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EX-1: Dreamcrystal Mausoleum 

I always thought I could do anything all by myself. But when I got summoned to a parallel world without any special powers, I realized I was dead wrong. I’m just a powerless loser. But I… 

“Wake up.” 

A foreign language tickled my eardrums. 

After those gentle words, the next thing I experienced was the harsh taste of alcohol burning my tongue and throat. 

I started coughing violently. 

Alcohol is the enemy. I’ve vowed never to drink it again, especially after I got wasted in the town of Yorschka and nearly fell into slavery. 

“I am Number 1. What is your name?” 

Sounds like a code name. 

Her voice was sweet yet cold, like a goddess of death. 

“I… I, uh…” 

I could barely speak properly. My tongue felt like it was on fire. 

“I’m Sumi… Wait, no. My name is…” 

Still in a daze, I almost gave my real name in Japanese but stopped just in time. 

I’d given up that name when I was summoned to that kidnapping kingdom of Lumork. 

…John Smith. 

That’s my name now. 

It’s what my precious few friends call me: Garohal, Hoze, and even my former lover. 

Incoherent thoughts drifted in and out of my mind. 

Lilio… I want to see your face again… 

“If your consciousness has returned, we request a verbal response, I declare.” 

“Number 1, we should begin awakening sequence by way of physical force, I suggest.” 

Through the haze of my confusion, I heard women’s voices talking in a strange manner. 

There were probably five or six of them, though I couldn’t tell for sure, since they were all chattering at once. 

“…Ow!” 

A painful pinch on my cheek made me jerk upright. 

Surrounding me were seven beautiful women, all with the same face. 

They each had a different hairstyle, but it was still difficult to tell them apart. 

“Are you awake?” 

“Y-yeah.” 

The one who appeared to be the leader handed me a water pouch. 

After being lost in the mountains for three days, my instinct was to chug it all down at once, but it was dangerous to do something so vulnerable in this violent, lawless parallel world. 

I forced myself to stop after a few sips and tried to figure out these girls’ intentions. 

Under their coats, they were wearing matching travel gear and leather breastplates, but they were each equipped with completely different weapons. 

The woman who spoke to me first had a huge shield on her back and a rapier at her waist. 

The one with the braided ponytail had a war hammer, the one with the woven side ponytail had a gun blade, the one with her hair tied in a bandanna had a broadsword, the one with barely shoulder-length hair had a nasty-looking poleax, the one with two side buns had a short spear, and the one with short pigtails had a scimitar. 

They were like a bunch of recycled character designs in an online game. 

“Explain why you were collapsed all the way out here, I request.” 

The one with the short pigtails questioned me with that same strange speech pattern. 

While the rest of the women all had large busts, I realized that this one alone had reassuringly modest breasts. 

I’m not saying big equals bad, but I find a smaller size more comforting. 

“Are you lost? I inquire.” 

“No, I…” 

“PYWEEEEE.” 

As I formed my response to the short-haired one’s question, a piercing sound—likely from the culprit behind my collapse—suddenly echoed around us. 

The valley full of rocks and withered shrubs was full of mist, making it impossible to see the source of the shriek. 

“All hands, red alert!” 

“Number 1! Requesting ‘Body Strengthening.’” 

“Permission granted. All hands, activate ‘Body Strengthening’!” 

“““Confirmed. ‘Body Strengthening.’””” 

A red magic circle appeared on their foreheads, and their bodies glowed for a moment. 

It seemed closer to a magic spell than a skill. 

“But…with no chant?” 

Maybe they had shortened it somehow, but either way, that was abnormal. 

Mages in this world always have to use a chant. 

A Saga Empire spy who once helped me out told me that there’s a technique for shortening chants, but they didn’t say anything about a skill that destroys chants entirely. 

Instead, they told me a little bit about chant-less magic: that the only people who can use it are Heroes or reincarnations. 

But there was no way there would be seven people who were all summoned by the Saga Empire’s Hero Summoning, a technique passed down to them by a god, in a place like this. 

“Are they regular reincarnations, then?” 

Reincarnations tended to have purple hair, but these women were blond— But no, maybe they dyed their hair. 

For now, I’ll just assume they’re reincarnations. 

“PYWEEEEYEEEE.” 

