Chapter 2: Makoto Takatsuki Has a Meeting with His Goddess
“Makoto, let’s begin today’s meeting.”
When I came to, I was in front of Noah. I’d been training until about two in the morning, but I must’ve nodded off at some point.
For some reason, Noah wasn’t in her usual dress. Instead, she was wearing a black pencil skirt and a white shirt, along with a pair of glasses.
A teacher outfit?
“Good day, Lady Noah. What’s with those clothes?” I asked.
“Well, we’re planning how to overturn the world together! Don’t I look capable?” She flicked her glasses up her nose.
As for my opinion of the outfit...
It just looks like cosplay.
“Rude. Well, whatever. You know the outline, right?”
“Dealing with the threat of the Great Demon Lord, and, at the same time, lowering faith in the Sacred Deities.”
Noah wrote that on a whiteboard that was floating in the air. Then she slapped the board and turned to me.
“Now! How do we do that? Yes, Makoto?”
She was really getting into it.
“Find strong allies?” I doubted I could do anything about the World System on my own, so we’d need allies.
“A good answer. So, who, exactly?”
“Hmm, well, strong people would be the best, so Sakurai...? Though he’s probably out of the running ’cause he’s a hero.” He had the Sacred Deities’ divine protection, after all, so he was well and truly part of their system.
Noah’s reaction wasn’t what I’d expected, though. “Heroes? Not a bad idea. Although, while they’re strong fighters, they’re limited in their overall influence on the world.”
“But converting people one at a time so that they have faith in you... That won’t work either, will it?”
“Right! So our goal is these!” she exclaimed, writing a word on the board.
“Priestesses,” I read. “Huh?”
“You’re already acquainted with two of them.” Noah added Princess Noelle and Princess Sophia to the board.
“Nonono, that’s not happening.”
After all, Princess Noelle was Sakurai’s fiancée, and Sophia didn’t like me. To be fair, I likewise didn’t think much of Sophia.
“It’s all good! The opposite of love is actually apathy, y’know? Hate can become love!”
“Real life isn’t as easy as dating sims,” I replied.
Fujiyan’s waifu games had heroines that went from hating the protagonist to adoring him, but those were just games—my experience told me that if a girl didn’t like you, she’d keep not liking you.
“What about taking Noelle for yourself, then?”
“Give me a break.”
She was Sakurai’s fiancée on top of everything else, so there’s no way I could do that.
“Besides, if I go for the priestesses, won’t the Sacred Deities interfere?”
“True. But the priestesses have the most influence on the continent. Consider how you can align yourselves. You can’t keep carrying on with them like you have been,” she scolded.
After a moment, I nodded reluctantly. “All right.” My country’s own priestess not liking me...wasn’t the best situation. “Can I bring up something now?”
“Sure. Go ahead, Makoto.”
You don’t need to keep adjusting your glasses.
“I want to tell Fujiyan, Lucy, and Sasa about your goal.”
I wanted them on my side.
“Hmm, there’s no guarantee that they’ll help, though. You know that, right?”
“I’ll give in, then, and I won’t force them.”
“Even if they try to report our plan to the church?”
“They won’t do that,” I responded with a slight sharpness in my tone.
“I’m kidding. But you do need to pick your confidants carefully.”
Getting found out as a wicked deity’s believer wouldn’t be great.
“Okay, then I’ll be careful and look for people I can trust.”
“That’s right! Start with the people around you,” Noah instructed. “I think that’ll be fine.”
Now that I had Noah’s approval, my decision was made—I’d talk with the three of them about our plan.
“By the way, when should we go for the Seafloor Temple?” Saving the goddess from that dungeon was one of my other goals. But as I said that, she scratched at her cheek in concern.
“The Seafloor Temple is protected by the sea god Neptus’s divine beast, Leviathan.”
“I’ve heard about that.”
It was a famous legend: the pinnacle of all sea creatures, Leviathan, protected the entrance to the seafloor temple.
“Have you also heard that...Leviathan is stronger than the Great Demon Lord?”
I was silent.
“What?” I managed eventually.
“Well, one of them ruled over the land as the king of demons a millennium ago; the other has reigned over the sea for eons. There’s no comparison.”
