Chapter 6 — Let’s Start About a Hundred Million Years Ago
Not interested in continuing their conversation in the middle of the street, they moved their gathering to the hotel lobby. Tomochika sat beside Yogiri on one sofa, with Edelgart, Jorge, and the boy calling himself Kouryu sitting across from them.
“You’re not going to suddenly betray us, right?” Tomochika asked, making no effort to hide her suspicion. Kouryu carried himself with a very aloof air, so it was hard to trust him.
“Who knows? Am I an enemy? A friend? I’d say that mystery is my selling point.”
“This guy is definitely annoying...” It was nice that he wasn’t acting like their enemy, but that didn’t make dealing with him any less irritating.
Edelgart seemed thoroughly unhappy. “And why do we have to be so friendly with these criminals?! We should just arrest them and get it over with!”
“I thought you let us go back then,” Yogiri said nonchalantly. “I don’t even know why you’re following us now.” Although he had, in fact, been the one to kill the group of thugs back in Quenza, he had never admitted it to her.
“Please! Then why did Lady Lain instruct us to follow you? No doubt because you are indeed criminals!”
“Umm, Captain, we don’t truly have proof of any wrongdoing on their part.”
“We have sent a pigeon to Lady Lain, but we will keep them here in the meantime! We couldn’t say that we found them and just let them go! In that case, we couldn’t even say that we’d found them to begin with!”
“Being stuck here would be a problem.” Yogiri frowned, not hiding his frustration. “We’re heading for Ent, an island country in the east.”
“Captain Edelgart, this is a foreign land,” Jorge cautioned. “We don’t have the authority to detain them here.”
“What?! Then what are we supposed to do?!”
The conversation continued to go in circles. Even though she felt that he was suspicious, Tomochika turned to Kouryu. She figured they had a better chance of getting through to him.
“Umm, I’d be grateful if you could give us a rough explanation of what this is all about.”
“Okay. It’s not that complicated, but I’m not sure where to start. Hmm, let’s start about a hundred million years ago.”
“You have to go back that far?!”
“Aren’t you interested in the story of my first love?”
“Why would you think we’d want to hear such a private story after just meeting you?!”
“How about you answer our questions with what’s relevant instead?” Yogiri offered.
“Okay, but whether you get a clear picture will depend on the questions you ask.”
“I’m guessing you’re just going to dodge the point anyway,” Tomochika grumbled.
“Why were you looking for us?”
Kouryu considered the question for a moment. “It’s a secret.”
“Oh, come on!” Tomochika couldn’t help but shout. That wasn’t the answer she had been expecting after he had acted like he was giving it serious thought.
“Okay, then can we go?” Yogiri asked, rising from his seat. “We don’t really have time to waste like this.”
There didn’t seem to be a reason to stay and speak with them. If these people weren’t going to explain themselves, there was little purpose in wasting more time.
“I guess having the mysterious boy’s objective remain a mystery is no good,” Kouryu remarked, his expression serious.
“Why does that surprise you?”
“Well, it’s not such a big deal. I just want you two to keep doing what you’re already doing, and I want to offer my help.”
“What do you mean?”
“I love it when Sages die. I’d really like to see it happen from close by. I want to offer you my help so I can see it with my own eyes.”
“Am I the only one bothered by the way he’s rhyming?” Tomochika commented.
“How do you want to help us?”
“I know a lot about this world. I’m sure I can be useful.”
“You know a lot, huh? So who are you, exactly?”
“You said ‘Kouryu,’ right? That’s your name?”
“It’s more like my race. When the new gods showed up and deposed the dragons that had been ruling the world, they branded us with that name as an insult. Hence, ‘Kouryu,’ meaning ‘fallen dragons.’”
“This is suddenly sounding like a pretty big deal! That’s crazy!”
“Yep. We’re stuck with that shame nowadays,” the boy replied with an exaggerated shrug.
“If Kouryu is the name of your race, what’s your personal name?” Yogiri asked.
“I’m the last one, the only Kouryu left. So you can just call me that; it won’t be an issue.”
Yogiri motioned to the soldier and her companion. “They said earlier that they flew here. Was that because of you?”
“Yeah. If I change into my dragon form, I can fly. I did that and brought them with me.”
