Skeleton Knight in Another World Vol. 4

by Ennki Hakari

  I’d honestly thought I could put up a better fight, but that was quite clearly not the case.

  “Hmph. Would you mind one more round, Miss Glenys?” I hoped to redeem myself at least slightly.

  Glenys rested her staff on her shoulder. “Fine by me.”

  Although I was glad to have another chance, it ended up being no different, since Glenys still landed multiple blows on my head.

  I swung the staff a few more times, groaning to myself as I tried to figure out how to move more fluidly. Glenys and I were facing off in mock battle, using nearly harmless wooden staves. Sooner or later, however, I’d find myself in a far more dangerous situation, armed only with my sword. This talented ex-soldier was able to make quick work of me, in what amounted to little more than a warm-up for her.

  Glenys didn’t sound even remotely winded as she offered her evaluation. “Your reaction speed is incredible, Arc, but it’s just too easy to read your movements. All you do is react. Also, since you’re not attacking based on the flow of battle, you’re easily fooled by feints. You might look the part of a knight, but you really don’t have the swordsmanship down.”

  She’d built her skills over time, and could afford to toy around with me before coming in for the kill. Compared to her, what I was doing could hardly even be called swordsmanship. My technique was basically suicide strikes that relied on brute strength. If this had been a rock-paper-scissors match, I would have been constantly throwing out whichever hand beat her previous move. Once Glenys recognized that, it was easy to lure me into all manner of traps.

  It reaffirmed my gut feeling that I needed to improve the flow of my movements, if for no other reason than to make the best use of my sword.

  While I thought that over, a voice called out in my defense.

  “There aren’t a whole lot of people who can match Arc’s superhuman abilities, Mom. No need to be so hard on him.”

  The woman, a dark elf like Glenys, walked up beside me. She wore a priest-like robe marked with arcane symbols over her amethyst-colored skin. Her snow-white hair, tied back in a ponytail, fluttered in the breeze as she fixed her golden eyes on me.

  She was Ariane Glenys Maple, Glenys’s daughter. Ariane was a soldier of Maple, the capital of the Great Canada Forest.

  I first became acquainted with Ariane by sheer chance, when she hired me as a mercenary to help her rescue some fellow elves enslaved by humans. From there, we got to know each other better as we continued to work together. Now I found myself staying in an elven village—a place few humans were ever allowed to set foot in.

  Glenys put her finger to her chin in thought. “I suppose you’re right. Not many humans could keep up with Arc. But, you know, plenty of elves could run circles around him. Take your sister, for instance. Or even your grandfather.”

  There were quite a number of talented fighters in Ariane’s family.

  Ariane beckoned to me. “Arc, give me your staff.”

  I nodded and handed it over.

  “Care to spar, mother?”

  “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

  The two women exchanged smiles before silently separating.

  Even though they were mother and daughter, Glenys looked so young that they could easily have been mistaken for sisters. Due to their long lifespans—around four hundred years—it was incredibly difficult to tell an elf’s age by appearance alone.

  “Hyaaa!” Ariane yelled as she glided toward her mother, closing the distance in a flash.

  Glenys drew back, almost imperceptibly, and swung her staff to catch Ariane’s mid-swing, deflecting the blow. She then gracefully moved into her own strike, swinging low under Ariane’s failed attack.

  Using a move similar to her mother’s, Ariane deftly dodged Glenys’s subsequent attacks, trying to build distance between them while launching a series of kicks to keep her mother at bay. Glenys smiled at that, even as she jumped to avoid Ariane’s counterattacks.

  “Tsk, tsk. You take after your sister, with your overreliance on kicking.”

  This match was nothing like mine and Glenys’s. The contenders moved nimbly, as if in a dance. It was captivating.

  There was absolutely no way I’d ever be able to move around like that in my armor. I could only hope that, under Glenys’s tutelage, I might one day fight at least somewhat as gracefully as she did.

  My technique essentially relied on overwhelming force to destroy anything in my way. That worked all right on monsters and other non-humans, but it wasn’t well-suited to opponents requiring a little more finesse.