That...made sense. I hadn’t known. I suppose due to the Seafloor Temple’s position as an unpopular “last dungeon,” there wasn’t much information on it. If the Great Demon Lord was the last boss, then I suppose the hidden boss would be stronger. Leviathan would definitely fit the bill...
“Let’s deal with the Great Demon Lord first,” I decided.
“That’d be for the best,” she agreed, nodding and folding her arms.
“Well, then I guess that’s about it for today.”
“See you around,” she said, then added, “By the way, offering to aid me earns you a lot of points!” She was waving and then gave me a wink. At least she was enjoying herself.
Right, then. I’ve got things to do.
◇
“H-Hmmm...”
We were in a parlor in the Catgirl Cantina. It was a private room, so we didn’t need to worry about being overheard.
I’d told Fujiyan that I had something important to talk with him about, so we’d come here and I’d explained the situation regarding Noah. Well, his mind reading meant that our plan was now all out in the open, so if he rejected me here, then it was all over...
He let out a big sigh.
“You have selected an arduous path...” he said eventually.
“Y-Yeah.”
“You always were one to select the hardest difficulty in games.”
“Well, isn’t it more fun to beat it that way?” I asked.
“I do not entirely agree that it is necessary to adopt the same policy in this world—”
He’s right about that, but I picked this path anyway...
“—however, I shall aid you as much as I reasonably am able.”
Phew! Thank goodness.
“Thanks, Fujiyan, that’s great!”
I heaved out a massive sigh and slumped back into my chair. I’d been so worried, but suddenly, Fujiyan laughed.
“Do the two of us not have a friendship?” he asked.
“Well, we’re pretty close, yeah.”
What I was asking was a pretty huge deal, though. And yet, he’d heard me out. My friend was a lifesaver.
We chatted idly for a while before I remembered a promise I’d made.
“Oh, quick change of subject,” I said, thinking back on what Nina had asked. “About Nina...”
A sour look crossed his face when he heard that. Uh, are things not going well?
“No...it is not something I would conceal from you...”
Fujiyan then explained the situation awkwardly. As to what he explained...
Apparently, Chris had proposed to him!
She was the daughter of the lord of Macallan, so marrying her would effectively make her a reverse gold digger.
“That’s amazing. I guess that would finally make you a noble.”
Despite how impressed I sounded...what would that mean for Nina...?
“I have yet to tell Lady Nina...” he said, trailing off. “In fact, I am unsure whether to accept or not.”
“It’s weighing on you, then?”
“Well, Lady Chris and Lady Nina are on bad terms.”
“Yeah, they’re love rivals after all.”
“That is not the only issue,” he admitted.
Allegedly, the nobles on the continent looked down on beastmen and elves as subhuman. The tendency was strongest in Highland, but all nobles seemed to carry that view, not just the ones in Roses. Nina’s prior master had been a noble and had treated beastmen poorly, so ever since, Nina had possessed a hatred of nobility.
So that’s why they can’t get along... I thought. “You’ve got feelings for Nina though, right?”
“Of course. She was the first employee I ever hired, and she’s done her utmost ever since.”
“Plus, her bunny ears are cute.”
“Well...yes.”
Come on, you don’t need to be shy about it after this long.
“And what about Chris?” I asked. I had the abrupt thought that now was the first time I’d spoken to Fujiyan about romance like this. It’d been unimaginable in our old world. Back then, neither of us had anything to do with girls. This was kind of fun, actually.
“Lady Chris...was concerned about her future and her fiancé when we first met. I discussed it with her.”
She must have had doubts about marrying someone her parents, as nobles, had chosen. Fujiyan had probably used his mind reading to build up her trust. Back then, he’d wanted to ingratiate himself with some nobles to succeed as a merchant.
We otherworlders had no relatives here, so making connections like that was an unavoidable part of life.
“And then, before you knew it, she’d fallen for you?”
“She even annulled her engagement for my sake...”
“W-Wow... That’s gotta feel pretty heavy...”
An annulment... That wasn’t something she would’ve done out of superficial feelings.
“Well, this is my own concern, so I shall manage something,” he said, hoisting his ale and draining it dry.
H-Hmm... He’s grown up. That was the end of that conversation.
“May I make a request of my own?” he asked.
“S-Sure. Of course you can.”
He was aiding a wicked deity’s disciple, so in return, I’d help him out as much as I could. But would I be able to?
