Isekai Nonbiri Nouka - Chapter 929

● Character Refresher (Mercuries of Village Four)

Bell – Leader of the Mercuries in Village Four. Priestess-like.

Yoru – Gatekeeper of the hot spring village’s teleportation gate. Secretary-like. In charge of armaments.

Futa – Gatekeeper of Village Five’s teleportation gate. A fortune-teller-like mage.

Miyo – Resides in Shashaato City. A young maid who works as a secretary to Governor Ifrus.

Hih – Military officer of Village Five.

Loch – Civil Servant of Village Five.

Nana – Spy of Village Five. Appears like a village girl.

● Other Fogumas who won’t appear this time but have been introduced

Asa – Currently accompanying Ursa. Butler-like.

Gou – Deputy village chief of Village Four. Middle-aged butler.

Tou – Captain of the universal ship.

Irre – Leader of the filming team.

-0-

Late at night.

We visited Beezel’s mansion.

I apologized to Beezel for the sudden visit.

I wondered if he had work or something going on.

「Not at all. Actually, I was just meeting with Count Pugyaru earlier, but... he suddenly felt unwell and left. So there’s no problem.」

I see.

There are things that happened with Count Pugyaru before, and also his daughter.

I had hoped to greet him properly at some point, but the timing never seems right.

That’s unfortunate.

「I’m sure Count Pugyaru feels the same. I’ll make sure to pass on your regards.」

With those words, Beezel guided us to the detached building of the mansion.

It’s apparently a place always kept prepared for unexpected guests.

For a situation like this, it’s extremely convenient.

Frau must have known that, which is why she suggested Beezel’s mansion.

「Of course. This is my family home, after all.」

As Frau said that, she began issuing instructions to the guards stationed at the mansion.

Ah, she’s telling them to keep their distance for safety reasons.

Though I don’t think it’ll be dangerous, honestly.

-0-

The man who called himself a Kissinley was now seated on the sofa placed at the center of the detached hall.

Next to him sat a woman.

She was apparently his wife.

It seemed she had been hiding nearby, watching our interaction.

I hadn’t noticed her, but Gulf and Daga had.

And they had also sensed her strength.

That’s why they hadn’t rushed to capture Kissinley when he first appeared.

I see.

「Ah, sorry. Kissinley, like Foguma, is a family name. I’m Apri. This is my wife, May.」

TN: The name is basically the month April but without the last letter.

So, Apri Kissinley and May Kissinley.

Since they introduced themselves, we did the same.

I’m Hiraku, Hiraku Machio.

I am the Village Chief of Big Tree Village and several others.

Next to me is the owner of this mansion, Beezel, Count Beezel Chrome.

He’s also one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s Kingdom.

「I’m Beezel. A pleasure to meet you.」

Beside him is his daughter, Fraurem.

「I’m Fraurem. Please call me Frau.」

Next to Frau is the angel’s chief, Malbit.

「Nice to meet you.」

Beside her, though you probably already know them, are Bell Foguma and Yoru Foguma.

......

The two of them simply glare, not bothering to greet.

Uh, then we have the devils Prada, Bulga, and Stifano.

「I don’t know what your goal was in targeting the auction items but be prepared for the consequences.」

「Ah, I’m not involved. Please pretend I don’t exist.」

「Same here. I’m not involved either. Feel free to ignore me.」

Ah, over there are the ones guarding me, the beastkin Gulf, the lizardman Daga, and the angel Reginleif.

They just nod in acknowledgment.

They haven’t lowered their guard.

So.....

And behind you are, from right to left... Futa Foguma, Miyo Foguma, Hih Foguma, Loch Foguma, and Nana Foguma.

Yeah, somehow Futa and the others have arrived too.

It makes sense that Miyo, Hih, Loch, and Nana could come, but Futa is supposed to be the gatekeeper of Village Five’s teleportation gate.

What happened to that?

You didn’t leave it unattended, did you?

The Arachne Arako usually handles it, but she was asked by Yoru to take care of the hot spring gate, so...

You asked Ronana, who happened to pass by then, to cover for you?

If Ronana gets stuck as gatekeeper, won’t Glatts get angry?

Apparently Glatts passed by too, and the two of them are covering the gate together.

Is that really okay?

Well, I guess if we wrap this up quickly, it should be fine.

-0-

Ehto...

Just as I was about to move the conversation forward, Bell stopped me.

She said she wanted to explain the relationship between the Foguma and Kissinley to me first.

I see. Let’s hear it, then.

-0-

Ahem.

I am Bell Foguma.

Allow me to explain.

This goes back a bit...

In the kingdom during the time we were born, there was a project called the Population Decline Control (Venus) Plan, which aimed to utilize artificial lifeforms, homunculi.

