Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 240: The Battle Above Ground
When Tauro’s party reached the ground floor, they found the four companions of the sorcerer waiting outside the affected area.
“What?! Did he fail?”
The assassins’ shock gave Ankh the opening he needed. While charging up the stairs, he killed two with throwing knives, then closed the distance and cut down the other two with a single swing of his great magic sword.
“This blade really is astonishingly sharp.”
As Ankh admired the weapon, explosions, crashes, shouts, and angry cries sounded outside. A major battle was raging throughout the compound.
Tauro’s group stood on the ground floor of the central building. Their heads had been covered when they were brought inside, so they didn’t know its exact position, but they had a rough sense of the layout.
“The subjugation force seems to have the advantage outside, with the adventurers forming its core,” Ragune said. “What do we do next?”
“We’ve secured the treasury and removed the materials for the large-scale spell. If we defeat the stronghold’s leader, the remaining resistance should collapse. Agreed?”
“Of course,” Aeris answered firmly.
“Taking the enemy commander is a standard battlefield tactic,” Ankh said with a fearless grin.
“Then we’re hunting the boss!” Ragune declared enthusiastically.
“Let’s go upstairs.”
Tauro led the way, following a cluster of presences detected above.
As they climbed, they heard a man—apparently the stronghold’s leader—shouting orders.
“Have the sorcerers break the western encirclement! Not the north. Golden Mane is stationed there. Their numbers look thin, but they’re the strongest section of the siege. Break through to the west, carry out the classified documents, and burn everything else!”
The leader and several subordinates rushed down another staircase to command the western breakthrough.
“There’s another stairway! We can’t catch him and save the records at the same time. Let’s secure the documents before they’re burned.”
Tauro abandoned the original plan to pursue the leader. The enemy’s desperation proved that the records were important.
“We have no choice,” Ankh agreed. “The documents take priority.”
“So we have to let the boss go for now…” Ragune said, disappointed but convinced.
“Then let’s hurry!”
Aeris pointed toward the room the leader had left.
Behind its partly open door, several assassins were carrying bundles of records toward a terrace to burn them.
“I won’t let you!”
Tauro fired an arrow through the chest of a man preparing fire magic over the pile. The remaining four spun toward him.
“The enemy is here! Burn the papers! I’ll take them with me!”
One assassin drew a dagger.
The threat sounded like a suicide attack, so Tauro ordered his companions back. In that instant, another man snatched a rolled document and leapt over the terrace railing.
That one must be especially important.
Tauro had fallen for the diversion.
“Damn it. Sorry—I was tricked.”
He drew again and shot another assassin who was trying to ignite the remaining records.
“Then I’ll do this!”
The dagger-wielding man turned his back on Tauro and threw himself into the document pile.
“No!”
Tauro fired into his back, but the assassin’s entire body erupted in flames the moment the arrow struck. Fire spread across the papers in an instant.
“Aeris, water!”
Aeris immediately cast water magic. The final assassin deliberately stepped between her spell and the records. His own body burst into flames, and he collapsed across the burning pile, shielding it long enough for the fire to spread further.
Aeris extinguished the blaze, but most of the documents had already been destroyed.
“What’s wrong with these people?” Ankh muttered. “They threw away their lives for sheets of paper.”
“We can’t change what happened. I want to pursue the leader, but first we must reinforce the western front and stop the breakout.”
Tauro realized that the enemy’s willingness to die without hesitation was what kept putting his group a step behind.