A shadow appeared above the rocks, accompanied by the sound of flapping wings. 

It was a creature whose upper body was that of a woman with bird wings for arms and whose lower half was that of a bird of prey. 

However, the woman’s upper half wasn’t what you’re probably picturing. 

It was more like if you took a feral mountain witch and made it about five times more horrifying, to give you some idea. 

“Enemy identified!” the one with the braided ponytail called. “A harpy, I report.” 

“Even numbers, prepare your Arrows!” 

“““Understood!””” 

On the command of Number 1, who had a low braided bun, four of the women produced red magic circles on their foreheads. 

Transparent arrows made of white light appeared right before their eyes. They were short arrows, like the kind you’d use with a crossbow. 

They resembled the Practical Magic spell Magic Arrow, which I’d seen once before. 

“PYWEEEYEEE.” 

“Fire!!” 

The harpy swooped down like a hawk just as the four women’s Arrows flew toward it at high speeds. 

The harpy twisted in midair, dodging the arrows. 

“Hideous bird! Come at us, if you do not fear our blades!” 

Number 1 prepared her shield and shouted, and the harpy wheeled around to speed toward her instead. 

She’d probably used the “Taunt” skill. 

“Now, Number 3.” 

“Victory is ours, I declare.” 

As the harpy crashed into the shield, the women with the gun blade and the poleax cut off its wings. 

“BYWEDZEEEE.” 

“Finish it!” 

The harpy shrieked as Number 1’s rapier plunged into its heart. 

Even with this world’s gamelike level system, the only living things that could survive having their heart pierced were very high-level monsters. 

The light faded from the harpy’s eyes, and its enormous body slumped to the ground. 

Incredible. Normal people could only hope to fight that thing with a team of archers, but these girls took it down without a scratch. 

“Number 1, I have retrieved the core, I report.” 

“Thank you, Number 8. There is blood on your face. Please wipe it off with this cloth.” 

“Wipe it off for me, I request.” 

Number 1 wiped the blood off the girl with the short pigtails. 

It was like a scene out of a yuri romance, but since their expressions barely changed, it felt more like watching an old 3-D cutscene or a puppet show. 

“I repeat the query. What is your name?” 

“I am Number 2,” the one with the braided ponytail added, and the other girls introduced themselves in turn. 

Their code names ranged from Number 1 to Number 8, although Number 7 appeared to be missing. 

“I’m John Smith. Just John Smith.” 

Once she finished wiping Number 8’s face, Number 1 approached me. 

“Do you know the way to the foot of the mountain?” 

“We are lost, I report.” 

“We have been wandering these mountains for nearly half a month, and I am exhausted, I complain.” 

“Number 1 has no sense of direction, I grumble.” 

After Number 1’s question, the rest all chimed in with complaints. 

“Silence. The rest of you equally lack a sense of direction, do you not?” 

I got that they were strong, but I was still surprised they managed to last half a month lost in the mountains. 

“So you want me to get you to the main road, is that it?” 

“No, I declare.” 

“We must carry out our mission of delivering our former master’s mementos, I proclaim.” 

“We have our current master’s permission, I add.” 

Considering their lack of expressions and strange way of speaking, they sure were chatty. 

“And what’s in it for me?” 

They may have rescued me when I was passed out, but I had learned that this parallel world is all about give-and-take. 

“Our travel budget is quite low…,” one of them said. 

“If you have no money, pay with your bodies,” I said. 

With their strength, they could help me get through the rough spot that I couldn’t handle alone. 

“Our breasts belong to master, I reject.” 

“No, no. See, I’m looking for ruins that are somewhere in this valley. Guard me until we find the entrance. In exchange, I’ll take you where you need to go.” 

I’d heard a rumor in a bar in Lessau County that the Dreamcrystal Mausoleum, the grave of the ancestral king Yamato, was somewhere in this valley. 

The other people in the bar didn’t believe it, but I did. 

Because in the song that described the location of the grave, there was a hint that only Japanese people would understand. 

“Can you locate it, Number 2?” 

“One moment please. I will investigate with Signal Echo.” 

Number 2, who hadn’t spoken much until now, produced a glowing circle on her forehead. 

From what I’d seen so far, she must be using a magic I wasn’t familiar with. 

“There is some kind of barrier here.” 

