— In which our villains vanquish a hero. —

  — Fanservice introduced. —

  — The fourth wall. —

  — A food episode. —

  — Cliffhanger. —

  “Release!”

  Rhyx pulled the pin out of the mechanism, and the trebuchet shot up and released the rock from the sling. It arched beautifully as it raced towards a group of men surrounding a lone figure. He stood calm in the center as five armed men approached carefully with their swords drawn, and appeared utterly unconcerned about the impending menace. The leader of the band smiled an evil grin, and braced himself for an attack.

  The rock hit the lone figure squarely on the head, and crushed the body into a pulp, splattering blood and gore all over the five surrounding bandits. The bandits stood there dumbfounded for a second, then another, and then bolted in all directions away from the mess.

  “And that’s a job well done,” Actaion said. “Now we can dismantle the trebuchet, and return to the city.”

  “You mean I get to dismantle the trebuchet,” Lanissa said.

  “Well, if we get technical about it,” Actaion said, “it’s your magic that does it.”

  “Hmmph!” Lanissa replied.

  She waved her hands in the direction of the machine, and wooden logs, iron bolts and other bric-a-brac floated in the air away from the trebuchet, and settled neatly into the chest of holding nearby.

  Rhyx stared dumbfounded. Her movements looked like a dance, and her glistening naked flesh covered with only tiny glittering pieces of metal here and there transfixed him.

  Actaion put his hand on his shoulder. “So, how do you like the fanservice so far?” he said.

  “Huh,” Rhyx turned to Actaion, “what? What’s a fanservice?”

  “Never mind”, Actaion said, “we’ll get to it some other time. What does your pool read?”

  Rhyx went back to his scrying pool, and peered into it. “Nothing so far. Looks like the isekai is completely dead. But what do we do about the bandits?”

  “They are not our problem,” Actaion said.

  “But?” Rhyx said.

  Actaion shrugged. As the last piece of the trebuchet settled in the chest, he picked it up. “Time to get back, it’ll be a long walk.”

  Back in the bustling city, our three villains discuss their concerns.

  “So,” Rhyx started, “about those bandits.”

  “What about them?” Actaion asked.

  “Well, shouldn’t we have done something?” Rhyx said.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “It’s not in our charter,” Actaion replied. “We have to live by the code.”

  “But —” Rhyx started.

  “Drop it,” Actaion said sternly.

  Rhyx shoulders dropped, but he remained silent.

  They walked past the food vendors lining the street.

  “What do we do now?” Lanissa said.

  “Well, first thing we do is report our actions to the garrison commander,” Actaion said, “then we have a few days until our next assignment.”

  “I can report to the commander,” Rhyx said.

  “Oh sure,” Actaion said. “Then we can all meet by the main gate at sunrise, five days from now. We should have a new location by then.”

  Rhyx brightened up. “I’ll head to the garrison now,” he said and took off.

  After he was out of sight Lanissa spoke up. “You know he’s going to offer his services to the captain, right?”

  “Of course,” Actaion replied. “Why do you think I gave him five days off?”

  Lanissa smiled. Then she pouted a bit.

  “What was that fanservice you spoke about earlier?” she said.

  “Oh, that’s about your clothes,” Actaion said.

  “But I don’t wear any,” she said. “I only have these golden decorations.”

  She pointed at the golden leaves decorating her ankles, hips and pelvic area, neck and upper chest. All of it was very strategically placed for rating purposes.

  “Exactly,” he said, “that’s the fanservice that sells the book.”

  “The book?” she said.

  “Yes, the story we’re in is published as a book.” He hesitated. “Of sorts.”

  “So, my decorations, they’re not about me being an exhibitionist then?” she said.

  “No, that’s your character background,” Actaion said, “your upbringing in the temple of Ne?t and the source of your magic.”

  Lanissa stared into space for a few moments.

  “Oh yeah, now it’s all coming to me,” she said. “Weird that I didn’t remember before .”

  Her stomach growled. She looked around the food stalls, her mouth watering.

  “Let’s eat something,” Actaion said. “This may as well be a food episode.”

  “A food episode?” she asked.

  “Yeah, a break in the story where the characters gather around and eat something delicious, and nothing horrible is happening,” he said.

  “Doesn’t that make for boring stories?” she said.

  “I wouldn’t know,” he said. “I’ve only been in this one.”

  Lanissa looked over the nearby food stalls, and wondered where she’d like to eat. They hadn’t been in the country for long, and she was not used to the local cuisine.

  “What about that one?” she said, and pointed at a stall with pictures of chickens and buns.

  “Oh, those are nice,” Actaion said. “They put a piece of chicken in a bun so you can eat and browse the market at the same time.”

  Lanissa smiled brightly.

  “Sounds good,” she said.

  After Actaion had paid for two chicken buns, and they stood there waiting, Lanissa got thoughtful again.

  “You said we’re in a story, right?” she said.

  “Yeah,” he replied.

  “Doesn’t this conversation break the fourth wall?” she said.

  “What do you mean?” he said. “This story doesn’t have a fourth wall.”

  The vendor finished preparing their chicken buns and handed them over. They went on their way to explore the bazaar.

  Lanissa looked up and read through the previous scenes.

  “Wait, why does it start at chapter two?” she said.

  “Huh, you’re still on about that?” Actaion said. “Well, it just happens that prologues are boring, and some authors cheat and rename the prologue as chapter one instead. Here, we skip all of that and jump right to chapter two.”

  “Isn’t that weird?” she said.

  “Sure it is,” he said. “And the author doesn’t care if it scares away potential readers. After all, he’s not getting paid.”

  “Huh?” she said. “I thought my outfit was meant to sell the story.”

  “In a way,” Actaion said, “but this story is a Royal Road exclusive, so it doesn’t have an income.”

  “What’s that?” she said.

  “It’s some sort of web novel platform,” Actaion said. “I don’t know the details as I’m just a character in this story.”

  “Hmm,” she said.

  At the Isekai Task Force continental headquarters, alarm bells started ringing. The monitoring personnel looked over in panic at the incoming signals.

  “There’s an invasion of isekai protagonists going on,” one of them said.

  “Where?” another asked.

  “The entire continent,” the first one replied. “All of the alarms went off. Some even on the nearby continents.”

  “All of them?” the other asked.

  “Yup, all of them,” the first one replied. “It’s a really big invasion.”