Isekai Shachuuhaku Monogatari - Outrunner PHEV - Vol. 4 Ch. 21 - Azu's Determination

[Kushikime]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[finalm]

Just by going INTO the secluded hut the traitor was already guilty, like what would be his excuse?

How about something like this: "Chief, Im sorry for breaking the tradition, but people from you inner circle mean your family harm. They always watch you like hawks so if I tried to tell you in private, they might have gotten spooked and attack immediately or just go to ground and remain a threat. I wanted to let your daughter know and have her inform you discreetly after the wedding, but approaching her in the open would be too conspicuous." There's many different ways this could be spun and the lack of direct evidence would always look bad to the public.

Like maybe if the traitor stayed outside of the hut continuing to try baiting "Eta" out of the hut by feigning an emergency or maybe saying one of her friends in the village wanted to meet with her, he'd have half an excuse... Until when they ask - "Hey idiot, how does standing outside of the hut spewing lies to lure our daughter to an even more remote location clear our suspicions of you?"

No, that would be idiotic. There's no plausible deniability at all, her friends can easily testify against that and it's clear there's no emergency (and he'd be dumb to create one, like a fire and thus bring the whole village down to the hut).

Again, I agree that it was indeed pointless to use Miya instead of Eta (Really the Father could have been the person waiting in the Hut with trusted guards), unless they think/know that:
A) The traitor was watching from a distance and they needed a smallish vaguely female silhouette to enter the building to fool him.
B) The traitor may have had a plan to enter the hut in advance or to have an accomplice enter the building (either before or after "Eta").

There not supposed to be anyone but the bride in the hut directly before the ceremony, not even other women. Since the secret way out is unknown to the chief, it makes sense that he'd want to make it seem like Eta entered the hut. After all, if he were to do it himself (especially with backup) it would be obvious to anyone observing. The only problem is that Miya's body is instantly distinguishable from hers, no matter how you dress her up, so I've no idea how they pulled that one off.

If the Traitor didn't care to keep an eye on the Groom (MC) and the father - He could have just feigned illness and tried to snatch Eta at night without confirming that everyone was were they should be - unless he had an accomplice to be his eyes (which he did not have according to the story).

That's exactly what he did, minus the illness part. He came at night and tried to grab her, clearly not checking who was where. Granted. since she was suppsed to be locked up until the wedding, he didn't really have an alternative. What is nonsensical is that he came by himself - she might be a kid, but just try to get one out of there quietly by yourself, especially when her very voice is offensive magic.

 

[Hem]

1 ) How about something like this: "Chief, Im sorry for breaking the tradition, but people from you inner circle mean your family harm. They always watch you like hawks so if I tried to tell you in private, they might have gotten spooked and attack immediately or just go to ground and remain a threat. I wanted to let your daughter know and have her inform you discreetly after the wedding, but approaching her in the open would be too conspicuous." There's many different ways this could be spun and the lack of direct evidence would always look bad to the public.


2) No, that would be idiotic. There's no plausible deniability at all, her friends can easily testify against that and it's clear there's no emergency (and he'd be dumb to create one, like a fire and thus bring the whole village down to the hut).


3) There not supposed to be anyone but the bride in the hut directly before the ceremony, not even other women. Since the secret way out is unknown to the chief, it makes sense that he'd want to make it seem like Eta entered the hut. After all, if he were to do it himself (especially with backup) it would be obvious to anyone observing. The only problem is that Miya's body is instantly distinguishable from hers, no matter how you dress her up, so I've no idea how they pulled that one off.


4) That's exactly what he did, minus the illness part. He came at night and tried to grab her, clearly not checking who was where. Granted. since she was suppsed to be locked up until the wedding, he didn't really have an alternative. What is nonsensical is that he came by himself - she might be a kid, but just try to get one out of there quietly by yourself, especially when her very voice is offensive magic.

