I wanted to enjoy a slow life while exploring the territory with a secret gift [craft skill], but I was intentionally banished to the frontier by pretending to be incompetent.

Volume 1

Chapter 6: Let's find the words hidden in the notebook!

{SPONSORED CHAPTER}

(TL:By Luffy)

(TL: This chapter was made possible due to our patron Krazey)

　

　What Kieda found seemed to be a notebook in which the captain of the survey team had written down the details of the survey.

　It wasn't neatly scrawled, and he must have been using it to temporarily jot down the information he had acquired.

"The handwriting is messy."

The handwriting is messy so he probably used it as a basis for writing reports and the like, so it must have been good if he could read it.

　Kieda and I set out to decipher the contents of the notebook.

　What we found out was that most of the contents were the same as the ones already in the report.

　The rest of the information was too insufficient to be included in the report or would have been dismissed as unnecessary.

"Now, all that's left is the last page, ......, and the page before that is shredded.

　The last page, the one before that, had been ripped out haphazardly.

"Could it be a writing mistake?

"Maybe."

　I decided not to worry about it and opened the last remaining page of my notebook.

　The contents so far were far from what I had expected, and I had already lost interest in this notebook.

　But...

"Hmm?"

　When I opened the last page, I regained my interest when I saw the contents written on that spread.

　Because it contained something that had never been written in any of the research team's reports to my knowledge.

"Kieda. This wasn't in the report or anywhere else, was it?"

"I don't remember it either, sir. If Master Rest doesn't know about it, then it must certainly not have been in the report."

　And .......

　Kieda looked into her notebook and muttered with a hint of surprise in her voice.

"If this were true, we might have been able to continue our investigation."

　The last page of the notebook.

　On the last page of the notebook, there was only one sentence.

"According to the report, there is a possibility that there are indigenous people on this island. Do we need to extend our investigation?"

　But above that sentence, there was this line.

"'Does that mean there are other people on this island besides us?"

"But if the line is crossed out and it's not written in the report, then this story is a misunderstanding after all. Or it could be a false alarm.

　I can't say for sure, because I can't see the contents of the report from this notebook alone.

　It is possible that one member of the group mistook the shadow of the beast for a person, or misidentified another member of the group.

　But for some reason, I couldn't help but laugh at that sentence.

"But even though this island is surrounded by cliffs, it doesn't mean that people can't enter. In fact, the research team and I have been able to land here."

"That's true, but..."

"There may have been people like me who had some kind of gift that allowed them to land on this island. There's also the possibility that other countries besides the kingdom have been to this island in the past."

　It's only a possibility.

　According to Kieda's and the survey team's reports, there were no traces of anyone having ever landed on the island before.

　The only place they could find was where the pier was.

"So, are we to assume that there is someone else here besides us?"

"Yes, we do. Yes, I think we should be cautious because it's a place like this.

　Besides, even if there are natives, they may not be people you can talk to.

　In some cases, they might even attack us out of the blue.

　But I hope they will be friendly, if possible.

"So let's tell the maids to be on the lookout for them."

"Oh. I'll do that."

　I watched Kieda leave the dusty room, then put my notebook on the desk and opened it again to the last page.

　The light coming in through the window illuminates the notebook.

"Hmm?"

　At that moment, I thought I saw something, so I hurriedly took up the notebook and looked at the page.

"No way."

　I took out a pencil from my pocket and rubbed the edge of the pencil, which was a little far from the sentence I had just written.

　I rubbed the edge a little farther away from the previous sentence with the pencil, and I could make out some faint writing in the area I rubbed.

I wondered, "Is this a copy of the writing on the shredded page?　　If so, then so are the others.

　I held it up to the sunlight and kept rubbing it with my pencil, trying to find an uneven spot.

"These are the contents of the pages that were torn out: ......."

　Words lined up in several places on the last page.

　It was a series of short words, one word at a time.

　It seemed to be a scribble of a report that had come in, and it was all simple words.

"A spring deep in the forest," "a figure riding a demon," "a child.

　Three of the four sentences that emerged were probably about the characteristics of the people in this place that Kieda and I had talked about earlier, and where we had met.

　But it was the last one that caught my attention.

"No way, this place?"

　I stared at the edge of my notebook.

　There was only one word written in rough letters, "Elf".

TL Note-  Use the TOC if you haven't read the previous chapters.

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