Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 288: Cleanup
“Whew… Looks like we took them down.”
Feeling the heat of the surrounding flames, Rest wiped the sweat from his forehead.
The extermination of the Crazy Apes had gone more or less according to plan.
In front of him, the pitfall trap was filled with the fallen Crazy Apes, now lifeless, impaled on the wooden stakes he had set at the bottom.
The strategy Rest had used to defeat them was “Surround but leave a gap” — “Kōshi hitsukekki” — one of the traditional tactics from the Spring and Autumn Warring States period in ancient China.
Magicians from the Marquis Rosemary’s house, who had accompanied them, unleashed fire magic from three directions surrounding the Crazy Apes’ nest — leaving just one side open.
Driven by the roaring flames, the Crazy Apes fled in the only direction without fire — right into the pitfall Rest had magically created. As they rushed into the escape route, they fell straight into the trap and were impaled by the stakes.
Had they been surrounded on all four sides, the cornered Crazy Apes might have thrown themselves into the wall of fire in desperation and tried to break through with brute force.
But by deliberately leaving an escape route, the panicked apes had fallen perfectly into the trap.
“I’ll admit, I panicked a little when one of them tried to jump over the pit…”
“Good thing I was there, huh, Rest?”
Yuri said with a bright smile.
She had accompanied Rest and kicked down the Crazy Ape that had tried to leap over the trap. The fact that she managed to kick away a creature easily three times her weight was impressive — her brute strength was nothing to scoff at.
“Let’s make sure none escape. Time for mop-up.”
Just to be safe, Rest used the Presence Detection spell to search for any surviving Crazy Apes.
He fired finishing spells at any pretending to be dead in the pit, dug up those hiding underground, and took out those attempting to escape into the trees.
The mages from House Rosemary, who had launched the initial fire attacks, were no doubt doing the same — Rest had already given them orders to wipe out any stragglers.
“We made it through without any casualties, which is great… but this smell might haunt me.”
The stench of burning corpses was especially hard to stomach.
With a grimace, Rest looked again at the corpse of the Crazy Ape at the bottom of the pit.
One of them had spoken human words — and begged for its life.
The fact that a monkey had spoken human language was shocking enough. But when Rest realized the likely reason behind it, a wave of disgust filled his chest.
If the Crazy Ape had learned human language, then there must have been a human who had “taught” it — albeit unintentionally.
It likely came from a captured human, devoured as food, whose desperate pleas were mimicked and remembered by the beast.
“Rest, are you okay?”
“Rest-sama, are you alright?”
Viola and Primula arrived at his side.
They had been among those launching the fire spells to herd the apes.
“Yeah, I’m fine. You two weren’t attacked?”
“Nope, everything went smoothly.”
“No monsters came to our area. Yuri, you must be tired too.”
“Yeah, good job, both of you.”
Yuri said, raising a hand in salute.
“Still… it ended so easily, it feels anticlimactic. If only they had at least been tasty monsters.”
“Don’t eat them. Eating monkeys is dangerous.”
It was dangerous.
There had once been a delicacy in China known as “monkey brains,” literally involving the consumption of simian brains. But it carried serious risks, such as prion disease, and was highly hazardous.
Rest didn’t know the detailed mechanisms, but he remembered reading in some book that it had to do with how genetically close monkeys were to humans.
“I wasn’t planning to. Those things looked nasty anyway.”
Yuri shook her head firmly.
At least she had that much sense. Rest was relieved she had the judgment to not eat a Crazy Ape.
“Well then, once the flames die down, it’s time for cleanup… ugh, dealing with the corpses will be a pain.”
Since they had already dug a giant hole, they might as well bury everything in it.
Rest sighed and shrugged his shoulders, already dreading the cleanup more than the battle itself.