by Aneko Yusagi
It brushed against me. It didn’t feel so bad. Its fur was a little stiff, but it didn’t bother me. It was warm.
“Feh...” Rishia whimpered, stealing sheepish glances at us. Was she seriously afraid of this little thing?
“Pen!”
“For a second there, I wasn’t sure it was going to work. However, it seems like the ceremony was a success!” Ethnobalt said, sighing with relief and floating back over in our direction.
“This is a shikigami?”
“Rafu!”
The shikigami jumped up my shield, stood on its hind legs, and raised both of its paws in the air. It almost looked like it was showing off.
“Yes, it is. Did your weapon say anything about having items to power up the shikigami?”
“Yeah. There’s an option for a shikigami power-up.”
“That’s it. I thought you’d probably enjoy playing with that.”
“I figured you’d be the sort of person that liked that stuff, too.”
“How could you tell? I get a little obsessed sometimes.”
“Hm. Guess we have that in common.”
“Heh heh.”
“Heh heh...”
“Feh... I feel like a third wheel...” Rishia whined, upset that Kizuna and I were sharing a laugh. Was there anything that didn’t make her feel threatened? All we were doing was agreeing with each other, and even that seemed to scare Rishia.
“Well anyway, I believe that this shikigami will be able to help you find your missing friend. Let’s leave with Kizuna to look for your friend and for Glass.”
“Sounds good, doesn’t it?” I said to the shikigami.
“Rafu!” it barked back, excitedly nodding its head.
The little thing was going out of its way to get me to like it... and it was kind of working.
Its voice even reminded me a bit of a young Raphtalia. Just a bit.
“Naofumi, aren’t you going to give this little critter a name?”
“A name? I guess you’re right. I shouldn’t just keep calling it shikigami.”
“Rafu!” the little thing proclaimed, proudly puffing out its chest.
I guess that was the only sound it could make. What a weird thing to say...
It sort of made me feel like I was doing something rude, something disrespectful, to Raphtalia—not that I had any other choice.
I’d chosen Filo’s name because she was a filolial, so I guess it made sense to name this thing after Raphtalia.
“Alright, how about Raph-chan?”
“Rafu!”
“You’re naming it Raph-chan because of the way it talks? Isn’t that a little lowbrow?”
“Why did you name a penguin ‘Chris’?”
Chris sounded like a character straight out of a western fantasy. It certainly didn’t seem like an appropriate name for a penguin.
“Because, when we made this guy, I counted back from the day I’d been summoned to this world and realized that it was Christmas.”
“Ah... so that’s where you got ‘Chris’.”
I still didn’t think it was a good name.
But you’re wrong about why I named it Raph-chan. It’s not because it keeps saying ‘rafu.’ It’s because I made it with Raphtalia’s hair.”
“... That’s not so different.”
I wasn’t going to argue. Besides, it kind of felt like a little too on-the-nose that the thing kept saying ‘rafu’ to begin with.
“Rafu!”
“Okay, okay. Fine. You want a different name?”
“Rafu?”
Raph-chan (tentative name) looked confused and then shook its head. “Rafuuu.”
I guess she liked the name. If she liked it, then who was I to argue?
“She seems to have a developed a sense of self, hasn’t she? Normally it takes a little longer for their bodies and minds to develop this much.”
“Maybe it’s because the materials came from another world. Could that affect the results like this?”
Raphtalia wasn’t from this world, so maybe it was a special case. Not to mention that she had matured differently than a normal demi-human, because she’d been raised by a hero—me. She had matured very quickly, so maybe this shikigami was the same.
“Okay then, Raph-chan. Can you tell us where Raphtalia is?” I asked.
Raph-chan closed her eyes and puffed up her tail, apparently doing... something.
Was she using magic or some sort of special shikigami ability?
Kizuna turned to Chris and addressed him, “Can you tell us were Glass is?”
“Rafu!”
“Pen!”
Both of the shikigami’s barked and pointed in the same direction.
“Pardon the intrusion. Perhaps you could indicate the location on this map?” Ethnobalt said, pulling out a map of the world and opening it before the shikigami. Both of them immediately pointed to the same spot.
If they were both pointing to the same spot, then it was probably safe to assume that Raphtalia and Glass were traveling together, right?
Kizuna and Ethnobalt sighed and looked upset.
“What? Is something wrong?”
“They’re pointing to a country that’s like the place we escaped from—enemy lands. It’s actually the country where that supposed genius scientist came from.”
“You sure do have a lot of enemies.”
“I know. These are troubled times, after all. All those politics are basically what got me thrown into the labyrinth. What to do...” Kizuna murmured, looking concerned.
I guess you had to deal with war no matter what world you went to.
Even still, this world seemed to be less stable than the one I’d come from.
Melromarc and Siltvelt often went to war with one another, but even they managed to join forces when the world itself was under threat from the waves. The other countries I’d heard of were all participating in international talks about the waves, too.
