Outbreak Company: Volume 5

by Ichiro Sakaki

  Amatena probably didn’t realize she was confirming my suspicions when she said, “All of us are equally children of the father-ruler, so everyone is family to everyone else. That is the tie that binds us together and which makes the august nation of Bahairam possible.”

  I didn’t respond right away. It looked like while we were talking, the vows to the father-ruler had finished.

  Wait, that was fast!

  True, at thirty seconds a couple, thirty couples would only take about fifteen minutes. Finally, the King of Bahairam said, “May all my children joined together here today have long lives and many progeny,” and then he withdrew into the building. Hold on a second... That was the king’s entire blessing?!

  As I stood there practically fuming, the brides, grooms, and everyone else involved in the ceremony took the king’s cue and started filtering out of the room.

  “Is there a reception after this?”

  “Ree-sep-shun?” Amatena asked. “What is that?”

  “Huh? I mean...”

  It had happened again. When you used a word the other person had no concept for, the magic interpreter ring wouldn’t be able to translate it. In and of itself, this wasn’t that unusual. But this time...

  “It’s, you know... The party they have after a wedding ceremony. Fancy-ish food, maybe some drinks...”

  “Our country no longer has such dissolute functions,” Amatena said sharply.

  “Hold on. Dissolute?”

  You’d think that if there was ever a time for a party, after a wedding ceremony would be it. The whole point of a wedding was for a couple’s friends and family to celebrate as they set off on a new stage of their lives together. The reception was the couple’s way of showing their appreciation for everyone’s good wishes.

  And she thought that was dissolute?

  Could it be that in Bahairam, parties like that were considered an unacceptable luxury?

  While I stood there in shock, everyone else in the room left. It was just me and Amatena now.

  “The word bahairam,” Amatena said as if it had just occurred to her, “means family in the old tongue. We are all of us children of the exalted father-ruler, and in him we are all equal. We do not have a discriminatory system of divisions like Eldant does with its nobility. Nor do we have any decadent customs. We are all one great family, living together here in this paradise.”

  “Paradise,” I repeated.

  The word sounded impossibly cold there in that empty room.

  Dragon Knights delivered us and our cargo to the border.

  To get into Bahairam, we would have to cross the mountainous region in the west. It was a difficult and dangerous area; while a beast person may not have worried about it, humans, elves, and dwarves were likely to find the going quite hard.

  Thus Her Majesty the Empress, seeking to ease our burden however she could, instructed the knights to take us and our belongings as far as was feasible.

  The quickest and easiest thing of all would have been to ride those wyverns straight over the border, but if Eldant Dragon Knights were spotted in Bahairam, it would only intensify the border disputes again, so they stopped before crossing into the other nation.

  “Right, then.”

  We were in a relatively open space in the forest that stood at the foot of the mountains on the border, doing a final inspection of our equipment. Bird-drawn carriages were obviously out of the question here, so we planned to bring only what we could carry. I say planned, because for some reason there were five large wooden chests with us.

  They were from Her Majesty, who had wished to help us with equipment in any way she could. Still, we could hardly take all of this. And so I opened the chests and began the task of figuring out what we would bring and what would stay behind.

  “Look at this!” I exclaimed when I opened one of the boxes.

  A piece of paper, labeled “To Myusel” in Ja-panese, sat inside.

  Truth be told, I can’t read or write the Eldant language. The Ja-panese writing I learned from Shinichi-sama is the only thing I’m literate in. So somebody wishing to write me a letter would have to use that language...

  The only person capable of writing to me in Ja-panese, and putting the letter in this box, no less, was Her Majesty.

  I picked up the paper and turned it over. On the back was secured a small magical item, a thin piece of steel with a magic spell inscribed on it. I recognized it. It was a magic tag used to seal up a word-spirit; in the military, such things were routinely carried by messengers.

  I touched the item and intoned, “I’m Myusel,” and just as I expected, the word-spirit inside—the voice of Her Majesty—was released.

