Chapter I: In Another World
I came to my senses, laying on my back and gazing up at the sky. The clouds were floating on gently by, and I could hear birds chirping in the distance.
I clambered to my feet, noticing my body didn’t hurt at all. As I surveyed my surroundings, I took note of mountains and grassy plains all around me. I could see a large tree in the distance. Plus, I thought I could make out a road next to it as well.
There was no mistaking it, I was in another world.
“Guess I’ll just walk the road and see if I run into anyone.” My immediate checkpoint in sight, I set off toward the big tree. Upon reaching it, I got a better look at things. I was right! There was a road nearby.
“Now... left or right, that is the question.” I pondered my options beneath the shade of the giant tree.
The nearest landmark to my right looked to be an hour’s walk away. Off to the left, I could make out a town. It was probably eight hours by foot... As I was lost in thought, my smartphone began to ring. The Caller ID was listed as “God.”
“Hello?”
“Ooh! It went through! I see that you have arrived safely.” I could hear God’s voice as I held the phone close to my ear. We’d only just parted, but it felt as though we were talking for the first time in forever.
“I forgot to mention one thing. The maps and compasses and such on your phone should be compatible with this world now. I hope they help you out some!”
“Wow, really? That’s great timing, actually. I was a little bit lost, and wondering where I should go.”
“I had assumed so. I could have just as easily dropped you in the middle of a town, but think of the panic that would ensue. I had thought you would rather avoid that, so I dropped you off where nobody would see you instead. Of course, that brings us to the problem of you being lost in the middle of nowhere.”
“Heh, yup,” I answered with a somewhat wry smile. It was only natural I’d be lost. I didn’t have a destination, a hometown, or even any acquaintances.
“If you follow your map, you should be able to reach the nearest town without incident. Do your best out there. Goodbye.”
“Will do. Later.” As the call ended, I went back to the home screen, located the map application, and opened it up. My location was displayed in the very center of the map. A road stretched out right alongside that point. This must have been the very road I was looking at. Zooming further out, I took note of the town to the west. It was... Reflet? The town of Reflet.
“Well, I guess that’s where I’m headed.” Firing up a simple compass app, I took heed and headed west.
After walking a fair bit, the reality of my situation finally began to sink in. To begin with, I had no food. Not to mention the fact that I had no water. Once I got into town, what then? I had no money. I still had my wallet, but what good was that? Was there an exchange rate for my country’s money? From a logical perspective, it was all worthless now. What to do...
As I was lost in thought, a sound steadily approached from behind. I turned around to check, and saw something off in the distance. It was heading this way, and it appeared to be... a horse-drawn carriage. I’d never seen a carriage before in my life, but it was generally something you’d find someone riding in.
This would be first contact with life in another world. Think, what should I do? Try and stop it? I could have asked for a ride into town, but I decided against the idea. Why? A simple enough reason.
As the carriage grew closer, I could tell at a glance that it was a very high-class vehicle. Its physical appearance showed that it was gorgeously adorned and built of the highest craftsmanship. Even I could tell at a glance that it was the sort of vehicle ridden by a noble, or at least some rich person of high status.
If I were to stop a carriage like that only to be met with a line like “Insolent knave! I’ll see you hanged for this!” then it’d be no laughing matter. I decided it was in my best interest to give way instead, so I simply moved to the edge of the road.
The carriage passed me by, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake. Good. I was glad I’d managed to avoid any trouble. However, as I turned to resume walking down the road, I noticed that it had come to a stop a short way ahead.
“You! Yes you, over there!” A man slammed the carriage door open and stepped out. He was an older gentleman with gray hair and a splendid mustache. He wore a stylish scarf and mantle, and a rose brooch shone on his chest.
“Uhm, yes? What is it...?” Clearly excited about something, the older gentleman made his way over. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was mostly just relieved that we seemed to be speaking the same language. The man firmly gripped my shoulders and held me in place. His eyes wandered all across my body as though slowly savoring something. Er, wait... what? This could be bad...
“Wh-Where in the world did you get these clothes?!”
“Sorry?” I was taken aback, left utterly baffled by his question. The gentleman was so immersed in scanning my school uniform from every angle that he didn’t even pay any attention to my confusion.
“I’ve never seen a design such as this. And the way this was sewn... How could this have been made...? Hrmm...”
And then it all started to make sense. To put it simply, my uniform was rare. Maybe nothing else like it existed in this world. In that case...
“You can have it, if you’d like.”
“Are you certain?!” The mustachioed gentleman took the bait.
“I acquired these clothes from a traveling merchant. If you would rather have them, I don’t mind handing them over. However, that puts me at a loss, as I’d have nothing to wear. If you might kindly take me into town and help me find a new set of clothes, I would be very grateful.”
I couldn’t possibly have told him that my clothes came from another world, so I was forced to come up with an excuse. If I somehow managed to sell my clothes and make a bit of money off of them, that was one problem solved. Plus, it would help me get clothes that didn’t stand out so much. Killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.
“Very well! Step aboard and accompany me to town! I shall have new clothes prepared for you on the double. You may sell your current garments once that is taken care of.”
“Then we have a deal,” I sternly replied. The mustachioed gentleman firmly shook my hand in response.
After that, it only took three hours to reach the town of Reflet by carriage. During the journey, the gentleman, who introduced himself as Zanac, took my jacket and ran his hands over it several times, examining it down to every last seam. He seemed extremely interested in the make of the clothes. Once I learned of his job, it all made sense. Apparently Zanac worked in the fashion industry. That explained his initial reaction and all of his curious behavior. Today, too, it seemed he had been on his way back from a meeting of some kind.
As for me, I passed the time staring out of the carriage window. The scenery of a brand new world. A world which was my new home.
It had been three hours since I first met Zanac. After a lot of rocking and shaking, the carriage safely arrived at Reflet.
A soldier, possibly some kind of gatekeeper, met us at the entrance and questioned us before promptly allowing us to pass. From his reaction, it seemed that Zanac was quite famous.
The carriage rattled loudly as we proceeded down the town streets. Since the roads were old cobblestone, it shook quite a bit. Carrying on, we made our way to what seemed to be a prosperous shopping district with many stores all lined up in a row. The carriage stopped in front of one such shop.
“We’ve arrived! Come now, let’s see you into some new clothes.” I did as Zanac asked and stepped out onto the street. The store’s signboard sported a needle and thread design, but it was the writing below that had alerted me to an alarming fact.
“I can’t read it...” I couldn’t read what was written on the sign. That definitely wasn’t good news.
I had thought it might be okay since I was able to talk just fine, but that seemed not to be the case. It could’ve been worse, I supposed, since at least being able to converse meant I could still have somebody teach me to read and write. Day one in another world and I already had something to study...
Zanac led me into the shop, and several of the staff came to greet us.
“Welcome back, owner!” I was taken aback by what they said.
“Owner...?”
“Ah, I run this store. But that’s not important right now, let’s get you changed! Somebody pick out new clothes for this boy!” Zanac whisked me off into a changing room, which was an actual small room with a door, not just a box with a curtain dividing it off.
After that, he rushed back in with a pile of clothes. I removed my blazer, tie, and shirt so I could begin getting changed. I was wearing a simple black T-shirt underneath, and it seemed to have caught Zanac’s eye as well.
“M-Might I press you to sell me those undergarments as well...?!” The scoundrel.
In the end, I was made to sell every last thread off my back. Everything including my socks and shoes. By the time my underpants were added to his list of demands, I had become quite tired of the ordeal. I understood how he felt, I just wish he could’ve understood how I felt...
