword. You know what I mean? They seemed to be accustomed to covert movements.”

“Hmm, they’re not from the Hall of Martial Arts, are they?”

“As far as I know, people from there usually wear bright-colored clothes. Not many of them adopt black as their representative color. Maybe they’re a back alley group.”

“I guess so.”

I didn’t bother pointing out Lucy’s lack of awareness.

These days, even people in the back alleys prefer bright colors over intimidating ones to give a friendly impression to their customers (?).

However, I wanted to tell Jay, who was wearing a colorful shirt with flowers and tropical fruits, to just wear a suit. Hmm hmm.

Anyway, that black attire is quite concerning.

And Lucy’s judgment is relatively accurate, so it’s likely true that they are accustomed to moving stealthily.

Al raised his head and his eyes flashed.

“Is it the Black New Moon?”

“Black New Moon? Come on. How long has it been since they went into hiding?”

I nodded at Lucy’s rebuke.

Above all, they are in Yorchensia. And Yorchensia is located in the southwest of the continent, which is roughly a few thousand kilometers away from here.

As far as I remember, they’ve never appeared here.

When they were active, the continent was startled, but after being active for a while, they met Jay and Old Man, the big shots of the back alleys, in Ast, the royal capital of Azot, and fought them, resulting in a mutual destruction.

And their uprising should have happened two years ago if things went as planned. But they disappeared at some point. In the end, it means that someone who experienced a Reset was involved there as well.

I don’t know if someone made a preemptive move or if there’s such a person within the group.

I clapped twice and got the attention of the two.

“Well, let’s think about where those 30 people might have gone if they disappeared into the mountains. They’re human too, so they need to eat and live, right? Since the fortune tellers all said ‘they are on the red line,’ I think they’re still in the mountains. We should prioritize places where it’s easy to resupply and camp.”

“They all said the same thing in four different places? Anyway, the magic system is quite fascinating.”

Al and I stared blankly at Lucy.

I agree that it’s fascinating, but you’re a mage. You’re just as fascinating.

Lucy widened his eyes and looked at us in turn.

“Why?”

He seems genuinely clueless.

“No, never mind.”

“Idiot.”

Oh, how harsh.

Lucy went ballistic at Al’s sharp remark, but whether he was going crazy or shining brightly, we ignored him with one heart and one mind.

Now, let’s look at the map.

Even in the summer mountains where food is abundant, places where a group of about 30 people can camp for a long period of time are limited.

It should be a place where they can easily get water, protect themselves from wild animals and monsters, and since they would likely want to avoid people, it should be easy to hide and monitor the surroundings.

As various conditions overlap, even within an area of several thousand square kilometers, the options become limited.

Above all, I learned the skills to identify such terrain while I was in the military. And Al, as a mercenary, is good at recognizing such terrain.

“First, here and here. And this is the closest place we can go to right now. It’s far enough from the pipe road and the village.”

“They seem like they can endure somewhat harsh environments. Let’s include this place as a candidate as well.”

“Oh, I see. Well, they’d probably need a place where people don’t usually go, so it’s okay if the altitude is a bit higher. Then we can include this place as well.”

“Indeed.”

Al and I started pointing out places one by one while reading the map. After about 30 minutes, Lucy said listlessly,

“So, we just have to go around these 30 places we’ve selected?”

“It’s damn wide.”

“Damn it.”

Just the places we can go to boast a plane area of roughly three thousand square kilometers. Don’t underestimate an area of 50 by 60 kilometers.

Actually, even if 30 people live there, a square space with a side length of 60 meters would be enough.

360 square meters.

Each person only needs 12 square meters of land. For reference, the area allocated per person in the Imperial Army barracks is smaller than that.

If it’s a base for hunting, resupply, and hiding, they can share hunting grounds and supply locations. That’s why the number of candidate locations has increased considerably.

“Lucy, don’t you have any search magic or something?”

“Hey, do you think magic is omnipotent? The difficulty of searching using magic is the square of the uncertainty and the range. I know your teacher, but the concept of ‘knowing’ is at the level of ‘being acquainted with the madam of a hostess club I frequent.’”

“Use a more decent analogy.”

“What’s wrong with it? No one’s watching, and we’re all adults.”

Lucy shrugged.

Although his specialty is ‘space’, even if he’s one of the eight strongest in the continent seven years from now, he’s just an ordinary mage now.

He seems to be quite good at tracking, but judging by what he said, it seems to be definitely difficult. Well, it was the same when he fought the Inquisitor before.

“I’m asking this now, but does your teacher have any cherished belongings or something?”

“That’s a pretty late question, but I won’t scold you. There aren’t any.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any items that could be clues for magical tracking.

When searching for the owner through an object using magic or sorcery, how much the owner cherished that object is important.

But Levidian didn’t show much affection for anything other than the items she brought with her when she first came to our mansion. And the items she cherished disappeared with her.

Since there’s no clever method, we decided to narrow down the most likely places among the 30 locations we marked.

After a while, enough time to make us think rolling dice might be better, we finally narrowed it down to six locations.

Lucy sighed and copied the selected locations on the tattered map onto his own map.

“Three locations on each side of the pipe road. Logical.”

“When do we depart?”

“Tomorrow. Let’s leave our horses in this village and travel on foot.”

“On foot? Why?”

“If there are any mountain goats suitable for riding, bring them. I’ll gladly ride them.”

“Tsk. I will develop a mountain-specific riding animal someday!”

Lucy clenched his fist, burning with enthusiasm, and Al and I stared blankly at him again.

