Chapter 11 — Why Did I Choose to Accompany You Lot Again?
A full day passed and Yogiri was still asleep. There was no point rushing now, so Tomochika had decided to let him rest, but sitting around waiting for him to wake up was a waste of time. She decided to go out shopping on her own. She wouldn’t exactly be able to do so if Yogiri was with her, and she figured it would be best to get ready so they could leave as soon as he woke up.
The moment she stepped inside, the general store began to buzz.
“What kind of outfit is that?”
“That’s just indecent!”
“That’s gotta be some kind of fetish, right?”
“It looks kind of evil... You think her gear is cursed?”
“What do you think we should do? Is it safe to mess with her or should we just leave?”
“I have no idea what will happen if we bother her...”
Faltering at the sudden attention, Tomochika collected herself and headed farther in. The clothes the Great Sage had given her were extremely revealing, to the point where they seemed useless as armor. She had hoped maybe equipment like that was common in the game, but the reactions around her told her she was dressed as inappropriately as she felt.
“Ugh. Maybe I should have changed after all.”
Without the young man around, you cannot afford to be wearing normal clothes, though, can you?
Even inside the city, the game didn’t prevent people from attacking each other, so she couldn’t walk around defenseless. However, upon learning that the other equipment in the game was made from people, she couldn’t bring herself to equip any other gear either, so she had few options but to wear what the Great Sage had given her.
“Maybe I should have left the shopping to Atila.”
Do you think she would be capable of handling such an errand?
“Uhh...I guess not.”
As a dragon, Atila lacked the common sense expected of ordinary people. She was curious about humans and trying to learn about them, but there was a good chance her ignorance would cause some problems. It was faster for Tomochika to go out shopping by herself.
In cities that were less safe, shops often kept most of their goods behind the counter, but here, the wares were all lining shelves around the stores. Being able to put what she wanted in a basket and then take it to the counter to pay made shopping here a familiar, comfortable experience.
Walking around the store, the other patrons moved to give her space. Though she drew all sorts of curious looks, no one wanted to actually interact with her. Of course, Tomochika would have done the same thing in their shoes.
“This food isn’t people turned into items again, is it?” she asked, staring intently at some preserved food.
Shirou’s words led me to believe he was only transforming people into equipment. Though even if that were not the case, it is not like you could avoid eating.
“Couldn’t we find something to eat in the fields? Don’t we have some sort of Dannoura Style technique for finding food?”
Hmm. No, we don’t.
“We don’t?! And here I thought the Dannoura School had thought of everything!”
When I was alive, discerning what plants were edible and hunting to support oneself while training in the wilderness were skills everyone possessed. However, I doubt such skills would be useful in an entirely unfamiliar ecology. Eating something because it looks somewhat familiar could lead to serious harm.
“Well, I can’t argue if you’re actually going to make a good point. Okay, I guess I’ll buy these for now.”
Once Yogiri was awake, they intended to head to Lasbo’s area, the Castle in the Sky. They didn’t know how difficult an area it was to traverse, but she felt it was best to prepare as much as possible beforehand. Gathering any tools that seemed useful and a good amount of food that would keep for a while, she brought it all to the counter. Paying with DP, she threw everything into her item box and left the store.
Heading to a part of the city where the buildings were so sparse it felt more like a barren field, she approached one of the buildings that was especially distant. Mokomoko went ahead of her, slipping through the closed door, which quickly opened. Atila had opened it from the inside.
“I’m back!”
“I must say, I am still shocked at your brazenness. Either way, hurry inside.”
Tomochika quickly stepped into the house, closing the door behind her. The inside wasn’t particularly luxurious, but it was well kept. The main floor held a living room, bathroom, toilet, and kitchen, while the second floor was divided up into a number of private rooms.
Tomochika walked through the entrance hallway and into the living room. The large amount of dolls in the room was a bit off-putting, but they were just mundane dolls, so there was no harm in them. She figured it was pretty rude in the first place to come into another person’s home without permission and call it creepy.
“Welcome back,” Yogiri greeted her, looking up from his game console. Dai was sitting at his feet.
“Thanks. Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah, I feel great.”
“I bought some food. Oh, I guess we don’t have the charger for that anymore, do we?”
“Yeah, we didn’t get one made this time. Once the battery is dead, it’s toast.”
“Did you notice no one is saying ‘part one’ and ‘part two’ anymore?” Tomochika asked, sitting down on the couch. Sion had suggested they refer to the events that happened before the reset as part one and everything afterwards as part two.
“That was just Sion’s idea, I guess.”
“There truly is something wrong with this situation,” Atila complained. “Even a dragon like me knows that taking another human’s dwelling like this is unreasonable.”
“We’re just borrowing it for a bit,” Yogiri said, brushing her off.
“Spoken like a true thief!”
“I know what we’re doing isn’t good, but it would be worse if someone found us.”
This was likely a house being used by some adventurer and their friends. They were probably out adventuring now, but there was no telling when they’d be back, so they’d just have to cross that bridge when they got to it.
“Are you so sure?” Atila asked. “The threat that Takatou poses was made clear to everyone. Would anyone really attempt to bother us?”
“We’re not stealing anything, so they’ll forgive us...I hope.”
“If we are done here, let us leave! I have been on edge since yesterday!”
“I didn’t realize a dragon would feel guilty.”
“And I can hardly believe the lack of guilt you seem to feel. There is clearly something wrong with you!”
