Chapter 12: The “i” on the stone monument indicating the location of the book indicating the location of the legendary sword.
TLNOTE : this chapter is very heavy on japanese wordplay, so my apologies if some parts don’t make sense. I tried my best, but my Japanese isn’t quite there yet.
“People grow through life. In other words, I have achieved a lot of growth.”
[The word ‘life’ (人生) is made of ‘human’ (人) and ‘living’ (生). But you… you’re not living humanely, are you?]
“How philosophical.”
[I meant it as a sarcastic retort.]
“Even so, my cooking skills have improved. I made some Ajillo.”
[There’s no context connecting this to you being a scroll string. You didn’t use the olive oil from your own body, did you?]
“Oh, please. I’m not some yandere who would mix their own bodily fluids into the food.”
[Even a yandere wouldn’t use olive oil from their own body!]
“It’s just that I can hear the voice of the olive oil now.”
[Has your mind finally snapped?]
“No, no. It’s like, I can sense the condition of the ingredients through the olive oil.”
[That’s a symptom some top chefs have. It is delicious, I’ll give you that.]
“It’s limited to olive oil for now, though. Next time, I’ll have to become a different ingredient.”
[Then go ahead and pick from the suggestion box. I like sweets, so try for sugar or something.]
“Understood. If you’ll excuse me…”
[Don’t try to shove your hand into the Goddess’s robe! That’s beyond rude; it’s sacrilege!]
“You splashed boiling hot Ajillo on me without a moment’s hesitation… how ruthless.”
[I’m more terrified of the fact that you’re perfectly fine after being splashed with boiling hot Ajillo.]
※The leftover Ajillo was used as fertilizer for the staff (Mandragoras).
“My ninja skills have leveled up, after all.”
[You were just the string used by a ninja!]
“Let’s see the prompt. From Koh-san: [The ‘i’ on the stone monument indicating the location of the book indicating the location of the legendary sword].”
[Say that again?]
“[The ‘i’ on the stone monument indicating the location of the book indicating the location of the legendary sword].”
[I see. I have no idea what that means.]
“Isn’t the content clearly written right there?”
[No, I mean the intent of the person who submitted it.]
“True. A stone monument showing the location of a book showing the location of a legendary sword seems like a step backward for civilization.”
[That’s not the part I’m questioning!]
“But normally, wouldn’t a ‘book showing the location of a stone monument showing the location of a legendary sword’ be more step-by-step?”
[Is that so? Maybe. It doesn’t really matter.]
“If this is okay, then something like ‘the legendary sword indicating the location of the stone monument indicating the location of the book indicating the location of the legendary sword’ should be possible too.”
[Stop it. It’s getting confusing.]
“Even if it’s an ‘Option’ reincarnation, I feel like my role would end midway through the story.”
[True. It’s just a passing point.]
“Hmm, that makes it hard to feel satisfied with life.”
[I’m shocked you even remembered that goal.]
“I think I’d be satisfied if I could reach the finish line with you, Goddess-sama.”
[Die and try again.]
“Am I not already considered dead?”
[Oh, right.]
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
[Hmm, I can’t make Ajillo as delicious as his. It’s truly frustrating as a Goddess to lose in cooking. It would be the ultimate humiliation if he ate my cooking and said his was better.]
“I’m back.”
[Welcome home. Now, eat this!]
“Splash me with boiling Ajillo the moment I get back, why don’t you? Ah, but it’s delicious.”
[Is it? Well, that’s good. But my fear is growing even more than my joy.]
※TThe leftover Ajillo was used as fertilizer for the staff (Mandragoras).
“By the way, I’ve become the ‘i’ character on a stone monument indicating the location of a book indicating the location of the legendary sword in a perfectly ordinary fantasy world.”
[It’s too long, just shorten it.]
“The ‘i’ on the monument. Here’s a photo.”
【 THE BOOK SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE LEGENDARY SWORD SLEEPS UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE RED DRAGON IN THE NORTHERNMOST CAVE 】
[Hmm. I have a lot of complaints about the ‘book’ part, but I don’t see the character ‘i’ (い) in there.]
“Oh, it’s there. Here’s a photo of when it moved.”
[It’s not supposed to move!]
【 THE BOOK SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE LEGENDARY SWORD SLEEPS—N THE NORTHERNMOST CAVE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE RED DRAGON i 】
[Ah, there it is. I see, the character ‘IN’ (に) does technically contain the shape of an ‘i’ (い) in Japanese script.]
“As a transformation ability, I can also quickly turn into the character ‘ko’ (こ).”
[You mean you just rotate yourself?]
“By the way, as long as I can be recognized as the character ‘i’, I can move other characters too.”
【 THE BOOk SHoWING THE LOiCATiON OF THE LEGENDAiRY SWOiRD SLEEPS IN THE NOIORTHERNMOIST CAiVE i i i i i 】
[You can do diacritics and different scripts too? But now it looks like a coded message.]
