Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 116
“Is this everyone? My, my… how pitiful. Like livestock.”
I said that to the wretches strewn across the treasury floor—creatures so far removed from being called treasures.
Once human, now stripped of freedom in their limbs, able only to writhe helplessly on the ground.
Nothing more than sacrifices. That Silent’s master would demand such things is difficult to comprehend.
“Kill me… kill me…Please”
“My legs… move! Why won’t they move?!”
“My arm… it’s right here, isn’t it?! It’s right here, so why won’t it move?!”
…Should I silence their throats as well? No—if I do that, they’ll die.
Annoying as their voices are, I’ll endure them for now.
“Now then… this treasury, is it sturdy?”
I addressed the only one who had not spoken—the king, who had given up everything and stared blankly into nothing.
“…Uhh…?”
“I asked you if this treasury is sturdy? Depending on your answer, I might help you. Like this.”
I slammed my fist into the dead limb of a nearby man.
‘Holy Evil Reversal’
Reverse the effect of what you grant.
Instant death becomes resurrection, deadly poison becomes antidote, bleeding becomes cure + HP regen.
Healing magic becomes attack magic, resurrection becomes instant death, even item effects are reversed.
This is the only method to restore a dead body part.
There is likely no such thing as “resurrection” in this world. Once a body part has died, no mere healing can fix it.
Of course, if the heart dies, the rest of the body naturally follows.
“Ah—ahh! They’re moving! My arms, my legs are moving!”
“Yes. But the trial period ends here.”
I killed them again at once.
The man’s limbs went limp, and he collapsed once more to the floor.
The next moment, his anguished screams filled the cramped treasury.
“Your Majesty!!! Answer, Your Majesty!!! Our lives depend on you!!!”
“Uh… ah, aah…?”
“I will ask you again. Is this treasury sturdy?”
The repeated question. At last, light returned to the king’s eyes.
“Y-Yes… it is sturdy. In this castle… it’s the most secure place.”
Naturally. Deep underground, guarded by heavy gates and bars, surrounded by thick walls.
From what I observed, multiple layers of magical protections were also stacked upon it.
…It seems I wasn’t wrong—this is the strongest place here.
“Good. Then give thanks to this sturdy treasury. Well then, everyone… farewell.”
I left the treasury, closing the door and confirming that the magical defenses activated properly.
Past the silent castle corridors, where only speechless lumps of flesh remained, past the grounds, and down the slope of the hill.
Half in ruins, yet still leaving a silhouette of majesty.
A symbol of this nation—falsely suggesting its power and pride remained intact.
I looked up at it.
“Now then… let us see if your precious treasury can withstand this.”
If it cannot, surely my master will be displeased with me.
I slowly stretched my hand forward—shaping my palm as if cradling an invisible sphere.
I raised it to the sky… then brought it crashing down as though slamming that unseen orb into the ground.
“Skyfalling Sun.”
In that instant, light poured down upon where the castle once stood.
No—that’s not right. Rather than “light pouring down,” it was as though a solid mass of light fell and crushed everything beneath it.
Witnessing it in reality was overwhelming.
If this is what I can do… what would a true, seasoned mage accomplish?
But in the next moment, crushing fatigue and sleepiness hit me like a storm.
“—Kh! …I see. So this is the cost.”
Most likely, the depletion of something equivalent to MP.
Sheele had once suffered something similar.
Following her example, I quickly retrieved a recovery item from the menu and drank it in one gulp.
I sat upon a small rock, overlooking the uphill road now buried beneath countless corpses—a carpet of death laid by Silent.
“…From here on, it’s up to my discretion, is it?”
That man Hus, whom I allowed to escape—likely a member of some organization.
This war, and their infiltration into Golda, was all for some kind of experiment.
I examined the crimson gem I had harvested from the chest of that fake hero I killed.
‘Fragment of a Dungeon Core from Lindworm’s Nest’
A shard of a Dungeon Core that grew due to external factors.
That’s all the information I could glean.
This likely requires either Sheele’s or the Master’s [Appraisal Eye] to examine further.
Still—the enemy desired these core fragments, and attempted to artificially produce more within a man-made dungeon.
This time, Master obtained it first, but surely their agents had planned to retrieve it.
If so, their goal… is not to collect cores, but to create them?
If they were growing cores inside humans, then surely this method is easier than meddling with artificial dungeons.
“I still don’t understand… what could their true goal be?”
But at the very least, it was beyond doubt that this war had been staged to feed countless human lives into the Core.
I took the Core out once again and held it up toward the starry sky.
“…Beautiful, isn’t it? It looks exactly like a color that has sealed away the lifeblood, the brilliance of human life.”
How many thousands of lives must have been drawn into this? How precious…
I stowed the Core again and rose to my feet.
Soon, surely, someone would come to investigate the thunderous roar from the castle’s collapse.
I began walking once more—slowly, across this carpet of corpses.
“Oh…?”
Two figures were running up this road. One of them I recognized.
…Remiya, yes, that was her name, if I recalled correctly. A woman with strength and status—quite convenient.
“My, my, why the rush?”