  “Myusel. In consideration of our office, we are unable to accompany you on your journey. We send this with you instead. It is a battle dress we used ourself once, but it has been tailored to fit your body. The magical spells embroidered on the lining will surely aid you. If anything, we expect they will work better for one whose veins flow with the blood of elves.”

  With much reverent trembling, I peered into the wooden chest. To my astonishment, inside sat folded an outfit clearly fit for nobility or royalty—a battle dress of silk with lavish gold and silver stitching. Supposedly, according to the message, one once used by Her Majesty herself.

  What a tremendous honor...

  “What’s up, Myusel?” Minori-sama asked, looking over my shoulder into the box.

  “It’s... Her Majesty, she...”

  “Oh. Ohhh. I get it,” Minori-sama said, not seeming especially surprised. “So this is why she wanted to know your syze.”

  “I’m sorry...?”

  “You remember how I measured everyone’s bodies when we made that movie?”

  “Yes...”

  I remembered Minori-sama measuring me, Elvia-san, and even Her Highness during the production of the movie. She had said it was necessary to create the costumes.

  “Well, a while later, Her Highness ordered me to give her your measurements.”

  “Uh... huh.”

  “We had actually already talked about making you something like this. I may be Shinichi-kun’s bodyguard, but I was sure an outfit like this would be useful for you. There’s a lot of things I can’t do by myself, you know.”

  It was true, I was with Shinichi-sama almost as often as Minori-sama was.

  “I know you can use magic. And you can handle a sword, too, can’t you?” Minori-sama pulled a cape and a sword out of the chest.

  “I only received the most basic training...”

  I had learned a little bit about swordsmanship in the army. The most I could say was that I knew more about how to hold and strike with a sword than someone who had never picked one up in her life.

  “Well, how about you borrow this one, then? You’ve got this cape. Wear it over your clothes and close the front, and no one will be able to see your equipment.”

  “Right. That sounds like a good idea.” I nodded.

  The honor of what the empress had done was almost overwhelming, but if I let it keep me from making good use of Her Majesty’s gift, that would be the most shameful thing of all. I decided, gratefully, to use the battle dress.

  Elvia-san was in her usual outfit, while Minori-sama was wearing a basically normal shirt and pants. Then there was me and my cloak. No one would mistake us for people from Bahairam, but we might look enough like traveling merchants not to stand out too much.

  Minori-sama looked up at the towering mountains and sighed. “There was a mountain phase to my training, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s frustrating to have to go this way when every minute counts.”

  “You’re right,” I said.

  There were several valleys that cut through the mountains, but they were all closely watched by both the Holy Eldant Empire and the army of Bahairam alike, and there was no way we could hope to get through them.

  “It sure would be nice to just fly right over in a chopper. If only...”

  “Chop
-per?” I didn’t recognize the word.

  “It’s a vehicle we have back in Japan. It flies through the sky.”

  “You mean like a wyvern?”

  “No, not really. It’s made of metal, see? And it’s got a big spinning wing...”

  “A metal object that can fly through the sky?” I could hardly picture it. It seemed that the technology of Ja-pan had given birth to things that beggared the imagination. Like the “auto-mo-bile” that Minori-sama and the others sometimes rode in: it managed to move forward even though there were no animals pulling it. They claimed it didn’t operate on magic, but still...

  “Then again, I guess a helicopter would be even more conspicuous than some wyverns.” Minori-sama gave a half-smile.

  True, being able to fly would save us an awful lot of time. I dearly wished that we could fly, as it would get us to Shinichi-sama that much sooner.

  “Even I needed a couple of days to cross these mountains,” Elvia-san said. “There’s lots of dangerous monsters, too, so we’ve got to be careful.”

  That was one of the things I was concerned about. Rumor had it that wyverns were among the wildlife in this area, and unlike the mounts ridden by the Dragon Knights, wild wyverns were violent and dangerous. There were also stories of wild dogs and ghosts around here. Crossing these mountains would cost us more than just time. It could cost us our lives.

