What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy?

So… Our plan right now was to go investigate the ’barrier’ that I had told them about, figuring that having more people along would possibly help us figure out the mystery.

I was surprised to learn that the Mayor herself would be going as well since I was expecting her to just send someone to inspect it in her place.

Instead, she handed her duties to someone else and met us at the gates of the city alongside all the succubi early next morning.

My concern must have showed on my face because she just grinned at me and explained without any prompting.

“I’ve set up different departments that governs over each key infrastructure of the city and had assigned suitable people to head each one. I’m really just the overseer at this point. The city can run without me unless there’s some kind of crisis happening.”

Like I thought, she’s really serious about the city huh?

Also… One other thing…

Not only were the five succubi wearing maid uniforms… But the Smith succubus was also wearing a maid uniform and standing alongside them as well…

Katsuki? Since when did you even have the time to initiate her as a maid? And is this even alright? Wasn’t she part of the staff under the Mayor’s employ? Did you just poach her away or something?

But seeing that the Mayor said nothing when she saw her standing there in the maid uniform, I can only assume that she’s alright with it.

Anyway… It’s none of my business.

We headed out of the city in the direction of the Tree of Death and there was one thing I felt needed to be addressed immediately.

“Umm… I know we’re capable of fighting off any monster we might come across but… Are you sure you’re ok with going there without your own escort?” I asked the Mayor.

She giggled and pumped her fist on her chest, “Don’t worry, Lady Aster! I’m pretty strong myself! I can fight off any monster we come across!”

Hmm… If she’s so confident of it I guess I’ll just take her word for it.

Her words were quickly put to the test as a small group of Abhorrents appeared, the creatures lumbering out towards us from between the trees as they shambled towards us like zombies.

The Mayor stepped up to them confidently with her chest thrust forward, “Leave this to me!”

We watched as she leapt in front of us, the succubus facing the group of shambling Abhorrents confidently.

Red mist exuded out from her and I could feel the air shift as pressure concentrated around the Mayor.

She waved her hands hypnotically in the air around her, as though she was literally weaving a spell as the red mist followed the motion of her hands.

She then flicked her hand towards the Abhorrents, causing the red mist to shoot out into multiple tendrils, solidifying themselves to pierce into the chest of the Abhorrents.

I thought that would kill them but… Even with the red mist piercing through their chests, the Abhorrents still continued to shamble their way towards us.

Yet despite that, the Mayor turned to grin at us like they were already defeated.

“Alright~ Let’s continue~”

I blinked at her before pointing at the Abhorrents, “Umm… They aren’t dead yet…”

she waved her hand dismissively, “They’re dead men walking. That spell will just continuously drain them over time until they wither away on their own.”

Oh… I get it.

This is so that their hive mind will perceive us as ’weak’ because we took so long to kill these small fries and wouldn’t send a stronger Abhorrent after us.

I’ve got to learn that.

This sounds like a stupid problem to have but my party is way too strong right now and I don’t think we have anything that can kill something slowly, ironically. At least… I don’t think I have a skill that does that.

We walked around the shambling Abhorrents who tried to chase after us but the Mayor’s spell was already draining them to the point that they were slowing down significantly.

We easily avoided them and I heard a soft thump as one of them fell over to the ground and started disintegrating.

The rest still remained whole but they should also be disintegrating over time so we can just leave them be.

Moving further into the forest, we did our best to avoid meeting any Abhorrents but even if we did, we would let the Mayor deal with them with that spell of hers.

With that, we managed to reach the location of the barrier rather easily.

I led the way until I felt the same feeling washing over me that made me stop in my tracks.

“We’re here…” I announced.

The Mayor looked around, understandably confused since there was nothing visible around us.

“Where is this?” She asked, turning to me.

I stretched out my hand, calling up one of my Shadow Guards to appear before me.

The Mayor was understandably surprised since she wasn’t fully cognizant when we were having our little orgy yesterday.

“What is that?” She gasped.

“It’s my version of a Shadow Summon.”

“Oh wow… It feels just like an actual person! How did you do this?”

“It’s a secret,” I half lied before directing the Shadow Guard to take a step forward.

The moment she crossed the boundary, the same mist started gathering around her, the mist that I realised was eerily similar to the mist that the Mayor was exuding earlier.

Her fingers then started to disintegrate and I made her turn around to show the process to everyone else.

Her arm disintegrated until the elbow and started getting replaced by tree bark before my mana poured into her, halting the process.

It then flowed out from her arm, burning away the wood and regenerating her arm to return it back to normal.

“Are you reversing the process with your mana?” The Mayor guessed.

I nodded, “It seems like if you have mana, you can at least fight back against… Whatever that is. But it is draining a lot of my mana to do this. I don’t think anyone can last long under the effects of this before they start to transform. It wouldn’t even be enough for me to reach the settlement over there.”

The Mayor turned towards the direction of where I pointed, finally spotting the small cluster of buildings near the roots of the giant tree.

There were lights from torches present around the settlement so it was definitely occupied by someone… Or something.

“There’s actually people living here…” The Mayor mused. “How are they able to survive?”

I shrugged, “That’s something I would like to know as well but…”

I gestured towards the Shadow Guard and she melted into my shadow to dismiss herself.

The Mayor stepped up to the edge of the boundary and stopped there, her eyes scanning the space in front of her.

“How did you know that this was the edge?” She asked.

“It was just a feeling. I don’t know how to explain it.”

“That’s interesting… You have better senses than I do… I don’t sense anything. I wonder…”

She then stretched out her hand towards the boundary, as though trying to see if there might be something solid that would stop her from pushing further.

I held my breath as she pushed her palm through the boundary space that would start wrapping her in that red mist.

But…

Eh?

Nothing happened.

“It… Doesn’t seem to affect you?” I pointed out.

She looked at me in surprise, “Eh? Have I already crossed the boundary?”

I nodded, “It’s already up to your elbow actually…”

Lisa raised a finger, “Maybe it doesn’t affect demons?”

The Mayor looked ahead and took a step forward, stepping fully into the boundary that should have started transforming her into one of those Abhorrents.

But yet… Nothing happened.

I turned back to look at the succubi and they all understood what I wanted without me telling them as they went over to the edge and also joined the Mayor in stepping forward.

Sure enough, none of them were wrapped up in that red mist and nothing happened to them at all.

So it seems like demons were exempted from this? That just further proves my theory that it’s demons that were living in that settlement at the tree’s roots.

The Mayor turned to me, “Hmm… That’s interesting… I suppose this means that we would have to be the ones to deal with this don’t we?”

Hmm… Wait a minute… I got an idea.

I brought out the Demonic Core that I’ve managed to dig out from the demon that I killed a long time ago, concentrating on it to wrap its demonic energy around me.

I then took a step forward while I was wrapped in that demonic mana and… Oh what do you know? Nothing happened~

Who knew the solution was that simple?

I guess now I can come in here as well~