Volume 2: Chapter 013: Makia & the Unwelcomed Favour
Author: かっぱ同盟／友麻碧
Link: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3862be/
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
“I wonder where Percelis is trying to go…”
As we run through town, Tooru frowns. The indicator light shows that Percelis is moving in a very erratic manner.
“It’s like she’s fluttering all over the place.”
“Is she… lost?”
If that is really the case, I am relieved.
As the Green Shrine Maiden, she would make a worthwhile hostage for anyone. [1] When I first heard about her disappearance, I thought she must have been kidnapped by the Anti-East faction or someone similar.
We walk around the busy shopping street, avoiding crowds by dipping into the occasional deserted alleyways.
“Lepis! You’re here, right?! You’re fast, so please go ahead and look for Percelis!” I shout [1] at the air where Lepis had been keeping a lookout. Tooru proactively replicates the cube and throws one into the sky.
“Understood,” came the expressionless reply. After catching the cube, she did something with her feet, making the translucent square she had been standing on flash and her entire being turned into a shadow with a hum.
“Tooru, you should go ahead too.”
“No need, Lepis is faster anyway.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, her space magic is a little different from mine… In fact, their magic is different enough that it could be considered a special branch of Twilight Magic. Of course, I have more MP and my Magic Fortress repertoire is bigger, but the Twilight Clan’s special magic has evolved a lot over time. I expect I could learn much from them…”
“Such is life, I guess.”
Even as we chat, our feet kick off the blue and grey tiled floor as we run towards where Percelis is located.
Suddenly, we heard a scream.
We stop running and look around.
“… …?”
There was a large crowd of people at the arch of a bridge by the shopping street. Members of the Magic Knights could be seen here and there.
“Don’t tell me it’s that ‘Eska’ guy…”
We make our way towards the bridge.
“…woah…”
The first thing that hit me was the weird smell. I had to cover my nose with my sleeves.
[1] From what I could see, a body had been found just under the bridge. The Royal Palace soldiers are currently pulling up a cloth-wrapped corpse.“Hey, Tooru… and Makia-sama.”
“Melvis-san.”
Magic Knight Melvis waves at us as we approach.
Tooru says, “Was it him again?”
“No… we didn’t find any card this time. It’s very strange. A resident was woken up early this morning by the sound of an explosion and found this burnt corpse here. The methodology is different too, so we don’t believe it’s Eska’s work. Also…”
“What is it, Melvis?”
“That is… I don’t think the body is human. We can’t be sure because the body had been charred black, but from the size of the body and the shape of the legs, it looks more like a beast.”
“… …”
Tooru has been quite agitated by the recent events. He is certainly not happy with this news. However, we can’t just stick around her.
I tug on his sleeves, “Hey, aren’t we looking for Percelis? Just leave this to the Magic Knights.”
“…you’re right, it would be bad if Percelis got involved with an Eska related incident.”
We turn away from the crowd on the bridge and follow the directions on the Cube into one of the back alleyways.
I could feel someone’s eyes on me.
If I held my breath and maintained a certain stillness, I could definitely feel the watcher’s gaze on me.
“… …”
When I look back, there is no one to be seen. We are currently in one of the low-traffic back alleys and have eyes on everyone as well as part of the flow of people on the main street, but little else.
“Someone’s watching us,” says Tooru.
“…indeed,” I agreed.
At that very moment, I felt something approaching from the opposite direction and quickly turned around-
“Makia!!”
Tooru pushes me towards the wall, sword already in hand. A dull silver knife clattered against the ground.
“…ow…”
I had hit the wall hard. I straighten quickly, rubbing my arm. It hurt a lot but it’s loads better than being stabbed by a throwing knife.
“Eska!!”
Tooru shouts, staring somewhere above us. I look in the same direction and see a man in black bulletproof vest and a large mysterious hood standing on the roof of someone’s house.
He has a rather imposing way of standing.
“… wow…”
For some reason, I am speechless.
“Hey, Magic Advisors, aren’t you guys always a step too slow?”
“You… you’re the one behind that burnt corpse, aren’t you?!”
“Well, yeah? You guys are just too incompetent, what a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
His face could not be seen, as for the voice, it was too low and unstable for me to identify him one way or another.
I cannot extract any data from this person without his name. However, I can see that Tooru is somehow obsessed this ‘Eska’ guy.
Even though this fellow stinks of ‘small fry’, I have a feeling that it would not be easy to take him down. My gut tells me that something’s not right, or perhaps it’s my magic?
Eska suddenly leaps off the roof, yelling ‘A 10!’ as he lands.
“Those fellows have been preying on the humans of this city until now. But somehow you guys always find them later than me. Do you bunch of dolts even have a sense of urgency at all?”
“… …?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Haahhh? What am I… hey, haven’t you guys been investing those weird happenings? Didn’t I leave those cards for you guys?”
“… …”
Hmm? Why does it sound like the conversation is getting more and more confusing?
Still holding his sword, Tooru narrowed his eyes.
“That’s right, we’ve been investigating every single corpse you’ve left behind. To think you always show up and just to taunt us, are you stupid or what?”