The clothes and shoes he’d prepared for me in return were comfy and easy to wear. I certainly had no complaints about them. Black pants and a white shirt, with a black jacket over the top. A chic outfit that also wasn’t too showy. I liked it. It kept me from standing out.
“Now, how much are you selling me your clothes for? I’ll spare no expense, of course, but did you have a particular charge in mind?”
“Well... I’m afraid I don’t really have a good estimate in mind. This isn’t my field of expertise, you see. I can only assume they’d be expensive, but... To be completely honest, I’m penniless right now.”
“I see... That is rather sad to hear. Well then, how does ten gold pieces sound?” Without any knowledge of the currency in this world, I had no way to judge the worth of ten gold pieces. As such, I accepted.
“Sounds good.”
“Wonderful! Well, here you are,” Zanac replied, clearly pleased by my answer.
Ten gold pieces jingled into the palm of my hand. Each one was about as big as a 500 yen coin, and had engravings of something resembling a lion. It was my entire life savings. Something I had to spend wisely.
“By the way, you wouldn’t know where I could find someplace like an inn, would you? I’d like to find a place to rest my head before the sun goes down.”
“An inn, yes? Turn right as you go out onto the street, then follow the road. You should see a sign for the Silver Moon Inn, won’t be hard to find.” Even if I did spot it, I wouldn’t know because I couldn’t read... Well, it wouldn’t be a problem since I could just keep asking people as I went. Even if I couldn’t read, I could still talk.
“Got it, thanks. I’ll be on my way then.”
“Very well. If you come across any other unusual garments, please bring them my way.”
I said my goodbyes to Zanac and left the shop. The sun was still high in the sky. I took my smartphone out and turned it on. The time seemed to be just before 2PM.
“I wondered this in the carriage, but... the time should be accurate too, right...?” Going by the sun, it couldn’t have been too far off at least.
Right then, something suddenly came to mind. I fired up the map application. It showed my current location on the town map, and sure enough, the street and shop names were also displayed. I certainly wouldn’t be getting lost now. I found the Silver Moon Inn on the app quickly enough. Oh, wait a minute...
I turned back and looked at Zanac’s store. “...«FASHION KING ZANAC» That’s seriously what the sign said...?” I set off for the inn, all the while feeling bad for poor Zanac and his terrible naming sense.
After a bit of walking, I found the sign for the Silver Moon. The logo had a crescent moon design. Fairly standard, all things considered. The building, which was made of brick and wood, looked like it stood three stories tall. It certainly seemed sturdy enough, at any rate.
I passed through the double-leaf doors. The room inside resembled a bar or dining hall with a large counter on the right. To the left, there were stairs leading upward.
“Welcome. Are you here for a meal, or is it a room you want?” The lady behind the counter called out to me. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail and she looked quite lively. A woman in her early 20s, or so I guessed.
“Ah, I’d like to rent a room please. How much a night?”
“Two copper! Meals are included with the price. Oh, you’ll have to pay up front as well.”
Two copper coins...? I couldn’t tell if that was expensive or cheap. Logically it was at least cheaper than one gold coin, but I couldn’t guess how many copper made up one gold.
With no other option, I took one gold coin from my wallet and placed it on the counter.
“How many nights will this get me?”
“Whaddya mean, how many? Fifty, right?” She replied, clearly exasperated.
“Fifty?!”
I felt stung by the sudden look she gave me, which made me feel that she was basically saying “Hey, can’t you count?” or something. So then... one gold equals one-hundred copper. Ten gold could buy me five-hundred nights. I could live comfortably for around a year and a half without lifting a finger. Well, that meant I had a lot of money, didn’t it?
“Well? What’ll it be?”
“Err... one month’s lodging, please.”
“Alrighty! One month it is. I haven’t had many customers lately, so you’re kind of a life-saver right now. Haha, thank you. I’m out of silver coins though, so I’ll just give you the change in copper.”
The lady took my gold coin and returned forty copper to me. If she took sixty copper, then that meant one month was roughly thirty days in this world, too. Pretty close to the old world, then.
With that sorted, the lady brought out what appeared to be a hotel register from behind the counter. She opened it up in front of me, then handed me a feather pen.
“Okay, then. If you could just sign here, please.”
“Oh, excuse me... Thing is, I can’t actually write. Could you fill it in for me, please?”
“Really? Well, that’s fine. What’s your name?”
“It’s Mochizuki. Mochizuki Touya.”
“Mochizuki? That’s a pretty unusual name.”
“Ah, wait, no. My given name is Touya. Mochizuki is my surname... my er, family name.”
“Ooh, okay! Your given name and family name are reversed. Are you from Eashen?”
“Err... somewhere around those parts, sure.” I hadn’t the faintest clue where in the world Eashen was, but I couldn’t come up with anything better, so I left it at that. I resolved to look over my map later to see if I could find this Eashen place on it.
“Okay. Your room’s on the third floor, right at the end. It gets the best sunlight out of all of our rooms! Here’s your key, be sure not to lose it. The toilet and the bath are both on the first floor, and this room here is for dining. Speaking of which, will you be having lunch today?”
“Oh, please. I haven’t eaten since this morning...”
“I’ll whip up something real quick, then. You can use this time to go check out your room, maybe rest a bit.”
“Got it,” I said. I then took my room key, went upstairs to the third floor, and opened the door to my room. It was roughly the size of a six tatami room featuring a bed, desk, chair, and closet. I opened the window and looked down on the street. The view was really nice. Also, it was heartwarming watching children running around and playing below.
Invigorated, and in a surprisingly pleasant mood, I left my room and locked it shut. As I made my way back downstairs, I was greeted by a lovely smell.
“Here you go! Sorry for the wait.” I took a seat in the dining room and the lady carried my meal out to me. There was some soup, something resembling a sandwich, and a salad. The bread was a bit hard, but very good for the first loaf I tried in another world. Delicious, even. I devoured the entire thing.
After that, I gave some thought to my next course of action. I was going to be staying at the inn for a while, so I figured I should go get a feel for how things were around town.
“I’m heading off for a walk.”
“Alrighty! See you later, then.” After the innkeep, who told me her name was Micah, saw me off, I left to go explore the rest of town.
Being a town in another world, everything was unusual and fascinating. My wandering gaze made some people regard me with suspicion, and whenever I grew aware of that fact, it caused my gaze to wander even more. Carrying on like that would just put me in an endless loop... That was no good.
One thing that I did notice about the people in town was how many of them were carrying weapons around. Some had swords or axes, others had knives, and a few were even carrying whips. It struck me as somewhat dangerous, but I figured that was just how it was in this world. I made note to consider buying a weapon of my own.
“First thing’s first, though. I need to start making money. I can’t very well live in this world without a source of income...”
Never would have thought I’d be job-hunting so soon. Honestly, it would’ve been nice if I had a specialty of some kind... Alas, my best subject in school was history, and the history of another world wasn’t exactly much help.
The only other thing that came to mind was music. Did this world even have pianos? Well, even if there were some around, it wasn’t like I was especially talented at it.
“Hmm?” Something suddenly caught my attention. Noises... Voices, even. Loud voices coming from one of the alleyways off from the main road. Sounded like an argument of some kind.
“...Guess I can check that out.” With that thought, I set off for the back alley.
When I made it to the end of the narrow back alley, I found four people. It looked to be two men having an argument with two girls. Both of the men seemed the nasty, rough sort, but the girls were exceptionally adorable.
The girls looked to be around my age, perhaps younger. The two of them were so alike that I almost thought I had been seeing double. I wondered if they were twins, perhaps. Looking closer, they had their differences. They looked different around the eyes, and one had long hair while the other wore hers short. But even then, they had the same silver hair.
