They left on an abnormally clear day for the season.
Seen off by their guild seniors to the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice, their journey west began.
Looking to their left, the group crossed the Eight Canal High Coast; in the original world, it was called the Tama River, like the original world, it was a fairly large river in Celdesia.
The area around the river was familiar to them; taking about two hours to ride to from Akiba on horseback, and with many wild monsters, it was one of the places they trained.
However, just past the river was a completely unknown land.
It was at a distance that would make a day trip from Akiba somewhat difficult, so it was past the boundary of territory that the group had experience with. With that being said, the group felt more excited than nervous.
Before long, the zone name had changed to the Plains of Zuland.
The area was mixed between spaces where grass grew up to Minori’s waist in height and barren land. The grass swayed in waves with the wind, and poking out from the grassy fields were occasional ruins of small buildings. The majority of them were uninhabited apart from the vines and animals they provided shelter to.
“I can see something that looks like cows.” Came Isuzu’s voice from the covered part of the carriage, followed by Serara asking.
“Eh? Where, where? Where are they?”
After making sure that Tohya was holding the reigns, Minori turned around in the driver’s seat to look, Isuzu was pointing at a group of large four legged creatures.
“I think they’re a group of Green Elk.” She told them, the information she’d studied from Shiroe on the characteristics and distribution of monsters quickly coming in handy.
“Are they dangerous?”
“It’s okay, they’re far away, and I’ve heard they’re not aggressive.”
Monsters in Elder Tale were enemies to be defeated, but were differentiated by their aggression. There were monsters that would become aggressive when you approached too close, monsters that would attack on sight, and monsters that would ignore you until attacked. The Green Elk came under the latter group.
The carriage was travelling along a red clay road, occasionally patches of asphalt would appear, but it was fundamentally a red clay road with furrows carved into it by wheels that they travelled along at twice the speed of walking.
The wind was still cold, but it wasn’t the biting chill of winter, it was an invigorating spring breeze.
The area had fallen into ruin, but Minori still felt it was a beautiful place.
The road through the planes drew a gentle curve, following south west, essentially parallel to the coast, but separated by several kilometres so the sea couldn’t be seen, hidden behind the rolling plains.
Minori remembered Shiroe’s lecture.
How he’d told her that the road was Highway 1 on Earth, called the Eastern Sea Road. Of course, Minori knew the word ‘highway’, but had never given it’s meaning much thought. She had just vaguely thought that it was a road with many lanes that lots of cars drove along.
According to Shiroe, a highway was a state-administered main arterial road. The main roads of the country were all state-administered, but the mid-range sized roads and below were administered by local authorities. This efficient division of labour was invented and used since the Meiji period.
Highway 1 was the first road from the Highway plan, a road which connected Tokyo and Osaka.
A corresponding road existed in Celdesia, but couldn’t be compared to a maintained, four lane highway, that was the red clay road they were using.
“Hey, Minori, the weather’s good, should we hurry a bit further?” Asked a lively Isuzu as Minori turned the pages of her notebook.
“Shall we go?”
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
“Let’s keep at it!”
“In front of I, Rundelhous, the road is clear!”
“Alright!”
Pushed onwards by her friends’ voices, Minori also roused a “Let’s do this!”
It was a mistake.
Without stopping in the Village of Calbe, they hurried further along the red clay road, when in the late afternoon, the gear tethering the horses to the carriage suddenly disconnected.
In front of a surprised Minori and Tohya, the horses let out a loud whinny and continued galloping, disappearing over the horizon.
Inside the carriage left behind on the road, after exchanging dumbfounded looks, they burst into laughter.
The time limit for Twin Horse Flute of Lyman had run out.
Because no one had noticed the daily six hour limit approaching, and because no one had expected that when the time limit ran out the horses would leave at full speed, they couldn’t help but laugh.
“No way, even after they ate cabbage from my hand?”
“They ate from mine too.”
“They really don’t understand human empathy, those treacherous people!”
“Well, they’re horses.”
“I wonder if you can call them treacherous horses then.”
“Treacherous horses, horses, just, ahahahahaha.”
Isuzu and Serara were rolling about laughing in the carriage. Tohya, Rundelhous and Minori were of course laughing too. They were saying that, but the horses had looked at them with cute round eyes and even Minori had given them vegetables. There was no mistaking that the twins had swindled the group out of snacks.
They’d coaxed the horses, and after the time had passed, the horses ran without looking back. Being able to deal with things, they couldn’t hate the twin horses.
They weren’t as worldly as the horses, so Minori laughed and felt admiration. Being in the plains at twilight, with a carriage with no horses, was a massive failure, so they shouldn’t be laughing so much and they were taken aback.
“It’s no use, Minori, come on.”
Still giggling, Minori took Tohya’s hand and stepped down from the carriage.
Swaying from being seated for so long, Minori leant on Tohya. Her brother who could do the things she couldn’t.
On the night when she’d become aware of her love for Shiroe, whilst she was sitting in the dark, Tohya had stayed with her. Although she’d never say it to him herself, she was proud of her brother.
“The horses ran away, but isn’t that exiting itself?” Rundelhous said whilst stretching, “So, where about are we?”
According to Minori’s map, they were roughly in between Calbe’s inn and Wisteria village.
But whichever one they went to, struggling on through the night with the horseless carriage could be good. Of course, once the recast time had elapsed, they could re-summon the horses, but that was another eighteen hours away, Ten o’clock the following morning.
So the five of them decided they should camp.
Together, they moved the carriage to the side of the road to stop the now stationary carriage from causing trouble to merchants or adventurers.
Then the group prepared to set up camp.
It was a camp suitable for the fairly large failure.
Because they weren’t skilled at setting up a camp, preparations took much longer than expected. Using the Newly-wed’s apron, Serara happily made a stew, by the time it was finished, it had become pitch black.
After the horses ran away at four o’clock in the late afternoon, for a middle schoolers like Minori, it took a little more than an hour to find somewhere to camp, and after starting to cook, the sun had set.
Whilst they occasionally made mistakes whilst setting up the tents, and preparing the campfire, it was somehow well ordered, and took them probably around two hours.
Tohya was in high spirits and the tent that he set up was slightly off balance, its right side slanting somewhat, making the five of them laugh. All of their hands were covered in grass and dirt, but that too was nothing but something they could point at each other and laugh about.
Serara’s stew was somewhat watery, and couldn’t be called tasty by any standard. Rundelhous pulled out a piece of carrot that was still connected by the edge to another, and Serara bowed her head over and over apologising, but even so, the groups humour wasn’t dampened in the slightest.
Minori suddenly understood nature, it was like a nice natural park. A hiking course along Ozegahara’s mountain trails was the limit of her imagination. With no
experience beyond that, she was surprised, but somehow felt that there was no place more peaceful than nature., sitting on the grassy plains, with bits an pieces of broken concrete appearing here and there, and tree roots winding beneath the ground.
After sitting cross legged for so long, Tohya leapt up with a cry, and with the tent partially collapsed, they might not be able to spread their bedding out properly and sleep well.
Regardless, the five laughed and ate warm stew together under the starry sky.
With distributing anpan from their luggage, thinking back to the heartless horses, sitting around the fire watching sparks rise and inspecting the carriage axle by magic light, the five had stayed up for a long time under the star dusted sky.
The start of their trip couldn’t be praised at all, it was awkward and clumsy, but it was their first expedition.
With no one around for several kilometres, Minori’s heart pounded and she was exhilarated by an uneasy happiness.
To catch up with Shiroe who she liked, she wanted a little more power. Going on a trip with her friends so she could gain that power made her happy.
All the troubles they’d met that day, and all the mistakes were spinning round, but felt like a blessing to the group. If she’d been alone, Minori might have wanted to go home defeated, but all together they were just funny things to liven up their trip.
Isuzu started playing a sweet number for practice, and they hummed along until late at night.
By the time any of them considered going to sleep, the sky was starting to lighten.
It was three days since they’d left on their trip, and Tohya’s party was in the town of Sazan.
It had taken just over a day longer than they had calculated to reach the town. Whilst greeting many waving townspeople from the top of the carriage, they continued on to an inn with a horse signboard attached.
The road the party were following was called the Western Highway by the people who lived nearby.
To the people living nearby, it was an arterial route which boasted a traffic volume second to none in Yamato. With how the various villages, fishing and slightly smaller farming villages were distributed, along with the occasional markets and such opening, there was a great deal of merchant traffic, and inns were commonplace.
They’d heard before, but since they left, they learnt, everything had a reason.
When they looked at the map, they thought things like "Why does the road bend like that, wouldn’t a dead straight road to the destination be more efficient?" But whilst actually following the road, they saw all the things like deep forests, pits and hills that made making a completely straight road impossible.
With modern engineering methods, it might be different, but with the middle ages style technology of this world, it was impossible.
The placement of the individual villages had a reason too. How close they were to water, road connections, whether the land around it was fertile, the distance to forests and resource rich land. All of these factors coordinated together, and when they were right to create a village, a village would be created there.
Among other things, if the standard of living and the number of citizens increased, the village’s scope would grow, and it would become something which could be called a town. A village could grow a number of ways, the resources and geographical features around it, the volume of trade and the safety of the area, combined with many other reasons would cause a village to grow.
When compared to the surrounding area, the town of Sazan was a large base for people of the land.
The first floor of the inn called itself a bar, but rather than a bar or cafeteria, it had an atmosphere more like a meeting area.
The building was huge and made out of strong logs. The ceiling of the first floor was higher than a classroom, the floor was made of brick like blocks, and for about half of the room, they were then topped with wooden floorboards.
The reception and payment area were in the same place, and food and drink orders were made by just calling to the cheerfully sitting old man. When the old man was dozing at the side of the fire, with a huge dog lying at his feet, his grand-daughters who worked as waitresses would take the guests’ orders.
Tanned sailors sat around a large table enjoying a quick drink. The menu consisted mostly of marine products and alcohol.
Thirty minutes after the group entered the inn, they were performing on top of the largest table.
The village of people of the land didn’t have much entertainment, and because they were asking for so little, the inn didn’t even think of refusing.
Serara was playing a toy like organ, Tohya beat the back of boxes, and Isuzu and Minori alternated between playing the lute and whichever was free did the singing.
It was more like a student performance than a concert, but the gathered crowd of people of the land enjoyed it a lot.
The owner’s granddaughters (there were so many!) sold record breaking amounts of face reddening alcohol.
The old man with snowy white, goat like eyebrows excitedly told the group.
"As a special offer, you can all have bed and board free."
They drained their glasses over and over, especially Isuzu, who was surrounded by people of the land hurling praise at her.
Tohya had too much fun too, he eventually hit the wooden box that used to be a suitcase so hard that he broke it. It normally would have made Minori mad, but she was happy too.
Rundelhous had said that he was originally a noble of the people of the land, but without fitting Tohya’s image of a noble, he’d taken control and made this party fun.
To begin with, Rundelhous had said to the owner.
"We are a travelling party of Adventurers, but our master musician has said that they would like to perform here for a night. If it won’t cause you any trouble, could you offer us somewhere to perform?" But it was really an excuse for a party.
Afterwards, Isuzu stood at the front of their stage and introduced the others. When they started playing, Rundelhous’ hair sparkled from the corner he’d moved back to, he looked like he was the person having the most fun in the world, waving his hands to them the entire time.
Tohya thought that Rundelhous was a pretty amazing guy.
When Tohya hadn’t been able to join his football friends, he couldn’t have cheered them on with that kind of expression. That filled his chest, and filled him with strength to perform. Isuzu may not have understood the subtleties, but that was fine, this was the respect shared between men.
They stayed up extremely late that night; Isuzu sung every song she could think of and performed as much as she could.
Of course, they interspersed breaks for food and rest, and every time they were resting, a group of people of the land who hadn’t been in the meeting room yet would enter. When they heard that the performance was over, they dropped their shoulders in disappointment. For those people, they kept adding song after song, slowly dragging the performance out until five hours after sunset, the owner stood and shouted.
"That’s it for today, everyone’s tired and you all have work tomorrow! Go on! Go home!"
"The girls are already asleep, so keep it down, Rudy!"
"Good night, Tohya-san, Rundelhous-san."
"Night, Tohya, Rundelhous-san."
Leaving behind those words, the three girls disappeared off to their assigned room.
The inn didn’t have a bath, but they’d boiled some water in thanks and the girls used it to wipe their bodies off and wash their hair. Tohya and Rundelhous had roughly dusted themselves off and would do the rest tomorrow.
Going in to their own room from the corridor they’d separated in, it was a simple room that traders would stay in. It was smaller than they’d imagined, with wooden planks as beds, with a thick quilt futon on top of each. If they compared it to the pebble filled camping grounds, it was like heaven.
"Magic Light."
By the light the Rundelhous summoned, they checked over the luggage they’d brought from the carriage and sat on the beds.
Their throats were dry, their stomachs full and their arms sluggish.
It was all because of the clamour, but Tohya and Rundelhous basked in the echoes of happiness in the room.
A journey to capture a wyvern. This was different than what they imagined, but this was even better, that’s what Tohya thought.
The five of them putting their efforts together and travelling across the plains was like an adventure drama. But camping on the plains was harder than they’d thought. He didn’t want to accept it, but Tohya was a city boy, not a wild child.
Stopping in the village to perform was a popular idea and a really enjoyable experience. On top of it being like a festival, standing in the bright light at the centre gave them a sense of dizzying giddiness.
Stretching on the bed with a sigh, the sense of excitement remained like the roar of the sea and they couldn’t fall asleep.
"…fufu."
"…I know….Right?…Knew it!"
In the quiet of the room, voices echoed intermittently through from the next room.
They couldn’t understand what was being said, but from the tone and type of voices, they could tell it was Serara and Isuzu. Minori also chimed in and the three of their giggles could be heard.
"They sure are energetic."
"Too energetic." Said Tohya in a voice that matched Rundelhous’ smile, sitting up.
"What are they talking about, I wonder."
"Are you curious, Rudy-nii?"
"Of course not, I’m not one to gossip over what ladies talk about. It’s just I admire how they can keep talking about anything."
"Well, they’re girls." Tohya answered with a meaningless response and a smile.
It reminded him of school, the girls would chatter on and on about things; talking about the patterns of their socks would last half a day, sometimes even a whole day, Tohya and the other boys couldn’t understand it at all.
Tohya felt that compared to the other girls, Minori was relatively calm, but once she got heated up, she’d chatter on and on too. It was something about pudding from a shop in front of the station, she spent about half a day explaining it to him, but he didn’t follow it at all.
Judging from appearances, Rundelhous was happy; He may have sounded suspicious about the girls’ chatter, but he had a smile on his face and was polishing his Mage’s Gauntlet.