This world, on the other hand, didn’t seem so cooperative. Everyone seemed to be at war with everyone else.
Maybe the relative peace of the last world was only possible because the queen of Melromarc was so good at diplomacy.
“But Glass and her friends are really powerful in this world, right? I mean, they were chosen to wield the vassal weapons, weren’t they?”
“That’s true, but... the very fact that they haven’t used a dragon hourglass to teleport back here makes me think that they must have run into trouble.”
If Glass was having trouble, how were we supposed to help? From what I’d seen, she was so powerful it was nearly unbelievable.
A dark, somber feeling had taken over the room.
Kizuna and I had had a rough time fighting our way here, but that was only because of the limitations of our weapons. Without those special limitations, I was sure we were actually really powerful and wouldn’t have had a problem. Glass and the others didn’t share the same limitations that we had, so if they were having a hard time, then things must have been really rough.
“Is that where the guy with the book of the vassal weapon is from?”
“No, but they are allies. There’s a chance that Glass and the others have been captured and turned over to him.”
“Then we better get going.”
“Agreed—it’s better than standing around wringing our hands. Let’s go.”
“That settles that.”
There was no telling how much help Kizuna could be if we ran into human enemies, but we didn’t have a choice. We had to get going.
“Kizuna, aren’t you going to bring some friends with you?”
She seemed pretty much ready to leave, but she hadn’t mentioned anything about bringing anyone with us.
“Ethnobalt doesn’t like battles. I guess there are some people I could reach out to, if I had to...” She looked over at Ethnobalt, who awkwardly cleared his throat.
“It would take a few days to get Kizuna’s companions together. They are all spread out acros
s the country, engaged in various activities.”
“Something could happen to Glass while we wait for them to get here. We should go on without them.”
I didn’t disagree with her reasoning. Building up a strong party wouldn’t do us any good at all if Glass and the others were captured while we waited.
And it certainly seemed likely that Raphtalia was with her. If they were turned over to Kyo before we could get there, she’d be in real trouble—and I had to protect her.
We were always right on the edge of disaster.
I sighed. “Aren’t there at least some soldiers that we could bring along?”
“There are soldiers, but they are not permitted to leave the country. They need to be here to protect it.”
Just great. Everyone was shorthanded.
I’d always felt like I didn’t have enough people in my party, but it was looking like Kizuna had the same problem I did.
“Let’s go. Can we use the dragon hourglass to teleport there?”
“No, but Ethnobalt should be able to teleport us there.”
“You are correct, Kizuna. I am able to use the power of my boat to teleport you there—but how will you return?”
“We could use my Portal Shield skill.”
“That’s a good idea. Let’s set a time and place to meet up after the mission. Ethnobalt, you meet us there, okay? If we don’t make it...”
“Understood. Take a communication ofuda with you. With any luck, we should be able to stay in contact through them.”
That was a convenient item to have on hand. I was almost jealous, but then I remembered that we had something similar in the world I came from. There were machines at the guilds (I don’t know how they worked) but they could send messages instantaneously to each other.
Ethnobalt led us out of the building and stepped down from the floating platform he had been riding. The small circular platform then transformed into a boat.
“Everyone, please climb onboard so I can begin the teleportation process.”
“This thing... It reminds me a lot of a weapon I saw once,” I said. I was talking about Fitoria’s carriage.
Skills like Teleport Shield would only work for people that were in your party. But Ethnobalt’s boat and Fitoria’s carriage could teleport anyone that happened to be riding in or on them.
How did they work? Did they form a portal? I had no idea how people got around in this new world. I had a lot of questions running through my head, but they would have to wait.
We left to begin our search for Raphtalia and Glass.
Chapter Ten: The Katana of the Vassal Weapons
We climbed into Ethnobalt’s boat. I thought that the boat was going to fly through the sky, but when it started moving, it was more like a teleportation skill. The scenery around us quickly vanished and was replaced with a path of pale light, over which the boat proceeded.
If the boat could take us anywhere—even locations that we hadn’t registered beforehand—then it was a really powerful option to have!
“I’m impressed every time I ride on this thing. It would have taken forever to travel on foot.”
“How does it work?”
“It works by using the connections between the dragon hourglasses as currents.”
Hm... So the hourglasses were all connected by lines, and the boat had the ability to sail over those lines. Did that mean that the boat could go anywhere in the world, as long as the currents between the hourglasses went there as well?
The system was more complicated than I expected.
“You can sail over things high in the sky and use the boat to get the drop on unexpected enemies. We’ve done that a few times.”
“So Raphtalia and Glass are somewhere nearby?”
“Somewhat. There are many defenses to watch out for, so I can only get you close.”
“It’s a big help”
Depending on how we used it, the boat could prove very useful. As for Ethnobalt himself, he apparently wasn’t the strongest in battle.
“So we’ll switch to flying in the sky from here on out?”
“That’d draw too much attention.”
