Chapter 8

Kanna no Kanna Volume 1 Chapter 8

// TN : typos to comments, please //

//BTW, the title calls her bijo baba //

Chapter 8 : In this case, should I use the term gorgeous grandma?

「It was a coincidence, but it was at the time when you where flying with a dragon through this snowy mountain」

From the very start? I remember that at the time, I was extremely cold.

「Essentially, it’s impossible for a flesh and blood human to cross this mountain; it does not matter if it’s by foot or by air. This is not a “ corporeal ” issue– the cold air that dominates the mountain is something that aims to freeze the soul… It’s irrelevant how strong your body is, the heart will die before your body.」

「…………I crossed it as well, though？」

「Knight-san there just happens to be exceptional, your elemental resistance magic has reached the level where it can work on 『spirit magic』」

The beauty pointed at Real… She can’t feel it? It looks like she is not at ease with the existence of the beauty; she seems rather puzzled.

「However, for you; it was different . At most you, only with that feeble flame magic; you blocked it off to the level you only felt some slight cold, didn’t you? 」

「Really？　But I felt it was extremelly cold, though?」

「The point is that you only experienced normal cold; that’s concrete proof of your peculiarity– but thanks to that , I was able to find you.」

The edge of her mouth lifed in a charming smile, which was worthy of being immortalized as art.

「Well, that was the motive; after that I made sure that the villagers would send you again to this mountain. On the route -when you encountered the wolves- I was slightly impatient; however, knight-san being so strong was quite helpful; it was even better that at the end they ended up guiding you to the entrance of this cave.」

That small girl totally is the beauty in front of my eyes; in other words the request that the villager gave to Real was a fabrication.

「Ah, but please don’t reproch them, ok？ That people were only playing along with my selfishness, ok?」

「Well, that’s fine; isn’t?」

There are various unknown points, though.

「I know it’s sudden, but is onee-san human？」

「Of course I’m not. If put into human words I’m what’s called 『spirit』. Though, we don’t have any specific word to define ourselves with.」

Spirit ーーーー I wonder if the spirit in the spirit magic she mentioned refers to herself.

「Hey Real; what are spirits supposed to be？」

While the word in itself brings something to mind, I don’t know if that fits the definition of this world.

「………… Normally, it would refer to an existence that has no ego nor violition.」

Real who finally calmed herself down, adds a concise reply.

「Rarely, there are spirits with a will… But assuming human shape, or having the ability to conceive such complex thoughts; I have never seen such a thing.」

「That’s how it is. It’s not really something to be proud, but it took a veeeryy long time for me to develop my ego」

「Concretely？」

「Maybe for about a thousand years？」

「A grandma！？」

「That’s true, even if I look like this; I’m a superb oba-san」

Then this spirit deliberately gave an old person’s ‘ Ohohoh ‘ type of laugh. It’s nice that she has high spirits.

「Ermn, why did baa-chan called us to such a cold place？」

「O- Oi, a women of high stature and greater age, I think you should address her in a more dignified way…」

「 AraAra, isn’t it nice? If you call me that doesn’t give an easy to talk feeling? At the foot of the mountain everyone calls me 「Seirei-sama〜〜」, I’m glad about being respected, but it’s a little too stiff, you know?」

Even though I was addressing the biggest mystery so far, Real retorted my manner of speech— but the person herself seems pleased with how things stand.

「Well, In short; it’s that I already got bored of staying in this place？」

The spirit put her eyes on the place where the spear is, and our eyes followed.

The spear that once gave out a silver light is now broken in half, half of it’s long handle is still standing on the ground.

「………… It’s broken？」

「………… It broke.」

「Hold it, Hold it… Don’t talk as if someoe else did it! It’s obviously your fault!」

「But, Real–」

「Nope, nope, nope. Don’t try to casually blame it on others– It had to be you. Even spirit-dono is pointing at you.」

It’s true that I touched it, but it was baa-chan who made me do it… Or rather, it was at the level of a glimpse with my fingertips…

「Ah, but it’s not like I’m throwing around blame; instead, I’m grateful. It was this magical spear that had me confined to this place; well, to say it properly is that I was sealed in this place and it haven’t been touched for over 300 years; completelly neglected, always being the same.」

I don’t care about that trivia .

「Not a single person dropped by this place regardless of how many decades piled up. Long time ago, humans that prided in tbeir skills came to the mountain; of course, their aim was the spear… The people of the mountain lended their help and those guys had quite the resilent souls… but not a single one could pull this spear; everyone was just crushed by the appearance of the golem, or died from insanity at the moment they touched the spear.」

「 ………… Oi 」

My expression changed by the casual remarks from the discouraged spirit…. So, if it didn’t go well; my final fate would have ended up being the same as those pride in their strength guys?