“The radical for ‘sword’ (りっとう) looked a bit like an ‘i’, but its identity as ‘ri’ was too strong, so that was difficult.”
[That is completely irrelevant.]
“Well, I usually stayed quiet, though.”
【 THE BOOK SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE LEGENDARY SWORD SLEEPS IN THE NORTHERNMOST CAVE UNDER THE PROTECTiON OF THE RED DRAG-ON i 】
※ He moved the ‘i’ to change ‘Dragon’ to ‘Drag-on’ and added extra ‘i’s elsewhere.)*
[You can’t sit still, can you? If someone said ‘Dry-gon,’ I might actually believe it. Also, ‘Protect-i-on’ looks weird.]
“Goddess-sama, saying ‘Protect-i-on’ is cute. My ears are in heaven.”
[I’ll pour Ajillo into your eardrums later.]
“I’ll get an ear infection. By the way, a ‘Dry-gon’ is an ingredient made by sun-drying a fruit called a ‘Gon’.”
[A dry Gon? What’s a Gon?]
“It’s a fruit unique to fantasy worlds. It has a hard skin, and when it grows large, it falls and makes a loud GON sound.”
[I see. So it’s a ‘Gon.’ The gods in the worlds you go to really lack naming sense.]
“By the way, the first Hero who came here had a face that said ‘What the heck is a Bo-ok?’ and started digging deep under a bunch of red-moldy Dry-gons in the northern cave.”
[I wanted him to question the ‘Bo-ok’ part first. And so he dug under the ‘Protect-i-on’?]
“When rumors of that reached me, I realized I’d messed up and moved a little bit.”
[I’m shocked you actually have a conscience.]
【 THE BOOK SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE LEGENDARY SWORD SLEEPS IN THE NORTHERNMOST CAVE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE RED I-DRAGON i 】
[That’s really just a little bit, and you haven’t moved much at all.]
“Moving text takes stamina, you know.”
[You barely moved! And what is an ‘I-Dragon’?]
“An I-Dragon is a Gon of the Idola.”
[I don’t follow.]
” ‘Idola’ is a word used when explaining how people shouldn’t be misled by prejudice or preconceptions.”
※It means people have biases, so be conscious not to make mistakes. Something like that.
[Suddenly this got very academic.]
“It’s often translated as ‘Idols’ or ‘Phantoms.’ You know, like how a snack tastes better when you get it from someone else? That kind of thing that doesn’t exist but feels like it does.”
[I see. So a ‘Gon of the Idola.’ A Phantom Gon. Still makes no sense.]
“The second Hero was like, ‘I see, a Phantom Gon!’ and started digging deep under a phantom red Gon that was floating in the northern cave.”
[What do you mean ‘I see’?! He must have a few screws loose if he’s seeing phantoms. And did the second one also read it as ‘dig under the Protect-i-on’?]
“The one who found all this strange was the Red Dragon living in the northern cave.”
[I wish the two Heroes had found it strange first.]
“Seeing a massive, incredibly deep hole dug in front of its home, the Dragon wondered what was going on and came to the monument.”
[That’s a very intellectual Dragon to know about the monument.]
“It would be bad if I got caught pulling pranks, so I rushed back to my original spot.”
【 THE BOOK SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE LEGENDARY SWORD SLEEPS IN THE NORTHERNMOST CAVE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE RED DRAGON i 】
[The genre is changing… and you didn’t quite make it back.]
“The Dragon saw the monument and thought, ‘I see, they must have misread it as ‘dig under here’ because of this ‘i’ character.’ and was satisfied.”
[It accepted it?!]
“However, the Dragon also realized it had been tampered with, so it fixed it before going home.”
【 THE BOOK SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE LEGENDARY SWORD SLEEPS IN THE NORTHERNMOST CAVE (SAIHOKU NO DOUKUTSU) UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE RED DRAGON 】
[It added phonetic readings (furigana)? But that just makes it harder to read!]
“And it even wrote the formal name of the location.”
[But with phonetic readings added, it must be hard for you to prank it now.]
“Yes. So I had no choice but to use my ‘Option’ powers.”
[You actually used them?]
“Even though I was reincarnated into a Ninja world before, I barely used any ninjutsu, so I made sure to learn some this time.”
[Ninjutsu for a letter?!]
“This is the view when I used the Clone Jutsu (Bunshin no Jutsu).”
【 THE i BOOK i SHOWING i THE i LOiCATiON i OF i THE i LEGENDAiRY i SWOiRD i SLEEPS i IN i THE i NOIORTHERNMOIST i CAiVE i 】
[Now it’s just a glitch.]
“The third Hero who appeared said, ‘I see.'”
[No way.]
“He thought it was a code and decided to just remove all the ‘i’s and read it.”
[Wow, he was actually smart.]
“And then he defeated the Red Dragon in the ‘Sahoku’ cave.”
