CH 67

“Come on, we’re leaving!”

The five girls left on a lone carriage, heading first to Marsfield.

Their trip progressed much more smoothly this second time around. Since there was no one to escort this time, each member was allowed to do whatever they wanted during the trip.

Reeve acted as the basic coachman, and she took care of any small issues that cropped up. Katie provided support and switched off with Reeve when necessary, but Reeve spent most of her waking hours in the driver’s seat. Katie’s job was to watch over Pi-tan. After all, since Pi-tan loves to spend most of his time napping in his basket, then the person watching over him should be someone with an equal love for catnaps.

In the carriage’s living room, Ellis and Claire were looking over drawings for Cross Town’s current shop arrangement and future plans for expansion.

In the kitchen, Frau was cooking up some steamed dishes and experimenting with some sweets.

Regarding the sweets–thanks to Ellis’s hints–Frau had mixed together eggs, milk, and sugar to create a splendid pudding.

When it comes to cooking, the hikineet only really knows about Chinese food and mushrooms, so she mentioned some of the cooking techniques from there as well, and so Frau began steaming a few new meals together as well.

What truly hit the jackpot was her whole stuffed chicken.

It was so tasty that Frau could not help but give it praise.

“The meat is so savory, and it’s only made more delicious thanks to this sauce!”

Frau says that unlike baking, it is convenient to make delicious soup stock left over as steamed juice and cook it with chicken bones left behind after eating the meat.

It was the steamed fish that Katie praised extensively. It was a large salmon steamed alongside a bed of vegetables all at once.

“The mixture lets you have the best of both worlds nya.”

Ellis and Reeve also had to give their praise to the freshly steamed meal. They thought it had a stronger taste than the chicken.

Ellis carved out some of the requested Chinese food that Frau had made. It was delicious.

Claire stood out in that she did not particularly take to any of the new dishes brought out, but the words, “unbearably delicious,” were the only thing that any of them could make out inbetween the spoonfuls of pudding she kept shoveling into her mouth.

Pi-tan was holding a longsword a demon had left behind in the living room.

By the way, although synthesis did not go well for Beak, Poison, or Man Eater, it was not really a problem since the performance of those abilities were not something to write home about anyway.

Thus, the path to Marsfield was paved with steamed dishes.

Then the day where they arrived at Marsfield came.

First of all, they visited Lord Marsfield to deliver the letter on behalf of the Warren Council. It was Mirei, the noble lady wife of Lord Marsfield, who greeted them.

“Ah, you came. We already heard what has happened in Warren from some messengers sent on horses. If you have not eaten yet, how about telling me all about it over a meal?”

The five became honorary guests to the Marsfield nobility.

The assault by countless demons, how the invasion was easily repelled, and the mysterious magic used to do it. They then explained that they would be making their way to Wisdom after this to put in a request for an investigation into this mysterious person.

Hearing all of this, the Lord made a difficult expression.

Citadel City Marsfield was a defensive city for the capitol Skycastle. That was why they had put so much stock into their fortifications. Their large walls would not be that much help though if all their enemies could just fly over them.

“I understand the necessity to go to the Magical City. I know not of this mysterious man, but I doubt that he is the Hero nor do I think he to be one of the King’s men.”

As far as the general story goes, the main characteristic of the Hero is his overwhelming power, but most of his magic has indirect effects. He is capable of buffing party members and the like, but manipulating an infinite number of {Flare Bullets} would be beyond him.

“Well, the Hero is a pretty ridiculous monster in his own way.”

The lord mentioned Gray with a slightly unpleasant look on his face.

“By the way, when will you all be departing?”

“We were thinking about staying overnight in the city today and departing around noon tomorrow.”

When Ellis answered for the five, the Lord ordered them to visit the castle one more time before leaving.

“I’d invite you to stay at the castle, but I’m sure you girls wouldn’t have any fun staying with a middle-aged man like me. I’ll provide you a guide and a room at a nice inn, so I hope you enjoy everything my city of Marsfield has to offer.”