  I was thinking about asking Ariane to teach me the basics of swordsmanship, the next time we had a free moment, when the battle between her and Glenys finally reached its conclusion.

  Ariane’s staff spun through the air, landing in front of me with a dull thud. Looking up, I saw her with her hands on her knees, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. She glowered at her mother, who wore a satisfied smile.

  Even as a complete amateur, I could tell that Ariane was a skilled swordsman. The fact that Glenys could beat her so handily made me all the more impressed with the older elf’s abilities.

  “Absolutely astonished” might actually be a better way of putting it.

  “My, my. You’ve certainly improved, but you still have a ways to go.”

  “Gah! I couldn’t even get a hit in!”

  The figure standing beside me, who’d also watched the sparring match unfold, slowly raised her hand.

  Glenys caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and looked over.

  “Oh, Chiyome. Do you also want to spar?”

  “Please, if you’d be so kind as to give me a chance,” the young girl replied in her usual formal manner as she stood, fixing her azure eyes on Glenys. Her short black hair rippled in the wind.

  Chiyome was small in stature, and dressed in loose, black clothes for ease of movement. She wore gauntlets on her arms, shin guards on her legs, and a short sword at her waist. Two triangular ears poked out from her hair, and a long, black tail wrapped around her waist, giving away the fact that she was not quite human.

  Chiyome was one of the mountain people, who hid constantly to avoid being enslaved by humans and used for manual labor. She was also a member of a militant group known as the Jinshin clan, which was devoted to rescuing enslaved mountain people. The clan was originally founded around six hundred years ago by a man who came to this world in a manner similar to how I ended up here. He brought this group of persecuted people together and trained them as ninjas. Chiyome was a member of her clan’s highest class, consisting of the top six fighters.

  Glenys waved Chiyome over.

  “Of course.”

  Ariane and Chiyome changed places, and Chiyome faced Glenys. She didn’t pick up a weapon, but instead clenched her gauntleted hands together. The two eyed each other in silence for several moments.

  Unlike the previous bouts, this time Glenys made the first move. She launched a series of kicks, moving far more quickly than what I’d seen when Ariane attempted the same. Chiyome dropped low to the ground, dodging the blows before jumping back to her feet and delivering her own round of kicks. Glenys ducked out of range.

  Thanks to her small form, Chiyome’s movements were quick and nimble, making me wonder if there actually was some cat blood in her. It almost looked as if she were playing with Glenys.

  However, even under Chiyome’s onslaught, Glenys’s ever-present smile never left her face.

  The two moved in a blur as they traded blows. The tip of Glenys’s staff finally struck the back of Chiyome’s knee, distracting the young girl. Glenys laid into her until Chiyome eventually lost her balance and found Glenys’s staff at her throat. Chiyome let out a low growl, but a moment later, she accepted her defeat.

  “Well, I’ve been had.”

  Glenys withdrew her staff and clapped. “That was quite impressive, Chiyome. Your mastery of martial arts outshines even my own daughter’s. I worry that your attacks might be a
bit weak due to your small frame, but you’re still growing, so I imagine that will sort itself out with time.”

  Chiyome’s expression, which was usually flat whenever she spoke, lightened up a bit at Glenys’s evaluation. She quickly bowed her head to hide her smile.

  “Th-thank you, ma’am.”

  Glenys looked down tenderly at the young girl before turning her attention back to me, and bringing her hands together in a loud clap.

  “Well! I think that’s enough morning exercise. How about we eat some breakfast and begin preparing for your trip?”

  “Sounds great!”

  “Understood.”

  Ponta, who’d been busy playing around the perimeter of the house, picked up on the word “breakfast” and let out an excited cry as it came running.

  “Kyii!”

  Ponta was a cottontail fox: an animal about sixty centimeters long with the face of a fox and the body of a Japanese flying squirrel. It got its name from its dandelion-like tail, which it was currently wagging. The soft and fluffy fur on Ponta’s back was the color of grass, while its stomach and half its tail were pure white, giving the fox the appearance of a mountain of shaved ice covered in matcha syrup.

