Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 4: The Story of the Books That Burned
Despite Ren’s unexpected arrival, Mireille prepared lunch with practiced ease.
The meal contained far more variety than the Little Boar meat and limited crops that had once dominated the village table.
Ren was deeply pleased.
He had left home and worked in Clausel because he wanted to make his poor village prosperous. Seeing the result made every hardship feel worthwhile.
After lunch, the family remained in the new dining room and talked.
“The mansion is beautiful,” Ren said, looking around.
White walls, dark wooden floors, and a stone cooking area had replaced the old room whose packed-earth floor connected directly to the outside.
“But the furniture feels familiar.”
“It should,” Mireille said. “Your father made most of it to resemble what we lost.”
Ren looked at Roy in surprise.
“You built the old furniture too?”
“Most of it. We bought a few pieces for the guest room from craftsmen.”
“What about my room?”
“We prepared only what was necessary. We wanted to wait until you returned before ordering anything else, since you may have preferences.”
Ren had repeatedly written that his parents should use the funds and magic tools he sent without hesitation.
Roy scratched his cheek.
“We are grateful. But the village should come first. And… furniture I make myself feels more like home.”
Mireille nodded.
The mansion already contained useful magic tools, especially in the kitchen. Ren decided that the rest should be left to the people who lived there every day.
“Then please make the furniture for my room too.”
His request was sincere.
After tea, Ren rose to take his luggage upstairs. Roy accompanied him while Mireille remained to clear the dishes.
The hallway no longer creaked beneath their feet.
“It really is new,” Ren said.
“Thanks to you and the baron. The only thing we could not restore was the library. Every book burned.”
“That cannot be helped. The fire was intense.”
The new mansion followed the old layout where possible, though the corridor to the former storeroom had changed and the windows were larger.
Ren felt a trace of sadness for the home that existed only in memory.
On the stairs, Roy sighed.
“The books in my room burned too.”
“You kept books there?”
“Only a few. Your grandfather’s diary and the adventure records left by our ancestors.”
Ren stopped.
“What kind of adventures?”
“If the records were true, our ancestors traveled far beyond the Elfen Continent.”
His curiosity surged.
“Where did they go?”
“Many places. One account said they traveled to the sky continent seeking the gods. Another described a search for an ancient city supposedly resting on the sea floor.”
Ren remembered rumors from his former life about a map that might appear in Legends of the Seven Heroes III.
People genuinely lived on the sky continent and maintained contact through magic ships. The ancient city beneath the sea, however, had only been a rumor.
They reached Ren’s new room.
It was slightly larger than before. Roy had filled it with simple furniture modeled after what Ren once used, except for a larger bed suited to his growing body.
Ren opened the window and let in the spring breeze.
“What else did our ancestor do?”
Roy thought for a moment.
“There was a story about an Elder Dragon.”
Ren’s heart gave a violent beat.
“An Elder Dragon?”
“A very old dragon who loved fighting strong opponents.”
The timing was too perfect. Ren had discovered Asval’s horn that very morning.
“What happened?”
“Our ancestor wanted a fragment of the dragon’s horn and asked for one.”
“And the dragon agreed?”
“No. Our ancestor gave up, but the Elder Dragon told him to take it by force if he wanted it.”
Ren already suspected the conclusion.
“So our ancestor cut off the entire horn.”
“Exactly. He won the battle, and the two became friends afterward.”
Roy admitted that the record contained little more. It had been written like a diary, without enough detail to identify the dragon.
“If the story was true, our ancestor should have left a mark on Leomel’s history,” Roy said. “It is strange that House Ashton remained an obscure family.”
Mireille called from the hall that a knight wished to see Roy.
After his father left, Ren leaned against the window frame.
He remembered Asval’s reaction to his surname.
“Ashton? Why does that name sound strangely familiar?”
The dragon had failed to remember but had become enraged that someone as weak as Ren dared to bear it.
Asval had already been missing one horn before the Seven Heroes defeated it.
If an Ashton ancestor had broken that first horn, every detail fit.
The battle must have occurred before the Seven Heroes killed Asval.
“How did he do it?”
Ren had barely broken Asval’s remaining horn after an incomplete resurrection and after the dragon was already weakened by the loss of the first.
His ancestor had apparently defeated Asval at full strength.
“No wonder Asval called me weak.”
Compared with a predecessor recognized as the dragon’s equal and friend, Ren could hardly object.
The burned adventure record now felt unbearably precious.
Another mystery troubled him even more.
“Why was none of this recorded in history?”
Ren remembered no mention of such an Ashton in the games or in any historical text.
Someone powerful enough to defeat prime Asval should have been famous across the empire.
“It is almost as though the name was deliberately erased.”
Yet House Ashton had survived to the present. If the ancestor had been removed from official history because he threatened Leomel, why had his descendants been allowed to continue?
Ren lacked the information and political insight needed to solve the contradiction.
He could only conclude that the Ashton ancestor had possessed absurd strength.
â—‡ â—‡ â—‡
The next morning, Ren woke in his new bed.
The mansion was not identical to the home he remembered, but waking in the village of his birth still felt deeply comforting.
He opened the window. Wind from the fields carried the scent of earth and grass.
After dressing, he headed downstairs.
“Going on your usual walk?” Mireille asked when they met in the corridor.
“Yes. I want to see the village properly.”
She saw him outside.
Io was asleep in the stable with her legs stretched out, utterly relaxed despite the unfamiliar surroundings.
Ren left her to rest and passed through the stone gate.
The cobbled road was different, but the fields remained close enough to touch. Villagers greeted him as he walked.
Ahead, he noticed an elderly woman.
“Grandma Rigg!”
She was the village’s only midwife and a skilled apothecary.
Her wrinkled eyes filled with tears when she saw him.
“Young master, you have grown so much.”
Ren scratched his cheek in embarrassment.
“Have I? Thank you.”
He fell into step beside her.
Contrary to Ren, the original Ashton did everything correct: He went on adventures, wrote a diary, he lived and did what he wanted, no stain in history.
Meanwhile Ren wants to do the same and fails every single time. Always the center of attention, beats every major foe, amasses a harem.
The last step missing is that he also enrolls in that special course academy or receives his own land and region to lord over.