WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Inept Mage’s Infinite Regression

Chapter 79

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Great Raven

Renzo sprinted into the forest, saying he would kill the fleeing attacker. Ethan judged there were no immediate threats left nearby. Boen checked on the coachman, and Ethan opened the carriage door.

"Damn."

A maid was holding Robita, with two arrows stuck in her back. Ethan checked her condition at once. He had thought she might still be alive because she was still holding Robita, but when he leaned her back, he saw one arrow had pierced her heart. She was already unconscious, her pupils fully dilated. No pulse, no breathing.

"She's dead. ...Please stay inside the carriage for now. It's safer there."

Robita silently nodded.

Ethan carried the maid's body out of the carriage.

Renzo stood up from beside the fallen coachman.

"Is he dead too?"

"You came back already? What happened?"

Renzo bent down and showed him the coachman's forearm. It had looked like he could still move, but the inside of his arm had been deeply cut. He moved too violently without stopping the bleeding and died from it.

One short fight had left eighteen corpses.

Since this happened inside Calon's territory, the normal procedure was to report to Calon's lord and explain what had happened. With Robita, a noble whose identity could be verified, and Ethan and Boen from the Magic Academy, there was little chance of misunderstanding or things spiraling into a different problem. Renzo agreed with Boen's suggestion.

Robita did not.

She heard their conversation from inside the carriage, then stepped out looking pale.

"...Wait."

Ethan asked, "Why?"

"I need to go to Lupla."

"You're going to keep traveling?"

"Yes."

"Even so, I think stopping by Calon is better. Also, Miss Robita, don't you need to find attendants? You need people to handle these two bodies too, and Bisneri should be informed about what happened."

Robita gave no answer to Ethan's reasonable point.

Renzo, who had been watching, spoke.

"Fine. Then be honest, miss."

"...About what?"

"The people who attacked us weren't bandits. If they were war-born bandits, they'd mostly be refugees. But those men had polished leather armor, well-maintained weapons, solid training, and a clear plan. Most of all, every arrow was aimed at the carriage. Normal bandits would target the armed people first. These men targeted whoever was inside the carriage, someone they couldn't even identify by face. Who's after you?"

Robita looked at Renzo, then Ethan, then Boen.

After a short silence, she nodded as if she had made up her mind and said, "I can't tell you that."

"...Even so, we saved your life. You could at least explain a little..."

"But yes, my life is under threat. I did not tell you, and as a result, I dragged all of you into this. I'm sorry."

Robita bowed deeply.

The eldest child was not yet the ruling lord, but unlike quasi-nobles like knights, still counted as nobility. Someone born noble did not bow to non-nobles lightly.

"But I did not do it on purpose. Once this is resolved and I return to Bisneri, I will properly compensate the three of you. I can't do that right now. Please understand. And I must go to Lupla. If I return to Calon, I only give the attackers another chance. I will not go back to Calon."

This was not the response Renzo expected, and he fell silent.

Ethan spoke.

"What are you planning to do about the bodies? Also, compared to the number of attackers, you had no escort at all. It looks like you didn't expect this attack in the first place. Based on that bad judgment, do you think there won't be another attack as long as we move fast enough?"

Robita leaned her shoulder against the carriage.

"...You're right. I was shortsighted. But meeting you may have been my luck."

"What?"

"I'll hire you. Escort me to Lupla. Ten silver coins for Ethan and Boen, and twenty for you, Renzo."

Ethan pointed at Renzo.

"Why does he get double?"

"Because he's from the adventurers' guild. That's distance-based escort pay. Under the standard escort wage contract, if you request one week of escort work from someone not in the adventurers' guild, the maximum is ten silver coins."

Ethan awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. Adventurers often came through Charasen, but he had stopped learning his father Duke Charasen's work midway, so he was weak in this kind of practical knowledge.

He thought Renzo would agree after hearing that, but he did not. Renzo laughed and revealed a silver insignia hidden inside his coat. A sword and a staff crossed over a shield, with a key engraved above them. It was the adventurers' guild crest.

"Sorry, but that's not enough. I'm a silver-badge adventurer, so I should get double that."

Robita seemed to hesitate. Forty silver coins meant two imperial gold coins. That was not a small sum.

Boen asked Ethan, "What's a silver badge?"

"The adventurers' guild gives badges by ability and record, from bronze to silver, gold, and platinum. I heard the pay doubles with each badge level."

Robita spoke.

"...Fine. Forty silver coins, right?"

"One more thing. You listen to my advice. I can't protect an employer who charges ahead and does whatever she wants."

"...All right. If it's a reasonable suggestion, I'll accept it. What about those two?"

Ethan whispered to Boen.

"What do you think?"

"Renzo is strong. I don't want to look at this coldly, but..."

"He can help us if an Inquisitor appears. You agree, right?"

"Yes."

