#498 Dead Staff Making

Is it just me, or did someone’s presence completely fade during the latter half of this story?

Belphgamilia of the Heavenly Four hasn’t said a single word ever since Sensei showed up.

It’s as if he disappeared from existence.

Actually, he DID disappear.

I look around, but there’s no sign of him.

I search frantically and eventually find him sound asleep in his hammock.

“Killing Strike! Hammock Flip!”

“Gah!”

Belphgamilia falls from the hammock and hits the ground.

“How could you excuse yourself and doze off in the middle of a situation that could destroy the world?!”

Rather than dozing off, he was blatantly sleeping!

“Please don’t sleep in the middle of the day! How will you sleep at night then?!”

“Don’t worry, I’m the kind of guy who can sleep through the day and still get a good night’s sleep.”

I worry for the demon army if he’s their leader!

“The Sage’s disciple even inherited his brazenness, meow.”

Sensei and the Professor Lifeless King-duo look stunned.

As if noticing their stares, Belphgamilia replies...

“Hey there, Sensei. Long time no see. You too, Prof. Still in your cat form, huh? How come you never bothered to visit me?”

Belphgamilia acts casually toward the immortal kings.  

He really is a bigwig in every way.

“If I were near you, I can just imagine you forcing all the troublesome stuff on me. I know how short your fuse is, meow.”

“Aww... But if you were, I wouldn’t have needed to come all the way here...”

“I’m not at your beck and call, meow!”

A man with the guts to boss around a Lifeless King.

The reason why he has such a casual relationship with these immortal kings is that he has a special connection with another Lifeless King.

“Did you have a Lifeless King as your master, Belphgamilia?”

“That’s right. He was called the Sage,” he responds briefly.

He said that this Lifeless King is of the same rank as Sensei and the Professor, so his pupil gets to acquaint himself like so.

Thinking about it again reminds me how frightening he is...

“But I was wondering...”

Yes?

What is it, Sensei?

“If the Sage was your master, wouldn’t it have been better to consult him first than us?”

...

Now that he mentions it, Sensei has a point.

What answer will Belphgamilia give to this obvious question?!

“His dungeon is wayyyy too far. It’s much less troublesome if I just teleport to here with magic.”

“Goodness gracious, meow...”

“Besides, he’d never accept the job because it would be too much trouble for him.”

“Like master, like disciple, meow!!!”

In a way, he’s cunning for bringing this matter to the kindhearted Sensei.

Sensei is willing to help as he had planned and is now plotting something with him.

“Well done, pupil of the Sage. I already have an idea in mind, so could you hand over that blockhead to me?”

“Please do. If a man of your stature is willing to take care of him, I have nothing more to worry about.”

“Let’s not waste another moment... Professor.”

Sensei faces the cat.

“What is it, meow?”

“I leave this fellow in your care. To contain his violent power, we must take many measures.”

“I just need to mentally break him, right? Got it, meow!”

The fact that these two immortal kings are so in sync amazes me.

In any case, Sensei hands over the Emperor’s skull to the Professor and proceeds to walk away briskly.

“Huh? Where are you going, Sensei?!”

“Could you come with me, Lord Saint? I’ll need your permission.”

My permission?

I would say yes to anything Sensei asks for.

“I wonder what he’s going to do...”

* * *

Sensei went to where our farm’s sakura tree that spreads purified air was.

“The Sakura Yggdrasil...?”

“Indeed. I have long been fascinated by how it absorbs mana from the air, filters out the dirt, and then releases pure mana. While this process is also found in ordinary plants, only this tree has tremendous purification power. You’ve done quite the exhilarating job once again, Lord Saint.”

“Oh, I barely did anything...!”

“I’d like to ask if I can take a small piece from this tree. Even a small branch would suffice.”

“Okay...” 

“Don’t worry, with my magic, I won’t hurt the tree one bit...!” 

Well, I do trust you unconditionally, Sensei. 

After confirming that I nodded my head (though confused), Sensei extended his hand toward the Sakura Yggdrasil.

He looks like he’s invoking a spell. 

Not long after, the Sakura Yggdrasil sticks out something from its trunk and extends it toward Sensei.

It was as if a branch was growing on the trunk rapidly.

Sensei grabs this branch and pulls on it, neatly breaking off the trunk as if it were mizuame.

Not a single scar is visible on the tree.

The only thing in Sensei’s hand is the straight branch.

“Hm, a fine shape. The length is just right, and the core is supple. It also feels good to the touch.”

Without damaging the tree itself, he grew the part he wanted and broke it off.

I am again impressed by Sensei’s ability to accomplish such a dexterous stunt, but...

I wonder what he’s going to do with that branch?

* * *

When we returned to where the Emperor was, the situation worsened.

“Kitty, cute! Kitty, friend!”

“He’s been brainwashed?!”

He was with the Professor when we left. Is this his doing?!

With his cat-like whimsicalness, the Professor shifted his attention elsewhere and was eating grass growing in the area.

“To prevent him from doing anything unnecessary, it’s best to cut him off from his ambition. This is one of the secret techniques of a Lifeless King: cat brainwashing, meow!”

“Then, we’ll fuse this skull with the Yggdrasil branch we just got...”

Whaaaaaaaat?!

If I were to describe what Sensei did in a nutshell, it would be... 

I have a skull.

I have an Yggdrasil Branch.

Boom.

An Yggdrasil branch with a skull?

It looks like a staff—one that a TV villain would carry.

“It’s complete. I call it the Immortal King’s Staff.”

“So it IS a staff?!”

It looks so eerie and overwhelming!

And since it’s Sensei who is holding it, the intimidation factor increases threefold!

“No matter how we deal with the Emperor, he’s still an immortal king who feeds on mana by absorbing it. If so, we should just create a mechanism that releases the absorbed mana in a different form.”

“Which means?”

“This staff, which I have reconfigured as a simple machine with my magic, releases mana collected by the Lifeless King and then gets purified by the Yggdrasil branch. This should prevent the Emperor from doing as he pleases.”

In other words, this staff releases the mana that the Emperor absorbs?

“If you utilize this staff as a tool, you can use the mana it releases to perform various kinds of magic.”

So, it exhausts mana from the staff and not its caster directly?

“That sounds like an incredible weapon!”

“A stupefying staff, meow!”

It can almost be considered a legendary weapon, at least, in terms of the materials used.

You know, like so:

Required materials:

Lifeless King Head x1

Yggdrasil Branch x1

“I entrust this staff to you, Belphgamilia.”

“Pardon?”

Sensei hands over the staff to Belphgamilia.

“Since you’re the one who brought this skull, it is only right that you take possession of it. I trust you will handle it properly.”

“Please wait... Even if the Lifeless King has been rendered harmless, a staff with such a powerful mechanism could become the source of a major accident with one mistake! What I mean is, it’s awfully bothersome...!”

“I believe in you.”

Belphgamilia, who has avoided annoying things as much as possible, ended up being forced to do the most troublesome part at the end.

Ultimately, man cannot escape from all the troublesome things in life.