“! Who are you?! Are you with the castle?!”
It was not Remiya but the other woman who drew her sword and leveled it at me.
…Hm. She seemed familiar as well, but I could not place her.
“I was near the castle. A terrifying person appeared, but once they realized I wasn’t a soldier, they spared me.”
“…Are you with the Elkud Church?”
“No, not at all. I belong to a very small group, but I had come seeking a patron here. Alas… I was kept waiting, only to be turned away at the gate. Though, I suppose you could say that spared me from disaster. Truly, I must be… loved by this world. Ah, what a wondrous blessing faith is.”
If no one will ever understand me, then so be it—I will remain a madman. I will continue to act the part.
Even without trying, people call me mad anyway.
“You just said a terrifying person appeared, didn’t you? What did they look like?”
This time it was Remiya who asked.
Very well, then—I will give her the answer she seeks.
“They carried a great sword on their back, a warrior-like figure. I saw them slaughtering masses of soldiers and heading into the castle, but beyond that, I do not know. Forgive me, but I was too busy fleeing for my life. Even now, I was only resting here to let my trembling legs recover.”
Go on now. In truth, you’re dying to rush off, aren’t you?
Leave me be, a suspicious man of unknown origin.
“…I see. We will speak again later in detail. Wait for us at the guild.”
“I cannot make promises… This country is abnormal now. I wish only to return quickly to a world that makes sense.”
“!”
“Remiya, we must hurry.”
The other woman clapped Remiya on the shoulder, and the two once again ran toward the castle.
Watching their retreating figures, I finally remembered.
“Ah! So that was her!”
The woman who had conducted the combat exam for my master Same’s guild registration.
I see—so she was no ordinary figure after all.
“Well, well, how amusing… This is what they mean by strange fates and curious ties.”
Those two would surely find the hostages locked in the underground treasury.
I had even left the key for them. If they had withstood my attacks, it was only natural they would succeed in a rescue.
And soon enough, Silent would realize that the ones in that treasury were the very people he had sought power over—life and death in his grasp.
The hostages would all say the same thing: “It was someone like a priest who did this.”
Sooner or later, I would be interrogated by that woman I had just spoken with.
“…For now, should I hurry to the battlefield?”
Before the stars vanish. Before the night flees. Before the battle itself comes to an end.
“…What do you make of that man earlier?”
“I’d say he’s involved—ten to one. I don’t know in what way, but the mere fact that he survived the castle’s sudden collapse makes him someone to watch out for.”
“Yes. Still… this takes priority.”
The two women pressed onward, toward the castle that had suddenly collapsed with a roar.
At first, Remiya thought it was Silent’s doing. But the sheer scale of the devastation told her instinctively, “No, that wasn’t him.”
Still, she was certain it was Silent who had created the mountains of corpses, the rivers of blood, this very landscape of carnage.
From the hilltop where the outer walls once stood, the two traced the endless river of blood flowing downhill.
At last they arrived… at a land leveled flat, where even the corpses had been crushed to nothing along with the rubble of the castle.
“…No way… nothing… nothing’s left.”
“No, judging from the scale of the bloodstains on the ground, people must have been here… Look. The sand is different in color. I think… everything that made up the castle was ground to dust.”
“Huh…? You mean…”
“Like crushing a lump of dirt between one’s fingers—the castle was completely destroyed. Unbelievable, but you can see fragments of weapons, scraps of rubble that escaped the fate, even remnants of furnishings and carpets mixed into the sand.”
“W-what is this…? Some kind of secret Golda weapon? Did it misfire…?”
“I don’t know. Let’s investigate further. There may still be clues left behind.”
And so, the two of them found them—humans who had somehow survived, even when struck by calamities so great they seemed like divine punishment itself.
The treasury, being underground, had luckily preserved its structure.
When its seal was broken, inside they found—
“Help us! Anyone, please help us!”
“That uniform! You’re with the Guild, aren’t you!? Save us!!”
The floor was crammed full of people who seemed to be the castle’s residents.
Among them, Remiya noticed the very person who had recently smuggled in the declaration of war.
“I take it you are King Golda. Can you explain what happened here?”
“…Ah…”
“The Guild can offer you temporary protection. Right now, you alone have the power to stop this war, King Golda.”
“I know nothing… I know nothing anymore… Kill me… Kill me…”
At first glance, the captives showed no injuries, yet their limbs hung limply, their legs sprawled weakly.
But their hearts seemed broken; their eyes were vacant, muttering incoherently.
Stripped of freedom, locked away, tortured by deafening, unfamiliar roars and unbearable confusion—their spirits had shattered completely, crumbling into dust like the castle itself.
“Tch… So dismissing the Guild staff early has come back to haunt us. Melissa, it’ll be difficult, but we need to transport all of these hostages back to the Guild.”
“There’s no other choice… Some of the staff from this city should still be around—I’ll summon them. Please wait a moment.”
“Yes, please do.”
Seeing Melissa run off, Remiya turned back to the hostages.
She understood who these people were.
Judging by their bearing, every one of them was royalty or close to it—nobles of the upper class.
