Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 437: The Last Remnant
Ragune, Ankh, and Zion had watched Tauro and Aeris from the shadows. Once they realized that Tauro might detect them with [Presence Detection] and become self-conscious, they returned to the rooms assigned to them.
Tauro and Aeris remained in the garden, happily continuing their first long conversation after months apart.
Then fog began to spread between the trees.
“Is that not strange?” Tauro asked.
The timing and speed of the fog immediately made him suspicious.
“Tauro, this fog contains magical power.”
At Aeris’s warning, Tauro drew the ebony staff she had once returned to him from [Magic Storage] and handed it back to her. He then drew Shortsword Tauro and prepared for battle.
A figure moved within the rapidly thickening fog.
Tauro combined [Presence Detection] and [Anti-Inhibition] to fix the stranger’s location. Even with [True Eye], however, he didn’t recognize the silhouette.
Aeris completed a chant before the figure fully emerged and erected a barrier.
The fog inside the protected area dispersed, revealing a man Tauro had never seen. He had slicked-back red hair, red eyes, and an expression of open surprise.
“Tch! No one told me there would be a barrier specialist here. It no longer matters, though. Once I have killed one person, killing two changes nothing.”
Tauro stepped between him and Aeris.
“Who are you?”
The stranger carried himself like an experienced fighter.
“Tauro Graunewald. I’ve heard a great deal about you. While I was conducting business in the north, you used the dragonfolk to drive my guild to the edge of destruction.”
His red eyes narrowed.
“Now you have interfered again. Because of you, rebuilding the Assassins’ Guild is no longer possible.”
“You’re one of its surviving members.”
Tauro remained calm. He had fought the organization too many times to underestimate it.
The man appeared able to control fog and possessed some form of inhibition resistance. Against Tauro’s [Anti-Inhibition], however, ordinary concealment should have been ineffective.
If fog is his primary weapon, I should be a terrible opponent for him.
Tauro concentrated on the slightest movement.
“The dragonfolk pursuing us killed every subordinate I had left. Since escape has become difficult, I’ll at least take your life before disappearing.”
The man drew a dagger.
“I was the vice leader of the Assassins’ Guild—and in truth, its strongest combatant. Both of you’ll die here.”
As he declared this, Aeris’s first barrier destabilized and the fog surged back across the garden.
Aeris raised her ebony staff.
“Do you believe overcoming a barrier of that level makes you superior to me?”
She completed a second, more powerful spell. The fog was driven away again.
“Impossible! I made that fog far denser than before!”
“Don’t underestimate me. I spent months training under a [True Saint]. This is nothing.”
Tauro was impressed by how much she had grown—and briefly wondered whether prolonged training with the dragonfolk had influenced her forceful way of speaking.
“Then try this!”
Purple mist poured from the vice leader’s body.
Tauro immediately recognized it as poison.
A couple who had been speaking privately beneath a nearby tree collapsed, coughing and clutching their throats.
Aeris calmly dispelled the poisonous mist, detoxified both victims, and surrounded them with a protective barrier.
Amazing. She’s become far stronger since we last fought together.
Tauro drew the Guardian Doll Round Shield from [Magic Storage] and closed the distance.
The vice leader met him with his dagger while continuing to generate fog inside the barrier.
Shortsword and dagger collided repeatedly, scattering sparks through the mist.
He’s the strongest close-combat opponent I have faced.
The vice leader’s skill was genuine. Tauro could defend himself, but his opponent was clearly superior in speed and technique.
“I heard you were an archer, boy. Your swordsmanship is better than expected—but it isn’t enough to defeat me.”
The assassin repeatedly aimed at Tauro’s vital points.
Yet none of the dagger strikes reached flesh. Each was deflected by something moving too quickly for the unaided eye to follow.
Pella, still disguised as Tauro’s belt, had extended tiny portions of its body to intercept every fatal blow.
Without the slime familiar, Tauro would already have been critically wounded.
Aeris cast one strengthening spell after another upon him. Since the assassin’s fog couldn’t disable Tauro, she focused on improving his physical abilities.
The vice leader initially dominated the exchange, but Pella’s nearly flawless defense and Aeris’s enhancements gradually closed the gap.
“Damn it! What kind of mage is that girl?”
The assassin began to lose ground.
Realizing that the battle was turning against him, he retreated and raised his dagger before his face.
“I have no choice. This places a considerable burden on me, but I’ll use my final technique—[Hidden Mist]!”
His body dissolved into the fog.
[Anti-Inhibition] still allowed Tauro to sense his location. Tauro slashed directly through that point—and struck nothing.
“What?”
A dagger materialized from the fog beside him.
Pella’s tentacle knocked it aside before it could reach his throat.
“How are you stopping my attacks?”
The vice leader’s face briefly emerged from the mist as he shouted.
Aeris didn’t hesitate.
“[Lightning Shower]!”
Electrical light filled the area around the assassin. Tauro stood close enough to the edge of the spell that the attack narrowly avoided him.
A scream tore through the fog.
The vice leader’s technique could avoid ordinary physical attacks, but Aeris’s wide-area magic struck him directly. His body re-formed in front of Tauro.
Tauro drove Shortsword Tauro into his chest without hesitation.
The enemy was too dangerous to risk capturing alive.
“Die…”
With his last strength, the vice leader thrust his dagger toward Tauro.
This time Pella abandoned its belt disguise completely and formed a shield between them.
“A… tamer…?”
The assassin coughed blood and collapsed.
The last known Assassins’ Guild remnant in the territorial capital was dead.
The Voice of the World echoed in Tauro’s mind.
“One of the activation conditions for the special skill [&%$#], <One Who Defeated a Stronger Opponent>, has been fulfilled. You have acquired [Adversity Ability Enhancement].”
[Adversity Ability Enhancement]? I have acquired another strange ability.
As the fog finally vanished, Tauro sat down in relief and gave Aeris a thumbs-up for her perfectly timed attack.