by Mamare Touno
She was a little bit younger, but in this other world where there was no school, it didn’t seem to matter much. To Serara, Minori felt like a friend her own age.
“If he has you as his secretary, Minori, absolutely everything will go well.”
“That isn’t it. I just want to be a little bit useful, that’s all.”
“Suuure you do.”
“Suuure you do.”
“Isuzu, Minori’s saying something.”
“Serara, Minori’s pretty cute, isn’t she?”
She blindly followed Isuzu, and the two of them jostled Minori between them.
She giggled. She was in an odd mood. When she was in Susukino, she’d never even imagined being able to laugh like this. It felt as if it had been years since then.
This time, as Serara clung to Minori, feeling giddy, she sent a leading question to Isuzu:
“Well, what are you going to be, Isuzu?”
“Huh?”
Isuzu had been teasing both of them, and the question seemed to have startled her. However, that expression only lasted a moment, and when she spoke again, she looked solemn.
“I’m ordinary. If we get back to the old world, I’ll be an office worker or something. If we stay like this, I’ll hunt and go on quests and run errands for the Round Table Council, and every week, I’ll sing at Bloom Hall.”
“Are you going to be a singer, Isuzu?”
“Huh?! No, no.”
Half laughing, Isuzu waved her hands in denial, making light splashing noises.
“No, no way. A singer? Nothing like that. That’s for girls who stand out more. I’m just normal. Strumming away at a restaurant once in a while suits me best. I provide background music for the times when everyone’s having fun. Me and Rudy.”
Her expression was nonchalant, and there was no darkness or excessive humility in it, so Serara thought that really was what she felt. Come to think of it, that was only natural: Not everyone aspired to be a musician. Isuzu loved music, but she probably wasn’t interested in that sort of thing.
“The future, hm?”
The voice was quite close, and it startled them enough to make them jump.
They hadn’t expected there to be any other bathers.
Roe2 nodded generously to the flustered group. Her steam-fogged glasses glittered.
“You’re young, aren’t you?”
Her voice was gentle, and for some reason, Serara nodded meekly. Roe2 was a mysterious woman: Some of her reactions were childlike, but from time to time, she showed the easy kindness of someone much older, someone who knew absolutely everything.
“Roe2, you’re—”
“Naturally, as your big sister, I’m older than you, so I have a physical advantage.”
Roe2’s statement startled Serara.
Isuzu wasn’t just startled. Her mouth was hanging open.
The fact that they’d thought of her as a dependable older sister up until this very moment was blown clean out of their minds.
“Uh, ah, um…”
“My chest is big, too.”
Isuzu was tense and flustered, Minori seemed terribly depressed for some reason, and Serara tried desperately to encourage them. Naturally, she couldn’t put it into words well, so she did it all inside her head, but as far as Serara was concerned, she was one big cheer squad. Isuzu was slim with a nice figure, and she thought Minori looked right for her age.
“My chest is big, too.”
Regardless, Roe2 said it twice, so comforting them was a job and a half.
The two of them protested, and were appeased in turn. Then for some reason the conversation turned to love, and then to Earth and the towns where they’d lived.
“Where did you live, Roe2?”
“I suppose you could call it an underpopulated city. It was an empty place.”
“Did you live alone? Lucky…”
“I am an adult, so yes. Besides, with transmissions as developed as they are, physical distances don’t matter much.”
I see, Serara thought. That’s true.
There had been an online game, and it had turned into another world, and Serara had met Nyanta.
Maybe distances didn’t matter where meetings were concerned.
Time simply flew by, but they didn’t run out of things to talk about.
Serara realized that she’d never once gotten bored when she was with Minori or Isuzu, and Roe2 had jumped right into their circle.
They had just as much fun as when Pippi visited the Settergren siblings. Of course, pleasant times always come at a price, and the four of them got very overheated.
1
Boxroot.
Even in Arc-Shaped Archipelago Yamato, that name was well-known.
The name had originally belonged to the mountains, but it had become the region’s name, the name of the mountain pass, and the name of the fortress as well.
There were several highways that ran from eastern Yamato to western Yamato, but all the highways on the Pacific side had to pass through the fortress of Boxroot. With the exception of marine transportation, it was practically the only trade route, and it was a strategic strong point as well.
On Earth, the place was called “Hakone,” and of course Touya knew that. They’d covered it in his social studies class, and he’d had friends who’d gone there with their families on vacation.
What had left the biggest impression on him was a WebTV travel program.
At Touya’s house, they’d often had that program on during dinner. His mother liked traveling, and now that Touya’s legs didn’t work right, the only trips they could really take him on were to hot springs resorts, so they watched this sort of program a lot. When he’d seen Hakone through the monitor, his only impression of it had been its lake and hot spring, but…
Right now, Touya’s group was making its way up a Boxroot mountain road.
It had been nearly half a day since they’d started up the trail, but Touya and the others had been startled. It was serious enough that one could have said they were flabbergasted. After all, it was a bona fide mountain trek.