Both of them wore the same black jacket and white blouse, but the girl with longer hair wore culotte shorts with black knee socks, while the girl with shorter hair wore a flared skirt with black tights. It was easy to tell that the long haired girl was full of energy, while the short hair girl was more neat and composed.
“This isn’t what we agreed on! You said you’d buy it for one gold!” The long haired girl yelled at the men, who both stood grinning as if arrogantly mocking her. One of the men held something like a deer’s antler made of glass.
“Hmm? Whaddya mean. I said we’d buy your Crystal Deer’s antler for one gold if it was in perfect condition. But lookie right here, it’s scratched! A damaged antler’s only worth one silver, so that’s what we’re paying you. Go on, take it and scram!” A single silver coin rolled to the ground at the girls’ feet.
“That doesn’t even count as a scratch! You were never planning on giving us a fair deal, were you...!” The long-haired girl glared menacingly toward the men, while the short-haired girl quietly bit her lip in frustration.
“...Fine. I don’t want your money. Just give us back the antler.” The long-haired girl said that and took a step forward. Disproportionately large gauntlets appeared on her arms as she advanced toward them.
“Oh, afraid we can’t be having that. This was a fair trade, y’know? I never agreed to give it back—”
“Ah, excuse me. Do you have a moment?” I spoke up, and everyone’s eyes fell upon me. The girls seemed confused, but the men looked almost ready to jump me.
“Huh? Whaddya want, kid?” one of the men said with a snarl.
“Ah, not you. I meant the girl over there,” I replied calmly.
“Eh? Me?” was the only response I got from her as I ignored the scowling man and called out to the girl behind him.
“I was just wondering if you might sell me that antler for one gold.” For a moment she stood flabbergasted. Then my words finally seemed to click with her, and she answered me with a smile.
“It’s a deal!”
“The hell it is! Don’t go selling things that belong to other people—” Suddenly, the crystal antler shattered to pieces in the man’s hands. The stone I had thrown met its mark.
“Wha...?! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
“Whatever do you mean? I’m free to treat my belongings however I’d like to. Oh, though I guess I haven’t paid for it yet. I’ll do that now.”
“I’ll kill you!” One of the men bellowed as he pulled a knife and charged right at me. I managed to dodge him easily by paying attention to his movements. For some reason I just knew that I’d be able to dodge his attack. I could see everything, from the man’s movements to the knife’s trajectory.
That had to be the result of one of those gifts that God had given me to bolster my body and my senses. I bent down and swept the man’s legs from under him. He collapsed to the ground face-up, and I drove my fist into his body in one swift motion.
“Gah...!” He passed out right on the spot I had knocked him down with that one final grunt. It seemed that the move I’d learned from my grandpa had come in handy.
When I turned around, I noticed that the other man was fighting the long-haired girl. He swung around a hatchet, but he couldn’t seem to get a good hit on her and his blows kept bouncing off her gauntlets. When she saw her chance, the girl stepped forward, quick as lightning, and swung a tremendous right hook straight into the man’s face.
He collapsed to the ground with his eyes rolling back in his head. Amazing.
Well... if I had known it’d be that easy, then maybe I wouldn’t have shattered that crystal antler... I actually regretted doing so. There was no point regretting past decisions. I’d thought to calm the situation peacefully by removing the source of the argument, but it seemed that had been a poor plan. I took one gold coin from my wallet and went to hand it to the long-haired girl.
“Here, one gold coin.”
“...Are you sure? I mean, it’d really help us out, but...”
“It’s fine. I’m the one who smashed the antler to pieces. Wouldn’t be fair to go back on my word now.”
“In that case... thank you.” With that, she accepted the coin with her gauntlet-clad hand.
“Oh, and thanks for helping us out there. I’m Elze Silhoueska, and this is my younger twin sister, Linze Silhoueska.”
“...Thank you very much!” The short-haired girl spat out those words, bowed, and gave me a little smile.
Seemed they were twins, just as I had thought. The long-haired one was Elze, and the short-haired one was Linze. Easy enough to remember. Though I still couldn’t tell them apart except by hairstyle and clothes.
“My name’s Mochizuki Touya. Oh, uh, Touya’s my given name.”
“Hmm... Your given name and family name are backward? Are you from Eashen?”
“Ah... er, yeah. Somewhere around those parts.” Met with the same reaction as Micah from the inn, I just left it at that again. All those reactions did, however, move thoughts of Eashen to the forefront of my mind. I wanted to know what kind of a country it was.
“Oh, I see. So you only just arrived in town too, huh, Touya.” I chatted with Elze over fruit juice. In my case, though, it was less having just arrived in this town and more having just arrived in the world.
After the events in the alleyway, we returned to the Silver Moon Inn. The girls had told me they were looking for an inn, so I took them back with me. Micah was overjoyed when I brought back more customers. So much that it showed clearly on her face.
Since we were all together anyway, we decided to share a meal. We talked a lot while eating the dinner Micah had made, and after dinner, we all had some tea to drink.
“See, we came here to deliver a Crystal Deer’s antler after those guys put out a request, but that went about as well as you saw. I mean, their request was plenty suspicious, so I did figure something was up, but still...”
“...That’s why I said we shouldn’t accept their request... But Sis, you wouldn’t listen to me...” Linze spoke up to reprimand her older sister. She seemed to be the one with a good head on her shoulders. Meanwhile, Elze seemed to have more of a wild personality. Elze the fearless older sister and Linze the shy little sister. At least, that was how they seemed to me.
“So why would you accept their request if you knew it sounded suspicious?” I voiced my doubts for the girls to hear. I couldn’t help but wonder why they’d bother to try and strike up any kind of deal with dubious characters like those guys.
“Funny story, actually... See, we’d just beaten a Crystal Deer and gotten one of its antlers when we heard that there was someone looking to buy one. Sounded almost too good to be true. Well, I guess it was, considering we got duped and all... Suppose we’ll only be accepting requests like that through the guild from now on. Hopefully that way we’ll get wrapped up in a lot less trouble.” Elze lowered her gaze and let out a big sigh.
“Wanna take this opportunity to get registered with the guild, Linze?”
“...That sounds like a good idea. Better safe than sorry, after all. Let’s go some time tomorrow.”
The guild... As I remembered from games, it was something like an employment service center that would mediate jobs for prospective adventurers. They’d have lots of quests posted and completing them would net you some money. Hmm...
“If it’s alright with you, can I tag along tomorrow? I need to get registered with the guild, too.”
“Sure! I don’t see why not.”
“Yeah... We can all go together...” The two of them kindly agreed.
Alright. I’d get registered with this guild and see if I could make some money working through them. That might well have been my ticket to earning a stable income that would allow me to live comfortably.
With all of that decided, the three of us split up, so I went back to my room. My long first day in this world had finally come to an end. It sure was a busy day, too...
I was transported to another world, made to sell my clothes, searched for an inn to stay at, helped a couple of girls, and gotten myself into a brawl. What the heck was with all that...
For the time being, I decided to note everything that had happened that day down in my smartphone in place of an actual diary. After that, I opened up a few news sites and checked in on how things were going down in my old world.
Oh, the Giants are winning. Aww, that band’s gonna break up... What a shame.
I turned my phone off once I’d found a good place to stop reading, then crawled my way into bed. I would be registering with the guild the next day, so I wondered what it’d be like... Thoughts like that ran through my mind until drowsiness finally overtook me.
“Zzz...”
