“If you hadn’t accepted that request, Sue might very well have been kidnapped or murdered right about now... I’m thankful to whoever asked you to come out here.”
“Do you have any idea who could’ve been behind the attack?”
“I almost wish I could say that I didn’t... But considering my position, I’m sure there’s no end of sordid individuals who see me as a bother. There may even be some amongst the nobles who would seek to kidnap my daughter and use her as leverage against me to make me dance to their every whim.” The duke made a bitter face and sipped from his tea as he said that. Sounded like there were all sorts of people even among nobility.
“I’m back, Father. Sorry for the wait.” Sue came out on to the terrace. She wore a dress with pale pink frills, and in her hair was an headband fitted with a matching pale pink rose. It suited her very well.
“Did you talk with Ellen?“
“I did, yes. I kept quiet about having been attacked, however. I did not wish to worry her.” Sue came out and sat herself down next to the duke. Leim came out not a moment later carrying more tea with him.
“Ellen?”
“Yes, that would be my wife. I’m sorry she couldn’t come out to meet you, even though you came to our daughter’s rescue... She’s quite terribly blind, you see.”
“Your wife is blind, is she?” Yae spoke up, a heavy heart clearly behind her words.
“She came down with an illness five years ago... They managed to save her life, but not her vision.” The duke let his gaze drop as he spoke his sad tale. Sue noticed, and placed her hand on top of his. She must have been concerned for her father. She really was a lovely little girl.
“...D-Did you try treating it with magic?”
“I called out to practitioners of Healing magic throughout the land, but... it was no use. They said that if it had been caused by a physical injury, then magic might have helped to some degree, but that it would have no effect on the after-effects of an illness.” The duke listlessly answered Linze’s question.
So even healing magic couldn’t help with it... I had thought we might be able to heal it with [Cure Heal] or something, but... Moments like those were where I felt my own powerlessness more than ever.
“If only grandfather were still alive...” Sue whispered in a small, regretful voice. He must’ve noticed my curious expression, because the duke spoke up to explain.
“My wife’s father... Sue’s grandfather, that is, my father-in-law could use a very special kind of magic. He was able to cure any abnormality within the body. The reason Sue originally left on a journey was to find out more about his magic and try and find a way to recreate it.”
“If we had grandfather’s magic, we would be able to heal mother’s eyes. Even if we couldn’t use that magic, there was the possibility that knowing more about it would have allowed us to substitute it with a spell from a different school of magic. That was what I heard from the court magician, at least. Else we could try to find someone who could use the same magic as grandfather...” Sue clenched her fist in frustration
“She said that the possibility of that was very low indeed, Sue. Non-elemental magic is primarily personalized magic. There are almost no two people who can use the exact same non-elemental spell as each other. But I’m sure there must be someone out there who can use a similar spell. I’ll definitely find that person, one way or another...”
“AAAAH!!!” “AAAAH!!!” “AAAAH!!!” The three girls sitting beside me suddenly leapt out of their seats and let out some seriously loud noises. Whoa, that scared the life out of me! What the hell, what’s going on?!
”It’s Touya!”
“Touya, that’s you!”
“Touya-dono, that must be you, it must!”
“What are you talking about?” The girls fired out their fingers at me in rapid succession, and I reflexively pulled away from them.
You guys are seriously scaring me... Did all that tension go to your heads and make you snap? Look, the duke and his daughter are pulling away, too. You’re freaking everyone out here!
“You might be able to use that spell!” Elze exclaimed.
“Non-elemental magic is primarily personalized magic... meaning no two people can use the exact same spell. Except...!”
“Touya-dono, you can use any kind of Null spell, can you not?!”
“Hmm...? Oh! So that’s what you were all yelling about!” I finally got it! Right, if the spell wasn’t elemental, then...
“Whatever... are you talking about...? Do you mean that you can...?”
“Touya! Can you really cure my mother?!” Sue exclaimed. The duke looked at me with an expression of sheer bewilderment on his face. Meanwhile, Sue was clinging to my arm like she was never going to let go.
“Honestly, I won’t be able to say either way without trying it out first. But there is a chance... Just so long as I know the spell’s name and the details of what it does.”
“Oh my, do we have guests?” The lady sitting on the bed in the room we walked into strongly resembled Sue. Looking at her almost made me believe I was glimpsing into Sue’s future. The only difference was that she had light brown hair in contrast to the blonde of her daughter.
Her white blouse and pastel blue skirt gave her an air of transience. To compare her to a flower, she was less like a rose or a lily, and more like a baby’s-breath. She was still young, too. Probably wasn’t even thirty yet. But I felt as though her youth only drew more attention to her blind eyes. Her eyes were still open, but it felt like her gaze never quite settled on anything. It almost made one wonder exactly where those eyes were gazing into.
“My name is Mochizuki Touya. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Duchess Ellen.”
“The pleasure is all mine. Darling, is this young man a friend of yours?”
“He is. He’s someone that looked out for Sue while she was on her journey... and upon hearing about your eyes, he said he would like to see what he could do.”
“My eyes...?”
