Log Horizon - Volume 11 - Chapter 3.1

Chapter 3: Ritual of Coronation 

1 
When they entered the cavern, the harsh cold lost its edge, and relief rushed through Leonard’s group. 
“Huhn. It’s warmer in here than I thought it would be.” 
“From what I’m told, the temperature in limestone caverns doesn’t fluctuate that much throughout the year,” Chun Lu answered. 
Apparently, temperatures underground were more stable than temperatures on the surface. That wasn’t because they were in Theldesia; it worked the same way on Earth. 
The interior of Sirius Grotto was lit by the pale glow of Coppélia’s Bug Light spell. It was several dozen meters wide, and the ceiling was even higher than that. They were just inside the entrance, but already the space was vast. 
“Bweeg?!” 
With a cry, Kanami abruptly dropped into a stance that would have turned into the splits if she’d fallen much farther, then managed to hold the position, trembling. 
“Master. The footing is slippery.” 
“I’m well aware of that!” 
No doubt she was: She’d almost fallen just then. Thinking that the fact that she’d managed to tough it out in a stance as unnatural as that one was just what you’d expect from a Monk, Leonardo shrugged and went on ahead. Thanks to the rubber boots he was wearing, he didn’t feel like he was in the slightest danger of slipping. 
“Still, this place is pretty damp.” 
As he walked over slippery stone, Leonardo looked around restlessly. The space itself was several dozen meters wide, but the majority of it was taken up by a stream of water. He’d tried thinking of it as a passage, but it would have been more accurate to say it was an eroded, walkable area beside a river that flowed through a great subterranean cavern. 
Not being a local, Leonardo had no way of knowing whether the dungeon had been designed that way, or if it had ended up like this after the Catastrophe. Either way, it was a sight that made you aware of the threat of nature. 
The current wasn’t fast, so the sound of the water wasn’t harsh on the ears. On the contrary, it echoed quietly in the enormous cavern, turning into soothing background noise. 
Kanami, who’d been walking in the lead, turned around several times, going slower than usual. He’d thought she might be worried about Coppélia, but apparently, that wasn’t it. Her gestures were comical: She put a hand to her chin in an odd motion and held her head. She didn’t look as if she was having trouble with anything, but Leonardo realized that she was, and so he wondered: 
“Kanami, are you worried about Elias?” 
“Uh-huh.” 
Kanami nodded like a little kid, and Leonardo felt mildly annoyed. “If you’re going to worry, you didn’t have to go out of your way to leave him there, y’know.” 
It was true that he wouldn’t have been able to go in with them, but in that case, they could have at least tried a few other ways. If there was no other way, and they’d had to make him stay behind, then they could have taken their time, camped for the night, and talked him into it. 
“Mmm… The thing is, the face Eli-Eli was making was kind of scary.” 
As she spoke, Kanami kicked a rock by her feet, hard. Her answer startled him. 
“It was sort of like…he wanted to fight, maybe? Or maybe take stuff out on himself? That kind of face. So I thought it would be better if he stayed behind. Besides, there’s just no way heading into a dark cave with a face like that could be a good thing.” 
Kanami spun around lightly, pulling Coppélia into the conversation with a single word: “Right?” 
However, Coppélia only answered in her ordinary tone of extreme calm. “Coppélia doesn’t really know, Master.” 
For his part, unlike Coppélia, Leonardo was feeling something very close to shock. 
He hadn’t thought that Kanami—who seemed like the sort of miraculous creature you’d get if muscles and reflex nerves acquired intelligence—would be considerate of others and try to resolve issues this way. 
He’d thought that this Kanami-being could do nothing but cause unforeseen trouble. 
Kanami just might have evolved. 
…Amazing. 
“Hey, Kanami.” 
Leonard had been planning to tell her You’re pretty awesome, but Kanami didn’t wait for him. “You’re kinda cold, Coppé, you know that?” she shouted. 
“?? Coppélia is not currently under a bad status.” 
It was Coppélia’s fault, too. 
