Chapter 13: Rat Extermination (2)

The time has gotten awfully late.

With the ability to store magically generated electricity, the night was as well-lit as the day, but even so, with each step away from the center of town, the lights were progressively changing to poor illumination.

Harley’s house was located on the periphery of the city, and only the moonlight cast a glow over the area by the time the house was in sight. Her colleagues have often reminded her that it would be unsafe for a woman to live there alone, but the low rent of the property where she resided and the lack of other potential residences have kept her postponing it.

However, all the while these thoughts were occupying Harley’s mind, her mind was drifting to a man she had been investigating recently.

Kanaki Taiga. He is a school nurse at the Selbeth Academy…

The first time she had met him was when she was requested to assist with medical magic practical training at the academy where he worked. Back then, the impression of him as seemingly hardworking and polite was a favorable one, and that hasn’t wavered even now that the practical training has ended. Nonetheless, Forest Wolf, the most accomplished of all the Garrison Corps in Selbeth, demonstrated what appeared to be undue vigilance toward him.

At a later date, Harley asked some of her colleagues, and again, they said that Stella (the name of the Forest Wolf) had never raised a snarl or made any threats to the public.

Harley herself began to harbor concerns about this and asked the Residents’ Affairs Division to show her Kanaki Taiga’s personal data, which only served to heighten Harley’s suspicions.

All that was written on Kanaki’s resident card was his date of birth, sex, qualifications, and a few lines of personal history. Furthermore, this information was from the year he was appointed to Selbeth Academy three years earlier, with no trace of his history prior to that time. It was only then that Harley had a distinct suspicion about Kanaki.

To investigate a person without any evidence at all, even someone from the Garrison Corps, was strictly forbidden.

From then on, Harley lingered alone at the office after work and began to investigate his connection to the recent disappearances. It was merely her intuition that led her to believe he was tied to the disappearances.

Yet, the investigation quickly went in all directions as the further she dug, the more she discovered that Kanaki and the disappearances had nothing in common. It was only logical. To start off with, the disappearance case itself provided almost no clues at all. The victims, dates, times, locations, genders, ages, and other details varied widely. At best, all that was clear was that the magician was the target and that the victim had vanished, leaving no trace of them.

“Is it all just a misunderstanding, after all?”

That thought had crossed her mind more than once or twice already. But each time, Stella growled at her through her magical tool, “He’s a criminal, don’t trust him”. With each growl of clear intent, Harley would once again continue to glare at the written documents.

But she was truly at her wits’ end by now.

Harley contemplated. Assuming that the investigation would continue, there was no more progress to be made with the information that was available at present. If so, the only way forward would be to gather information on her own.

Despite the awkwardness of the situation, she decided to start checking on his movements from tomorrow.

Right at the time she made up her mind to do so, her house came into view.

“!?”

However, when Harley saw it, she hastily went into a cover.

There is someone in front of my house.

When Harley confirmed it, perspiration broke out from her body.

…Don’t tell me he’s noticed my movement.

Harley softly channeled magical power into her optic nerves, temporarily boosting her eyesight and making her night vision clearer.

…I knew it.

It turned out to be Kanaki Taiga standing in front of Harley’s house, just as she had expected. Her heart was thumping and her breath was erratic at the realization of this fact.

Convinced that Stella’s intuition was on the right track, Harley concealed herself in the shadows so as not to be detected by Kanaki.

Perhaps Kanaki realized that I have been sniffing around on him and had come to eliminate me. And on the very next day after finishing me off, I likewise would be known to my colleagues as a victim of the disappearance…

Her legs trembled at the mere notion of it.

Should Kanaki discover me now, he would undoubtedly come to kill me. But fortunately, the other side has not yet realized that I have spotted him. Even if there isn’t enough evidence available right now to rule him out as a suspect in the disappearance cases, it is sufficient for now that I know he is a criminal. I have to leave here quick and tell my boss, a senior colleague, about this―

“―Harley?”

“~~!?”

She commended herself for not letting out a scream.

With a startled expression on his face and a faint flush on his cheeks, her boss, Nocte, was standing there as she briskly turned around.

“What are you doing here, mugg!?”

“P-Please be quiet!”

Harley hurriedly suppressed Nocte’s mouth, gave a succinct explanation of the situation, and removed her hand.

Nocte was probably on his way home after having a few drinks. His eyes that were fixed on Harley were slightly bloodshot ones in consternation.

“…I get what you’re trying to say but are you sure that guy is a criminal? You don’t have any proof, and even now he might be waiting for you because he has other business with you.”

