Badlands Saga: Reincarnation in a Different World with Extreme Charisma - Chapter 36

Chapter 36   Inner Animal 4

Indeed, the black water bubbling up in the Black Water Valley was crude oil itself.

Kintman, with the hems of their clothes stained black, carried barrels filled with it into the castle courtyard. The substance had a muddy appearance and emitted a unique odor.

No one else here, besides me, would realize that this could be a resource that could turn the world upside down.

“So, uh, Fusha-sama, we found something like this sunk in the black water pond…”

As he said this, Kintman pulled back the cloth draped over a cart next to the barrels…

There lay an unfamiliar object.

It was a beast-faced, human-bodied machine made of stone and iron.

Underneath its dog-like face was a body shaped like a human doll, holding a sword in one hand, with wings on its back and a tail behind.

This machine, clearly designed for combat, resembled the gargoyles I had read about in comics in my previous life.

“What is this… a gargoyle?”

“A gargoyle?”

“A gargoyle is like a mechanical guard.”

“Then it’s good it’s dead, huh?”

Kintman said this and tapped on the machine’s chest with his now-blackened hand.

“There’s a keyhole around this chest area, so I thought there might be something inside it, so I brought it…”

“Let me see…”

“It’s dangerous to get too close, you know.”

“It’s fine.”

Even so, in the end, Isara wouldn’t allow me to climb onto the cart, so she lifted me up by the waist and let me peer into the gargoyle.

In the center of the chest-like part, which was stained completely black, there was indeed something that looked like a keyhole.

When I rubbed my hand around the hole to see if I could read any of the carved letters, it made a sound like “Gajin.”

“Eh?”

The chest piece split down the middle like a line drawn from the gargoyle’s neck to its groin, gradually opening up.

Naturally, I was quickly pulled away from the cart by Isara, but it seemed like it wasn’t going to explode or move.

“Hey, hey… We tried to open it, and even hit it with stones, but it wouldn’t budge…”

Kintman grumbled as he peered into the gargoyle’s chest in my place, since I was being held up by Isara.

“Ah?! What is this?! There’s a bird inside?!”

“Isara, it seems fine. Bring me closer.”

“You’ll get pecked!”

“Just do it.”

Isara reluctantly brought me closer to the gargoyle’s chest, and sure enough, there was a bird.

Inside a plain, lead-colored cylinder that looked like a crucible, there was a small chick emanating a faint glow from its body.

“Why is there a chick in a place like this?”

As I wondered, I picked up the chick wrapped in orange feathers, and we locked eyes.

The chick, which had been left inside the gargoyle that was submerged in the crude oil pond, stared back at me with its black eyes.

It lifted its head to gaze at me for a while before closing its eyelids and starting to breathe softly.

It seemed that this little one was indeed alive.

“It’s alive… this one. W-wait, Isara, put me down!”

“What’s going on?”

As I was set down on the ground by Isara, various people gathered around me.

While everyone stared at the chick in my hands, the magician Ida muttered quietly.

“I think this is a phoenix chick.”

“…A phoenix?!”

“Yes, I’ve heard that a phoenix is reborn as a chick after it dies. Furthermore, its feathers are said to emit heat and light.”

“It is warm, that’s true…”

“But regular bird chicks are warm too, right?”

“However…”

“No, I can confirm that this is indeed a phoenix chick!”

As we were discussing this in the courtyard, a sultry voice echoed, as if a cool breeze had blown through.

“You’ve picked up something good, little boy. In the old world, the phoenix was a symbol of prosperity.”

“Master Isrortep!”

As I turned my gaze, there was Master Isrortep, sitting in a chair with her legs crossed, tilting a glass filled with alcohol.

“Hey, old lady. Why is something so auspicious inside a gargoyle?”

“I cannot say… but perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the little boy touched it, and the hidden door opened?”

“In other words?”

When Kintman asked, Isrortep bared his fangs and smiled.

“I’m saying it might have a connection to that little boy.”

“Huh? Even if you say that, I can’t imagine my ancestors, who were quite poor, preparing something like this…”

To be honest, if they could prepare something as auspicious as a phoenix or something like that gargoyle,

then this territory wouldn’t be so desolate right now.

Agriculture might not have gone well, but they could have bought bigger boats for fishing or invited knowledgeable people.

As I pondered this, Isrortep huffed through her high nose and continued.

“There must have been at least one person in the Tanukan family who wasn’t poor.”

“Did we have anyone like that…?”

In our traditionally super poor family, could there really have been someone like that…?

As I considered this, I suddenly remembered something.

Our family came to the wilderness to pioneer the land.

In other words, they must have brought some money for that purpose when they first arrived.

“…Could it be about the first Lord Kent?”

“Yes, Tanukan Kent. The great hero who slayed the dragon, and the big fool who had his fame stripped away by the royal family.”

Slaying a dragon? I had neither heard nor read about such a thing.

What on earth does Isrortep know?

“Do you know anything about the first Lord Kent?”

In truth, there’s hardly any information about the first Lord Kent.

There isn’t even a special oral tradition, nor are there records left in the castle’s library.

Even the family tree, which serves as a tool to prove noble legitimacy, lacks any records before the first lord.

“Tanukan Kent is a mysterious man. During his lifetime, he had concubines in other places, and hardly any records remain. However, there’s no doubt that he did something other than pioneering in this wilderness.”

“So, you’re saying this chick is that ‘something’?”

Isrortep smiled broadly, curling the corners of her lips as she stood up.

“The phoenix, when it grows, starts to mimic human voices. Perhaps that chick has something infused into it as well?”

As she said this, she walked over and gently rolled the chick, which was breathing softly in my palm, with her fingertip.

“Hmm, it’s a male. While it’s still a chick, feed it plant seeds, and as it grows, add some leafy greens.”

“You can tell that much? You really know everything.”

“No, I don’t know everything… that’s why I want to learn what I don’t know.”

As Isrortep said this, she rubbed her chin with her finger and turned her back to me.

“Once it grows up and sings something good, let me know.”

And then… like a mirage, she melted away into the sunlight.