「But those guys bodies, so to speak; are fundamentally different as they mainly relied on protection from magic spells and special tools to guard off the cold… it’s a world of difference compared to you who just came here with just some thick clothes.」

「 Don’t act as if it’s ok just because you are adding more details! 」

「That’s why I have been alwaaaaays here alone in this mountain, waiting. Eventually I learned how to split my body as to play at the foot of the mountain; but my true self has always been here, wetting my pillow night after night.」

What’s with the pillows!? Any spilt tear is likely to be frozen on the cheek… Let’s keep that retort a secret.

「Spirit-dono, would you mind if I asked something？」

「Naturally knight-san, Oba-chan will answer all of your questions.」

To the spirit that hadn’t lost a speck of that light feeling, Real inquired.

「You had already chosen Kannaーー In other words, you had a concrete reason of why you judged him proper of pulling out that spear; I’m guessing that the criteria was 『the strength of the soul』; but there it has to be something else, right?」

「That’s easy. Himーー I mean, Kanna-kun, is the one who has the 『purest colored soul』 in this world. Kanna-kun’s soul has no impurity mixed in at all; to the point I have never seen anything else like this ever since I came to be.」

「 Purest colored………… soul？ 」

Would you guys mind stop speaking as if I was an ultra immaculate boy? I’m still a young man going through puberty… The truth is, those plentiful white tights and that bottomless valley like chest that sometimes leak through the spirit clothes（？） make it really hard where to look. I might even succumb to the temptation of performing suicide bombing on those wonderful steep hills .

Without noticing the inappropriacy of my youthful indiscretions; the conversation proceeds in a serious tone.

「I have no clue on what environment he was raised, but the moment I saw it; I was certain he would clear the challenge of the spear」

The bottom line is that the current chain of events was planned from the start by the spirit. About the pure soul stuff, I really can’t place any reason for it.

「I don’t know if that was hard to understand? Well, knight-san will surely understand it eventually; as long as you stay next to him .」

After the spirit spoke something meaningful, she took a breath.

「But of course I didn’t thought that it would break, you went beyond my expectations.」

「………… But right now, wasn’t it good that ended up broken？」

「Isn’t it fine？　For 300 years, nobody made it to this room. Additionally, humans that came to the mountain for the spear haven’t shown up in over 50 years. Probably, it’s already forgotten.」

Aren’t you being too careless？

「There is no point on fusing about the small details already. Since it broke, even if we want to; we can’t do anything about it .」

「That sounds about right.」

I can’t really say if I’m totally not feeling guilty about this… I take a look at Real, she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head… Ah, this guy; she is already not thinking about it…. Might as well stop thinking about it too .

………… Ok, let’s drop the issue….

ーーーー I’ll be reminded about this later, though .

This exceedingly casual non serious spirit; 300 years ago struck terror all across the country as a feared existence once called 『Demon God of the Ice Fang』; the spear that had her sealed and I broke, was a legendary magic weapon that the 『hero』 of that time used.

TN : japanese pronunciation probably it’s Hiba no Majin, kanji is 『氷牙の魔神』//

Again… that’s for later, though.

I might have here taken the first small step that walks away from a regular person; this is also for later. It’s important so I mentioned it twice; that’s why… At this time I still have the awareness that I’m a regular person; this is why I want to save this short interval of time as an important memory– QDEP .

Going by the spirit’s words; she should be able to interfere to some extent with the weather of this mountain… When we returned to the entrance of the cave, the mountain of rubble that was blocking it simply collapsed. The snowstorm that happened when we came here, and even the avalanche; she had created them intentionally. The first one was to corroborate that I was 『qualified』, and the second was was to lead us to deep into the cave.

The next morning when we came to the village, all villagers went on their knees and lowered their heads… Real and I were in a fluster, we are not used to people lowering themselves like that.

When someone from the villaged told us the story ーーit looks like he is the chiefーー The fact that the spirit was there was an undisputable truth, and her split body came to this village to iron out the details of her plan… While they did as the spirit said, they experienced guilt because they might had driven to death travellers that know not about the mountain.

For the time being is obvious that Real and I returned safe and sound, and we hold no blame towards them. Once that was told; at the very least, they promised to accomodate us cheaply in the village. They actually offered to do so freely, but as expected that would be a little bit too much.

By the evening of that day…

「 Yaah, warm water sure is nice. It’s been over 300 years since I entered a bath. 」

Soaking in the post bath bliss, a spirit whose soft hair was emiting dampness was enjoying the air of the room. She is the ideal impersonification of a wet beauty overflowing with freshness.

