by Mamare Touno
“But when I was examining the gate, there was a response on the transmission network. Isn’t it live?”
Shiroe mulled over Li Gan’s words. Had he been thinking about it the wrong way?
He’d discarded the possibility of Shibuya based on his knowledge of Elder Tales back when it had been a game. However, Theldesia was another world now, and there might be something new there. A hidden room they hadn’t been able to find in the game, an antenna reached by climbing an exterior wall, or maybe an underground facility with no entrance—those were all possibilities that might exist.
Shiroe started to get up, meaning to investigate right away, but a telechat came in just then.
It was bad news.
Sleep-inducing lunar moths had crept into Yamato’s night.
5
“The kid’s gonna be a real lord, huh…?” Isaac grumbled. He was holding a glass of sweet liquor, which wasn’t his thing.
The great hall was filled with countless lights and the strains of chamber music. Even in People of the Earth culture, soirées seemed to be something aristocrats held. Being able to hold a feast flooded with light even at night, after the sun went down, was a very easy way to demonstrate how much power you had.
Maihama was the leading territory in Eastal, the League of Free Cities. Since this was about its next leader, the number of invited guests was significant. All the neighboring lords and their families were present without exception, and even nobles from distant territories had sent proxies. Between them, their guards, and the servers from Maihama, the hall teemed with at least three hundred People of the Earth.
As Iselus accepted greetings, Isaac watched him from a distance, wineglass in hand, feeling impressed. He admitted that the kid was sharp, but still, he was eight. As far as Isaac’s common sense was concerned, that really was young.
“Yes, that’s right,” Calasin replied, from where he stood beside him. “Besides, the coming era will be a hard one; he may have a rough time of it.”
“‘Coming’? Is that something to do with whatever the lot in Minami is planning?” Isaac responded, without looking at him.
It was a royal pain, but during this presentation event, Isaac and Calasin were being treated as the senior envoy and vice envoy from the Round Table Council. Isaac was bad with formal roles like that, and he’d wanted to make a break for it, but they’d told him the Round Table Council was currently short-handed, so there was no help for it.
He’d thought he’d leave the negotiating to Calasin and get himself good and drunk, but aristocrats’ parties didn’t suit him. He’d have appreciated cold liquor with fried rockfish to snack on a whole lot more.
Since he was a guard, Isaac had no intention of skipping out, but he couldn’t help but remember the sizzling hot delicacy.
“Hmm. That’s unusually perceptive of you. Was that animal instinct?”
Calasin teased Isaac, paying no attention to his feelings. “Watch it,” Isaac said, but although his mouth was set in a cross line, his mood had improved a little.
“I’m kidding. Look, you’ll scare your popularity away if you keep making that face. Smile, smile. I’ll have them send you some fried rockfish later.”
“Huhn.”
He grunted, but Calasin seemed to see through that, too. No matter what he actually said, the guy was considerate.
“Minami’s teamed up with the Holy Empire of Westlande. If Westlande seriously tries to get Eastal under its control, we probably won’t be able to avoid a war.”
“What the old guy was talking about, huh?” Isaac muttered.
“Oh, was he?”
“Yeah. He explained it to me a little.”
All the nobles seemed to know about the discord between Eastal and Westlande and the current confusion already. That atmosphere had been reported to the Round Table Council’s top brass.
However, Isaac had felt it only since arriving in Maihama. Apparently, people didn’t think problems were “theirs” unless they had a direct connection to them. Tragedies that happen to people I haven’t met are somebody else’s problem, Isaac thought it was. That was only natural.
“Heh-heh. Well, where people gather, trouble ensues. The more there are, the more there is. We Adventurers are involved, and the situation’s complicated.”
“You sure know a lot about it.”
“Whoa! What do you think I am, Isaac the Young? I’m a merchant, a merchant. To merchants, information is life, you know? What about you?”
“It feels like something’s buzzing around.”