People might say, What are you talking about? You’re so dumb, but those were Touya’s real feelings. The road was only about three meters across, just barely wide enough to let the cart pass. From time to time, there were areas that had been reinforced with curbstones or stakes, but most of it was red clay, and it looked as if it would get very muddy if it rained.
That unstable road twisted and curved, hugging the hillside. On the right was an ascending slope that ran up to the mountain peaks and was covered thickly with trees that looked like Japanese cedars. On the left, another slope ran down into the valley, and the landscapes featured dizzying drops.
The scenery alone would have been one thing, but since the highway stuck close to the rock face, the whims of the terrain made them climb slightly, then descend a little, wind from side to side, and sometimes switch back so far it felt as if they’d reversed direction. In March, the mountain was still wintry and desolate, but nature was hardy, and the air was filled with the scent and rustle of deep green.
In other words, even though they’d grown used to post-Catastrophe Theldesia, Touya, Minori, and Serara were city kids at heart, and the sight was enough to shock them.
Isuzu was better acquainted with “nature” than the other three, but her familiarity with it went only as far as the fact that the back of the landowner’s mountain rose on the other side of the fields, or that the weeds that grew thickly on the freakishly wide, dry riverbed were as tall as she was, or that it was possible to harvest mystery watermelons from the untended vegetable garden behind the school. This humorless, genuine mountain road left her dumbfounded.
In the first place, this world was supposed to be bursting at the seams with ruins from the Age of Myth.
They felt like complaining that this other world had a Tokyo Expressway, even if it was crumbling in quite a few places, so why did the Hakone Pass have to be an unpaved mountain trai
l?
It wasn’t even a woodland lane, soft with leaf mold. Enormous wet black rocks twice as tall as Touya jutted out of it abruptly, and the road had to detour to avoid them.
Rundelhaus, the only one with experience, nodded knowingly. “This is why, when we departed this morning, I said we would have to work very hard today,” he told them, sounding mildly rankled.
When he heard that, even Touya had to fire himself up.
The one bright spot was Roe2, who had said she would accompany them, and the Pale Horse she’d summoned. The ashen horse looked bloodless, but it was strong. Roe2 had called it after she’d used the Coach System to lower her level, and even then, it pulled them forward all by itself with power that was even greater than what they’d had with two horses.
The mountain road undulated, up and down, over and over. Even riding in the cart was painful, and they couldn’t go fast, so Rundelhaus and Touya had gotten down and were walking ahead of it.
The girls slumped in the covered cart, or sometimes walked behind it.
A round, whitish wolf pup ran up to Touya’s feet, then twined around them, looking gallant and proud of itself. It was a dead ringer for a white Shiba Inu, as far as Touya was concerned, but according to Serara, it was “Wolfie.” It had been summoned using a special technique in the servant summoning magic system, and unless Serara ordered it to do so, it wouldn’t vanish. Since that was the case, during their journey, except when they slept at inns, it often guarded the area for them like this.
“I can summon guard spirits, too, you know.”
“My thanks, but no, sister Roe2.”
Roe2 spoke lazily from the driver’s seat, and Rundelhaus looked back, answering firmly.
That morning, just to see, they’d had Roe2 show them her Zombie Bats, and they’d looked very grotesque. It had been so bad that Serara had crouched down, her eyes tearing up. In addition, they didn’t need to be guarded that heavily, so they’d vetoed the idea of patrolling with Roe2’s Zombie Bats. Besides, since she’d already summoned the Pale Horse, it would have taken too much mana to maintain them.
“They’re cute in their own way, once you get used to them…”
Roe2’s class was Summoner, which made summoning her specialty. Summoners were a type of magician that could call forth a variety of summoned creatures and make them act in the magician’s stead. Since they had a group of special skills that could be applied across an extremely wide range, they were considered the class whose activity had increased the most in the post-Catastrophe world. Typical examples included Undines, which could create water and control cold air, and Salamanders, which generated flames and manipulated heat.
The single term “Summoner” covered several orientations, which could be roughly divided into four categories: Elementalists, who controlled spirits like Undines and Salamanders; Beast Tamers, who controlled unicorns and Carbuncles; Alchemics, who summoned eccentric, artificial creatures such as slimes and golems; and Necromancers, who used skeletons and phantoms.
The relationships between these orientations weren’t exclusive. Ordinary Summoners created their own styles: About 70 percent had contracts with nature spirits, but also made occasional contracts with mystical beasts. Minori had read a memo that said that the best parts, and the places where the Summoners showed their skill, were in the combinations and balance. She’d probably heard that from Shiroe.
However, Roe2 said she was a Necromancer to the core. All the servants and summoned creatures she’d contracted with were Phantom monsters, and she had no other types whatsoever. Since she was a “pure build,” her abilities weren’t very adaptable. Naotsugu had told Touya that the popularity of Necromancers had fallen after the Catastrophe. Apparently this was because the monsters looked scary and grotesque, and it was hard to communicate with them.
Looking at the wolf Serara had summoned, he thought, I guess there’s no help for that.