Hey, you’re a spatial mage.

Imperial Year 375, July 7th.

“Two sevens make a lucky seven! Today is a good day for gambling! Kick that tree stump!”

“Eeee-rah-!”

Except for Lucy’s nonsense, his on-site command was quite useful. I kicked the tilted tree stump, and the tree swayed before slowly starting to fall.

Creak! Crack! Crash!

The roots couldn’t withstand the force of the falling tree, and the rain-softened soil released the roots smoothly.

“It’s-falling-down-!”

With a classic shout, the tree fell. And most of the monsters that were huddled underneath were crushed by the tree, letting out bizarre screams.

Kerreuk! Keeek! Kyaaaak!

“Shut up.”

Al charged into the gap. His Iron Gauntlets sliced through the air, blowing off the heads of the Rat Men one by one.

Thwack! Thwack!

Red blood and white brain matter splattered from the yellowish-brown leather. The expression”not even a mouthful”was a real thing.

I quickly slipped through the gap and knocked down a Rat Man holding a crude spear made by tying a stone tip to a branch.

Swish! Swish!

The metallic glint flashed, and Rat Man blood spurted from where the light passed. I moved through the trails of blood.

Clang!

A spear tip made of stone would hurt if it hit, but it wouldn’t be fatal. Besides, compared to Joey’s spear, this spear is nothing more than a skewer!

I swung my sword and cut down the approaching spear. Then, I slipped through the gap of the bewildered Rat Man and sliced his waist.

With a movement that perfectly matched the position of my feet, strength, technique, and speed, I cleanly sliced the Rat Man’s waist like cutting cheese. I didn’t even feel the sensation of cutting in my hand.

Keeek……?

The Rat Man showed a puzzled expression. He’s collapsing without even knowing why he’s dying.

Six Rat Men were crushed by the tree. Al and I took down twenty. But there are still fifteen more left.

They followed the principle of acting as they look, rushing towards us like a swarm of rats attracted to cheese.

At that moment, Lucy shouted,

“Both of you, back off!”

This is the moment I’ve been waiting for!

Al and I stepped back, and the Rat Men, seeing their prey escaping, charged after us with increased momentum. But above them, Lucy’s magic literally ‘exploded’!

“Classic Magic Series No. 1! Lightning Bolt!”

Hmm. Oh Lynin. Please don’t grant lightning to a person who talks like that.

A blue-silver lightning bolt, drawing a straight line, struck the leading Rat Man rushing towards us.

And the lightning branched out from the first Rat Man, traveling between all the Rat Men with powerful sparks. A blinding flash and a terrible sound rang in my ears for a while.

Kyaaaaa-! Crackle-!

The Rat Men screamed and were electrocuted to death.

I exhaled deeply, swung my sword to shake off the blood, and sheathed it.

Lucy smiled happily, looking at the achievement he had made.

“Woohoo! Kill mark number one! Lucy! Mwahahaha!”

Although he used magic, I want to commend him for defeating most of the Rat Men alone. Besides, even if Lucy charged into the middle of the Rat Men with only his staff, he seems like he could win in hand-to-hand combat.

But can you stop bragging?

Al stared blankly at Lucy and sighed softly. It seems like there are things you can’t stand to see even if it’s your friend.

I kicked a dead Rat Man and flipped it over. All of them had the same leather color. It’s the typical color of a mountain rat.

“Hmm. There’s definitely a Rat Man den nearby.”

“I think so too. So, this isn’t the place. Location No. 3 is a pass.”

I lifted the map and marked an X on the mark for this location. With this, we’ve checked three out of the six candidate locations.

Rat Men are monsters that are completely useless, with their leather being useless and their bodies consisting of nothing but useless parts.

Since they’re not interested in gold or treasures, Lucy, who was poking them with his staff, clicked his tongue.

“Tsk. There was a lot of useful stuff in the Evil Crow nest last time, but these guys have nothing.”

“Those were crows, and these are rats. Rats.”

Location No. 2.

The nest of monsters who inherited the crows’ obsession with shiny things was full of glass shards, pottery shards, pieces of iron weapons, as well as gold coins and jewels.

Lucy, the future Archmage, shouted”Money!”and fired off all the magic he had memorized that day. Even the greedy monsters were disgusted by their own greed and ran away.

Looking at Lucy happily collecting the treasure the monsters had gathered, Al and I wondered if the means and the end had been switched.

The places we designated were coincidentally areas where monsters lived in groups. This was because we had momentarily forgotten that the conditions we chose were also good conditions for monsters.

In other words, a good hunting ground with nearby water and a place to hide was also a haven for monsters who needed to avoid human eyes.

Lucy lifted his staff, slung it over his shoulder, and licked his lips. That’s already the expression of a hunter.

“So, next is from Location No. 6 to No. 4 in reverse, right?”

“Yes. The destination is 20 kilometers ahead, and it’s a straight path to the next destination.”

I set the compass to north-northwest.

Translator’s Blog

Blog

• The Ultimate Isekai Checklist: From Denial to Acceptance (and Maybe a Little Indigestion)
• Why You Can Read Light Novels But Can’t Speak English: A Guide to Unlocking Your Inner Voice
• Is My Brain Turning Into a Pile of Mush From All This Light/Web Novel Reading?
• Demon Slayer: Tengen Uzui – The Ultimate Husbando?
• The “I’m So Deep in This Light Novel I’m Living It” Blues: When Your Waifu Gets NTR’d and You’re Not Even Mad (But Kind of Are)