Chapter 1 Encounter in the Lost Country
Chapter 1 | Encounter in the Lost Country
1
Now then, Suzuki Satoru mused.
He had no idea what kind of person this Keno girl was. However, she was definitely an important source of information. He would need to get her to lower her guard so she would be more willing to talk.
For starters, judging by her reaction, she was not a Player, but a resident of this world. While he would have liked to verify that, he had no idea how to achieve that goal.
Also, he could not tell if she was trustworthy. For all he knew, he might wind up learning fake information. Right now, he ought to be taking steps to gain her trust.
With those thoughts in mind, Suzuki Satoru began by putting on a businessman’s smile, but then he realized that he could not do so in his present state. Therefore, he tried to soften his tone. While his voice was hardly saccharine sweet, he tried to speak in as gentle a way as possible.
“Ah… I… while I gave you my name just now, let’s start again. I am Suzuki
Satoru.”
“Satoru… -sama?”
Suzuki Satoru could not help but widen his eyes — though in this body, it looked as though fires had ignited in his eye sockets. He had not expected her to immediately go to addressing him by name. She’s being very familiar, Suzuki Satoru mused. And she gave her name too. I’d better remember that. She must have done what she did to highlight that point.
“-san will do. Now then… you’re Keno-san, am I right?”
Now it was the girl’s turn to goggle her eyes. Suzuki Satoru wondered if he had said something inappropriate.
Keno Fasris Invern.
Keno ought to be her given name and Invern was probably her surname. Or was it Fasris-Invern? While he was not sure which was which, the surprised look on her face was probably because she had addressed him by his name, but Suzuki Satoru had used her surname instead. Perhaps she had thought it was a rejection of her good intentions.
Or was it because he had appended the honorific of -san to her name, despite her being a child?
“Ah, y-yes…”
“In that case, please stand up. And then — speaking here is a little… what do you call it. Well, yes. I could create a tower with magic… but that would be taller than the surrounding buildings. While I also have items with similar abilities… you don’t want to stand out too much, do you?”
Keno had barely managed to get to her feet after Suzuki Satoru had pulled her up, and she timidly nodded.
I see — Suzuki Satoru did the mental equivalent of narrowing his eyes.
That would mean Keno knew about magic items. Was this common knowledge for this world’s residents, or was it professional knowledge that only she had? Or was she someone connected to Yggdrasil after all?
Still, he felt that there was something wrong in trying to look for some kind of commonplace trait in an undead girl that he had found in a city crawling with Zombies.
And as for why she wanted to avoid attention — was it because there were other intelligent undead in this city apart from the Zombies, or was it because there were hostile beings around and this place was not safe? That sounded more like it.
“In that case, if you know of a safe place, could you take me there?” Keno’s body trembled.
He could understand how she felt.
In Suzuki Satoru’s case, he would not want to lead someone who might be a PK — in this case, a suspicious-looking skeleton — to his secure shelter. Therefore, he ought to take a step back and settle for going to a place where they could talk in peace. Could it be that Keno did not have a backup hideout?
It would be easy to say “You’re not being careful enough,” but since he did not know what Keno had gone through, he did not have the right to say something like that. Even Suzuki Satoru would not have continued playing Yggdrasil if he had not met other friends. In other words, a person’s actions were based on their experiences and past. Perhaps Keno had no need to be that cautious in her daily life.
Suzuki spoke to her as a Yggdrasil Player addressing an inexperienced newbie.
“I don’t need you to take me to your main base. Do you know of any other places that you consider safe? Like say, nearby houses or something?”
Truth to be told, he did want to know where her base of operations was. But Suzuki Satoru was filled with the moral obligation of a hoary veteran giving advice to a rookie, and so he suggested a sincere alternative.
Also, Keno might not be the only one in that base. Or was that place as important to her as Satoru’s friends were to him? Suzuki Satoru could fully understand the feeling of not wanting to endanger his friends.
“If you can’t decide by yourself, then I don’t mind you coming back after you talk to your supervisor. In that case, I’ll wait nearby… where there aren’t any undead.”
While he did not want to let her escape, neither did he want to stalk her and pump her for information. Letting her trust him was not a bad thing, Suzuki Satoru magnanimously declared in his heart as his sense of duty as a high-level Player came to the fore again.
Keno walked off in a timid, retiring fashion.
