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«Bacchus’ Side»

“…Poiso… Dissol-…”
“Hey, that annoying scarf… why don’t you take it off?”

I see, she uses pretty strong magic, doesn’t she. Poison magic is mainly of the highest class. I’ll kick the bucket, if that merely grazes me. In addition, that snake coiled around her also attacks together with her.

Did the past heroes have to fight something like this…?

“Still… I won’t lose!”

I’ll use Quick Road – speed increasing magic – on myself. We must save the princess. I’m pretty sure it won’t be an issue, even if I stack it multiple times.

My swiftness rose dramatically after stacking Quick Road.
From the start, I’ve invested quite a lot of STP into speed, right?

“Well… Y’know, that ability is somewhat uncool, but… please take it. ‘Secret Alcohol-Enthusiast Body Strike Technique – Double Firebird Fist¹‘!”

I drove countless strikes into the demon’s² body. Her appearance was that of a woman, so it should be fine to assume, she had the same weak spots as a human.

The [Secret Alcohol-Enthusiast Body Strike Technique] was a skill related to the “alcohol” I had in my possession, and I synthesized it from the [Secret Roaring Body Strike Technique³]-skill I originally had. It was a 4-star skill.

Also, rather than a normal Body Strike, it had the characteristic that its movements were so fast, it was hard to read. Moreover, like several skills I had, that were related to alcohol, this skill’s power rose with the amount of alcohol I consumed.⁴　

Unfortunately, this system made me look like a drunkard, but it was quite a useful support skill.

Additionally…

“…!?”
“Ha-ha, that face… Are you surprised? Any place I touch turns into ‘gold’ for a short time, y’know.”

With this, I buried a great number of magic beasts. Long ago, I found the “Touch of Gold⁵“-skill in a dungeon… Anything I or one of my magic circles touched, turned completely into gold. It had a time limit, though.

Since gold is soft, if I turned the head of a magic beast into it⁶ and then destroyed it with a strike, I could bring the monster down easily, even if it was S-Rank. I could also bring down SS Ranks, though they were difficult.

…She suddenly started to take off her scarf.
From her freed-up mouth, she continuously exhaled purple-colored mist.

“Hah~… fine,” she mumbled. “It’s a bother, but I’ll get serious. Die!”
“Eh?! No way! …Ugh…!?”

Her breath… is deadly poison! Was that why she wore that long scarf?!
Crap… I accidentally… inhaled it all…

“Hah~… How’s that? Is my poison painful? The poison of Astarohd. Still, I’ll make it easy for you. How is it? Even if you writhe in agony, isn’t everything such a bother?”

As she uttered these words, the eyes of the snake coiled around her arm shone red.

Aah, huh? It somehow got better… Oh… tired… am I falling asleep…? That’s fine, too…

“That’s it, right… hack, cough…” I gasped. “It’s such a drag… cough, cough!”
“Isn’t that right? Since it’s like that, just die. The living are always such a bother, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, they always make you do work, y’know… cough, cough!”

Aah, everything is such a drag~…
Running the orphanage? Such a bother~…
Being the hero who abolished slavery? Nothing but a pain~…
Employing former slaves in my distillation plant? Merely tiresome~…
Bringing back princess Karua for the king? So annoying~…
Rather than that, dying to the demon’s poison just like this might be preferable. Everything’s a nuisance~…⁷

“Hack, cough, cough, cough… cough, cough!”
“You know, you stink of wine, youngster. If not for my ability, your life would have become even more of a drag. Die, just like that!”
“Hack, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough!”

Ah, will I die like this? It was a short life of only 25 years, wasn’t it?
Lastman, Lahand, Gabaina, and everyone else.
The children in the orphanage who idolized me like I was their real father.
All the employees in my company.
The king, the princess, and my senior, Gordes.
Alim. Mika.
My sweetheart… Mom… Dad…
Y’know, I’m sorry, everyone. I lost all my will to live… Ah-hah~…

I’ll die… Ah-hah~…
Dad… I didn’t fulfill your dream about alcohol, I’m sorry… I like alcohol, too, but it’s such a… It’s such a drag?

