Chapter 29: The Tin Knight and The Witch's Way of Greeting (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 29: The Tin Knight and The Witch's Way of Greeting (4)
If you were to ask for the largest and most luxurious inn in Lowefelt, the citizens would unanimously recommend the Grisha Inn in the western part of the city.
With a five-story structure, a rarity in the kingdom, fully equipped with various cooling systems and bathrooms, and boasting a brilliant chef on standby for eighteen hours a day, this inn was one of Lowefelt’s famous landmarks. It was so renowned that a rumor even circulated about the lord of Lowefelt lamenting, ‘This place seems better than the lord’s mansion,’ after a visit.
As it pushed a high-end strategy to the forefront, the accommodation fees at the Grisha Inn were quite expensive.
Among the nobles who visited Lowefelt hoping to forge even a small connection with the Lennart Ducal House, the ability to stay there for more than a week became a way to draw a line between them.
Some intellectuals clicked their tongues at this, calling it a pathetic display of judging one another by the amount of money they had, but Tom, the general manager of the Grisha Inn, disagreed.
So what if it was pathetic? Who cared if it was an unsightly spectacle?
The more they threw their money around, the fatter Tom’s wallet grew and the more peaceful his home became!
Tom prided himself on never having lost his smile for the guests who visited his inn, and recently, that smile had grown even wider.
This was because a certain guest who had arrived a week ago had booked the entire inn for herself.
The guest’s somewhat overbearing personality and the peculiar appearance of her pets were of no great concern to Tom.
Sometimes the pets would run wild and cause trouble around the inn, but the guest paid for the damages each time, so he had no complaints.
No, in fact, the compensation was far greater than the cost of the broken items, so he secretly found himself rooting for them to break more.
So, when the guest returned to the inn after a brief outing, Tom quickly rushed out and bowed his head.
“Welcome back, esteemed guest. Your bath and meal are ready, so please, whichever you prefer first—”
“—Move.”
A cold reply cut off Tom’s words, which had been wandering somewhere between flattery and the spirit of service.
Tom, who had inadvertently glanced at the guest’s expression, froze on the spot.
Her blood-red eyes were filled with a thick, indescribable emotion.
Tom quickly stepped aside.
Without giving him so much as a glance, the guest strode away toward her room.
Behind her, ‘two’ golden monkeys followed like servants.
The Bat-Winged Monkey fluttered around the guest, its movements somehow looking as if it were cautiously watching its master’s mood.
The other monkey was dragging a wheeled suitcase, and its weight seemed so immense that the wheels left clear tracks on the carpeted floor.
It was an object that even a strong man would struggle to move, yet the monkey carrying it showed no sign of difficulty.
Considering it boasted a frame and muscles nearly two or three times the size of the Bat-Winged Monkey beside it, this wasn’t particularly strange.
Its physique was so massive that the small, stunted insect wings on its back looked like mere decorations.
Tom thought to himself.
‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I should tell the staff to stay away from the guest as much as possible today.’
Tom had seen his fair share of enraged noble guests taking their anger out on innocent employees.
The look in the guest’s eyes right now seemed just as dangerous as theirs had been.
The warning was soon passed along, and the staff couldn’t hide their tension.
“By the way, when I went out to buy ingredients earlier, there was a strange rumor going around. They said a golden-furred beast and some knight got into a fight in the middle of the street, and the beast ended up dead… Boss, could that be about our guest’s pet?”
“The city guard and the students from the Lennart dojo are looking for a knight in plate armor and a monkey-like beast with golden fur.”
At the employees’ testimony, Tom’s expression grew serious.
“No one came looking for us, right? If any of you have been blabbing about the guest, confess now.”
“Come on, you think we want to get fired from a perfectly good job? Of course we kept our mouths shut.”
“Besides, the guest and her monkeys hardly ever go outside, so people around here probably don’t know. …Not yet, anyway.”
The words ‘not yet’ struck at the heart of the matter.
To say they didn’t know yet also implied that they would find out soon enough.
And when that happened, there was a risk that the staff of the Grisha Inn could be implicated as accomplices in a strange incident.