1) I don't think this is a plausible argument, the only time the "inner circle" would have a real chance to do anything would be the wedding night. There is about zero chance that inner circle would let the wedding night pass without doing anything if they were a serious threat - and if that inner circle WAS going to let the wedding night pass there had to have countless times BEFORE the wedding or AFTER the wedding where the right hand man and the leader OR the MC would be alone together.
These people have a writing system - if he's afraid of whispering - absolutely nothing stops him from talking to the leader about some other matter as a cover while writing down the details about the inner circle threat in case they may be listening.

2) Yeah, I agree this is dumb, which is why I said it was at the end .
He actually could have a slight argument if you combine the first point, the "Inner circle threat", if he never entered the hut and simply asked Eta to confirm she was in the hut somehow, either by asking her to open the door or look out a window without leaving the hut (still very sus), knocking on the door, making a noise that doesn't cause a spell to activate, etc - and then signaling his dragon rider pal to come to the hut and kidnap Eta with him(which I guess next chapter we will know if the dragon rider was actually part of the plan). Most of these options would allow someone to pretend to be Eta though (which isn't something he should be concerned about - he still thinks no one is aware he is a traitor).

So the excuse could be, if they approached the traitor BEFORE the dragon rider showed up "I was simply making sure the Inner Circle had not made an attempt on your daughter while she was alone tonight."
Still very suspicious but MAYBE there is a slight chance as he would have made no attempt to enter the hut himself or ask Eta to exit the hut.

Of course once the dragon rider showed up, the jig would be up. If luck was on the traitor's side he wouldn't have tried to signal the dragon rider until after the Leader and the others stopped watching him.
Of course, in this timeline it seems the dragon rider shows up without waiting for a signal or the traitor gave them the signal before he approached the hut.

I guess he could blame the dragon rider on the "inner circle" but jeesh, we're probably putting in more thought than the original writer.

3) If he's far enough away they could fool him in many ways or they just swap Eta for Miya (or someone else that the traitor wouldn't care to keep track of) sometime during the day while the traitor is watching the MC or the Village Leader.
Swapping just leaves open the risk of an accomplice alerting the traitor, but due to time cheatery the "Godkin" (MC) seemed quite certain it was a one man job until Eta was handed over to the Mercs/Bandits.

4) Honestly this may be the dumbest part and I agree with you.
Sure, they have that dumb "No kill" rule that makes them sitting ducks that would cause every bandit/despot in the know to come raid their village for women and children to snatch - but the second Eta realized foul play, the bitch could start a light show, if not a violent tornado of death.
I figure he planned to get close because Eta would still have trust in him as a familiar adult and then he would use the threat of the knife and her fear of her own magic to keep her from doing anything that would blow his cover (or his head off his shoulders...or his limbs from his body....or his feet off the ground...)

At the very least, outside of the MC talking shit about being immune to drunkenness, the other villagers should be pretty distracted by drinking and partying... So the traitor would have some faint hope that they wouldn't notice a bit of a commotion before he could distance himself after handing off Eta.

 

[Goldenzeal]

so now we have a paradox? he saved her which stopped him from retrying countless times trying to save her and leaving the "prophecy book" which allowed "him to save her" this time.

but he kind of "deceive himself and deceived the world" when no writing about the escape route, that seems likely to have been mentioned in "another previous run" so...

Not necessarily.
We do not know what type of time-travel is used, or if there is multiverse/dimensional time-travel going on.
So its possible to work around any full on paradoxes in multiple ways still.

 

[finalm]

1) I don't think this is a plausible argument, the only time the "inner circle" would have a real chance to do anything would be the wedding night. There is about zero chance that inner circle would let the wedding night pass without doing anything if they were a serious threat - and if that inner circle WAS going to let the wedding night pass there had to have countless times BEFORE the wedding or AFTER the wedding where the right hand man and the leader OR the MC would be alone together.
These people have a writing system - if he's afraid of whispering - absolutely nothing stops him from talking to the leader about some other matter as a cover while writing down the details about the inner circle threat in case they may be listening.

The supposed inner circle might not care about the wedding, if their aim is not Eta in particular, but any member of the family and or just the chief. The easiest time to strike would be during or after the celebration following the ceremony. Writing it down would not help - if the chief is being watched, then the risk of being noticed while trying to pass the note is just too great. He migh also claim not to know the real extent of the conspiracy, thus having no idea whom is loyal, making delivery of a note thorugh a third party infeasible.