“Thank you very much, Keno-san.”
Keno’s shoulders twitched as she heard Suzuki Satoru say those words from behind her. Then, she hurriedly turned to look at him.
“Hm? What, what’s the matter?”
“Ah, no, it’s n-nothing…”
Keno muttered quietly and walked off.
What’s going on? Suzuki Satoru wondered. Was she just being cautious, or was it because he really was that frightening?
In fact, Keno had been spying on the Zombies from a narrow alley, even though she was undead herself. Should he assume that they had been enemies once?
In that case, what kind of undead being was she?
There were many kinds of undead creatures — even Suzuki Satoru, to some extent — who had red eyes. However, very few of them looked as presentable as Keno. While the words Vampire Bride came to mind, she did not feel like she was one of them.
It was at this moment that Suzuki Satoru was struck dumb by his sheer ignorance.
If this really was another world, then it was entirely possible that it might contain undead which were unique to it. However, he could not say that it was completely unconnected to Yggdrasil. Otherwise, there would be no way to explain why Momonga could use his skills and Yggdrasil’s spells.
Suzuki Satoru abandoned further thought into the matter. After all, given how little he knew right now, no amount of thinking would give him an answer.
Fortunately, the two of them did not encounter any Zombies as they walked in silence for several minutes. Keno stopped as she reached the vicinity of the city walls. There was a small single-story building there, with stairs leading downwards. The arch along the way had a cross-hatched grating set into it.
What’s this? If it leads to an underground cellar then shouldn’t it be located inside the building? Is it an underground aqueduct? Or no, should I call it a sewer? Keno turned her head.
“Ah, this is, the place.”
Her eyes were downcast, as though she was ashamed of how shabby her living quarters were.
It was true that it was hardly a place where a girl ought to be staying. However, it would seem runaway kids in Suzuki Satoru’s world also lived in similar places.
“I see. I hear temperature changes underground are much less extreme than on the surface. You picked a good spot.”
Most undead had very high resistance to the cold, and temperature drops should not have inconvenienced them. Therefore, Suzuki Satoru had agonized for a while before finally delivering a clumsy acknowledgement of her words.
“Does anyone else live here besides you?”
Keno gently nodded in response to Suzuki Satoru’s question.
“I see… please lead the way, then.”
Keno pushed the metal grate aside. She did not seem to have used undead strength or any particular ability or spell; it had simply been unlocked. And the fact that she knew it would be unlocked was also proof that she treated this place as her base of operations.
Keno continued down the stairs ahead of her.
Although the moonlight swiftly faded away, it did not cause any impairment to the two of them. After all, the undead all possessed the ability of [Dark Vision].
They reached the foot of the stairs, and it would seem this really was a sewer. However, Suzuki Satoru realized along the way that there was no stench of sewage here. In fact, there was no running water at all, only a slightly damp feeling in the air.
Perhaps this was because a long time had passed since the residents of this city had become undead. While rainwater occasionally entered here, fresh sewage had not passed through this place.
That was probably why Keno did not smell of sewage despite her lair being located in the sewers.
A twinge of emotion suddenly ran through Suzuki Satoru.
The rain was acidic and foul-smelling in the era where he lived. However, Keno’s body did not carry an acidic stench, which implied that the rainwater of this world was still as pure and clean as it was in the past.
“Perhaps Blue Planet-san would feel sentimental if he were here.”
Keno turned around as she heard Suzuki Satoru talking to himself, and she looked at him with a timid expression on her face.
“I’m sorry, I was just talking to myself.”
“Ah, oh, I, understand.”
As Keno’s words gradually became easier to make out, Suzuki Satoru could hear the fear she held for him in them.
And I’ve been so nice to her all this while, Suzuki Satoru could not help but gripe. Of course, he had not forgotten the effects of his skeletal appearance. After all, first impressions were hard to change.
Just as he was considering whether or not to cover up his face, the two of them reached their destination. However, it was not because he had been thinking for a long time, but because it was not far from where they had entered the sewers.
After entering the sewers, they had travelled roughly 20 meters, turned left, and then gone another 20 meters before arriving at a door off to the side. She opened the door that looked like it was made of metal, and it creaked.
“This is the place.”
Suzuki Satoru followed Keno into the room.
It was not very spacious. This room had probably been used to store tools needed to conduct sewer repairs, and there was a pile of pickaxes and other tools in the corner.
