Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
30. Strange happenings in the north②
In the center of the town, residents bring all kinds of vessels to carry spring water, and clergymen offer purifying prayers to receive blessings of purification, turning it into holy water.
Beside them, those who were able to move, from private soldiers and mercenaries to men from the town who had finished healing their injuries, gathered as many weapons as they could from all around the town and purified them with holy water.
Gilbert also soaked a cloth in holy water, and was carefully applying it to the crescent-shaped tip of his battle-axe, cleansing the blade.
“Gilbert, soak this also in holy water and let it soak in. The blessings of the holy water may come in handy.”
Saying that, Dolph placed the braided cord Flora had made in the carriage and the chain he had brought from the village beside him.
The battle axe has an anchor claw that goes down from the crescent-shaped blade edge and is connected to the handle head in an arc as it is, a shape that allows a cord or chain to pass through. The axe head has links attached here and there as decoration, through which a cord can also be threaded. Dolph had prepared and modified this axe head before leaving the village in order to solve the problem of his dominant arm.
Dolph crouched down and met Gilbert’s gaze, who was sitting on the ground, his face grim.
“As I told you in the village, the battle axe you’re using is weak in your right hand, so it’s not suited for fighting demonic beasts and undead monsters in the first place. Even so, if the opponent is large, the trunk and centrifugal force will still be powerful enough, but on the other hand, it is even more disadvantageous against small opponents who need for you to maneuver quickly.”
Gilbert smiled and nodded reassuringly to Dolph’s words, which sounded like he was speaking to him as the blacksmith who had made the item, and as an old acquaintance.
“I know, I won’t do anything reckless. I’ll just do what I can.”
But Dolph laughed derisively.
“You’re not very trustworthy in that area, now are you ……?”
“Eh, what’s that ……?”
While they were exchanging such light banter, suddenly there was a commotion outside.
“The undead immortal beasts have appeared in another northeastern village! Only smaller, but they are many.”
A man rushes into town and breathlessly announces, The lord and everyone around him who heard the news all looked grim.
“That’s in the opposite direction from where Sir Lionel went to contain them. This is bad… Anyone who can move, please head over!”
At the signal from the lord’s voice, the private soldiers and mercenaries rushed out with their purified weapons in hand. The clergy also headed in the same direction.
At the sight of this, Dolph wrinkled his brow and asked Gilbert,
“What are you going to do? Do you want to stay here and wait for Lionel?”
“No, if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to face him.”
With that, Gilbert stands up, battle-axe in hand. Dolf chuckled knowingly. Then he shouted into the distance.
“Barbara! Flora! Get the carriage ready!”
“…Huh? Hey, wait. Don’t tell me you’re coming with me!?”
Gilbert turned around and looked at him with wide eyes, and Dolph nodded with a smug look on his face.
“Of course. Didn’t I tell you that I need to know what you’re up against as well?”
“Well, that’s true, but you promised to stay somewhere safe…”
Without answering immediately, Dolph slapped Gilbert on the hip, urging him to move, and they both ran off together. Looking ahead, they could see Barbara and Flora waving at them with their carriage ready.
“That carriage contains the blessings of all the craftsmen and wizards in our village. It’s safer inside than anywhere else.”
“Really…?”
Though he sounded skeptical, Gilbert put on a troubled smile and got into the driver’s seat.
“We’ve got the clergy on board, too. And then there’s, ……here!”*
Turning around at the sound of Flora’s voice, he was offered a bagel with cheese and meat in between. Gilbert relaxed a little and smiled.
“Thank you, that’s a relief. It’s times like these that we need to eat. We can’t fight on an empty stomach.”
Gilbert took a bite of the bagel he had received from Flora, and set his horse in motion.
After passing through the town’s walls, they passed through a wheat field spreading out to the southwest, and then passed through about four or so paths through the woods until they found the village they were looking for.
From a distance, there seemed to be nothing unusual about it, but as they approached from higher ground, the anomaly became clearly discernible.
About a third of the northern side of the village was covered with a reddish-black, foam-like substance.
Children and the elderly who had likely fled from the south side were walking toward the town where the castle was located, looking frightened of their surroundings.
When they reached the village and looked closely, they saw what they thought from a distance to be bubbles, were in fact countless frog-like undead immortal monsters.
They varied in size from about the height of an adult’s waist to a child’s knees, but were all uniformly covered in reddish-black, decaying flesh.
“No, there are too many of them.”
“We are lucky that they are not lethal, but no matter how many we kill, their numbers don’t decrease.”
The members of the private army who had gone ahead of us frowned as they rinsed their weapons, which had lost their divine protection, with holy water.
“Can we use a ward to contain them?”
“No… The priests who are capable of wide-area warding are accompanying Lionel. It would be tough for us to cover the settlement. ……”
“I see. ……”
One of the members of the private army asked the priest, then dropped his shoulders
Gilbert and the others who had just joined the group called out to them.
“How about we prioritize evacuating the residents, rather than exterminating them? We happen to have a carriage here.”
“No, The monsters that are the source of this are troublesome. The original of the undead is a nasty beast that spawn in the swamps much further north than here, and they follow scent. Because of that, if all the residents run away at once, they will chase after them.”
Gilbert frowned as he realized why the children, who were likely in the middle of evacuating, were not running.
“Then, for example,……, the undead immortal monsters will not die without the blessing of holy water, but if their bodies are severely damaged, it should take some time for them to return to normal.”
Hearing what Gilbert said, the private soldiers and mercenaries looked up.
“In other words, if we take their attention away and crush them so they can’t chase us, won’t that buy us enough time to let the residents escape to the city?”
“that sounds like a meathead idea to the core.”
“But to be honest, that’s about the only thing we can think of to do right now.”
The tough-looking mercenaries chuckled in approval of Gilbert. Both the private soldiers and the clergyman also nodded with wry smiles.
“…… Well, the question is how are we going to get away after letting the residents escape…”
Ad
Gilbert muttered, and one of the strong mercenaries tapped him on the shoulder with a laugh.
“We can think about that later. For now, let’s prioritize the safe evacuation of the residents.”
With that, it seemed the plan had been decided. After entrusting the evacuation of the residents to Dolph and the others, Gilbert, the private army members, and the mercenaries all walked towards the village with their weapons in hand.
Dolf, who was left behind, let out a long sigh in the driver’s seat and called out to Flora and Barbara, who were peering at him anxiously from inside the carriage.
“Gilbert, that son of a bitch, he has no regards for his own safety. We should finish evacuating the residents as soon as possible, before they get seriously injured.”
Flora and Barbara nodded at his words, their expressions more serious than ever.
Tl note:
Muscle-head; muscle-brain; meathead; a hot-blooded idiot; a person who charges in before thinking.