WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Inept Mage’s Infinite Regression

Chapter 82

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Ethan tried to pick up the part in question to show everyone.
'But who would even recognize this?'

If it had been pig bones or cow bones, he could have proven it by butchering a pig or a cow. Human bones were different. In Damarth, cremation was the standard funeral custom, so comparing them to a corpse's bones was difficult to begin with. Robita had the common sense of an ordinary noble, so she would not recognize them. As far as Ethan knew, Boen was not well versed in anatomy either. Renzo was just an adventurer. Adventurers saw plenty of human corpses, but they did not dissect them. In Damarth, anatomy itself was not a common field of study.

There was another problem. Even if Myul tried to deny it, the group would side with Ethan as long as he kept pressing. But while Ethan explained everything, he would be giving the others in the mansion time. Time to run, or time to set up an attack. Myul likely believed Ethan had not noticed there was human flesh in the soup yet, which meant Ethan still had the chance to strike first.

'In that case...'

Ethan kicked the table leg with his foot, pouring about ten years of accumulated internal energy into it. Just as Robita was about to scoop up a spoonful of soup, the table tipped, and bowls slid off all at once and crashed onto the floor in a complete mess. Pretending to check on Robita, Ethan snatched the spoon from her hand, tossed it aside, and helped her up.

"Oh no, are you alright?"

"Ah, I'm fine. But the food..."

"What about everyone else?"

Boen nodded and said he was fine.

Myul bent down to check the table leg, and Renzo casually nudged him aside and crouched beneath it himself.

"Well now. Looks like this table is quite old."

Flustered, Myul said, "We threw out the old one and had this newly made the year before last."

"Ah, here are marks where termites chewed through it. They ate it from the inside. You should've chosen better wood."

"Really? I can't see it very well. Besides, I haven't seen termites around here."

"Is your eyesight bad?"

"No. I'm healthy overall, but my eyesight is what I'm especially proud of."

"That's unfortunate. Check it again tomorrow in daylight."

"Sorry?"

Ethan said to Myul, "Looks like we won't be able to dine together."

Myul awkwardly turned toward Ethan. "I never expected this to happen. I'm sorry. I think we can prepare another table for you..."

Robita's eyes lit up and she started to speak, but Boen clamped a hand over her mouth and Renzo blocked her with his broad back.

Ethan said, "We'll make do with what we already have."

"Then at least join us for breakfast tomorrow. I'll make sure there are no mistakes."

"Alright."

"Also, we'll lend you rooms. As you can see, this is a large mansion, but this area is desolate, so few visitors come and many rooms are empty. I'll call someone to guide you."

Robita got the largest room on the third floor, and the others each took separate rooms on the same floor. There was also a separate bath on the first floor, with as much heated water as they wanted. While Robita went in to bathe, the other three waited outside and ate near the bath area.

Renzo spoke first. "Why did you do that earlier?"

"There was human meat in the soup."

Renzo and Boen looked around nervously. At a glance, it was just an old, huge mansion, nothing more. Places where statues or display pieces should have been were left empty, hinting at past wealth, but that alone was not enough to call it suspicious.

"It's not good to make the client anxious for no reason. Are you sure?"

"Yes. I swear it on Imon and my father's honor."

Renzo seemed to think for a moment. Ethan wondered what he should do if Renzo immediately suggested killing everyone in the mansion, but Renzo made no such proposal.

"We can't launch an attack and put the client in danger. The best option is to run, but if they're targeting us, that's a problem in itself. We don't know their strength either. If they eat human flesh, they aren't ordinary bandits."

Boen pointed out, "They could still be ordinary bandits. I saw that sometimes in my hometown."

"...Where in the world did you grow up?"

Ethan asked, "Then what's the alternative?"

"First, we stay put and hope nothing happens. They might just have very unusual tastes in food."

"Unusual?"

"They say the barbarians on the northern plateau eat human flesh."

"...This is Calon, though."

Boen pointed that out again. "Then if they serve human flesh again in the morning, are we just going to eat it?"

"...No."

Renzo explained, "That's why we need proof they're definitely abnormal. If they eat human flesh, there will be evidence. At worst, we'll find human corpses. Right? And only then can we report these mansion people and Yertiela once we get to Lupla."

"Doesn't 'staying still' conflict with 'proving they're suspicious'?"

"We just do it without getting caught."

Renzo shook his head. "I don't expect anything from you two anyway. I'll handle it myself, so don't worry."

Boen said to Ethan, "You know you don't have to rise to that provocation, right? This man gets paid four times more than us. Naturally, he should work four times harder."

