Chapter 5 — You Say That Like You’re a Famous Person in Disguise
The Swordmaster left the clearing, heading into the forest with the survivors hurrying to follow him. Yogiri stayed at the back of the crowd, walking at a leisurely pace. Beside him was Tomochika, with the tall man who had used the Apology Stones next to her, and the heroic swordsman in silver plate armor beside him. Atila walked a little ways ahead of the group, as if to guide them forward in response to Yogiri’s total lack of motivation.
The guy with the Apology Stones was chattering away with Tomochika. “My luck has always been terrible. It’s honestly a miracle I survived long enough to become a high school student. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been hit by cars. It got to the point where people were calling me Lucky Shin. Of course, I was compensated with lots of money, but that didn’t really help. My parents would throw it into their wallets and that was the end of it.” Perhaps because she had helped him out, he was being oddly friendly with her. Apparently, he was originally from Japan, like they were, but unlike them, he had been killed and then reincarnated in this world. “I was abducted by a cult and used as a human sacrifice in one of their rituals,” he explained.
“Sounds like you had a rough time.”
“Indeed. That is how I got these Apology Stones.”
“Wait, we’re talking about how you got the stones?! I thought you were just telling me a very sad life story.”
Believing himself to be dead, he came face to face with a woman who claimed to be a goddess. She had brought him over to this world for a fresh start, but after being reborn, his terrible luck had continued, so he was given the star crystals as an apology.
“You mean a goddess is powerful enough to decide where you go when you die?” Tomochika mused.
It depends on the person, I suppose, Mokomoko answered, although only Yogiri and Tomochika could see and hear the Dannoura guardian spirit. Just as there are some who are protected by guardian spirits like myself, there are those whose fates are dictated by the gods.
“And you said you can use the Apology Stones on the gacha? So, umm...” Though she felt it was a little rude to ask, Tomochika couldn’t help her curiosity.
“Yeah, you can get amazing items or new companions from it, so why am I in this situation? That’s what you wanted to ask, isn’t it? I told you, my luck is terrible!”
“Uhh, yeah, now I get it.” Basically, no matter how many times he played, he would probably never get anything good from it.
“I’m saving them up. If I do ten rolls at once, then at least I get a rarity guarantee!”
“I see. Good luck.” She had no idea what to think of this mysterious gacha system he was talking about.
Seeing that they had reached a natural pause in the conversation, the silver swordsman took the opportunity to jump in. “Now then. Since we have become so well acquainted, is it not strange that we still do not know each other’s names? Perhaps we should introduce ourselves.”
They had developed a sense of camaraderie while walking together, so none of them objected.
“I suppose I will go first. Perhaps you have guessed my identity by now, but please, just call me Rick,” the swordsman said with a wink.
“You make it sound like you’re some famous person trying to keep your identity a secret, but we have absolutely no idea who you are, sorry,” Tomochika replied.
Despite clearly having expected them to know his identity, the silver-clad man remained unperturbed.
“My name is Lynel,” offered their second companion. “I don’t have much interest in becoming a Knight, to be honest, but my friend kind of forced me to come.” He scratched his head, as if wondering how he got there.
“And where is that friend now?”
“She probably assumed I was dead and went on ahead.”
He really did seem like a man who had nothing but bad luck.
“I’m Yogiri Takatou.”
“And my name is Tomochika Dannoura. We were heading for the capital and somehow ended up here. Don’t ask.”
Walking ahead, firmly keeping herself separate from the rest of them, Atila seemed to have no intention of sharing her name with the group.
Yogiri used the momentary silence to finally ask a question that had been bothering him from the start. “So what exactly is this Knight thing all about?” Everyone spoke about the process as if it were common knowledge, so he hadn’t been able to glean any helpful details.
“Ah, yes. It appears you two are foreigners here, so of course you wouldn’t know,” Rick said. “Let me give you a simple explanation. First, as you must have seen, this world is beset by a number of threats. These threats can generally be divided into two categories. The first are the Aggressors, also known as ‘invaders.’ They are said to come from a place beyond this world, but most of them are dealt with by the Sages. You do know of the Sages, I’m sure?”
Yogiri nodded. Having encountered both categories already, he was well aware of the relationship between the Sages and the Aggressors.
“The other primary threats are the sealed deities, also known as Dark Gods. As far as we know, they too came from beyond the bounds of this world, but that was over a thousand years ago. Now they are considered a threat from within our world. The Divine King’s role is to dispatch those creatures.”
“Do the Sages not deal with them at all?”
“For the most part, the Sages and Swordmasters work separately. Since they each have their own specialties, it has become an unwritten rule that they do not interfere with each other’s opponents. That said, the Sages are a rather arrogant bunch, so the two groups often come into conflict regardless. At any rate, the Dark Gods were locked away by the Divine King over a millennium ago.”
“And they’re still a threat, even though they’ve been sealed off?” Tomochika asked.
“Correct. The Dark Gods have produced their own powerful spawn and adherents who survive to this day. These groups act in the shadows to revive their masters. The Divine King’s Knights work to thwart their efforts, and the leaders of those Knights are the Swordmasters.”
