Chapter 40 – Mystery Mask XYZ
The evening of the following day, three figures stood together as they looked up at the looming mansion to the northwest of Muzeria.
The mansion stood on a small hill that overlooked the town, while mountains stood behind it.
Currently, the sun was setting in the mountains, and the last moments of sunlight shone on their faces.
They were each wearing strange masks. Half masks of porcelain, with colored glass where their eyes would be.
“Let’s go then. You remember the plan?”
“I and To…Y, will retrieve his mother and disarm the mansion. Me…Z, will get a confession from the lord.”
“I will lead you to where my mother’s body is being held…!”
For some reason…on their masks, were the large letters, X, Y and Z.
Ralph was X. Totto was Y. And Menew was Z.
When Ralph asked the reason, Menew said in a proud voice, ‘because there is nothing after that.’
Ralph decided to not argue with him.
Even though the sun had set and it was now night time, the lights in the mansion continued to shine. There were fires blazing in different areas, illuminating the beautiful, stone building.
As the three of them approached, the guards at the gate pointed their spears at them.
“Who are you!”
“If you have business with the master, then come back tomorrow!”
Menew…or Z, kicked the dirt and shot forward. He grabbed their spears, wrenching them out of their grips, and then he slammed the blunt ends into their heads, knocking them unconscious.
As they began to fall, he grabbed them by the collar and threw them as far away from the gate as possible. They were still alive, and the trio intended to avoid killing if possible.
“Now, let’s make a scene. …Uh, it might get pretty loud behind you, but that’s for dramatic effect.”
“Effect?”
Once they had walked through the gates, Menew took out his brush and began casting some kind of magic on the gate.
Immediately, the soldiers and hired Adventurers who had been patrolling the garden, noticed them.
“Intruders!”
Menew laughed and answered them. And he even struck a pose as well.
Previously, there had not been a big enough audience.
“The Mystery Masks! XYZ!”
And then the walls and gate behind him exploded. Extravagantly, with smoke of different colors.
While Menew had made the magic relatively weak in force, the winds and sounds were great, and it looked incredibly powerful. And that was what mattered.
Totto…Y, almost got knocked off his feet from the wind, but Ralph…X, supported him.
“That’s too much, you idiot!”
“Oh, sorry, sorry. Are you alright, Y?”
“Ye-yes…!”
While the soldiers cowered in surprise and fear, they spoke quickly in hushed voices.
“Good. Then you can go now!”
The smoke gave them cover, and so X picked up Y and went around the garden and towards the house. No one noticed their footsteps.
Aside from the members of XYZ, who were protected by a barrier cast by Z, the others could not hear a thing due to the explosions.
More and more footsteps could be heard coming out of the mansion now. And amidst the confusion, X and Y slipped in through a backdoor without being seen.
Now that Z was the only one left, he waited until the smoke dissipated.
However, he was sure to make Stan huge again.
And so when the soldiers and Adventurers picked themselves up, what they saw was a mysterious, masked intruder who was astride a giant falcon.
“I was hoping to do this as peaceably as possible. So, who wants to surrender?”
The ominously large falcon made them recoil for a second.
XYZ were not wearing masks for no reason. Or a foolish one. (Well, the designs were a different matter.)
They were based on Ralph’s glasses, and affected the vision perception of those who viewed the wearer.
To the people of the mansion, they only recognized the figures as strange men with masks. Even though they recognized them as enemies, they could not concentrate. It was a strange feeling.
“No one? Then I’ll just have to neutralize you. Don’t complain.”
Z took out the brush that was attached to his belt, and then drew three green circles of magic.
“Wing Storm!”
He moved the brush as if to cut through the circles, and then two tornadoes appeared, one in front of the mansion’s door, and another from the garden, and they moved towards the men from both sides.
“Aaaaahhh!”
“Help! Help me!!”
“What kind of magic is this…!”
Z watched as he drew a brown magic circle on the ground.
“Bind.”
Once he saw that all of the men were caught up by the tornadoes, he used his brush to erase them.
And while the men were falling from a height that was equivalent to a five-story building, the ground had become soft, like rubber, and they were not injured.
“Stan, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
Once they had all landed, Stan jumped towards them so that they were all within its glare.
“What…!?”
“I can’t move. I can’t escape…!”
They were bound by instinctive fear. It was then that Z activated a black circle.
“Immobilization.”
The black magic circle split up and shot towards each of the bound men, and then it turned into rope that wrapped around them.
After tossing them all into the garden, Z walked leisurely to the door and entered the great mansion.
Thanks for the chapter!