The Hope They Left Behind (Premium)

by Sakon Kaidou

  “It’s all right,” she said, as she kept staring at me. “You forgave me for attacking you because of a misunderstanding. I can do the same for you.”

  And so, it was all water under the bridge.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “Again, it’s all right. Anyhow, it’s dinnertime. Let’s indulge ourselves.”

  “Let’s!” said Nemesis, clearly ecstatic.

  In conclusion, the food was really good.

  The delicious, locally-procured ingredients were well-prepared to make a number of excellent dishes. I particularly enjoyed the wild vegetable-chicken quiche.

  Once we finished that main course, I started in on the fruits for dessert.

  Since we’d each only gotten a single person’s portion, I was sure Nemesis still had vast amounts of space in her stomach. She’d probably ask for a midnight snack at this rate, so it would be better to feed her now, but...

  “All I have is Shu’s popcorn,” I told her.

  “Delicious, but not exactly filling.”

  “Some place nearby might still be open. Go get something,” I said as I took 10,000 lir out of my wallet and handed it to her.

  “Very well,” she said as she took it and left.

  It just hit me that I casually handed her an amount of money equivalent to 100,000 yen, I thought. Thanks to all the windfalls I’m getting and Shu’s influence, I seem to be getting a warped sense of money.

  “All righty, then,” I said.

  Azurite had already excused herself, apparently having seen something, so I was the only one left at the table. She’d said she’d pass on dessert, and left the cafeteria. Naturally, her dessert was now in Nemesis’s stomach.

  Anyway, I’m done with dinner, so what do I do now? I wondered. This is a hot spring inn, so now that the girls are out, maybe I should take a relaxed dip?

  Speaking of hot springs, the main building obviously had some, too. This was evidenced by the fact that a lot of the guests here in the cafeteria were wearing yukatas, just like me.

  It wasn’t every day that you got to wear this Tenchi-style clothing here in the kingdom, so it was probably popular just because of the novelty value. However, they clearly didn’t know how to put them on properly. The way they were wearing them was messy, and you could see exposed chests and legs everywhere.

  Most of those wearing them like that were men, though. The women either wore their normal clothing, or had plain-looking innerwear underneath.

  All sexual interest or lack thereof aside, that was actually pretty sad-looking sight. I felt like I was looking at a girl wearing a skirt over sweat pants.

  Thinking this and that, I left the cafeteria.

  Upon entering the lounge right next to it, I found a strange gathering of people.

  “Hm?” I murmured.

  Their ages and appearances told me that they weren’t part of a single group.

  Curious as to what it was all about, I went over to the crowd, discovering that they were surrounding a single man.

  He wasn’t wearing a yukata, but he had no upper clothing on, making him look pretty casual.

  He was wearing a thick set of glasses, so it was hard to tell precisely, but he looked around thirty years old.

  “Doctor, I’m thinking that this is my biggest catch today. Is it?” said a muscly guest, clearly a tian who had explored the ruins. He handed a fist-sized, diamond-looking object to the man with the thick glasses.

  “Ohh, bello... Molto bello, but this is no real gem, yes?” he said.

  Strange how he can sound so foreign when we have universal translation, I reflected.

  “It’s-a false diamond for-a the laser lenses,” he continued. “Bene and largo, but ah, how you say... worth less than a real one.”

  “Oh...” The man with the diamond slumped his shoulders.

  But then the man with the thick glasses smiled. “But there are dilettanti who collect-a many things like this. To them? Molto... Molto prezioso! 200,000 lir.”

  “Seriously?! That’s great! Now I can get something for my mother back home! Thanks, Doctor!” The tian man joyfully put the artificial diamond into his inventory.

  “Who is next?” the man with thick glasses asked.

  “Me! I wanna ask about this metal plate.”

  “Che bello! It’s-a plate used in the pre-ancient civilization’s battle units. Even before any processing, it’s tougher than the weaker magic shields.”