‘Why did you hide the culprit?’ they would ask.
Tom deliberated.
Should he ask the guest about the situation? Or would it be better to inform the city guard or the dojo without a word? If the inn got a reputation for selling out its guests without hesitation, wouldn’t other nobles avoid this place in the future?
Since her return, the guest had locked herself in her room, not even coming out for dinner.
If he was going to make a choice, now was the time.
The employees’ eyes were all on Tom.
This was a chance for Tom to be tested as the owner of the inn.
“W-wait, everyone, look over there. What is that?”
“Huh?”
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Tom never got to take his test.
When a female employee pointed out the window with a pale face, Tom and the other staff members’ gazes followed.
And they froze.
A pale-faced woman was staring at them from outside the window.
It was a dark night. From inside the brightly lit room, it should have been impossible to see the dark scenery outside clearly, yet the woman’s figure was bizarrely distinct.
Her black hair was disheveled, her eyes were sunken hollows, and her pupils were shot with blood.
Swoosh. The woman moved forward.
The solid window and stone wall offered no resistance, allowing her to pass through.
Though there wasn't a breath of wind, the white dress she wore fluttered gently.
Everyone stood with their mouths agape, unable to even scream.
Then, the woman’s expressionless face suddenly broke into a smile.
—A grin.
The corners of her mouth tore wide, reaching her ears in a way that should have been anatomically impossible.
Blood trickled down from the torn corners of her mouth, staining her white dress a deep crimson.
《Kyahahahahahahaha!!》
The woman—no, the evil spirit—burst into a mad cackle.
Several of the employees fainted on the spot.
The remaining staff, including Tom, were panic-stricken and tried to flee, but as new spirits swarmed in from all directions, blocking their escape, they too eventually succumbed to their terror and passed out.
Their roles fulfilled, the evil spirits dissipated one by one like mist and vanished.
Silence fell over the first floor of the inn.
The closed main door opened, and a small shadow crept inside.
The shadow glanced around before quickly hiding in a corner.
And a moment later.
—Ooki?
The Bat-Winged Golden Monkey appeared from the direction of the stairs.
The golden monkey saw the collapsed employees and looked around warily.
And toward that monkey, something came flying.
The monkey’s reaction to the sudden projectile was incredibly swift.
As its membrane-covered wings twitched minutely, its body gracefully dodged through the air.
The pebble, having missed its target, hit the wall futilely and fell to the ground.
The monkey tried to find the culprit, but there was no need.
The person in question revealed herself of her own accord.
A girl with brilliant blonde hair and vivid violet eyes pointed her sword at the monkey and said:
“Uh, um, ahem! Mr. Monkey! I challenge you to a duel!”
—…Ooki?
A question mark appeared on the monkey’s face.
If that expression could be translated into human language, it would be something like, ‘What the hell is this kid babbling about?’
Matchup 1.
Adelaide von Lennart VS Bat-Winged Golden Monkey.
*
The Alchemist, who was sharing the monkey’s vision, was just as dumbfounded by the sudden declaration of a duel.
She had braced herself the moment she sensed mana nearby, but the expected attack magic never came.
From the scene on the first floor and the traces of magic lingering in the air, she could only surmise that some kind of necromantic magic had been activated.
‘Did they just knock out the staff to prevent a commotion or keep them from getting caught up in this?’
The hypothesis that formed in her mind disgusted the Alchemist.
For such a trivial reason, they’d throw away the perfect chance for a preemptive strike? Against me?
After so cruelly snatching away a child as precious as my own?
Blood rushed to her head.
Her usual self would have noticed the unnaturalness of the situation, but blazing fury had robbed the Alchemist of her rational judgment.
Just as the Alchemist was about to order the blonde brat on the first floor to be torn to shreds, it happened.
The Insect-Winged Golden Monkey, which had been by the Alchemist’s side, urgently threw itself forward to shield her.
CRASH!
The window and a portion of the wall were blown away entirely, and the debris rained down inside.