“Wait, the Divine King isn’t the leader?” Considering the flow of the conversation, that’s not at all what Yogiri was expecting to hear.
“The Divine King is currently sealed away herself, holding back one of her enemies.”
“For over a thousand years?!” Tomochika was surprised. If the title wasn’t passed down from one generation to the next, then that would mean a single person had been doing the job for all that time.
“That is what we’ve been told.”
Of course, with the story being over a thousand years old, it was likely little more than a myth. It was hard to tell how much of it was actually true at this point.
Having been wrapped up in their conversation, the group suddenly looked around and realized that they were alone.
Yogiri immediately shrugged it off, looking ready to turn right back around and leave. “Huh, looks like they left us behind.”
“Wait! Here! You just need to keep going in this direction!” Atila pointed ahead, but she was pointing into the forest, where there was no sign of anyone else.
“There’s nothing there, though.”
“This is merely a barrier. You cannot see the inside from out here.”
“Hmm.”
He supposed it was rather strange that such a large group of people had suddenly disappeared without a trace. But when they went to continue forward, Atila remained where she was.
“This is as far as I can accompany you. Only those who are invited can enter.”
Yogiri didn’t remember being personally invited anywhere, but they must have been at some point without realizing it.
“So how are you going to take us to the capital, then?”
“Simply call my name once you have finished the trial. I shall appear before you.”
It was starting to feel like she had no intention of guiding them anywhere at all, but they couldn’t exactly force her to do it.
“This is getting to be a real pain, you know that?” Yogiri sighed, leading the other four onwards and through the barrier.
As they passed into the interior, a tower suddenly appeared, looming before them. Tomochika looked up at it with a surprised gasp. The others made no effort to hide their shock either.
Aside from the tower, the scenery within the barrier was the same as what they had seen from the outside, but the atmosphere was completely different. Yogiri could feel a sharp cold in the air. The crowd they had been following was once again within view, walking towards the tower as if it were the most natural course of action. Clearly, that was their destination.
Hey! Leave here at once! Forget this Swordmaster! Mokomoko’s shocked voice had a layer of urgency to it that took them by surprise.
“What’s wrong? It’s weird that it’s hidden, but it’s just a creepy tower...”
That’s not it at all! Can’t you tell? The dark aura surrounding this place is so thick! Something truly evil lies ahead!
Tomochika looked around her, but she didn’t feel anything like Mokomoko was describing. Yogiri, however, could sense a general killing intent hovering over the entire area, all but clinging to them.
“Lynel, are you okay?!” Tomochika cried out as their new friend suddenly doubled over and vomited. Looking around, she saw a number of other people in the crowd collapsing and falling violently ill as well.
The miasma of evil surrounding us must have gotten to him.
“But I don’t feel anything...”
I am protecting you, and I’m sure the boy can handle himself.
“An evil aura of this strength will have no effect on me, but it seems Lynel isn’t so lucky,” Rick noted. He appeared to be perfectly fine, but it didn’t look like there was anything they could do for their other companion.
As they were trying to take in what was happening around them, Lynel’s body began to glow. Before long:
“Thank goodness. Saved by the Apology Stones again!” he gasped, climbing back to his feet.
“Are you sure you should be wasting those stones on something as basic as throwing up?”
“Well, given how sick I felt, I wasn’t going to be able to move at all without them.”
Tomochika didn’t know the extent of the Apology Stones’ abilities, but they seemed to have given him some sort of resistance to the tower’s dark aura.
“Well, what do we do now? This place seems pretty unhealthy, and Mokomoko did tell us to leave,” she said, turning to Yogiri.
“Yeah, ever since we came through the barrier, there’s been a faint feeling of death around us. It’s almost like this whole area is in the shade.” Still, it wasn’t an urgent threat, and it didn’t feel pressing enough to force them to leave right away. “It seems fine to me for the moment. There’s no immediate danger, at least.”
Well, this is you we’re talking about, after all. You may be able to protect yourself, but please keep your guard up just in case.
“Is something wrong?” Rick asked. Their odd conversation had piqued the silver swordsman’s interest.
“Oh, no, we were just surprised. We should head that way, right?” Yogiri brushed off his question and began walking towards the tower.
The structure was built as a circle, probably about a hundred meters in diameter. Looking upwards, the top of it disappeared into the haze, so it must have been fairly tall. At ground level there was an enormous door, through which the crowd of people was slowly moving.
Yogiri’s group followed them inside. There was a large circular chamber within, in the middle of which was yet another tower. This inner tower was a cylinder about ten meters wide, reaching right up to the room’s ceiling. The building appeared to consist of an inner and outer layer.
Within the interior tower was another door, inside of which was the Swordmaster himself, surrounded by the surviving Knight hopefuls.
“You lot are so slow. Hurry up or we’ll leave you behind.”
“I wouldn’t particularly mind if you did,” Yogiri muttered, brushing off the Swordmaster’s complaints as he and his group stepped into the inner tower. The door abruptly slammed shut behind them and the room began to shake with a loud rattling noise.
It appeared they were inside an elevator, which had now begun to climb.
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