  Ponta was a spirit creature, which meant that a spirit resided within it, allowing it to use magic.

  According to Ariane and Chiyome, spirit creatures were typically incredibly cautious. Judging by how easily the mere mention of food drew Ponta in, however, I couldn’t help but think that it was somehow missing that instinct.

  Ponta summoned a gust of magical wind, and caught the updraft with the membranes between its front and back legs. It flew high into the sky and glided toward the top of my helmet—its usual spot. However, before it could successfully make its landing, Ariane reached up and grabbed Ponta right out of the air.

  Ariane petted Ponta’s head gingerly, speaking in an unnaturally sweet voice. “Hiya, Ponta! You want something to eat?”

  Ponta looked back and forth between Ariane and myself before letting out an excited cry and burying its face in her ample bosom.

  I guess the allure of food beat sitting on my head any day.

  ***

  On the second floor of the village elder’s treehouse, we sat down at a large wooden table in the middle of a massive dining room with a built-in kitchen. Ariane and Chiyome sat on either side of me, while Ponta munched a bowl of food near my feet, its large cotton tail wagging happily. Ariane smiled warmly, scratching the top of Ponta’s head.

  I’d traded my armor for traditional elven robes, and I was practically smacking my nonexistent lips with excitement at the sight of the food in front of me. I noticed Chiyome staring at me with great interest. I slowly turned toward her as I took a bite of bread.

  “What is it, Chiyome?”

  A look of uncertainty washed across her face. “It’s nothing. I mean…it’s just that you look like an undead. It’s so peculiar to sit here watching you eat like a normal person.”

  I supposed the sight of a living skeleton shoving bread into its mouth was rather peculiar.

  Blue flame flickered behind my eye sockets, deep within my skull. Despite the fact that I lacked skin, muscles, and even organs, I was still able to taste things, and everything I ate and drank disappeared into my body somewhere. When I first came to this world, I unintentionally took the form of the avatar I’d been playing in the game. At the time, I wasn’t using my human character, but a special avatar with a skeleton’s body.

  “Yeah, but Arc doesn’t have the death contamination on him, like the undead do. You can see that, can’t you, Chiyome?” Ariane continued patting Ponta, even as she butted in to defend me.

  Chiyome sniffed lightly and tilted her head to the side.

  “Mountain people can’t see the ‘death contamination,’ as you call it, but you’re right. He doesn’t have that stench the undead are known for.”

  Ariane shot me a slightly incredulous look, then spoke past me, to Chiyome. “Besides, you won’t find an undead that asks for a bath to wash away the sweat from its morning exercise. How do bones even sweat, anyway?”

  Chiyome looked back up at me.

  I looked down at my own body in an attempt to avoid their gazes.

  Come to think of it, there really was no way for my body to sweat. I realized that taking a bath after exercising was nothing more than a habit I’d developed over the years. While I tried desperately to explain to Ariane just how refreshing the ritual felt, even though I was a skeleton, Glenys approached the table and promptly handed a piece of paper to Ariane.

  I’d yet to see paper anywhere in the human towns, but apparently it was common in elven villages. This particular page was large and thick, with a map drawn on it.

  “This map will give you a general sense of the route through the cave to the Lord Crown. I assume you already know the way to the cave, or at least, close enough.”

  Ariane nodded, looking the map over carefully.

  Chiyome maintained her usual stoic look, although the ears atop her head twitched slightly as she glanced at the map.

  The Lord Crown was the location of a mysterious tree, near which the Dragon Lord, the most powerful of dragons, lived. Over the generations, all manner of spirits had come to inhabit the tree, since the Dragon Lord’s magic imbued it with mystical powers. The land near the Lord Crown was known to have peculiar effects, and according to Dillan—Lalatoya’s village elder and Ariane’s father—it contained a spring that could cure any curse.

