Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 401: Late-Night Battle
The wedding reception ended peacefully. Two days later, Alimar and the villagers prepared to leave their newly married daughter in Wasan and return to Zenyu.
Black-Gold Wings would, of course, escort them home.
Sita and her husband came to see off her parents, the village escorts, and the two carriages. Just before departure, Mage Baron Wasan approached Tauro’s party.
“After this escort is complete, would you consider entering my service?” he asked. “My title is only that of a Mage Baron, but Count Graunewald trusts me enough to place Wasan under my administration. I can offer respectable salaries—and I’d like you to continue training my son.”
The mayor was delighted by the improvement his son had shown and greatly valued the adventurers who had forced that change.
I’m already the adopted son of your lord.
Tauro kept the thought to himself.
“I appreciate the invitation, Mage Baron, but we take pride in living as adventurers. There’s also something I withheld because I expected you might eventually recognize me.”
Tauro quietly removed his territorial-inspector certificate from [Magic Storage] and showed it to the mayor.
“Th-this is authority to act in the lord’s name!” Mage Baron Wasan gasped. “You’re the inspector who recently helped eliminate the bandits and corruption in the territory? I’d begun to think the stories were exaggerated!”
He looked ready to prostrate himself, and Tauro hurriedly stopped him.
“Trial by combat isn’t regarded as an acceptable way to settle wrongdoing in Count Graunewald’s domain,” Tauro said. “Please make certain your son doesn’t attempt anything similar again.”
Tauro suspected the mayor’s indulgence had allowed the young man’s behavior to continue, so he delivered the warning in his official capacity.
“I understand. I’m ashamed of my own failure as a father. My son appears genuinely remorseful, and I’ll supervise him carefully from now on.”
Mage Baron Wasan bowed repeatedly while the distant onlookers wondered why their mayor had suddenly become so humble before a young adventurer.
“Coachman, please take us out of the city,” Tauro said.
The carriages began moving, and the party departed Wasan.
The return journey was slow and peaceful.
Alimar smiled almost continuously, reassured that Sita appeared happy. Several young villagers remained quietly depressed after watching the woman they admired become a bride, but everyone shared the satisfaction of having completed the procession’s purpose.
That night, the group stopped at a village along the road.
The villagers relaxed, but Black-Gold Wings maintained a proper watch. They were inside a settlement and unlikely to encounter ordinary monsters or bandits, yet the surviving Assassins’ Guild pair remained a threat.
Deep in the night, Ragune entered Tauro’s room.
“Wake up. Something is surrounding the inn.”
“Something?”
[Presence Detection] registered nothing unusual.
Tauro immediately went to the window. Moonlight revealed the shadows of numerous humanlike figures outside, yet none possessed the presence of a living person.
“It must be the [Puppeteer]. There are far more figures than before. Ragune, wake Zion.”
Ankh stirred when he heard them moving.
“Leader, what’s happening?”
“The enemy has arrived. Prepare for battle.”
“Attacking us inside a village? Bold.”
Ankh rose and seized his greatsword.
A sleepy Zion emerged from the neighboring room. The moment she understood the danger, dark mist flowed from her leather armor and formed its hooded disguise around her.
“Let’s go.”
To keep the fight away from the sleeping guests, Tauro and his companions jumped from the upper-floor window into the street.
The figures surrounding the inn immediately converged on them.
There were more than twenty.
If the enemy had hypnotized and contracted so many people, the earlier attack might have been only a test.
Clouds moved away from the moon, revealing the attackers.
“Corpses?!” Tauro exclaimed.
The figures were decomposing bodies and bare skeletons dressed in tattered clothing. They had clearly once been human.
“I see,” Ragune said. “Instead of preparing new dolls or forming contracts with living villagers, the [Puppeteer] robbed the cemetery and used the bodies as ready-made puppets.”
“So these aren’t genuine undead?” Ankh asked, grimacing at the stench.
“Then [Sanctuary] wouldn’t work on them,” Zion realized, stopping the anti-undead spell she had begun to chant.
“The [Puppeteer] and [Hypnotist] must be nearby,” Tauro said. “I’ll find them. Handle the corpse puppets.”
Tauro concentrated on [Presence Detection].
The inn and nearby houses were crowded with sleeping villagers, producing dozens of ordinary presences. Among them, he searched for the two signatures he had memorized.
The corpse puppets surged toward him, trying to interrupt his concentration.
Ragune planted herself in their path and used her shield to send several bodies flying.
Ankh cut a decomposing corpse in half with visible disgust. He avoided using a long-range wind slash because the battle was taking place among homes.
Zion shattered the skeletons with her fists and left the rotting bodies to Ankh.
At last, Tauro found the [Puppeteer’s] presence near an upstairs window in a nearby house.
A second presence beside him belonged to an ordinary resident.
On the ground floor, the [Hypnotist] stood beside another resident. The pair had probably seized the household and placed its occupants under hypnosis.
Through [True Eye], Tauro could distinguish their silhouettes through the walls.
He raised the Bow of Artemis and aimed at the [Puppeteer] on the second floor.
A concentrated [Light Arrow] formed at the bowstring, shining with sharp white radiance.
The [Puppeteer] noticed the light and fled from the window.
“You won’t escape this time.”
Tauro released the [Light Arrow] directly through the second-floor wall.