“Mother, please relax for a moment.” Sue said. I quietly raised my hand and held it in front of Duchess Ellen’s eyes. My mind focused entirely on them as I cast the spell I had learned a moment ago. Come on, please work...
“[Recovery].”
A soft light flowed from the palm of my hand into Duchess Ellen’s eyes. When the light faded, I pulled my hand away.
Her gaze wandered for a moment before gradually settling down. After blinking her eyelids a few times, she quietly turned to face in the direction of her husband and daughter.
“...I-I can... see? Darling...! I can see!” Tears began to flow from Duchess Ellen’s eyes.
“Ellen...!”
“Mother!” The three of them clung to each other and started crying. Finally seeing her husband and daughter for the first time in half a decade, Duchess Ellen smiled brightly through her tears. She simply continued gazing at their faces through tear-stained eyes. The faces of her beloved family.
Leim, who had been quietly watching the scene from nearby, turned his face upwards and began sniffling as well.
“Uwah... I’m so happy!” Elze choked out.
“I’m so glad for them as well...”
“I’m really pleased for them, I am...!”
Wait, why are you girls crying?! Huh? Hold on, does this make me a horrible person for being the only one not to cry? I’m feeling pretty moved by this whole scene too, you know! It’s just that I was under so much pressure to make sure it worked that I’m more relieved than happy right now... Ah, forget it.
For the time being, we just warmly watched as the family rejoiced.
◇ ◇ ◇
“I am greatly indebted to you. Really, you have no idea what this all means to me. You not only saved my daughter, but you even cured my wife... Thank you, thank you so much.” The duke was bowing to us again. I really wasn’t good with situations like that. I couldn’t stand to keep making this man bow to me.
Sue was still in Duchess Elle
n’s room. We had been brought out into the parlor, where we sat in luxurious chairs opposite the duke.
“Please, don’t mention it. Sue is safe, and your wife is cured. I’m just glad everything’s alright now.”
“No, I cannot possibly leave it at just that. I really must show you the appropriate level of gratitude. Leim, bring it over.”
“Of course, sir.” Leim brought over a silver tray with several objects laid out on it.
“First of all, take this. It’s your reward for saving my daughter. As well as escorting her home safely.” Leim handed me a bag that I assumed had money inside it.
“You should find forty platinum coins within.”
“Huh?!” “What?!” “Eh?!” The girls seemed to grasp the situation immediately, but I wasn’t sure what the duke meant. I knew about all about gold coins by that point, but what was a platinum coin? I asked Elze, who was sitting next to me.
“Hey Elze, what’s a platinum coin?”
“...It’s a level of currency one step above gold coins. A single platinum coin equals ten gold ones...”
“Ten gold?!”
From my time in this world so far, I know one gold is roughly equivalent to about one hundred thousand yen... So if one platinum is one million yen, then I have... forty... million... yen...?!
“W-Wait, I can’t accept this! That’s way too much!” After I realized just how much was being given to us, I hurried to refuse it. There was no way the job we accepted was worth anywhere near that much.
“Don’t say that, please, just accept it. If you plan to make a living as adventurers, I’m sure you’ll reach a point where you’ll find yourself in need of money like this. Think of it as funds to stash away for when that time comes.”
“Well...” He had a point, the money would probably come in handy. I hated to admit it, but there were things in this world that could only be solved by moving money around. Besides, from what I knew of the duke’s personality, he wasn’t going to let up until I accepted the reward.
“In addition, I would like to give each of you one of these.” The duke lined up four medals on the table in front of him. Each one had a diameter of about five centimeters. The medal’s design featured a shield in the center and a pair of lions facing each other from the side. Wait... isn’t this...
“They’re medals featuring my family crest. With this, you will be able to pass through any checkpoint with relative ease, and you will also be able to use facilities normally exclusive to nobles. Should anything happen ever happen, they will act as guarantee that my family will provide support to you. They are a form of identification, I suppose.”
According to the duke, such medals were normally given out to the family’s exclusive merchants or other such important figures. Each of the medals had our individual names carved into them, along with a single word, which meant there could be no duplicates made. That was apparently to make sure they could never be abused if we ever lost them.
My medal carried the word “Tranquility,” Elze’s was “Fervor,” Linze’s was “Philanthropy,” and Yae’s was “Sincerity.” Tranquility, eh... Well, peace is the best after all.
Anyway, these certainly did sound like useful things to have. They made it easier to visit Sue again as well, actually. Being stopped at checkpoints all the time sounded like a royal pain. Although in an emergency, I could always just cast [Gate] to bypass all the checkpoints anyway.
We split the money evenly between us, ten platinum coins each. Still, one platinum was ten gold, so that was one million yen... I had to make absolutely sure I never, ever dropped any of these.
We decided that it was too much of a risk to be walking around with that much money, so we each took a single coin and had the duke deliver the rest to the guild for us. Apparently it was set up so that we could withdraw our money from any guild office in any town. I figured it was like this world’s equivalent of a bank.
We decided it was about time to be getting on our way, and when we returned to the foyer, Sue and Duchess Ellen had come to see us off.