“You acquired the right for me to trade freely throughout Roses, no? I would like to prepare something new for that venture, so I am looking for ideas.”
“Ohhh, I get it.”
Should he be asking me, an amateur, for something like that?
“Asking as many people as possible is best for this.”
“Hmm,” I pondered. “How about something with those animal ears?”
“I feel like I have exhausted that avenue. After all, I am the owner of this establishment.”
“Wha?” Whaaaat?! Fujiyan owned the Catgirl Cantina? My friend had bought his favorite establishment before I even knew it.
“Th-Then how about doing something with ramen since you like that too?”
“I have already secured a contract with a piggery for ramen. The taste should be ideal before long.”
“Whoa...”
It was no good—he’d already started doing anything that I could think of. He’d asked me though, so I wanted to give him at least one good idea.
Right, let’s change focus and think about my specialties, like water magic.
“What about this, then?”
“Hmm...hmm, hmm, what?!” he exclaimed. “Such a thing is possible?! That would work!”
Apparently, my idea was a good one.
Several days later, I was helping out at Fujiyan’s launch.
“Welcome! Would you like to try it out!”
“Ten percent off for the first thirty customers!”
Well actually, I was mostly just watching. I’d considered trying to draw in customers, but the cute cat-eared and fox-eared girls were taking care of sales. Yup, no men needed here.
Nina was running the place and giving brisk instructions.
“How’re they selling?” I asked Fujiyan.
“Fairly well, I would say,” he answered. “What of the component manufacture?”
“I’m still fine.”
“Promising indeed!”
That was good. Everything seemed to be going well.
Just then, Lucy walked into view. “Makoto, what are you doing?”
Sasa was next to her. “Are you part-timing at Fujiwara’s?”
“This is a joint venture between the two of us!” Fujiyan exclaimed with a chuckle.
“I started up something new with Fujiyan,” I clarified.
“What is it?” Sasa inquired, peering into the display model.
Lucy touched the inside, then jolted as her fingers registered the temperature. “Wah! That’s cold. Is it ice?”
“My esteemed Tackie here used elemental magic to forge some ice which will remain unmelting for a year. We then packed the ice into a cool box and are selling the device as a refrigerator!”
“Oh, so those don’t exist in this world?” asked Sasa.
“What’s a refrigerator?” Lucy wondered.
“Everyone had one back in our world. They cool down food and drinks.”
“Hmm, that sounds handy,” Lucy said. “But, Makoto, you can make ice that doesn’t melt?”
“If I use my water and elemental magic together, I can make ice that won’t melt for at least a year. That is, if you keep the fridge within Macallan.”
The whole process was pretty much completely delegated to the elementals—I’d asked the Macallan elementals to keep the water in a frozen state. However, this power obviously did not extend outside the borders of Macallan, nor was it something I could do without an existing relationship with the elementals.
“Woooow! People’ll definitely buy that!” Sasa exclaimed. “Are you raking in cash?”
“They have only just gone on the market, so not quite that rapidly,” Fujiyan answered with a smile.
“With my current mastery level, I can only maintain the ice for a year at most,” I explained. “If I train it higher, though, I could get it to last two or three years.”
“I heard that the unmelting ice he created for training was going to waste, and I thought it could serve a purpose,” Fujiyan said.
Plus, melting it all down again was a real bother.
“Ohhh, I remember that Mary was confused about why the waterway behind the guild was frozen,” Lucy commented. “So that was you.”
“She found out and got mad, so I’ve been melting it properly,” I said. After all, the guild wouldn’t be happy with me if I just left unmelting ice lying around.
“You do love your training, Takatsuki. Just like leveling up,” Sasa said, laughing.
“And what of you two?” Fujiyan asked.
“I’m getting Lu to show me around the town. Then, shopping, I guess.”
“You should’ve invited me along,” I said. We were a party of three, after all.
Lucy spoke with a wide smirk. “You want to help Aya pick her underwear?”
“That’s fine by me,” Sasa commented. “I’d like to hear your opinion on them, Takatsuki. These are the ones I bought today.”
As she spoke, she pulled out a set of underwear.
I panicked and grabbed her wrist, stopping her from getting them fully out. “I-I’m fine! Really!” This girl!