To put it simply, it was a plan to make up for labor shortages using artificial life.

At first, they created laborers to handle simple tasks but eventually began producing high-performance kingdom soldiers and warriors.

Their usefulness was considerable, but the leadership’s lack of ability became an issue... In short, the royal family was deemed incompetent.

As a countermeasure, a new project was launched to support the royal family, the Royal Guardians (Mercury) Plan.

Thus, we, the Foguma clan, were created.

It was thought that with our support, the royal family would be secure.

However, a certain fool, pardon me, a royal, proclaimed that instead of merely supporting the royal family, why not have someone replace them entirely?

And so began the Royal Administrator (Poseidon) Plan.

But here’s the thing, we, the Fogumas, born of the Mercury Plan, were built at the highest performance possible, even ignoring budget limits. Each of us was specialized in extreme ways.

They tried to surpass us, but what came out instead was a more balanced, all-around version that smoothed out our extremes, the Kissinleys.

TN: I know what you’re thinking, they were supposed to be buying Royal Warrior Jupiters so why are there Poseidons now?

If that were all, we could consider them our peers, fellow creations from the same homeland.

However, the Kissinleys, true to their original purpose, began running the government in place of the royal family. And ultimately, they concluded that the royals were no longer necessary and seized control from them.

An unforgivable act of betrayal.

Whether the royal family wanted that, or happily handed over power, is irrelevant.

As royal guardians, we cannot accept such a thing.

And what’s worse...

About fifty years later, a rebellion broke out, and the country was destroyed.

Do you think we can forgive them?

Well, actually, we’re not that angry about the country collapsing.

That part was probably inevitable.

What we cannot forgive is how they shoved us into the Sun Castle, claiming our specialized nature made us hard to manage, then called us “a waste of budget who never do any real work”, and slashed our funding.

Absolutely unforgivable.

-0-

In other words, the Kissinleys are...

「A fresh Kissinley! Surround him! Don’t let him escape!」

...Is that what this is?

.......

Wait, what does “fresh Kissinley” even mean?

Hey, stop surrounding him.

He looks like he’s about to cry.

Prada, don’t join in and surround him too.

You haven’t forgotten that attack you triggered last time, have you?

Miyo, stop kicking the sofa.

The sofa didn’t do anything wrong.

Also, that sofa belongs to Beezel.

It’s probably expensive.

A high-end item.

No, I didn’t say to kick him directly instead.

Come on, he’s not resisting.

This isn’t getting us anywhere, so just stop already.

Malbit, stop laughing and help me break this up.

Frau, don’t run off with Beezel.

Don’t leave me to handle this alone.

This is getting out of hand.

-0-

Things got a little chaotic for a moment, but they finally calmed down somehow.

Thank goodness.

The tea tastes great.

So... Apri and May want to talk with Bell and the others.

Is it alright for us to listen in?

If they prefer, we can step out...

...No? If we leave, they’ll get beaten to a pulp, so we absolutely have to stay?

Well, alright then.

Let’s have Bell take the lead in this discussion.

I’ll just chime in if someone asks for my opinion.

「So, what is it you want to discuss? You mentioned we’d benefit from this too. Keep it brief, please.」

Bell opened the conversation.

Bit curt, but fair enough.

「We’re sorry for the trouble we caused at the auction. Our goal was to retrieve our daughter, her memory unit, not her physical body.」

A memory unit, like those massive crystals, same as the one Gou had, previously.

「We basically live through memory units. It’s too difficult to maintain our physical forms.」

Makes sense.

「The problem is, memory units look like decorative art pieces. A noble, unaware that it was our daughter’s memory unit, took it and put it up for auction. We were just trying to get it back.」

Ah... That must’ve been the item brought in on the final day.

「We wanted to win the bid ourselves, but we were outbid... Our supporters got furious, and that’s what led to the incident.」

Hmm.

Bell asked about these supporters.

「Even after the kingdom fell, we had to go on living. We formed a small village with demons and beastkin. The people there are our supporters.」

Oh, I can relate to that.

「We used our memory units to advise and guide them...Well, they ended up treating us like gods, more or less.」

Yeah... that part, I don’t relate to.

「When the Demon King’s Kingdom expanded its territory, our village didn’t resist and came under their rule. We became part of a noble’s domain and started paying taxes in the form of troops. But when the wars stopped, they said they didn’t need soldiers anymore and demanded money instead. They began taking valuables from our village.」

I see.

「We never handed over anything precious, but the noble’s idiot son ended up taking our daughter’s memory unit...」

That happened about thirty days ago.

Apri and May decided to retrieve her and manifested physical forms ten days ago.

They attacked the lord’s manor three days ago, but by then, the memory unit had already been moved to the auction venue.

