Chapter 7 — They Would Think, “This Guy Is Dangerous, I Gotta Do Something”
Tomochika and the others followed Maanu. The city of Kadan was reasonably large, but it didn’t quite compare to the cities they had seen so far. The previous ones they had visited showed clear signs of technology built on magic or borrowed from other worlds, but there was none of that here. Most of the buildings were built entirely out of wood and were one or two stories, while the roads were all unpaved.
“It seems kind of simplistic, doesn’t it?” Tomochika commented.
“I guess the places we’ve seen before were all controlled by Sages, so they looked pretty wealthy.” Yogiri replied.
The majority of Sages seemed overly proud, looking down on everyone else. They didn’t appear to care one way or the other about the people living in their territories. But it also seemed like they didn’t like the cities or countries they lived in to look pathetic either, so they put in a certain amount of effort into developing infrastructure, social welfare programs, and investing in the environment. In short, seeing none of that here clearly showed that the Sage Yoshifumi didn’t care about West Ent at all.
“Here,” Maanu said as she entered one of the houses.
The three of them followed her in, and as if it were only natural, Vivian was tagging along as well. Leading them into the living room, Maanu sat them down at a table before taking a seat opposite them. But as Vivian tried to do the same, Maanu stopped her.
“You stand.”
“Huh?”
“Stop acting like you don’t get it. I’m telling you to think about what you’ve done!”
“Yes, ma’am...” Apparently, despite being royalty, Maanu was still pretty strict with Vivian.
“Now then, who exactly are you people?”
“Who are we? Ah, okay. You know that Sages summon people from other worlds, right?” Yogiri was planning on being straightforward with her.
“‘Summon’? I’ve never heard of such a thing, but I suppose if it’s the Sages, it’s not out of the question.”
The existence of otherworlders had been apparent in every other town they had visited, but that didn’t seem to be the case here.
“We are otherworlders summoned here by a Sage. I bet the Sage Yoshifumi himself is from another world as well,” Yogiri explained.
Judging from the guy’s name, it sounded like he was Japanese. A good number of people seemed to come to this world from Japan, so it was very likely.
“Now that you mention it, you look different from people around here. I thought the Sages were just a different race. You wouldn’t happen to be in league with them, would you?”
“We’re planning on going to see him, but at this point, we don’t know anything about him but his name.”
“Why?”
“We want to return to our home world. We need an item the Sage has to do that, so we want to get it from him, no matter what.”
“Ha!” Vivian cut in. “You say you want to get it, but we all know you intend murder! I will not allow you to accomplish such a thing, Yogiri Takatou! In order to restore our nation, we, the Resistance, must defeat the Sage!”
“Vivian...you absolute fool...” Maanu said with a sigh.
Tomochika had figured something like that was the case. A resistance group was hiding in the city, and Maanu and Vivian were members.
“Uhh, not that we plan on spreading rumors or anything, but does that mean you’re planning on overthrowing the empire and reinstating Vivian as ruler?”
“It’s even showing up in quests, so there’s not much point in keeping it a secret now,” Maanu replied.
“What are these ‘quests’ we keep hearing about?” Yogiri asked.
Tomochika had also been curious about the game-like terminology.
“Did Vivian tell you what adventurers are?”
“To an extent.”
“Adventurers don’t just romp around doing whatever they please here. The adventurer’s guild in the empire gives them objectives to accomplish. That’s what ‘quests’ are.”
“Wait, if the guild is in the empire, does that mean the adventurers come from the east?”
Vivian had told them they couldn’t travel between the eastern and western sides of the island, so Tomochika hadn’t realized it was possible.
“That’s right. They casually waltz on over whenever they want to go on an adventure, then go back as soon as they’re finished. There’s some magical pathway that only adventurers can use.”
“Is there no way we can use it?”
“No, you need to register with the guild first. So of course, for those of us living in the west, it’s useless.”
“Then I guess we have no choice but to go through the Elven Forest after all.”