Nina had just finished giving instructions to the staff, and she came over to us. “We’ll be finished up soon, so why don’t we all go for a meal’h?”
“Seconded,” Lucy said.
“Yay, let’s!” cheered Sasa.
Well, after everything, we all ended up getting dinner together.
“To new ventures!”
We were in the Catgirl Cantina, and we all chorused “Cheers!” as we drank together.
“Truly, my esteemed Tackie, your elemental magic is indispensable.”
“It’s so impressive’h!”
Fujiyan and Nina both piled on the praise. They were good at it too, so it didn’t feel awkward at all.
“I can’t use it outside of Macallan or Labyrinthos, though,” I added in between bites of an olive oil and garlic pasta dish. It tasted great, and I thought maybe I could make it myself. On the table, there was also anchovy pizza and fried chicken.
“They have really good food here!” Sasa exclaimed, dunking a chunk of fried fish into tartar sauce.
“Fujiyan owns it, by the way,” I told her.
“What?!” the girls chorused.
Hang on, why is Nina shocked too?
Nina glared lightly at Fujiyan. “Boss, you bought another place without saying anything’h?”
“Th-There is no issue, is there?! I said long ago that I was aiming for this location!”
“You don’t have enough patience to wait for the things you want’h,” she scolded.
“That’s right,” Sasa chimed in, “I remember him buying an entire game series he liked all at once, along with every manga volume.”
“Didn’t he use to put all his part-time wages into his hobbies?” I asked, reminiscing back on the past with her.
Nina sighed. “That account girl’s going to be angry again’h.”
“If you could accompany me...”
“I suppose I must’h.”
Those two were a good team.
“Fujiyan and Nina get on well,” commented Lucy.
“Well, she was his first friend in this world,” I explained.
“Hmmm? So then, I’m yours.”
“Eh, well, yes.”
What’d brought this on?
“Adventurers really should stick with the first people they meet, don’t you think?” she asked.
“I-I guess...?” Why was she wondering about that so suddenly?
“Hey, Takatsuki, haven’t we been together since junior high?” Sasa interjected, her tone competitive.
“I guess we have.”
“It hasn’t been two years since you two met, right, Lu? I’ve known him for at least double that time. There’s nothing I don’t know about him.”
“You don’t know everything!” I protested. Although, she had come into my room and rifled around. She’d seen my journal too, so she probably knew a fair bit...
But then Lucy grabbed onto my arm and added more to the mix. “Makoto had a female orc fall for him at first sight! She looked like she was going to go on a rampage...”
“That happened’h?! What next’h?!” Nina demanded, her ears flicking.
Nina? Are you into that?
Sasa interrupted before she could continue, though.
“When we were back in junior high, our English teacher was single and liked Takatsuki, so he had to stay behind every day. Then, after school one day...”
It was Fujiyan who interjected this time. “I have heard nothing of this!”
“Guys!” I protested. Stop yelling out people’s secrets! Also, why was I the only one getting picked on here?
We chatted and enjoyed our drinks for a while, but then Mary rushed in.
“Makoto! There you are. I was looking for you.”
“Mary? What’s wrong?” I asked.
I was planning on heading back to the guild tonight, but this seemed more urgent.
Oh, she must have been looking for me because I’ve been staying at Fujiyan’s lately.
“We received a message from the Highland adventurer’s guild!”
Highland...the biggest country on the continent and the one Sakurai served with the Soleil Knights. The only encounter I’d had with them was the stuff with Labyrinthos...
“And who do you think it was from?!” Mary exclaimed before answering her own question. “The heir to the throne, Princess Noelle! Why would she be sending you a message?!”
So...it was the princess that Sakurai was engaged to.
Mary handed over the paper, and on it, a few short sentences were written. I read through it.
“Uhhh, so they want to reward me for saving Labyrinthos, and they’ve summoned me to Highland Castle...”
“You didn’t mention that!” Mary yelled huffily. Oh yeah, I only reported on the harpy queen, didn’t I?
“I forgot.”
“Come on, Makotooo.” She started mussing my hair. “The invite is for a month from now, got it?”
“Yeah, got it.”
Well, my goddess had told me to make inroads with the priestesses and princesses. I guess you could call this invitation a timely event.
“You got another summons too,” Mary added.
“What?”
She whipped out a second piece of paper. “Princess Sophia sends an order that you’re to present yourself at the capital, one week from now.”
