“Hero! Is there anything else you need?” Harissa was filled with energy, the exact opposite of how I was feeling.
“No, I’m fine. Can you just make sure I’m alone for a little while?”
“Of course!” Harissa gave a cheerful answer and went to pass my message on to the servant girls outside.
As I watched her go, I sighed to myself like an old man and said, “Wow, she’s got a lot of energy.”
“Do you like girls who are a little simple, like her?”
“No comment.”
I ignored R’s question and tried to think back on everything that was going on. It wasn’t good. A wizard, an alien, and a girl from another world. Just dealing with one of them would be bad enough. How was I supposed to handle all three? If you included R, the “girl from the future,” there were actually four of them. But the War of All was taking place in the future, and wasn’t important right now. That was the one thing I had going for me, maybe.
“Man... what the hell am I supposed to do now?”
“You’re in a whole other world now, too. You have to solve this problem first.”
“I don’t have the time. Even if I refuse to get involved in another world’s problems, Satsuki’s in danger even as we speak. I have to get back to my own world, and fast.”
The hands on my wristwatch had kept ticking even after I was brought here, so I knew it was about 2:00 PM on Earth. I’d arrived at the abandoned factory around 1:00 PM, which meant that about an hour had passed since Messiah had appeared.
Messiah had said he wanted to marry Satsuki, so he probably wouldn’t hurt her, but... I still needed to get back as fast as possible.
But for some reason, R was looking at me confusedly.
“If you’re going home to your world, does that mean you’re leaving this world to its fate?”
“What do you want me to do about it? I just have the bloodline. I don’t have any powers, and I’m not special. I can’t save anything.”
“Are you sure?” she asked again.
“Are you telling me I should do something?”
“No. But if you give up on this story...”
Before she could finish her sentence, Harissa came back from the hallway and the conversation came to an abrupt end.
“Hero? Were you talking to someone just now?”
“No. Sure you weren’t imagining it?”
“I must have been hearing things, then! I do that a lot! I once mistook my grandpa’s snores for a dragon’s roar, and the whole village ended up in an uproar because of it!”
Was that something you should say so cheerfully?
Harissa trotted over and sat down right next to me. Sh-She was really close...
“Hero! Do you need something from me?”
“Not really.”
“You must, though! The king told me to take care of you. Tell me what you want me to do. Anything!”
“Think you can sit a little further away, then?”
“I... I’m sorry? I was so excited, I got close to you. I stink, don’t I?” Harissa went beet red and jumped away from me.
“No, I didn’t mean that you smelled bad or anything...”
“No, I do! I’m a peasant, and I’m really not supposed to be here at all. So I know there’s peasant all over me! It’s coming from under my armpits, because I’m getting nervous just talking to you!”
This world probably didn’t have antiperspirant, did it?
Anyway, it looked like this girl— Harissa— was the one who’d brought me to this world. Which meant that if I wanted to get back, she was the person I should go to for help.
“Hey, so can I ask you something?”
“Of course! What is it, Hero?” It was hard to say this when she looked at me with those shining eyes, but... I didn’t have a choice.
“Please send me back to my own world.”
“Huh?”
Yeah, that’s about what I thought would happen.
“I can’t defeat the Demon Overlord. I’m not a hero.”
That’s right. I was just a normal guy. In an RPG, I’d be no different than a random villager.
“But... But! You were summoned by the secret ritual of the Aburaamian royal family! The legends say that a true hero will appear in a flash of bright light...”
“Sorry, I just have a tendency to get caught up in things like that. If you need a hero, ask someone else.”
“That... That can’t be true.”
“It is true.”
“No... It’s not true! You’re... You’re a hero. You have to be a hero. Otherwise, I’m in big trouble.”
To be honest, it hurt to say this stuff.
But I had things I had to protect. “That’s your problem, not mine. I don’t have time for this. Please, send me home!”
“Hwaah!” I got a little excited and yelled, and Harissa fell out of the bed. Her bright sunny smile vanished, and tears formed in her eyes.
“Ealim Nekram!” Harissa used her quivering lips to speak some kind of incantation. Suddenly, she disappeared.
“Huh? Harissa?”
I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her running. Then the door to the room seemed to open on its own, and the footsteps continued out into the hallway.
“Did she use magic to turn invisible?”
“Dunno.” R was sticking her head out of the floor while the rest of her body was sunk beneath it. It looked like someone had chopped it off and put it there.
I decided to ask her, though I wasn’t expecting much.
“Do you know how to get back to my old world?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“Figures...”
“I asked this before, but are you really certain about going home to your world?”
“And I answered this before. I plan to get back home as soon as I can.” What was going on here? R was really persistent about this. “Does something happen if I go home?”
“Of course. If you leave, this world is doomed,” R said.
“Doomed?”
“You’d understand this if you thought about it for even a second,” she continued, crawling out of the floor as she spoke. “A story without a hero is doomed. There have actually been whole countries that were doomed because your ancestors gave up on them. For a story, the Namidare clan is its last hope.” Her eyes were clear and honest beneath her military cap, without a trace of a lie in them.