As Isaac answered, he fiddled with his elaborate ear ornament. The People of the Earth—even the men—often wore accessories like this in order to show off their rank or power. However, in Isaac’s opinion, it seemed like something host club workers would wear, and it made him feel fidgety.
“It’s because we don’t understand nobles. I wonder if this sort of thing is normal. Do use it, all right?”
“If it doesn’t get in the way, yeah, sure.”
His perfunctory reply to Calasin was interrupted by cheers.
Technically, Iselus was the center of today’s gathering. However, an individual’s majesty and charm could disregard the event’s intended focus. The great doors were opened, and a delicate girl with silver hair gracefully advanced across the floor, followed by an escort of guards in Round Table Council uniforms that matched Isaac’s.
At that, Isaac began to make his way back toward Iselus.
“It’s Princess Raynesia.”
“She’s as lovely as always.”
“I heard she’d been posted away from home for an extended period, in order to act as an intercessor with the Adventurers of Akiba.”
“She apparently returned to the castle by griffin this morning.”
“By griffin?!”
Even if the voices were speaking in hushed whispers, that many of them together created a significant amount of background noise. Raynesia’s head was bowed slightly, and she wore a modest smile; true to her reputation, she seemed to be overwhelmingly popular among the People of the Earth as the Rose Garden Princess.
To Isaac, who saw Raynesia’s popularity in Akiba as well, nothing about the response felt strange. On the contrary, he smirked at Riezé’s previous assessment of his remark: “She sure is elegant.” “Regardless, I hear she possesses resourcefulness equal to that of a prime minster who controls a territory.”
“I fear I am late, Grandfather.”
“Welcome home, Sister.”
“I’m sorry to have arrived late for your birthday. Do forgive me, Iselus.”
“Well, you are working in Akiba, after all!”
Isaac pushed his way through the crowd, arriving at what seemed to be the best moment: Raynesia was greeting Sergiad and Iselus. As Raynesia bent down, smiling at her brother in the heart of the hall’s warm radiance, her beauty really was the sort that made you long to preserve it in a picture.
Well, there’s no need to actually talk to them, Isaac thought. He took a couple steps back, taking up a position where he could watch the whole Cowen family at once. He thought he’d keep an eye on their quality time from there, but Iselus’s next words made his expression freeze up.
“Sister, I’ve made friends with an Adventurer, just like you.”
“…Iselus? You mustn’t think it’s so easy to befriend Adventurers. Friends are something you earn after overcoming difficulties with tremendous courage.”
“And you, Sister?”
“Yes, of course, I’ve made it through that trial.”
“Amazing!”
That ain’t amazing.
Friends are just something you sorta end up with.
When he shot a weary glance at Riezé across the room, she looked bewildered, and also as if she felt powerless to stop Raynesia even if she’d wanted to. She lowered the arm she’d half raised. She must have given up.
He didn’t know the details, but he’d heard she was Raynesia’s guard and supporter. The fema
le Adventurers of Akiba had based themselves in Water Maple Manor during the murderer incident and had resolved the matter by working together; that fact had been reported to the Round Table Council. Since it had been a raid, Isaac had seen the records as well, and this girl, Riezé, was the one who had taken command during the operation.
“Besides, menaces and monsters and bespectacled ones lurk among the Adventurers.”
“Menaces…?”
“Yes. Beware those who wear glasses. Nothing good ever comes of defying them. Or rather, in the unlikely event that you find an opportunity to defy them, it is a trap.”
The conversation seemed to be heading further off the rails.
In her attempt to persuade Iselus, Princess Raynesia had crouched down all the way. Her graceful eyebrows were drawn together, and she was speaking in worried tones. To the nobles who surrounded them at a distance and couldn’t hear what they were talking about, she looked like a kind, intelligent princess dispensing advice to her little brother, who was about to shoulder the important position of lord, but what she was actually telling him was a pack of lies.
Or, wait, maybe not.
