Chapter 3 — You See These Kinds of Things in Other Worlds All the Time
Yogiri and Tomochika watched the new arrival hovering beside their cliffside road. The golden dragon maintained its place in the air, beating its wings slowly. Wyverns were different from other dragons in that they only had two legs rather than four. But its enormous body, wreathed in lightning, was far larger than the other dragons they had come across so far. The talons on its feet were easily large enough to pick up their entire vehicle. Its enormous eyes were locked on the two of them, weighing them down with an oppressive air.
“It’s definitely glaring at us,” Tomochika said, voice shaking. The dragon should have been able to attack them at any time, but for now it was merely hovering.
“It’s only watching us right now. If it’s not going to do anything, we can probably just leave.”
“No, no, no, we can’t just go! It looks like it’s going to hit us with lightning or something!”
In spite of Tomochika’s words, it was actually impossible to read any sort of expression on the dragon’s inhuman face. In addition, Yogiri couldn’t sense the slightest bit of killing intent coming from it. If it was planning on attacking them, he would certainly feel something, so they appeared to be safe for the moment.
With that in mind, Yogiri decided to wait and see what happened. He was curious about what this dragon had come there to do, but it wasn’t doing anything just yet. It was simply bobbing in the air, watching them.
Although she had been unsettled at first, the oddness of the situation gradually caught up with Tomochika, and she cocked her head at the creature in confusion. She was just about to tell Yogiri that maybe they should leave after all when the wyvern finally spoke.
“You pass.”
Its voice was deep and heavy. With a powerful flap of its wings, it lifted itself away.
“Uhh, pass? I have no idea what just happened, but it looks like it’s leaving, so that’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Tomochika was relieved. She wasn’t too concerned about understanding the exact details of the exchange.
But Yogiri called out to the dragon before it could depart. “Wait.”
“What are you doing? Just let it go!”
“We could leave it alone and go, sure, but if it actually understands us, we should ask it a few questions.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of letting sleeping dragons lie?!”
Despite her warning, Yogiri continued to speak to their flying visitor. “If you saw what happened before then you know that if you try to run, I can easily kill you.”
In reality, it was an empty threat. Even if it did flee, Yogiri had no intention of harming it. But the dragon’s wings immediately froze, and it began to simply float in the air.
“What are those wings for if you don’t need them to fly?!” Tomochika asked as the dragon remained suspended in the sky — an odd sight considering its wings were no longer moving.
“Gah! I should have just left without saying anything! I thought it would be best to speak, but I was wrong!”
“Yeah, I probably would have ignored you and walked away if you hadn’t spoken.”
“Umm, Takatou? Why are you acting as if this is a perfectly normal conversation?” A small girl was now lying on the ground between the two of them. “How did that dragon suddenly turn into a human?!”
“How should I know?”
What Tomochika had called a Golden Thunder Dragon had suddenly taken on the form of a young girl.
It is a normal enough occurrence in a world like this. Things like dragons and wolves always end up turning into little girls that talk like old men, Mokomoko observed, nodding to herself as if it were the most obvious thing. But it was the first Yogiri had heard of such a trope.
After writhing around on the ground for a while, the dragon-turned-child collected itself, rising up to sit on its knees. “Actually, I was told that when speaking to human males, a form like this is ideal.”
“Where the hell did you hear that?” asked Tomochika. “What is wrong with the people in this world?”
Yogiri remembered the robot that had stopped their train earlier saying something similar. “Okay, putting all that aside for now, why did you attack us? Those other dragons were here because of you, weren’t they?”
“It was a test to see if you were worthy of meeting the Swordmaster.”
“Swordmaster?” Yogiri felt the spark of a memory stirring inside him. “Ah, the cat girl mentioned that to us before. Something about a Swordmaster’s Gift, wasn’t it?”
It was during an encounter they’d had in the first city they had visited. A beastkin had briefly brought up Swordmasters after volunteering to show them around (and then betraying them).
“What?! You aren’t here to meet the Swordmaster?!” The girl opened her eyes wide in shock.
“Talk about unnecessary collateral damage,” Tomochika muttered to herself.
“We’re just trying to get to the capital.”
“That’s impossible! No one passes through here simply to reach the capital!”
“The lord of Hanabusa told us we could do it.”
“Those people only use steam engines! They don’t drive through!”
“Huh, that’s true; I guess Ryouta would never have made the trip like this himself...” mused Tomochika.
“There are roads for people to go out and do maintenance on the tracks, so you should be able to make it.” Those had been Ryouta’s words, though he had likely been offering a reasonable guess rather than speaking from personal experience.
“No matter. This canyon houses a Swordmaster, who has the power to bestow the Gift upon others. Of course, we cannot permit just anyone to stand before him, so we sift out those who are unworthy ahead of time.”
Tomochika frowned. “Can anyone in this world make it past that many fire-breathing dragons?”
“If one cannot withstand such an attack, then they have no right to meet the Swordmaster,” the girl answered, sounding quite proud for some reason.
“Well, I guess it has nothing to do with us, then,” Yogiri said with a shrug. “Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
The two of them turned back to their truck. As they did, the dragon-girl stood up to block their way.
“I told you, you passed! Will you not go to meet the Swordmaster?!”
“Why would we? I was just wondering if you were targeting us specifically, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.” Yogiri had only been interested in finding out who was orchestrating the attack on them, but if there was no grand plan behind it, he didn’t particularly care to know more.