Alcohol? Is even that a bother?
Nonononono, I’m positive, alcohol is the supreme pleasure. It puts a smile on lots of people’s faces, it goes well with food, it also tends to be valuable.
How could anything be a bother? If alcohol exists in this world.
I can’t die yet, can I?
There’s still alcohol I haven’t tasted yet.
I can’t die here like this, y’know.

Ah. Still, I might really die like this.
Dying would be such a drag… Now that I think about it, Alim gave me that Potion. Drinking it would be bothersome, but I might avoid dying.

I took out one of the potions, of which there were only 2 among the 5 I had, and downed it. Right away, I felt refreshed, and the pain from the poison lessened more and more.

Huh? What? What is that?
Why in the world was I convinced that everything was just a bother until now?
I need to quickly defeat the demon in front of me and rescue the princess.

“That’s right… just like that…” the demon muttered. “End this bothersome existence…”
“Yeah, that’d be no good… right?”

I activated the “Touch of Gold” and drove a full-powered strike into Astarohd, or whatever her name was.

“Huh… What the… Isn’t everything botherso-…”
“Heh-heh, well, when there are things, you really like, y’know, the time spent on them doesn’t feel like a waste, right?”

The demon’s body turned to gold in front of my eyes. The mouth spewing poison promptly transformed, too, and closed up.

“…hmm… nngh…”
“Y’know, you can’t breathe out poison any longer, can you? Well, let’s get this over with.”

I chanted the ability I learned from Dad… [Extreme Alcohol Magic] Matchless Liquor.⁸　

If you only look at the element of this ability, it would be water, but… It’s water comprised of alcohol, right?

I could also adjust the alcohol concentration freely.

Dad always told me, “Alcohol burns well!”, didn’t he?
I set the alcohol concentration to 99.99%. Then, I poured it over the demon’s head in a muddy stream.

“…!?”
“Alcohol burns well. Gold doesn’t need a lot of heat to melt… Here goes; it should work if I cover you in flames. ‘Matchless Fire’!”⁹　

I took some distance and chanted this magic. Rather than just turning into a grand blaze, Astarohd was enveloped by a veritable hellfire…

Y’know, that’s an awful amount of heat. Really.

A single SS-Rank magic core emerged from Astarohd’s burned corpse.
So, demons really have magic cores, huh?

It looks like Mika’s battle has also finished, and when Alim rescues princess Karua, can we simply get out of here?

TL notes:
I can’t help feeling a bit bad for Astarohd. From how they were portrayed, it looked like they just wanted to be left alone. It was also interesting to learn more about Bacchus’ background and abilities, though it didn’t really help his image as a complete and utter alcohol fanatic.

1. The original is 体撃酒狂奥義・鳳眼拳の二連 (Body Strike Alcohol Enthusiast/Lunatic Secret Technique – Double of Firebird/Large Bird Eyeball/Appearance Fist).
2. This is 魔物 (magic beast) in the original. I assume it’s a typo.
3. The original is 体撃轟奥義 (Body Strike Roaring Secret Technique)
4. That sounds really horrible for a martial artist who needs to keep his focus.
5. The original is 黄金触域 (Gold Touch Region).
6. You’d think having your central nervous system turned into gold would be fatal from the beginning, even if it’s temporary.
7. This was an interesting exercise in looking for synonyms of “bother”. The original always uses the same expression (めんどくさい). English tends to avoid repeating the same expressions, but maybe it’s different in Japanese. I’ve seen similar repetitions in the Nidome no Yuusha chapters I translated, and, unlike Levelmaker, that one is an officially released light novel that (I assume) was properly proofread before release.
8. The original is リクェア・マーチレス (Rikea Maachiresu). The first part might also mean “liquid” and not “liquor”. This might also be a typo since both “Liquor” and “Liquid” are written differently in Katakana (リキュール and リキッド). Or it means something else completely.
   The second part has previously been translated as “marches” or “matchless” and is part of the spell progression “emission” → “cannon” → “matchless”. I put it in front since, unlike the first two, it’s an adjective.
9. I checked this and it’s actually true. Gold has a melting point of 1,064°C while ethanol (pure alcohol) burns at 1,920°C. So, you can melt gold with an ethanol flame.