「 An ice spirit taking a dip in warm bath water is ok? Isn’t there any danger of melting？ 」

「Regardless of how advanced my age is, I’m still a maiden, you know? Isn’t it natural to always be clean? Additionally, it doesn’t matter how much I soak in that temperature, there is no problem. If you want to melt me, you’ll need to use something close to hellfire from hell」

「 That’s impressive 」

Real was now in the middle of caring her equipment; since for me this is something that I don’t get to see normally, I was quite entranced looking at her work.

「Isn’t Real-chan also going to enter the bath？ Right now it’s quite confortable.」

「Right after I’m done with this I’ll go. To be honest, I want to take a bath and then do nothing for the rest of the day. 」

I’m on board too. We have been up all night and without rest since yesterday; if in this state you enter a relaxing bath, after that there is no way you can win over your tiredness.

Before that, there is one talk I would like to fill more details in…

「Umn, what’s the meaning of that, baa-chan??」

「 That one is already settled in stone………… 」

Naturally , since the one addressed liked it, the spirit is already totally designated as 『Baa-chan』.

「 Nn, What is it？ 」

「Why is it that a spirit who has first released in 300 years in the same room as we are.」

She completely entered the room as casually as possible, and then proceeded to talk naturally as it is. Actually, I’m quite surprised as it is （ probably Real to ）. Surely the village head invited her to his house? Even in this small village, there it has to be a room bigger and more suited for guests than a cramped dual room like this.

「Ahhhhh–objectionobjection! I’m totally not good with that much stiffness! I want to be in a place where I have more freedom, you know? Freedom is the word! 」

Difference in standard , I wonder why I don’t have any inconveniences when talking with people from this world? It might even be that, what’s spoken actually transforms into something that we understand… I wonder if the speech standard is like in european movies? I can’t risk disrespect using cointed words from contemporanean japan.

「Ara, it’s easy to see what you are thinking. Kanna-kun is interested in who could use that legendary spear that others could not tame for 300 years, the hero of long ago? It’s not weird to be a little curious about what happened then.」

「 Rather than using it, it was completely crushed . Better yet, stop it with the hero 」

Just from thinking about that word, a strong anger gushes up from the bottom of my heart…

「Spirit-dono, Kanna has an ill relation to the word 『 hero 』, if possible from now on please don’t touch it.」

「………… So it seems. I get it… Sorry for having reminded you of something unpleasant.」

「No– instead, I’m also sorry 」

Grandma here has no fault for the circumstances that she does not know, I shook my head as I apologized.

「Well, not only about the world, I also plan to teach Kanna-kun about using the 『power』 he now has.」

Real looked at me as if to as ‘what?’, I’m actually troubled as how to respond .

Grandma thought about something a little, and then slowly grabbed Real with her right hand.

「 Spirit-dono, what is ………… Ah- Cold!」

After a small shriek, Real shook her shoulders. I’ll make sure to save that cute yell in the bottom of my chest .

「I’m sorry, but; Kanna-kun as well–」

Next, she grabbed me with her right hand as well…

「…………………… Are？ 」

Certainly, I do feel cold from her right hand, but that’s only from the part she is touching. Even if she is someone who posses extreme coldness, it’s impossible for me to react like Real did… I can recognize that it’s cold, and I can also experience the temperature; but that’s it — It’s not to the level I have to let out a voice.

「That was, for about a little before water freezes, temperature wise.」

Baa-chan gave an answer to the I whose head was tilted. Isn’t that for about minus ten degrees celsius? If I get a surprise attack at that temperature; I should let out a similar yell to how Real did when she was touched .

「Yes, Real-chan’s reaction would be the usual for a regular person」

If it was normal, I should be getting a frostbite. That’s a dangerous postscript.

「 You are phrasing it as if something strange is going on with me…. 」

「In a sense, the meaning is not wrong at all. Nee, Kanna-kun; do you remember how you defeated that Ice Golem in that cave？ 」

It’s something that happened in less than half a day; there is no way I don’t remember. Rather, I have tried not thinking about it until now… Real as well, probably to sympathize, she has not brought up the subject.

Even now, if I try to become conscious about it; deep in the 『bottom』 of my heart, I feel that a new sensation was born.

As expected, this is what grandma mentions as 『power』.

「………… This is that spirit magic you mentioned? 」

「Yep, a type of technique that is only allowed to be used by spirits; even though Kanna-kun is human, you are now able to use a power that’s quite similar to ours. This is also why you can better tolerate the cold now.」

「………… The cause is that 『something』 that came flowing when I touched the spear?」

「You have 『obtained』 one of the principles that sustain this world… Probably because I was sealed for so many years, that spear got stained with that. Originally, the owner of that spear was supposed to become the user, well- 」

Whatever it’s said, I’m the one who marvelously broke that spear… As if it was a prank by god.