The electronic noise of my smartphone’s alarm got me to sluggishly crawl out of my futon. I then washed my face, got dressed, and headed downstairs to the dining room. Elze and Linze were already awake and having breakfast. I took my seat and Micah brought out some food for me as well. This morning’s menu was bread with ham and eggs, vegetable soup, and a salad. What a delicious way to start the day.
The three of us headed out to the guild as soon as we’d finished eating. It was pretty crowded since it was right near the middle of town.
The first floor of the guild’s building was laid out like a restaurant. It was a lot more cheerful than I thought it would be. I’d pictured it in my head as a bar where ruffians would hang about, but it looked like my fears were unfounded. The female receptionist met us with a lovely smile as we approached the counter.
“Uhm, we’d like to register with the guild, please.”
“All right, then. That’s no problem at all. Would that be three for registration, then?”
“Yes. All three of us,” Linze replied.
“Will this be your first time registering with the guild? If so, I can provide a basic explanation of what it means to register with us.”
“Please do.” The gist of it was that the guild would take the requests of individuals or groups, publicize them, then take a small fee upon completion. That was how the guild worked.
The requests were split into ranks based on how difficult they were expected to be, so someone with a low personal rank couldn’t accept requests aimed at those of a higher rank. However, so long as half of one’s party were of a high enough rank, they would be able to accept such requests even if the others in the party didn’t meet the rank requirements.
Upon completion of a quest, one would receive payment. If one failed a quest, however, they would be charged with breach of contract. Hrmm... I need to pick and choose my work carefully.
In addition, if one continued to fail multiple quests, then they would be deemed a low-quality individual, and their guild registration would be revoked as a penalty. Were that to happen, one would never be able to re-register with any guild branch in any town.
Other stipulations included: if one did not accept any requests at all for five years, then their guild registration would expire; one could not accept multiple requests at the same time; concerning subjugation requests, one must hunt the monsters in the designated area, else their work would be deemed invalid; as a general rule, the guild would not directly involve itself in personal dissent between adventurers, unless such dissent was judged to be harmful to the guild itself... Anyway, we received a pretty thorough explanation of the rules.
“And that about sums up the explanation. If you have any further questions, please direct them to the appropriate individuals.”
“Alright, got it,” I replied.
“Very well. Please fill in and return these forms with all of the required details.” The receptionist handed us three blank forms, but I couldn’t read a single word on them. When I informed Linze that I couldn’t read or write, she agreed to help me fill out my form. Hrm... I knew that being illiterate was going to cause me problems sooner or later.
The receptionist then took the registration forms and held a pitch black card over each of them in turn, seemingly casting some sort of spell. Afterward, she took out a small pin and told each of us to spill a little bit of our blood onto the cards.
I did as I was instructed, took the small pin in hand and pricked my finger with it, then rubbed a small amount of blood onto the surface of the card. Some white letters floated up onto it... but I still couldn’t make heads or tails of what it said.
“Each of your personal Guild Cards has a little spell on it that will make it turn gray if handled by someone other than its real owner for longer than a few seconds. It’s a simple anti-forgery mechanism. Also, should you happen to lose your card, please report to the guild as swiftly as possible. For a small fee, we will be able to issue you a new card.”
The receptionist took hold of my card and stood there for a few seconds. Just as she’d said, it eventually turned from pitch black to a dull gray. The very moment she placed the card back in my hands, it snapped right back to black. That was a really cool trick. I wondered how it worked.
“With this, your guild registration is complete. All available work requests are posted on the board over there. If you see one you would like to accept, please confirm all details and apply for it through our quest clerk.”
The three of us stood in front of the board where the quests were posted. Our Guild Cards were all black, signifying that we were at the beginner level. Our cards would apparently change in color as our ranks rose, but right now we could only accept quests aimed at beginners.
Elze and Linze busily pored through each quest notice one by one, but I on the other hand...
“...Not good. I seriously need to learn how to read and write, and fast...” If I couldn’t understand the details of a job, I was never going to get anywhere. I made a mental note to put evenings aside for studying my reading and writing.
“Hey, hey, Linze, check this one out. The reward’s pretty decent, and it seems like a good place to start. How about it?”
“...Yeah. This one doesn’t seem so bad. What do you think, Touya?”
“...Sorry. I can’t make any sense of it.” Elze had been merrily pointing out the request in question, but her finger drooped slightly when I said that. Ngh...
“...Umm, let’s see. It’s a request to go out and defeat some beast monsters in the forest to the east. They want us to hunt five Lone-Horned Wolves. They’re not very strong, so I think we can manage. Oh right, the reward is eighteen copper.” Linze was polite enough to read out the details of the quest to me.
Eighteen copper, huh... Split evenly between us, that would make for six copper each. That could pay for three nights of lodging. Not bad at all.
“Fine, let’s go with that,” I decided.
“Okie dokie! I’ll take this to the clerk.” Elze tore down the request notice and headed on over to the quest clerk.
Lone-Horned Wolves... Apparently they were wolves with a single horn on their head, sort of obvious given their name. I was slightly worried as to whether I could defeat them or not...
...Huh? “Oh, right... I completely forgot...”
“What’s wrong...?” Linze curiously asked why I was standing there, clearly dumbfounded.
“I, uh... I sort of kind of don’t have a weapon yet.” It had totally slipped my mind.
Trying to take on a subjugation quest unarmed would have been the height of idiocy. Therefore, we decided to make a beeline for the weapon store after departing the guild.
We took a north street and eventually another glaringly obvious logo on a signboard came into view. Just as one might expect, this one was of a sword and shield. And again, just as one might expect, I could not decipher the name of the shop printed below the logo.
Opening the shop door made a small bell tinkle, announcing our arrival. The noise caused a massive, bearded old man to spawn from within the depths of the store. He was huge. In fact, I almost mistook him for a bear.
“Welc’m. Lookin’ for something?”
The bear-man appeared to be the store’s owner. Goddamn he’s massive. He had to have been at least two meters tall. Was he some sort of pro wrestler or something?
“We’re looking for a weapon for this guy here. Mind if we take a look around?” Elze asked in a clear attempt to aid me.
“Go right ahead. Feel free to pick up anythin’ that catches yer eye.” Mr. Bear responded to her with a gentle smile.
What a nice bear... I mean person. What a nice person. I wondered if he would like some honey...
The shop was packed from floor to ceiling with weapons. There were all kinds up on display as well. Everything from swords to spears, bows, axes, even whips. So many weapons...
“Any weapons you’re good with, Touya?”
“Hrmm... Nothing particular comes to mind, but... Well, I have been trained with swords. Just a little, though.” Negative thoughts formed in my mind as I answered Elze’s question. I said swords, but I’d only ever held one in kendo classes. I’d never actually received any proper training. I probably knew some of the basics of swordplay, at best. I was pretty much a rank amateur.
“...In that case, I think a sword would be the best fit. Touya seems like more of an agile fighter than one who uses brute force, so, I think, maybe a one-handed sword...” Linze pointed out a section of the shop where one-handed swords were on display.
I picked up one of the swords, still in its scabbard, and held it by the hilt with one hand. It was too light. I felt that maybe a slightly heavier sword would suit me better.
Just then, one sword in particular caught my eye. Actually, that was no mere sword... It was a katana. A slim, curved blade with a masterfully crafted circular handguard. A black sheath with a belt-like cord. Upon closer inspection, there were parts which differed from the Japanese katanas that I was familiar with, but it was still remarkably similar.
“...What’s the matter?”
“Oh, you’re looking at that Eashen sword? I suppose it makes sense that you’d be drawn to a weapon from your homeland.” Noticing my fixation on the katana, Linze and Elze called out to me.