So this one’s an order? That was a tight deadline too. The image of the cold-eyed princess floated through my mind.
H-Hmmm, I really don’t wanna go.
“It says order, but it’s more likely that she wants you there to thank you. It’s pretty much the same as Princess Noelle’s invitation,” Mary added.
“Do I have to go?” I asked.
“Well, if you get a summons from the king, you’re better off going.”
“Figures.” Oh well.
“There’s a lot for you at the guild, so make sure to come by tomorrow,” Mary told me before sitting down with us. “That’s work done for today! Let’s have a drink! I’ll take an ale.”
She’s not heading back?
“You’re sure making yourself at home,” Lucy said with a bemused look.
“I mean, Makoto’s just gotten back and now he’s leaving again!”
Oh, right, I’d be away from Macallan for a bit, even though I just arrived home...
Those feelings must’ve shown on my face because Mary immediately grabbed hold of me. “Oh, did you miss me? Did you?”
“I did,” I answered, looking straight at her. Seeing her really made me feel like I’d made it back home. After all, she was the receptionist that’d been working when I’d first registered as an adventurer.
She suddenly jolted away, red-faced and gaping, her mouth opening and closing.
Did I say something weird?
“Want to come back to my place tonight?” she whispered into my ear.
“Not really,” I replied. Last time, I’d ended up blackout drunk, and my head had killed me the next day.
“You womanizer...” Sasa muttered.
“That’s what I wanted to say...” said Lucy.
What do you guys mean? We see each other every day.
All of us became engrossed by Mary’s desire to drink, and we stayed there until the cantina closed.
“Makoto Takatsuki, due to your aid in eliminating the blight dragons of Labyrinthos, your rank is hereby raised to silver,” Mary announced. She was completely composed and without any sign of a hangover, despite how much she’d drunk the night before. I was impressed. My head was banging. I want water.
“Wait, I’m silver rank? I only just hit iron rank.”
“Dammit, you got that record too?!” Jean complained from behind me.
“Good job, Makoto!” Lucy said, giving me a thumbs-up and a smile.
Sasa was smiling too, but it didn’t seem like she quite understood. Out of all of us, I was the one most taken aback.
“I don’t exactly feel strong enough to call myself a silver rank. I’d be fine stopping at iron for a while.” I could remember Nina going one-on-one with a chimera, and she’d only been silver rank back then.
I definitely wasn’t that strong.
“You can’t refuse it,” Mary rebuked. “You’ve been summoned to the capitals of both Highland and Roses, and we can’t send you off as an iron rank. No being selfish.”
So, I hit silver rank. Lucas and the skewer chef treated me to a fair few drinks. Mary also joined in, and I got a warning from Jean that he’d catch up to my level soon.
After that, we, once again, left Macallan.
◇
We were now heading for Roses’s capital, Horn.
Fujiyan was taking us aboard his airship. He’d planned on getting permission from the princess, and I thought we’d have another relaxed trip. However...
“I will be accompanying you all to the capital. I hope we get along,” said the lord’s second daughter, Christina, with a refined smile.
There was an attendant (I guess?) maid standing behind her, along with a soldier she’d brought as a guard or something.
“Why’s Chris here?” I asked Fujiyan in a whisper.
“She insisted,” he muttered back.
“Lady Christina, what of your work’h?” Nina asked coldly, but with a blank face.
“My subordinates will deal with it,” Chris answered, still with that faint smile. “Giving our greetings to royalty is, after all, another important duty of nobles.”
“Your poor subordinates’h.”
“Will have no issue. Incidentally, where is my room?”
“Who can say’h? Maybe there are no free rooms’h.”
“Oh?” Chris responded. “Then I would be willing to share with Sir Fujiwara.”
The two of them wordlessly held each other’s gaze.
Things were slightly unsettled between them, apparently... I glanced to the side and saw Fujiyan looking my way.
Sorry, can’t help here, I thought toward him. I did feel sorry for my friend and his predicament, though.
After dinner, I found myself sitting on the deck, training under the moonlight. I’d wanted to share a nightcap with Fujiyan again, but he was caught up with Chris or Nina, or maybe both.
“Popular guys have it tough,” I mused as I made the little water bird I’d conjured flap its wings through the wind.