「Due to that process, in the end now within you resides the 『spirit magic of freezing』; I will teach you the techniques necessary to use that power」

It was a week after that, that we left the village .

「Is it all right? To give us such a large amount of food…」

Stepping through the spacious grasslands, Real and I are on our way; at my back there is a bag fully loaded of consumables that the people of the village gave us as a farewell gift. Not only the lodging, not only our meals; we ended up quite indebted to them… later, if we get the opportunity; I’d like to repay them somehow.

「I wonder how I should feel? Deep down, this is a lifesaver. The road is quite long and there is going to be travel expenses; anything that we can save in food is welcome.」

I can only assent to Real’s pragmatic talk; I have nothing to add. At the time we left the castle we took with us a decent amount of money （annoyance fee and apology fee among other stuff）; but it’s not know if we are going to be able to secure more money from now on.

Originally, there it were several good reasons to depart quickly; but in the end we agreed at a full week stay.

For one side, the worry about pursuers was gone… Well, it’s not totally gone in the end, but we went through the sacred mountain; thanks to grandma having spent there several years, it has become a well known area where people must not thread; the reason being that you can’t go through it by foot nor by air— That this is the number one danger zone in the area, the people of the castle can’t be ignorant about this; therefore the fact that we crossed the mountain and that we stayed in the village can’t be the first option they are going to consider. Even if they want to extend the search range, they would need to take a great detour while evading the mountain .

With all that, we lost the reason for haste. On the other side– this is something proposed by grandma– we needed a grace period for me to master my 『power』. Our journey from now on won’t be short; and probably just like what happened in the snowy mountain, we are likely to bump into more magical beasts… I can’t forever rely on Real; I will undoubtely need means of self defence.

On top of that, I had Real teach me more about the common sense in this world. I urgently need to evolve from a super clueless country bumpkin brat, it was necessary to learn useful stuff about the ways of the world; it’s obvious that not doing so will become a problem later. I learned the basics about numbers, reading and writting; these will natural become important from now on… The numbers I could somehow stuff them in my head.

Right now the immediate destination is Real’s hometown.

Real’s hometown is the capital of the neighboring country; since that’s the place where the king resides, it’s probably the city that’s the more developed in the whole country… that also means that the population there has to be the largest in density in the country; and with that the amount of information that can be obtained is also the greatest.

If that’s the case, I might bump into means for me to return to my previous world; or at least some clue to make that possible. I already consulted this with Real, she also promised to lend a hand with this.

My expectations are not big; there are problably going to be a lot of stumbling before actually finding my destination; fortunately, I’m blessed with a companion; so I won’t get bored anytime soon.

In those lines, I also told baa-chan the outline of the circumstances that brought me to this world; since she is soo long lived, she might hold an unexpected bag of wisdom, so to speak…

「I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything that might directly help Kanna-kun」

I remember grandma’s sorrowful face.

「There are stories about humans being previously summoned from another world, there it had been a bunch of them; but none of those where previously made in the human country; that’s why, I know some fact from it, but not the accurate detail.」

「By the way, the lastest people summoned from another world, when was the last time？」

That question was answered by Real.

「Certainly ………… I don’t remember ever hearing something about 300 years ago, there it should be official records left.」

「 Ye– Yeah, I wonder why I had to be sealed… 」

This is the first time grandma doesn’t have a light hearted feeling; suddenly she got restless… Probably, she already knows something .

I do hold some doubts about this behaviour, but asking her about it somehow seemed bad; so I’ll drop the topic…

After talking with grandma, suddenly memories started flooding in, I kept thinking about the previous world; something I didn’t had the leeway about previously, due to the eventful days…

「 It would be great if that Yuuzuki doesn’t do anything weird 」

The first thing it came to mind was about my childhood friend, an unseparable relationship forged by fate; having been related ever since elementary school. An outstanding guy who is is better than me in all accounts; but he also has several pitiful sides– He is without a doubt what would be labeled as a troublemaker .

Right after that, I thought about those who I had not as long of a relationship as with Yuuzuki, but it’s those two female friends I had since middle school; it was a chance meeting by something caused by Yuuzuki… But after that the four of us started hanging around, acting as a group.

「 I wonder what are they doing right now… 」

Without a doubt, for a while I did feel like raisen some uproar; but because right now I can’t do anything about it, I decided on not thinking more about it.