Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 134: Start
“I’m not a Noah believer.”
The magic and murderous energy contained within Pallavis’s magic spear intensifies further. It’s likely unsettling to Pallavis that someone who isn’t even a believer in Noah’s religion has stepped into the sanctuary.
Even so, Lucius keeps his gaze fixed directly on Pallavis’s eyes, rather than the spear pointed at him.
“…I see. Lucius, can you promise to stay quiet within the sanctuary?”
“I can’t promise that. I have a purpose here.”
At the very least, he intends to defeat all the magic eaters in the forest. Among the magic weapons those monsters wield, there are likely some that Chiyou is after.
Furthermore, he still needs to form a pact with the spirit.
On the way to the village, Priena had told him that the magic eaters were a target for extermination even within the Republic, but “staying quiet” wouldn’t apply to him.
The murderous intent from Pallavis grows stronger.
It feels as though his head could be separated from his shoulders at any moment.
Noticing this, Priena begins to sweat nervously and reprimands Lucius.
“L-Lucius, there’s a better way to say things!”
At nearly the same moment, Sol, who had been affected by the killing intent, tries to rise silently from his seat.
Lucius stops her with a firm grip.
“Stay seated, Sol.”
Obeying the command, Sol sits back down again.
“Why don’t you try to cover it up? Do you think being blatantly honest will earn my trust?”
“It’s because I have nothing to hide. I came here because magic weapons and spirit contracts are needed to protect the kingdom. That’s all.”
Pallavis’s eyes sharpen.
“For us, magic weapons are synonymous with our own bodies. Spirits may be considered a type of monster in your country, but to us, they are objects of worship. …If you try to take them, death awaits as retribution.”
The blade of the spear presses forward.
The thin layer of air between Lucius and the blade is all that remains.
“There’s no problem with letting me touch the magic weapons a little. As for the pact with the spirit, it’s a negotiation between equals. Spirits are not mere objects; they are sentient beings. This isn’t about taking or giving them.”
“Then don’t come barging in without permission. Follow the proper procedures.”
“In that case, it might take at least several years, or perhaps I might not be able to enter at all before the Empire invades the kingdom. That’s why I had no choice but to infiltrate.”
“If you have a purpose that’s worth risking everything, then why help my son? Wouldn’t it have been better not to get involved?”
Lucius’s eyes blaze with firm resolve.
“Because nobles are the sword and shield of the people.”
Though the matter Chiyou had been concerned about also influenced his decision, Lucius would have done the same thing in any situation.
Pallavis raises his eyebrows, his expression puzzled, as if caught off guard.
“If I had ignored him back then, he would have surely died. Just as you follow Noah’s teachings, I have things I must protect.”
A tense silence falls over the room.
No one speaks for about ten seconds, each of them glaring at the other.
It’s Pallavis who finally breaks the silence.
“Pfft, ha ha ha ha!”
Pallavis slapped his knee and started laughing.
Lucius and Priena stared at him, confused and taken aback.
“I didn’t think you were a bad person, but your actions were so bold that I became cautious instead. Sorry for threatening you.”
“What? You were testing me? That’s the worst.”
“That’s why I’m apologizing. Also, I have some responsibility here. I couldn’t just let someone suspicious go just because they seemed friendly. As a substitute, though, I’ll offer you our detached house to stay in. You don’t have anywhere to go, right?”
“You’re offering us a house?”
Lucius had been struggling to figure out where to set up a base of operations, so this offer came as a relief. Although he had hoped for Priena’s connections, he didn’t expect things to come together so quickly.
“Honestly, it’s more of a problem if you wander off to somewhere out of my sight. I’m technically the village head, so I’m supposed to look after the people around here. Just to be clear, keep quiet about this to others. I’ll cover for you with the villagers.”
Lucius bowed deeply in gratitude.
“Thank you very much. It would be a huge help if we could stay there.”
Time was limited. He would accept the offer and make the most of it.
“It’s an unused detached house anyway. Let me show you to it.”
—
They were guided to a small, old house just next to the main residence.
When the door opened, a compact living area with an attached kitchen greeted them.
“You can use anything inside. I haven’t cleaned it in a while, but it should be usable after a bit of tidying up.”
A two-person dining table with a cup toppled over. A small sofa for two with a blanket draped over it. A dusty china cabinet displaying a set of two dishes.
It was as if the owner had suddenly disappeared one day.
Pallavis stared at the scene with a somber expression.
“…Did someone live here before?”
“Yeah, my younger brother and his wife used to stay here… Anyway, feel free to use it. I’ll go check on Tyros.”
Pallavis turned his face away as if trying to hide it, then headed back to the main house.
—
—What happened here in the past?
Ad
Lucius’s curiosity was momentarily squashed when Priena’s absent-minded voice echoed through the house.
“The back is the bedroom—Wait, there’s only one bed!?”
“I’ll sleep on the sofa, so you can use the bed.”
“Lucius, you’re such a gentleman.”
Priena fluttered her fingers as she returned to the living room.
“Honestly, you probably want to sleep together, don’t you? I mean, despite the face, I was once pursued by a lot of men when I was a beautiful princess, and I still have this seductive body, you know?”
She ran her fingers down her slender arm, accentuating her ample chest.
“You’re free here, so you should find someone important to you. You could even fix your face. With the highest-level healing magic, they say they can restore your body.”
“Pfft.”
—
Afterward, they didn’t spend too much time inspecting the house, focusing instead on cleaning. They had to make it livable before anything else.
By the time they finished wiping the dust off the furniture and washing the curtains and blankets, it was already evening.
Taking a break, they sat down at the small dining table, sharing a meal. Since they were eating, Priena had taken off her mask.