"Rudy-nii, you’re excited too."
"Hmm. This is just… ah, you always need to keep your equipment maintained."
"Fufun. I’ll do that too then."
Tohya started examining the leather belt of his armour that was in the luggage.
Just before they left, the party had their equipment examined by the craftsmen of the Eccentric Grotto. They couldn’t have their equipment getting damaged and breaking after a few days. Despite saying it was maintenance, it was about 20% for taking care, and 80% making it look good.
It was already approaching midnight, there was no way they’d do proper maintenance whilst their bodies were so tired. If they were asked why they were up, it would be embarrassing, but they couldn’t quite sleep.
It was a magic like night.
Tohya and Rundelhous still had jewels they wanted to get from the night, so they continued talking, holding the remains of the night.
About the carriage, the horses, the trip, the food, the camping grounds, and battle.
Before stopping at this village, they’d easily dispatched the wild boars. Minori stayed on high alert, but in the first place, the area around the road didn’t have high level monsters. Battles didn’t seem like they’d be a problem in this zone.
And then they talked about their friends again. With a downtrodden face, Rundelhous sighed and murmured.
"Say, Tohya. Why is Miss Isuzu so childishly innocent?"
"Is she?"
To Tohya, Isuzu didn’t seem particularly innocent or childish. She wasn’t calming and intellectual, but she acted her age. She was a good friend who understood what the people around her felt. He could understand why Minori had become best friends with her.
"Well, she instantly grabs onto me and brushes my hair."
"Ah."
That was true, but she didn’t that to Rundelhous, not to Tohya.
"I feel like she doesn’t think much of me but… Don’t laugh, Tohya, I’m serious."
Tohya fell back onto the bed under the overwhelming laughter, squirming and holding his stomach. After wiping the tears from his eyes, he started looking for a response. It was difficult, how should he answer without saying something funny.
"Well, uhh."
"Hmm?"
"It means you’re special." Tohya answered, fighting the urge to laugh. The thought of Isuzu standing imperiously and, with her mouth drawn up in a line, saying.
"Rudy is my henchman, so he’s special!" was too much, and made his stomach shake.
"Special?"
"Isuzu-neechan is like that when you spend time together and enjoy yourselves."
"I see."
"That’s right."
Rundelhous folded his arms and seemed to come to some sort of agreement with himself.
"But I don’t think she thinks I’m ‘specially beautiful’ or ‘specially amazing’ or ‘specially amazing and strong’. How does she think of me? You adventurers have strange expressions."
"No, you saying ‘beautiful’ is a bit strange, Rudy-niichan" Was what Tohya didn’t say. Rundelhous was bewildered, and Tohya’s precious older friend. And now a member of his party, and an adventurer too.
"Rudy-nii, you get on really well with Isuzu-neechan."
"Do you take me for someone who would make a woman walk alone? Miss Isuzu is a lovely lady, she might get caught up in some trouble she doesn’t want, couldn’t she?"
Tohya praised himself for only having his mouth wobble slightly, keeping it firmly closed. Tohya liked this golden haired youth, he’d stayed and listened to the performance, even if he felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave.
"It doesn’t matter, either way, we’re friends." said Tohya, keeping a serious face.
"Well, yes, I guess so." Answered Rundelhous, cocking his head in confusion.
Then the conversation moved on to their plans.
They planned to follow the red clay road along to the Ruins of Ariba. The Western Highway didn’t follow the coast, but mostly went through the plains near the Pacific coast and joined Akiba and Minami. Their destination was the Redstone Mountains, at the Ruins or Ariba, the road split, and they would have to take the thinner roads, or where there was no road, they’d have no choice but to climb the mountains.
Tohya didn’t hate fighting. Of course, it could be scary or painful, but he felt that it brought them together, and felt like they accomplished something. It was fact that there were monsters in this world where they were adventurers, if you wanted to live there, you should be able to fight.
"Tomorrow, we’re going all out to Sakawa, aren’t we."
"Yeah. I’m looking forward to it!"
"We should go to sleep now, Tohya. We can’t be sleepy whilst travelling."
The two of them went to their beds and fell asleep with a sense of satisfaction.
Sakawa was a level area which included Odawari in the original world.
Minori’s speciality wasn’t geography, but she could strangely understand this world fairly easily; it probably had something to do with the thoughts of “This is where we are going from here.” giving an interest.
According to Shiroe’s knowledge and what Minori had researched before leaving Akiba, this area had an abundance of water, so was an agricultural centre. Small villages of people of the land were dotted around, and mainly farmed wheat and rice. That’s what she’d heard.
The enemy classification was nature centred, there were many monsters like wild hounds, boars and plant monsters. However, they mainly lived in the forests and on the mountainside, the plains were by no means absolutely safe, but the monsters encountered had relatively low levels and the encounter rate was low.
Nevertheless, the group were put on their guard by a slight tension in the air.
It might have been a difference in the smell of the air, or in how the treetops swayed, but it settled in their chests and told them that something was different. Within half a day of resuming their journey, they’d happened to catch glances of goblins running far away twice. They’d also had a battle which couldn’t be called anything more than a skirmish.
Of course, they weren’t hurt, but it served as an omen that things would change from how they’d been until now.
“Dire Rats are coming out.”
“They surprised me.”
The party talked and gradually progressed up the steepening incline in their carriage.
As they climbed the gentle slopes, a pure white landscape greeted them. When they first laid eyes on it, it looked like a snowy expanse, but the slight, sweet scent of flowers reached them and they understood.
“Cherry trees!? Are those cherry trees?”
Isuzu asked, leaning out of the carriage, and Serara held her up and revealed what they really were.
“No, Isuzu-san, those are plum trees.”
It stood out amongst the remaining cold scenery of early spring, a hamlet of plum trees.
“They smell good.”
The scent was weak, but held a certain presence in the fields.
The slopes of the hill were divided into rows by stone walls, with gaps in them for workers to pass through. In the rows of fields, plum trees were scattered here and there. Whether the exposure to the sun had been thought of, this hill had become a forest of plum trees.
They continued following the road around to the west, it was a little off from the direction they needed to be going, but straight ahead was a large river. To cross the river, they needed to choose a place.
The white scenery continued. Isuzu and Rudy were earnestly moved, and Serara was explaining to the two of them and Tohya about how she had gone and bought plums with Nyanta and pickled them into a jam.
It was a peaceful scene.
The wind was still cold, but the glorious sunlight had made the carriage pleasantly warm as it went through sunny areas. As they drew closer to the river, the wind had more water in and the temperature dropped, and the calm atmosphere that had quietly begun in the forest continued.
From the forest, they could hear the distant voices of people of the land.
They might have been farming. The five of them listened carefully to the voices and smiled slightly.
The atmosphere changed as they detoured around the riverside forest, searching for somewhere to cross the river. From the dense trees blocking out the light, there came a sharp scream and fervent sounds. The tension from the morning returned in an instant.
Minori held up her staff in front of her chest.
“Minori, I’m going ahead, there’s something there!”
“Tohya!”
“What is it!?”
Rather than screams, the heavy breathing of someone short on oxygen running grew louder and a single man tumbled out from the trees. He was a person of the land, wearing brown and grey clothes to protect against the chill. In the time it took to look over the burly man, people who were likely his friends ran out after him from the darkness.
Tohya leapt from the driver’s seat and raced forwards several times faster than the men.
“An attack, get ready!” In response to the yell, Minori waved her staff and put a Purification Barrier on her younger brother. The breathing drawing closer through the forest sounded like a beast, it was ogres.
Ogres were one of the evil demi-human races, they were in similar locations to the goblins that the group fought in Choushi.
Compared to goblins, ogres were taller and more solidly built. They walked with a hunch, but if they straightened their backs, they’d be around the same height as Tohya. They were also stronger than goblins, in exchange, they were poor at coordinating and team work and weren’t as strong with weapons as the goblins.
High level goblins would use weapons, tame Dire Wolves and similar creatures, and rarely an individual would use magic.
Most high level ogres however wouldn’t even wear armour, they just became bigger, stronger and gained greater stamina. Then there were those altered by sorcery, ogres named things like Ooei in quests. They were a famous race.
Ogres and goblins both had a wide range of levels from the low to mid levels. When Elder Tale was a game, they were both arranged in characteristic areas.
From Kanto to Tohoku, eastern Japan’s field zones had many goblins, and from Chubu westward it was ogres. It’s somewhat of a digression, but Shikoku had lizardmen and Kyushu had Orcs.
Each area had their influences and characteristic quests.
Shiroe had told Minori all of this.
And according to Shiroe, the levels of the monsters near the road were kept pinned down. Of course, there might be influences from the change in the worlds so he’d advised caution, but even so it was a little strange. The ogres they encountered had levels of twenty one, of course, they weren’t much of a threat to the party, but weren’t they monsters which were originally away from the road, from the forests and mountains?
“Wolf-chan!”
Alert from the feeling of unease at Minori’s side, Serara descended from the carriage and summoned her helper summon. It appeared as a young, still chubby grey wolf. Clad in magic light, it ran around the group of people of the land, guarding them.
“For now.”
Serara’s eyes shone strongly.
In the past the next move with the same feeling of unease would be to rush after Tohya, but now, he could go ahead on his own.
“What’s the situation, Miss Minori?”
“Ogres came from the forest, chasing the people of the land. Reinforce and guard them!”
Minori called out as she ran ahead, going past the lead person of the land who’s legs had given out on him. Tohya was already even further ahead, crossing swords with the ogres. The enemies levels were twenty two, twenty two and twenty one, there were three of them.
It was a strange coincidence, but they were roughly the same levels as the skeletons they fought in Lagranda Forest. However, in the half a year since that summer’s training camp, the party had grown much stronger. Minori cast the level fifty four spell Mystic Spell of the Mirror. A magic mirror appeared in front of her and launched a beam of light, as it pierced the wicked looking ogre and reddened its skin, it also healed Tohya’s scratches.
Tohya pursued the ogre hit by the light with Izuna Cutter. Using that momentum, he used Ukifune Ferry, transitioning into Kasha’s Long Sword. Compared to the offensive classes, a samurai’s accuracy and damage were lower, but they had ways to compensate for that. Whilst breaking up the attacks, it blocked the monsters’ line of sight and kept Minori safe as the rear guard.
“Minori-chan, the woodcutters are okay!” Reported Serara from the rear.
Simultaneously, a well aimed Frost Spear blew away one of the Ogre’s arms.
At this rate it would be fine, against three opponents, half of the party’s fighting power would overwhelm them. The party had grown enough in levels and in how they fought, they would be more than enough.
“Watch out! Fifteen adds!”
A voice they’d never heard before called out, the carrying voice echoed around the forest and a flock of monsters was disgorged from the forest. They were unfamiliar monsters, looking like a black haze.
Following Shiroe and Naotsugu’s rigorous training, Minori drew back a leg in preparation and confirmed their statuses.
Nightshade Servants, level forty.
A much stronger enemy than the ogres, and fifteen of them. Minori quickly dropped into thought. From “Nightshade” they should be ghost type monsters, from their type they should have a high resistance against attribute damage. Dark spirits had a wicked poison or a resistance against abilities that affected the mind. They should also have a resistance against one hit kills.
“Servant” showed their role and rank within the same kind of monsters. This marked them as relatively weak in fighting ability amongst Nightshades. But even so, at level forty, they were within about ten levels of the party, since the catastrophe they were not enemies that could be taken lightly.
In all likelihood, the could win. However, the people of the land may be injured. There were many to fight whilst defending as well.
Tohya didn’t hesitate and raised his voice using Samurai’s Taunt, leaving the direction to Minori.
“Rundelhous-san, concentrate your firepower and finish off the ogres! Isuzu-san, keep up the defence!”
“Leave it to me. Orb of Lava!”
“Strengthening Pastoral!”
They were likely waiting. Rundelhous’ flying ball of fire stabbed through two of the ogres. At the same time, Tohya leapt back about ten paces, stretching the battle’s line. The decision to retreat to regroup was correct.
However, behind the party’s front line of Tohya and Minori, there was still the group of people of the land. Serara and Isuzu were guarding them, they didn’t think anything excessive would happen, but there were countless ways it could go wrong.
Meanwhile, the Nightshade Servants manipulated their mist covered bodies and attacked Tohya. His sword skills were polished, of course, the movements weren’t like kendo, but as well as Naotsugu, he’d also been taught by Akatsuki and Soujirou to use the vital points of an attack to turn it away.
Minori cast her eyes around.
The woman that warned them was most likely in the forest.
Depending on the situation, she may need help too.
But against her expectations, from the dark under-brush a woman wearing a fluttering, snow white cape and glasses sprinted forth. She let out a surge of soundless energy from the end of her staff, changing two of the Nightshade Servants rainbow coloured. She raised the staff again.
“Servant Summon: Princess Wraith!”
Servant summons were a fundamental means of attack used by summoners. They would summon monsters called servants and put them to use. As there was no time limit, to balance with the other eleven classes of the same level, the summon’s fighting ability was less than the summoners. Summoners didn’t have simple access to as simple, strong magic.
However, that was compared to the same level.
Clad in level ninety strength magic, the woman and her servant ran through the battlefield, exterminating the enemies.
Her own attack magic could not be said to be superior, but with the summoner’s skilful manipulation, and possibly a hidden energy wave from the servant’s death, the female adventurer took down the Nightshade Servants one after another.
In front of the dumbfounded group, she adjusted her glasses and said in a clear voice.
“Let me introduce myself, I am Roe2, a summoner. I guess you could say I’m… a travelling vampire heading south.”
A summoner with a snow white coat and round glasses had appeared in front of the group.
The people of the land who had run out from the forest were woodcutters who had been attacked by the ogres whilst working. The party split up and gathered their tools, they had abandoned their large axes and shoiko[1]
Of course, the people of the land could have gathered them, but there was still the possibility of enemies being in the forest.
They had no obligation to help the people of the land, but even with no one suggesting it, they spontaneously became an escort for them. Minori felt that they’d already started it, and after helping them once, if they were attacked in the forest again, it would leave a bad after taste.
Roe2, who had appeared so impressively, was currently collapsed in the back of the covered wagon.
She was a high levelled summoner, but she had said that she was weak to the sun, that was why up until now, she had always travelled through forests and mountainous areas.
Now that they had gathered the tools and attempted to continue onwards, a shocking incident came to light. The red light that the Nightshade Servants had fired was deflected from Tohya by Minori’s damage interception spell, but that stray attack had hit the party’s horses. The horses’ wounds were horrible, but even so, they had ran off and disappeared over the horizon and the Twin Horse Flute of Lyman had cracked.