In this way, Ellis’s group left the castle and followed a public servant to the best inn in town. Naturally, their room was a top floor suite.

After taking out and unpacking their luggage, the five girls were finally able to take a breath.

“Let’s enjoy Marsfield’s cold dishes to their fullest today.”

Frau’s words served as a jumpstart to her other four party members, and Katie excitedly started jumping up and down with her hand raised up.

“This time I want to go to Beastcity Street nya.”

“You sure are obsessed.”

“My friend lives there nya.”

“Say that kind of thing sooner! By the way, is Beastcity Street a dangerous place?”

“It’s no problem nya. It’s just an ordinary slum nya.”

Katie can say some pretty outrageous things.

“Well, it’s not like anything would happen to us, and I’m sure nobody would really bother us as long as we don’t look too flashy going in. Should we wear the brown jackets we wore during the harvest festival?”

The other four all agreed with Reeve’s proposal, but just in case, Ellis was left in charge of carrying Pi-tan.

The five girls confirmed the location of Beastcity Street at the front desk before heading out. The front desk clerk’s words, “Please be back before it gets dark,” should provide a pretty good idea of the public order there. But that is partly to be expected. The street is located in the lowlands of Marsfield, and there are no small number of homes damaged and dilapidated from the water damage.

In the meantime, Reeve never took her hand off her sword.

Completely ignorant of such an attitude, Katie was running from person to person asking about her friend.

And eventually, she found it.

“Mati, are you here nya?”

Katie loudly called out her friend’s name while pounding on the door.

At first, it almost seemed like the building was empty, but the door slowly began to creak open and a horribly hollow face soon peeked out from inside.

“Mati, long time no see nya! It’s Katie nya!”¹

“Meow! Katie! Long time no see! What are you doing in a place like this nya!?”

“Nyam on a trip. I missed you nya.”

“Nyelcome to my home. It’s a shabby place, but please come in nya! Hm? Who are these people nya?”

“My friends nya. Ellis, Reeve, Frau, and Claire nya. Oh, and Pi-tan.”

Four completely bewildered girls bowed their heads in a panic when they realized that the conversation had suddenly moved to them.

“Nice to meet you nya. I’m Mati.”

Mati closely resembled Katie, but the color of her hair was a combination of white and brown. Her eyes were more slender than Katie’s. She was very pretty.

The five girls were all invited into Mati’s house for a cup of tea.

Katie and Mati did most of the talking.

The other four were not too sure what they were talking about as they were using a very strong dialect. However, because of the expressiveness between the two, it was fun just being allowed to watch them go.

Then the sound of knocking could be heard.

Mati hesitated for a moment before heading to the entrance.

When she returned after talking to her visitor for a moment, her entire aura had done a complete 180.

“Katie, everyone, I’m sorry it’s so sudden, but I need you to go home now nya.”

“What’s wrong nya?”

“It’s nothing nya. Katie and your friends should just leave this city and enjoy your trip nya.”

With a single sound, Ellis caught hold of the situation.

She turned to look directly behind Mati. Her blood began pumping, but Ellis knew that none of this was aimed at herself.

Ellis quietly handed Pi-tan over to Claire before releasing the magic power in her blouse.

“[Melting].”

Ellis soundlessly disappeared.

She then instantaneously reappeared on the other side of the room, her dagger pointed directly at someone’s back.

“Mati, who is this?”

“Trying to kill Mati is a terrible thing nya. If it’s like this, nyou won’t complain even nyif we kill you nya.”

Katie was giving off a very dangerous aura watching this new mystery girl.

But not just the mystery girl, even Mati wasn’t saying anything. Slowly, the five girls moved to one side of the room with Mati on the other alongside the mystery girl–an anubis beastman.

Things were quiet for awhile, but eventually, it was the anubis woman who spoke up, her eyes opening wide with realization.

“You, aren’t all of Warren’s Jewelry Box? You saved my brother!”