Facing it was a somewhat dirty piece of cloth — not from stains, but from age — which had been laid on the ground.
There was also an old and plain table and chair here.
That was all this room had in the way of furniture. It did not seem suitable to living at all. One could say it was a room which lacked any form of entertainment or household items.
Although he could understand how she might be thinking, given that she was undead, Suzuki Satoru would never want to stay in such a lonely and desolate place for any length of time. Wait a minute—
A sudden surge of kinship suddenly rose up within him. When he thought about it, his home in real life was pretty much the same as this.
However, the thing in this room that drew his attention was a pile of books and scrolls. The books had characters which Suzuki Satoru had never seen before written on their spines, but the fact was that he basically knew no other languages besides Japanese.
“Do you need a light or chair?”
He took out a western-style lamp from his inventory and opened the shutters, allowing white light to pour out into the surroundings.
This was a magic item which had been imbued with [Continual Light].
Of course, he had higher-grade magic items for illumination on hand. However, Suzuki Satoru decided that there was no need to show off anything more powerful. Now was not the time to reveal his hand. Also, one of them could radiate light that was like the sun, which would apply negative status effects to Vampires. If Keno was a Vampire, then she might judge that as a hostile action. Therefore, he could not bring that out under any circumstances.
The lamplight lit up Keno’s face, but she did not seem unduly surprised. However, he could not tell if it was because she had seen a magic item like this before, or if it was because she understood the [Continual Light] spell.
After that, Suzuki Satoru cast [Twin Magic – Create Greater Item].
This spell had originally been intended to produce weapons, but Suzuki Satoru had a sneaking suspicion that in this world — assuming it was different from the one in which he had previously lived — this spell would have broader applications. The results of the spell matched his predictions for it.
As he expected, a pair of black metal chairs appeared.
Keno’s eyes widened like saucers as she witnessed this miraculous occurrence. Her expression was one of surprise. Suzuki Satoru addressed the girl in his most caring tone.
“Ah — these are simply a couple of petty items I created with my magic. Please sit on them as you wish.”
Keno tried her best to refuse in a roundabout way, but she sat down on them in the end. It was only after she did that Suzuki Satoru took a seat, because the business etiquette of letting his client take a seat first had been thoroughly ingrained into him.
However, he realized he had made a mistake right after sitting down.
The metallic sensation under his butt was very uncomfortable for something that was supposed to be a chair, but he had not learned any spells that would let him conjure cushions.
Earlier, he had thought that taking a seat by himself was terribly rude, which was why he had conjured two chairs. As he thought about how he had coaxed her into sitting down on that cold hard chair, he felt so ashamed that he wanted to find a hole and crawl into it.
The sole saving grace now was that he had not begun by saying the chairs in the room looked pretty good or some other kind of hollow pleasantries. If he had really said that, it probably would have ruined any kind of relationship he wanted to build between himself and Keno.
Suzuki Satoru hurriedly produced a robe from his inventory, one that felt soft enough, and began folding it up as he spoke.
“I’m terribly sorry. This chair really is too hard. Please use this as a cushion”
Keno stared in dumb surprise at the robe which Suzuki Satoru had offered her, and then she vigorously shook her head.
“Eh, but, how could I, such fine clothes like these, there’s no need. I, I have a, blanket that I, normally use.”
“No no, no need to stand on ceremony, it’s a small thing.”
The robe might have looked fancy, but that was all. It was an item that did not contain any rare data crystals.
And so, another intense exchange of Suzuki Satoru and Keno giving way to each other unfolded. In the end, Keno gingerly accepted Suzuki Satoru’s good intentions and planted her petite posterior on the folded robe.
“Now then, please excuse me for getting straight to the point. I’d like you to tell me what happened to this city to the best of your ability, Keno-san. Of course, I have no intention of making this a one-sided interaction. I will show you proof of my own sincerity as well. That said, while I would normally be exchanging information of equal value with you, I regret to say that I know very little about the situation, so I intend to pay you with magic items or hard currency instead. May I know how you feel about that arrangement?”
Keno bit her lip, and then glared at Suzuki Satoru with what looked to be hatred in her eyes.
Suzuki Satoru could not help his surprise.
He had not expected such a response from her.
However, before he could ask her for the reason why, Keno looked to the ground and began speaking in a weak and trembling voice.
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