Because of the re-use time limit, they couldn’t check immediately, but even if that wasn’t the case, the damage was severe enough that they would hesitate to use it before repairing it.
Therefore, Tohya and Isuzu were moving the carriage to the people of the land’s village.
Even though they were still in the level fifties, they had the strength of an adventurer. If they weren’t worried about speed, just walking and pushing the carriage was easy.
According to the woodcutters’ boss, Hayes, the people of the land would walk, travelling together like this was more convenient.
Out in front were Serara and her follower, Wolf. The bright grey lump of fur was full of curiosity and kept sticking his nose into the thickets to the left and right to smell, and then rushing back to Serara as if to report, barking sweetly.
Tohya was pulling the cart and guarding Hayes and the three helpers. At the back, Isuzu was in charge of pushing. Roughly next to her doing the same was Rundelhous who had said.
"Making a woman do physical labour is…"
But the difference in classes was cruel. Even though they were the same level, the difference in physical strength between the magic using sorcerer and the weapon based bard was significant.
"You don’t need to worry about it, you can just ride the carriage."
"I couldn’t so that."
"We can go on a walk together then."
"Why are you so happy, Miss Isuzu?"
"Because we’re walking?"
Minori was inside the covered wagon and could hear the two of them talking.
Roe2 had collapsed, so she’d decided that she needed to treat her.
"No, you don’t need to, I’m weak to restorative spells after all."
"Weak to?"
"Because I’m a vampire."
With an extremely dull expression, Roe2 put her index finger in the side of her mouth and pulled it to show her teeth and sharp canines peeked out.
When Minori saw them, she suddenly remembered the sub-class vampire.
She’d heard about it while talking with Shiroe, it was originally added for some kind of event, but it seemed it was a fairly unbalanced sub-class. In the night they were strengthened and could absorb HP in close combat, but in the day time they were greatly weakened, and HP recovery spells would in fact inflict additional damage. They were mostly unviable for party play.
The woman called Roe2 was a summoner. She was about the same height as Minori, but her thin sweater emphasised her chest and she was a beautiful woman.
In this alternate world, everyone was beautiful or cute. It was a remnant from when Elder Tale was a game, adventurers had better looks than the faces they’d left behind on Earth.
But strangely, even so, ‘beautiful girls’ and ‘beautiful women’ still definitely existed. It was their behaviour and atmosphere, or perhaps their aura that drew people in.
For example, her guildmate Akatsuki was like that, she had a charm about her more than her physical appearance. Within Minori’s acquaintances, there were others, Henrietta, Maryelle, Takayama Misa, and Nazuna, who she’d recently been learning from, were all the same.
If she went even further, there was Rayneshia. She’d only greeted her a few times, but she was the first person who’d remained so strongly in her memories like that.
All of those beautiful women (or girls) had some presence about them, that with just a smile, even Minori’s heart raced.
And right in front of her eyes, Roe2 was the same.
Her hair looked as though it hadn’t been tended too, but somehow appeared glamourous, she had a listless expression beneath her round glasses, but it still evoked a fascination.
Her white coat and angular bag were both unrefined adventurer items, she spoke similarly to men and had a boyish atmosphere. But even so, there was no one that would mistake her for a man, she couldn’t be seen as anything but a charming woman.
Minori felt her complex grow slightly.
She knew love so her melancholy grew.
She knew she was average.
Of course, she did what she could, she wore cute clothes as much as possible, especially when she went out with Shiroe. She spoke with Isuzu to chose clothes that weren’t childish, but also weren’t over reaching.
(Isuzu called it a strategy to make her a proper young lady.)
Even so, when she walked next to Shiroe, she felt embarrassed and ridiculous. She felt like a silly child who didn’t know anything next to him.
When she missed him setting off, walking next to him was also difficult, it seemed she was more of a coward than she thought. But the instant Shiroe stopped and looked back, that discouragement was blown away and she was filled with happiness and was surprised by how self interested she was.
She was the one that had said to Tohya she wasn’t doing anything on the night where she’d decided to do all she could to be with Shiroe.
But she was lost for what "all she could" was. Shiroe was an adult, but even in this world with no schools, he still saw her as just a middle schooler.
Her chest hurt with the feeling of being a worthless person, but even so, she didn’t want to let go of the throbbing pain.
"It makes me feel pretty disheartened."
"Ah, what?"
Minori was answered by Roe2
"…Is that a Celestial Spirit Cloak?"
"Hmm? Ah, it is, I’m impressed you know it."
"Well, my, hmm… teacher, Shiroe-san wears one."
"Eh? Ah, are they a magic user too?"
"Yes, an enchanter."
"This robe’s pretty good, it’s got wear resistance and it’s convenient for everyday use. It’s comfortable as well, and even stays nice through long journeys, right?"
Certainly, the robe wasn’t damaged or dirty.
Even though she moved through the countryside, she was a level ninety adventurer. Even choosing solo routes, she should be able to continue without being too exhausted. But being a vampire really was inconvenient, activities in the day were limited so it was fairly restrictive.
"Where did you come from? What’s your destination?"
"’Where did I come from and where am I going’? What a philosophical question."
"No, uhm, that’s not what I meant."
Roe2 replied with "I know." and smiled complacently. It was like she was teasing her. Minori who had started to retort was taken aback by the expression.
It seemed like she had more of a sense of humour than it first appeared from her appearance.
"I came from around Ouu, I think it was around three months ago now? It’s awful, I didn’t think it would be so hard by myself."
"Ouu?"
Minori searched her memories. It was in the Tohoku region of Japan, towards the end of last year, Shiroe had gone on an expedition there. In that area was where the Coronation of the Goblin King raid quest was happening even now, the underlying cause of the battle they’d encountered in Choushi. Thinking about it like that, it was a familiar place.
"Before that I was even further away, I got that far using Castling."
"Ah, that’s a summoner’s ability, a special spell to switch places with your summon, isn’t it."
Castling was a special spell of summoners, it allowed them and their summoned creatures, or existences they had contracts with to switch places. It seemed Roe2 had switched places with a summon in Ouu.
In Elder Tale, summoned creatures couldn’t get too far away from their summoner, but now you could go a large distance with the technique, even to other servers. That was the method one of the guilds of the Round Table Conference was using to investigate the fairy rings, it was common knowledge.
"Yeah, but whether it was my summon or my brother… Yeah, it was my brother, let’s go with brother. I switched places with my brother.
Roe2’s face coloured as she said that and she quickly continued on.
"I kept to the mountains from then to avoid the sun, I’m going to Ikoma for now. If I can get there, I can get rid of this vampire sub-class."
"A sub-class change quest?"
When Minori heard that, she understood.
Normally, sub-classes could be overwritten. If you did that, you would lose your current sub-class. Minori had overwritten seamstress with apprentice like this.
However, there were sub-classes which couldn’t be overwritten. It was a characteristic of sub-classes from hard quests or limited time events. To change one of those sub-classes, you had to complete a sub-class change quest and wipe the slate clean.
Vampire was a sub-class with many disadvantages. There were few people who still had it, and it was a fairly embarrassing sub-class is what Minori had heard from Shiroe.
The vampire sub-class had probably cause Roe2 a large inconvenience on this journey, so of course she’d want to get rid of it if possible, that sub-class change quest was in Ikoma.
"Well spotted. I really want to ask the one responsible which I have this sub-class. My brother… probably? It’s just the appearance, I mean I guess it’s convenient on the moon, but think a little about what happens when you come down to earth will you."
Minori was about to question Roe2’s recollection, but with a judder, the carriage came to a stop and interrupted the conversation.
"Hey, adventurers inside, and our little benefactor adventurers, this is our town, Koyurugi. We’ve got an inn too, so please rest, we’ll come to say thanks later!"
Poking her head out of the curtains, Minori saw a splitting river forming a wide delta. The carried water kept the ground fertile and kept the fields supplied with water. Surrounded by that patchwork of fields, there was a town.
In the slowly setting sun, cooking fumes hung in the air, greeting the party.
The room was simply decorated.
February was too early for trade. The merchants struck by the enthusiasm of Akiba were an exception that for this winter had strove to frequently find work, but for agricultural traders, they couldn’t get into the swing of things until spring.
Isuzu’s party had put their luggage in a room of the cottage like independent inn and, keeping only their valuables and equipment with them, returned to the cafeteria. The room was for traders, so other than room for the five of them and beds, there wasn’t much space for anything else. It wouldn’t be a problem when sleeping, but the sun hadn’t yet set.
There was also the woodcutter group who said they’d come to greet them, and they had to think about dinner too.
So the five of them returned to the cafeteria where the owner was waiting.
The cafeteria was a wooden construction with a low ceiling.
Making best use of fallen trees, the pillars and joists were naturally made of wood to make a skeletal frame, within that were impressive white painted walls. The lamps weren’t oil based, but something more like phosphorescent stones. They were a magic item made in Akiba, they would be exposed to the light throughout the day, and then slowly release that light for four or five hours. They were much cheaper than firefly lamps which shone through magic power.
The cafeteria was furnished with short sofas died green with plant dye, set around low dining tables and around the pillars were decorative plants; rather than a cafeteria, the room gave off the impression of a living room.
On one of those sofas, Roe2, who had accompanied them to the village had thrown herself down.
The other customers weren’t her acquaintances and felt awkward, so purposely went to other tables. The party drew close to her sofa. Tohya readily accepted her faint smile and beckoning and sat opposite her, Isuzu and Rundelhous sat on the other sides of the table, while Minori and Serara sat at Roe2’s sides.
Roe2 was drinking a purplish red juice, and in response to Serara’s question answered.
"I think it’s plum juice?"
"Are you staying here as well, Roe2-san?"
"Yeah, it’s been a while since I had a bath, and it looks like this inn has one."
"I heard that!" Answered Isuzu in an excited voice.
Most adventurer equipment had self repair and self cleaning functions. Even if they were covered in mud, dirt and bits of plants, they’d soon return to looking like new. Sweat would vanish off their bodies in an instant, so as long as adventurers were careful about damage, compared to the original world, there was no real need to bathe.
But even if they were clean, and weren’t actually sticky, they felt sticky and wanted to bathe. Isuzu was a girl of age, so that feeling was even more apparent. Serara and Minori also felt the same.
Without asking, food was brought to them.
According to the man bringing the food, it was a gift from the woodcutters they’d saved, he also relayed words of thanks from the mayor. The food was a somehow extravagant fried egg based dish. From the bowl sausages and tomatoes stuck out, the bottom layer was white rice, and the top was two seasoned fired eggs.
It was this inn’s signature dish, present at nearly every table.
With a smile spread across his face, Rundelhous began looking restlessly around the table. Without anything being said, Serara pulled out several condiments from the pouch at her waist.
"I’ll take soy sauce."
"Geez, of course you would, Tohya."
The twins belonged to the soy sauce faction.
Isuzu wordlessly passed a similar bottle to Rundelhous.
"Thank you, Miss Isuzu."
"When you’re done, pass it back."
Isuzu and Rundelhous were part of the Worcestershire sauce faction. In Isuzu’s family, her mother went for soy sauce, whilst she and her father would go for Worcestershire sauce. If the two of them were in Akiba, they’d also use luxury teriyaki sauce. But recently, as long as it was tasty, they weren’t worried about what they ate. Compared to when she was in Hamelin, their current eating habits were like heaven.
In front of them now was a (peculiar) egg dish, but this itself was a sign it wasn’t bad. In this world, Isuzu thought that the tastiest foods was cheap every day food. In other words, food culture brought by the adventurers.
This egg dish was probably an adventurer’s idea. If food was arranged like a five star meal, if you were exceedingly lucky, it would taste nice, otherwise, it would be tasteless.
Food that couldn’t be made at the touch of a button, when compared to menu made food based on appearance, wasn’t anywhere near as extravagant. In other words, food which looked average would most likely be food with flavour, originating from adventurers.
Compared to the Crescent Burgers, it was further from the norm, but because of that, they could have expectations of the meal.
Rundelhous certainly felt the same, lightly closing his eyes and waiting for the command to start eating, looking like he had an invisible tail sweeping left and right behind him.
"There, and there."
Serara was spooning mayonnaise onto the food with a wide smile. Isuzu had great sympathy for continuing travelling and looking forward to food.
Minori spoke to the confused looking Roe2.
"This is soy sauce, this is salt. This one is semi-thick Worcestershire sauce and this red one is ketchup. Which would you like Roe2-san?"
"Hmm. Hmm hmm…"
With a wondrous face, Roe2 took each of them and used them consecutively.
To Isuzu, using both soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce wasn’t right, but that was something people were free to choose. Touching on people’s delicate spots made arguments inevitable. And these eggs could be called chief among these. It was like that in Isuzu’s house, she always wanted to scold her father for using ponzu[2].
"Let’s eat!"
The party all took their meals. There were spoons set out, but Isuzu and Rundelhous both used washable chopsticks. Rundelhous had become quite skilled with them.
The cafeteria was around half full.
The surrounding merchants and craftsmen were mostly exchanging information about the area. Isuzu had come to understand since leaving on the journey, in a fairly small town or village like this, inns and bars, besides being trade institutions were also a sort of public facility. Of course they were there for drink and food, but they were also used for gathering information about the area, discussions and establishing routines.
In the twilit cafeteria, the party enjoyed their meal. Eating outside in the fields had it’s own charm, and (assuming Serara didn’t make a mistake) was tasty, but settling down like this and eating together was pleasant.
Isuzu took a piece of rise that had stuck to Rundelhous’ face and filled everyone’s cups with cold tea from the pitcher.
"Okay, I’ve got it! This glugging black thing is Worcestershire sauce, and this gushing black thing is soy sauce, right?"
Roe2 mumbled this and added more of each.
The glance exchanged by Isuzu and Minori held the same feelings, this too was a competition between soy and Worcestershire sauce.
"No no, that’s perfect. You should study them both."
"Mayonnaise is tasty too."
Serara tried to draw in allies in her own way and Roe2 gingerly added mayonnaise as well. It worried Isuzu but she didn’t say anything. The politics surrounding fried eggs were complex and strict after all. You couldn’t intervene with anything other than saying your preference.
"It looks like he had to go back part way through…"
"Caravan life is hard, isn’t it?"
"Even so, individual merchants somehow…"
Travellers were butting heads with influential men of the village and craftsmen. It was no idle gossip, rather it was an important information exchange to determine the town’s policies from now on.
Hearing the conversation interspersed with sighs, Isuzu looked up, and looking closely could see the merchants’ faces were dark.
"I wonder if something happened."
In response to Isuzu’s quizzical inquiry, each of them looked around the room.