Ethan said, "Then we're in."

∞

There was a reason Renzo insisted she listen to his advice. As soon as they reached the next village, he sold the carriage and found a funeral wagon. Robita asked why, if they were getting a funeral wagon anyway, they couldn't just use the original carriage to transport the bodies. Renzo disagreed.

"With a normal passenger carriage, we'd have to cram the bodies in. Then it'd be hard to place them in coffins later. They should be moved coffin and all."

"If no one is riding in it, we could take the doors off and make space."

"Even then, fitting three coffins would be hard."

"...Three?"

The next place Renzo went was a cemetery. He asked the gravedigger for three coffins. The coachman and maid went into two coffins, and the third was left empty and loaded onto the funeral wagon. Then, through the gravedigger's introduction, they decided to hire one reliable driver.

In front of the funeral wagon, Robita asked Renzo, "What is all this for?"

"You're dead."

"What?"

"I'm sending a letter to Bisneri telling them to prepare a funeral. 'My name is Renzo, companion of Robita Bisneri. Robita of the Bisneri family and two others died in a tragic mountain bandit attack, and I recovered their remains and sent them like this. Recovery costs were this much, so send payment here.' If I do that, what happens?"

"It'll be chaos."

Renzo nodded.

"Right. That's what I want. We didn't meet anyone on the way here. Someone could've watched us while hiding, sure, but once we got onto the pathway, I saw no one. That means before you got onto the pathway to Calon, the enemy already knew what carriage you were riding in. Someone probably checked our group and your carriage before we got onto the pathway, then sent word by carrier birds that you'd be traveling with this exact party."

"So?"

"It means the attacker is inside Bisneri."

Ethan, listening beside them, caught Renzo's intent and cut in.

"At first, the bodies scattered on the road will spread rumors, so the attackers will think the ambush failed. But once that letter reaches the Bisneri family, they'll believe they succeeded in killing their real target, Miss Robita. Funeral preparations can't stay hidden outside the family. Once that rumor spreads, Miss Robita will be safe for at least that period. No one tries to kill someone who's already dead."

Robita said, "But if we do that, my mother will worry terribly..."

"Can't be helped. Until the funeral is over, no one will even dare talk about family succession. And if we put a letter in this empty coffin explaining everything, it won't become a major problem."

"...It's definitely a clever plan. Fine. I understand."

After the funeral wagon left, they got one more horse for Robita and headed to Lupla. By horse, it was about six days away.

∞

For two days, nothing happened. Despite looking like a typical noble, Robita was not dependent, and she did not demand anything beyond escort duties just because she was a noble or their employer. She simply did not have great stamina, so they needed more breaks than when she traveled by carriage. Riding skill and long-distance endurance were different things. Even with good technique, enduring groin and hip pain was a separate battle.

They decided to eat lunch in an open area Renzo judged safe. It was when they finished the last of the bread from the previous village. Once the bread was gone, all they had left was shriveled beef jerky with a stale smell and dry, crumbly biscuits that were hard to swallow without wine.

The bread was fist-sized, one per person. Break one in half and a warm wheat-and-herb aroma rose from inside. It had enough flavor to mask the jerky smell even when eaten together. The outside was dry and a little firm, but the inside stayed moist, so teeth sank in easily. Eaten with jerky, the texture improved, and the aroma and savoriness deepened.

Ethan was about to toss in his last bite when he heard a cry from somewhere.

"Kraaak."

He looked up. A bird's shadow circled once, then glided down slowly. It landed in front of Ethan, who was sitting on a fallen log.

Boen said, "A great raven. Isn't that the Charasen family's symbolic bird?"

Ethan paused with a piece of bread in hand.

"...I don't like this bird."

"Why?"

"It's too smart."

Birds in Damarth Yumaha were far smarter than most other animals. Legend said some transformation mages, after turning into birds, refused to give up the freedom of flight and never returned to human form, and traces of that remained in birds today.

Some birds were even smarter and were classified as spirit beasts. Unlike divine beasts, which were a different sacred species by nature, spirit beasts were ordinary animals with unusually high intelligence. Because many legends treated them as descendants of people who were once human, people generally did not treat them carelessly.

The great raven was one of the bird species with an especially high proportion of spirit beasts.

Ethan showed Boen his family crest. A raven sat on a table, a dagger stuck through it, blood running down.

"See this? Our family hates great ravens so much we kill them like this."

"Then why do you also use them as carrier birds? Aren't you the only one who hates them, Ethan?"

"Maybe. I just never had a good memory involving great ravens."

Ethan grumbled, then felt something touch his fingertips. The great raven had quietly approached and snatched his bread and jerky with its beak.

"My bread!"

The great raven swallowed Ethan's bread and jerky whole, then spoke.

"Kraaak! Ethan!"

"...Huh?"

"Ethan Dora Charasen! Help me!"

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