Isekai Mahou wa Okureteru! (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter Pr

Prologue 

In the dead of night, a certain block of the imperial capital illuminated by the dim light of the moon and stars was shrouded in an unnatural stillness. 

With the impeccable stone pavement on the ground—packed so tightly to the point it was neurotic—and the beautiful red brickwork of grand houses rising up from it, it was undeniably the upper class district of the imperial capital. The dull luster of the moonlight skimmed the stone pavement, and the red brick walls of the buildings looked heavy—rusty, even—as they lay cloaked in shadow. One towering building in particular, perhaps because it was built in such a crammed location, looked especially oppressive in the lonely dark of the night. 

In this place that seemed totally detached from the world of wooden houses where the common folk lived, where boorish stone structures littered the townscape, a single man was cornered in the darkness by two figures, one tall and one short. 

“You bastards! Do you think you’ll get away with doing this to me?!” 

The man shouted at the two ruffians with enough vigor that he was nearly frothing at the mouth. Wearing an overcoat made by a popular tailor in the Empire, the man reeked of gold and self-importance. But right now, he had no quarter to put either of those to use. 

It wasn’t all that surprising. After all, behind the desperately shouting man were his guards, who all appeared to be sprawled out across the pavement. 

“Ugh, someone! Is anybody else there?! Anyone will do! SAVE MEEEEE!” 

The man haughtily called for aid, but no one answered him. His insolent voice merely rang out in the air, passing over the two shadows standing before him before echoing into nothingness in the night. One of the figures, the taller one in a pitch black robe, then crushed any hope the man had left. 

“Nobody will come. No matter how much you scream, nobody will hear it.” 

“R-Ridiculous... Even in an alley this far from the street, we’re right in the middle of the imperial capital. For nobody to even notice...” 

The words from that shadow of a figure fanned the man’s anxiety like a raging fire. Even though he knew it couldn’t be true, he couldn’t put his heart at ease. Perhaps his instincts knew better than he did. For what the dark figure said was true. No matter how much he yelled and screamed in denial, not one patrolling military policemen or even a nearby resident came. His words, his cries, his hope, everything... It was as if it was all stolen away by the darkness. 

But unable to contain himself in his panic, he continued to rant and rave. 

“Why are you doing this to me?!” 

“There is no need for a bastard like you to know that.” 

The two shadowy figures sidled up to the man. 

“W-Wait! Do you bastards want to work for me instead? I’ll pay as much coin as you want.” 

“Oh?” 

“There just happens to be a man that I want to get rid of! Well? How about it? For starters, I’ll pay you a hundred imperial coins up front. And I don’t mean between the two of you! I mean a hundred each!” 

For his own sake, the man proposed a trade of sorts. Hearing his offer, the shorter figure trembled slightly. Assuming it was a sign they were taking the bait, the man snickered. However, the one to respond was the taller shadow. 

“A hundred coins is quite the extravagant sum.” 

“It certainly is! But you bastards are worth it! You knocked out my guards in the blink of an eye, after all!” 

“They were weak.” 

“You’re telling me... I paid a hefty sum to hire them, but they were useless in the end. But you bastards are different. You managed to corner a well known man like me, after all.” 

While affirming what the taller figure said, the man gave a tug on his fishing line called praise. Then, judging that it was about time to reel them in... 

“How about it? I don’t think it’s a bad offer, right?” 

He seemed to think that he’d swayed them, flashing a sickening grin at the thought of his success. However, he didn’t get the response he was expecting. And the short shadow drew threateningly near as if to answer his question with actions rather than words. 

“Wh-Why?! It’s a hundred coins each! That’s unheard of!” 

“Certainly. However...” 

The shorter figure spoke for the first time with a voice that sounded awfully young. It sounded like a child at the age where it wasn’t clear whether it was a boy or girl. The man waited with bated breath to hear what the peculiar voice would say next. 

“You said it yourself.” 

“What...?” 

“That you had someone you wanted to get rid of.” 

“What of it? Everyone has one or two people they’d like to be rid of, right? I don’t know who instigated it, but even you bastards probably have similar motivations, which is why you’ve come for me like this. But that aside, what do you think? If you are dissatisfied with the earlier amount, I can even add on some—” 

The man couldn’t finish what he was saying. He suddenly felt a powerful, surging wave of hatred and anger from the smaller figure he was trying to entice. It froze him in his tracks. 

“I won’t let you get rid of that person.” 

“What?! You bastard! Are you working for him?! No, it couldn’t be that you’re—” 

“There is no need to speak of that... Do it.” 

Interrupting the man as he seemed to realize something, the tall figure passed a command down to the short one, who immediately began muttering a spell. 

“Oh Darkness. Make the nihility of thy body into a curtain, envelop my enemy, and submerge them within. Take the one who indulges themselves in such wretched desire in their entirety, and hold them captive within that curtain. Olgo, Lucuila, Ragua, Secunto, Labielalu, Baybaron...” 

Magic was woven together with the words the short figure spoke. From what could be heard of the chant, it was a dark, fearsome spell. However, just when the man expected to hear a keyword, the short figure began reciting words the man felt like he had never heard before. He could hardly understand their sounds, and certainly not their meaning. It was like they weren’t words at all, but the growling of some beast. And then, at last... 

“Darkness Torment.” 

The keyword finally came. The man thought that he saw the dark curtain around the short shadow begin to undulate mysteriously, and then the mana that enclosed that darkness swelled up in an instant. As if emulating the figure’s outstretched hand, it wriggled forth in an eerie manner. The two shadowy figures, the moonlight, the starlight, anything and everything then suddenly vanished from the man’s sight. 

“STO—Ga, ah... AAAAAAAAAAAH!” 

The man’s wailing was mercilessly swallowed by the darkness. Eventually, ascertaining that the man was released from the darkness and had in fact collapsed on the stone pavement, the tall figure quietly turned to the shorter one. 

“Let’s go.” 

“Yes.” 

The two shadowy figures then vanished into the night, taking the unnatural curtain of darkness and the stillness accompanying it with them. All that was left in the alleyway of the upper class district was the man, who wasn’t even twitching, laid out on the pavement with his guards. All that peered down on his shameless face was the twinkling starlight and the moon hanging overhead.