2) Yeah, I agree this is dumb, which is why I said it was at the end .
He actually could have a slight argument if you combine the first point, the "Inner circle threat", if he never entered the hut and simply asked Eta to confirm she was in the hut somehow, either by asking her to open the door or look out a window without leaving the hut (still very sus), knocking on the door, making a noise that doesn't cause a spell to activate, etc - and then signaling his dragon rider pal to come to the hut and kidnap Eta with him(which I guess next chapter we will know if the dragon rider was actually part of the plan). Most of these options would allow someone to pretend to be Eta though (which isn't something he should be concerned about - he still thinks no one is aware he is a traitor).

So the excuse could be, if they approached the traitor BEFORE the dragon rider showed up "I was simply making sure the Inner Circle had not made an attempt on your daughter while she was alone tonight."
Still very suspicious but MAYBE there is a slight chance as he would have made no attempt to enter the hut himself or ask Eta to exit the hut.

Of course once the dragon rider showed up, the jig would be up. If luck was on the traitor's side he wouldn't have tried to signal the dragon rider until after the Leader and the others stopped watching him.
Of course, in this timeline it seems the dragon rider shows up without waiting for a signal or the traitor gave them the signal before he approached the hut.

I guess he could blame the dragon rider on the "inner circle" but jeesh, we're probably putting in more thought than the original writer.

He did announce himself though and only went in after not getting a reply. It's a pretty reasonable thing to excuse: "I couldn't shake the feeling that something had already happened to your daughter, so I went in and checked if she was really asleep. Just imagine my surprise, when I saw someone else there!". They barged in at the very moment he lifted the covers, so it really fits nicely.

As for the supposed dragon rider (assuming there is one), even if they caught someone with him they both still have deniability. "He's insurance and someone I know I can trust. I'm running around, trying to bust open a major conspiracy, the risk of someone noticing and wanting to take me out is substantial.". Of course, that would not work if the accomplice is from outside of the village.

3) If he's far enough away they could fool him in many ways or they just swap Eta for Miya (or someone else that the traitor wouldn't care to keep track of) sometime during the day while the traitor is watching the MC or the Village Leader.
Swapping just leaves open the risk of an accomplice alerting the traitor, but due to time cheatery the "Godkin" (MC) seemed quite certain it was a one man job until Eta was handed over to the Mercs/Bandits.

There's really no point in watching the MC or the chief, especially if he's convinced no one is on to him. It makes far more sense to keep your eyes on your prize, especially since observing the hut would also tell him if there are any suspicious movements around her. Indeed, we only see him showing up before Out as a formality greeting and that's that.

4) Honestly this may be the dumbest part and I agree with you.
Sure, they have that dumb "No kill" rule that makes them sitting ducks that would cause every bandit/despot in the know to come raid their village for women and children to snatch - but the second Eta realized foul play, the bitch could start a light show, if not a violent tornado of death.
I figure he planned to get close because Eta would still have trust in him as a familiar adult and then he would use the threat of the knife and her fear of her own magic to keep her from doing anything that would blow his cover (or his head off his shoulders...or his limbs from his body....or his feet off the ground...)

At the very least, outside of the MC talking shit about being immune to drunkenness, the other villagers should be pretty distracted by drinking and partying... So the traitor would have some faint hope that they wouldn't notice a bit of a commotion before he could distance himself after handing off Eta.

Eta's previous kidnappings have already been stated to have happened due to him working behind the scenes with the perps. It's unthinkable that the village isn't already up in arms, trying to root out any rats among them, it doesn't take that much to connect the dots after all. Instead they're planning a wedding and a guy with some uknown abilities showed up after rescuing her yet again (what are the odds?). Who in their right mind would act under these circumstances?

 

[MontDilanus1343]

I feel bad for the prior "Out-Runner" who had to endure endless loops of suffering, to make the book of prophecy.

I really hope they don't do a flashback to the misery he had to live through. It wouldn't mesh with the upbeat manga.

Pour one out for "Fore-Runner".