Chapter 377: Sage’s Autobiography (1)
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
Warning:
Gumi is going to take A LOT OF LIBERTIES with this chapter.
Especially for the reactions. All changes will be marked as [8].
Let us proceed.
*Cracks knuckles*
[8] I squinted at the book, doing my best to read the faded writing.
The content was laid out like an autobiography. [8] Beginning with an introduction about how he got into this world, all of which interested me a lot.
The writer was a Japanese man named Kazuki Matsumoto.
According to him, he was summoned to this world from earth in year 2014, while on the way to his part-time job. He was still a college student back then and was summoned to a kingdom called Astafiev.
Two others had been summoned alongside him. [8] Which fits the 3 Hero Summoning back when I was summoned over. Well, in my case, it was a 3+1, but Kazuki had been summoned to a proper 3 Hero Summoning thing.
[8] That was the one difference between us.
[8] After that, Kazuki’s impression of the summoning experience was pretty much the same as mine.
[8] Blah blah blah, King and Queen dripping with gaudy riches, blah blah blah, a stiffed face princess, yada yada yada, well-dressed snooty old men looking down at them etc.
Oh, they were also surrounded by heavily armoured soldiers.
None of these gave Kazuki a good impression. As an avid reader of lightnovels, he immediately recognised that he had been transmigrated and his reaction was illustrated on the page as:
“I was summoned to another world!
━━━━━m9( ゜∀゜)━━━━━━!!”
[5] [5] [8] Thus, despite the bad first impression he had of the people in the room, he was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, these people were basically foreigners to him. Naturally, it would be sensible for them to be wary and have soldiers around just in case the wizards or whatever made a mistake and summoned a monster or something.
[8] As for the gaudy-looking royal family? Well, maybe it was just gaudy to his Japanese aesthetic of beauty. Royal families, who want to give the best impression, may have dressed themselves up in their best right?
However, whatever lingering good impression he might have had for these people soon disappeared.
[8] “People were starving…”
[8] “Monsters invading…”
[8] “Country on the verge of being destroyed by neighbouring country filled with demons…” [5] [8] Kazuki, “… …”
[8] Mukouda, “…this is all kind of familiar…”
[8] I, Kazuki, do not think these people were telling the truth, they were all finely dressed and dripping with gold and jewels. If their people were truly starving… [5]
[8] Mukouda, “…seriously, this is all sounding very familiar.”
Anyway, as an avid lightnovel reader, I can already see where this was going.[8] While the old man in front of us was droning on and on about the suffering of their country, I quietly chanted [Status Check] and sure enough, my status suddenly showed up in front of me.
[8] I took a quick look around, but nobody seemed to have noticed the glowing Status Window in front of me. Relieved, I quickly scanned over my status:
Occupation: Sage
Skills: Fire Magic, Water Magic, Wind Magic, Earth Magic, Ice Magic, Lightning Magic, Recovery Magic, Holy Magic, Sacred Magic, All Magic Adaptation
Unique Skill: Unfathomable Magic
[8] Since the last one looked the most promising under these circumstances, I checked that one first.
Unfathomable Magic:
Enhances the understanding of all things related to magic.
Ordinary people who studied under masters may need to train for many years to fully understand advanced magic such as magic circles and magic tools. [5]
With this skill, you can understand everything with just a little coaching or studying.
[8] Woah, well, that explains the ‘Sage’ occupation.
That was when I discovered the loophole that could save me from this situation. Since my occupation is listed down as ‘Sage’ instead of ‘Hero’, it was already a step in the right direction.
However, my MP was unexpectedly high. Which meant that these people could still force me to be a Hero.
[8] Luckily, with my Unfathomable Magic skill, I was able to understand their magic tool for checking our status after asking a few questions and observing the two Heroes having their status checked.
[8] When it was my turn, I manipulated the magic tool and reset my status to look like the following:
Occupation: Student from Another World
Skills: n/a
MP: 96
Stamina: 88
When the people from the kingdom saw my miserable status, the way they looked at me was similar to how someone would look at trash [8] (lol).