“Dad didn’t tell me that.”
“Because he’s your father. If you learned that a story you abandoned was doomed, you might do something reckless. As you yourself just said, after all, you’re just a normal person.” My dad had told me not to give up on them if I could.
Maybe he really wanted to tell me to save them, no matter what. He’d given me a hypothetical. Maybe he hadn’t given me a real example because he was my dad, like R said.
But what difference did that make? I had the laser gun and warp watch that I’d brought from the spaceship, and I had Satsuki’s cell phone in my pocket. The owners of those objects had asked me to save them and their stories as well.
There were three girls, three stories, and only one hero: me.
Was it possible for me to save them all?
“So, Rekka, what are you going to do?” R said.
“You’re acting like this isn’t your problem... It’s thanks to you that I’m not sure.”
“For my part, I need you to finish these stories and hook up with a heroine, or my mission is never getting done.”
“Did you maybe realize that my dad didn’t want me knowing all that stuff, and then tell me anyway just because it made things easier for you?”
“Oh, of course.”
“Why, you little...”
“Umimimimi...”
I grabbed R by the cheek and yanked it as hard as I could, even though none of this was really her fault.
Either way, I had to get this resolved. I couldn’t sit here forever.
I decided to get up from the b
ed and wander around for a while. It would be dangerous to leave the laser gun here, so I stuck it in my belt.
“Where are you going?”
“On a walk.”
“What are you going to do about going home?”
“Decide later. I’ll think about it while I’m walking.”
“I see.” I started to wander the castle. R came with me. The hallways were made of row after row of stone bricks. It felt like I’d become a character in an RPG.
“I can feel everybody staring at me.”
“Yup.” I was wearing a normal high school uniform, but since nobody else wore clothes like that here, I really stood out. People were staring at me, and I couldn’t concentrate.
“Maybe it would be better to just stay put in my room?”
“No, stimulating the soles of the feet activates the brain’s cells. When you’re not sure what to do, you can always go for a walk.”
“I didn’t know that. You’re pretty smart, R.”
“I sure am. And you’re just ignorant, Rekka.” Either be proud of yourself, or insult me, but please stick to one.
“Oh? Do I smell something good?”
“Hmm? You’re right.” R started to float through, and I followed after her.
We came to the room where the good smell was coming from.
“Looks like this is the kitchen.”
“Wait, R, do you get hungry?”
“No. But I do have a sense of smell, and it certainly smells delicious.”
“I see. I’m seriously hungry, though.” Come to think of it, I hadn’t had anything all day except for the toast I’d eaten this morning.
I opened the door, hoping that they’d give me something to eat.
“Um, excuse me...”
“Huh? Oh, wow! If it isn’t the hero!” A middle-aged woman welcomed me excitedly. She was probably the cook. “I’m so glad you’re here, Hero! The country’s finally gonna be at peace!”
I’m not a hero, though... But maybe it would be worth it to hear what she had to say before I decided if I was going home.
“I just got here, and I don’t know anything about what’s going on. Can you tell me about this place?”
“What, the king and Harissa didn’t tell you? My stars, that’s no good. We’re asking you to help us! Sure, if you want, I’ll tell ya everything ya need to know.”
“Okay, first tell me about the Demon Overlord.”
After that, she told me about the Demon Overlord and his armies.
She told me that after being sealed for several hundred years, the Demon Overlord had revived two years ago.
He could use summoning magic to make his armies appear anywhere on the continent, and once they were done pillaging and plundering, he could just bring them back to his castle again. Since there was no way to attack his armies, the humans were being slowly crushed.
This meant, however, that if the Demon Overlord was defeated, his armies would be gone for good. But his castle was on an isolated island and surrounded by a powerful barrier. There was no way for anyone to get in.
“We’ve tried a buncha times to get an army through the barrier, but we just kinda stand there outside since we can’t break it. Then he summons his armies, and he whups us.”
“If the barrier’s that strong, then there’s nothing I can do, right?”
“Nah, there ain’t nothing to worry about there!”
“Why?”
“Under the castle is the Hero’s Sword, which only the hero can draw,” she said excitedly. “They say the Hero’s Sword has the power to cut through any kind of magic. You’ll chop that barrier right in half!”
Well, that explained that, then. That was why everybody in this country was holding out for a hero.
The woman breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank goodness! Now the country’s saved, and so is Harissa!”
“Huh?” What did she mean by “so is Harissa”?
Just as I was about to ask what she meant, a man poked his head into the kitchen and yelled for someone to help him bring in some ingredients.
“Whoops! They’re a-callin’ me!” The woman bowed to me apologetically.
“Sorry, but I gotta go. If there’s anything else you wanna know, ask Harissa. She’s in the study.”
“The study?”
“It’s at the top of the west tower.”
“Thanks. I’ll check it out later.”