  The map Ariane held in her hand marked the route to that spring. Our journey there was my payment for helping to rescue captured elves. We planned to finish our preparations today, and head out tomorrow.

  I couldn’t be sure what effect the spring would have on my skeleton body, assuming it had an effect at all. But it was worth at least trying to do something about this curse, since the longer I had it, the more difficulties I’d encounter here.

  Ariane studied the map with great interest, unable to contain her excitement.

  “It’s been a while since I went to the caverns. I’d never have imagined they were a shortcut to the other side of a mountain range.”

  “So, you’ve been in these caves before?” I asked.

  Ariane nodded. “My sister brought me there on several occasions, back when I was still a soldier-in-training here in the village. We collected various rune stones to power the magical items we use here.” Her eyes narrowed slightly, as if she suddenly remembered something, her gaze drilling into me. “If you plan to continue using our bath, Arc, you should probably pick up some rune stones while we’re in the cave.”

  That was her roundabout way of asking me to pay for the energy consumed when I used their bath. Baths were still a luxury here, unlike the world I came from; heating bathwater required either firewood or rune stones. If I wanted to continue enjoying that luxury, I’d better stay on Ariane’s good side. Once the curse was lifted, I’d finally be able to enjoy the feeling of warm water against my skin again, assuming everything went according to plan.

  I clenched my fists in determination. “Right! I’ll pay for my baths.”

  Ariane sighed loudly. “You really do love them, don’t you…?”

  I ignored her comment. Back in Japan, bathing frequently was pretty common, although it was rarer here.

  The human towns and inns in this world didn’t even have baths, just wet washcloths to wipe your body down. Once I saw that the elves built bathhouses, I felt a strong connection to them immediately, given my roots. I couldn’t help but wonder if the Great Canada Forest’s founding elder had been a Japanese man who was fond of Canada, or perhaps a Canadian fond of Japan.

  I was all too aware of the desire for familiar environments, and the longing for things lost.

  Glenys clapped to get our attention. “Well then, why don’t you go down to the basement, and pick out whatever you need for the trip tomorrow?”

  Ariane and Chiyome stood up from their seats.

  With breakf
ast finished, Ponta had begun grooming itself. The moment it noticed the women heading downstairs, however, it hurried after them as fast as its little legs could carry it.

  The door leading to the basement was on the first floor, behind the massive, tree-like pillar standing in the building’s center. We followed a stairwell that spiraled down the inside of the pillar. Thanks to magical lamps placed at regular intervals, the staircase was far brighter than the dark, dank basements of the various human nobles’ estates we’d snuck into.

  At the bottom of the stairs, we encountered a heavy wooden door, which opened into a narrow space lined with crowded shelves. If I’d still had a heart, it would have been racing with excitement. I felt as though we were on some sort of treasure hunt. Ariane was already digging through various items on the shelves.

  “What exactly do we need for this trip, anyway?”

  She turned to me and held something out. “Well, we’re heading into a cave, right?”

  I looked down at the item she gave me. It was a handheld lamp. Inside the glass casing were several clear crystal pillars, and there was a small knob on the bottom. As soon as I turned the knob, the crystals flickered to life, casting a steady glow that reminded me of an electric lightbulb.

  “Wow. That’s impressive.”

  Not only was I amazed at the lamp’s ability to serve as a light source, but the detailing on it was remarkable in its own right. I was sure it could have sold for several hundred thousand yen in an interior design store back home.

  “That’s a crystal lamp,” Chiyome said, while I busied myself playing with the shadows the lamplight created. “They’re made by elves, and prized for their strong light and sturdy build. Only a few wealthy humans own one.”

  Thinking back on the dim oil lamps I’d seen throughout the human towns, I believed her. A lamp like this, that put even electric lights to shame, would be far out of reach for common humans. Still, I could probably afford one. It might be a good idea to purchase one, in case—

  “Hey, quit slacking off and give me a hand, will ya?”

  I turned around to see Ariane’s cheeks puffed out. She shoved two more lamps and a bulging leather sack in my direction.