In the comfortable cafeteria, there were many merchants and dejected looking craftsmen who looked like they’d been there for a while.
"Continuing west from here, there is a mountain district called Boxurt. It has beautiful lakes and nobles that flourish on taxes, but monster activity is rising in the area.
"I see…"
Roe2 ate a spoonful of rice mixed with egg yolk and explained the conversations. She’d heard the circumstances whilst the party were returning to the room.
"They’re mostly monsters from level twenty to thirty. The ones we fought just past noon were the same, it looks like there’s some power conflict in the mountains. Stronger monsters from higher up are coming down the mountains. Their spheres of influence are shifting like billiard balls."
"Did you see them whilst you were travelling, Roe2-san?"
"Yeah, I’ve been travelling in the forests’ shadows after all."
Roe2 easily answered Minori’s question, and with thanks for the food, put her bowl down. She’d nonchalantly finished the food first among the group. Contrary to her beautiful appearance, she ate fast, altering Isuzu’s evaluation of her, bringing forth feelings of affection.
"We’re fine, but it must be hard for all of the merchants."
Isuzu thought over Minori’s words for a moment.
"If they only used the main road, the monsters’ levels would be around ten. Especially around the red clay road, the ancient techniques were to repel monsters after all."
Rundelhous also added his opinion after thinking on it.
Isuzu replied with.
"That’s why if monsters over level twenty appear neat the roads, it will trouble the traders."
The merchants that had been here for so long couldn’t cross the mountain pass and were stranded.
"We’re still troubled too, the horses were hurt."
Serara’s words made Isuzu notice too, that was certainly a large problem. In this people of the land town, it was unlikely there would be stores for adventurer equipment, and the likelihood of finding a craftsman for adventurer items was close to zero.
"Horses? Oh, that’s right, they ran off. Couldn’t you just summon horses?"
Roe2 had a full stomach and cheerfully said that.
If they were summoners, they could, but none of the party were.
"You can do that, Roe2-neechan?"
They were all thinking the same. Then in his usual happy voice Tohya asked that."
However, the answer wasn’t anything like what Isuzu was expecting.
"Nee… Ah, nee!? You, could you say onee-san?"
Isuzu felt that the atmosphere had somewhat broken, and before she could interrupt, her friends replied with.
"Onee-san?"
"Roe-neesan?"
"So rather than miss, saying lady is better? No, it’s different, sister Roe2."
The spectacled woman held her fist before her eyes, seeming to be moved greatly and nodding silently with her mouth tightly closed, repeatedly breathing deeply.
"Onee-san, I like it, onee-san… Hearing those words makes me feel like I’m being relied on."
Isuzu went to say that that wasn’t the case, her best friend Minori noticed this and put her hand in the way.
However, the two of them couldn’t interject into Roe2’s monologue. She was filled with pride and had a cheerful expression.
"Somehow being relied upon lifts me up. Being an onee-san is a good thing. I want to be treated like one, lifted up as an onee-san. Alright, I’ll join you on your journey. I don’t mind if you rely on me in battle. Of course, I’ll also provide horses. A stack of horses better than anyone has ever seen. In exchange, I will be your onee-san. What do you think!?"
Roe2 had a nice face and body, but from Isuzu’s point of view made a not quite as stylish proclamation. Against that request with no respite, the party couldn’t resist.
"Wow, it’s huge."
"Yeah, it’s amazing."
With a pleasant sound, a Bug Light came out and illuminated the thick steam and a bath surrounded by rocks. They’d been told there was a bath, but it wasn’t just something a room had inside, they went several minutes walk along a gravel path from the back of the inn to a depression in the ground.
The trees around the area hid it well enough and the hot water and cold river water fell down like a waterfall. Rather than a bath, it was more like a hot spring, made by hot water drawn from its source and mixed with the cold water from the river Ricouart.
There was a small, hut-like building for changing in. Serara was excited from having caught sight of the bath and went into the small building with Minori and Isuzu.
The bath earlier was the same, but there was no one in the changing area.
Normal people of the land had early nights. Werecats could see well in the dark, and you could use phosphorescent stones like in the cafeteria, but normal houses only had lamps. To use those, fuel and preparation were needed, and it wasn’t possible to simply light up large spaces. Carrying a light and using the bath would be a bother.
So rather than going out of their way to light areas and use them at night, the majority of people of the land had a lifestyle where they would finish whatever business they had whilst the sun was up and go to bed early.
The owner had said to the three of them,
"No one’s reserved it now." It was obvious, but Serara had needed to make sure.
Serara knew that asking if it was reserved was because of her shyness, but adventurers had magic lights so even at this sort of time could freely enjoy a bath like this.
Isuzu had already undressed and put her hair back and headed towards the exit with a towel wrapped around herself.
Serara was hurrying but was still slow.
She may have been disappointed, but if the only ones around were her same-sex friends, even though she was called pudgy and had taken off her clothes, she had courage.
There was no need to be so cautious, but she was easily embarrassed and too self conscious.
Serara pinned her hair behind her head as quickly as she could and, covering her front with a bath towel, timidly went out, caution was important in an alternate world.
Minori was waiting for her there.
"It doesn’t seem too hot. There’s a paved area over there, so shall we wash ourselves first?"
Seeing her younger friend’s care free smile, Serara felt slightly more at ease and nodded with a smile, heading in that direction.
The "Natural Product, Additive Free Shampoo and Conditioner" and "Trial Model Creamy Soap" that they’d brought from Akiba weren’t particularly high class products compared to those of the original world, and their performance was likely worse too. But to the people of the land, they were super high class products, and were good enough for practical use. The three of them used these with sponges and towels and washed their hair too.
Since the Catastrophe, Serara thought she’d changed.
Before she herself knew she was clumsy and slow to understand things. Even if it was just bathing, on school trips and such she felt she caused trouble to the people who had long baths.
She didn’t know whether the reason for her change was her housekeeper sub-class or her lifestyle in this world.
In the original world, she didn’t hate jobs like cleaning and washing and was responsible for a lot of jobs like that. But her skill level was never more than average.
After having been in this world and doing a lot of housework, her skill level had risen.
Rather than game-like bonuses due to a sub-class, Serara felt that if you mastered a skill yourself it was nicer.
Even now she wouldn’t say she was particularly skilful, but she was much better than before. She felt being able to do housework well was like being a young bride and a wonderful thing.
She and Minori washed each-other’s backs and dried their hair with the same pace.
"I’m finished, Serara-san."
"I’m finished too, Minori-chan!"
The two of them met gazes, and with a smile, rushed Isuzu, who was blankly staring, and began washing her hair.
When it was untied, Isuzu’s hair cascaded down to her waist.
She said things like "I’m not feminine.", "I’m all skin and bones.", "I’ve got so many freckles." and "I’m a high school girl you’d find anywhere." but in reality, her long hair was important to her. Serara had noticed that, even while complaining, the amount of time she put into washing it properly made it apparent. Minori and Serara had been waiting for a chance to touch their friend’s hair.
"Isuzu-chan’s hair is so fluffy."
"We brought two types of comb."
"It’s fine, it’s a bother so I’ll do it myself."
"Not at all, this is part of a housekeeper’s job too."
"An apprentice won’t run from any kind of job."
"Do you have any itches?"
"Geez, Serara."
"If you talk you’ll get soap in your mouth, Isuzu-san."
"You too Minori?"
"It’s practice for Serara-chan’s future."
"Eh?"
"A newly-wed’s practice."
"Eeh!?"
In response to Minori’s serious way of speaking, "Really?" "Is that true?" "Why has this happened!?" and the three’s uncontainable laughter echoed around the bath. Even so Serara didn’t stop washing, she knew washing long hair was actually a lot of work and had been talking about washing Isuzu’s hair with Minori before.
It was wonderful that the chance had came with this journey.
In the cheerful illumination of a magic light, Serara sunk in the water up to her shoulders. The warmth of the water slowly permeated her body, feeling heavenly, the two next to her also closed their eyes and let out a happy sigh.
The bath was about five metres in each direction, much bigger than the cast iron baths in high class people of the land inns, big enough to stretch your legs and relax, and deep enough to have the water come up to your chin.
This bath had two water currents, a hot and a cold. After finding the right temperature they happily lowered themselves into the bath.
"Aah, the water’s nice!" Proclaimed Isuzu with a smile.
Minori smiled and Serara was happy too.
Looking up at the roughly half full moon and magical light floating in the sky, the three started to giggle for no reason.
Adventurers’ bodies were surprising, despite continually sleeping out in the fields on their journey, they didn’t have any muscle pain, and there was no lingering fatigue. However, they still became stressed and being able to sit in warm water like this was something to be thankful for.
In all honesty, they were somewhat reluctant to continue camping.
Minori had said that in the original world this area was a tourist destination, with tasty fish and famous for its dried seafood.
Serara vaguely thought "I’d like to come here with Nyanta-san at some point."
"It’s warm, isn’t it?"
"It is."
"Right."
The three had gone limp and relaxed as they talked.
Even Isuzu, who was normally full of energy was smiling like a cat napping in the day. Serara found it funny and put her mouth below the water and blew bubbles to disguise her laughter.
All people became like cats when in a nice, warm bath like this. Serara herself felt like napping.
"Maybe I’ve grown cat ears too… If I grew cat ears and whiskers, I’d be a werecat. No, werecats are almost totally cats, maybe a catwere. I’d be one step closer to my dreams."
Serara wriggled her toes at the happy image that made her want to giggle.
"You’re making a sleepy face too, Serara-san."
"Because I’m a caat."
Enveloped in warmth up to the neck, it was hard to think of complicated things, so it was only natural the conversation became childish. Or that’s what Serara told herself as she answered.
"So, you want to bathe with Nyanta-san?"
That warm, peaceful mood was shattered in an instant by Isuzu’s questioning with a smile hiding a tinge of teasing.
"That’s not what I said."
"But you think he’s attractive, don’t you?"
"Nyanta-san is a dandy, good looking and stylish."
Serara tried her best to answer and Isuzu caught Minori by the shoulder. Minori looked at both of them in confusion, but Isuzu’s attitude of Minori being on her side remained.
"If we’re talking about that, then what about you and Rundelhous-san?"
"Hm? He’s my friend for walks isn’t he?"
Isuzu’s puzzled response amazed Serara.
Thinking about it normally, Isuzu and Rundelhous appeared more couple-like than Serara and Nyanta, but somehow, Isuzu hadn’t noticed that.
"But Isuzu-san and Rundelhous-san suit each other so well."
Serara couldn’t think of them as anything other than early morning dates. To Serara with her kitchen dates (or so she liked to think) Isuzu’s thickheadedness wasn’t understandable. But that might be because she wanted Nyanta too much, but while thinking that she wondered what ‘too much’ was to a girl and felt a heat that didn’t come from the water begin to well up.
To hide that, all she could do was hide the lower half of her face in the water and blow bubbles.
"Serara-san will become a good wife." Said Minori with a bright voice, striking the final blow.
"Well you might become Shiroe-san’s secretary, Minori."
"Uu… There’s no way that would happen."
"But you’re all lovey dovey, trying to help."
The focus moved away from Serara. Isuzu turned her teasing gaze to Minori but from Serara’s point of view, Minori was an amazing girl. She changed her sub-class to apprentice and other than when they went out hunting, she helped the 8th Shopping District, she was a super middle schooler.
Since they’d become friends Serara had seen many of Minori’s cute and clumsy points but she thought she wanted to follow her sense of responsibility and skill. Especially her work rate. Even when they were cleaning up or making something, Minori would finish fist, it wasn’t that any of her individual actions were amazingly fast, but moving between things and the preparations were done quickly. Serara felt it was a difference in thinking, or intelligence, but Minori was amazing.
She was a little younger, but in this world with no schools, that didn’t hold much weight so Serara thought of Minori as a friend of the same age.
"Everything would go well if you became a secretary."
"That’s not true, I just want to help, even if it’s a little."
"She’s doing it again."
"She’s doing it again."
"Isuzu-chan, Minori-chan is saying somethiiing."
"Serara-chan, Minori is cuute."
Following Isuzu’s lead, they put Minori in the middle of them and pushed her back and forth between them.
Giggling and smiling was a strange feeling to Serara. When she was in Susukino, she couldn’t imagine being able to laugh like this, but it felt like it had been years since then.
Holding on to Minori’s soft hair, it was Isuzu’s turn now.
"What will you do in the future then, Isuzu-san?"
"Eh?"
After teasing the other two, Isuzu was surprised to have the questioning suddenly turn to her, but her expression returned to normal quickly.
"I’m normal, if we return to the original world I’ll become an office worker or something; and if we stay here I’ll do hunting, quests and work for the round table, and sing at Bloom Hall every week."
"You’ll become a singer, Isuzu-chan?"
"Eeh? I won’t," Isuzu laughed for a while and clapped her hands. "I won’t, I won’t, I’m not a singer or anything. That’s something someone who stands out more does. I just sometimes sing a bit in a restaurant, giving people some background music when they’re happy, along with Rudy."
She couldn’t see any sadness or distaste in Isuzu’s expression so Serara thought she actually meant it. Thinking about it, it was only natural, not everyone was aiming to become a music artist, Isuzu just liked music, she didn’t have that kind of interest in it.
"The future, huh?"
Hearing a voice from nearby, the three jumped up in shock, they didn’t think there was anyone else bathing.
Roe2’s composed nodding and steamed up glasses shone.
"Ah, you’re so young."
Serara for some reason meekly nodded at the kind voice. Roe2 was a mysterious woman who’d also showed childish reactions, but sometimes she appeared like an all knowing, kind, older woman.
"Roe2-san…"
"Of course, as your older sister, my body’s better."
Roe2’s words shocked Serara, and Isuzu didn’t stop with just being shocked, her mouth dropped open. The impression of her as a reliable older sister they’d had until now vanished completely.
"Eh, ah, uhm."
"My chest is bigger too."
Roe2 saying that again made comforting the two difficult.
They protested, were calmed and then somehow the conversation moved from love, to the world and then to the towns they had lived in.
"Roe2-san, where did you live?"
"Just where the city becomes depopulated."
"You lived alone? That sounds nice."
"I’m an adult after all. And with communications advancements, physical distance doesn’t matter much.
"I see, that’s right." Thought Serara.
This was a web-game, that became another world where Serara had met Nyanta. Physical distance had nothing to do with their meeting.
Time passed like rushing wind, but their conversation didn’t.
Serara noticed she’d never been bored with Minori and Isuzu, and Roe2 had easily joined the group.
They were fun times like Pipi joining the Settergren siblings. Of course, enjoyable times game with a price, but the four were absorbed in the moment.
They left on an abnormally clear day for the season.
Seen off by their guild seniors to the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice, their journey west began.
Looking to their left, the group crossed the Eight Canal High Coast; in the original world, it was called the Tama River, like the original world, it was a fairly large river in Celdesia.
The area around the river was familiar to them; taking about two hours to ride to from Akiba on horseback, and with many wild monsters, it was one of the places they trained.
However, just past the river was a completely unknown land.
It was at a distance that would make a day trip from Akiba somewhat difficult, so it was past the boundary of territory that the group had experience with. With that being said, the group felt more excited than nervous.
Before long, the zone name had changed to the Plains of Zuland.
The area was mixed between spaces where grass grew up to Minori’s waist in height and barren land. The grass swayed in waves with the wind, and poking out from the grassy fields were occasional ruins of small buildings. The majority of them were uninhabited apart from the vines and animals they provided shelter to.
“I can see something that looks like cows.” Came Isuzu’s voice from the covered part of the carriage, followed by Serara asking.
“Eh? Where, where? Where are they?”
After making sure that Tohya was holding the reigns, Minori turned around in the driver’s seat to look, Isuzu was pointing at a group of large four legged creatures.
“I think they’re a group of Green Elk.” She told them, the information she’d studied from Shiroe on the characteristics and distribution of monsters quickly coming in handy.
“Are they dangerous?”
“It’s okay, they’re far away, and I’ve heard they’re not aggressive.”
Monsters in Elder Tale were enemies to be defeated, but were differentiated by their aggression. There were monsters that would become aggressive when you approached too close, monsters that would attack on sight, and monsters that would ignore you until attacked. The Green Elk came under the latter group.
The carriage was travelling along a red clay road, occasionally patches of asphalt would appear, but it was fundamentally a red clay road with furrows carved into it by wheels that they travelled along at twice the speed of walking.
The wind was still cold, but it wasn’t the biting chill of winter, it was an invigorating spring breeze.
The area had fallen into ruin, but Minori still felt it was a beautiful place.
The road through the planes drew a gentle curve, following south west, essentially parallel to the coast, but separated by several kilometres so the sea couldn’t be seen, hidden behind the rolling plains.
Minori remembered Shiroe’s lecture.
How he’d told her that the road was Highway 1 on Earth, called the Eastern Sea Road. Of course, Minori knew the word ‘highway’, but had never given it’s meaning much thought. She had just vaguely thought that it was a road with many lanes that lots of cars drove along.
According to Shiroe, a highway was a state-administered main arterial road. The main roads of the country were all state-administered, but the mid-range sized roads and below were administered by local authorities. This efficient division of labour was invented and used since the Meiji period.
Highway 1 was the first road from the Highway plan, a road which connected Tokyo and Osaka.
A corresponding road existed in Celdesia, but couldn’t be compared to a maintained, four lane highway, that was the red clay road they were using.
“Hey, Minori, the weather’s good, should we hurry a bit further?” Asked a lively Isuzu as Minori turned the pages of her notebook.
“Shall we go?”
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
“Let’s keep at it!”
“In front of I, Rundelhous, the road is clear!”
“Alright!”
Pushed onwards by her friends’ voices, Minori also roused a “Let’s do this!”
It was a mistake.
Without stopping in the Village of Calbe, they hurried further along the red clay road, when in the late afternoon, the gear tethering the horses to the carriage suddenly disconnected.
In front of a surprised Minori and Tohya, the horses let out a loud whinny and continued galloping, disappearing over the horizon.
Inside the carriage left behind on the road, after exchanging dumbfounded looks, they burst into laughter.
The time limit for Twin Horse Flute of Lyman had run out.
Because no one had noticed the daily six hour limit approaching, and because no one had expected that when the time limit ran out the horses would leave at full speed, they couldn’t help but laugh.
“No way, even after they ate cabbage from my hand?”
“They ate from mine too.”
“They really don’t understand human empathy, those treacherous people!”
“Well, they’re horses.”
“I wonder if you can call them treacherous horses then.”
“Treacherous horses, horses, just, ahahahahaha.”
Isuzu and Serara were rolling about laughing in the carriage. Tohya, Rundelhous and Minori were of course laughing too. They were saying that, but the horses had looked at them with cute round eyes and even Minori had given them vegetables. There was no mistaking that the twins had swindled the group out of snacks.
They’d coaxed the horses, and after the time had passed, the horses ran without looking back. Being able to deal with things, they couldn’t hate the twin horses.
They weren’t as worldly as the horses, so Minori laughed and felt admiration. Being in the plains at twilight, with a carriage with no horses, was a massive failure, so they shouldn’t be laughing so much and they were taken aback.
“It’s no use, Minori, come on.”
Still giggling, Minori took Tohya’s hand and stepped down from the carriage.
Swaying from being seated for so long, Minori leant on Tohya. Her brother who could do the things she couldn’t.
On the night when she’d become aware of her love for Shiroe, whilst she was sitting in the dark, Tohya had stayed with her. Although she’d never say it to him herself, she was proud of her brother.
“The horses ran away, but isn’t that exiting itself?” Rundelhous said whilst stretching, “So, where about are we?”
According to Minori’s map, they were roughly in between Calbe’s inn and Wisteria village.
But whichever one they went to, struggling on through the night with the horseless carriage could be good. Of course, once the recast time had elapsed, they could re-summon the horses, but that was another eighteen hours away, Ten o’clock the following morning.
So the five of them decided they should camp.
Together, they moved the carriage to the side of the road to stop the now stationary carriage from causing trouble to merchants or adventurers.
Then the group prepared to set up camp.
It was a camp suitable for the fairly large failure.
Because they weren’t skilled at setting up a camp, preparations took much longer than expected. Using the Newly-wed’s apron, Serara happily made a stew, by the time it was finished, it had become pitch black.
After the horses ran away at four o’clock in the late afternoon, for a middle schoolers like Minori, it took a little more than an hour to find somewhere to camp, and after starting to cook, the sun had set.
Whilst they occasionally made mistakes whilst setting up the tents, and preparing the campfire, it was somehow well ordered, and took them probably around two hours.
Tohya was in high spirits and the tent that he set up was slightly off balance, its right side slanting somewhat, making the five of them laugh. All of their hands were covered in grass and dirt, but that too was nothing but something they could point at each other and laugh about.
Serara’s stew was somewhat watery, and couldn’t be called tasty by any standard. Rundelhous pulled out a piece of carrot that was still connected by the edge to another, and Serara bowed her head over and over apologising, but even so, the groups humour wasn’t dampened in the slightest.
Minori suddenly understood nature, it was like a nice natural park. A hiking course along Ozegahara’s mountain trails was the limit of her imagination. With no
experience beyond that, she was surprised, but somehow felt that there was no place more peaceful than nature., sitting on the grassy plains, with bits an pieces of broken concrete appearing here and there, and tree roots winding beneath the ground.
After sitting cross legged for so long, Tohya leapt up with a cry, and with the tent partially collapsed, they might not be able to spread their bedding out properly and sleep well.
Regardless, the five laughed and ate warm stew together under the starry sky.
With distributing anpan from their luggage, thinking back to the heartless horses, sitting around the fire watching sparks rise and inspecting the carriage axle by magic light, the five had stayed up for a long time under the star dusted sky.
The start of their trip couldn’t be praised at all, it was awkward and clumsy, but it was their first expedition.
With no one around for several kilometres, Minori’s heart pounded and she was exhilarated by an uneasy happiness.
To catch up with Shiroe who she liked, she wanted a little more power. Going on a trip with her friends so she could gain that power made her happy.
All the troubles they’d met that day, and all the mistakes were spinning round, but felt like a blessing to the group. If she’d been alone, Minori might have wanted to go home defeated, but all together they were just funny things to liven up their trip.
Isuzu started playing a sweet number for practice, and they hummed along until late at night.
By the time any of them considered going to sleep, the sky was starting to lighten.
It was three days since they’d left on their trip, and Tohya’s party was in the town of Sazan.
It had taken just over a day longer than they had calculated to reach the town. Whilst greeting many waving townspeople from the top of the carriage, they continued on to an inn with a horse signboard attached.
The road the party were following was called the Western Highway by the people who lived nearby.
To the people living nearby, it was an arterial route which boasted a traffic volume second to none in Yamato. With how the various villages, fishing and slightly smaller farming villages were distributed, along with the occasional markets and such opening, there was a great deal of merchant traffic, and inns were commonplace.
They’d heard before, but since they left, they learnt, everything had a reason.
When they looked at the map, they thought things like "Why does the road bend like that, wouldn’t a dead straight road to the destination be more efficient?" But whilst actually following the road, they saw all the things like deep forests, pits and hills that made making a completely straight road impossible.
With modern engineering methods, it might be different, but with the middle ages style technology of this world, it was impossible.
The placement of the individual villages had a reason too. How close they were to water, road connections, whether the land around it was fertile, the distance to forests and resource rich land. All of these factors coordinated together, and when they were right to create a village, a village would be created there.
Among other things, if the standard of living and the number of citizens increased, the village’s scope would grow, and it would become something which could be called a town. A village could grow a number of ways, the resources and geographical features around it, the volume of trade and the safety of the area, combined with many other reasons would cause a village to grow.
When compared to the surrounding area, the town of Sazan was a large base for people of the land.
The first floor of the inn called itself a bar, but rather than a bar or cafeteria, it had an atmosphere more like a meeting area.
The building was huge and made out of strong logs. The ceiling of the first floor was higher than a classroom, the floor was made of brick like blocks, and for about half of the room, they were then topped with wooden floorboards.
The reception and payment area were in the same place, and food and drink orders were made by just calling to the cheerfully sitting old man. When the old man was dozing at the side of the fire, with a huge dog lying at his feet, his grand-daughters who worked as waitresses would take the guests’ orders.
Tanned sailors sat around a large table enjoying a quick drink. The menu consisted mostly of marine products and alcohol.
Thirty minutes after the group entered the inn, they were performing on top of the largest table.
The village of people of the land didn’t have much entertainment, and because they were asking for so little, the inn didn’t even think of refusing.
Serara was playing a toy like organ, Tohya beat the back of boxes, and Isuzu and Minori alternated between playing the lute and whichever was free did the singing.
It was more like a student performance than a concert, but the gathered crowd of people of the land enjoyed it a lot.
The owner’s granddaughters (there were so many!) sold record breaking amounts of face reddening alcohol.
The old man with snowy white, goat like eyebrows excitedly told the group.
"As a special offer, you can all have bed and board free."
They drained their glasses over and over, especially Isuzu, who was surrounded by people of the land hurling praise at her.
Tohya had too much fun too, he eventually hit the wooden box that used to be a suitcase so hard that he broke it. It normally would have made Minori mad, but she was happy too.
Rundelhous had said that he was originally a noble of the people of the land, but without fitting Tohya’s image of a noble, he’d taken control and made this party fun.
To begin with, Rundelhous had said to the owner.
"We are a travelling party of Adventurers, but our master musician has said that they would like to perform here for a night. If it won’t cause you any trouble, could you offer us somewhere to perform?" But it was really an excuse for a party.
Afterwards, Isuzu stood at the front of their stage and introduced the others. When they started playing, Rundelhous’ hair sparkled from the corner he’d moved back to, he looked like he was the person having the most fun in the world, waving his hands to them the entire time.
Tohya thought that Rundelhous was a pretty amazing guy.
When Tohya hadn’t been able to join his football friends, he couldn’t have cheered them on with that kind of expression. That filled his chest, and filled him with strength to perform. Isuzu may not have understood the subtleties, but that was fine, this was the respect shared between men.
They stayed up extremely late that night; Isuzu sung every song she could think of and performed as much as she could.
Of course, they interspersed breaks for food and rest, and every time they were resting, a group of people of the land who hadn’t been in the meeting room yet would enter. When they heard that the performance was over, they dropped their shoulders in disappointment. For those people, they kept adding song after song, slowly dragging the performance out until five hours after sunset, the owner stood and shouted.
"That’s it for today, everyone’s tired and you all have work tomorrow! Go on! Go home!"
"The girls are already asleep, so keep it down, Rudy!"
"Good night, Tohya-san, Rundelhous-san."
"Night, Tohya, Rundelhous-san."
Leaving behind those words, the three girls disappeared off to their assigned room.
The inn didn’t have a bath, but they’d boiled some water in thanks and the girls used it to wipe their bodies off and wash their hair. Tohya and Rundelhous had roughly dusted themselves off and would do the rest tomorrow.
Going in to their own room from the corridor they’d separated in, it was a simple room that traders would stay in. It was smaller than they’d imagined, with wooden planks as beds, with a thick quilt futon on top of each. If they compared it to the pebble filled camping grounds, it was like heaven.
"Magic Light."
By the light the Rundelhous summoned, they checked over the luggage they’d brought from the carriage and sat on the beds.
Their throats were dry, their stomachs full and their arms sluggish.
It was all because of the clamour, but Tohya and Rundelhous basked in the echoes of happiness in the room.
A journey to capture a wyvern. This was different than what they imagined, but this was even better, that’s what Tohya thought.
The five of them putting their efforts together and travelling across the plains was like an adventure drama. But camping on the plains was harder than they’d thought. He didn’t want to accept it, but Tohya was a city boy, not a wild child.
Stopping in the village to perform was a popular idea and a really enjoyable experience. On top of it being like a festival, standing in the bright light at the centre gave them a sense of dizzying giddiness.
Stretching on the bed with a sigh, the sense of excitement remained like the roar of the sea and they couldn’t fall asleep.
"…fufu."
"…I know….Right?…Knew it!"
In the quiet of the room, voices echoed intermittently through from the next room.
They couldn’t understand what was being said, but from the tone and type of voices, they could tell it was Serara and Isuzu. Minori also chimed in and the three of their giggles could be heard.
"They sure are energetic."
"Too energetic." Said Tohya in a voice that matched Rundelhous’ smile, sitting up.
"What are they talking about, I wonder."
"Are you curious, Rudy-nii?"
"Of course not, I’m not one to gossip over what ladies talk about. It’s just I admire how they can keep talking about anything."
"Well, they’re girls." Tohya answered with a meaningless response and a smile.
It reminded him of school, the girls would chatter on and on about things; talking about the patterns of their socks would last half a day, sometimes even a whole day, Tohya and the other boys couldn’t understand it at all.
Tohya felt that compared to the other girls, Minori was relatively calm, but once she got heated up, she’d chatter on and on too. It was something about pudding from a shop in front of the station, she spent about half a day explaining it to him, but he didn’t follow it at all.
Judging from appearances, Rundelhous was happy; He may have sounded suspicious about the girls’ chatter, but he had a smile on his face and was polishing his Mage’s Gauntlet.
"Rudy-nii, you’re excited too."
"Hmm. This is just… ah, you always need to keep your equipment maintained."
"Fufun. I’ll do that too then."
Tohya started examining the leather belt of his armour that was in the luggage.
Just before they left, the party had their equipment examined by the craftsmen of the Eccentric Grotto. They couldn’t have their equipment getting damaged and breaking after a few days. Despite saying it was maintenance, it was about 20% for taking care, and 80% making it look good.
It was already approaching midnight, there was no way they’d do proper maintenance whilst their bodies were so tired. If they were asked why they were up, it would be embarrassing, but they couldn’t quite sleep.
It was a magic like night.
Tohya and Rundelhous still had jewels they wanted to get from the night, so they continued talking, holding the remains of the night.
About the carriage, the horses, the trip, the food, the camping grounds, and battle.
Before stopping at this village, they’d easily dispatched the wild boars. Minori stayed on high alert, but in the first place, the area around the road didn’t have high level monsters. Battles didn’t seem like they’d be a problem in this zone.
And then they talked about their friends again. With a downtrodden face, Rundelhous sighed and murmured.
"Say, Tohya. Why is Miss Isuzu so childishly innocent?"
"Is she?"
To Tohya, Isuzu didn’t seem particularly innocent or childish. She wasn’t calming and intellectual, but she acted her age. She was a good friend who understood what the people around her felt. He could understand why Minori had become best friends with her.
"Well, she instantly grabs onto me and brushes my hair."
"Ah."
That was true, but she didn’t that to Rundelhous, not to Tohya.
"I feel like she doesn’t think much of me but… Don’t laugh, Tohya, I’m serious."
Tohya fell back onto the bed under the overwhelming laughter, squirming and holding his stomach. After wiping the tears from his eyes, he started looking for a response. It was difficult, how should he answer without saying something funny.
"Well, uhh."
"Hmm?"
"It means you’re special." Tohya answered, fighting the urge to laugh. The thought of Isuzu standing imperiously and, with her mouth drawn up in a line, saying.
"Rudy is my henchman, so he’s special!" was too much, and made his stomach shake.
"Special?"
"Isuzu-neechan is like that when you spend time together and enjoy yourselves."
"I see."
"That’s right."
Rundelhous folded his arms and seemed to come to some sort of agreement with himself.
"But I don’t think she thinks I’m ‘specially beautiful’ or ‘specially amazing’ or ‘specially amazing and strong’. How does she think of me? You adventurers have strange expressions."
"No, you saying ‘beautiful’ is a bit strange, Rudy-niichan" Was what Tohya didn’t say. Rundelhous was bewildered, and Tohya’s precious older friend. And now a member of his party, and an adventurer too.
"Rudy-nii, you get on really well with Isuzu-neechan."
"Do you take me for someone who would make a woman walk alone? Miss Isuzu is a lovely lady, she might get caught up in some trouble she doesn’t want, couldn’t she?"
Tohya praised himself for only having his mouth wobble slightly, keeping it firmly closed. Tohya liked this golden haired youth, he’d stayed and listened to the performance, even if he felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave.
"It doesn’t matter, either way, we’re friends." said Tohya, keeping a serious face.
"Well, yes, I guess so." Answered Rundelhous, cocking his head in confusion.
Then the conversation moved on to their plans.
They planned to follow the red clay road along to the Ruins of Ariba. The Western Highway didn’t follow the coast, but mostly went through the plains near the Pacific coast and joined Akiba and Minami. Their destination was the Redstone Mountains, at the Ruins or Ariba, the road split, and they would have to take the thinner roads, or where there was no road, they’d have no choice but to climb the mountains.
Tohya didn’t hate fighting. Of course, it could be scary or painful, but he felt that it brought them together, and felt like they accomplished something. It was fact that there were monsters in this world where they were adventurers, if you wanted to live there, you should be able to fight.
"Tomorrow, we’re going all out to Sakawa, aren’t we."
"Yeah. I’m looking forward to it!"
"We should go to sleep now, Tohya. We can’t be sleepy whilst travelling."
The two of them went to their beds and fell asleep with a sense of satisfaction.
Sakawa was a level area which included Odawari in the original world.
Minori’s speciality wasn’t geography, but she could strangely understand this world fairly easily; it probably had something to do with the thoughts of “This is where we are going from here.” giving an interest.
According to Shiroe’s knowledge and what Minori had researched before leaving Akiba, this area had an abundance of water, so was an agricultural centre. Small villages of people of the land were dotted around, and mainly farmed wheat and rice. That’s what she’d heard.
The enemy classification was nature centred, there were many monsters like wild hounds, boars and plant monsters. However, they mainly lived in the forests and on the mountainside, the plains were by no means absolutely safe, but the monsters encountered had relatively low levels and the encounter rate was low.
Nevertheless, the group were put on their guard by a slight tension in the air.
It might have been a difference in the smell of the air, or in how the treetops swayed, but it settled in their chests and told them that something was different. Within half a day of resuming their journey, they’d happened to catch glances of goblins running far away twice. They’d also had a battle which couldn’t be called anything more than a skirmish.
Of course, they weren’t hurt, but it served as an omen that things would change from how they’d been until now.
“Dire Rats are coming out.”
“They surprised me.”
The party talked and gradually progressed up the steepening incline in their carriage.
As they climbed the gentle slopes, a pure white landscape greeted them. When they first laid eyes on it, it looked like a snowy expanse, but the slight, sweet scent of flowers reached them and they understood.
“Cherry trees!? Are those cherry trees?”
Isuzu asked, leaning out of the carriage, and Serara held her up and revealed what they really were.
“No, Isuzu-san, those are plum trees.”
It stood out amongst the remaining cold scenery of early spring, a hamlet of plum trees.
“They smell good.”
The scent was weak, but held a certain presence in the fields.
The slopes of the hill were divided into rows by stone walls, with gaps in them for workers to pass through. In the rows of fields, plum trees were scattered here and there. Whether the exposure to the sun had been thought of, this hill had become a forest of plum trees.
They continued following the road around to the west, it was a little off from the direction they needed to be going, but straight ahead was a large river. To cross the river, they needed to choose a place.
The white scenery continued. Isuzu and Rudy were earnestly moved, and Serara was explaining to the two of them and Tohya about how she had gone and bought plums with Nyanta and pickled them into a jam.
It was a peaceful scene.
The wind was still cold, but the glorious sunlight had made the carriage pleasantly warm as it went through sunny areas. As they drew closer to the river, the wind had more water in and the temperature dropped, and the calm atmosphere that had quietly begun in the forest continued.
From the forest, they could hear the distant voices of people of the land.
They might have been farming. The five of them listened carefully to the voices and smiled slightly.
The atmosphere changed as they detoured around the riverside forest, searching for somewhere to cross the river. From the dense trees blocking out the light, there came a sharp scream and fervent sounds. The tension from the morning returned in an instant.
Minori held up her staff in front of her chest.
“Minori, I’m going ahead, there’s something there!”
“Tohya!”
“What is it!?”
Rather than screams, the heavy breathing of someone short on oxygen running grew louder and a single man tumbled out from the trees. He was a person of the land, wearing brown and grey clothes to protect against the chill. In the time it took to look over the burly man, people who were likely his friends ran out after him from the darkness.
Tohya leapt from the driver’s seat and raced forwards several times faster than the men.
“An attack, get ready!” In response to the yell, Minori waved her staff and put a Purification Barrier on her younger brother. The breathing drawing closer through the forest sounded like a beast, it was ogres.
Ogres were one of the evil demi-human races, they were in similar locations to the goblins that the group fought in Choushi.
Compared to goblins, ogres were taller and more solidly built. They walked with a hunch, but if they straightened their backs, they’d be around the same height as Tohya. They were also stronger than goblins, in exchange, they were poor at coordinating and team work and weren’t as strong with weapons as the goblins.
High level goblins would use weapons, tame Dire Wolves and similar creatures, and rarely an individual would use magic.
Most high level ogres however wouldn’t even wear armour, they just became bigger, stronger and gained greater stamina. Then there were those altered by sorcery, ogres named things like Ooei in quests. They were a famous race.
Ogres and goblins both had a wide range of levels from the low to mid levels. When Elder Tale was a game, they were both arranged in characteristic areas.
From Kanto to Tohoku, eastern Japan’s field zones had many goblins, and from Chubu westward it was ogres. It’s somewhat of a digression, but Shikoku had lizardmen and Kyushu had Orcs.
Each area had their influences and characteristic quests.
Shiroe had told Minori all of this.
And according to Shiroe, the levels of the monsters near the road were kept pinned down. Of course, there might be influences from the change in the worlds so he’d advised caution, but even so it was a little strange. The ogres they encountered had levels of twenty one, of course, they weren’t much of a threat to the party, but weren’t they monsters which were originally away from the road, from the forests and mountains?
“Wolf-chan!”
Alert from the feeling of unease at Minori’s side, Serara descended from the carriage and summoned her helper summon. It appeared as a young, still chubby grey wolf. Clad in magic light, it ran around the group of people of the land, guarding them.
“For now.”
Serara’s eyes shone strongly.
In the past the next move with the same feeling of unease would be to rush after Tohya, but now, he could go ahead on his own.
“What’s the situation, Miss Minori?”
“Ogres came from the forest, chasing the people of the land. Reinforce and guard them!”
Minori called out as she ran ahead, going past the lead person of the land who’s legs had given out on him. Tohya was already even further ahead, crossing swords with the ogres. The enemies levels were twenty two, twenty two and twenty one, there were three of them.
It was a strange coincidence, but they were roughly the same levels as the skeletons they fought in Lagranda Forest. However, in the half a year since that summer’s training camp, the party had grown much stronger. Minori cast the level fifty four spell Mystic Spell of the Mirror. A magic mirror appeared in front of her and launched a beam of light, as it pierced the wicked looking ogre and reddened its skin, it also healed Tohya’s scratches.
Tohya pursued the ogre hit by the light with Izuna Cutter. Using that momentum, he used Ukifune Ferry, transitioning into Kasha’s Long Sword. Compared to the offensive classes, a samurai’s accuracy and damage were lower, but they had ways to compensate for that. Whilst breaking up the attacks, it blocked the monsters’ line of sight and kept Minori safe as the rear guard.
“Minori-chan, the woodcutters are okay!” Reported Serara from the rear.
Simultaneously, a well aimed Frost Spear blew away one of the Ogre’s arms.
At this rate it would be fine, against three opponents, half of the party’s fighting power would overwhelm them. The party had grown enough in levels and in how they fought, they would be more than enough.
“Watch out! Fifteen adds!”
A voice they’d never heard before called out, the carrying voice echoed around the forest and a flock of monsters was disgorged from the forest. They were unfamiliar monsters, looking like a black haze.
Following Shiroe and Naotsugu’s rigorous training, Minori drew back a leg in preparation and confirmed their statuses.
Nightshade Servants, level forty.
A much stronger enemy than the ogres, and fifteen of them. Minori quickly dropped into thought. From “Nightshade” they should be ghost type monsters, from their type they should have a high resistance against attribute damage. Dark spirits had a wicked poison or a resistance against abilities that affected the mind. They should also have a resistance against one hit kills.
“Servant” showed their role and rank within the same kind of monsters. This marked them as relatively weak in fighting ability amongst Nightshades. But even so, at level forty, they were within about ten levels of the party, since the catastrophe they were not enemies that could be taken lightly.
In all likelihood, the could win. However, the people of the land may be injured. There were many to fight whilst defending as well.
Tohya didn’t hesitate and raised his voice using Samurai’s Taunt, leaving the direction to Minori.
“Rundelhous-san, concentrate your firepower and finish off the ogres! Isuzu-san, keep up the defence!”
“Leave it to me. Orb of Lava!”
“Strengthening Pastoral!”
They were likely waiting. Rundelhous’ flying ball of fire stabbed through two of the ogres. At the same time, Tohya leapt back about ten paces, stretching the battle’s line. The decision to retreat to regroup was correct.
However, behind the party’s front line of Tohya and Minori, there was still the group of people of the land. Serara and Isuzu were guarding them, they didn’t think anything excessive would happen, but there were countless ways it could go wrong.
Meanwhile, the Nightshade Servants manipulated their mist covered bodies and attacked Tohya. His sword skills were polished, of course, the movements weren’t like kendo, but as well as Naotsugu, he’d also been taught by Akatsuki and Soujirou to use the vital points of an attack to turn it away.
Minori cast her eyes around.
The woman that warned them was most likely in the forest.
Depending on the situation, she may need help too.
But against her expectations, from the dark under-brush a woman wearing a fluttering, snow white cape and glasses sprinted forth. She let out a surge of soundless energy from the end of her staff, changing two of the Nightshade Servants rainbow coloured. She raised the staff again.
“Servant Summon: Princess Wraith!”
Servant summons were a fundamental means of attack used by summoners. They would summon monsters called servants and put them to use. As there was no time limit, to balance with the other eleven classes of the same level, the summon’s fighting ability was less than the summoners. Summoners didn’t have simple access to as simple, strong magic.
However, that was compared to the same level.
Clad in level ninety strength magic, the woman and her servant ran through the battlefield, exterminating the enemies.
Her own attack magic could not be said to be superior, but with the summoner’s skilful manipulation, and possibly a hidden energy wave from the servant’s death, the female adventurer took down the Nightshade Servants one after another.
In front of the dumbfounded group, she adjusted her glasses and said in a clear voice.
“Let me introduce myself, I am Roe2, a summoner. I guess you could say I’m… a travelling vampire heading south.”
A summoner with a snow white coat and round glasses had appeared in front of the group.
The people of the land who had run out from the forest were woodcutters who had been attacked by the ogres whilst working. The party split up and gathered their tools, they had abandoned their large axes and shoiko[1]
Of course, the people of the land could have gathered them, but there was still the possibility of enemies being in the forest.
They had no obligation to help the people of the land, but even with no one suggesting it, they spontaneously became an escort for them. Minori felt that they’d already started it, and after helping them once, if they were attacked in the forest again, it would leave a bad after taste.
Roe2, who had appeared so impressively, was currently collapsed in the back of the covered wagon.
She was a high levelled summoner, but she had said that she was weak to the sun, that was why up until now, she had always travelled through forests and mountainous areas.
Now that they had gathered the tools and attempted to continue onwards, a shocking incident came to light. The red light that the Nightshade Servants had fired was deflected from Tohya by Minori’s damage interception spell, but that stray attack had hit the party’s horses. The horses’ wounds were horrible, but even so, they had ran off and disappeared over the horizon and the Twin Horse Flute of Lyman had cracked.