Was Tooru’s answer, but Eska’s reaction was oddly out of place.
“… haahh?”
“… What’s with that reaction?”
The guy had tilted his head to one side.
Although we can’t see his whole face, his dropped-open mouth is clearly visible.
A thought occurred to me.
“…wait, don’t tell me you have nothing to do with all those murders to date?”
“Makia?! What are you saying-”
“Haahhhh?!! Of course, I didn’t!! I only kill criminals!!”
“…”
“… …”
Yes.
A glimmer of light finally dawned on me. So, that’s why the conversation just now was all over the place.
“Don’t be ridiculous!!”
Tooru swings his sword forward indignantly.
Well, it was a reasonable conclusion to jump to.
“Then what were the cards you left at all those murder scenes?! Isn’t that your calling card? You, claiming credit for your kills!”
“The heck? Did you ever see the words ‘I did this’ there? Haahhh??!!”
“Enough! Don’t try to confuse things now, you octopus!!”
“Ridiculous! I’ll sue you for defamation!!”
These two are quarrelling like a pair of schoolboys.
I feel like I’m third wheeling them.
Let’s see if I can sort them out.
A number of strange murder cases have occurred at the Royal Capital. The one common denomination between the murders is the ‘Fancy Turtle Cards’ with the embarrassingly chuunibyou messages found at every crime scene.
The Magic Knights, including Tooru, believed that the criminal was this Eska fellow. The ‘chuuni’ behind the cards.
“If you’re not the one behind the murders, why did you leave those cards at the scene?” I raise my voice above the quarrelling duo.
Eska looks at me with a slightly dumbfounded look.
“That’s, umh…..”
He stutters. How unlike the image he had been portraying thus far…
A young girl’s laughter suddenly pierced through the air.
“This fellow is just a little attention seeker, wanting to brag about how ‘Eska was here’ and declaring that ‘this prey is mine’. Well, I supposed he’s dying to give you a hint, that’s the soft-hearted bit about him. Still, he’s unable to resist popping out and teasing you people for attention.”
I looked around pointlessly for a bit before suddenly noticing a girl right next to me.
She looks young, with a large black box on her back and an Eastern-style hat.
“Tahta!! Didn’t I tell you not to come out… wait, I-I’m not an attention seeker!”
“The only one who thinks so is you, you know? You’ve always been bad with your words and make people misunderstand you. Do you know just how many people think you’re the culprit? What a nuisance.”
The girl, Tahta apparently, has a rather mysterious air about her. Her eyes were especially strange. It’s hard to put into words, but there is something… wrong about her existence. Though she has the appearance of a child, she feels intimidating. She’s treating Eska like a mother scolding a child.
“You are …”
“Nice to meet you, Crimson Witch.” Even with the heavy looking box on her back, she ran lightly over to Eska. Spinning around to say, “I am one of the Four Great Spirits, Black Sea Turtle ‘Bracktahta’. I have a contract with this guy.”
“The Four Great Spirits…”
Tooru and I exchange a look.
We have heard about this before.
Aside from the Hundred Spirits of the White Sage, there exist ‘Divine Beasts’ which are completely different from them.
2000 years ago, their existence was akin to legends. It was said that their spirits had been sealed somewhere. The White Sage was concerned about their existence but was never able to locate them in the end.
“No way… Even the White Sage couldn’t get his hands on one of the Great Spirits…”
In disbelief, Tooru tightened his grip on his sword as he eyed his opponents.
I think I now understand what he had meant when he said this fellow gave off a ‘weird feeling’ whenever he fought Eska.
We have encountered all kinds of Spirits during the course of our existence, but this would be our first encounter with one of the Great Four Spirits.
A power that is completely different from the tone of the Spirits contracted by Ulysses.
They seem to stimulate our nerves and magical powers, regardless whether we like it or not.
[Gumihou: A lot of things happening here…]
[1] Added details [2] Adjust details so that it makes sense, like, what is this:
As usual, expressionless as she replied, then crossed the square translucent scaffold she had made under her feet, moving away in a black shadow.
[3] Some of the weird sentences are really weird. I think part of the reason is the Japanese sentence structure, but, eh. It’s all fixable:Hmm: …we noticed was a strange smell, and I inadvertently held my nose with the sleeves of my dress.
Fixed: …first hit me is the weird smell. I had to cover my nose with my sleeves.
It seems oddly convoluted. I think it’s partly how the author likes to throw in the odd English words like ドレス (dress), to make us think it’s important when really, it… just isn’t.
[4] Deletes:Yeah, I’m just going to delete this whole thing. It’s just a repeat of earlier statement in text instead of dialogue.
What Tooru and Eska have to say is the following…
Tooru’s argument is that the card left behind is a criminal statement. That I do understand. Then, Eska says that it doesn’t say anywhere that it was him who wrote that. Well, that was certainly the case. After all, it was just a chuunibyou message that was left behind. So, if Eska were to be the one leaving the cards, why would he? And if he didn’t commit the crimes, what was the point of leaving the cards at the scenes?
Sure, it’s comprehensive, but not particularly exciting…
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