“Come visit again soon! That’s an order, you hear?!” A passionate farewell scene behind us, we hopped in our wagon and headed to deliver that letter to Viscount Swordrick’s estate just as Zanac had asked of us.
“Eh? That letter you were asked to deliver was for Viscount Swordrick, it was?” Oh, had we not told Yae about that yet? I curiously met Yae’s startled gaze as the wagon swayed us side to side.
“Do you know him?”
“Do I know him? He’s the very man I mentioned before, he is. The one who helped my father in the past, he is the very man I’m here to meet, he is!” Huh, that was a huge coincidence. Small world after all.
We were tossed around in the back of the wagon as Elze led us down the high-class street, following the directions the duke had given us before drawing to a halt outside the viscount’s estate.
It may sound rude, but having just come from the duke’s estate, the viscount’s seemed much more... snug, comparatively. Still, there was no mistaking that it was quite a grand place. It felt quite old, or rather, rich with history. I’d heard that quite a few of the nobles with property in the capital also owned land elsewhere, so this might even have just been the viscount’s villa.
When we gave Zanac’s name to the gatekeeper, he said he would arrange for the viscount to meet us. Before long we were led into the building, where a man I took to be a butler led us to the parlor room.
Once again, compared to the parlor in the duke’s home, the place was a bit... well... Impolite thoughts ran around in my head as we waited, when out came a red-haired hero of a man. This guy... was strong. I could tell even through his clothes that his muscular form was well-trained. Even his eyes were sharp, surveying us like a falcon pinpointing its prey.
“My name is Carlossa Galune Swordrick. Are you the messengers that Zanac sent?”
“We are. We’re here to deliver this letter to you upon his request. We were also asked to receive a response from you to take back with us.” I handed him the tube containing Zanac’s letter. The viscount took it and removed the wax seal with a knife before reading the contents.
“Wait here a moment. I shall write a reply.” After he spoke, the viscount left the room. As he left, a maid entered the room and made tea for us, but compared to the tea we’d had at the duke’s house... No, that was enough of that. No need to disrespect the viscount. I shouldn’t have been comparing him to the duke in the first place.
“Sorry to have kept you.” The viscount returned with a sealed letter in hand.
“Alright, please give this to Zanac. Also, hold on a moment. Before you go...” Even as the viscount handed me the letter, his gaze drifted over to Yae.
“I’ve been wondering since I first laid eyes on you... Have we... No, I don’t think we’ve ever met before. Still... What is your name?” The viscount tilted his head as if he were trying to remember something. Yae looked straight at him and gave her name.
“My name is Kokonoe Yae; Daughter of Kokonoe Jubei, I am.”
“...Kokonoe... Oh, Kokonoe! I see. So you’re Jubei’s daughter!” The viscount slapped his knee, let out a broad smile, and gave Yae a once-over with a happy expression on his face.
“Yep. There’s no mistaking it. You’re the spitting image of Nanae. I’m just glad you take your looks from your mother and not your old man!” The viscount laughed as though he had suddenly been put in a great mood, and Yae simply smiled without a word.
“Uhm... so how do you know Yae...?” I asked.
“Hmm? Oh, right. You see, her father, Jubei, used to be an instructor of swordplay for the Swordrick family. Back when I was still a sniveling brat, he really put me through the wringer. It was a real challenge, I tell you. Hard to believe that was twenty years ago now.”
“My father always talks about how, among the swordsmen he trained, none were nearly as wise or talented as you, Viscount-dono.”
“Ohoho? I’m pleased to hear that! Even
if it’s mere flattery, it’s heartwarming to know that my old teacher speaks so well of me.” The viscount smiled happily, true to his words. But Yae continued talking to him with a serious expression on her face.
“He also told me that should I ever get the chance to meet you, I should request your advice in matters of swordplay, he did.”
“Oho...” The viscount narrowed his eyes, apparently enthused by Yae’s words.
Huh? What’s with this change in the atmosphere all of a sudden...?
◇ ◇ ◇
The viscount’s garden had a dojo in it.
Upon entering, I couldn’t restrain my surprise. After all, it looked exactly like a Japanese kendo dojo.
A polished wooden floor, several wooden swords hanging on the wall... complete with an actual home shrine.
“This building was planned by Mr. Jubei, and it was built by my father. It was designed to have an Eashen aesthetic, as you might be able to tell.”
“It reminds me of the dojo back home... It makes me feel nostalgic, it does.”
That makes two of us, Yae. Going to Eashen just got a whole lot higher on my bucket list.
“Choose the wooden sword that suits you best. They’re lined up by the size of their grip.” After changing into his training attire, the viscount fixed his sash and took hold of a wooden sword. Yae, on the other hand, took a few swords and tried swinging each of them several times before deciding which one suited her best. Shortly after that, she stood face-to-face with the man.
“Are any of you familiar with Healing magic?”
“...We know one or two spells.” I replied by raising my hand and looking at Linze.
“Then there’ll be no need to hold back. Come at me with all you have.” When he said that, we went to sit down at the edge of the dojo so we wouldn’t get in the way of their fight.
Struck with a sudden idea, I took out my smartphone. Alright, now...
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 1 Page 8
