The Larks Take Flight

by Mamare Touno

  The crates were heavy enough that it would have been hard for a Person of the Earth to lift even one of them, but Minori and the others were able to lift two or three at a time without trouble. When, carrying the crates, they’d made their way down the mountain track for about twenty minutes, they reached an area where the road widened, jutting out like an observation platform.

  The carts would be able to take a break or pass each other here, and for now, it would probably be a good place to stack the crates.

  Serara stayed there to prepare lunch, and about two hours later, Minori and the others finished carrying the crates. Although it was a pity, they’d pushed the cart with the broken axle down into the valley, and the merchant was on his way here with the undamaged cart. Apparently, he’d joined forces with the guards and used up all his energy and willpower, and was now taking a nap.

  “He spent the entire night protecting his cargo on a mountain road where monsters might appear. It’s no wonder he’s exhausted,” the writer Dariella said, smiling softly at Minori.

  She was a Person of the Earth, and it was difficult to tell her age. She was probably older than Minori, but it was impossible to imagine how much older. If they estimated slightly higher than her appearance suggested, she was probably about the same age as Marielle, but when she spoke, quite unexpectedly, she sometimes gave a sweet smile that made her seem to be Minori’s age after all.

  “Are you the merchant’s wife, Miss Dariella?”

  Dariella looked startled, then burst out laughing, her eyes half-closed in amusement.

  “No, I’m not. I was on my way back home, and I simply had the merchant give me a ride.”

  “I see. Minami, was it? That’s in the same direction as Ikoma.”

  “Yes, it’s quite close. My house is in the mountains of Ikoma.”

  “Oh-ho.”

  Roe2 had approached and spoken to her, and Dariella, naturally, responded.

  The merchant’s undamaged cart, the pile of crates, and the cart that belonged to Minori’s group were all lined up in an area that seemed to be a sort of lookout spot for the pass. It was surrounded by a wooden fence that didn’t seem very sturdy, and the open area itself seemed to jut out into empty space. But beyond it lay a breathtaking, panoramic view of the valley.

  The merchant’s group really did seem to be exhausted. One of the guards was managing to sit up, leaning against the cargo, but the other members had climbed into the cart as if taking refuge and had fallen asleep. Serara tried to serve them soup, but they showed no sign of waking.

  Minori’s group, meanwhile, had decided to take a late lunch here. The wind was still cold, but it was refreshing; it blew across the mountains, carrying a distinctive scent of greenery that it didn’t have in Akiba.

  “What kind of soup is this?”

  “It’s miso soup with potatoes and carrots.”

  “And these long things are…?”

  “They’re leeks.”

  A short distance away, Minori was listening to Roe2 and Serara’s conversation and biting back a laugh.

  The meal they ate at the lookout was reminiscent of box lunches, and it was fun. Isuzu perched on a fallen log, swinging her legs, while Rundelhaus sat next to her, stuffing his face with onigiri. Both looked cheerful and animated. Dariella, who’d joined Serara and Roe2 and was offering them pickles, also seemed to be in a mild mood.

  “Touya, does your stomach hurt?”

  “No, it’s fine.”

  Touya was off by himself, and his mind seemed elsewhere. Worried, Minori had spoken to him, but her practical little brother had only answered her with a grin:

  “What about you, Minori? You okay? You’re not missing Shiroe, are you?”

  “Oh, honestly! I am not.”

  “Well, that’s fine, then. Once we’re over the pass, we’ll be real close to our destination.”

  “Yes, and besides, they’re wyverns, aren’t they? Shiroe said that they might appear in the mountains around here, too. The activity ranges for flying monsters have expanded quite a lot…”

  “Yeah? I guess we’d better be careful, then.”

  Abruptly, Touya glanced up, as if at the sky. Following his gaze, Minori saw it, too:

  A group was approaching them.

  And at the head of that group was a heavily equipped knight in full body armor.

  There were about ten Adventurers in all, and there was something dismal about them. They were climbing up the road, and Minori’s group focused on them immediately. They’d come from the direction Minori and the others were going, the route that led down into the foothills.

  Quickly, Minori checked their statuses.

  A Samurai named Ishiijirou was in the lead. He was level 90 and was affiliated with the guild Plant Hwyaden. The fourteen members who followed him belonged to the same guild and were at roughly the same level.

  At this point, there weren’t many player killers on the Yamato Server. At the very least, the act was all but unheard of in the vicinity of Akiba by now. However, on meeting a group this deep in the mountains, Minori and the others couldn’t hide their tension.

  Casually, Rundelhaus went over to stand by Touya.

  As he swept his mantle back, standing in a pose that made him look like a model, he was the very image of a young nobleman, but Minori knew he’d taken up that position so that he could shield Isuzu and Serara behind him.

  The group walked at a steady pace, without hurrying.

  If they were high-level, they must have had highly capable mounts, but not a single Adventurer was riding. The fourteen of them formed two rough lines, drawing nearer on the mountain track.

  Since the road had opened up here, they wouldn’t be passing each other at a narrow place. All they had to do was watch them go. Although Minori thought it might be cowardly of her, the fact relieved her.

