Published: September 10, 2025
Satou here. There’s a saying that if you find one cockroach, there are at least thirty more, but the worst part about cockroaches is that even if you wipe them all out with a spray insecticide, their eggs hatch and they breed again, right?
That said, it seems there are far more troublesome creatures in this otherworld…
â—‡
“Pochi, Tama, emergency mission! Head immediately to the dining hall where we just ate and protect the witch and her apprentice who passed out drunk!”
“Aye aye~”
“Roger that!”
Using the spatial magic “tactical communication,” I asked Tama and Pochi to protect the two from those trying to carry out a curse terror attack using “vampire mosquitos.”
I thought about sending them to Shrine Maiden Meier at the temple since it seemed safer, but that might be considered trespassing, so I had them head to the dining hall where they’re known.
Well, unless a Demon King-level threat appears, those two shouldn’t be in any danger. No need to worry.
“Master, Karina says she wants to come too.”
“Alright. You can come, but don’t push yourself.”
“Understood!”
“Got it~”
After confirming the light points representing Tama and the others moving toward the dining hall on the map, I closed it and rushed with Liza toward the Karion Central Temple.
The light points that were visible on the radar just moments ago had disappeared.
“Ah, you came for the trial—”
“Where’s Shrine Maiden Meier?”
Seeing a familiar priest, I called out without much greeting.
“Shrine Maiden Meier said she went out in a carriage to visit the nursing home for consolation just now.”
I checked the map—the Karion Central Temple has only four carriages; one was stopped near the temple’s side gate.
Others were far away, so irrelevant.
“Let’s go, Liza.”
“Yes, Master!”
I gestured thanks to the priest who gave info and headed to the side gate.
Using spatial magic “clairvoyance,” I observed the scene: the coachman and horse’s heads were missing, blood spurting.
Inside the carriage, though it was ransacked, Meier’s corpse wasn’t there.
Ten seconds after checking with spatial magic, we arrived ourselves at the carriage.
“Master, I’ll keep watch around here.”
“Thanks.”
The chair was still slightly warm.
On the carriage floor lay the triangular glasses Meier had used for cosplay earlier.
It looks like she was taken by teleportation magic from here.
But Meier is nowhere to be found on adjacent maps either.
Generally, spatial magic users can’t teleport that far.
The plain-faced reincarnator who once teleported Pochi from Seryu City to the Itachi Empire seems to still be enjoying a fake married life with strategist Touya at a house in the Saga Empire, judging by the map info.
At that moment, two red points appeared on the radar.
“Master, the coachman and horse have stood up.”
Liza, guarding outside the carriage, reported.
Did they become undead without a caster?
It’s too soon for natural undead transformation.
The map showed “zombie” for them.
No remarkable details.
“Okay to take them down?”
“Understood.”
While Liza efficiently dispatched them, I reexamined the carriage interior.
—Something feels off.
Switching to miasma sight, a far denser miasma than usual appeared.
Normally, miasma drifts like black mist, but here it strangely moves in a vortex.
The vortex’s center seems inside the carriage.
Nothing.
No sign in regular or miasma sight.
But—
“—Suspicious.”
I thrust my hand through that empty spot—the center of the miasma vortex.
My fingertips felt like piercing through something, like breaking a barrier or subspace wall created by spatial magic.
Following the technique to break a barrier—ripping it apart.
Beyond the crack was a sinister space swirling with jet-black darkness.
Red-black lightning occasionally flickered through.
Faces of people in agony surfaced and vanished on the vortex’s surface.
Just looking felt like being cursed.
I’d rather avoid entering if possible.
“I’ll accompany you.”
Liza appeared beside me, her expression serious.