“Okay, so about what we’re doing next...” Tomochika interrupted the two, going over what she had thought of while Yogiri was asleep. Yogiri had no objections, so they decided to go take the Lasbo quest.
“Okay then, I’ll go to the guild and take the Lasbo hunting quest and wait. You guys come ten minutes later. We’ll head into the field as soon as you arrive.” Tomochika pulled a cloth bag from her item box and handed it to Yogiri. “I thought it looked about the right size to cover your face.”
“Maybe I should poke some eyeholes in it.”
“Wearing a bag over your head with those clothes? I cannot imagine there would be a way to stand out more,” Atila commented.
Yogiri didn’t seem to care one way or the other if his equipment was made from people, but either way, he was still wearing the outfit from the Great Sage. Atila’s clothes had been created as part of her transformation into her human form, so she could change them as she wished, but she was still wearing her gifted clothing as well.
“It doesn’t matter if he stands out. It just needs to hide his identity until we can get through the gate.”
They could only hide for so long in such a small town. Tomochika’s plan was to head out into the field and stay there until the game was cleared.
◇ ◇ ◇
“What are you doing?” Atila asked.
“I can’t cut through it.” Yogiri had tried to punch holes in the bag around where his eyes would be. Afraid of making the holes too large, he couldn’t put much strength behind the knife, so the surprisingly sturdy bag had refused to cut.
“It has almost been ten minutes, and you have yet to accomplish anything. Bah, hand it here!” Atila punched her fingers through the bag. Yogiri was surprised by how casually she had done it, but the holes turned out quite well.
“How did you do that with your fingers?”
“I put a flame on my fingertips for a moment to burn through the bag.”
“Huh. It doesn’t look burnt at all.”
“Even if it were, it would still serve until we made it to the field. Let us get moving.”
As Atila stood, Yogiri followed, pulling the bag over his head. Though it restricted his vision a bit, he could see in front of him, so it wasn’t that bad. As he and Dai followed Atila out of the house, he realized there was another problem.
“Oh, I feel like we should lock the door behind us.”
“Just forget it! Now is not the time!”
“I guess we couldn’t lock it anyway. I can’t open or close locks with lockpicks anyway.”
Giving up on the lock, they headed to the adventurer’s guild.
“Well, at least it appears no one is recognizing you for who you are.”
They garnered quite a bit of attention when they stepped into the adventurer’s guild, but no more than normal. Many people in the guild were looking for chances to create drama. They were often looking out for whoever entered so that they could grab any chance to earn more DP. The party’s clothing seemed to pique quite a bit of interest, but no one was getting up to bother them.
Across from the entrance was the quest gate, where Tomochika was standing. She had taken the quest and was ready to leave. Yogiri took a single step towards the gate, at which every adventurer in the building turned as one to glare at him.
“Hm? Did they notice?”
“This is bad! I do not know how, but it appears they can recognize you despite your disguise!”
“I see. I guess hiding my face isn’t enough.”
Killing intent filled the room. Almost everyone inside had recognized him as being Yogiri.
“Die!”
“For my wife!”
Yogiri ran for the gate. Even though they were indoors, arrows and balls of fire flew, and a man with a greatsword rushed at him. They all attacked with no regard for each other, a sign of their deep-seated hatred for Yogiri.
But Yogiri ignored it all. He could tell that none of them were capable of hurting him. The greatsword struck his coat and bounced off. The arrows moved as if dodging around him, and the fireballs dissipated before reaching him. He had been told the equipment from the Great Sage was SSR quality, and it seemed it had the defensive abilities to match that.
“Dannoura!”
“Okay!”
They made it to Tomochika’s side and immediately leaped through the gate. There was an instant change in the ground beneath them. They went from walking on solid wood to their feet sinking into soft sand. Turning around, they could see the gate hovering in front of a wide open sea. Another man had made it through the gate with them. Anyone who went through the gate at the same time as the party leader would be treated as a member of that party and given the same quest, and would therefore be sent to the same field.
“Hiyah!”
Tomochika immediately leaped forward, delivering a swift kick. Taken by surprise, the man’s eyes went wide as he was sent flying back through the gate, forcing him to abandon the quest.
“We should be safe for now, right?”
I do not believe we can be so leisurely about it. They may take the same quest as us and follow.
Yogiri looked around. They were on a beach with the ocean behind them. Opposite the water was a forest. An enormous gray triangle jutted out from the center of the trees. He couldn’t be sure from this vantage point, but it looked like it could be a four-sided pyramid. It was rather tall as well, its tip reaching up to just under the clouds.
“Is that where we’re going? It doesn’t look much like a castle in the sky.”
“Looks like there’s something above it,” Tomochika mentioned.
Yogiri looked up. Above the pyramid was a thick, billowing cloud, and now that it had been pointed out, he could tell there was something behind it.
“Uh...I guess we’re supposed to go through the forest, enter the pyramid, and then get to the top to make it into the castle?” Guessing at what was being asked of them, Tomochika looked thoroughly disheartened.
“Atila, can you turn into a dragon and carry us up there?” Yogiri asked.
“I was actually getting excited about exploring inside there!” the dragon complained.
“Atila helping us move around easier is quite an advantage, isn’t it?”
Shirou had said Lasbo’s field was divided up into a number of areas. Apparently, one of those areas required the Philosopher’s Stones to progress, but they could figure that out when they found it.
“Why did I choose to accompany you lot again?” Atila grumbled as she turned back into a golden dragon.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login