Ah, so this sword was from Eashen, apparently. Not that it was actually my homeland... But, well, it did seem that Eashen and Japan had a lot of common points. The more I heard about it, the more interested I became in this Eashen.
I took the katana down and carefully removed it from its sheath. The pattern on the blade shone beautifully in the light, captivating me for a moment. The blade was a bit thicker than I’d assumed, so the katana itself was fairly heavy. Not so heavy that I wouldn’t be able to swing it properly, though.
“How much is this one?” Mr. Bear’s head popped out suddenly from farther back in the store as soon as those words left my mouth.
“Err, that one, eh? That’ll be two gold, aye. Thing is, though, it ain’t exactly the easiest weapon ta use. Definitely ain’t something I’d suggest fer a beginner.”
“T-Two gold?! Isn’t that a little expensive?” Elze argued on my behalf.
“Well, it ain’t like I usually get ’em stocked often, and even when I do there’s hardly anyone who can use the dang thing. Of course it’s gonna be pricey!” Elze pouted at Mr. Bear’s words, but he remained steadfast.
Thinking it over, that price probably was reasonable. Even I could tell that a weapon like this had intrinsic value.
“I’ll take it. You said it cost two gold?” I returned the katana to its sheath and pulled two gold coins out from my wallet, placing them on the store counter.
“Pleasure doin’ business with ya. Interested in any protective gear while yer at it?”
“Nah, this’ll do for now. I’ll come back when I have a bit more cash on me.”
“Gotcha. Well then, here’s hoping that sword helps ya earn a boatload.” The bear heartily laughed as he spoke.
Now, I’d found what I was after, but Elze and Linze ended up picking some things up while we were there. Elze went for some leg armor called greaves, a type that covers the leg from roughly foot to shin, and Linze bought a silver wand. It seemed that Elze was a close-ranged brawler, while Linze supported from the rear with magic.
Weapons secured, we decided that the general item shop was next on our list of stops. Along the way, I got curious about something, so I fired up my map application to check the name of the shop we just left.
«Weapon Shop Eight Bears» ...Did everyone in the town share this bizarre naming sense?
At the item shop I bought a small pouch, a canteen, a lunchbox, a fishing hook and some fishing line, a pair of scissors, a knife, a toolbox with plenty of handy little things such as matches, some medicinal herbs, some antidotes, and other little things along those lines. Elze and Linze already had necessities like that, so I was the only one who bought anything there.
And so, our preparations were complete at last. Beware, Lone-Horned Wolves, we’re coming to the forest to wipe you out!
The eastern forest was about a two hour walk away from Reflet. I had hoped we might be able to hitch a ride on a carriage if we happened to pass any, but not a single one passed by. Exactly two hours later, we arrived at the forest.
We made our way into the dense woodland, being sure to take note of our surroundings. At first I was frightened by every little noise, from birds crying to small animals moving around amongst the trees. Gradually, though, I started to notice something.
Faintly, but surely... I could detect the presence of things around me. I could tell what or where something was, how it saw us... All manner of things like that. I wondered what it was... Some kind of sixth sense, maybe? It might’ve just been another one of those little gifts from God.
As I pondered the thought, I noticed something directing aggression toward us from just a bit ahead and to the left. I could feel the hostility clearly.
“Hold up. Something’s there.” The girls stopped in their tracks when I spoke up.
I continued to gaze toward that point as my party got into a battle formation. As if it was waiting for that one movement, a dark shadow came leaping out and attacked us.
“Hup!” I panicked and spun my body to evade, reassuring myself internally that it was fine after all.
I could predict its movements. It was roughly the size of a large dog, with gray fur and a single black horn on its head. However, the beast before me was far too ferocious to be a mere dog... So this is what a Lone-Horned Wolf looks like.
As I turned to face it, a second one jumped out from the other side and attacked Elze. She stood before the creature and swung her fist straight into the creature’s muzzle. Taking a smashing blow from her gauntlet-clad fist, the Lone-Horned Wolf was thrown to the ground with all the life knocked out of it. Killed in a single motion.
Thinking me distracted as I looked at Elze’s fight, the wolf in front of me bared its fangs and leaped to attack again. I remained calm, simply moving in time with the wolf’s attack, then drew the katana at my hip. My attack connected as our bodies passed one another. In that instant, the wolf’s head was torn from its body and sent flying through the air. The decapitated piece bounced to the ground like a basketball.
I felt some guilt and other unpleasant emotions at having killed an animal for the first time in my life, but another four wolves showed up before I had any time to let those emotions sink in. Two of them rushed toward my location.
“Come forth, Fire! Hail of Red Stones: [Ignis Fire]!”
By the time I even heard those words, one of the wolves charging at me suddenly burst into flames. It seemed like Linze had backed me up from behind with her magic. Crap! I missed my first chance to see magic in action! Dang it...
The other wolf charged at me, but I dodged once again and laid into it with my katana. It dropped to the ground and its body became still.
I turned to see one of the other wolves leaping at Elze, who countered with a roundhouse kick to its stomach and sent it flying. Nearby, the final remaining wolf was burned to a crisp. Man, I just missed another chance to see magic...
“Guess we’re done here. The request was to defeat five wolves, but we ended up taking out one extra, huh.” Elze reported in, clanging her gauntlets together.
We’d beaten six in total, with each of us having taken out two. For our first fight, that was pretty good. Though really, it was only my first fight.
So, as proof that we’d completed the quest, we had to take back the wolf horns with us. We cut off all six of their horns and placed them in our pouches. Our only remaining job was to deliver them to the guild to complete the mission.
As we left the forest, I physically felt my body grow less tense. It felt like something stifling had been lifted right out of the air. That was probably just another feeling I had to get used to.
Luckily this time we managed to catch a carriage on its way into town, so we got to hitch a ride.
We made it back to town in only a fraction of the time thanks to that. After arriving in town, we traveled by foot to the guild, where we reported in about completing the request to hunt five Lone-Horned Wolves. I ended up keeping the remaining horn in commemoration of the day’s events.
“Okay, all of the horns appear to be here. Now, please present your Guild Cards.” When we presented our cards to the receptionist, she pressed something like a stamp on each of them. As she did, a magical circle appeared briefly on the cards before fading out.
When I asked about it later, I found out that the stamp differed based on the difficulty of the request completed. The cards saved the information about what we had done, so as we accumulated stamps, eventually our rank would increase and the color of our card would change.
We were only at Black, the Beginner rank. Apparently, the ascending order was Black, Purple, Green, Blue, Red, Silver, and finally Gold.
“Here’s your reward of eighteen copper coins. Well then, the request has been fulfilled. Good work out there!” The receptionist handed us our reward, which we promptly split into six coins each. With that, we’d earned three days of food and accommodation. And it finally felt like I would be able to make it just fine in this new world.
“Hey, hey, wanna go grab a bite to eat to celebrate clearing our first quest?” Elze proposed that course of action as we left the guild.
It was a little early for dinner, but it occurred to me that we’d missed lunch, so I supposed that maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. Plus, I had a favor to ask, so it seemed like a good opportunity.
We decided to go to a little tea house in town. I ordered a hot sandwich and milk, Elze ordered what appeared to be a meat pie and orange juice, and Linze ordered a pancake and black tea. After our orders were brought out, I began to talk.
“Hey, can I ask you two for a favor?”
“A favor?” Elze replied.
“Yeah. Think you could teach me how to read and write? It’d really help me out. I’m already having trouble here and there, so I figure that the sooner I learn, the better.”