At that point, Beezel buried his head in his hands.

Apparently, three days ago, Beezel had received an urgent report about an incident at a noble estate under Count Pugyaru’s influence.

He’d just finished discussing that matter with Count Pugyaru.

Ah... That would mean Apri’s village is near Howlin Village or Huma Village?

I think I remember hearing during a previous dispute that those areas fall under Pugyaru’s domain.

So their village is close enough to trade with Huma Village, huh.

Interesting.

Turns out... they live surprisingly close by.

After capturing the idiot noble son during the manor raid, Apri and May headed for the auction house, which led to the current mess.

Ah, and they entered the auction using an introduction letter the idiot son had.

They were planning to make him pay for the bid too, huh?

Makes sense.

I can sympathize, to a point, but ultimately, it’s up to the Demon King’s Kingdom to decide how to handle this.

Will they side with the noble, or punish him...?

「If everything they’ve said is true, the noble will be punished and stripped of title. There’s no reason to protect him.」

Beezel added that this wasn’t the Demon King’s Kingdom’s official stance, just his personal view.

...Not that I suspected anything.

We didn’t come here to hold him accountable or anything.

Yeah, Frau.

You’re the one who suggested we come here in the first place.

So then, what about Count Pugyaru?

He’s connected to that noble, right? Wouldn’t he try to protect them?

Not a chance?

Wait, really?

Count Pugyaru spoils his daughter, but he’s ruthless with his subordinates?

That... sounds a bit extreme.

Just as the conversation started to wander off, Bell gave a pointed, exaggerated cough to rein things in.

「Pardon the interruption. We understand your situation, Kissinley-sama. But what exactly do you want from us? As I asked earlier, please be brief.」

「We want help getting our daughter back. If you agree to help, we’ll give you one of our maintenance tanks. You’d be interested in that, I’m sure. They’re nearly impossible to obtain nowadays.」

Bell didn’t answer, just smiled and gestured for him to continue.

「The one who bought our daughter was a young lady. She had two children with her. She didn’t use a proxy to place the bid, so it should be easy to identify her.」

「So... you want our help negotiating to get your daughter returned?」

「...Someone who could offer that kind of money won’t be moved by coin.」

「Then you plan to use force?」

Bell’s tone was calm, but that question confirmed it.

「We’ll do whatever it takes to get her back.」

At this point, Bell turned to me and asked, ‘What do you think?’

She knew my answer already.

She knew.

......

Yeah, violence is off the table.

Beezel is sitting right here, for starters.

And besides...

The one who bought the daughter?

That would be Raimeiren.

Hiichirou, pressured by Guraru, asked her to bid on it.

So going up against Raimeiren, especially when she’s accompanied by Hiichirou and Guraru...

That’s dangerous.

Prada, stop laughing.

Apri and May have no idea what they’re getting into, they look totally lost.

-0-

●In order, the Foguma members (including those yet to appear)

Bell – Leader of the Mercuries in Village Four. Priestess-like.

Asa – Currently accompanying Ursa. Butler-like.

Hih – Military officer of Village Five. Light-armored warrior.

Yoru – Gatekeeper of the hot spring village’s teleportation gate. Secretary-like. In charge of armaments.

Ichi – Yet to appear.

Futa – Gatekeeper of Village Five’s teleportation gate. A fortune-teller-like mage.

Miyo – Resides in Shashaato City. A young maid who works as a secretary to Governor Ifrus.

Gou – Deputy village chief of Village Four. Middle-aged butler.

Loch – Civil official of Village Five.

Nana – Spy of Village Five. Appears like a village girl.

Hachi – Yet to appear.

Koko – Yet to appear.

Tou – Captain of the universal ship.

Irre – Leader of the filming team.

Tsue – Yet to appear.

Hari – Yet to appear.

-0-

●Timeline

Their daughter was taken. (Thirty days ago)

↓

Apri gave himself a body capable of movement in order to retrieve her daughter. (Ten days ago)

↓

Assault on the lord’s mansion. (Three days ago)

↓

They participated in the auction, lost the bid, and launched an attack. (Just recently)

↓

They request Bell’s cooperation. (Now)

-0-

Hiichirou: 「Grandma won the bid! Amazing!」

Guraru: 「As expected of Raimeiren-sama!」

Raimeiren: 「Fufu」 (very pleased)

-0-

Auction Staff: 「There’s an attack. Please evacuate at once.」

Raimeiren: 「There is no need to panic over something so minor」 (firm)

Hiichirou: 「But it’s dangerous. Grandma might get hurt」

Raimeiren: 「Very well. Let us evacuate. Make sure to hold hands so we don’t get separated」

Hiichirou: 「Okay」