The water elementals felt less responsive as we got closer to the capital.
Makoto, the Sacred Deities have more control in the capital, so elemental magic is proportionally weaker, I heard in my mind.
Huh?! Noah? Is that true?
That was just great—the elementals were my main form of attack, so not being able to use them made me feel really uneasy. I doubted there’d be any monsters in the city, though. There won’t be, right?
Sasa walked up to me as I trained and watched the moon. “Takatsuki? That meal was pretty bad...”
“Yeah, you’re right...”
Chris had pressed Fujiyan for an answer to her proposal and Nina had snapped. Things had just gotten worse from there—the two of them stopped hiding their dislike and the sniping had carried on.
“He just needs to say that Nina’s his partner!”
Sasa was on Nina’s side, apparently. Well, she’d been learning martial arts from her, so that was kinda expected. Still, though...
“Did you know that Chris apparently annulled her last engagement for him?”
“Whoa... Fujiwara’s popular,” she said in surprise. Neither of us had been all that popular in high school, after all.
“Does that really matter? Just because she broke up with her fiancé doesn’t mean that Fujiwara has to take her, does it?”
“H-Hmm.”
Well, she wasn’t wrong.
Fujiyan had that overpowered mind reading ability from his Waifu Game Player skill, so I could hardly blame Chris for falling for him, considering he could fully understand her worries and advise her. Plus, the dispute over succession had to be exhausting.
That was the harshness of Waifu Game Player. I was glad my skill was pretty peaceful on that front. It just changed my perspective and gave me options! I wouldn’t have minded something a bit stronger, though...
I had a conflicted look on my face, which prompted a smirk from Sasa. “Hey, Takatsuki. Does it bother you that he’s so popular, but you don’t have a girlfriend?”
Huh? That’s what my expression looked like?
“No, no, no, not at all.”
Really. I’m a manly man, after all.
“Reeeaaally?” Sasa asked. She had a meaningful look on her face as she wound her arms around me.
Was this a habit of lamiae? She’d been a lot more touchy-feely lately.
“I think you could get a girlfriend right away if you wanted oneee.”
“Y-You think?”
She gradually moved her face closer as she looked at me.
“Aya, what are you doing?” Lucy asked, suddenly appearing. Sasa tightened her grip even further.
“Takatsuki said he wants a girlfriend.”
“What?!” Lucy shouted in shock.
“Sasa, I didn’t actually say that.”
“H-Hmm, Makoto wants a girlfriend,” Sasa repeated. “He should just say so already.”
“Seriously, I didn’t say that.”
Neither of them listened to what I had to say—they just grabbed on to me from opposite sides.
“Uh...guys?”
“So, which of us do you want?”
“Do you like me or Lu more?”
“Makoto...”
“Takatsuki...”
The two of them were looking ardently up at me. How did this even happen?
“Wait, hold on. Just, uh, wait...”
I was sandwiched between the slight chill from Sasa and the extra heat from Lucy. If it weren’t for Calm Mind, I’d have been long gone. After all, it was late at night, and I had a cute girl on either side. In this situation, I was glad to have been born a guy. But honestly, I had something more important I needed to talk to them about. It’d definitely be better to get this out of the way before we arrived at the capital.
It wasn’t at all because I wanted to change the subject...
So pathetic... murmured a voice in my head.
Well, I couldn’t fool Noah at least.
“Lucy, Sasa, there’s something important I need to tell you both.”
They looked quizzically back at me.
“Oh?”
“What’s up?”
“It’s about the goddess I follow...”
The serious expression on my face made them both listen properly. I explained to them about Noah and how being her believer made me an enemy of the world.
The two of them wore serious expressions as they listened.
“I won’t say you have to help me. But if we’re together from now on, it could potentially get more dangerous, and—”
“You’re an idiot, Makoto,” said Lucy, cutting me off and putting her hands on her hips with a hmph. “We’re a party. But I understand now what you were worried about. You should’ve told us sooner.”
“Lucy...”
It was weird. I felt different than when Fujiyan had agreed to help.
“You didn’t even need to ask. I’m always on your side,” Sasa assured me. She patted me gently on my head, even though she was shorter.
“Sasa...”
The whole time we’d known each other, she’d sometimes treated me a bit like a younger brother. And right now, it was kind of nice.