She must have been seeking the direction of the ruins with magic. 

I was right: It was in the direction of the harpy’s nest, which I’d given up on getting past before. 

“Let us go.” 

Number 1 beckoned to me. 

I was starting to understand why they were so bad with directions. 

“Other way.” 

“Other way?” 

“That’s the right direction, but we can’t get there by going that way. We’ll have to take this roundabout path.” 

Unlike birds and other flying creatures, humans couldn’t just proceed in a straight line. 

“There are the ruins, I report.” 

Number 8, with the short pigtails, put a hand to her meager chest in salute. 

“…Yeah, you’re right.” 

That was exhausting. 

These girls weren’t kidding when they said they had no sense of direction. 

All we had to do was proceed along a narrow path, but whenever something caught their attention, they would wander off elsewhere. And by the time I found the one who’d strayed first, a different one would be missing. 

It was like leading a bunch of children in adult bodies. 

If I didn’t know they were so strong in battle, I probably would’ve given up on them and gone ahead on my own by now. 

But we had already run into several kinds of monsters, and the women destroyed them just as easily as they had the harpy. 

“So now what…?” 

I let out a sigh to forget the frustrations of the journey and focused on the situation in front of me. 

There were about three hundred feet between the exit of this passage and the entrance to the ruins. The space in between was a wasteland of withered trees and weeds. 

It was all dyed a dull gray, as if ashes had been scattered everywhere. 

The space was surrounded on all sides, including behind the ruins, with steep cliffs, all of which were dotted with harpy nests. 

I could already hear their annoying shrieks echoing off the walls. 

“That is a large amount of harpies. Shall we destroy them, Number 1?” 

The one with the woven side ponytail, which I’m pretty sure was Number 3, addressed their leader, Number 1. 

“I believe this is too high a number, even for us. Shall we retreat, John Smith?” 

“No, just wait here,” I responded. “I’ll go the rest of the way myself.” 

Fortunately, there were lots of rocks and fallen trees to hide under on the way to the ruins. 

“John Smith, do you wish to commit suicide? I inquire.” 

“John Smith is reckless, I declare.” 

“John Smith, if you die, we will no longer have a guide, I observe.” 

The one with the side buns, the one with short hair, and the one with short pigtails all protested in monotone voices. 

“Relax, I have a plan. Just wait.” 

I pulled out the break-action gun from the bag on my back and loaded it with bullets. 

It was an antique family heirloom given to me by Garohal, who had saved my life in Yorschka. 

I didn’t have many bullets left, but it should be enough to serve as a diversion. 

I focused on my “Obscure” skill, then sank behind the rocks and fallen trees, moving from shadow to shadow. 

The “Obscure” skill is rare, but it’s not all that impressive. 

It certainly doesn’t compare with the Unique Skills that Heroes and reincarnations have. 

But so far, the harpies didn’t seem to have noticed me. 

So that was good enough. 

“PYWEEEEYEEEE.” 

At the top of a cliff, one of the harpies let out a warning shriek. 

The rest of them all spread their wings menacingly. 

Damn it. How’d they spot me? 

“PYWEEEYEEE.” 

“PYWEEEYEEE.” 

More and more of the harpies started shrieking. 

“We had better act fast, I report.” 

“Slow and steady loses the race, I wisely impart.” 

The voices came from right behind me. 

“What the hell are you doing here?!” 

Inexplicably, Number 8 was right behind me. 

And behind her, Number 6 peeked out her face as well. 

“Everyone, ‘Body Strengthening’! Number 6, Number 8, transport John Smith. Everyone else, activate Shield!” 

Number 1 came running up to us, shouting orders. 

“Run for the exit at full speed!!” 

The women’s Shields fended off the harpies’ diving attacks, but since they were trying to protect me, the harpies’ sharp claws were cutting into them. 

“Are you all stupid or what?!” 

As Number 6 and Number 8 carried me, I squeezed the muzzle of my gun between the shields. 

“Eat this!!” 

Still frustrated, I pulled the trigger. 

There was a loud boom and some recoil. 

Blood, feathers, and the shrieks of harpies filled the air. 

I had managed to scare them off a little, but they didn’t take much damage. 

“Run while we have the chance!” 

I shouted hoarsely, and every last one of us managed to tumble into the entrance of the ruins. 

