Chapter 102

’Gan’, the violent sound of one stool falling over in the cramped house .

「… You bastard, don’t fool around!! Who does this black-armored guy think he is!!」

A house that was too small, just barely big enough to be called a dilapidated house . Built outside the village, in the dilapidated house Garudo and his followers had gathered .

Just before, the young man in black armor had been in the way of them interfering with the 10 year reunion of the 「Madman」girl and her family .

Garudo who boasted physical strength, from when he was little to today, he had never lost in a fight .

That very person had literally been taken care of with one hand . Not only that, he had been beaten by someone smaller of stature .

The type of anger of having your built up confidence shattered, and the anger of being humilitated in front of your friends .

Swirling in his mind were various emotions, Garudo kicked over the stool .

「Y, Yeah, Garudo……？」

One of his followers opened his mouth with fear .

「……Yeah, that black-clothed little……Perhaps, he was a magician？」

「Yeah, a magicia- what？」

For just one instant, the color of Garudo’s face turned to one of dread .

For the followers who had said that as well as Garudo, they considered the new fear that he was a magician .

「Yeah, I saw it . At that same moment that black-armored guy had touched Garudo, his entire body vanished in the instant… so that was him using magic… . 」

A magician . It was someone who was able to use something they couldn’t understand .

It was something that didn’t exist inside the village, and for Garudo and his friends, who had done what they wanted up until now, it was an existence they felt fear at .

「Y, Yeah…？ Wouldn’t it be a good idea to not make a move on Calse? Sin, Since, they might have a magician on their side?」

In reality, it was Calsedonia herself who was the magician, and there were two others other than her who were also magicians, Tatsumi and Morgan, meaning there were actually 3 magicians, but Garudo and his friends had no way to know that truth .

At present, what they knew was that the black-armored mercenary knew magic, and just that .

Their enemy might be a magician . At that truth, even Garudo hesitated .

An irritated Garudo, who was walking around the room restlessly, immediately stops and gives a hateful grin .

「Hey, you . Come run with me to Toga . 」

Garudo ordered to one of his followers .

「T, Toga!? Going from this village all the way to the city of Toga, it would take over an entire day for a one-way trip?!」

「Are you stupid? Who said we were walking the whole way? In my house we have a Parlow to go to Toga if some kind of problem happened . We’re going to use it to get to Toga as soon as possible, and then we’ll tell Deagan-sama about that black-armored mercenary . 」

「Ye, Yeah… If it’s Deagan-sama, even if his opponent is a magician… 」

Garudo’s follower’s fear cleared from their faces, in its place taking a lighter expression .

「So that’s it . If it’s Deagan-sama, he’ll be able to do something about a magician even if his opponent is a magician . We ask him to do something about the cocky black-armored mercenary, and to congratulate him, we take the woman and offer her to him as a slave… . 」

Garudo’s face of hatred turned to an even deeper shade of hatred .

And to match it, his followers also made the same smile .

Garudo and the follower he ordered on that day departed Lagine village and rushed toward Toga city .

「Hmmmmm . Then, it seems like Calse will be able to do what she’s comfortable with . 」

While Garudo and co were making their grand plan, in a different place in the same Lagine Village, a different conversation was happening .

「……Yeah . I feel like we’ve started to reconcile . On the flipside, I feel like I’ve just announced our marriage in a very out-of-place situation . 」

As to what Joruto had said, Tatsumi’s response was a bit awkward, recalling the scene he had made .

「I am… Father and Mother’s daughter Calsedonia is… now extremely happy that I married Tatsumi-sama!!」

The moment after Calsedonia had said that, she was hugged with all of the strength she had .

By Namea – by her true mother .

「……I’m sorry……I’m sorry, Caruse!!!」

Without trying to hide her tears, Namea apologized to Calsedonia over and over .

And her father, Bikkuri also without trying to hide his tears, hugged both his wife and daughter .

At Calsedonia calling her parents「Father」and「Mother」, both of her parents’ bottled up feelings, were at last unable to be covered up .

Tatsumi, intentionally not reading the room, announced his marriage . The impact of that was all the bottled up feelings being released all at once .

In the midst of that, the only one making a blank face was Lilinalia .

From her point of view, the priests who had come from the royal capital to heal her illness were actually her family .

Whether it followed along with the flow of the conversation or not, it was the natural course of events .

「……Did I surprise you?」

Therefore, Tatsumi approached not the rejoicing hugging parents and child, but rather the left behind figure of the younger sister – no, sister in law .

「Ye, yes, you surprised me… Uh, um… Is ,is that beautiful priest-sama… my older sister?」

Not looking at the approaching Tatsumi at all, rather Lilinalia continued to stare at her family .