  “Well, standing around here worrying won’t do us any good,” Minori-sama said, and went back to sorting through the luggage.

  For my part, I took out the battle dress Her Majesty had given me and tried it on.

  At that moment, Elvia-san said, “Huh? Is that...”

  “What’s going on?” Minori-sama said, following Elvia-san’s gaze.

  I did the same—and then froze stiff.

  “That’s...”

  A dark shadow circled lazily in the clear sky. Because it was backlit by the sun, we couldn’t make out many details, but the silhouette alone was enough to tell us what we were looking at.

  “A dragon...!”

  It was, without question, a True Drake, the creature people generally meant when they referred to a dragon. True Drakes were an order of magnitude bigger than wyverns, and probably more dangerous than any creature alive. On top of that, magic hardly affected them. Brutally violent by nature, encountering one was as good as a death sentence.

  And here one was, right here.

  Could this be coincidence?

  “Or is it one of Bahairam’s...?”

  One of their puppet drakes, perhaps. Had they found out about us and come to stop us?

  I glanced over at Elvia-san, but she shook her head emphatically.

  “I— I don’t know anything about this! I was totally in the dark about any puppet drakes!”

  “Forget it, just hide!” Minori-sama ordered, and I quickly sheltered behind the wooden chest.

  Ideally, we would have run somewhere we could hide better, but unfortunately, the dragon was immediately above us. Any thoughtless movement could have drawn its attention.

  The monster passed directly overhead, then made a large circle and came back. Almost like it was looking for something in this area. Had it spotted us? We kept fearful eyes on the dragon, trying to keep our bodies loose enough to be able to make a run for it at any time.

  Suddenly Minori-sama shouted, “He found us?!” and jumped for one of the boxes. It seemed there was some kind of Jay Ess Dee Eff weaponry inside—although it probably wouldn’t do us much good now. I began quietly chanting Tifu Murottsu, just to be ready. It might not have any effect against a dragon, but it might just buy us some time. That was all we could hope for from magic in this situation: a little time.

  We had come here to save Shinichi-sama. Were we going to be killed by a dragon before we even made it into Bahairam?

  That was definitely what Elvia-san and I were thinking, both of us stiff with fear.

  But then we heard it: “Miiinoooriii-senseeeiii!”

  The dragon seemed to be calling Minori-sama’s name.

  Wait... What?

  Elvia-san and I looked at each other, stunned. We both knew dragons couldn’t speak any human language. And that meant...

  “Hang on... That voice!” Minori-sama said excitedly, looking up at the dragon.

  I joined her in staring into the sky. “Oh...!”

  The dragon made an abrupt descent. A face popped out from behind it. No, two faces. Two faces I recognized, in fact. Just as Minori-sama no doubt did.

  “Loek? Romilda?!” Minori-sama’s voice was just on the edge of cracking. From surprise, surely.

  Yes: riding on the dragon were the elf boy Loek-sama and the dwarf girl Romilda-sama, both students at our school. Although both were demi-humans, they came from families that had been recognized for their contributions to the empire, and as such were treated more or less as nobility.

  “We invited ourselves along!” Loek-sama said, waving and smiling broadly. Waving so hard, in fact, that he looked like he might fall clean off the dragon. Romilda-sama grabbed him by the collar to stop him.

  “And just what do you mean by that?” Minori-sama asked, shocked.

  She certainly wasn’t more shocked than me and Elvia-san. We could only look on in astonishment as the two children and their dragon got closer and closer.

  On closer inspection, we discovered that whatever it was, it wasn’t a dragon. Yes, it looked like one, especially at a bit of a distance. But most dragons didn’t make the sound of scraping metal when they landed on the ground.

  Was it possible that this was...

  “Minori-sensei!”

  While I stood staring, Loek-sama jumped down from the dragon(-like thing)’s back and ran over to Minori-sama.

  “Ahh, Minori-sensei! How I longed to see you!” He had both arms open as if he was expecting a hug.

