Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 157: An Unscheduled Meeting
Tauro and Aeris hurriedly changed clothes and prepared to leave. The messenger ushered them into a carriage, which carried them toward the noble residential district.
They had visited this part of the Royal Capital several times while meeting potential guardians, which was why Tauro soon felt that something was wrong.
Count Ayanshi was said to be an influential noble in Marquis Haragoura’s faction. This district was occupied mostly by middle- and lower-ranking nobles, while the most powerful families maintained enormous estates elsewhere. A high-ranking noble could certainly choose to live here, but the location didn’t fit Count Ayanshi’s reputation.
Tauro decided that they would learn the reason soon enough and remained alert as the carriage stopped before the supposed count’s residence.
The mansion was fairly large, yet it lacked the dignity and bustle Tauro expected from the home of such an influential man.
“Please come inside.”
The messenger led Tauro, Aeris, and their Royal Guard escorts into the mansion. Its interior was simple—far too simple.
Tauro used [Presence Detection] to examine the movement of people inside, but he couldn’t determine whether someone was interfering with the skill. One of the escorts seemed to reach the same conclusion and gave him a slight shake of the head.
Powerful nobles sometimes employed people with concealment-type abilities because they disliked being examined by detection skills. That explanation was possible, but it didn’t ease Tauro’s suspicions.
“The escorts will wait in this room.”
The messenger tried to direct both Tauro and the Royal Guard knights into a separate chamber.
“I’ll remain with Lady Aeris. Please inform Count Ayanshi.”
The messenger frowned, hesitated, and then asked them to wait while he confirmed the arrangement. He entered the reception room alone and returned a short while later.
“The count will receive both of you. Please come in.”
Tauro and Aeris entered as instructed. Just as the door began to close behind them, Tauro felt a sharp prick in his neck.
Not this again.
He spun around. A man concealed beside the door held a thin blowpipe to his mouth, while another had seized Aeris from behind, covered her mouth, and was choking her.
Tauro’s body went numb for an instant before the sensation vanished. The needle contained a paralytic rather than poison, and its relatively weak dose had probably been prepared for Aeris. Tauro’s [Abnormal Status Resistance], strengthened by [Dark Spirit’s Blessing (Weak)], suppressed it almost immediately.
He drew Shortsword Tauro and moved before the attackers could understand why he was still standing.
“Why haven’t you collapsed?”
Tauro slashed the arm of the man restraining Aeris, forcing him to release her. He then turned and drove the shortsword into the side of the man with the blowpipe. The attacker had been so startled by the failure of the paralytic that he couldn’t react in time.
The first man fled toward a rear door while clutching his injured arm, but Tauro was much faster. He crossed the room in a flash and stabbed the man through the thigh, dropping him before he could escape.
Outside, the messenger could be heard struggling with the Royal Guard knights.
“Aeris, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. What about the needle in your neck?”
“It didn’t work.”
Tauro pulled it out and dropped it where she could see it.
Looking at the two wounded men, he finally understood the source of his unease. This wasn’t Count Ayanshi’s residence at all. The meeting had been fabricated by people acting for the Marchioness of Van Dyne.
When Tauro opened the door, the messenger was so shocked to see him standing that he stopped resisting. The Royal Guard immediately restrained him, entered the reception room, and tied up the other two men.
Tauro treated their wounds with potions while one of the knights used healing magic. They needed the attackers alive for questioning.
“This was probably meant to coincide with the second attempt on my life,” Tauro said after the three prisoners had been loaded into the carriage.
“What? You were targeted again?”
Tauro realized that he hadn’t yet told Aeris what had happened at Soraki Tower. After hearing the story, she looked torn between anger that he had acted alone and relief that he had survived.