Isaac changed his mind. She was probably talking about Krusty (the four-eyed elite) and Shiroe (Machiavelli-with-Glasses). In that case, the bits about how “nothing good came of defying them” and “traps” probably weren’t lies. Apparently, when the People of the Earth spoke with one another about Akiba’s Adventurers, descriptions got twisted. If this was how things were, there was no telling what they thought of him.
He didn’t care about Krusty, but if he let her keep talking, he thought it might stir up trouble. He started to say something to her, but he was just a little too late.
“It’s all right. Isaac the Young doesn’t wear glasses.”
“I’m so sorry I’m not a four-eyes.”
Iselus’s loud declaration rang out, and Isaac ended up delivering a morose comeback. Nothing Iselus said about him could really bother him, but due to his position, he couldn’t move away. After injecting his flippant comment into the siblings’ conversation, he looked around.
He wasn’t used to the phantom noise that echoed right by his ear, so the audio was imprecise and slipshod. There were so many guests in this hall that it could detect things only vaguely.
“Huh? Oh. Eh-heh-heh. That wasn’t what I meant at all, Master Isaac. How are you faring this evening?”
“I’m ‘faring’ fantastic, and hey. Hey, you. I’m gonna tell Krusty on you.”
“…He isn’t there.”
What’s with this princess? …Huh. So she can make that face, too.
Isaac didn’t know anything about how aristocrats were born, how they were raised, or how they lived. He had the fuzzy idea that, since they were rich, it was likely they’d been strictly trained since they were tiny. They were probably completely tied down by duty and restrictions and things like that. Bizarre stuff. He’d never want to live that way. Those were his only thoughts on the subject.
All he’d thought about Raynesia was that she was an important guest of the Round Table Council and a major figure among the People of the Earth. In terms of the real world, she’d be a rich idol singer or something like that, and the conditioning that she was a game NPC was hard to shake.
However, he thought the sulky face she’d pulled a second ago was far better suited to someone her age than the tranquil, polished smile.
Apparently, that idiot Krusty wasn’t seeing what was right in front of him.
The thought was highly gratifying.
“Oh, Sister! This is yuzu citrus juice. It looks delicious. Isaac the Young, this is yours.”
“Uh, hey. Iselus. Don’t skip around like that.”
“But I’m happy.”
When your mind’s made up, your body responds to that, huh?
Feeling oddly calm, Isaac whisked Iselus off his feet, then set him down again nearby. His silver hair was just like his sister’s. It was as fine as silk thread, and when Isaac swiped at it affectionately, it slipped between his fingers smoothly.
“Guys should act more dignified. Besides, you’re about to become a head honcho.”
“A head honcho?”
“A lord— Ain’t that right, you over there? You too, and you.”
Isaac raised a thick, sinewy finger. To the People of the Earth, the finger seemed to be drawing an unfamiliar magic circle in the air, but it was actually the gesture Isaac used to materialize the Black Sword of Pain from his item menu. When the big red-headed man in the Round Table Council uniform summoned an object from another dimension, and that object turned out to be a large, jet-black, ominous sword, the hall grew noisy.
The uproar was funny, and Isaac smiled savagely into the tense, pale faces of the maids and nobles he’d pointed at.
“Don’t you think that’s a little too rowdy, people?”
The Surprise Attack Alert Earring that Calasin had made him take had rung loudly.
“Assassinations are supposed to be sneakier than that.”
The noise sounded like the roar of a fierce wild beast, threatening its enemies.
6
“Hah, uh, um… Has there been some sort of mistake?”
The Person of the Earth noble’s words were resolute and defiant, but Isaac flat-out ignored them. He glared at a frightened maid who had fallen down, and then he clanked the great sword he held over his shoulder.
“The idea of bringing out a huge, sinister sword at a festive occasion like this one!!”