“…Phew.” 

Lying on the cold stone floor, I let out a sigh, trying to calm my anger. 

“John Smith?” 

Number 8 peeked down at me. 

Her expression was earnest, as if she wanted to say something. 

I guess even these weirdos could feel remorse. 

“Don’t worry about it…” 

“Only a stupid person calls others stupid, I inform.” 

So that’s what she wanted to say? Talk about childish. 

 

“It appears to have been thoroughly picked over by robbers.” 

“Yeah, no kidding.” 

According to the old guy who told me about this place, investigation teams had been dispatched here at least seven times since it was discovered about three hundred years ago. 

I kept mapping the place as we headed down to the bottom floor. 

“A large labyrinth, I declare.” 

The passage, which seemed like an audience hall, was lined with waist-height stone pedestals. 

“Where is our destination? I inquire.” 

There were rectangular outcroppings in the walls, too, but like the pedestals, they displayed nothing but dust. 

“It is sad to be ignored, I entreat.” 

I glanced over at Number 8. 

“Do you promise not to go off and do anything on your own?” 

“Yes! I promise, I confirm.” She nodded rapidly. 

I didn’t really believe her, but I decided to let it slide. 

“Let’s go—” 

“John Smith, there is something written on the far wall, I report!” 

“I told you not to go off on your own!!” 

Number 8 pointed at the wall and started to run over, so I grabbed her by her collar and bopped her on the head with a fist. 

“Corporal punishment is painful, I report.” 

“Yeah, it’s supposed to be. You idiot!” 

“Only an idiot calls others—” 

Number 1 appeared behind Number 8 and grabbed her, pulling on her cheeks. 

“Number 8, defective goods with no learning function will be punished.” 

“I—I am sorry, I repent. Please do not punish me, I entreat.” 

Number 8 trembled, apologizing desperately. 

“Next time, I shall punish you without warning. Remember that.” 

“Y-yes, Number 1.” 

The tearful Number 8 clung to Number 6 and nuzzled her face into her. 

I guess she learned her lesson this time. 

“It looks like Shigan language, but I can’t read it…” 

I’d done my best to pick up basic reading skills, but I couldn’t understand this gibberish at all. 

I could, however, read the other, larger font that said, PLACE YOUR HAND ON THE SLATE AND PROVE THAT YOU ARE WORTHY. 

The song I’d heard that had prompted me to come here contained the words you who share my birthplace, come and find me in Japanese, so I figured there would be some hint here for a Japanese person like me, but apparently, it wouldn’t be so easy. 

“Ya ka su to ma be ra shi to ro se ma…” 

Number 8 started reciting some mysterious chant. 

“Number 8, are your language nodes malfunctioning? I inquire.” 

“Number 5, I was reading these letters, I retort.” 

Reading the letters? 

Ah, she was reading that random assortment of letters out loud—wait a minute. 

“No way…” 

I collapsed to the floor in disbelief. 

Using diagonal writing as code in this other world… Maybe the ancestral king Yamato wasn’t as ancient as I thought. 

“What is the matter, John Smith?” 

Without answering Number 1, I put my hand on the stone slate. 

“…Kawa.” 

I spoke a word in Japanese, and waves of light spread across the slate. 

When read diagonally, the nonsense letters spelled out the riddle: “Mountains and what?” 

In the Shiga Kingdom, mountains would be associated with valleys, unlike in Japan where they were associated with rivers, or kawa. So it was likely that no one had gotten the answer right before. 

But any reincarnation or ancient Hero should be able to answer this question. 

So there must be more mysteries beyond this point. 

Suddenly, my hand on the stone slate started to sink. 

“John Smith, what in the world—?” 

Before Number 1 could finish her question, I was pulled inside the stone slate. 

 

“Ugh, I can’t move…” 

I used all my strength to try to shift my head and arms. 

All I felt was cold flood under my hands. 

“Mana Light.” 

A voice spoke, and everything around me brightened. 

Number 1 and the others must have grabbed me to try to pull me out and got pulled through the stone slate along with me. 

The reason I couldn’t move was because they were piled on top of me. 

“It appears we passed through the stone slate.” 

Standing up, Number 1 offered me a hand and pulled me to my feet. 

“Yeah, I guess so.” 

I looked around the now-bright room. 