And these were surely connected to the “right of life and death over Golda’s leadership” that Silent had demanded as payment.
That meant the one who had locked them away was likely Silent. And so, Remiya spoke his name.
“King Golda. Was it not a giant named Silent who imprisoned you here?”
At that, something flickered in the king’s hollow eyes.
He began laughing brokenly, speaking as if recounting old memories.
“Silent! Yes, it was that man who caused all this! He brought calamity upon us!!!”
“I see. And where is this man Silent now?”
“He is dead! Justice has been served!!! A fitting end for the traitor who betrayed my kingdom! Yes! Justice has been done! I was right all along!”
“Wha… Dead? That man?”
“My hero! He killed him gloriously! Yes, where is Isaka!? Save me, come quickly! You are the strongest! Isaka… Isaka…? Ah!? Aaaaaahhhh!!!”
Again, King Golda went mad, screaming nonsense, repeating a name like a delirious chant.
But within his madness, Remiya caught onto one word she could not ignore.
“Dead…? Lord Silent… dead?”
Impossible. This was just the rambling of a broken king. She refused to believe it.
But then, another hostage—hesitant, fearful—spoke up instead.
“W-we were not brought here by a giant…”
“Explain in detail.”
“A… a man in black. He looked like he belonged to some religious order…”
In that instant, Remiya’s mind recalled the strange man she had glimpsed outside the castle not long ago.
But since Melissa had gone to gather the Guild staff, she could not abandon this place. She clenched her fists and endured.
Who was telling the truth?
She could only wait before chasing down the one who must know the answer.
Soon, the summoned staff arrived, and the transfer of hostages began.
At once, Remiya dashed out of the castle.
She sprinted through the bloodstained city streets, like running across a rain-soaked road.
On the road leading out from the royal capital’s gate, she spotted faint, scattered traces of bloody footprints.
She knew at once these were the strange man’s trail, and pursued them.
Footprints leading to the battlefield. In this chaos, no sane person would head toward the warfront.
And then… Remiya caught up.
There, on the roadside, sat the mysterious man—waiting for her, staring in the direction she had come.
“You were later than I expected. Good work.”
The man sitting on a bench that seemed to be for the stagecoach stop spoke first to Remiya.
His smile was unshakable, as if he intended to show no other emotion at all.
“…Answer me. Who are you?”
“That’s frightening, so please put that dangerous thing away.”
He gently touched the tip of the dagger pointed at him and pressed it down.
And then—
“Well, let’s see… I suppose you could say I’m someone who became interested in Silent and followed him?”
“Followed him…? That should be impossible.”
“Oh? Ah, are you talking about how he came to this country via the dungeon? No, that’s not it. And it’s not just this time either. I’ve known him very well, from far earlier. With the scent of war growing thicker, it was only a matter of time before he showed up here seeking military achievements. So in this case, it’s more accurate to say I wasn’t chasing him—I was waiting for him.”
At those words, Remiya fell silent. This person who even knew about the dungeon core… could he really be someone connected to Silent?
“Are you with the ‘Brigade’?”
“No, unfortunately I don’t get along too well with that lot.”
“Then what was your purpose in following Lord Silent?”
“It’s simple, really. Don’t you want that power? If a man like him were on your side, wouldn’t he be a tremendous asset?”
For a moment, Remiya almost raised her dagger again—but held herself back.
“So this time… I proposed a deal to Silent. I told him: ‘If something happens to you, I’ll grant your wish. In return, once everything is over, come to me.’”
“—!”
In an instant, Remiya understood that the wish referred to the hostages in the treasure vault. She once more leveled her dagger at him.
“Where is Lord Silent now?”
“Since I already fulfilled my promise, surely you can guess. Alas… what a miscalculation. Who would have thought he would be killed so easily by a hero from another world… That, I imagine, is the answer you wanted. Oh, and the wish entrusted to me was ‘Secure the upper echelon and destroy the castle.’ I did feel a little bad, truly. I had wanted at least to retrieve his remains, but in the end the castle collapsed along with his body.”
“—!”
Overcome with a flash of rage, Remiya’s grip tightened on the dagger.
“Stop. Surely you realize you’re standing at the very edge of life and death. Turn back now. I don’t know the details, but didn’t Silent desperately want to bring that upper echelon alive to Lendia? Then you take them. I’ve no obligation to go that far.”
“!?”
In that instant, Remiya was struck by an overwhelming pressure. For the first time in her life—no, the second, after Silent—she was crushed beneath the oppressive force of an absolute powerhouse.
She collapsed to the ground, looking up at this fearsome, abnormal man.
“I’ll be going now. My, my… I truly felt something precious. Your ‘faith in Silent.’ So very pleasant, faintly tinged with sorrow. Innocent, yet somehow strong.”
“What… are you saying…”
“And when that fragile faith shatters… how beautiful that moment will be. …Now, return. Return, pitiful little lamb, bereft of faith.”
Leaving Remiya crumpled to her knees by the roadside, the madman turned toward the battlefield.
To play the role of a free-roaming extra upon the stage of war.
Thus, the curtain rose on his deranged theater.