  One after the other, guests presented the man with things they’d found in the ruins.

  I could tell that this was basically a meeting for appraising antiques, but who was that man with the glasses?

  Shirley happened to be passing by, so I took the opportunity to ask, “Who’s that person they keep calling ‘Doctor’?”

  “That is Dr. Mario,” she answered. “He’s a doctor of archaeology who’s been staying with us since yesterday. He said he travels the world investigating the ruins of the pre-ancient civilization!”

  “I see.”

  I guess it’s only natural for ruins to attract archaeologists. I’ve gotta say, though...

  “That name makes it sound like he jumps really high and dives through pipes. Maybe kills viruses for fun on the side.”

  “Wahoo!” the man laughed. “Cinque... That would be-a the fifth time a Master has-a told me something like this.”

  Whoops, he overheard us.

  “Ah, sorry,” I apologized.

  “It’s-a no trouble, no trouble at all... It’s clear that you’re fond of the name, after all.”

  Despite sounding like a fake foreigner, he didn’t seem like a bad guy.

  “If I may ask, what makes your appraisal different from the Identification skill?” I asked.

  “You-a cannot find out everything about a pre-ancient civilization relic with just-a Identification. Non posso,” he explained. “If you don’t-a have the, how you say... special knowledge and skills, many descriptions would-a say ‘Details Unknown.’”

  “...Ohhh.” Now that he mentioned it, Silver’s description was brief, and it ended with exactly that.

  “The explorers here let-a me see their finds, and in exchange, I appraise them for them. Valutare, si?” This way, Dr. Mario got to examine the items from the ruins, while the finders learned the worth of what they’d discovered — a win-win situation if I ever saw one.

  Wait, this is a perfect opportunity. I should get him to take a gander at Silver.

  “Um, I also have something from the pre-ancient civilization,” I said. “Would you like to look at it? It’s not from these ruins, though.”

  “Nessun problema! No problem!”

  “It’s large, so I can’t take it out here. I’ll show it to you outside once you’re done appraising the others’ things.”

  “Nessun problema,” he nodded. “Then please, trenta minuti... ah... how you say? Thirty minutes!”

  “All right.”

  Yep. This is good, I thought.

  I’d get to find out more about Silver on the very same day I’d become curious about him. What a stroke of luck.

  Now, to find a way to kill time while waiting for Dr. Mario.

  ◇

  As I walked around the inn with no real goal in mind, I found Azurite.

  She wasn’t alone, though. She was talking to the masked inn worker, Lefty.

  “So you have no memories of anything before the war?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “Nothing at all...”

  They were clearly talking about the same thing we had talked about while he led me to the cafeteria.

  However, Azurite looked strangely stern. “Are you familiar with the family name ‘Brittis’?”

  “Brittis... Sorry, it doesn’t ring a bell.”

  Azurite looked a bit disappointed by the response. “I see... Could you take off the mask?”

  “I... Apologies, but my face is nothing I can show.”

  “...Very well. Sorry. That was unreasonable of me.”

&
nbsp; “Not at all. Anyhow, I have tasks I must attend to, so I shall excuse myself,” said Lefty, before leaving.

  Left alone, Azurite dropped her shoulders and walked in my direction.

  “Ah!” she exclaimed as she finally realized that I was here.

  I was curious about what I’d just seen, so I went ahead and asked, “Is Lefty noteworthy, somehow?”

  “‘Somehow,’ as in... how?”

  My question had been relatively casual, but...

  “Your attitude made it look like you were confirming something, rather than just asking,” I said.

  “So you can be observant... If only you had used some of this ability before entering the hot spring. It would’ve spared us both the unpleasant experience.”

  “Again, that was all my bad... But there is something about Lefty, right?”

  “There is. His voice was much like that of a friend — one who participated and died in the war.”

  “Well... damn.”

  So this is a day of chance encounters not just for me, but for Azurite and Lefty, too.