And the one responsible for this chaos lunged at the monkey and the Alchemist with the agility of a bird of prey.
A sword, brimming with sword energy, left a deep gash on the monkey’s right upper arm.
—■■■■!!
The monkey roared.
Unlike its two brothers, its cry was less like a monkey’s and more like a tiger’s.
The beast’s brawny, muscular arm and the knight’s arm of cold metal moved, each with its own purpose.
Every time the ferocious claws and the sharp, curved sword clashed, red and blue sparks bloomed like flowers.
The Tin Knight’s kick struck the monkey’s body directly.
The blow was far heavier than it looked, and the monkey’s massive body was sent flying, crashing through a wall.
The Tin Knight pursued without hesitation and brought his sword down, causing the ground to collapse. The Tin Knight and the monkey plummeted together.
Matchup 2.
Tin Knight VS Insect-Winged Golden Monkey.
*
In front of the Alchemist, who was now left alone, someone emerged from the cloud of dust created by the two rampaging beasts.
It was a witch with her jet-black hair tied back and draped over her shoulder, dressed in clothes that felt vaguely mystical.
In her right hand, where she would normally be holding her large wooden staff, she now firmly gripped something unidentifiable wrapped in cloth.
“I owe you for earlier.”
At those words, the Alchemist, Franka Aglaia, the disciple of the Witch of the West, sneered.
“Owe me? I thought of that as just a light greeting. Seems it was too much for an eastern country bumpkin.”
“Not really. That’s why I came to return the favor, isn’t it?”
“Ha.”
It was a blatant scoff.
It was also Franka’s own expression of rage.
“So? You moved all my children elsewhere, so you thought you could handle what’s left of me on your own? That an Alchemist without her homunculi is powerless? —Don’t be delusional.”
Beside Franka.
The large, wheeled suitcase opened on its own, untouched by any hand.
And from within, golden, block-like objects slithered out and rolled onto the floor.
If the Tin Knight had been here, he would have made a fuss about how they resembled some toy called Le-something.
The golden blocks began to assemble themselves of their own accord, forming various shapes.
A catapult with a large hammer instead of a stone cradle.
A self-propelled wheel studded with saw blades.
Even the large ballista that had attacked the Tin Knight.
Each and every one was a weapon more than capable of killing a single person.
Displaying this military might, Franka spoke.
“The tricks a Necromancer can pull are obvious. Hallucinations and auditory illusions using pathetic curses or evil spirits. It might work on ordinary people, but you think that crap will work on another mage?”
Dorothea did not get angry at the insulting words.
She merely shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, you’re not wrong. Neither necromancy nor witchcraft are particularly useful for direct combat.”
“However,” Dorothea added.
“The story’s a bit different if there’s a corpse. You didn’t think I’d come all this way without preparing at least one, did you?”
“What are you talking about? Where would you get something like—”
Franka’s words stopped.
Her wide, red eyes were fixed on the cloth bundle Dorothea was holding.
As if delighted by her reaction, Dorothea chuckled.
It was a laugh truly befitting the title of ‘Witch.’
But her eyes were not smiling at all.
“—If you came for someone’s life, you should have been prepared for this.”
Dorothea tossed what she was holding into the air.
The cloth bundle unraveled, revealing what it held within.
It was the severed arm of a monkey, shining with a brilliant golden light.
Dorothea clenched her hand toward the air.
CRUNCH! The monkey’s arm exploded, and splattering blood painted the air.
《Ahahahahaha!!》
《Hihihihihihi!!》
《Kyarurururuk!!》
Evil spirits, appearing from nowhere, rushed toward the blood.
As if to fill their own missing bodies, the blood seeping from the monkey’s arm greedily devoured the spirits and Dorothea’s mana.
Strong limbs, thick fur, bird-like wings, the form of a monkey.
All of it was recreated from a lump of dark red blood.
“You alchemists consider your homunculi your own children, don’t you?”
Dorothea’s blue eyes curved into crescents.
“Go on, enjoy a touching reunion with the child you killed with your own hands. Alchemist.”
Snap. Something inside Franka’s head broke.
As