“Did you get that idea from Vivian as well?”
“Hey! I never told them about the fact that the elves seem to be weakened right now, so now is our best chance to get through!” Vivian burst out, as if insulted.
“Vivian, could you be quiet, please?” Maanu sounded exhausted.
“We’re learning a lot from her,” Tomochika commented.
“Letting her come in was probably a mistake for Maanu,” Yogiri agreed.
“Well, that’s the situation. We’re planning on heading to the Elven Forest tomorrow. As long as you aren’t planning on getting in our way, we won’t bother you.”
“What do you mean by ‘weakened’?”
“I guess you could tell just by looking around, so there’s no point in hiding it. Two days ago, something strange happened.”
She continued to explain that people all over town had suddenly collapsed. They had been totally healthy but had just fallen over dead. The victims didn’t seem to have anything in common either. The people of the city had feared it was a mysterious disease of some sort, but there had been no casualties after that initial wave. All the victims simply passed away at exactly the same moment.
Furthermore, the phenomenon wasn’t limited to the people of the city. Livestock and pets were also found dead. And when they looked into it, the same thing had happened outside of the city as well. Wild animals and even plants had met the same fate. The reason was unclear, but all kinds of living things had abruptly died simultaneously.
“So you think the elves might have died in the same way?” Tomochika asked.
“Yes. It was just a hunch at first, but some people went to check, and after heading a little ways into the forest, the elves didn’t attack. We don’t know how widespread the phenomenon was, but it looks to have affected them as well. At any rate, now that we’ve been found out, we have no choice but to try making it through the forest.”
“That means the Elven Forest should be easier to pass through... Hey, is something wrong, Takatou?”
Yogiri had a bitter expression on his face. “I was just thinking,” he whispered back, “those deaths were probably all my fault.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember that Izelda guy on the boat?”
“Oh yeah, the guy who said everyone was him?” Tomochika recalled the events on the cruise ship. Izelda was the guy who had appeared as a crowd of people, gloating about something or other.
“Yeah, somehow all of them seemed to be Izelda. And not just there, they were spread all over the world.”
“What?”
“I don’t know how he did it, but he must have multiplied himself and spread out.”
“And all of them died?!”
“With someone like that, you have to kill every branch or they just come back. It’s all or nothing.”
“I see. I’m not blaming you or anything, but if a god was watching, I can see why they would think, ‘This guy is dangerous, I gotta do something.’”
Even if it was in self-defense, that was just crazy. But that’s what it meant to be protected by Yogiri. The larger the enemy, the larger the effect of his response.
“I guess that’s all we have to talk about,” Maanu said.
“What do you plan on doing with us?” Tomochika asked.
“Nothing in particular. It would be a problem if you were with the empire, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
“We’re going to head to the forest.”
“Do as you like. We can’t do anything to stop you. But on a selfish note, we’d be grateful if you waited until after tomorrow. If that’s okay, you can stay here until then.”
“What do you think?” Tomochika asked Yogiri.
“Well, it’s not like we’re in a huge rush or anything.”
They both wanted to return home as fast as possible, but they had been traveling at a pretty relaxed pace so far. It wasn’t like every minute counted.
“I guess we’ll take you up on your offer.”
“See you later, then,” Maanu said, tossing them a key. “I have a lot of work to do to get ready.” She stepped out of the room.
“Are you not going with her, Vivian?”
“It seemed like she was saying, ‘You’re in the way, don’t bother’ to me...”
“Isn’t leaving Vivian behind a huge liability, though?” Tomochika mused.
“I don’t know; it seemed like they had nothing left to be concerned about leaking at this point,” Mokomoko replied.
“All right, then. I’m getting kind of hungry,” Yogiri said, changing the subject. “I guess we should eat something.” They hadn’t eaten since they had been riding on Kouryu’s back, so it had been a fairly long time.
“Didn’t they say something about being short on food?”
“I can’t imagine a city like this having nowhere to eat.”
“Allow me to guide you!”