After a long silence, the person in charge of the magic tool coughed and said that my status was quite ‘special’.
[8] Lol, old man, you have no idea!
The other two ‘Summoned Heroes’ were looking at me with confused eyes. Looks like they were taken aback by my miserable status, but they also didn’t look too dissatisfied about being made use of by the leaders of this country.
I felt kind of sorry for them, but not sorry enough to weigh myself down with two complete strangers. No. 1 is more important. So, I turned to the king and told him pathetically ‘I’m sorry for being useless, I will live quietly in the city and not be a burden to anyone.’
[8] First order of business, do not get killed for being cocky.
Luckily, the King appeared to accept my request and I was not killed on the spot. I supposed it would be bad for morale if he had one of the summoned heroes murdered right away even if one of them was a [8] dud.
The King also added, “Nevertheless, you have come into this world for us. Therefore, it is imperative that we take good care of you. We shall send you to one of the few remote areas far away from the reaches of war.”
[8] …He’s totally going to have me assassinated, isn’t he?
Anyway, I was sent out of the kingdom with a soldier escort, [8] probably an assassin, just to watch me.
[8] I was fully prepared to fake my death. I could maybe kill him somehow, but that would just alert people I don’t need to.
Anyway, we spent 5 days on the road, this soldier guy and I. Houses and buildings grew sparser and sparser and finally, we stopped within a forest. [8] I was asked, very rudely mind you, to step out of the carriage.
The soldier’s final words to me were, “You may go wherever you wish. That is, if you can survive this place.”
[8] Then, the carriage turned around and left.
They left me in a forest without killing me, presumably to be eaten by some monster or something.
Nice. [5] [5]
On the way here, I, Kazuki the Sage, have already collected quite a few magic skills [8] from the ones used by my very kind soldier-san. We had a few minor encounters with bandits and monsters, where I was treated to the sight of some attack and defensive magic usage. He also used some survival-related magic, which I, a boondock from another world, was understandably fascinated by and filled with questions for him.
Anyway, now that I had been left alone, I was now free to practice whatever magic I have learned. Monsters that jumped out to attack me provided very convenient test subjects.
Eventually, I managed to slowly leave the borders of Astafiev while earning my daily bread through minor skills that did not stand out. When I arrived at the neighbouring Kingdom of Slesak, I registered myself as an Adventurer under the name of ‘Kazu’.
As Kazu the Adventurer, I travelled freely around this other world. Along the way, I experienced many things, acquired several magic books, deepened my understanding of magic, and learned a lot about magic tools and magic circles…
“Phew…”
About a third into the book, [1] I had to rub my eyes.
I bought a canned coffee off [Net Super] and took a quiet sip to wake myself up, trying to make as little noise as possible.
From what I have read, a lot of the elements experienced by Kazuki were similar to mine. [8] Except I was a 4th irrelevant person with the occupation of ‘Guy Caught up in a Summoning Spell’.
What caught my interest was that this guy was summoned here in 2014…
Just what is going on?
I stared at the book in my hand.
[8] Wait, I should know more about this book if I appraise it, right? [5] [8] “Let’s check, [Appraisal]!”
[Autobiography of Sage Kazu]
An autobiography of the Sage Kazu, written in a different world language about 600 years ago.
“Woah!”
I quickly slapped a hand over my mouth. [5] I listened intently, wondering if any of my familiars heard me. [5]
However, when no sound answered me, I returned to staring at the book.
600 years ago…
That’s quite a long time.
Kazuki was summoned from Earth in 2014.
I was summoned in 2016. [5]
With just a difference of two years, over 600 years have passed?
I don’t really get it, but it does look like time doesn’t move at the same time between this world and earth.
Well, that’s kind of a given, isn’t it?
There’s no point overthinking it since it’s not like I could do anything with the information.
Anyway, let’s keep reading.
I took another swig of the canned coffee and returned to the book.
[Gumihou: …this chapter would have been more enjoyable if I hadn’t had to deal with all sorts of inconsistent nonsense.]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information.
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken