VOLUME 1
Chapter 1: Altaria Island
Part 5
That evening…
Jun returned to Gazar in high spirits. He had managed to complete nine quests in just one day.
He saw two girls standing in front of the city gates. One of them was the girl Jun had helped out yesterday, Kasumi Yukasaki. The other girl was wearing a school uniform different from Kasumi’s. She was short with twin-tails, cocoa brown hair, and crimson red eyes.
Kasumi recognized Jun. The other girl stared at him.
“Are you Jun?”
“Uh huh?”
“I am Eri Inui, but you can just call me Eri. I need to speak with you.”
Eri puffed out her chest and turned her chin haughtily.
She seemed a bit arrogant. Jun looked towards Kasumi.
“Uh… Sorry… Jun-san, right?”
“Kasumi, there’s no need for an apology in that situation! Hey, Jun, are you listening to me?”
“I don’t particularly want to.”
“At least show me your face.”
“I refuse.”
The girl’s words were piercing. Jun wanted to calmly walk between the two girls and enter the town.
“HOLD ON!”
She grabbed him by his left shoulder and forcibly turned him around.
Jun scowled at her.
“Don’t ignore me! I’m talking to Y – O – U! We need to talk.”
“I don’t understand why.”
“We do though!”
“Pardon me. You’re being troublesome.”
Today had been a well-paced day. At this rate, he could complete all of the quests in this town before his Wing Boots recharged. He didn’t have time for anything trivial like this.
“Fine.”
The short girl snorted and let go of Jun’s shoulder.
“Alright… if you understand, then it’s all good.”
“If you don’t listen to me, I’ll cause even more trouble.”
“Hmm?”
“I know which inn you’re staying at. I’ll even continue pestering you over there. I won’t stop until you kneel on the ground and beg.”
“Ugh. Wait. That can’t be allowed.”
“Well, I have the highest Affinity level in this city. This city is my ally.”
Having only just arrived in the city, Jun knew that he would not be able to compete with her Affinity.
(This girl…)
Jun glared at her.
She clearly knew the mechanics of Sky World much better than Kasumi.
“Understood. I’ll listen to you over a meal.”
“It’s nice of you to be so obedient.”
Eri grinned with her hands on her waist. Jun glared at her.
In Sky World, at least for Jun, nourishment was not a big issue.
This was because food and drinks could be easily summoned with magic.
Magic users could summon things like water or bread, but they tasted dull and flavorless, and disappeared in a few hours if left uneaten, so it was only natural for adventurers to want to go to restaurants and eat nice foods, such as warm soup and fresh vegetable salads. In any case, if people had some extra money lying around, they would often be tempted to spend it on nice food.
While eating at the inn’s bar, Jun listened to what the two girls wanted to say. The food there was certainly not gourmet, but it wasn’t so bad as to be inedible. Exhausted from all of the adventuring, Jun thought the food was quite nice.
Jun cut up a potato with a knife and fork and plopped it onto his dish.
Kasumi used her fork and knife to elegantly cut up some lamb meat. Eri, clanking her utensils, ate the meat that Kasumi cut up while waiting for Jun’s response.
“Advisor?”
“Yes. In our guild, there aren’t any veterans like you. As you know, there aren’t many adventurers on this island. Nobody comes from outside.”
“Regular airship service happens about once every five months.”
“Yeah, it left right after the Birthday, so the next one will be ready in two months. The truth is that Kasumi wants to quickly get to another island. So I want you to help out.”
(In a very selfish way.)
Jun sighed. He wouldn’t gain anything in helping.
“Even you will need to leave this island someday. As it stands, that’ll be in two months. However, if we cooperate, we can leave earlier.”
“I can leave whenever I want.”
“What? How?”
“Because I have Wing Boots. They can go all the way up to the seventh island ring, although they wouldn’t be able to reach much higher than that.”
To show that he was not lying, Jun took out his tablet and showed them the Magic Item section of his item list.
“Wow! What is this?! How did you get all this?!”
“Two of them are from quests I completed on the eighth island ring, and one is from a quest I completed on the seventh island ring. Some are also from quests on the sixth island ring. I came to this island for a dispatch quest. I also sold a lot of my stuff.”
“You’re an intense quest geek!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You…”
“Anyways, there should be a method that we can use to escape from this island without using the regular airship service.”
“We need to get a personal airship.”
“From a quest?”
Jun stood up, excited.
“No. It’s a treasure.”
“Really? If that’s the case, it’s not worth worrying about.”
Jun sat back on his chair.
“Hold on! Don’t you care about anything other than quests?”
“I certainly do.”
“You see…”
“Er… Hey Eri, let’s leave.”
Kasumi, quiet the whole time up until now, opened her mouth.
“Let’s not trouble Jun-san anymore…”
“Kasumi, I’m thinking of the best for both you and me.”
“If you want to have her best interests in mind, it would be great if you helped out.”
“I’m just hopeless! A monster that even the entire guild can’t take down is camping out in front of the key items.”
“This has nothing to do with quests.”
“Huh?”
“If you aren’t interested, we’ll try our best anyway!”
“OK. OK.”
Eri got up and shook her head. She glared at Jun, still calmly eating his food, one last time.
“All of our guild members will be at the Homana Cemetery to defeat the Dread Sphinx tomorrow at noon. We’ll challenge ourselves by attempting to beat it. Come and see if you’re satisfied.”
Eri got up, threw a silver coin onto the table, grabbed Kasumi’s hand, and tried to leave the room.
“Wait a sec.”
Kasumi pulled herself away from Eri and returned to Jun’s table.
“Uh… Jun-san. Is it OK if I ask you one thing?”
“What?”
“Jun-san… you seem to be… enjoying this…. Is that true?”
While cutting up some bread, Jun lifted his head. Naturally, he did not know what to say.
Kasumi stared motionlessly. She smiled.
“Hm… You aren’t having much fun, huh?”
“Yeah…”
Kasumi nodded gently.
“Sakuya’s a friend of mine who’s been looking after me recently. She’s surely very disappointed right now.”
Kasumi kept staring at Jun.
“I want to go back to where everybody else is.”
Jun fixed his eyes on the motionless Kasumi. He saw a beam of light from her obsidian hair flash onto him .
He turned his eyes away.
“Oh! Thank you so much for helping me out yesterday!”
After looking back at Kasumi one more time, Jun returned to quietly eating his meal.
VOLUME 1
Chapter 1: Altaria Island
Part 5
That evening…
Jun returned to Gazar in high spirits. He had managed to complete nine quests in just one day.
He saw two girls standing in front of the city gates. One of them was the girl Jun had helped out yesterday, Kasumi Yukasaki. The other girl was wearing a school uniform different from Kasumi’s. She was short with twin-tails, cocoa brown hair, and crimson red eyes.
Kasumi recognized Jun. The other girl stared at him.
“Are you Jun?”
“Uh huh?”
“I am Eri Inui, but you can just call me Eri. I need to speak with you.”
Eri puffed out her chest and turned her chin haughtily.
She seemed a bit arrogant. Jun looked towards Kasumi.
“Uh… Sorry… Jun-san, right?”
“Kasumi, there’s no need for an apology in that situation! Hey, Jun, are you listening to me?”
“I don’t particularly want to.”
“At least show me your face.”
“I refuse.”
The girl’s words were piercing. Jun wanted to calmly walk between the two girls and enter the town.
“HOLD ON!”
She grabbed him by his left shoulder and forcibly turned him around.
Jun scowled at her.
“Don’t ignore me! I’m talking to Y – O – U! We need to talk.”
“I don’t understand why.”
“We do though!”
“Pardon me. You’re being troublesome.”
Today had been a well-paced day. At this rate, he could complete all of the quests in this town before his Wing Boots recharged. He didn’t have time for anything trivial like this.
“Fine.”
The short girl snorted and let go of Jun’s shoulder.
“Alright… if you understand, then it’s all good.”
“If you don’t listen to me, I’ll cause even more trouble.”
“Hmm?”
“I know which inn you’re staying at. I’ll even continue pestering you over there. I won’t stop until you kneel on the ground and beg.”
“Ugh. Wait. That can’t be allowed.”
“Well, I have the highest Affinity level in this city. This city is my ally.”
Having only just arrived in the city, Jun knew that he would not be able to compete with her Affinity.
(This girl…)
Jun glared at her.
She clearly knew the mechanics of Sky World much better than Kasumi.
“Understood. I’ll listen to you over a meal.”
“It’s nice of you to be so obedient.”
Eri grinned with her hands on her waist. Jun glared at her.
In Sky World, at least for Jun, nourishment was not a big issue.
This was because food and drinks could be easily summoned with magic.
Magic users could summon things like water or bread, but they tasted dull and flavorless, and disappeared in a few hours if left uneaten, so it was only natural for adventurers to want to go to restaurants and eat nice foods, such as warm soup and fresh vegetable salads. In any case, if people had some extra money lying around, they would often be tempted to spend it on nice food.
While eating at the inn’s bar, Jun listened to what the two girls wanted to say. The food there was certainly not gourmet, but it wasn’t so bad as to be inedible. Exhausted from all of the adventuring, Jun thought the food was quite nice.
Jun cut up a potato with a knife and fork and plopped it onto his dish.
Kasumi used her fork and knife to elegantly cut up some lamb meat. Eri, clanking her utensils, ate the meat that Kasumi cut up while waiting for Jun’s response.
“Advisor?”
“Yes. In our guild, there aren’t any veterans like you. As you know, there aren’t many adventurers on this island. Nobody comes from outside.”
“Regular airship service happens about once every five months.”
“Yeah, it left right after the Birthday, so the next one will be ready in two months. The truth is that Kasumi wants to quickly get to another island. So I want you to help out.”
(In a very selfish way.)
Jun sighed. He wouldn’t gain anything in helping.
“Even you will need to leave this island someday. As it stands, that’ll be in two months. However, if we cooperate, we can leave earlier.”
“I can leave whenever I want.”
“What? How?”
“Because I have Wing Boots. They can go all the way up to the seventh island ring, although they wouldn’t be able to reach much higher than that.”
To show that he was not lying, Jun took out his tablet and showed them the Magic Item section of his item list.
“Wow! What is this?! How did you get all this?!”
“Two of them are from quests I completed on the eighth island ring, and one is from a quest I completed on the seventh island ring. Some are also from quests on the sixth island ring. I came to this island for a dispatch quest. I also sold a lot of my stuff.”
“You’re an intense quest geek!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You…”
“Anyways, there should be a method that we can use to escape from this island without using the regular airship service.”
“We need to get a personal airship.”
“From a quest?”
Jun stood up, excited.
“No. It’s a treasure.”
“Really? If that’s the case, it’s not worth worrying about.”
Jun sat back on his chair.
“Hold on! Don’t you care about anything other than quests?”
“I certainly do.”
“You see…”
“Er… Hey Eri, let’s leave.”
Kasumi, quiet the whole time up until now, opened her mouth.
“Let’s not trouble Jun-san anymore…”
“Kasumi, I’m thinking of the best for both you and me.”
“If you want to have her best interests in mind, it would be great if you helped out.”
“I’m just hopeless! A monster that even the entire guild can’t take down is camping out in front of the key items.”
“This has nothing to do with quests.”
“Huh?”
“If you aren’t interested, we’ll try our best anyway!”
“OK. OK.”
Eri got up and shook her head. She glared at Jun, still calmly eating his food, one last time.
“All of our guild members will be at the Homana Cemetery to defeat the Dread Sphinx tomorrow at noon. We’ll challenge ourselves by attempting to beat it. Come and see if you’re satisfied.”
Eri got up, threw a silver coin onto the table, grabbed Kasumi’s hand, and tried to leave the room.
“Wait a sec.”
Kasumi pulled herself away from Eri and returned to Jun’s table.
“Uh… Jun-san. Is it OK if I ask you one thing?”
“What?”
“Jun-san… you seem to be… enjoying this…. Is that true?”
While cutting up some bread, Jun lifted his head. Naturally, he did not know what to say.
Kasumi stared motionlessly. She smiled.
“Hm… You aren’t having much fun, huh?”
“Yeah…”
Kasumi nodded gently.
“Sakuya’s a friend of mine who’s been looking after me recently. She’s surely very disappointed right now.”
Kasumi kept staring at Jun.
“I want to go back to where everybody else is.”
Jun fixed his eyes on the motionless Kasumi. He saw a beam of light from her obsidian hair flash onto him .
He turned his eyes away.
“Oh! Thank you so much for helping me out yesterday!”
After looking back at Kasumi one more time, Jun returned to quietly eating his meal.