She was right. Sailing slowly through the sky was like asking the enemy to shoot us down. Maybe we could pull it off if we flew at a very high altitude... but then again, there were probably a lot of flying monsters in this world. We wouldn’t want to run into them.
“I could offer some support fire or bombs, but that would only draw even more attention. It would be best if you only thought of the boat as a way to escape, not to battle.”
“Okay. Then we will call for you after we meet up with Glass.”
“Very well. And good luck,” said Ethnobalt. At nearly the exact same second, the streaming pale light around us vanished, and we found ourselves standing on unfamiliar ground.
He said that we might run into trouble and that we couldn’t count on him for backup, either.
“Okay, Raph-chan, take us to Raphtalia.”
“Rafu!” she barked, pointing enthusiastically.
Kizuna’s penguin, Chris, was pointing the same way.
We stood before a thick forest. It seemed to be mostly composed of pine trees, but there were tall copses of bamboo here and there, which lent this new country a Japanese feel, too.
We held open a map to get a sense of our bearings and began the search in earnest.
“What sort of country is this, anyway?”
“It borders the country that you and I just escaped. The two countries share a similar culture. But this one reminds me more of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate.”
At first I didn’t really know what she meant, but it wasn’t long before we came out of the woods and found a town, and then I understood what she was trying to say.
The houses were all made of wood, but there were a lot of signs out in the streets, the sort you’d seen in Showa-era Japan. The language looked like it was written right to left, and the architecture made the town look like it was in the midst of a modernization effort.
I even thought I saw street lamps with electric light bulbs in them. The mishmash of so many different time periods was unnerving—it didn’t feel natural.
The adventurers walking in the street were dressed like the Shinsengumi. The rest of the villagers were also dressed in traditional Japanese clothes. I saw a lot of hakama.
“Is there some kind of checkpoint we have to get through?”
“I don’t think it’s that strict. I think the only checkpoints are on the border. It’s a lot like the last country, but not quite so secure.”
“You don’t say...”
There certainly were a variety of countries in this new world.
In comparison, the countries in the world I’d come from seemed to be based on nobility and the rule of monarchs. That was at least easy to understand—not that I necessarily had it all figured out.
“Won’t our clothes draw attention?”
“I don’t think so. They aren’t always on the lookout for foreigners here. They’ll just think we are adventurers passing through. Look around. There are plenty of people dressed like us,” Kizuna said, pointing.
She was right. There were plenty of other adventurers wearing armor similar to ours.
“That’s great. We better find Raphtalia fast. The minute we find the others, we need to get out of here.”
“I know what you mean... Chris, where’s Glass?”
“Pen,” the bird chirped, and pointed in the same direction that Raph-chan was indicating. We followed their lead and continued the search.
We followed their lead to a new town and ran into a very long line of people there.
“What’s this?”
“I’ll see,” Kizuna said. She ran ahead to see what was going on. Then she came jogging back. “There’s some sort of show going on. Everyone seems really excited.”
“Hm...”
A show? I’d seen tents set up for a traveling show back in Melromarc, too. The proprie
tors would set up tents on the main drag in the marketplace. I never really cared for that sort of thing, though, so I’d never actually looked inside.
But there were so many people lined up it was hard not to be curious. There were more people lined up for this show than had attended my soul-healing water auction. The line seemed to snake through the whole town.
Could the show really be that impressive? Were the citizens just starved for entertainment because there was nothing else to do out here?
“Want to check it out?”
“I don’t care—and we don’t have the time.”
“Good point. We don’t have the time to waste waiting around in line.”
“Rafu, rafu!”
“What is it Raph-chan? Do you want to see the show?”
She seemed very interested. She nodded vigorously.
Raph-chan had been formed out of Raphtalia’s hair—if she wanted to see the show that badly, then I couldn’t help but be curious.
“What is this ‘show’ you keep mentioning?” Rishia asked.
Kizuna stood on her tiptoes to try to read the sign by the building.
“It says, ‘A young angel with wings on her back—literally fell from the sky! See her for only 40 doumon!’ What do you think? A real angel?”
A girl with wings on her back? That sure sounded like Filo to me.
I was focused on finding Raphtalia, but I was going to have to find Filo, too.
“Hey Kizuna. Are there any races in this world that normally have wings on their backs? Does that sound like anything you’ve seen before?”
“Not particularly, no. What about in your world, Naofumi?”
“I’ve heard that there are harpy-type demi-humans, but I’ve never seen one. On the other hand, one of my party members is a girl with wings on her back. If you just got a glance at her, you might think she was an angel.”
She did match the description on the sign.
She certainly didn’t act like an angel—but you wouldn’t know that just from looking at her. She could trick you if she managed to keep her mouth shut.
“Rafu!”
“Feh! Do you think it could be Filo?”
It could be.
And what if it was? I was about to walk right by the show. I wouldn’t have stopped if Rishia hadn’t asked Kizuna what was going on. Now what was I supposed to do? Line up on a hunch?