The five girls remained quiet, so the anubis kept talking.

“You spared my brother’s life and hung him up from the Adventurer’s Guild! Thank you so much for saving him!

This girl was apparently the younger sister of the assassin they beat the last time they came to Marsfield.

“If it’s alright, I’d like to ask why you just came in here and tried to kill Mati.”

At Ellis’s words, the anubis girl collapsed down onto the ground and spilled out the whole tale inbetween fits of tears.

“What a terrible story nya.”

Katie’s fur was standing on end from the indignation.

To sum things up, Beastcity Street was receiving repeated assassination requests from Mirei and the concubine Anna.

To be fair, Mirei and Anna were actually sending assassination requests to Marsfield’s Thieves’ Guild. However, there is no way that Marsfield’s Thieves’ Guild could just send out assassins against the wives of a Duke, especially the one in charge of their own town.

So, the Thieves’ Guild decided to subcontract the assassinations to Beastcity Street. Even if it succeeded, there would be no evidence linked back to the them.

The guild paid a deposit to the head of Beastcity Street and promised a reward for any successful assassins, but the truth of it was that the deposit was actually meant to pay for the assassins funeral.

So, this time Mati and this anubis girl were elected to be this time’s assassins due to the lottery that the Beastcity Street chief had made.

Mati is a cat fighter, and the anubis girl was a magician, so they both had adequate killing ability. But so had all the other dead would-be assassins.

So the lottery was deemed a death sentence for any who won.

“It’s that old woman again.”

“Since they love to play this game together, do you think they would enjoy dying together?”

“If Lord Marsfield knows about what they are doing, then things could be really bad.”

“Ellis, can nye somehow save nyem?”

Ellis only had to think about it for a second before giving her four friends a devious smile.

“What we did to Acoms, shall we do the same for Mirei and Anna as well?”

Four girls mimicked the same smile they saw before them while the other two were left wondering what was going on.

“I see, I like it.”

“Please come back quickly.”

“It will be even more effective if you leave a letter behind.”

“Thank you nya, thank you nya.”

Katie moved over to explain things to Mati and the anubis girl.

Once the story was finished, both girls sat there stunned.

“By the way, is there a reason why Mati has recklessly stayed in this city nya?”

“I have no reason to stay, but my nyamily is dead. I have nowhere else to go nya.”

“If so, then you should come to Warren nya. I can find you a job nya.”

“Now that we have a plan, let’s all go out for some dinner. Would the anubis girl like to come too?”

“Don’t be shy about coming nya. By the way, what’s your name nya?”

“My name is Labra. Everyone.”

“Well, Labra, introduce us to some delicious shops. I’ll bring my wallet.”

Five girls along with Mati were guided around for dinner by Labra. The shop she chose did not look like much, but it was very delicious. The dishes weren’t the cold ones the girls expected though. All things considered, it was very ordinary. It seems like the cold dishes were more for tourists.

But Frau was very interested in it, especially with the seasoning, and she was already making plans to go out to the city tomorrow for some shopping.

After the meal was finished, all seven of them returned to the inn. The two extras were introduced to the front desk clerk as a couple of friends. The front desk clerk nodded his head and let them in. Obviously. These were the special guest of the Duke of Marsfield after all.

Ellis took off her coat and blouse, trouser, boots, and slipped on her favorite cloth shoes and silk garb.

“Ellis, I wrote a letter.”

Claire handed over two letters. The floor plan for the inside of the castle was something the Mati already had.

“Well, I’m going.”

“Yes, be careful.”

“Make sure you aren’t seen.”

“Don’t kill anyone.”

“Thank you nya.”

Meanwhile Mati and Labra were watching Ellis as if they were praying to a god.

“Please help us.”

And so Ellis released the Abyss, and she faded into darkness.

1. The author always just symbolized the cat-talk by adding nya at the end of the sentences. Well, he just upped the difficulty for me and has started combining words with nya for advanced cat-talk.