[He read the phonetic part?! ‘Saihoku’ (North) minus ‘i’ becomes ‘Sahoku’!]
“The one who found it strange was the Red Dragon in the ‘Sahoku’ cave.”
[Where is Sahoku?]
“It’s the name of a region at the southernmost tip of this world.”
[That’s unnecessarily far away!]
“A Hero attacks even though there are no items there. The Dragon, wondering what was going on, came to the monument.”
[That’s a natural reaction. But why the monument again?]
“Apparently, there’s a ‘Dragon Network’.”
[They’re very social.]
“The Dragon saw the monument and thought, ‘I see, they must have read the ‘Sahoku’ part of the phonetic guide.’ and was satisfied.”
[He’s smart and quick on the uptake!]
“But he couldn’t stand being attacked when he had nothing, so he fixed the monument and went home.”
[I should hope so.]
【 GO TO THE NORTHERN CAVE 】
[It’s gotten very blunt.]
“I used the Clone Jutsu again.”
【 i GiO i TiOi TiHiE i NiOiRiTiHiEiRiN i CiAiViE i 】
[It’s a code again!]
“The fourth Hero deciphered it instantly.”
[By removing the ‘i’s, right?]
“By the way, if you remove the ‘i’s, it looks like this.”
【 GO TO THE NORTHERN CAVE 】
TLNote: In the Japanese text, removing ‘い’ changed ‘North’ (Saihoku) to ‘Sahoku’ and ‘Cave’ (Doukotsu) to ‘Dookutsu’.)
[Sahoku again!]
“The fourth Hero thought this was a hint for the legendary sword and scattered a massive amount of hair (Ke) in the Sahoku cave.”
TLNote: In Japanese, removing ‘i’ from ‘Ike’ (Go) leaves ‘Ke’ (Hair).)*
[He has the brain to decipher the code, but his resulting action is totally psycho!]
“The one who found it strange was the Red Dragon in the Sahoku cave.”
[He probably found it creepy.]
“But being quick on the uptake, the Dragon realized someone had removed the ‘i’s again and came to the monument.”
[He’s truly perceptive to deal with the Hero’s bizarre behavior.]
“And here is the monument he fixed.”
[ ↑ · ]
![[ ↑ · ]](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/1902f6e8656a.png){kind=link}
[It’s just a signpost now! But wait, didn’t you disappear in this version?]
“Actually, just before I was erased, I used the Shrinking Jutsu to hide. Here’s a photo of me deactivating the jutsu, lined up for clarity.”
[ ↑ · ] [ ↑ ᵢ ] [ ↑ i ] [ ↑ I ]
![[ ↑ · ] [ ↑ ᵢ ] [ ↑ i ] [ ↑ I ]](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/a84a5bb4cd63.png){kind=link}
[So you were the mysterious period!]
“By the way, the fifth Hero who saw this was a total ‘Party animal’ (Paripi), so his tension spiked and he went off somewhere.”
※Party animal = party people
[He went ‘Wooo’? I don’t think that person is a Hero anymore.]
“The one who found it strange was the Red Dragon in the Northern Cave.”
[How was he confused this time?]
“The hyped-up fifth Hero headed north to the northernmost point for no reason and started a party inside the cave.”
[What a complete nuisance.]
“The Dragon who came to the monument was stunned. After all, the monument he made had been turned into a signpost.”
[So it was handmade by the Blazing Dragon?]
“The Dragon was impressed, thinking: ‘He must have gotten hyped by the arrow, but to come all the way to the northernmost point to party… what an active Hero!'”
[He’s smart, yet somehow foolish, isn’t he?]
“The Dragon thought: ‘To reach here with such a simple sign, he must be the True Hero burdened with destiny!'”
[Well, that’s one way to look at it.]
“And so, he gave the fifth Hero the book showing the location of the legendary sword he was protecting.”
[He just gave it away?! Well, if it went to a Hero, I suppose it’s fine.]
“By the way, as a punchline, the fifth Hero couldn’t read Kanji, so he never did anything as a Hero and lived out his life as a ‘consultant’.”
[So it wasn’t ‘fine’ after all.]
“Afterward, the monument where I lived was worshipped as a holy land for party people for generations to come.”
[How did it come to that?]
“A legend remained that the Hero who deciphered the monument and gained power received a precious gift from a Dragon.”
[Perspective is everything, I guess.]
“However, some people with bad manners started chipping off pieces of the monument as souvenirs. And eventually, someone even worse carried off the shrunken monument entirely, and it was lost.”
[I feel the sad destiny of ‘holy lands’ in that.]
“And that’s how I came back. It was quite unsatisfying.”
[I didn’t expect you to be satisfied just by being worshipped.]
“So, here is a Gon as a souvenir.”
[Is this even edible?]
“It’s a bit hard, so it’s tough to cut… heave-ho! Here you go.”
[Let’s see… this is just a coconut, isn’t it?]
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