It was full of strange objects that looked like they’d been made by a particularly abstract sculptor. 

All of them were fixed to the floor, so they didn’t look movable. 

The floor seemed to be made out of large tiles, each about three feet across. 

“<YOU WHO SHARE MY BIRTHPLACE, COME AND FIND ME.>” 

The same lyrics I’d heard in the song at the bar were written on the wall. 

At least one other person must have been here long ago, then. 

“John Smith, it says, <I shall wake from my slumber when time brings about a great uprising> up there, I report.” 

Number 8 pointed at the ceiling. 

Sure enough, there were hiragana letters carved in the ceiling. 

“Tell me, Number 8.” 

“What is it? I inquire.” 

“How can you read writing that’s in Japanese?” 

Were they really reincarnations from Japan after all? 

Number 8 tilted her head in confusion, then looked to Number 1 as if to ask for help. 

“It was included in Language Set One.” 

“It was necessary to read our former master’s documents, I declare.” 

“I enjoyed the ‘classic ess-eff,’ I proclaim.” 

“The Joe Joe manga was much more interesting, I insist.” 

The others all followed Number 1’s response with comments of their own. 

“Our former master who created us was a reincarnation.” 

The reincarnation part made sense. 

But there was a more important piece of information in that statement. 

“Created you?” 

Was that why they all had the same face? 

Did this reincarnated “former master” of theirs use magic or alchemy to make some kind of clones? 

“Yes. We are homunculi. Trazayuya the elf sage neglected to finish our production, so it was our former master who took over and completed us.” 

“Are there others besides you?” 

“Number 7 is traveling with our current master, I declare.” 

Oh, good. 

At least there weren’t huge amounts of them like in a light novel I read once. 

If there were twenty thousand of these powerful fighters, they could easily topple a whole country. 

“John Smith, there is a strange engraving here, I report.” 

The one with the bandanna—Number 4, I think—beckoned from behind one of the mystery objects. 

I had almost forgotten what we were doing here. 

Right now, investigating these ruins took priority over figuring out where these girls came from. 

If I didn’t find something of monetary value here, all the danger I’d faced to come this far would be for nothing. 

“A clock face?” 

Number 4 appeared to have found an object based on an old-fashioned clock. 

Maybe it had something to do with the time mentioned on the ceiling. 

“It has no hand, I declare.” 

Number 8 pounded on the clock. 

“Hey, don’t be rough with it.” 

I smacked the careless Number 8 on the head. 

What if a guardian popped out to protect the grave or something? 

“Why doesn’t it have a hand, though?” 

Murmuring to myself, I casually touched the clock face. 

Suddenly… 

A giant eyeball appeared on the clock and looked around at us so ominously, I could practically hear a DUN-DUN-DUUUN! 

“John Smith!” 

“Danger, I declare.” 

Number 4 and Number 8 stepped forward to protect me. 

The eyeball stared at me, blinked a few times, and then suddenly changed into a mouth. 

“<The time has come.>” 

The enormous mouth spoke in Japanese. 

The tiles on the floor whirled around, pushing us and the strange objects into the corners of the room. A black hole opened up in the center, and a faintly glowing crystal pillar emerged. 

“The ancestral king Yamato—or not?” 

Locked inside the crystal was a girl with long, flowing black hair. 

Tch, her hair’s covering all the important parts. 

“She is naked, I report.” 

“Staring is forbidden, I proclaim.” 

Number 8 and Number 6 closed in on me. 

“I—I wasn’t staring!” 

I have to admit, I regretted the words as they came out of my mouth. 

It made me sound like an embarrassed virgin…although I guess that’s not inaccurate. 

Maybe I shouldn’t have chickened out when Lilio was after me. 

“John Smith!” 

Just as Number 1 cried out, the panel beneath my feet started to move. 

It zoomed back toward the center of the room, where the crystal pillar had finished rising. 

“Whoa!” 

I managed to keep my balance without falling, but when the panel stopped abruptly, I was flung forward and landed on the crystal. 

As soon as I touched it, the crystal pillar faded into nothing, and the girl fell down on top of me. 

As my heart pounded furiously, her lovely voice reached my ears. 

“Is that you…Ichirou?” 

She looked up at me with hazy eyes. 

“Huh? What?” 

