Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 402: A Matter of Compensation
Moonlight illuminated Black-Gold Wings and the fallen corpse puppets in the village street.
Tauro’s brilliant [Light Arrow] cut through the night and struck the second floor of the nearby house.
The projectile punched through the wall with a dull impact and pierced the [Puppeteer]’s chest.
“Aaagh!”
A brief scream came from upstairs.
Through [True Eye], Tauro saw the hypnotized resident beside the wounded man hurry downstairs toward the [Hypnotist].
At the same moment, every corpse puppet attacking Black-Gold Wings stopped and collapsed.
The [Puppeteer] was dead, and his control had ended.
Realizing what had happened, the [Hypnotist] forced both residents against the ground-floor wall and hid behind them.
“Exactly as expected,” Tauro said.
He and his companions approached the damaged house.
The [Hypnotist] saw them through the window.
“Stop! Do you not care what happens to these people?”
The entranced residents obeyed his command. Each raised a knife toward their own body, forming a living shield in front of him.
Tauro raised his bow.
“Wait! Killing me won’t end the hypnosis,” the man shouted. “This is an original spell that only I can release. If I die, these two will still kill themselves.”
“It’s magic,” Tauro said. “Dark magic, correct?”
“So what if it is? I created an exceptionally delicate technique. Merely understanding the attribute won’t allow you to unravel it. Lower the bow if you care about their lives!”
The [Hypnotist] remained hidden behind the residents.
“Zion, can you do it?” Tauro asked.
“I can.”
She understood his plan immediately.
“Then prepare. Three… two… one… now!”
Zion smashed through the wall with one punch and lunged toward the hostages.
The two residents attempted to drive their knives into themselves, but Zion was faster. She struck each in the abdomen with precisely controlled blows, knocking them unconscious before either blade could land.
At that instant, Tauro’s arrow flashed past Zion’s cheek and struck the fleeing [Hypnotist] in the back.
“Gah!”
The man twisted around in shock and collapsed.
“F-fool… Even if I die, those two will still choose death…”
“That won’t happen. Dark magic is one of my specialties, and [Magic Manipulation] (Extreme) allows me to control it more precisely than you expect.”
Tauro placed one hand lightly on each resident’s head and traced the structure of the hypnosis.
“This should undo it.”
The foreign dark magic dissolved almost immediately.
Zion used healing magic to wake the residents.
The pair—apparently a married couple—remembered enough of what had happened to understand the danger. They embraced and began to cry.
The dying [Hypnotist] stared at them in disbelief.
“Impossible… My original magic… erased in an instant…”
He died in despair.
“The battle is finished,” Tauro said, looking toward the street. “But do I really have to put all those decomposing bodies into [Magic Storage]?”
Even temporarily storing the violated corpses was deeply unpleasant.
The fighting had awakened the entire village. Weapons had clashed in the street, walls had broken, and part of the cemetery had been desecrated.
Alimar and his family had watched anxiously from the inn’s windows. They were relieved that Black-Gold Wings had won, but the resulting damage immediately created another problem.
“Am I expected to pay for all of this?” Alimar asked unhappily.
He had already spent heavily on Sita’s wedding. The Assassins’ Guild remnants had targeted Tauro and Black-Gold Wings rather than Zenyu’s procession, so Alimar felt that his party had merely been dragged into the incident.
The chief of the village where they had stayed arrived after hearing the commotion.
The two village chiefs began negotiating compensation.
“You can’t claim the destruction has nothing to do with you after bringing this disturbance into our village,” the host chief argued.
“I accept that some payment is appropriate,” Alimar replied, “but this amount is far too high.”
He wanted to return to Zenyu quickly and had no desire to prolong the dispute, yet the demanded sum was plainly excessive.
Tauro joined the discussion and explained that the attackers were surviving members of the Assassins’ Guild.
“Then the matter has even less to do with us,” the host chief replied.
“I’ll compensate your village for the genuine damage and inconvenience,” Tauro said. “I’m only asking that the amount be fair.”
“Fair? You caused a battle in our streets! Besides, this man is the chief of Zenyu, one of the wealthiest villages in the region. The amount is easily within his means.”
The host chief no longer bothered to hide that he intended to exploit Zenyu’s prosperity.
Tauro sighed and asked Alimar to leave the room temporarily.
“Why are you sending him away?” the host chief demanded. “I’m only asking for what he can afford.”
“You chose the wrong person to threaten.”
Tauro produced his territorial-inspector certificate.
The host chief’s eyes widened.
“I’m not refusing compensation,” Tauro said. “But greed has no place in an official settlement between villages.”
“I-I apologize…”
The chief had heard about the young inspector who recently helped eliminate bandits and corrupt officials across the domain. Discovering that the child before him was that inspector destroyed his confidence.
“Our battle did cause real trouble, and for that I’m sorry. Please accept this amount.”
Tauro offered a generous payment sufficient to repair the damaged house and cemetery and compensate the residents who had been terrorized.
“Th-this may be more than necessary,” the host chief admitted, reversing his position completely.
“I don’t want resentment to remain between your village and Zenyu. Accept it, use it properly, and consider the matter settled.”
Tauro called Alimar back into the room.
“An agreement has been reached. Shake hands and part without hostility.”
The two village chiefs obeyed.
With the compensation dispute resolved, Alimar’s party and Black-Gold Wings departed the village and resumed the journey home.