“Thanks...both of you.”
And now, the wicked deity’s disciple had three allies.
My, my, popular with the ladies, Makoto.
Noah, we have three allies!
“By the way,” Lucy said, “we’re the first people that you told, right?”
“We’ve got to be, Lu.”
“Nope... I, uh, already told Fujiyan.”
The two of them spoke in unison. “What?”
“Wouldn’t you normally tell your party about this kind of thing first?” Lucy asked.
“Why did you take so long to tell me? We’ve known each other since junior high.”
Neither of them was happy. I could hardly tell them the truth though, that I’d come clean to Fujiyan first because he had a mind reading skill.
“Emily did say you liked men more than women,” Lucy commented.
Come on, that’s just slander!
“Well...” Sasa pondered. “Fujiwara was the only person you ever spoke to at lunch break.”
Yes, about the latest games!
I’d been a little worried about bringing it up, but both of them were the same as ever, so I decided not to worry next time. In the future, I’d tell them something like that right away.
It was our third day on the airship.
“Huh, so that’s Horn,” I said. “And that huge building in the middle must be Roses Castle.”
The palace was growing clearer as we neared the city.
“Yes. It has over a thousand fountains and all sorts of different flowers,” Chris informed us. “It’s known as the most beautiful castle on the continent.”
“Those walls they’re building don’t look so great, though,” Sasa said.
She was right. Tall walls were being built around the whole city, and they ruined the entire view of the scenery. The walls were plain and unaffected.
“Horn is one of the most famous tourist spots on the continent, so it possesses the bare minimum of defenses, in order to maintain the scenery,” Fujiyan explained.
“The prophecy about the Great Demon Lord’s return made them hurry to strengthen their walls’h.”
That made sense. The guild had said that monsters have been more active and aggressive recently, so strengthening Horn’s defenses had probably become the top priority.
“Where shall we go?” Lucy asked excitedly.
“We need to greet the king first,” I said.
“But don’t we have some time before the deadline?”
“The note said to arrive within seven days, so I just want to get there quicker, I guess.” In truth, I wanted to get the bothersome stuff out of the way. We could take our time exploring the town later.
“Let us disembark, then,” Fujiyan suggested, earning nods from everyone.
The main road between the gate and the castle was called the Avenue of a Hundred Flowers.
As the name implied, it was lined with all sorts of flowers. It felt like the image of a European road, with brick-built buildings on either side of the bustling street.
There were all kinds of races walking along the street: humans, beastmen, elves, dwarves. Adults, children, and elderly folks of each race were among the crowd.
Macallan was similar, but there was a slight difference in the kind of impression you got. These people were more refined, in both clothing and speech.
“It’s almost like I’ve come back to a city from the countryside,” I said.
“I felt similarly when I first arrived,” Fujiyan agreed with a laugh.
“Come on,” Lucy urged, tugging at my sleeve.
I belatedly noticed the lord of Macallan’s daughter and was worried I’d insulted her. “Ah... Sorry, Lady Christina.”
“It is fine,” she answered with a rueful smile. “Macallan is rather more rural compared to the capital.”
Well, that was a kind response.
“What’s that?” Sasa asked.
Nice one! I thought as she managed to switch the topic. When I looked where Sasa was pointing, I saw a huge tent. What’s that? In our old world, that kind of tent was...
“That’s the Monster Tamer Troupe’h,” Nina answered. “They travel around the continent and perform’h.”
“I have actually seen them on one occasion,” Fujiyan added. “It was rather impressive.”
Yup, it was a circus. I suppose this world had them too. I’d imagined them to be similar to the ones I knew, but apparently, they didn’t showcase human skill; instead, they trained monsters to perform. That much, at least, was different between the worlds.
“They have giants and dragons!” Lucy shouted. She was pointing at two cages that contained a roughly ten-meter tall giant and a small dragon, respectively.
“You can train dragons?!” I exclaimed.
Tamers were amazing.
“No, that’s just a wyvern,” Chris informed me. “A tamer that could control a huge dragon would be working for the country, not the circus.”
Well, that made sense, if only a few tamers could do it. My eyes fell on Sasa, who had a harsh look on her face.
“Sasa? What’s up?”
“Those monsters...are suffering.”
“You can tell?” I asked.
“Yeah, somehow...”