“Hmm... that’s a good point! If you can’t read quest information, then I guess...” Elze and Linze nodded in unison. It was at times like that where you could really tell they were twins.
“In that case, get Linze to teach you. She’s smart, so I’m sure she’ll be a good teacher.”
“Th-That’s not... I mean... If you’re okay with me...”
“Thanks a lot. You’d really be helping me out.”
Alright. So I’d be able to work toward my goal of being able to read and write. I just had to face my studies seriously. I was glad I’d found such a kind teacher. Speaking of which...
“Oh yeah, Linze. While we’re at it, do think you could teach me some magic? I’d like to be able to cast spells and stuff as well.
“Whaat?!” Darned twins were even speaking in unison... What? Was what I said really that weird?
“Teach you some magic...? Well... Touya, what’s your aptitude?”
“Aptitude?”
“Magic is highly influenced by the... aptitude that you’re born with! People without the gift for it... won’t be able to use magic at all...”
Hmm... So, magic wasn’t something that just anybody could use. Well, that made sense. After all, if everyone could use magic, then civilization would have been far more based around it.
“The gift for it, huh... You know, I think I’ll be fine on that front. Someone, uh, guaranteed that I’d be able to use magic if I wanted to.”
“Who told you that?”
“Oh uh... just a very, very important person.” It was God, as a matter of fact.
Hah. Yeah right. They’ll think I’m insane if I tell them that. I figured it’d be best to keep that part to myself.
“I mean, is there any way to test whether someone has any aptitude for magic?”
At my question, Linze pulled out some translucent stones from the pouch around her waist. Red, blue, yellow, and perfectly clear; they shone almost like they were made of glass. Each one was about one centimeter around. Looking at them, I remembered that there was a similar one on Linze’s silver wand. The one on her wand was bigger than the pebbles she placed before me, though.
“Okay, so what are these?” I asked, clearly confused by her actions.
“They’re, uhm, spellstones. They can be used to amplify, store, and release magical energy. We can use these to test whether or not you have aptitude for magic. But it can only provide a rough estimate, either way...” Linze whispered something like “I wonder if water would be the easiest to demonstrate...” before picking up the blue stone. She held it over the cup that she’d finished drinking her tea out of.
“Come forth, Water!”
At Linze’s command, a small amount of water flowed from the spellstone and into the teacup.
“Whoa.”
“This is how you cast a spell. Just now, the spellstone responded to my magical energy and created water.”
“By the way...” Elze cut in, then took the spellstone from her sister. After that, she tried to cast the same spell.
“Come forth, Water!”
The spellstone refused to activate. Not even a droplet of water poured out.
“This is what happens when you have no aptitude for an element. See, this means I can’t use Water magic.”
“You can’t use it even though your twin sister can?”
“Man, you really don’t think before you speak, huh? I mean, no offense taken, but still...”
Whoops. That was a pretty poor slip of the tongue. It didn’t seem like she was seriously angry at me, though, more like sulking a little. I was just glad my thoughtless comment hadn’t hurt her.
“In exchange for not being able to use Water magic, Sis can use Fortification magic... I can’t use that type, personally... You need the proper aptitude to use Fortification magic, too.”
Things suddenly made a lot more sense. I had been wondering where she was packing all that punch in that slender frame of hers, but the mystery had been solved.
“Everyone has some magical energy inside them, but unless they have the aptitude to use it, they won’t be able to channel it into any spells.” Seemed like everything hinged on whether or not you had the gift for it. Those without talent were just out of luck. It seemed that this world was just as unfair as the last.
“So, we’ll be able to test my aptitude if I do the same?”
“Yes. Just take the stone in your hand and focus on it, then chant Come forth, Water! Then, if you have the aptitude... water should come out.” Elze handed me the blue spellstone as she said that. I put a plate down under my hand to keep the table from getting wet, then held the stone above it and began to concentrate. I cast the spell I had just been taught.
“Come forth, Water!”
Before I could even blink, the spellstone started gushing out water like a broken faucet.
“Uh-oh-huh-wha-?!”
I dropped the spellstone hurriedly, and the waterfall immediately ceased. Sadly, though, it was too late. The table looked like it had just been soaked down with a hose, and the tablecloth was drenched.
“...What the heck does this mean?” I looked at the two sisters sitting in front of me, seeking some kind of explanation for the bizarre scene. Neither one answered me, though. They just sat there, looking on in amazement at the spectacle before them. It honestly looked like the expressions on their faces had been copied and pasted. In fact, it was all so silly that I almost found myself laughing.
“...Touya, you have so much magical energy that it’s almost overflowing... I think. To cause such a strong reaction with such a tiny stone and only the fragment of a spell... and on your first attempt, too... It’s just... your magical energy seems to be obscenely potent... I can’t believe my own eyes, even though I just saw it.”
“...You’re really much more suited to being a mage, I think. Seriously, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
Seemed I had the potential after all, just like God told me I would. My sheer talent in the field was surely the work of God, too. It had to be. I mean, I wasn’t about to complain about it, I was just glad to know that I really could use magic.
Apologizing for soaking the table, we rushed straight out of the cafe. The sun had already set by the time we got back to the inn, so my magic lessons were to be left for the next day and onward.
Once I finished my dinner, Linze began to teach me how to read and write. I got Micah’s permission to use the dining room for the lesson. To start off with, I had Linze write out a simple sentence for me. Next to that, I wrote the same thing in Japanese.
“...I’ve never seen writing like this before. Where did you learn it?”
“Hm... It’s a written language native to my hometown and the area around it. I’m probably the only one around these parts who can read it.” Never mind these parts, I was probably the only person in the world who could understand this writing. It was almost like a secret code language for my eyes only.
Linze looked a bit bemused, but it seemed like she believed my story for the moment. Moving on, she taught me some more very simple phrases, which I steadily paired with their Japanese counterparts. Linze must’ve been a talented teacher, because the words just clicked into place in my brain.
Wait, has my memory always been this good? Is this another act of God...? If it really is thanks to God, then it would’ve been way better if he just let me know the language right off the bat. Such thoughts did cross my mind, but I was sure God had his reasons. I wasn’t really in a position to be asking for more than I’d already gotten from him, anyway.
We cut off at a good stopping point, then Linze and I returned to our respective rooms for the night.
I whipped out my smartphone and noted down the day’s events in my makeshift diary. I then decided to take a peek at what was going on in the other world. Oh, that person won a People’s Honor Award. Ah, I wanted to see that movie...
Eventually, I suddenly snapped to my senses and remembered to open up my map and check for Eashen. I found out that it was an island country far to the east of here on the map, just off the edge of the continent. I never thought it would resemble Japan all the way down to those points, but it was almost identical. I’d decided I’d like to go there if I ever got the chance.
Between hunting those monsters and all that walking, I was beat. I soon felt drowsiness take its grip, so I crawled into bed and let the sandman do his job. Goodnight.
“Zzz...”
“Uhm... well then, let’s begin.” Linze seemed a bit nervous, almost straining herself to announce the beginning of our lessons. She struck me as more than just shy, almost docile even. Maybe she could’ve learned from her sister... within reason, anyway. She’d opened up a bit as we’d gotten to know each other, but I couldn’t help but feel she was still a fair bit distant.
Today we were taking a break from guild quests to give me a crash course in magic training instead. We sat at a worn-out little table around the back of the inn, since it seemed like it wasn’t in use by customers anymore. Oh, and since Elze had nothing to do, she went to the guild and picked up a simple plant harvesting job that she could manage on her own.
“Well then, Ms. Silhoueska, I’ll be in your care today.”
