Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 27: The Evolutionary History of the Crossbow
Marlon had not been asleep for long.
When the first pale light of dawn crept through the window, Musa Mein’s cold, mechanical hand shook him awake with a jarring insistence.
“Finished!”
Those bloodshot eyes of Musa Mein, still burning with manic focus, were the first thing Marlon saw as he blinked awake. And that single word—finished—was the very first thing Musa uttered.
“The crystal sphere…?”
At once Marlon snapped upright, a chill running through him as his mind cleared in an instant. Though he had barely slept, the crushing fatigue from earlier was now gone, replaced by urgency and a sharp awareness.
“It’s in the small single bedroom over there.” Musa Mein explained quickly. The fragment of planar projection he had painstakingly crafted was not brought over. It remained inside the private quarters of the old paladin. “Time was too short. I couldn’t move it yet.”
“Then what are we waiting for!”
Without a second thought, Marlon leapt to his feet, dragging his slippers carelessly as he sprinted toward the old paladin’s room.
But he had taken only two steps when a small figure blocked his path.
A pair of gem-blue fox ears flicked upright. Twin eyes of the same crystalline hue glared up at him, filled with both worry and anger. A fluffy fox tail swished furiously behind her, betraying her mood.
There was no mistaking her—Amy, the little fox-girl. And judging by the way she had appeared before him like a silent shadow, she clearly thought it far too dangerous for Marlon to just rush off unprepared.
“Sorry, Amy, my fault!” Marlon blurted, bowing his head with rare sincerity. “Come with us, won’t you? You’re strong and amazing, and I’d feel so much safer with you.”
He meant it too. Even as he apologized, he made a private vow in his heart: once this ordeal was over, he would finally study that Van Helsing Mind Scroll—the one that might grant him a means to defend himself properly. He could not keep relying on this cute little fox-girl to protect him every time.
Amy’s ears twitched. She glared at him for a long moment, clearly unconvinced. But at last she sighed through her nose, stepped aside, and slipped her warm little hand into his.
Relief washed over Marlon. With Amy appeased, he pressed forward with Musa Mein at his side.
“Listen, Musa,” Marlon said in a hushed voice as they walked, “Old Kang came back in the middle of the night. He said he saw Durel slaves turning their rebellion into slaughter. He saw the false-god Balto’s sorcerers—around Chunxi Road, near the Oshana District. And there were demon worshipers too…”
By the time Marlon finished recounting, they had arrived at the paladin’s room. And at once Marlon understood why Musa Mein could not simply hand him the crystal sphere.
It wasn’t a single orb anymore. It had been wired into an entire battle-grade projection command system, glowing with runes and cables of energy.
“Too little time to disassemble it.” Musa Mein shrugged, stifling a massive yawn.
“But it works. I’ve tuned the blood-red runic array for stable energy, reversed the inner projection glyphs, and set up channels for soul entry. The escape route is ready too—two detachable weapons and one transfer point. Couldn’t prepare more. Not enough time…”
He trailed off mid-yawn, his words a stream of technical jargon—yet to Marlon, it was oddly reassuring.
Marlon turned to Amy again. “Amy, forgive me. I’ll have to do the same as yesterday—send my soul into the crystal sphere. That means everything out here will depend on you, alright? Can I trust you again, little guardian?”
Urgency pressed on him, but no matter how dire things were, Marlon knew one rule: you never ignored Amy’s feelings. An angry fox-girl was a danger unto herself.
His gentle words worked. Amy’s tail swished happily now, and she nodded with childlike firmness.
Only then could Marlon relax. With his heart steadied, he pressed his palm against the altered crystal sphere.
A tremor shot through his soul. The world blurred—
And in the next moment, Marlon found himself gripping the steering wheel of a steam-driven automobile. Outside, chaos reigned. The streets boiled with terrified people fleeing in all directions. Flames devoured buildings, their light staining the night sky blood-red.
He looked down at his own form—broad shoulders, strong arms. The body he now occupied belonged to a powerful man. That knowledge calmed him somewhat.
Then, glancing in the rear-view mirror, he froze.
Someone familiar sat in the back seat.
The vampire banker, Sols.
“Marlon, it’s me—Musa Mein.”
As Sols spoke in Musa’s voice, he reached calmly into a case and withdrew a sleek weapon: a magitech crystal-compression nail gun, its mithril and gold inlays gleaming faintly in the firelight. He bent over it, adjusting its parts with practiced precision.
Marlon’s thoughts tangled.
The weapon itself was not shocking. In this world, nail guns had evolved from ancient crossbows to repeating models, then to bulky magitech steam-bows, and now—at the cutting edge of warfare—to these compact compression nail guns. Less destructive than their predecessors, yes, but far more portable. A perfect defensive weapon for an age at war.
What unsettled Marlon was not the gun.
It was Sols—Sols’ body now serving as Musa Mein’s vessel.
Marlon knew it wasn’t truly the banker anymore, just a shell Musa controlled. Yet the sight was still uncanny, and no amount of reason could erase that creeping wrongness.
“Oh… I see.”
Awkward, uneasy, Marlon forced himself to nod, pretending it didn’t bother him.
“This,” Musa Mein said at last, finishing his work on the gun, “is one of the two escape weapons. The other, I placed in a warehouse about three kilometers from here. The transfer point I set near White Sand Lake. So… where should we investigate first?”
Marlon didn’t hesitate. “Chunxi Road.”
He had planned this from the start. During his time guarding the orphanage gate, he had memorized the northwest district’s layout from Master Druid Claw and old Andrew.
His first target was clear: Chunxi Road, where the false-god’s priest commanded hordes of Durel slaves to burn and kill indiscriminately—and where that same priest had been effortlessly slain by a powerful elven mind sorcerer.
Marlon’s instincts told him that mind sorcerer could only be the same mysterious figure he had once glimpsed atop the treetop restaurant The Light of Eshilia.
Next would be Sphinkrack Street, home of the minotaur boy Aester. Druid Claw had warned that demon cultists prowled there, preying on the chaos.
Only after that would he head to White Sand Lake, use the transfer array to return to his body, and perhaps even take a measure of Coventry’s Secretary of State—the important man whose temperament Marlon would soon need to understand.
Resolved, Marlon started the automobile.
“Marlon,” Musa Mein’s voice interrupted sharply, “you’ve forgotten something.”
“Forgotten? What?” Marlon frowned. He was sure he had prepared everything.
“Your familiar. Your mage’s pet,” Musa reminded him patiently. “It’s a new day. You can summon it again.”