Something like sympathy between monsters?
“The monsters in the circus were ones that had attacked humans, so they would’ve been killed if the circus hadn’t bought them’h. The treatment, though...is pretty awful’h.”
So they took monsters that would’ve been disposed of and used them for entertainment. We could file a complaint if there was some kind of monster conservation group in this world, but there wasn’t.
“There are so many flowers in the town,” Lucy gushed.
She was more interested in those than the circus, which made sense since she was an elf. There were flower beds and potted plants everywhere you looked.
“It’s a pretty town,” I agreed. I really thought so. The City of Flowers.
“We will arrive soon,” Fujiyan said. “I will go and speak with the gatekeepers.”
I always let Fujiyan deal with this kind of thing—he was great at it. We went through an ornate gate and entered Roses Castle.
“Raise your heads,” the king ordered.
We’d immediately been shown to an audience hall. Other people were waiting to see the king, but we’d been rushed ahead and given preferential treatment. It gave me a bit of a superiority complex.
“You have our gratitude for your aid in the elimination of the blight dragons in Labyrinthos.”
“That town is one of Roses’s greatest resources, and we offer our thanks to you, otherworld hero,” the queen calmly added.
They asked whether I’d rather have a peerage or money as my thanks, and, after some hesitation, I answered money. Noble politics and royal court stuff wasn’t my thing.
That should be fine though, right, Noah?
Do what you like.
Yup, it’s fine. The king finished speaking and finally, Princess Sophia opened her mouth.
“Makoto Takatsuki, Michio Fujiwara. Here is your permit to do business within Roses, signed in my name.”
“Thank you,” Fujiyan answered politely.
Nobility and the clergy were both really influential in Roses. Sophia was a princess and the priestess of the water goddess’s church, so she was in the upper echelons of both circles. Her name must carry a fair bit of weight.
Well, this’ll probably be the last time we meet.
I glanced her way and she was peering at me with eyes of ice.
Whoa...that’s a cold look.
Yeah, she hated me. The princess carried on speaking to Fujiyan.
“Merchant Fujiwara, if you would desire it, I can grant you a rank as nobility.”
“What?” Chris let out in quiet surprise.
Fujiyan declined. “I thank you for the offer, Your Highness, but this permit is more than enough.”
That ended the audience.
“Fujiyan, why’d you turn her down?” I asked after we’d left.
“If I had accepted, I would have been required to live here. Besides, that move was more aimed at you.”
“What do you mean?”
“She is probably aware that you and I formed a party in Macallan and now work together. Cementing our ties to Roses seems to be her aim.” His voice was much quieter for the latter half of his explanation, so he must’ve read her mind.
So that was her plan... I looked up suddenly to see Chris, harboring a strange expression on her face. What was up with her?
“Makoto, let’s explore the city!” Lucy cheered.
That didn’t sound like a bad plan, but there was something more important!
“We should look around the castle first.”
That was basic strategy for any RPG. Plus, this was the first castle I’d been inside since getting to this world. I’d search every nook and cranny!
“My esteemed Tackie, hold!”
“Wait, Takatsuki,” Sasa called. She grabbed onto my arm at the same time as Fujiyan.
“What?”
“You are aware that you cannot go breaking pots and looking through drawers in a real castle, are you not?”
“That’s a crime, all right,” Sasa stated. “You can’t go looking for hidden rooms or secret passages either.”
“Wait...I can’t?”
I-Impossible... Though I guess that made sense. Yeah. Obviously, that was true. I knew that.
Lucy, Nina, and Chris were all looking at me blankly.
“Makoto?” Lucy asked.
“Ah, well... I wasn’t...going to do...that.”
Whew, gamer brain sure is something. I would have definitely tried to break that pot and look through the drawers.
There’s no helping you, I heard from my goddess. Why was everyone treating me like a weirdo?
Luckily, Fujiyan stopped my eccentricity. After that, he told us that he was going to give his greetings to the traders in the capital. Nina accompanied him, and Chris was apparently doing something similar with the nobles in the city. She’d gone away with her attendants.
The rest of us had decided to head out when we were interrupted by a loud voice.
“You! Makoto Takatsuki! Why are you here?!”
I turned around to see the (former) bodyguard of the water priestess.
Huh? Weren’t you fired? I thought.
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