  Minori-sama, however, was looking at the dragon, still astonished. Loek-sama continued to run forward, embracing Minori-sama—

  —almost.

  “You dumb, stupid idiot!”

  Ker-smash!

  A long-handled axe slammed into Loek-sama’s head with a sound that was practically visible, throwing the elf to the ground.

  Holding the axe was Romilda-sama, who had been a second behind him dismounting the dragon. Dwarves like Romilda-sama may not have looked like much, but she was easily swinging an axe that I probably couldn’t even pick up.

  “You pervert! Stalker! Sexual harasser! We haven’t been talking to her for five minutes, and look what you’re doing!”

  “Wh-Why you stinking, hole-dwelling—!” Loek-sama, rubbing the back of his head, reacted to Romilda-sama’s yelling with some shouts of his own. “I don’t have to take orders from you! And you just hit me out of nowhere! I knew dwarves were violent, but you’re a menace! The purity of my love shall not be stymied by anyo—hgghr?!”

  As Loek-sama declaimed, Romilda-sama trundled over on her stout legs and planted a foot firmly on his back, cutting him off.

  “Quiet, you perpetually horny tree-hugger!” There was a muffled squeaking as she ground her boot into Loek-sama’s back.

  One might not expect Romilda-sama to be very heavy given her short stature, but then, she was still holding that giant battle axe. The combined weight had to be rather unpleasant. We could hear the occasional “hrgh” and “hagh” and “grrk” and other odd noises emanating from Loek-sama.

  “H-How did you two come to be here?” I finally asked. “And what is this dragon...?”

  The monster stood still and silent behind them. It was nearly the size of a house, but it showed no sign of going berserk—or for that matter, even of being alive. But then, if this was what I was beginning to suspect it was, that was only natural.

  “Could this be... from our fyl-ming?”

  “You got it,” Romilda-sama said, even as she continued to work her boot into the unfortunate Loek-sama. He was flailing his limbs, but didn’t seem to be making any progress at escaping from her.
“It’s a fake.”

  A very convincing fake, definitely, but if you looked very closely you could see that the “skin” was made of cloth held in place with metal fastenings, all covering something resembling metal armor.

  “B-But we saw it flyin’,” Elvia-san protested, approaching the dragon warily.

  She was right. Shinichi-sama had asked Romilda-sama’s parents to build a dragon puppet for us when we made our movie, but it was nothing more than that: when we wanted it to “fly,” we had to attach strings to it and have wyverns pull it up in the air.

  This thing, though, seemed to be flying on its own. We certainly didn’t see any wyverns around.

  “We use wind magic to make it move,” Loek-sama said nonchalantly from his place beneath Romilda-sama’s heel.

  “Yeah,” Romilda-sama added. “Plus we move the wings and tail to help it ride the wind better. Magic, too.”

  According to the two students, they used wind magic to move through the air, while magic that resonated with the metal was used to make the body move.

  “We borrowed a few ideas from some of the anime we’ve seen,” Loek-sama said. “Zo*ds and Dan**uga and stuff.”

  “Uh... huh.”

  Neither of those sounded like very useful resources to me. The fact that these two had actually turned them to account was perhaps just more proof that they really were heirs to great families of the elves and the dwarves, respectively. Whatever the race, if a line of demi-humans had been acknowledged by the Holy Eldant Empire as especially distinguished—probably in part for the powerful use of magic to better the Empire—then their traits most likely included formidable magical abilities. They must be able to do things that would seem impossible to an ordinary person.

  “But,” Minori-sama said, finally speaking, “why are you here? How did you know we would be here?”

  “That’s because I so desperately wanted to be of help to you, Minori-sensei!”

  “Yipes!”

  Loek-sama summoned a burst of strength enough to finally escape from Romilda-sama; he flew over to Minori-sama and took her hand in both of his.

  “That’s all well and good, but I mean, how did you know—”

  “Ah, you and Myusel-sensei went and spoke to Her Majesty before you left, didn’t you? My father was present at that audience.”