Because of the re-use time limit, they couldn’t check immediately, but even if that wasn’t the case, the damage was severe enough that they would hesitate to use it before repairing it.
Therefore, Tohya and Isuzu were moving the carriage to the people of the land’s village.
Even though they were still in the level fifties, they had the strength of an adventurer. If they weren’t worried about speed, just walking and pushing the carriage was easy.
According to the woodcutters’ boss, Hayes, the people of the land would walk, travelling together like this was more convenient.
Out in front were Serara and her follower, Wolf. The bright grey lump of fur was full of curiosity and kept sticking his nose into the thickets to the left and right to smell, and then rushing back to Serara as if to report, barking sweetly.
Tohya was pulling the cart and guarding Hayes and the three helpers. At the back, Isuzu was in charge of pushing. Roughly next to her doing the same was Rundelhous who had said.
"Making a woman do physical labour is…"
But the difference in classes was cruel. Even though they were the same level, the difference in physical strength between the magic using sorcerer and the weapon based bard was significant.
"You don’t need to worry about it, you can just ride the carriage."
"I couldn’t so that."
"We can go on a walk together then."
"Why are you so happy, Miss Isuzu?"
"Because we’re walking?"
Minori was inside the covered wagon and could hear the two of them talking.
Roe2 had collapsed, so she’d decided that she needed to treat her.
"No, you don’t need to, I’m weak to restorative spells after all."
"Weak to?"
"Because I’m a vampire."
With an extremely dull expression, Roe2 put her index finger in the side of her mouth and pulled it to show her teeth and sharp canines peeked out.
When Minori saw them, she suddenly remembered the sub-class vampire.
She’d heard about it while talking with Shiroe, it was originally added for some kind of event, but it seemed it was a fairly unbalanced sub-class. In the night they were strengthened and could absorb HP in close combat, but in the day time they were greatly weakened, and HP recovery spells would in fact inflict additional damage. They were mostly unviable for party play.
The woman called Roe2 was a summoner. She was about the same height as Minori, but her thin sweater emphasised her chest and she was a beautiful woman.
In this alternate world, everyone was beautiful or cute. It was a remnant from when Elder Tale was a game, adventurers had better looks than the faces they’d left behind on Earth.
But strangely, even so, ‘beautiful girls’ and ‘beautiful women’ still definitely existed. It was their behaviour and atmosphere, or perhaps their aura that drew people in.
For example, her guildmate Akatsuki was like that, she had a charm about her more than her physical appearance. Within Minori’s acquaintances, there were others, Henrietta, Maryelle, Takayama Misa, and Nazuna, who she’d recently been learning from, were all the same.
If she went even further, there was Rayneshia. She’d only greeted her a few times, but she was the first person who’d remained so strongly in her memories like that.
All of those beautiful women (or girls) had some presence about them, that with just a smile, even Minori’s heart raced.
And right in front of her eyes, Roe2 was the same.
Her hair looked as though it hadn’t been tended too, but somehow appeared glamourous, she had a listless expression beneath her round glasses, but it still evoked a fascination.
Her white coat and angular bag were both unrefined adventurer items, she spoke similarly to men and had a boyish atmosphere. But even so, there was no one that would mistake her for a man, she couldn’t be seen as anything but a charming woman.
Minori felt her complex grow slightly.
She knew love so her melancholy grew.
She knew she was average.
Of course, she did what she could, she wore cute clothes as much as possible, especially when she went out with Shiroe. She spoke with Isuzu to chose clothes that weren’t childish, but also weren’t over reaching.
(Isuzu called it a strategy to make her a proper young lady.)
Even so, when she walked next to Shiroe, she felt embarrassed and ridiculous. She felt like a silly child who didn’t know anything next to him.
When she missed him setting off, walking next to him was also difficult, it seemed she was more of a coward than she thought. But the instant Shiroe stopped and looked back, that discouragement was blown away and she was filled with happiness and was surprised by how self interested she was.
She was the one that had said to Tohya she wasn’t doing anything on the night where she’d decided to do all she could to be with Shiroe.
But she was lost for what "all she could" was. Shiroe was an adult, but even in this world with no schools, he still saw her as just a middle schooler.
Her chest hurt with the feeling of being a worthless person, but even so, she didn’t want to let go of the throbbing pain.
"It makes me feel pretty disheartened."
"Ah, what?"
Minori was answered by Roe2
"…Is that a Celestial Spirit Cloak?"
"Hmm? Ah, it is, I’m impressed you know it."
"Well, my, hmm… teacher, Shiroe-san wears one."
"Eh? Ah, are they a magic user too?"
"Yes, an enchanter."
"This robe’s pretty good, it’s got wear resistance and it’s convenient for everyday use. It’s comfortable as well, and even stays nice through long journeys, right?"
Certainly, the robe wasn’t damaged or dirty.
Even though she moved through the countryside, she was a level ninety adventurer. Even choosing solo routes, she should be able to continue without being too exhausted. But being a vampire really was inconvenient, activities in the day were limited so it was fairly restrictive.
"Where did you come from? What’s your destination?"
"’Where did I come from and where am I going’? What a philosophical question."
"No, uhm, that’s not what I meant."
Roe2 replied with "I know." and smiled complacently. It was like she was teasing her. Minori who had started to retort was taken aback by the expression.
It seemed like she had more of a sense of humour than it first appeared from her appearance.
"I came from around Ouu, I think it was around three months ago now? It’s awful, I didn’t think it would be so hard by myself."
"Ouu?"
Minori searched her memories. It was in the Tohoku region of Japan, towards the end of last year, Shiroe had gone on an expedition there. In that area was where the Coronation of the Goblin King raid quest was happening even now, the underlying cause of the battle they’d encountered in Choushi. Thinking about it like that, it was a familiar place.
"Before that I was even further away, I got that far using Castling."
"Ah, that’s a summoner’s ability, a special spell to switch places with your summon, isn’t it."
Castling was a special spell of summoners, it allowed them and their summoned creatures, or existences they had contracts with to switch places. It seemed Roe2 had switched places with a summon in Ouu.
In Elder Tale, summoned creatures couldn’t get too far away from their summoner, but now you could go a large distance with the technique, even to other servers. That was the method one of the guilds of the Round Table Conference was using to investigate the fairy rings, it was common knowledge.
"Yeah, but whether it was my summon or my brother… Yeah, it was my brother, let’s go with brother. I switched places with my brother.
Roe2’s face coloured as she said that and she quickly continued on.
"I kept to the mountains from then to avoid the sun, I’m going to Ikoma for now. If I can get there, I can get rid of this vampire sub-class."
"A sub-class change quest?"
When Minori heard that, she understood.
Normally, sub-classes could be overwritten. If you did that, you would lose your current sub-class. Minori had overwritten seamstress with apprentice like this.
However, there were sub-classes which couldn’t be overwritten. It was a characteristic of sub-classes from hard quests or limited time events. To change one of those sub-classes, you had to complete a sub-class change quest and wipe the slate clean.
Vampire was a sub-class with many disadvantages. There were few people who still had it, and it was a fairly embarrassing sub-class is what Minori had heard from Shiroe.
The vampire sub-class had probably cause Roe2 a large inconvenience on this journey, so of course she’d want to get rid of it if possible, that sub-class change quest was in Ikoma.
"Well spotted. I really want to ask the one responsible which I have this sub-class. My brother… probably? It’s just the appearance, I mean I guess it’s convenient on the moon, but think a little about what happens when you come down to earth will you."
Minori was about to question Roe2’s recollection, but with a judder, the carriage came to a stop and interrupted the conversation.
"Hey, adventurers inside, and our little benefactor adventurers, this is our town, Koyurugi. We’ve got an inn too, so please rest, we’ll come to say thanks later!"
Poking her head out of the curtains, Minori saw a splitting river forming a wide delta. The carried water kept the ground fertile and kept the fields supplied with water. Surrounded by that patchwork of fields, there was a town.
In the slowly setting sun, cooking fumes hung in the air, greeting the party.
The room was simply decorated.
February was too early for trade. The merchants struck by the enthusiasm of Akiba were an exception that for this winter had strove to frequently find work, but for agricultural traders, they couldn’t get into the swing of things until spring.
Isuzu’s party had put their luggage in a room of the cottage like independent inn and, keeping only their valuables and equipment with them, returned to the cafeteria. The room was for traders, so other than room for the five of them and beds, there wasn’t much space for anything else. It wouldn’t be a problem when sleeping, but the sun hadn’t yet set.
There was also the woodcutter group who said they’d come to greet them, and they had to think about dinner too.
So the five of them returned to the cafeteria where the owner was waiting.
The cafeteria was a wooden construction with a low ceiling.
Making best use of fallen trees, the pillars and joists were naturally made of wood to make a skeletal frame, within that were impressive white painted walls. The lamps weren’t oil based, but something more like phosphorescent stones. They were a magic item made in Akiba, they would be exposed to the light throughout the day, and then slowly release that light for four or five hours. They were much cheaper than firefly lamps which shone through magic power.
The cafeteria was furnished with short sofas died green with plant dye, set around low dining tables and around the pillars were decorative plants; rather than a cafeteria, the room gave off the impression of a living room.
On one of those sofas, Roe2, who had accompanied them to the village had thrown herself down.
The other customers weren’t her acquaintances and felt awkward, so purposely went to other tables. The party drew close to her sofa. Tohya readily accepted her faint smile and beckoning and sat opposite her, Isuzu and Rundelhous sat on the other sides of the table, while Minori and Serara sat at Roe2’s sides.
Roe2 was drinking a purplish red juice, and in response to Serara’s question answered.
"I think it’s plum juice?"
"Are you staying here as well, Roe2-san?"
"Yeah, it’s been a while since I had a bath, and it looks like this inn has one."
"I heard that!" Answered Isuzu in an excited voice.
Most adventurer equipment had self repair and self cleaning functions. Even if they were covered in mud, dirt and bits of plants, they’d soon return to looking like new. Sweat would vanish off their bodies in an instant, so as long as adventurers were careful about damage, compared to the original world, there was no real need to bathe.
But even if they were clean, and weren’t actually sticky, they felt sticky and wanted to bathe. Isuzu was a girl of age, so that feeling was even more apparent. Serara and Minori also felt the same.
Without asking, food was brought to them.
According to the man bringing the food, it was a gift from the woodcutters they’d saved, he also relayed words of thanks from the mayor. The food was a somehow extravagant fried egg based dish. From the bowl sausages and tomatoes stuck out, the bottom layer was white rice, and the top was two seasoned fired eggs.
It was this inn’s signature dish, present at nearly every table.
With a smile spread across his face, Rundelhous began looking restlessly around the table. Without anything being said, Serara pulled out several condiments from the pouch at her waist.
"I’ll take soy sauce."
"Geez, of course you would, Tohya."
The twins belonged to the soy sauce faction.
Isuzu wordlessly passed a similar bottle to Rundelhous.
"Thank you, Miss Isuzu."
"When you’re done, pass it back."
Isuzu and Rundelhous were part of the Worcestershire sauce faction. In Isuzu’s family, her mother went for soy sauce, whilst she and her father would go for Worcestershire sauce. If the two of them were in Akiba, they’d also use luxury teriyaki sauce. But recently, as long as it was tasty, they weren’t worried about what they ate. Compared to when she was in Hamelin, their current eating habits were like heaven.
In front of them now was a (peculiar) egg dish, but this itself was a sign it wasn’t bad. In this world, Isuzu thought that the tastiest foods was cheap every day food. In other words, food culture brought by the adventurers.
This egg dish was probably an adventurer’s idea. If food was arranged like a five star meal, if you were exceedingly lucky, it would taste nice, otherwise, it would be tasteless.
Food that couldn’t be made at the touch of a button, when compared to menu made food based on appearance, wasn’t anywhere near as extravagant. In other words, food which looked average would most likely be food with flavour, originating from adventurers.
Compared to the Crescent Burgers, it was further from the norm, but because of that, they could have expectations of the meal.
Rundelhous certainly felt the same, lightly closing his eyes and waiting for the command to start eating, looking like he had an invisible tail sweeping left and right behind him.
"There, and there."
Serara was spooning mayonnaise onto the food with a wide smile. Isuzu had great sympathy for continuing travelling and looking forward to food.
Minori spoke to the confused looking Roe2.
"This is soy sauce, this is salt. This one is semi-thick Worcestershire sauce and this red one is ketchup. Which would you like Roe2-san?"
"Hmm. Hmm hmm…"
With a wondrous face, Roe2 took each of them and used them consecutively.
To Isuzu, using both soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce wasn’t right, but that was something people were free to choose. Touching on people’s delicate spots made arguments inevitable. And these eggs could be called chief among these. It was like that in Isuzu’s house, she always wanted to scold her father for using ponzu[2].
"Let’s eat!"
The party all took their meals. There were spoons set out, but Isuzu and Rundelhous both used washable chopsticks. Rundelhous had become quite skilled with them.
The cafeteria was around half full.
The surrounding merchants and craftsmen were mostly exchanging information about the area. Isuzu had come to understand since leaving on the journey, in a fairly small town or village like this, inns and bars, besides being trade institutions were also a sort of public facility. Of course they were there for drink and food, but they were also used for gathering information about the area, discussions and establishing routines.
In the twilit cafeteria, the party enjoyed their meal. Eating outside in the fields had it’s own charm, and (assuming Serara didn’t make a mistake) was tasty, but settling down like this and eating together was pleasant.
Isuzu took a piece of rise that had stuck to Rundelhous’ face and filled everyone’s cups with cold tea from the pitcher.
"Okay, I’ve got it! This glugging black thing is Worcestershire sauce, and this gushing black thing is soy sauce, right?"
Roe2 mumbled this and added more of each.
The glance exchanged by Isuzu and Minori held the same feelings, this too was a competition between soy and Worcestershire sauce.
"No no, that’s perfect. You should study them both."
"Mayonnaise is tasty too."
Serara tried to draw in allies in her own way and Roe2 gingerly added mayonnaise as well. It worried Isuzu but she didn’t say anything. The politics surrounding fried eggs were complex and strict after all. You couldn’t intervene with anything other than saying your preference.
"It looks like he had to go back part way through…"
"Caravan life is hard, isn’t it?"
"Even so, individual merchants somehow…"
Travellers were butting heads with influential men of the village and craftsmen. It was no idle gossip, rather it was an important information exchange to determine the town’s policies from now on.
Hearing the conversation interspersed with sighs, Isuzu looked up, and looking closely could see the merchants’ faces were dark.
"I wonder if something happened."
In response to Isuzu’s quizzical inquiry, each of them looked around the room.