It would be kind of awkward to see her after I’d just yelled at her, but no matter what I did, I needed to talk to her again. I was curious what the woman had meant, too.
“Thank you. Anyway, I don’t want to interrupt you...”
“Oh, wait a second.” As I turned to leave, now it was her turn to stop me.
“About Harissa...”
“Huh?”
“I’m from the same village as she is, and I know her really well. She’s a really fragile girl. She’s honestly got no business being a military sorcerer. But things are so bad these days they practically forced her to work for them.”
This was the first I’d heard of Harissa working for the army. It was true that it didn’t seem to suit her.
“Please, Hero. Be good to her.” That was all she said before she ran out of the room.
“I guess I’ll go see Harissa.” R and I headed for the top of the west tower, where we were told Harissa would be.
“How many steps do these stairs have?” I complained, out of breath.
“Two hundred and fifty six.”
“I shouldn’t have asked.”
“I’m floating, so it doesn’t bother me at all.”
I tried to smack her down to the ground, but she slipped away.
After a few more minutes of banter, we made it to the top tower.
“Do you hear something from inside?” I asked.
“It sounds like crying.”
“I wonder if it’s Harissa...”
“It probably is.”
I was feeling pretty bad. I opened the door silently, so she couldn’t hear me.
The room was filled with bookshelves lined with scrolls and books, and there were piles of paper on the floor. If there was ever an earthquake, anybody here would be buried alive. The mountains of books meant there were a lot of places I couldn’t see, and I couldn’t tell where she was standing from the entrance.
I followed the voice and saw a girl in a robe, curled up in the corner with her hands around her knees.
“Harissa?”
“Huh?! H-Hero! E-E-E-Ealim Nekr...”
“Wait! Don’t run away.”
I grabbed her hand before she could turn invisible and escape again. She tried to shake it off.
“D-Don’t! If you touch m’hand, you’ll get filthy!”
Her accent sounded similar to the lady in the kitchen now. Didn’t she say they were from the same village? Maybe this was how she usually talked.
“Of course I won’t! Calm down!”
“No! When you touch me, my hands get all sweaty!” Her hand did feel a little slick, but that didn’t matter now.
I kept holding on to Harissa no matter how much she struggled, and her face got redder and redder.
“Pu-pu-pu-pu-shuuuu!” Eventually she overheated, and collapsed to the ground.
“Rekka, you should use that forceful nature of yours in another capacity.” R was complaining for some reason, but I ignored her.
“Now, then...” Once Harissa was staying put, I asked her about what I’d heard from the kitchen lady.
“So that’s what I heard. What did she mean about you being saved, too?”
“...I was supposed to be executed.”
For an instant, I gasped. “Wh-Why?”
“I’m a sorcerer, I guess, and I’m supposed to be good at summoning magic, but...” Slowly, she started to tell me the story. “My magic summons spirits from the spirit world. But spirits are really hard to deal with, and it’s up to the sorcerer to make them obey you. If you fail, the spirit can get mad and go on
a rampage, or cause a lot of mischief, before they go back home.”
“You wouldn’t want to mess up then, huh?”
“Yes. But I really screwed up.”
“When?”
“When I participated in the Seventh Anti-Demon Overlord Expeditionary Force.”
“Geh!” That was a hell of a time to screw up.
“I tried to fight the demons that the Overlord had summoned, but... I couldn’t control the magic...” As she spoke, her voice began to mix with sobs.
“I wrecked our camp, and we had to retreat. I was supposed to be executed for what I did! But I’m the last summoner the kingdom has left... so they said if I could summon a hero with the royal family’s ritual, the king would give me a special pardon.”
“I see...” That’s why she said she needed me to be a hero.
“But it doesn’t matter anymore.” Suddenly, she smiled like a girl who was already dead. It looked like she’d just given up on everything, I guess.
I’d never seen anyone smile like that before in my entire life. There was a pricking pain on the left side of my chest.
I’d lived a normal life in a normal way, and so it was impossible for me to understand what she was going through. But I could tell from her smile that she was facing an incomprehensible despair. Was that the kind of smile I was supposed to see on a girl who was younger than me? Or did everyone in this world smile like this, because of the Demon Overlord? Is that why nobody tried to save Harissa? Because in this world, despair was normal?
“I’m slow, and I cry, and I can’t work in the fields, and I’m the most useless girl in the village. When the army’s test showed I could be a sorcerer, I was happy, but in the end, that didn’t work out either.” Harissa buried her face in her robe-wrapped knees. It was like there was no one in the world who could fix that gloomy smile of hers. “I just bring misery and disaster to everybody. I deserve to be miserable. I’m better off dead.” She smiled as she spoke.
Instead of reaching out for help, she smiled like she didn’t care how it was going to end. No. That wasn’t right. You can’t just accept death that easily.
Harissa had reached out for help. She’d reached out to a hero from another world, and I’d knocked her hand away.
She didn’t want to die. She was a normal girl who wanted to live... Who wanted someone to save her. That’s why I...
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 1 Page 5