「……Why……Why are Father and Mother… at the fact that my sister is here?」

Not even knowing that she had an elder sister, Lilinalia probably doubted the sudden appearance of her sister .

「In relation to that, you would probably want to hear it from your parents . But… . if your parents don’t want to talk about it, don’t push them to talk about it, right?」

Tatsumi, looking at the scene of the parents and child crying and embracing, told Lilinalia so .

「But I will say this one thing . That person is without a doubt, your elder sister . And… having married your elder sister, it means your relation to me is one of a brother-in-law . 」

At the words「Brother in law」, Lilinalia’s gaze snapped to Tatsumi .

At that time, Tatsumi looked at his younger-sister-in-law for the first time .

Her eye color and hair color was the same as her father’s . And she looked very similar to her elder sister Calsedonia .

Her hair and skin thinned due to her poor living situation, and for that reason her entire figure was blurry, but if she had better eating habits from now on, she would surpass her elder sister in beauty .

「……Brother-in-law？」

Looking up at Tatsumi in a daze, Lilinalia mutters this .

Tatsumi’s face warps slightly, remembering the one instant where someone had called him that .

But Tatsumi instantly shook it off,and smiled at his new younger sister in law .

「I’m Tatsumi . Nice to meet you, Lilinalia . Is it okay if I call you Lina?」

「Ye, Yeah . Nice to meet you too, Tatsumi Onii-san . 」

Answering so in a smile, Lilinalia’s face immediately darkened and she looked at her legs, hidden by her skirt .

「Don’t worry about your legs . Your elder sister is going to fix them for you . That’s because your elder sister is the royal capital’s 《Holy Maiden》, or so they call her . 」

In order to give his sister peace of mind, he said so while closing his eyes .

「So, did you figure out the cause of her illness… Calse’s imouto’s illness?」

After hearing the details of Calsedonia and her family reunion, Joruto asked about his next question .

「Yeah . As Calse says, it seems she’s taken a magical beast’s poison . It seems like it was done by a stone-type rat, and Calse also says she’s seen the symptoms before . 」

Tatsumi hadn’t heard of that magical beast before . Taking a glance at Morgan, it seemed he had heard about it and nodded .

「A stoned rat……That’s right, if you intake that poison, your body slowly becomes like a stone and can’t move . 」

「You know of that magical beast, Morgan?」

「I’ve actually beaten one before . Before, while travelling with Calse, I’ve seen its poison . 」

If we go off what Morgan is saying, the stoned rat is a pretty weak magical beast .

It was more or less as big as one of Tatsumi’s fingers . It was as weak as 10 centimeters .

However, from what Morgan has been saying, that magical beast also has some very fearful poison .

Depending on the poison, it hardens and paralyzes the surrounding skin, and it can be mistaken for petrification .

「The problematic part of that magical beast is that its body is extremely small and agile, and its stinger is also so small that it’s common to not notice that you’re being stabbed . 」

The magical beast, stoned rat, has a tongue that is really long and can expand and contract, and at the end is the stinger, it seems .

The needle is so small that if you were focusing on something else, you wouldn’t notice .

In reality, if Lilinalia was working in the field in front of her house, and she had gotten stabbed, she would not have noticed .

「It’s not hard to defeat the body of the magical beast itself…it’s body is so small and fast that it’s very hard to defeat it with a weapon . But since they live in groups, there’s likely many of them hiding within this village . 」

「Which would mean in order to defeat them you would need a magic that attacks a large area at the same time, right?」

「Exactly . In other words, it’s a setup for specifically Caruse . 」

The magic that Morgan can use targets things directly, meaning it could only hit one of them . Other than that he could use magic to increase his defense, attack, and weapon power, but this time it doesn’t seem that he would get much of a chance .

The magic that Tatsumi could use was fundamentally movement based, and if he used『Amaririsu』to try and mow them down, it would be hard to capture them as they were small .

The area attack magic he could use didn’t target that large of an area, so for the stoned mice that made groups, it was unfit for them .

Therefore, if Tatsumi or Morgan tried to take on the stoned rats, it would be a bad matchup .

On the note area of area attack magic, Calsedonia has no shortage of options .

「By the way, what is Calse doing right now?」

「Calse is in the house continuing to fix her younger sister . To fix her, she has to cast 《Detoxification》 a few number of times in order for it to work . 」

The poison Lilinalia had taken in had progressed a lot over time, meaning Carusedonia was required to cast 《Detoxification》 many times for it to work .

And the magical beast’s poison, still spreading further, at first had only changed Lilinalia’s ankle, and now from her feet to her thighs were petrified .