“M-Ms. Silhoueska is a bit much... A-Ah...!” My adorable teacher drooped her head and blushed a full red through to her ears. Damn, she’s cute.
“Alright, what’s up first?”
“Oh, right. Well, we should start from the basics, so... You know that there are different elements of magic, right?”
“Elements?” I questioned, not fully aware of the distinctions.
“You know, like fire and water. Well, uhm... the seven basic elements are Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark, and Null. We already know that you’re proficient in Water magic, as we learned yesterday.” She was clearly referring to the little spellstone incident the day before. Since I was able to bring out that much water, I was obviously proficient in Water magic.
“We learned right away that you can use Water magic, which is good. If you couldn’t use Water magic, the plan was to test you using the spellstone for a different element.”
“So even if someone can use magic, they’re limited to certain elements...?”
“That’s right. By the way, the elements I’m proficient in are Fire, Water, and Light. As for the other four, I can’t even cast the most basic spells. Even among the three I can use, I’m good with Fire spells, but Light magic is a bit difficult.”
So even in this world, there were the haves and the have nots. You couldn’t choose talents for yourself. God must have decided those things instead. I felt sorry for poor old God.
“Right, so I get stuff like Fire or Water, but what about Light, Dark, or Null? What do those elements do?”
“Light is also known as Holy magic, which uses light as a medium. Healing magic falls under this category. Dark is primarily Summoning magic... You can use it to form contracts with magic beasts or monsters and have them fight for you. As for Null... that one’s a bit different from the other elements. It’s mainly composed of spells unique to the caster. Sis can use Fortification magic, which is a good example.”
Made sense to me. Something like that seemed pretty useful overall.
“Apart from Null, each element is dependent on your magical energy plus your aptitude with it, and will only come forth once the proper spell is cast. You can’t do anything if you don’t know which elements you’re compatible with, so we’ll test for that first.” As she spoke, Linze took the spellstones out from her pouch and lined them up on the table. Seven in total, colored red, blue, brown, green, yellow, purple, and clear.
“The elements of these spellstones are, in order: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark, and Null. We’ll test them all in that order.”
First off was the red spellstone. I grasped it in my hand and concentrated, reciting the spell that Linze had taught me.
“Come forth, Fire!”
The stone burst forth flames like an oven at my words. I panicked and dropped the stone, which made the fire disappear in an instant. That was dangerous!
“It’s okay, magical fire won’t hurt the one casting it. Well, not unless your clothes catch fire, of course. Just make sure that doesn’t happen...”
“Huh, is that so?” I took the spellstone in hand and cast the spell once more.
A flame popped out again, but she was right. It wasn’t hot to the touch. So, if a magic flame spread to something else, then even the caster would get hurt, huh? Maybe that meant that when something caught fire due to magic, it didn’t count as magical flames anymore... Still, wasn’t the flame a bit too big?
“It seems like you’ve just got way too much magical energy... I’m sure you’ll be able to control it better with practice, but for now, it might be safer to not concentrate too much and instead let your mind wander a bit...”
So basically, if I went at it a bit more relaxed, the effect of the magic would be much less extreme? Her advice sounded odd, but it was worth a shot. Anyway, next up was the blue stone, but we’d already confirmed that one, so we moved onto the brown one. This time I took the stone in hand without really concentrating on it, and cast the spell in a more bland, uninspired fashion.
“Come forth, Earth.”
Sand started spilling out of the spellstone. Well, that got sand all over the table. I knew we had to clean all that up later...
Next up was the green spellstone.
“Come forth, Wind.”
A small squall burst out and blew all the sand off the tabletop as soon as I spoke. Nice that I wouldn’t have to clean up anymore, but it also knocked the spellstones all over the place. Damn it.
“Come forth, Light.”
The spellstone turned into a strobe light. Ugh, my eyes!
“Come forth, Dark.”
Now, I totally didn’t understand that one. Some kind of black mist poured out of the spellstone and clung to its surroundings. It was super creepy.
Having gone through six elements, I finally noticed a small change in Linze’s expression. She’d been celebrating with me after each element for a while, but had gradually begun to speak less and less, and there was currently a grave expression on her face.
“...What’s up?” I asked, worry evident in my voice.
“Eh? No, it’s nothing. I’ve just never met anyone who’s proficient with as many as six elements... I mean, I can use three, and even that’s considered rare... But you... You’re something else entirely.”
So, that was it. Hrmm... I mean, this was a gift from God and all, but it still felt like I was cheating a little. There were probably people who couldn’t use magic even though they really wanted to, so it felt like I was trampling all over their feelings.
Still, worrying like that wouldn’t change anything. Moving on to the final test, I grabbed the clear spellstone.
“...Huh? Hold on, how do I use this one?” I’d just been chanting “Come forth, something!” up to that point, but would that really make sense? Wasn’t “Come forth, Null!” a contradiction? Sure sounded awkward at least.
“The Null element is a bit special. It doesn’t have any particular incantation. Instead, it activates based on your magical energy and spell name alone.” Hm... so that was how it worked. Sounded mighty convenient, this blank element...
“For example, the Fortifying magic that Sis uses is activated by yelling [Boost] and that’s it. There are others such as [Power Rise] that increase raw muscle strength, and rarer spells like [Gate] that allow one to move great distances, but Sis can’t use those.”
So, basically, all the handy little miscellaneous spells that didn’t fit under any element were listed under the Null element.
“...Well, how do I figure out which Null-type spells I can cast, then?”
“According to Sis, she just somehow knows the spell name for some reason. Null-type magic is also referred to as personalized magic, so very few people are ever able to use the exact same spells as each other. There are people with multiple Null-type spells out there, but these people are exceedingly rare.”
Sounded mighty inconvenient, this blank element...
“So, there’s no quick way to learn which Null-type spells I’ll be able to cast, then...?”
“No, we should still be able to test that. If you grip the spellstone and try to cast any kind of Null-type spell, then even if it fails, the stone should shine slightly or wobble a bit. There should at least be some kind of small change.”
“And if nothing happens?”
“...Then I’m afraid you’d have no aptitude for that element.” Well, nothing to do but give it a go, I supposed. A spell that let you cross great distances sounded pretty handy. If I had that, we wouldn’t have to walk all the way to that forest like we did the day before.
All right. I took the clear spellstone in hand, then exclaimed the spell’s name.
“[Gate]!”
Suddenly, the spellstone shone brightly and formed a translucent wall of light next to me. The wall was roughly the size of a door. Or well, I thought it was a wall at first, but upon closer inspection, I noticed it wasn’t even one centimeter thick. It was more like a sheet, to be honest.
“...It worked.”
“...So it did,” Linze replied, utterly dumbfounded.
I timidly touched the surface of the sheet of light. Ripples flowed out from the area my fingertips brushed against. It was almost like a thin membrane of water. I stuck my arm through the membrane and pulled it back out. Having confirmed that it was safe, the next thing I did was stick my head through it. As I did, my vision was filled by an expansive forest, and Elze sitting on her backside, her eyes wide with shock.
“...‘Sup Elze.”
“Wha-Wha-What the... Touya?! What the heck’s going on?!” I pulled my head back for a moment, took Linze by the hand, and we walked into the forest together.
“Linze, you too?! Eh? Eeehh?! What’s going on, where’d you pop out from?!”
Linze calmly explained the situation to the panicking Elze. It seemed that we were at the same eastern forest we’d gone to the day before. Apparently Elze had traveled to the area to pick some medicinal herbs for her guild quest, but a wall of light suddenly appeared. After that, an arm came flying out of it, then flew back in, and the sheer sight of it made her fall flat on her backside. Honestly, I’d probably have reacted the same way.