Although they hadn’t been talking to her, Vivian butted in once again.
“Why should we?”
“I cannot allow a villain like Yogiri Takatou to wander the city unchecked!”
“Hey, are you really planning on killing me?”
“Of course! I received this mission from God!”
“If you’re serious, then let me warn you. You shouldn’t be so friendly with someone you may end up killing. It’ll be hard for you later.”
“Ha! Like it would ever be hard for me to kill you!”
It didn’t seem like she had taken his warning seriously.
◇ ◇ ◇
With Vivian’s guidance, their group soon made it to a pub. It appeared to be one managed by adventurers, so regardless of the food situation in town, as long as they had money, they could get whatever they wanted. Sitting down at a table, they ordered some random items and waited. In spite of being in a pub, they didn’t order any alcohol.
“We’re in a different world, I don’t think we need to worry about Japanese laws,” Tomochika noted.
“Asaka said it would be better if I didn’t drink.” Yogiri’s adoptive mother had warned him against drinking numerous times, perhaps in light of her own poor experiences. “But if you want something, feel free.”
“No, we don’t drink in our family either.”
“Indeed,” Mokomoko added. “Consumption of alcohol leads to an inevitable drop in performance. For a tradition that proclaims the need to treat every situation as a battlefield, partaking in alcohol would be irresponsible.”
There wasn’t enough time in the day to list all the famous swordsmen or martial artists who had been attacked and killed while they were drunk.
“There are a lot of folktales about people being killed after someone got them drunk, now that you mention it.”
“I thought if I got you drunk, you’d go on a rampage, and then I could strike you down in retaliation...” Vivian murmured.
They had thought she was just going to show them a place to eat, but now she was sitting with them.
“There’s also that,” Yogiri said. “If I got drunk and lost track of what I was doing, who knows what would happen?”
“Even thinking about you going on a rampage is terrifying.” Tomochika shuddered.
“Anyway, can you tell us more about the Elven Forest?” Yogiri asked Vivian.
“Wh-What about it?”
“I get that you have to go through it to get to the east, but there’s no point in just going there. If your enemy is the empire, that means you’re fighting a Sage. There’s no way you can defeat him without a proper plan, right?”
“Heh heh heh! I am perfectly capable of defeating the Sage myself, don’t you think?”
“But that was only since this morning, right? From our conversation earlier, it sounded like there were plans in place since well before that.”
“I-I don’t know anything about them! And if I say anything else, Miss Maanu will get mad at me again!” Vivian all but confessed they had some sort of plan.
“I just thought I’d ask, but I guess there’s no point.” As far as Yogiri was concerned, it didn’t matter what Vivian and the rest of the Resistance did.
“Then why did you ask?! You truly must be a villain!”
“Only out of curiosity. So again, out of curiosity, why did you protect me? Wouldn’t it have been more convenient for you if those bandits had killed me?” Yogiri repeated the question she hadn’t given a proper answer to before.
“Well—”
“If you’re killed by some random bandits, then we all lose our powers,” a voice called out from the table next to them. “We’ve all been blessed with the powers of apostles. It would be inconvenient to suddenly lose them.”
Looking over, they saw a boy with an eye patch, staring back at them with a condescending air.
“If Yogiri Takatou dies, the powers of the apostles disappear,” he continued. “But the reward for being the one to kill him is getting to keep your powers. As such...” He pulled a sword out from empty space as he stared at Vivian. “I’m going to have to ask you to die.”
“That’s a lot cooler than making shields,” Yogiri observed, thoroughly impressed. Although it had a very affected air, the boy had practiced that sword-drawing technique enough to make it look good.
“Sh-Shields are cool too!” Vivian materialized a shield in response.
“Making it appear instantly is all well and good, but if you don’t take your time, it doesn’t look as good for the performance,” Yogiri replied.
“Is this really the time to be judging performance?!” Tomochika cried.
“Why are they ignoring me to fight each other, though?” Yogiri was truly confused by the sight before them.
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