Calasin went forward, both hands raised, to placate the bravely yelling noble. The young man’s expression was mild and soothing, but there wasn’t a shred of mercy in his words: “You’ve been outed, so no, I don’t think there’s been a mistake.”
“That’s a RoderLab-made accessory. Its effect is ‘surprise attack alert.’ It uses magic to give alerts about ambushes, stealthy approaches, poison attacks, instant death attacks, and hostility within a twenty-five meter radius. It may not look like it, but it’s a semi-fantasy class item. It uses magic materials from the One-Eyed Dragon.”
“You’re pretty handy there, Calasin.”
“Thanks for your business.”
Upon hearing the two men’s effervescent conversation, everyone around them took two steps back en masse.
This was the leader of Maihama’s ball, and the guests had gathered from all over. Some of them were probably acquainted with one another, of course, but most of them were special envoys from other territories or ladies-in-waiting or guards, and they didn’t know many others well.
Isaac’s words had hinted that there might be someone suspicious here. No, he’d practically said, in much clearer terms, that the envoy in front of him was an assassin.
As a result, people exchanged uncertain glances with the guests around them, putting distance between themselves and the others with the timidity of small animals.
With a light sound as if someone were beating a futon, Isaac turned to the maid he’d glared at and the protesting noble and, in one motion, ripped off their clothes. At the transformation, the subdued atmosphere in the hall changed abruptly, and screams went up.
The lithe black outfits were reminiscent of ninja garb, and they were clearly intended for combat. He’d thought it was just the noble in front of him and his guards, but apparently, it wasn’t. In the time it took to blink, a dozen or so assassins had appeared. From the looks of the elderly noblewoman who was backing away, petrified, she hadn’t ever dreamed that the lady-in-waiting she’d employed was a spy.
“Scatter!”
Without even glancing at one another, the infiltrators evaded the sword aura Isaac unleashed, dodging to either side.
Frankly, at that point, Isaac’s opinion of them went up. He’d been thinking about beating them within an inch of their lives; he hadn’t had the slightest suspicion that they might manage to dodge. They were People of the Earth as well, but they were probably more skilled than the Maihama knights his group was training.
>
“Dammit! For the peace of Yamato!”
“What’re you getting all melodramatic for?”
Although, that was only “in comparison with.”
A ninja ran at Isaac with a dagger at the ready, intending to ram him, but Isaac hit him with the flat of the Black Sword of Pain, then sent a hard, leather-shod kick into the side of another one who was trying to circle around him.
“Damn you, Adventurer!”
“Yeah, and?” he snapped at the groaning assassin. So what if I’m an Adventurer? There wasn’t anything Isaac could do about it, no matter what the guy said, and it didn’t bother him one bit.
However, as far as the assassin was concerned, it had probably been a curse. Eyes bloodshot, the man shrieked a few words in a piercing voice, then took a spherical item out of his shirt and threw it at his own feet. There was a metallic sound, and it began to spew out smoke of a disturbing color.
This time, an uproar as if someone had poked a hornets’ nest welled up in the presentation hall.
“Hey, nobody breathe that! Get back! Open the windows, and— Calasin! Detox!”
As he issued the warning, a new assassin who’d come out of nowhere growled and attempted to run past Isaac, seizing his chance. The man looked as if axes would suit him, but Isaac sent him flying with a fist, then scooped up Iselus, the intended target, as if he were a cat. If he kept scampering around, he’d be insanely hard to protect.
“Isaac the Young!”
“I’ll give you a shoulder ride, Isel!”
He was actually carrying him over his shoulder like a sack of rice, but Iselus seemed to have nodded without hesitation.
“Hand over the boy, and we’ll spare your life.”
“What’s the condescension for? Huhn?!”
“This is basilisk petrifying poison. An accumulation will numb, paralyze, then turn even a high-level Adventurer to stone,” the man boasted in a flat, toad-like voice, smiling at Isaac with a viscous gaze. It was a despicable, cloudy expression. “There are any number of ways to combat Adventurers.”