“The [Gate] spell is supposedly able to take the caster anywhere that they’ve visited at least once... In all likelihood, Touya probably thought about this forest when he was casting it.”
She was right on the money. At the time, I had been thinking about how it would be nice if we didn’t have to walk all the way to the forest again.
“Haaah... So basically, you can use all seven elements? That’s a bit freaky...” Elze spoke as though she’d just gotten used to all of my eccentricities at that point. I kind of shared the same sentiment there.
“I’ve never even heard of anyone who was proficient in every element before. Touya, you’re really amazing!” Linze, in stark contrast to her sister, reacted in sheer admiration. I could only meet her in turn with a wry smile.
Elze seemed to be done with her harvesting, so as though I were a ferryman escorting some passengers, I brought us all back through the [Gate] to the garden behind the inn.
“It took me two whole hours to walk there, but now we’re all back in an instant. That’s one handy spell you’ve got there.” On that note, Elze left to report her completed quest to the guild.
We decided that my crash course in magic would end there for the day, then headed on back inside the inn. It was almost lunchtime, anyway. I wondered what would be on the menu. I sure was hungry...
When we returned to the cafeteria, Micah was there with an unfamiliar woman who seemed to be about the same age as her. She had wavy black hair, and judging from the white apron she was wearing, I deduced that she most likely worked with food.
The two of them sat with various dishes laid out in front of them. They sampled the foods with a knife and fork, making difficult expressions all the while. Micah raised her head, then noticed us and called out.
“Oh, hey, perfect timing.”
“What’s up?” I inquired, as Micah brought the other lady up to us.
“This girl’s name is Aer, she runs a little cafe in town, Parent.”
“Ah, we were just there yesterday. It was a really nice place.” I decided to keep quiet about almost flooding the shop. I hadn’t seen Aer anywhere at the time, so my guess was that she was probably in the kitchen. Things would have been a little awkward if she’d seen us back then.
“We’re trying to come up with new items for her menu, so we figured we’d ask your opinions on the matter. Thought that someone from another country might know of some dishes we don’t have around these parts, see?”
“I’d be very grateful if you could think of anything.” Aer bowed her head as she spoke. I looked at Linze, and we both nodded.
“I don’t mind.”
“...I’ll help however I can.” To be honest, I wasn’t sure we’d be able to help at all, though.
“What kind of food were you thinking of putting on the menu?”
“Let’s see... Right, preferably something simple, I guess. A dessert dish of some kind, something that would be a hit with young women...”
“Hmm... something young women would like, huh... I can’t really think of anything better than crepes or ice cream, to be honest...” Wow, that was a weak suggestion even by my standards. But it wasn’t like I knew much about cooking in the first place.
“I... scream?” Aer responded, seemingly confused.
“No, no. Ice cream. You know, the kind you eat?”
“Ice... cream?”
Huh? Why’s everyone making such weird faces? Is it possible that ice cream doesn’t exist in this world?
“What kind of food is that?”
“Uhm, it’s like sweet and cold, white... you know, vanilla ice cream?”
“Not really... I’ve never heard of anything like that before.” It seemed that my suspicions had been confirmed.
Well, it only made sense. After all, this world didn’t even have refrigerators. Actually, they did have simple refrigerator-like boxes that stored ice made from magic and used them to keep things cool. But those weren’t really refrigerators, more like coolers.
“Would you happen to know how to make it?”
“No, I’m afraid I don’t really know that much... If I remember right, milk was one of the ingredients...” I hesitated a bit at Aer’s question. How was I supposed to know how ice cream was made?
...No, wait. I may not have known how to make it, but I did have a way to find out!
“Please wait just a minute. I think I might be able to come up with something. Uhm, Linze. Could you help me out for a minute?”
“Huh? W-Well, I don’t mind, but...”
I grabbed Linze and dragged her to my room, then pulled out my smartphone and did a quick search for “how to make ice cream” on the internet. Okay, good. Got it.
“...Err, what is that object?” Linze seemed quite puzzled when she saw me fiddling with my smartphone.
“Uhh... it’s a handy little magical item! I’m the only one who can actually use it, though. I’d be really grateful if you didn’t bother paying much attention to it.”
She seemed somewhat suspicious of me, but didn’t pry any further. Looked like she was quick on the uptake.
“Okay, can you write down everything I’m about to tell you?”
“No problem.”
“Three eggs, two hundred milliliters of fresh cream, sixty to eighty grams of sugar... Does any of this sound unfamiliar to you?” I posed that question to Linze as I listed off the ingredients.
“Sorry... what are milliliters and grams?” ...Of course this would happen.
“Milliliters are a thing we use in my country when we’re measuring the amount of something. Grams are a unit of weight. Guess I’ll just have to go with my gut on those from now on... Oh, right. Linze, can you use Ice magic?”
“Yes, I can. Ice spells are considered Water magic, you see.”
Then there were no problems. After listing off the ingredients, I had Linze transcribe the instructions on how to make vanilla ice cream.
Following the instructions, Aer began making the ice cream. It was a far safer bet than having a complete amateur like me try to make it. Though I did still help out with the mixing, which actually took a lot more effort than I’d originally thought.
For the last step, the mixture was placed in a container and sealed with a lid. Linze cast her magic on it and froze the container in a block of ice. We left it for a while until it seemed about ready, then cracked open the ice block and retrieved the container. It appeared to have come together properly.
I took a spoon and tried a little bit. The flavor was slightly off, but I figured it could pass for vanilla ice cream.
I put some on a plate and offered it to Aer. After a single spoonful, her eyes shot wide open. Suddenly, her face broke out into a beaming smile.
“This is delicious...!” The lady seemed pleased with my offering, which made me happy.
“What is this thing?! It’s cold, but... it’s amazing?!”
“This is really good...” Micah and Linze seemed to have taken a liking to it as well. Honestly, I thought it could’ve been a lot better. Though I supposed it would’ve been impossible to recreate the kind of ice cream sold in famous stores on our first try.
Only one problem remained. Was there anyone working in Aer’s store who could use ice magic? After I asked, she explained that her younger sister could. Okay, no problems on that front, then.
“I’m sure this one’ll be popular with young women, and hopefully it meets the standards for your shop’s menu.”
“Of course! Thank you very much! I’ll add vanilla ice cream to the menu right away!”
Since we didn’t actually use vanilla extract, calling it vanilla ice cream was technically incorrect... But, well, why sweat the small stuff?
Aer gave a quick goodbye, then rushed back to her shop. It seemed like she wanted to try making it herself.
When Elze returned from the guild and heard the full story, she almost exploded, complaining that she was the only one who didn’t get to try any. Micah cut in and said we’d make some more, and with that, I was right back on mixing duty. I found myself gazing wistfully into the distance, earnestly wishing I had that little lost piece of civilization known as the hand mixer... My poor arm...
From what I’d seen so far, this world gave off the odd impression of being a little bit mismatched in places. They had advanced greatly in some areas, but were still stuck in the Middle Ages in others.
Take, for example, the pillow in my room. It was an incredibly soft, undeniably high-quality pillow. And, from what I’d heard, it was on the cheaper end as far as pillows went. The raw materials used to make it were made by processing the hide of magic beasts that you could find just about anywhere. Made from common materials, it was about as ordinary as a pillow could be. But if that was what passed for ordinary, then I couldn’t even begin to imagine the feel or texture that a high-quality pillow might have had.
Different worlds have different perceptions of value. I have to try and get used to that fact. This world is my home now, so I’ve got to do my best.
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