  Yet, the four individuals in the center of the group were supporting an enormous object.

  It looked like a portable Shinto shrine. The decorations on it seemed very European, but it was surrounded by a crosshatch framework of thick poles, and the four people to the front, back, and both sides were using those poles to carry it.

  “That’s Boreas’ Moving Temple,” Dariella murmured softly.

  “What’s that?” Roe2, the only member of the group who didn’t seem tense, asked indifferently.

  “I haven’t seen it very often myself. It’s something the Odysseia Knights carry with them from place to place. I heard it’s a sacred item used by the Adventurers.”

  “Hm.”

  On hearing that, Isuzu and Serara looked dubious.

  Minori hadn’t heard anything of the sort, either.

  The same was true of the name “Odysseia Knights.” The mere sound of it provoked echoes of unease, as though a cold wind were blowing through. In any case, when she’d checked just now, the group had been Adventurers affiliated with Plant Hwyaden.

  That meant the Odysseia Knights probably weren’t a guild.

  In which case, what exactly were they? Minori didn’t know.

  What she had heard before was the word Odysseia, “those who long for home.”

  It was a group whose ultimate goal was returning to the old world. If that had been all, she could have sympathized; in a way, the group would have been expressing the feelings of all Adventurers. However, all the rumors she’d heard as she’d helped Shopping District 8 in Akiba’s guild center had seemed tinged with gloom.

  The group came closer, until they were able to make out equipment and the features on individual faces. All the members’ equipment was clean and neat. They actually seemed a little too disciplined to Minori. None of them made small talk with each other, and they walked at a fixed pace. They were a group of Adventurers with unlimited physical strength, level 90 at that, but they seemed like a band of exhausted wraiths—even though there was nothing in their gestures to suggest it.

  “They say Boreas’ Moving Temple resurrects all Adventurers.”

 
; As a Person of the Earth, Dariella probably didn’t know.

  Her words sounded somehow distant, as if she were speaking about someone else.

  “Also, I couldn’t say whether it’s a side effect, but it’s said to disturb the voice of your heart. It must be quite important to the Adventurers.”

  Minori and Serara exchanged glances.

  No matter what she said, they’d never heard of the item before. They weren’t sure how to react. They didn’t really understand the meaning of what Dariella was saying, either. Minori felt as if something inside her was refusing to understand.

  If they took her words at face value, that “moving temple” seemed to be something that acted like a temple and resurrected Adventurers who’d lost their lives near it: a substitute for a resurrection point, or rather, a movable resurrection point.

  It did sound like a blessing that heightened Adventurer immortality, but on the other hand, it seemed terribly ominous.

  Feeling uneasy, Minori whispered her little brother’s name into his back.

  For the past few minutes, Touya had been standing at the very front of their group, drawing himself up to his full height and fixing steady eyes on the Odysseia Knights. As a result, his back was all Minori could see.

  Touya didn’t respond.

  However, as his twin, Minori could see tension in his back that was as great as when he was fighting.

  When the procession reached the side of the open area, they advanced at an unchanged pace—as if searching for something, as if led by something—without paying any special attention to Minori and the others.

  It felt as if a very long time had passed, but considered objectively, it had probably only been about ten minutes.

  They caused no trouble. They simply passed by.

  Even so, Minori was unable to quiet the whisper that spread through her heart.

  3

  A magic circle was cast about thirty meters ahead, laying track and warping nature in accordance with its established effect. It interfered with Dryads and Treants, creating a tunnel-shaped space through the dense forest. The surrounding trees twisted out of its way.

  The magic array continued to generate the same gleam, advancing ever onward. This particular magic circle did more than simply interfere with the surrounding natural environment; it also acted as magical rails that generated a floating force field and aided movement.

  With the help of levitating power, steel carriages advanced over the magical array. They were huge, box-shaped vehicles about eight meters long. The carriages were clad in rough armor, and even though they had windows in them, the glass was tinted dark, and it wasn’t possible to see inside.

  The fourth car from the front was a two-story command post vehicle with a roof that could be opened, and in it, there was a woman.

  Her voluptuous body, which had a carnivorous air about it, was encased in a military uniform, and her name was Mizufa Trude.

  She was a high-ranking officer who served the Holy Empire of Westlande.

  The lady general was watching the outside world through shielded glass. Her smile was sardonic, a mixture of obstinacy and thoughtlessness. Her beautiful legs, which she’d crossed at the thigh, showed that she was relaxed, and the fingertips of her right hand toyed with the hilt of her sword, caressing it.

  Mizufa was satisfied with the moving train’s performance.

  Without the chained rails, the train would have been too heavy to move at all, but with the help of the magic circle, it was able to advance over even this mountainous, uneven ground. Considered in combination with its defensive capabilities, even its unwieldy mass wasn’t a flaw.

  The Adventurers wanted machines that could fly through the sky. They’d discarded this train as a useless toy, an attempt that had failed during development. However, for Mizufa and the other People of the Earth, even this discarded toy was a treasure more precious than gold. The overwhelming difference in technological power made Mizufa smile.

  It wasn’t just technology. Magic, strength, inventiveness: The Adventurers had several times more of all these things than the People of the Earth did.