“He was at least a sensible man until I came around. Don’t mention the daylight; he wouldn’t even be at my house at this hour of the night to thank me. Besides, I have never once revealed the location of my house to him.”

“No, but you know what…”

“Senior! Please give me the benefit of doubt here! If my intuition is right, he is a criminal who has abducted sixteen people! Whether he’s innocent or guilty, it’s too much of a risk to go after him here!”

She yelled at him in a whisper, to which Nocte finally gave a nod.

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A relieved Harley turned on her heel and moved away.

“By the way, Harley. What are you going to do after escaping from here?”

“Let’s move to a more populous area for the time being. The disappearance case’s culprit is quite meticulous about erasing evidence, so he will not strike at a place where the probability of being found is high.”

“Indeed, that’s true. So, after that, you want to catch the evidence of that man and bring him to justice?”

“Yes. But now that I know he is aiming for me, I have to be more cautious than ever before. In this situation, it might be better to consult ‘Kaguya’ and ask them for protection. He, as the leader of ‘Kaguya,’ is well-acquainted with me, and I may be able to arrange a meeting with him somehow―”

“Isn’t that impossible?”

“Huh? Why not?”

“Because, Harley…”

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“Because there is no escape for you anymore.”

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What Nocte has pointed out to her was never known until the very end.

However, a searing sensation erupted from Harley’s shoulder as she heard a faint, rumbling sound that sounded like something was exploding.

“Ggh!?”

Unable to resist, Harley leaned against the wall and kept breathing raggedly, while Nocte “melted” into a muddy mess before her eyes, wearing a vile smile that was unfamiliar to her.

In front of the astonished Harley, her boss eventually turned into a small puddle.

“―Are you surprised? Humanoid slime. This is the ‘Guardian’ that serves me.”

Her heart constricted at the sound of a voice coming from above.

Turning her head in the direction of the voice, what awaited her was the figure of Kanaki standing on the roof, with the moon behind his back.

“You…”

“Oh, there’s nothing to worry about. I have put up a barrier to keep people out, though there is no need to do so, since the area is not populated and all the houses nearby are vacant, so I don’t have to fear any unwanted intrusion.”

Kanaki’s voice lacked any distinctive atmosphere. His voice was utterly spontaneous as if he were engaged in small talk.

Horror struck through Harley. It wasn’t an act. He really had no special enthusiasm for killing people. It truly was an everyday occurrence for him, a routine that he had been carrying out for “decades”.

The ring Harley was wearing shone brightly by itself at that moment. It was a magical tool that temporarily summoned the Forest Wolves as “Guardians,” which had been worn during Kanaki’s practical training. From there, a pale light took form, and a Forest Wolf, Stella, leaped toward Kanaki.

“What!?”

Stella roared and sprang toward Kanaki with velocity. Being caught off guard, Kanaki had no chance to react in time to prevent being bitten at the base of the throat, which caused his bones to shriek all the way to her ears.

“―It hurts.”

“…Eh?”

Watching Stella, who was annoyingly setting her teeth against his neck, Kanaki slowly pulled something out from his waist. A closer look revealed that it was the same shape as the object that Nocte had been holding earlier.

Again, when several bursting noises were heard, Stella fell to the ground powerlessly. A small puncture was created in Stella’s ear, which emitted a strange noise, from which a line of blood was flowing down.

“…I don’t want to squander any more time here.”

After uttering this remark, Kanaki leaped to the ground from the roof; nothing that would have seemed like an injury was seen on him. Perhaps the blood from Stella was shedding too much, or her vision was becoming blurry, but even so, it was hard to believe that she could have overlooked that many injuries.

“Well then, I can tell you have a lot of questions on your mind right now, but the details are―”

“Ah…”

All Kanaki did was shift his hand from left to right before Harley’s face, plunging her consciousness into a deep darkness―

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T/N:

Not sure if this is apparent but the author already used first-person POV and third-person POV in the beginning (Chapter 0 and Chapter 1) and it will happen again most likely in future chapters. This is a common thing in Japanese web novels in any case.

I just found out that the second series is actually completed years ago and the third series which is the prototype has been incorporated into the second series for some reason and is now turned into ongoing status again. (maybe due to the main genre of the second series being horror and the third series being high fantasy and the author decided to continue the novel in this series after further contemplation, the second and third series storylines are intersected). Anyway, once the second series is completed, the future chapters of this novel are based on high fantasy genre and the continuation of the 30 chapters of the third series is being done in this series as well, so I won’t be uploading the translation of the third series at this point. There are still many chapters for the second series anyway. By the way, this novel has won an award in the Japanese novel contest and is currently in the process of being made into a manga. You might have a chance to read the manga in the future

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