Ethan put a hand on Boen's shoulder. "Boen, there are things in this world more important than money."

∞

Thinking of Robita's exhaustion, the group chose not to tell her what Ethan had found. If trouble broke out, Boen would protect Robita, and they lent her two of Ethan's magic tools. One of them was the B-rank item they had gotten from killing the Undying King. Robita did not even know what it was, only that it was a tool to protect her body, and she said she would keep it close.

Of course, lending her a dark mage's magic tool, something from Terra, could cause problems, so Boen raised that point. Ethan, however, had his own reason.

'I need to check whether those two are from the Imperial Inquisition.'

Since they had decided to travel together to Lupla, he had to confirm whether they had approached him on purpose. Being inside the mansion made outside observation difficult, and it was also a chance to use Terra's magic freely.

Ethan waited long enough for the mansion to quiet down, then opened the window, hooked a rope, and descended. He did not have professional technique, but with internal energy, lowering himself with arm strength alone was enough.

'This should be one of the first-floor rooms.'

Ethan took the mansion's front side and Renzo took the back side to search for suspicious evidence. If either one found something, they would immediately regroup on the third floor. From then on, Boen would prepare to escape with Robita and slip out quietly. In an ordinary mansion, there would be at most one night watchman handling both fire watch and night patrol, mainly guarding the owner and assets. Moving quietly should not be too difficult.

'They probably wouldn't guard the kitchen that heavily.'

Ethan passed through a small room used as storage and headed to the kitchen. But unlike what he expected, nothing unusual stood out. In the storeroom next to the kitchen, there were dried fruits, dried spices, grain jars, honey jars, bottled apple juice, plus pickled meat and sausages, but in that state he could not tell what kind of meat they were.

'Something's missing. Looking at the dishes served at the table, that meat wasn't butchered and processed separately.'

They could bring in butchered meat from outside, but not every time. Storage would happen inside the mansion.

'And they can't butcher humans outside.'

There was only one answer. Ethan searched the kitchen floor for a way down and found a trapdoor hidden under a rug.

When he lifted it open, nothing unexpected happened. The thick smell of blood rose from below.

[Summon.]
[Please state the target.]
[Furor.]

At Ethan's request, Demi summoned Furor in front of him. It was set exactly as he wanted, with suppressor, light, and dot sight attached. Ethan looped the sling over his neck, lit the way with the weapon light, and went down the stairs. The air was far colder than he had expected. It was not normal.

The moment he got down, he saw several hanging corpses. Their ankles had been tied, hooks wedged between their legs, and they were hung upside down. Some had only legs left, and some remained only to the pelvis, but one corpse was mostly intact except for a chest cut open wide to both sides. Ethan frowned, but he did not lower his guard. He recognized that the hanging corpses were restricting his view.

In a corner room of the basement storage, bags and jewelry that looked like the victims' original belongings were arranged on shelves. There was an opened letter too. He skimmed it. It asked an older female cousin when she planned to finish her trip and return. So it had not been only bandits attacking travelers on the Calon pathway.

There were more rooms and corridors. Ethan concluded this underground area was not just a cellar attached to the kitchen. It was also connected to basement sections leading to other parts of the mansion.

He entered another room and found a magic circle drawn on the floor. From several geometric elements, Ethan could tell which school it belonged to.

'Damn it, dark magic?'

Still, aside from the magic circle for summoning a backer, Ethan knew almost nothing about other dark magic. Dark magic varied heavily by backer, and some branches were based on the Yurmus system, so it required a lot of study. Thinking he should at least show it to Boen, Ethan summoned a Polaroid Camera, took a photo, and tucked it into his clothes.

As he came out of the room with the magic circle, someone was standing behind the hanging corpses. Only bare feet were visible, but Ethan knew the power of his automatic rifle, so he kept it aimed.

The hidden figure spoke.

"Heh heh. I was wondering what to do since you didn't eat. But you kindly split up one by one. How thoughtful."

"What? Then that means..."

"That's right. Your friends are already in our ambush..."

-Bang bang bang bang!

Even though it sounded far away, the faint blasts reached the basement.

"...I mean, in our ambush, all of them have already..."

-Bang bang bang bang!

Ethan glanced upward and spoke to Demi.

[What's happening?]
[There was an ambush.]

Demi, riding the Gespenst V, said:

[I do not know what these are called exactly in Damarth Yumaha, but they are certainly not human. Even so, 9mm rounds are enough to subdue them. They are not at a level that warrants special caution.]

Under the Gespenst V, Ethan's third gun was mounted: the H&K MP5A3 submachine gun he had drawn from the B-rank Lottery Coupon.

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