“So could you take us to Ent, then?” If that were possible, they wouldn’t have to wait for a boat or waste their time with a slow sea voyage.
“I can fly you around, but not to there.”
“Why not?”
“The sky is the domain of the Sages. Just like on the ground, it’s divided up under the control of different ones. And the Sages don’t allow people to fly.”
“We’ve seen plenty of people flying around,” Tomochika commented.
“That was just for short distances, though. If you try to fly long-distance, you’ll definitely catch their attention.”
“But Edelgart and Jorge flew here, didn’t they?”
“Yeah. But there’s no Sage currently controlling this area. You killed them already.”
“I see. So basically, you’re weaker than they are,” Yogiri concluded.
“I don’t really like to admit it, but since I’m a fallen god, you’ve already guessed as much.”
“If you were stronger than the Sages, I’d have been grateful if you could have beaten them for us,” Yogiri muttered. If he used his own ability to kill them, the Philosopher’s Stones in their bodies would lose their power. For that reason, he had to slowly chip away at them instead—a process that was more trouble than he cared to go through.
“Wha—?! The pigeon is back! But there’s no sign of the message having been read. What’s going on?”
While Tomochika and Yogiri had been talking with Kouryu, Edelgart and Jorge had continued arguing with each other. At some point, they had been interrupted by the arrival of a bird.
“Uh, it’s just a pigeon, right? How can you tell if the note was read?”
“With these magical carrier pigeons, we can send messages across long distances. When it gets to the designated location and plays the message, it’s marked as having been read, obviously.”
“Okay, that’s just bizarre.”
Tomochika had known that in this world, magical carrier pigeons were used for long-distance communication, but she had figured that meant people tied written letters to birds that flew quickly from place to place. She didn’t realize the animals were capable of replaying a voice recording or keeping track of whether the message had been read.
“That is strange... Barring extreme circumstances, there is no reason the message would fail to reach her.”
“Well, that’s obvious. Lain is dead, after all,” Kouryu bluntly informed the confused Edelgart.
“What?! Lady Lain can’t be dead! I’ve seen her power for myself! Even when her entire body was incinerated, she instantly regenerated!”
“On that note, the city where you guys live was also destroyed,” the mysterious boy added.
“Impossible!” the captain cried, jumping to her feet in anger.
“Don’t take my word for it. Send a message to someone you trust, and get them to tell you what happened.”
Edelgart and Jorge stepped away for a moment, no doubt to confirm Kouryu’s words.
“Hold on a second!” Tomochika spoke up next. “In that case, the other cities...”
Now that it had been brought up, it was a disheartening thought. The cities were kept safe by the protection of the Sages. Even the trains running between the inhabited areas needed a barrier to shield them. That was just how dangerous this world was. When the Sages disappeared, the people living in their protected regions were left in danger.
“Are you telling me you killed the Sages without even knowing that?” Kouryu asked.
Tomochika looked at Yogiri, but he was totally calm. She hadn’t realized it herself until then, but it must have been something he had already taken into account.
“If it makes you feel any better, Hanabusa is still okay. The Sage Alice has taken up the role of defending it. The capital of Manii was destroyed, but the Divine King and the Swordmaster are still alive, so I’m sure they’ll manage. And the City of the War God has plenty of fighting strength, so they’ll probably last for a while.”
Even hearing that didn’t offer her much consolation.
“That’s no reason to give up on collecting Philosopher’s Stones,” Yogiri said. “Or can you suggest another way for us to get home?” His primary objective was to return to Earth. He wouldn’t be deterred from that goal, regardless of the harm it might cause this world.
“Oh, I only wanted to ask if you were okay with all of that, but maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up. I do want you to keep killing Sages, after all,” the boy admitted.
“You think out loud too much,” answered Yogiri.
“He’s trying too hard to be mysterious.”
“Anyway. I know all sorts of things, including other ways you can get home, so will you let me come with you?”
“I assume you’re not willing to tell us now?”
“Of course I’ll give you something, but if I tell you everything up front, you won’t need me, will you?”
“Fine,” Yogiri agreed. “I have no plans to be friends, but if you want to follow us, you can do what you like.”
Tomochika had no objections either.
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