Kanami had sent her a sign that she wanted someone to pay attention to her, and she’d obliviously shot her down. As a result, Kanami broke into a run, faking tears, and bolted ahead of them. She went so fast that, due to Adventurer physical strength, her wail generated a Doppler effect. Her pointlessly artistic cry echoed: “Weh-eh-eh-eh-eh…” 
This was technically a dungeon, so Leonardo thought she should be more careful than that. However, when he looked hastily around at the other members, Chun Lu—the local—told him, “There are no forks for about thirty minutes, and monsters shouldn’t appear.” Her calm expression showed that she’d gotten used to Kanami’s weird antics. 
Are you sure that’s okay? Leonardo looked back and forth between his companions and the darkness up ahead, but he was apparently the only one who was worried, so he shrugged and gave up. 
After all, for engineers, switching over was important. 
This limestone cavern was fairly enormous. As a result, they got by without feeling any sort of claustrophobic pressure. Having lost sight of Kanami, Leonardo and the others advanced steadily through the darkness, following her without getting impatient. 
“Lord Elias is like a clear spring sky, but spring is the season of thunderstorms as well,” Coppélia suddenly said, as if talking to herself. 
Leonardo was beside her, keeping a sharp eye out for enemies. “What do you mean?” 
“Didn’t you request information regarding Lord Elias from Coppélia?” 
Oh, I see, Leonardo thought. 
Apparently, as far as Coppélia was concerned, that exchange with Kanami was still in progress. 
“Was that response insufficient?” 
Her voice was as quiet as always, but it sounded vaguely sad to Leonardo. The shadows in the cavern kept him from being able to read the little expression that was framed by her glossy indigo hair. She was a petite, beautiful girl, and everything about her was like a work of art. 
Feeling the emotion he always felt when he looked at Coppélia but hadn’t been able to put a name to, Leonardo told her, “Your answers have lots of poetic metaphors in them, huh?” After the words were out, he felt frustrated with himself: What kind of tactless dolt am I anyway? 
It wasn’t like this was in middle school. 
“Coppélia’s basic vocabulary includes meteorological forecasts and information on the four seasons from every country.” 
“Ah, I see…” 
The memory of the night in Aorsoi when they’d talked on top of that boulder rose in his mind. 
Coppélia had commented that Kanami was “a person like first light.” He didn’t think she was wrong about that. 
That audacious woman dove into trouble way ahead of everybody else, and in the end, she arrived at new developments by force. In that sense, she was exactly like the dawn. Calling her Eos, the goddess of the dawn, would probably be going too far, though: In Grecian myth, she was such a beauty that they described her as having “rosy fingers.” He thought giving Kanami an evaluation like that would be praising her too highly. She was more like the war god Ares, laying waste with a tank. 
In other words, didn’t that make her the type of person you couldn’t have in Sales? 

She’d probably manage to get huge orders, but there was no telling what she’d promise the customers. 
Man, would that be hell, Leonardo muttered to himself. 
Coppélia had said that her vocabulary included meteorological forecasts and information on the seasons. In other words, she was using weather reports to describe others’ personalities. It was routine information that had nothing to do with poetry, but coming from Coppélia’s lips, it sounded poetic. Didn’t that prove Coppélia herself was poetic, instead of the words? 
What sort of person is he, or she, to you? 
When he actually thought about it, that question seemed really difficult, and it also seemed to hold a variety of meanings. 
Like the weather, people changed. Nobody was all sunshine, all the time. People had all sorts of sides to them. As you watched someone else’s shifting heart, you were changing as well. 
“Coppélia looks at Master. She looks at Lord Elias. She looks at Lord Leonardo.” 
What’s with the “Lord” business? The words had made it as far as Leonardo’s throat, but the way Coppélia looked made him swallow them back down. 
“Your colors are complicated, and they change continuously. In an attempt to understand them, Coppélia puts them into words. Coppélia has portraits of everyone inside herself. They are a variety of colors. They seep into Coppélia’s own color and brightly illuminate her surroundings. Coppélia is very—” 
She broke off. Her eyes had been turned to the darkness far ahead, but now she let them fall to the ground at her feet. She shook her head, looking like a lost child. 
“She doesn’t understand them very well.” 
“I see.” 
The tactless geek from New York didn’t have any fancy words he could say to her at a time like this. He’d only said the words and nodded gravely. He was the only one who’d thought it looked grave; he was aware that he was actually being awkward. 