  It was as if someone had decided that they were the protagonists of this world.

  …And Mizufa and the others were supporting players.

  She chuckled deep in her throat at the dark humor in it. She had no idea who’d done it, but they’d created quite a cruel farce.

  “Progressing smoothly, ma’am.”

  “What’s our location?”

  “The same as before: the eastern Deep, Dark Woods.”

  The steel carriages composed the heart of the army corps under Mizufa’s control, and they were currently carrying out a top secret mission: Operation Crimson Night. There weren’t many personnel involved in the maneuver. However, it was an important mission, and cutting-edge technology such as the train, Servant Summoning Gems and EXP Pots had been committed to it.

  Its importance had doubtless been confirmed by the Ten-Seat Council as well, but Mizufa thought that was nowhere near enough. The Adventurers didn’t understand the meaning behind this operation in the slightest.

  Nureha, the council’s capricious leader, had accompanied them on the maneuver in order to slip out of the castle, and it had encouraged the troops. This was something Mizufa herself had planned, and its effect had been enormous: Now, her soldiers were willing to fight under her orders to the point of giving up their lives and souls. In the Holy Empire of Westlande, Nureha was a princess who was the object of blind belief and fanaticism. Her charisma was beyond description.

  Of course… No doubt that’s Lady Nureha’s whim.

  Still, no matter how much belief was invested in her, Nureha was an Adventurer as well.

  Maybe she’d tired of the march through the Deep, Dark Woods. She’d unexpectedly vanished from the train. Her ladies-in-waiting and menservants were frantic, but Nureha disappearing wasn’t all that unusual. Mizufa was calm.

  In the first place, she’d wanted Nureha to encourage the troops and review the unit, things she’d already done; after that, she had no need for her. On the contrary: It would have been more of a nuisance if she’d stayed nearby, meddling in this and that. Letting Nureha disappear and allowing the situation to stand would probably have been a problem in and of itself, but one of the Ten-Seat Council members, “Imperial Guard” Loreil Dawn, was following her. It had been five days since they’d vanished; they’d probably met up again by now. To Mizufa, these were welcome circumstances.

  The single remaining thorn was another Ten-Seat, Kazuhiko, who was riding in one of the rear cars.

  This insolent stick-in-the-mud led his own private army, the Miburo, and poked his nose into every problem in Minami. Mizufa considered him an eyesore. He’d even used the name of the Ten-Seat Council to interfere with her military authority and had used his organization as a military police force. As its leader, Kazuhiko had insisted on confirming the safety of the Servant Summoning Gems and had planted himself in a rearward car.

  Still, even that had already been factored in.

  That was how much value there was in Crimson Night. Or rather, this entire sequence of unit reinforcement was a process that was absolutely vital if Mizufa was to achieve her ambition.

  The lady laughed deeply.

  The train wasn’t going all that fast. Even if they’d been traveling on an ordinary highway, their top speed was only about a third of what the latest four-horse cart could manage. However, on the other hand, that speed didn’t decrease even on unimproved ground. It would follow the undulations of the forest even into a ravine, but it was still faster than moving an army on foot.

  This certainly fell short of the miraculous, sorcerous machine the Adventurers had wanted—one that could travel from Minami to Ezzo in ten hours—but it was extremely useful for all that. Compared to traveling through the sky, where it wasn’t possible to avoid being seen, in terms of secrecy, it could even be considered superior. At any rate, even the Adventurers hadn’t
completed a flying machine yet. To her, this treasure of a train alone was enough.

  The Mana Breeder Zeldus was said to have developed Jared Gan’s Mana Furnace, which had made the train practical on an industrial scale. The ancient technology of the Kunie, handed down through the House of Saimiya…the magic technology that had been born from this knowledge was, naturally, the core of Adventurer fortunes, but the People of the Earth had received a tiny share as well. This train was one example.

  That the locomotive “advances over uneven ground” was easy to say, but it wasn’t limited to wilderness. In order to secure its course, the Circled Rails had the power to warp the surrounding forest. In other words, while it was slow, it made it possible to covertly transport troops across Yamato, which was thick with mountains and forests.

  At present, Mizufa had ten armored cars under her command. Of these, four were particularly large. The fact that there weren’t many of them was worrisome, and she preferred her equipment more standardized, but there was really no help for that.

  Adventurers were fickle, and they loved novelty. They weren’t interested in mass-producing things that were already technologically complete. They were constantly attempting to create new, different, powerful, superior items. Of course, this was doubtless a good attitude to take in terms of technological development, but for soldiers like Mizufa, it was irritating. In the field, it was better for both repairs and operation if equipment was standardized.

  That said, since Mizufa had taken an invention that wasn’t wanted, she wasn’t about to be picky. She had enough authority to request minimal maintenance, and in a pinch, she knew she could make a variety of bribes work for her.

  Adventurers were children, and when it came to their desires, they were weak.

  “Report on the status of the Nightshade Servants.”

  “Company One has returned. Companies Two and Three are being deployed to Redstone from Boxroot. Company Four is backup. Company Five is currently on duty patrolling the area. Companies Six and Seven are resting.”