Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 231: Death Strikes
Black-Gold Wings left Dansas at dawn the day after accepting the request and headed directly toward the unnamed village.
Because the quest was urgent, they pushed themselves hard, traveling late into the night and stopping only briefly to eat and sleep. No one complained; every member of the team had considerable stamina.
Tauro was most concerned about Aeris, who had the least physical endurance, but even she refused to slow down.
“Something may have happened to the children. We need to hurry.”
She rejected Tauro’s suggestion that they rest longer and urged the group onward.
“The road keeps getting steeper. Did that peddler truly carry a full pack all the way here? He has more courage than I expected.”
Ankh was impressed by their client.
“Merchants are said to travel anywhere if there’s business to be done. Perhaps roads like this don’t frighten them.”
Ragune agreed.
The route was narrow, uneven, steep, and completely unpaved. Merely walking along it demanded constant effort.
“It’s strange that anyone would gather children and live in a place like this.”
Ankh looked up the slope in disbelief.
“Yes. Choosing such an isolated place for a village full of children makes little sense.”
Aeris’s concern for the children only deepened her unease.
“There must be a reason this village exists here.”
Tauro led the group onward until the path ended at a ravine. Broken remnants of a bridge remained on both sides.
“The bridge is down, just as the client said. At least we know we followed the correct route.”
The opposite cliff was roughly ten meters away, and the ravine below was deep enough that a fall would be fatal.
“I’ll go first.”
Tauro tied one end of a rope to a thick tree near the cliff, lowered the rope, and used [Levitation] to reduce his weight as he descended. Jumping would have been faster, but after his previous experience he had no desire to repeat a cord-free bungee jump.
At the bottom of the ravine, he found a human skeleton.
Scattered luggage lay nearby. Judging from the belongings, the dead person had probably been a peddler who visited the village before their client. The condition of the bones showed that the death wasn’t recent, but the discovery put Tauro on guard.
Still uneasy, he used [Levitation] to climb the opposite cliff and secured the rope to another sturdy tree.
He signaled to his companions across the ravine.
“I’ll scout the village while you cross. Rest after you reach this side!”
“All right! Be careful!”
Aeris called back.
Tauro activated [Presence Concealment] and advanced along the steep path while searching carefully with [Presence Detection]. He detected a single person. Through [True Eye], he could also make out the small silhouette of a child lying down.
“One person… only one?”
His suspicion intensified. Farther along the path, he found a fenced settlement. The village truly existed, but there was no sign of anyone except the one child.
Where had all the other residents gone?
Tauro entered through the village gate and searched cautiously, yet saw no one. He headed toward the building containing the child. It was the largest structure near the center of the settlement and appeared to be the headman’s house.
“Excuse me. Is anyone here? I’m coming inside.”
He announced himself and followed the silhouette shown by [True Eye] into a rear room.
A boy lay on the floor, breathing painfully.
“Are you all right?”
Tauro hurried toward him, checking the room for anything unnatural before examining the child.
“Who… are you?”
The boy opened his eyes and spoke between labored breaths.
“My name is Tauro. A peddler who trades with this village asked us to check on its residents.”
“So… you’re Tauro…”
“You know me?”
The boy’s recognition sent a chill down Tauro’s back.
“This place used to be a training facility. One of our best instructors left on a mission, failed, and was captured, so everyone else was evacuated…”
“Why are you telling an outsider something so important?”
Cold sweat ran down Tauro’s back.
“Because you’re the reason. You interfered with the Assassins’ Guild again and again. This is the guild’s retaliation against you…”
Tauro caught his breath and shifted the boy’s body aside.
A large, specially processed magic stone and a cursed stone had been buried beneath him.
“No—this is a trap!”
Every instinct screamed danger. Tauro sprang away from the boy and raced toward the exit.
“At this distance… you can’t escape an instant-death curse…”
As the boy whispered those words, black mist erupted from both stones. The lethal curse swallowed Tauro and spread across the entire village.
Tauro made it outside, but the moment the mist engulfed him, all strength left his body. He collapsed at the threshold of the house, dead.