“Priena, you seem to know quite a bit about the situation in the Sanctuary. Have you been there that many times?”
“I lived there from ages 4 to 10. When you make a contract with Ravana, you have to start your training in the Holy City. Well, I still visited home quite often.”
Ad
If she had lived there since childhood, it would indeed feel closer to her hometown. No wonder she was so knowledgeable.
“So, you actually wanted to come to Musu Village, not the Holy City? Why?”
Priena waved her hand dismissively.
“Originally, I was supposed to be introduced to someone from Musu Village. The Holy City doesn’t have many travelers, so there aren’t any inns, and it’s full of people whose families have lived there for generations, so outsiders really stand out.”
“I see… So, does that mean the people of Musumura are different from the people of the Holy City? You mentioned they don’t worship the Quadra Gods.”
“They’re different… or rather, it’s more accurate to say they’ve become different.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I can explain it in detail, but Lucius, do you really know about the ‘Noah’s Immersion’? Without understanding that, I don’t think you’ll get it.”
“I know that they worship the gods of nature as their doctrine—sun, weather, sea, and gods of life, that kind of thing.”
“Ahhh…”
Priena sighed deeply.
“Is that wrong?”
“It’s correct, but too vague. To be precise, the doctrine revolves around the Quadra Gods—’Agni, the God of Heat,’ ‘Indra, the God of the Sky,’ ‘Varuna, the God of Water,’ and ‘Soma, the God of the Moon.’ These are the main gods, and the purpose is to serve and worship the gods who sustain this world. Devotion is a result of that.”
“But based on what you just said, those gods are essentially spirit-beasts, right? I don’t know if the Quadra Gods are the same, but isn’t Priena’s familiar, Ravana, also an object of worship?”
“Yes, exactly. What’s wrong with that? They’re spirit-beasts.”
Lucius’ understanding of gods from his past life was fundamentally different. He didn’t quite understand the idea of worshipping beings with whom you had a direct contract.
In his past life, gods were more symbolic.
Even though Lucius had contracts with three spirits, they were companions, half of himself, not objects of worship.
“So, if you worship your own familiar, does that make you a god yourself?”
“No, that’s not it. For me, Ravana is my familiar, but for Ravana, I am just one of the incarnations that manifested in this era. In Noah’s doctrine, it’s a concept called ‘Avatar’… do you understand that?”
“Not at all.”
Lucius gave a forced smile to cover up his confusion.
“Ugh, Lucius, you’re quick-witted, but you’re too straightforward. You’re not good at grasping concepts abstractly.”
Priena pursed her lips.
“I’m not interested in overthinking things or getting lost in hypothetical scenarios. I’d rather use my mind for things that actually help someone.”
Lucius stood up, putting a piece of bread in his mouth, and tied his sword to his waist, tightening his belt and shoelaces.
Although he wasn’t uninterested in learning about the origins of Musumura, there were more important matters at hand.
“Why are you getting ready to go outside?”
“Hm? I’m heading to the forest now.”
“What? We just got a break!”
“Priena, you can rest if you want, but I’m going.”
“You’re overworking yourself! I’ll pass.”
“…Fine.”
Leaving Priena, curled up on the sofa, and Sol, quietly standing in the shadows of the room, Lucius set out for the village’s outskirts.
He headed straight for the gate attached to the wall. After checking with the gatekeeper, he was told that it would never be closed completely. He wouldn’t be locked out until morning.
—Let’s go.
Lucius left the village and, under the moonlight, he started running.
As soon as he entered the forest, it didn’t take long to find it.
It wasn’t through magic sensing, but rather the spirit, Chiyou, that guided him directly. He had no doubts.
This time, he was the one who would approach it.
Clearing the bushes, Lucius advanced through the forest until he spotted a monster, magic eater, holding a spear.
—Should I experiment with this?
He infused his magic, and Lucius’ shadow started rising.
What appeared was a black armor, very similar to Chiyou’s.
It was one of Chiyou’s techniques—a magically-created soldier.
Ad
The soldier was imbued with the memories and techniques of a former kingdom’s chief of the royal guard.
“Here.”
Lucius created a magic spear from his magic and handed it to the soldier.
As soon as the soldier received it, it immediately began running.
The movement was smooth and refined, dodging branches effortlessly, and it never lost its balance, even in the moonlit forest.
Its target was the magic eater.
Realizing the ambush, the magic eater readied his weapon.
Coincidentally, it wielded the same magic spear.
They both readied their weapons.
And they swung.
The armored soldier and the magic eater clashed.
The outcome was decided in an instant.
The magic eater’s spear was cleaved in two.
The severed blade, shimmering with white light as it caught the moon’s rays, danced through the air. It then embedded itself into the trunk of a Kashi tree.
Magic poured out from both the embedded blade and the spear that had lost its shaft.
This magic enveloped the armored soldier.
—As expected.
Through the armored soldier, Lucius could sense the flow of power into him from Chiyou. Even without directly defeating him in his physical form, Lucius could still gain strength through the armor soldier, which was created using Chiyou’s creation technique.
The corners of Lucius’ mouth curled into a smile.
Both magic, physical strength, and time are limited.
He needed to hunt the magic eaters as efficiently as possible.
Lucius gathered what little magic remained and infused it. The hazy, blurred moonlight shimmered and flickered.
What appeared were the armored soldiers.
There were roughly thirty of them.
If he used his full power, he could create a thousand armored soldiers.
However, in the current situation, with his magic supply low, he had to limit himself to a manageable number that could be sustained without strain for a longer period.
Lucius gave the command to the former head of the royal guard, who still held the magic spear.
“Exterminate the magic eaters.”