In the comfortable cafeteria, there were many merchants and dejected looking craftsmen who looked like they’d been there for a while.
"Continuing west from here, there is a mountain district called Boxurt. It has beautiful lakes and nobles that flourish on taxes, but monster activity is rising in the area.
"I see…"
Roe2 ate a spoonful of rice mixed with egg yolk and explained the conversations. She’d heard the circumstances whilst the party were returning to the room.
"They’re mostly monsters from level twenty to thirty. The ones we fought just past noon were the same, it looks like there’s some power conflict in the mountains. Stronger monsters from higher up are coming down the mountains. Their spheres of influence are shifting like billiard balls."
"Did you see them whilst you were travelling, Roe2-san?"
"Yeah, I’ve been travelling in the forests’ shadows after all."
Roe2 easily answered Minori’s question, and with thanks for the food, put her bowl down. She’d nonchalantly finished the food first among the group. Contrary to her beautiful appearance, she ate fast, altering Isuzu’s evaluation of her, bringing forth feelings of affection.
"We’re fine, but it must be hard for all of the merchants."
Isuzu thought over Minori’s words for a moment.
"If they only used the main road, the monsters’ levels would be around ten. Especially around the red clay road, the ancient techniques were to repel monsters after all."
Rundelhous also added his opinion after thinking on it.
Isuzu replied with.
"That’s why if monsters over level twenty appear neat the roads, it will trouble the traders."
The merchants that had been here for so long couldn’t cross the mountain pass and were stranded.
"We’re still troubled too, the horses were hurt."
Serara’s words made Isuzu notice too, that was certainly a large problem. In this people of the land town, it was unlikely there would be stores for adventurer equipment, and the likelihood of finding a craftsman for adventurer items was close to zero.
"Horses? Oh, that’s right, they ran off. Couldn’t you just summon horses?"
Roe2 had a full stomach and cheerfully said that.
If they were summoners, they could, but none of the party were.
"You can do that, Roe2-neechan?"
They were all thinking the same. Then in his usual happy voice Tohya asked that."
However, the answer wasn’t anything like what Isuzu was expecting.
"Nee… Ah, nee!? You, could you say onee-san?"
Isuzu felt that the atmosphere had somewhat broken, and before she could interrupt, her friends replied with.
"Onee-san?"
"Roe-neesan?"
"So rather than miss, saying lady is better? No, it’s different, sister Roe2."
The spectacled woman held her fist before her eyes, seeming to be moved greatly and nodding silently with her mouth tightly closed, repeatedly breathing deeply.
"Onee-san, I like it, onee-san… Hearing those words makes me feel like I’m being relied on."
Isuzu went to say that that wasn’t the case, her best friend Minori noticed this and put her hand in the way.
However, the two of them couldn’t interject into Roe2’s monologue. She was filled with pride and had a cheerful expression.
"Somehow being relied upon lifts me up. Being an onee-san is a good thing. I want to be treated like one, lifted up as an onee-san. Alright, I’ll join you on your journey. I don’t mind if you rely on me in battle. Of course, I’ll also provide horses. A stack of horses better than anyone has ever seen. In exchange, I will be your onee-san. What do you think!?"
Roe2 had a nice face and body, but from Isuzu’s point of view made a not quite as stylish proclamation. Against that request with no respite, the party couldn’t resist.
"Wow, it’s huge."
"Yeah, it’s amazing."
With a pleasant sound, a Bug Light came out and illuminated the thick steam and a bath surrounded by rocks. They’d been told there was a bath, but it wasn’t just something a room had inside, they went several minutes walk along a gravel path from the back of the inn to a depression in the ground.
The trees around the area hid it well enough and the hot water and cold river water fell down like a waterfall. Rather than a bath, it was more like a hot spring, made by hot water drawn from its source and mixed with the cold water from the river Ricouart.
There was a small, hut-like building for changing in. Serara was excited from having caught sight of the bath and went into the small building with Minori and Isuzu.
The bath earlier was the same, but there was no one in the changing area.
Normal people of the land had early nights. Werecats could see well in the dark, and you could use phosphorescent stones like in the cafeteria, but normal houses only had lamps. To use those, fuel and preparation were needed, and it wasn’t possible to simply light up large spaces. Carrying a light and using the bath would be a bother.
So rather than going out of their way to light areas and use them at night, the majority of people of the land had a lifestyle where they would finish whatever business they had whilst the sun was up and go to bed early.
The owner had said to the three of them,
"No one’s reserved it now." It was obvious, but Serara had needed to make sure.
Serara knew that asking if it was reserved was because of her shyness, but adventurers had magic lights so even at this sort of time could freely enjoy a bath like this.
Isuzu had already undressed and put her hair back and headed towards the exit with a towel wrapped around herself.
Serara was hurrying but was still slow.
She may have been disappointed, but if the only ones around were her same-sex friends, even though she was called pudgy and had taken off her clothes, she had courage.
There was no need to be so cautious, but she was easily embarrassed and too self conscious.
Serara pinned her hair behind her head as quickly as she could and, covering her front with a bath towel, timidly went out, caution was important in an alternate world.
Minori was waiting for her there.
"It doesn’t seem too hot. There’s a paved area over there, so shall we wash ourselves first?"
Seeing her younger friend’s care free smile, Serara felt slightly more at ease and nodded with a smile, heading in that direction.
The "Natural Product, Additive Free Shampoo and Conditioner" and "Trial Model Creamy Soap" that they’d brought from Akiba weren’t particularly high class products compared to those of the original world, and their performance was likely worse too. But to the people of the land, they were super high class products, and were good enough for practical use. The three of them used these with sponges and towels and washed their hair too.
Since the Catastrophe, Serara thought she’d changed.
Before she herself knew she was clumsy and slow to understand things. Even if it was just bathing, on school trips and such she felt she caused trouble to the people who had long baths.
She didn’t know whether the reason for her change was her housekeeper sub-class or her lifestyle in this world.
In the original world, she didn’t hate jobs like cleaning and washing and was responsible for a lot of jobs like that. But her skill level was never more than average.
After having been in this world and doing a lot of housework, her skill level had risen.
Rather than game-like bonuses due to a sub-class, Serara felt that if you mastered a skill yourself it was nicer.
Even now she wouldn’t say she was particularly skilful, but she was much better than before. She felt being able to do housework well was like being a young bride and a wonderful thing.
She and Minori washed each-other’s backs and dried their hair with the same pace.
"I’m finished, Serara-san."
"I’m finished too, Minori-chan!"
The two of them met gazes, and with a smile, rushed Isuzu, who was blankly staring, and began washing her hair.
When it was untied, Isuzu’s hair cascaded down to her waist.
She said things like "I’m not feminine.", "I’m all skin and bones.", "I’ve got so many freckles." and "I’m a high school girl you’d find anywhere." but in reality, her long hair was important to her. Serara had noticed that, even while complaining, the amount of time she put into washing it properly made it apparent. Minori and Serara had been waiting for a chance to touch their friend’s hair.
"Isuzu-chan’s hair is so fluffy."
"We brought two types of comb."
"It’s fine, it’s a bother so I’ll do it myself."
"Not at all, this is part of a housekeeper’s job too."
"An apprentice won’t run from any kind of job."
"Do you have any itches?"
"Geez, Serara."
"If you talk you’ll get soap in your mouth, Isuzu-san."
"You too Minori?"
"It’s practice for Serara-chan’s future."
"Eh?"
"A newly-wed’s practice."
"Eeh!?"
In response to Minori’s serious way of speaking, "Really?" "Is that true?" "Why has this happened!?" and the three’s uncontainable laughter echoed around the bath. Even so Serara didn’t stop washing, she knew washing long hair was actually a lot of work and had been talking about washing Isuzu’s hair with Minori before.
It was wonderful that the chance had came with this journey.
In the cheerful illumination of a magic light, Serara sunk in the water up to her shoulders. The warmth of the water slowly permeated her body, feeling heavenly, the two next to her also closed their eyes and let out a happy sigh.
The bath was about five metres in each direction, much bigger than the cast iron baths in high class people of the land inns, big enough to stretch your legs and relax, and deep enough to have the water come up to your chin.
This bath had two water currents, a hot and a cold. After finding the right temperature they happily lowered themselves into the bath.
"Aah, the water’s nice!" Proclaimed Isuzu with a smile.
Minori smiled and Serara was happy too.
Looking up at the roughly half full moon and magical light floating in the sky, the three started to giggle for no reason.
Adventurers’ bodies were surprising, despite continually sleeping out in the fields on their journey, they didn’t have any muscle pain, and there was no lingering fatigue. However, they still became stressed and being able to sit in warm water like this was something to be thankful for.
In all honesty, they were somewhat reluctant to continue camping.
Minori had said that in the original world this area was a tourist destination, with tasty fish and famous for its dried seafood.
Serara vaguely thought "I’d like to come here with Nyanta-san at some point."
"It’s warm, isn’t it?"
"It is."
"Right."
The three had gone limp and relaxed as they talked.
Even Isuzu, who was normally full of energy was smiling like a cat napping in the day. Serara found it funny and put her mouth below the water and blew bubbles to disguise her laughter.
All people became like cats when in a nice, warm bath like this. Serara herself felt like napping.
"Maybe I’ve grown cat ears too… If I grew cat ears and whiskers, I’d be a werecat. No, werecats are almost totally cats, maybe a catwere. I’d be one step closer to my dreams."
Serara wriggled her toes at the happy image that made her want to giggle.
"You’re making a sleepy face too, Serara-san."
"Because I’m a caat."
Enveloped in warmth up to the neck, it was hard to think of complicated things, so it was only natural the conversation became childish. Or that’s what Serara told herself as she answered.
"So, you want to bathe with Nyanta-san?"
That warm, peaceful mood was shattered in an instant by Isuzu’s questioning with a smile hiding a tinge of teasing.
"That’s not what I said."
"But you think he’s attractive, don’t you?"
"Nyanta-san is a dandy, good looking and stylish."
Serara tried her best to answer and Isuzu caught Minori by the shoulder. Minori looked at both of them in confusion, but Isuzu’s attitude of Minori being on her side remained.
"If we’re talking about that, then what about you and Rundelhous-san?"
"Hm? He’s my friend for walks isn’t he?"
Isuzu’s puzzled response amazed Serara.
Thinking about it normally, Isuzu and Rundelhous appeared more couple-like than Serara and Nyanta, but somehow, Isuzu hadn’t noticed that.
"But Isuzu-san and Rundelhous-san suit each other so well."
Serara couldn’t think of them as anything other than early morning dates. To Serara with her kitchen dates (or so she liked to think) Isuzu’s thickheadedness wasn’t understandable. But that might be because she wanted Nyanta too much, but while thinking that she wondered what ‘too much’ was to a girl and felt a heat that didn’t come from the water begin to well up.
To hide that, all she could do was hide the lower half of her face in the water and blow bubbles.
"Serara-san will become a good wife." Said Minori with a bright voice, striking the final blow.
"Well you might become Shiroe-san’s secretary, Minori."
"Uu… There’s no way that would happen."
"But you’re all lovey dovey, trying to help."
The focus moved away from Serara. Isuzu turned her teasing gaze to Minori but from Serara’s point of view, Minori was an amazing girl. She changed her sub-class to apprentice and other than when they went out hunting, she helped the 8th Shopping District, she was a super middle schooler.
Since they’d become friends Serara had seen many of Minori’s cute and clumsy points but she thought she wanted to follow her sense of responsibility and skill. Especially her work rate. Even when they were cleaning up or making something, Minori would finish fist, it wasn’t that any of her individual actions were amazingly fast, but moving between things and the preparations were done quickly. Serara felt it was a difference in thinking, or intelligence, but Minori was amazing.
She was a little younger, but in this world with no schools, that didn’t hold much weight so Serara thought of Minori as a friend of the same age.
"Everything would go well if you became a secretary."
"That’s not true, I just want to help, even if it’s a little."
"She’s doing it again."
"She’s doing it again."
"Isuzu-chan, Minori-chan is saying somethiiing."
"Serara-chan, Minori is cuute."
Following Isuzu’s lead, they put Minori in the middle of them and pushed her back and forth between them.
Giggling and smiling was a strange feeling to Serara. When she was in Susukino, she couldn’t imagine being able to laugh like this, but it felt like it had been years since then.
Holding on to Minori’s soft hair, it was Isuzu’s turn now.
"What will you do in the future then, Isuzu-san?"
"Eh?"
After teasing the other two, Isuzu was surprised to have the questioning suddenly turn to her, but her expression returned to normal quickly.
"I’m normal, if we return to the original world I’ll become an office worker or something; and if we stay here I’ll do hunting, quests and work for the round table, and sing at Bloom Hall every week."
"You’ll become a singer, Isuzu-chan?"
"Eeh? I won’t," Isuzu laughed for a while and clapped her hands. "I won’t, I won’t, I’m not a singer or anything. That’s something someone who stands out more does. I just sometimes sing a bit in a restaurant, giving people some background music when they’re happy, along with Rudy."
She couldn’t see any sadness or distaste in Isuzu’s expression so Serara thought she actually meant it. Thinking about it, it was only natural, not everyone was aiming to become a music artist, Isuzu just liked music, she didn’t have that kind of interest in it.
"The future, huh?"
Hearing a voice from nearby, the three jumped up in shock, they didn’t think there was anyone else bathing.
Roe2’s composed nodding and steamed up glasses shone.
"Ah, you’re so young."
Serara for some reason meekly nodded at the kind voice. Roe2 was a mysterious woman who’d also showed childish reactions, but sometimes she appeared like an all knowing, kind, older woman.
"Roe2-san…"
"Of course, as your older sister, my body’s better."
Roe2’s words shocked Serara, and Isuzu didn’t stop with just being shocked, her mouth dropped open. The impression of her as a reliable older sister they’d had until now vanished completely.
"Eh, ah, uhm."
"My chest is bigger too."
Roe2 saying that again made comforting the two difficult.
They protested, were calmed and then somehow the conversation moved from love, to the world and then to the towns they had lived in.
"Roe2-san, where did you live?"
"Just where the city becomes depopulated."
"You lived alone? That sounds nice."
"I’m an adult after all. And with communications advancements, physical distance doesn’t matter much.
"I see, that’s right." Thought Serara.
This was a web-game, that became another world where Serara had met Nyanta. Physical distance had nothing to do with their meeting.
Time passed like rushing wind, but their conversation didn’t.
Serara noticed she’d never been bored with Minori and Isuzu, and Roe2 had easily joined the group.
They were fun times like Pipi joining the Settergren siblings. Of course, enjoyable times game with a price, but the four were absorbed in the moment.