Not only that, even though it had taken root when she was young, the various things she had to talk about had not lessened .

What Calsedonia and her family needed right now was some time to talk everything over .

「Having only one thing to report, after this I plan to go back to Caruse’s house . 」

「Yeah, that might be good . But there are surely idiots everywhere . 」

In the middle of Tatsumi’s report, Garudo had appeared, the village mayor’s son .

It seemed that he was so very stupid that he wasn’t aware that he had caused a big mess .

「Right now, Tatsumi and Calse fighting would be like fighting the Savaiv Temple and the Largophilli kingdom . 」

Right now, Calsedonia was the Savaiv religious association’s highest priest, Giuseppe’s adopted daughter .

Not only that, Tatsumi recently had been accepted as Giuseppe’s disciple, given an official title from the royal capital for defeating a dragon, including Joruto has been in contact with the royal family .

For example, even if he didn’t know the scenery, if you picked a fight with a priest who came from the royal capital to treat the diseased of a town, even if you were the town mayor’s son you wouldn’t be able to settle it .

If you were normal, then you would know that much .

「To be honest, I would love to see the face of someone that stupid . 」

Joruto said, acting amazed and shrugging his shoulders .

「But I don’t think that idiot is going to have nothing to say about that now?」

「Yeah, I think so, Morga . But I think that idiot thinking at all isn’t going to happen . 」

So let’s make the first move, Joruto continued to say .

「Mostly the one behind this is the idiot noble… he must have gone crying to that governor . 」

「Oh, so you did know about this land’s governor… wait, you would obviously know about it?」

Joruto, in response to Tatsumi’s question, puffs out his chest and answers ‘Of course!’ .

According to Joruto, the governor who ruled over this land on behalf of the king was Laikam Granbia, or a noble titled so .

「Lord Granbia is very serious in his loyalty to the king, and has caused no problems while being in the office of a governor . Apparently this time it seems he’s quite formal . 」

「My grandfather and father both don’t think that Lord Granbia is unjust, either . Though, if he wasn’t that kind of person from the start, he wouldn’t have gotten the position . 」

Tatsumi decided from Yerimao and Joruto’s words that the governor is an honest person .

「But what about Deagan, the guy Garudo and his friends are nice to? He was that Laikam’s son, right?」

「As for Deagan, I know him well, too… he’s not the type of person to let the power go to his head? If I had to say as to one or the other, I’d say he’s on the honest and righteous side . I don’t think Deagan’s with that idiot as Tatsumi does . 」

「But didn’t the priest of this town, Priest Vergil say so?」

「Yeah, I don’t think the priest of this town was lying . 」

In between Joruto and Priest Vergil’s experience, it seems there was a gap in the understanding of Deagan . What’s that supposed to mean? Tatsumi tilts his head .

Tatsumi had thought it was like the old drama about the golden pattern of an evil governor and an Echigoya, but it seems it might not be so simple as that .

「As I see it, the priest in this village called Vergil, has he met Deagan himself? I think the priest is hearing rumors that that idiot is meeting up with Deagan . 」

Joruto claps his hands together, *pat*, and releases his say all at once .

「Therefore, I think we should go directly to meet Lord Granbia’s son, Deagan . 」

「In that case, having Joru calling them with his social status, the governor and his son will think it’s unconditional… . Is that okay?」

The reason Joruto had came this far was to accompany Yerimao on his inspection, and hid his identity for future study .

If Joruto was to reveal his social status before he finished his inspection, there would be no meaning in hiding his identity .

「I had planned on that from the start, but is it really the time to do that already? To say it honestly, to let that idiot run loose would to mean letting him start a lot of problems . 」

If Garudo and the governor’s son Deagan actually were up to no good, it would be no place to be carelessly going on an inspection .

「So, Yerimao-senpai and I will immediately head to Toga . Morga, please continue to guard them as normal . And I will go to meet Deagan . 」

Leaving the inspection to Yerimao, Joruto would go to meet Deagan face to face .

「Then what should we do?」

「Caruse and Tatsumi should remain in the village and continue to treat her sister’s illness . And if you happen to run into those stoned rat magical beasts, if possible exterminate them . 」

「Understood . I’ll tell Caruse the plan . And Morga-san . If you’re hurrying to Toga, use my Parlow . She’ll arrive faster than a wild boar carriage can . 」

「Got it . I will use her gratefully . 」

At Tatsumi’s proposal, Morgan nodded vigorously .

「So, it will be a bit of a strict schedule… let’s go to Toga city . 」

Joruto, looking around him once, grins with a fearless smile .