I felt so flustered and guilty for having accidentally touched her bare skin that my head was spinning. 

“You finally…found me…” 

She smiled like a blooming flower, taking my breath away. 

And then, without another word, the beautiful girl fainted. 

Feeling a little jealous of whoever that smile was meant for, all I could do was sit there and gaze at her face until Number 8 violently took her away. 

 

“Hey, John, buddy. Someone’s over there.” 

Mito—the beauty who had emerged from the pillar in the Dreamcrystal Mausoleum—pointed at the fog at the foot of the mountain. 

She peered through the longscope that she’d produced from her Item Box. 

“That flag… Is it the local army?” 

“Those don’t look like official military uniforms, though.” 

As I searched my memory, Number 1 pointed at what appeared to be soldiers. 

“John, is this still the Shiga Kingdom around here?” 

“Yeah. This is Lessau County.” 

“Are we fighting with someone?” 

“Nope. Lessau County borders other Shiga Kingdom noble lands on three sides. The last side touches the Fujisan Mountains. There’s no one they’d send out soldiers to fight.” 

I remembered the military map Lilio had shown me back in Seiryuu County as I answered Mito’s question. 

“John Smith, the other group has a flag of a different color, I observe.” 

Number 5 pointed at a separate corps that was encamped in the shadows of a forest. 

“Isn’t that the Seiryuu County flag?” 

Seiryuu County was two territories away. Why would their army be here? 

I’ve got a bad feeling about this. 

“Let me see that.” 

I grabbed the longscope from Mito and pointed it at the Seiryuu County Army. 

…It’s her. 

Short red hair. 

Determined eyes that were currently trembling with anxiety. 

It could be only one person… 

“Lilio.” 

She should be in Seiryuu County. What was she doing here? 

“Friend of yours?” 

“Yeah, kinda. From Seiryuu City.” 

I answered Mito vaguely. 

“Oh-ho-ho. Judging by that tone, I’m guessing you either had a crush on her, got rejected by her, or she’s your ex-GF?” 

I looked away from Mito’s strangely excited gaze. 

“…Yep. Gotta be an ex!” 

Mito hit the nail on the head. 

I tried to ignore her, but she just kept searching my face, so I finally admitted she was right and waved her off. 

She kept pestering me, though, and I ended up giving her a quick summary of how we’d dated and broken up. 

“Mito, what is a ‘love confession’? I inquire.” 

“This ‘GF’ must be short for ‘gravitational force,’ I deduce.” 

Number 6 and Number 8 started peppering Mito with stupid questions. 

That was fine with me, since it changed the subject and all. 

“John, bad news!” 

As Mito was explaining things to Number 6, she suddenly stopped and shouted at me. 

Across the way, a horde of monsters came into view, tearing through the fog to attack the armies. 

“It is a monster chain rampage, I report,” said Number 5 as she looked through the longscope. 

“Let’s go, buddy!” 

All eyes gathered on Mito. 

“Are you serious, Mito?” 

“Yeah, duh! I mean, your sweetheart is over there, right?” Mito responded without a hint of sarcasm. “So we have to go save her! You’re her one and only hero, John!” 

“Me, a hero? But I’m powerless.” 

All I’ve ever been able to do is obscure myself among a group so I don’t have to clash with anyone. How could I be a hero? 

“Look, being strong isn’t what makes someone a hero. A hero is just someone who works up the courage to try and fight for the people they care about!” 

Mito waved around a white staff that she appeared to have pulled out of nowhere. 

“Of course, if you show me some courage, I’m willing to give you a teensy bit of help…” 

Mito looked into my eyes as if to see if I was determined enough. 

Time to show some guts, John Smith. 

I slapped my cheeks with both hands to get myself worked up. 

“Please lend me your strength, Mito.” 

There was more power in my voice than even I was expecting. 

“You got it, buddy! I’ll throw in some extra free of charge, to celebrate my awakening today!” 

Mito nodded, looking satisfied with my courage. 

Then she waved her wand, and particles of life showered over us. 

I felt strength and courage well up in my body. 

It was chant-less magic. 

The secret technique that only Heroes and reincarnations could use. 

But right now, I didn’t care about Mito’s identity. 

I started running at three times my usual speed. 

Wait for me, Lilio! 

I’m on my way! 





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