“Err, that’s...not good — for me! I was told to bring those who are worthy!”
“Didn’t you just try to run away?”
“Isn’t it normal to flee the scene when all of one’s comrades are annihilated?”
“So why did you appear to us at all?”
“After someone is attacked by my underlings, seeing my majestic form in the sky strikes an inescapable despair into their heart! I flew over here to wrap things up, but by the time I realized the others were dead, it was too late to run away without looking like a fool. So I figured I should tell you that you had passed and then fly away to maintain some semblance of dignity.”
“Okay, so you’re just an idiot, basically. But why should we go meet the Swordmaster? Do you really think we look that promising?”
Neither of them possessed the Gift. Although they had used the camouflage rings to present themselves as normal residents of this world, they still looked totally powerless to an outside observer.
“I do not judge based on the power of the Gift. The fact of the matter is, you killed all of my underlings. To accomplish that, you must have considerable strength.”
“Okay, but really, I don’t care about this Swordmaster person,” Yogiri replied bluntly.
“This is a Swordmaster we’re talking about! An equal to the Sages! Do you not wish to see that power for yourselves?!”
After hearing the comparison to the Sages, Yogiri stopped and thought. If a Swordmaster was really on the same footing as a Sage, it was possible that person might also know how to return them home.
“What do you think?” Yogiri asked, turning to Tomochika. “Maybe it’s worth our time to meet this guy after all.”
“I don’t know. We’re already lost. I’m not sure we’re in a position to be getting sidetracked like this.”
“Aha! Very well, then! Allow me to guide you! There is no way you can reach the capital on your own. It’s a good deal, don’t you think? After you’ve met the Swordmaster, I can take you straight to your destination!”
Hmm. That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. We’re probably just going to get more and more lost on our own.
“Oh, all right, why not,” Tomochika conceded.
“Okay,” Yogiri told the dragon-girl. “We’ll go with you to meet the Swordmaster, then.”
After all, heading to the capital to meet up with their classmates wasn’t their primary objective. Yogiri felt that expanding their knowledge of the world around them was also important. No matter what they planned on doing next, they would still need information.
“Very well. My name is Atila. What are your names?”
“Yogiri Takatou.”
“Tomochika Dannoura. Nice to meet you.”
And with that, they were off to meet the Swordmaster.
Returning to the truck, the four of them set out at once. As usual, Tomochika was driving while Yogiri sat in the passenger seat, now with Atila on his lap.
The canyon was like a maze. Getting out of it without a guide would have been extraordinarily difficult. Apparently, few people attempted to cross it except by train. Before the construction of the railway, locals had taken a wide arc to avoid the area entirely.
After traveling for a while, the green of distant trees came into view. Yogiri more than welcomed the change from the desolate brown tones of the canyon. It relieved him to know that there was an oasis even here in this wasteland.
Passing through the trees, they eventually came upon a large clearing. Aside from the low-growing flowers, the space didn’t seem to house anything particularly special. Even so, Tomochika looked at the clearing in open-mouthed shock. It was overflowing with people.
Upon hearing that a Swordmaster lived there, they had assumed there would be a considerable number of followers with him, but even at a glance it was easy to see that there were more than a hundred gathered in the clearing alone. It was far beyond Yogiri’s expectations. The mixed gathering seemed to have no uniformity, meaning they had most likely all traveled there independently to meet the Swordmaster.
“Is this guy especially popular?” Yogiri asked Atila.
“If you don’t know of him, I suppose you really were just passing by! Today is the day of selection for the Knights of the Divine King. Those who are selected will be allowed to become the Swordmaster’s own disciples. In short, everyone gathered here is aiming to be a Swordmaster in the future.”
“You’re getting us involved in something annoying, aren’t you? You’d better keep your promise to us, at least.” Yogiri had initially thought that meeting this Swordmaster would be a good idea, but things were looking a bit more complicated now.
Stopping in front of the crowd, the travelers climbed out of the armored truck. A hooded man immediately accosted them.
“Hey! Since when are vehicles allowed to come here?! I thought that getting here on your own strength was part of the trial!”
“It’s not like we ever intended to do any trials in the first place,” Yogiri answered.
“Ha! Sorry for your trouble, but I guess you all fail then! Sucks to be you!”
In the face of the man’s obvious scorn for them, Yogiri didn’t have anything to say. He saw little point in feeling bothered by something he didn’t even care about in the first place.
But a voice did answer. An old man behind Yogiri spoke up as he pushed his way to the center of the crowd. “You can’t fail before the trial has even started. Although I suppose getting here at all is a trial in and of itself.” The deep wrinkles on his face spoke to his advanced years, yet there was no sign of that age in the way he walked.
Hm...so this is a Swordmaster, Mokomoko mused, already sounding impressed, as if she could sense his mastery of the craft just from the way he carried himself.
Though he wore eastern-styled clothing, he wasn’t carrying a sword. As he reached the center of the crowd, the old man looked around. “There are a lot of people here, eh?” he muttered to himself. He seemed to consider that for a short while, then continued. “Start killing each other until I say to stop. Whoever survives will begin the trial.”
“Ugh. Just a minute ago I was thinking, ‘Hey, maybe this guy is better than the other people we’ve met so far!’ God, I feel stupid for believing that for even a second,” Tomochika said in disgust.
Within moments, the entire clearing around them was overflowing with killing intent.
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