From the way she’d spoken, he thought Coppélia’s “doesn’t understand” hadn’t had any negative emotion behind it. It might merely have been a wish, but Leonardo didn’t really know. 
Apparently, Coppélia had a portrait of Leonardo inside her, too. 
What about him? 
Did he have an internal portrait of Coppélia? 
Obviously, he did. 
It was a picture of a young girl with a prim face on a pale background the color of cherry blossoms. 
She wasn’t wearing her best smile. If he’d had to say, her face was blank, as if she’d been caught off guard. However, if he stroked those soft cheeks with a feather pen, it looked as though she’d giggle in a soft voice and smile for him. That was the sort of expression it was. 
Even he thought something was wrong with him. Apparently, his head had caught some malware. 
That was what Leonardo thought. 
It would have been great if the portrait of Leonardo inside Coppélia showed a sharp, cool hero, but, well, New York engineers understood that most things didn’t work out that neatly. 
From up ahead, they heard a weird cry, something between a “Yeowp” and a “Gneaaarr.” 
It was Kanami. 
Something had apparently made her happy; sporadically, he heard a voice that sounded simultaneously flustered and delighted. 
“It really is fluffers and cute! It’s just like I imagined: It’s the perfect kind of hairy!” 
When they got closer, as he’d figured, Kanami was clinging to the neck of a huge wolf that had to be two meters long. The giant wolf had gray fur and an intelligent face, and it was wagging its tail in a reserved way, looking vaguely put-upon. 
“…So the wolves in this cave aren’t monsters?” he asked. 
“No, they are monsters,” Chun Lu corrected. 
As this exchange went on, Leonardo was forced to notice that there was no battle under way. It was odd. 
“Then why is it like that? All, uh, friendly.” 
“I would guess…” Tilting her head, Chun Lu answered carefully, “It may be a Wise Wolf someone has already tamed. It could be acting on its own because its master is nearby. When you encounter the wolves of this cavern, combat begins, and after the battle, if it’s possible to train them, you can. That’s how it usually goes.” 
Apparently, that was how it was. 
Kanami seemed to have forgotten she’d just run off in tears; she’d called Coppélia over and was making her pet the wolf’s neck. Kanami herself kept hugging it tightly and nuzzling it with her cheeks. 
“Hey, Kanami.” 
“What, Croakanardo? I’m not giving you this one.” 
“Uh, that’s right, you’re not. It sounds like that wolf’s already been tamed. It’s somebody else’s, not yours. Don’t hang all over it like that.” 
“Awwww! Even though it’s fluffers?!” 
The condition of its coat has nothing to do with anything. Leonardo put in the retort mentally, but it didn’t seem to get through to Kanami. She was seriously asking the wolf things like “Hey, kiddo, where are you from?” 
After letting itself be thoroughly petted, the wolf seemed to feel that it had done its duty. Although it wasn’t at all forceful about it, it slipped out of Kanami’s embrace, took two or three steps, then slowly wagged its tail. 
What a well-behaved wolf. Leonardo was impressed. 
Its composed attitude projected dignity, showing a character that was far more intellectual and thoughtful than a half-baked human (say, for example, Kanami). 
“It is a very intelligent wolf.” 
As if thanking Coppélia for her comment, the wolf gave one low whine, then abruptly looked up at the cave ceiling. 
“What’s the matter, huh? Was there a bat or something?” 
“There shouldn’t be any flying magical beasts in this cave…” 
As Kanami and Chun Lu spoke, they also looked up at the ceiling, which was shrouded in darkness. Coppélia and Leonardo looked up, too, although they didn’t speak. The wolf’s gesture had pulled them all in. 
There was a soft, dry sound somewhere, and a moment later, they realized that a small rock had fallen. Leonardo and the others had no idea what that meant, and they exchanged glances—but in the next instant, a tremor big enough to make them feel as if they were floating hit the cave. 
What, an earthquake?! Jesus! 
The roar of an enormous mass collapsing echoed. 
In the midst of an impact that shook him around, making him lose all sense of forward and backward, left and right, Leonardo caught Coppélia’s slim wrist, trying to pull her into his arms. 
However, he had no idea how far he’d managed it. 
With a memory of falling into cold water, Leonardo’s mind was abruptly enveloped in darkness.