  “But his face is supposedly injured, and he has no proof of his identity. His stature and voice are so much like that of my friend’s, though. If it’s really him, I’d love to take him to his family...”

  “Then why not ask Miss Aberratio— I mean, the High Priestess for help? If she heals his face, then—”

  “Do not mention that parasite in my presence.”

  “...Okay.”

  That livid tone had been legitimately scary. Not in the same way as my sister or Miss Aberration, but still...

  Just what had that eldritch monstrosity done to make the mere mention of her name incur such anger?

  “...”

  “...”

  Crap, that’d completely soured the mood.

  It didn’t look like I could do anything to improve this by myself, but Nemesis wasn’t here, either.

  What should I do...?

  “Ray! Ragazzo! So this is where-a you were,” said Dr. Mario as he joined the scene.

  Salvation!

  “Ray. Who is this man?” asked Azurite.

  “Dr. Mario,” I answered. “He’s a guest at this inn. He’s an archeologist who heard about the ruins and came here to this town to find out more about the pre-ancient civilization.”

  “I see... For a scholar, he was certainly quick to find out about this.”

  “Hm?”

  What does she mean by that?

  “So, ragazzo, what-a item did you-a want to be showing me?” asked Dr. Mario.

  “Oh, this guy right here,” I replied as I took Silver out of my inventory and showed him to him.

  Azurite had a far stronger reaction than he did.

  “A Prism Steed?!” she exclaimed. “And wait... this is an original, isn’t it?!”

  “Ah, yeah, he is.”

  “H-How did you get this?! It’s one of the five Flagman units! One of those that hasn’t been discovered yet! It’s on the same level as a national treasure!”

  I hesitated. Her intensity made it really hard to say that I’d hit him in a gacha.

  Looking at her reaction, I imagined that the very idea that I’d gotten a national treasure that way would probably make her faint.

  “Wait,” I said. “You saw the broadcast of the battle in Gideon, right? Didn’t you notice it back then?”

  Considering our talk at noon, I assumed she’d witnessed me use the Wind Hoof bomb.

  “How could I?! It’s impossible to tell the difference from a replica unless you see it with your own eyes! Also, in that motion picture, it was never clear what phenomenon was caused by which item or Embryo.”

  So that’s how it is, eh?

  Oh, yeah... That might’ve been the reason why no one had tried to steal Silver from me — they hadn’t realized that he was the real thing.

  Well, I was a newbie, so I couldn’t really blame them for not assuming that he was.

  “Just how did you get your hands on an original?” Azurite demanded.

  “Well, I guess you could say I know people...”

  I’d hit it at the gacha at Alejandro’s shop, after all.

  “Oh, I see. So it’s all because of King of Destruction... your brother,” she said, nodding in understanding.

  It really helps to have an eccentric older brother in situations like this. Anything goes when he’s involved.

  “Hmm...” While I was talking to Azurite, Dr. Mario examined Silver.

  He focused on him through his glasses one moment, then switched to look at him with his naked eye the next. It was hard to tell through his thick glasses, but he had clear blue eyes that seemed somewhat weary.

  “Interessante,” he said. “Ragazzo, ragazza... this is most-a definitely an original made by Flagman — not a replica. Decisamente. However, it’s not-a one of the five Prism Steeds.”

  “Eh?” Azurite and I exclaimed simultaneously.

  It’s not one of the five?

  “But the description says that he is...” I began.

  “Sì è vero. Correct. The descriptions on Gold and Ruby told us-a that there were a total of cinque, five. On the surface, this Silver is-a part of them... but that’s actually wrong. Scorretto.”

  “In what way?” asked Azurite.

  “In primo luogo, firstly, about the five Prism Steeds that Flagman developed... the five positions are already filled. Un set completo.”

  “They have?” I asked, astonished.

  “Gold Thunder, Ruby Ignition, Obsidian Earth-Edge, and recent explorations of a Dryfean ruin led to the finding of Jade Storm, a wind-based Prism Steed. The discovery-a was accompanied by a text that implied a ‘Sapphire Wave,’ which makes a total of five. Solo cinque. Capito?”