This white puppy-type monster was brave in a fight, of course, but it was also brimming with curiosity and a little bit spoiled, and it looked almost like a pet. Even Touya could tell that if you were going to be traveling around with something on a regular basis, fluffy guys like this would probably be more popular.
“Touya.”
“I see it, Rudy.”
Visibility wasn’t good on the mountain road; there were almost no places where it was possible to get a clear view straight ahead for any significant distance.
Instead, when they rounded projections in the rock face, areas that were three or four bends ahead would abruptly appear.
On the road about fifteen minutes ahead of the group’s location, they’d seen two stopped carts. They didn’t seem to be under attack from monsters, so they’d probably run into some sort of trouble. What do we do? Touya pondered.
From what he’d seen, the carts appeared to be heading west, the same direction they were going. Under ordinary circumstances, that wouldn’t be a problem: They could just follow the carts that were traveling in front of them. However, if those carts were stopped, it was another story. The road around here wasn’t wide enough for them to pass, so they couldn’t overtake them. With their Adventurer strength, he had a feeling that they could probably force a resolution somehow, but he still didn’t really have a handle on the situation.
“They seem to be stalled.”
“Yeah.”
“What is it? Is something up?”
They heard Roe2’s voice from the driver’s seat. She’d been sitting slumped down, saying she was bad with sunlight, and unlike Touya and Rundelhaus, she probably hadn’t seen that particular sight.
“There are carts stopped on the road, three or four bends farther on. They seem to have had some sort of trouble. There are two of them.”
“We might not be able to get past ’em, big sis Roe2.”
“Hm. I see. Well, I am the big sister here, so…” Roe2 puffed out her chest, but she didn’t seem to have any particularly good ideas. “In any case, let’s get over there first.”
“Yes, let’s.”
Minori agreed as well, and after heading farther down the road, the group encountered a caravan that was—as predicted—stuck.
“Say, would you like to buy a sword? It’s a real gem, Akiba-made. Equip levels ten to twenty.”
Those were the first words they heard from the caravan.
The merchant looked haggard, and there were dark circles under his eyes. He’d spoken to Touya, who was walking at the front of the group.
Touya was startled, but he promptly shook his head.
“Our levels are higher than that. We don’t use those swords. What’s the matter, Mr. Merchant?”
The merchant shook his head dully. He seemed to be the leader of the caravan, and when they looked, they saw three guards seated on wooden crates that had been set down on the road, slumped with exhaustion. Nearly all of the cargo had been unloaded. One of the two carts seemed to have a broken axle.
The cart Minori and the others were riding in stopped about twenty meters away. Turning back or changing direction would be easier if they weren’t too close. This part of the narrow mountain road was particularly constricted; there wasn’t room enough to pass, and if they took a wrong step, they’d go tumbling down a steep slope overgrown with slender trees.
“This is quite a sticky situation, isn’t it, Touya?”
“Yeah.”
This was only a guess, but if all that cargo was iron swords, the cart had been overloaded in the first place. There was a simple way to resolve the situation: Shove the broken cart down into the valley, load as much of the cargo as possible onto the other cart, dump the remaining cargo here, then move on. However, naturally, the merchant had bought all that cargo, and they guessed he probably hadn’t been able to bite the bullet and do it.
“We’ve already passed a day and a night here since the axle broke. If you find the merchant ill-mannered, please do forgive him.”
A woman with gentle features stepped down from the in
nermost cart.
Her hair was the pale brown of maiden grass plumes with sunlight shining through them, and she wore a bolero, a long skirt, and a large hat, all coordinated in pastel yellows, ranging from daisy to dandelion. She was lovely, with a tender gaze and softly curving eyebrows.
The air held the faint scent of hepatica flowers, and as he gazed at the beauty, Touya felt troubled and rather gloomy. His hunches tended to be right. This woman, who seemed to be pure kindness, would make him feel something very painful. He had no grounds for thinking this, but he knew.
“I am Dariella, a travel writer.”
The woman greeted them, delicately pinching up her skirt in a sweet gesture.
“You’re young, but you’re Adventurers, aren’t you? I’m afraid that spending yet another night here will be very hard on the merchants. Could you possibly carry a few crates for us, just to the fort of Boxroot? With your assistance, Adventurers, I believe you’ll be able to overtake us at the pass, a little farther down the road, and the merchants will be able to extricate themselves from this predicament.”
Dariella’s entreaty was exquisitely mild and graceful.
Although gentle, her words were persuasive, to the point where both Touya and Rundelhaus nodded involuntarily.
Under the circumstances, there really were no other options.
The two of them turned and headed back up the mountain road to discuss the matter with Minori and the others.
2
Apparently, the caravan cart’s axle had been broken by an abrupt dip in the road. There had been a protruding rock, thinly coated with dirt and hard to spot; the wheel had run up onto that rock, then immediately fallen down the drop and landed on another square stone. It had only been a fall of ten centimeters or so, and ordinarily, it wouldn’t have caused this sort of accident. However, the merchant had been greedy, and he’d loaded twenty-four crates of steel swords onto the cart. The jolt had been a violent one, and the wheel had broken.