  “So what’s the deal with my Silver?” I asked, baffled.

  Is he a fake...? No, Dr. Mario just said that he was made by Flagman.

  “It’s-a not formally in the five, but it’s close. So much so that even the basic description assumes it is. But it’s actually an unofficial prototype unit, or an experimental one — either of the two. Non ufficiale.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s-a most likely a unit developed with similar standards and a similar base frame as one of the five Prism Steeds, most likely Gold Thunder. Simile, ma non autentico. That’s-a the reason for the error in the base description. This Zephyrus Silver was also equipped with some experimental systems and functions. But, ah... how you say? Non sono sicuro. I’m unable to tell whether it was created before or after the five.”

  I see. It makes sense to think that Silver’s either a test or an experiment.

  So Silver was either a prototype made before Gold’s development, or an experimental unit made using Gold’s spare parts post-development. That was probably the reason why his name was different from the others’.

  “In ultima analisi, it doesn’t seem as complete as the other Prism Steeds,” said Dr. Mario. “And it doesn’t seem as focused on-a offense as they are.”

  It was hard to argue with that. The third skill was still a mystery, but the two skills I could see were just air-running and a compressed air barrier. The Wind Hoof bomb I’d used against the RSK probably hadn’t been intended by the creator. After all, who would design something with the premise that it would use hundreds of thousands of MP?

  Though I doubt I’ll ever use it again, even if I had that much.

  “Speaking of Prism Steeds and their offensive abilities...” I said.

  During a duel race against Shu, Figaro’s Obsidian Earth-Edge had made countless rocky stakes pop out of the ground and galloped upon them with his eight legs like the divine horse from Norse myth.

  Those stakes had been powerful enough to blast Shu’s tank out of the course, and the race would’ve ended right there if he hadn’t brought it back through sheer force alone.

  Are those the kinds of skills he had in mind? I thought.

  “Well...” Azurite spoke up. “Gold Thunder could
release lightning matching high-rank ultimate job skills to create an electromagnetic barrier, and use magnetic repulsion to go through the sky at extremely high speeds.”

  I wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with them having the same base frame, but that seemed pretty similar to what Silver did.

  However, I doubted that it cost hundreds of thousands of MP to use that, and the barrier probably provided more defense than compressed air... so it was probably much more reliable.

  Still, I didn’t like the idea of constantly firing lightning everywhere, so I still preferred Silver.

  Silver suddenly rubbed his muzzle on me.

  What’s up with you?

  “Regardless, it’s molto prezioso, a very beautiful thing, so please treasure it,” said Dr. Mario.

  “Thank you very much,” I said, bowing my head.

  The words we concluded with felt like they belonged in some appraisal show, but nonetheless, I couldn’t be more glad that I had asked him about Silver.

  “By the way, are you two-a going into the ruins?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “Apparently, you can get a Prism Steed-related job there.”

  “I’m going there to investigate,” Azurite added.

  Our words made Dr. Mario smile. “Ohh, molto bene! Please do-a come to me if you find something for me to look at.”

  “Sure. We’ll be counting on you for that.”

  With that, Dr. Mario went back into the main building.

  The moment he was out of sight, I spoke up. “Azurite.”

  “Yes?”

  “Is there something strange about him?”

  My words made her look surprised. “You really are observant.”

  “With siblings like mine, you have to be. So, what’s bothering you?”

  “The very fact that we have an archeologist here,” she said as she folded her arms. “The kingdom has banned all the requests and stifled all the information regarding the ruins here. It’s hard to believe that an archeologist could find out about them.”

  All right now, hold on a sec.

  “Stifled all the information?” I asked. “But I easily bought it at the DIN.”

  “Eh?” She opened her eyes wide in surprise. “Eh? Huh? So you’re not here because of some shady information source you got through the King of Destruction?”