“That is an entirely separate matter.”
“But your castle garrison was collectively unable to prevent this Gold Yaksha’s intrusion, were they not? So instead of some futile attempt at a rescue mission, wouldn’t your princess have stood a better chance if you had simply paid the ransom?”
Rosalind was being especially harsh with Chirika. Her attitude earlier really must have gotten under her skin.
“You... I don’t care if you are a child; I will brook no further contempt from you!”
“Who are you calling a child?!”
Chirika was moments away from drawing her katana again, and the flames of fury in Rosalind’s eyes were reaching ever higher.
“H-Hold it right there! Both of you, calm down!” I hurriedly interrupted the tense atmosphere between them. “I understand Chirika’s situation now, so now we need to focus on finding a way to save that princess! So please, let’s not fight for no reason, okay? You need to stop picking fights too, Rosalind.”
“Hmph!”
Rosalind crossed her arms in displeasure and turned away. Chirika glared at her for another moment before heaving a deep sigh to calm herself and removing her hand from the handle of her sword.
“I owe you for the meal you provided me, so I shall oblige for now.”
“Th-Thanks...”
I didn’t quite understand her logic, but I was willing to take it for now. I was just happy things had calmed down. Or, at least, I thought they had.
“But I will not stand for being belittled so. My efforts were not in vain,” Chirika suddenly declared. “Rekka, place that apple on the chair and kindly stand before it.”
She was pointing to an apple Harissa had brought into the living room and was just about to start peeling.
“Huh?”
“Make it quick.”
At Chirika’s behest, I placed the apple on the chair and stood in front of it, just like she wanted. Once I was in place, she drew her katana and took a strange stance.
“H-Hey now...”
“Don’t worry. I shall not cut you.”
I would have been freaking out a little more if she weren’t outside of arm’s reach right now. There was even a table between us.
“Wait, what are you going to do to Rekka?” Iris asked Chirika worriedly.
Chirika didn’t take her eyes off me as she replied, “Don’t make me repeat myself... I shall not cut him!”
And there, she swung her sword.
“Uwah!”
I couldn’t help screaming, but the blade never reached me. Although... I did hear what sounded like something falling right behind me.
“Hm?”
I turned around to see the apple cleanly sliced in two, each half lying on either side of the chair.
“Whaaaaat?!”
“The apple suddenly split in half... No, it was cut?”
“What was that just now?”
Everyone else was just as surprised as I was. I picked up the apple halves to inspect them. And sure enough, the fruit had clearly been cut in two. I had a perfect cross-section.
“Did you cut it, Chirika?” I asked.
“That’s right,” she confirmed, slipping her katana back into its scabbard.
Her overflowing confidence certainly made it seem like she had, but how was that possible? I was standing right in front of it, and her sword slash only caught air.
“Magic?”
“Nope, that wasn’t magic. I couldn’t sense any mana,” said Satsuki.
Well, if it wasn’t magic, I was out of ideas. I honestly had no idea how she’d done it.
“Hmph, that’s a strange technique you have,” Rosalind muttered with a snort.
“Technique?” I asked.
“That’s right,” Chirika replied. “It’s one of the secret techniques passed down in my sword school. It’s called the Silkworm Slash, and it uses a blade made of chi to cut through physical objects at its user’s discretion. Once mastered, it’s capable of cutting a silkworm without disturbing its cocoon.”
“Huh, that’s impressive.”
Now that she mentioned it, there wasn’t a single mark on the chair or anything else. She hadn’t swung her sword haphazardly, but carefully to hit a specified target. Not just anyone—and not just any samurai, either—knew secret techniques, though. Chirika looked like she was about my age or maybe even a bit younger, so for her to be at this level must have meant she’d been through a considerable amount of training.
“I see. So shields and armor would be pointless against this,” said Rosalind.
“Well? Do you comprehend the extent of my abilities now?” Chirika asked, proudly sticking her chest out as she turned to Rosalind.
But Rosalind simply gave a shrug of her shoulders and said, “The subtlety of your skill is what I would expect from a Japanese swordsman. But as far as combat abilities are concerned, the people of the West have long surpassed human limits through training. I wouldn’t be so arrogant at your level.”
“Grrrrr!”
Despite having just met, it seemed the two of them already had it out for each other for some reason. I was starting to worry about where this was going, but luckily, the doorbell rang.
▽
Temporarily putting aside my fears about the sparks flying between Rosalind and Chirika, I went to go get the door. It was Hibiki, Chelsea, and an unfamiliar face.
“Oh, it’s you guys... Right, we need to work on something too.”
“What is that supposed to mean? Don’t tell me you forgot we were coming.”
“Um, well, no. It’s not that I forgot. It’s just that a lot has happened this afternoon, and it kinda slipped my mind.”
“...Should I ask?” Hibiki heaved a partially exasperated, partially resigned sigh.
“My, you really never change, do you, Rekka? Well, I guess that’s what makes you so reliable.” Chelsea laughed a bit, and then turned to introduce the girl behind her. “This is Sherlyn. I’m sure Hibiki mentioned it over the phone, but we came today to ask for your help. Sherlyn, this is Rekka. He’s the jack-of-all-trades problem solver I told you about before.”
“Nice to meet you, Rekka. I’m Sherlyn Doteyes, and the pleasure’s all mine,” Sherlyn said, offering her hand.
“Oh, my, what do we have here? Another heroine with that older sister feel, I see,” remarked R.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Sherlyn,” I said, trying to ignore R as I accepted Sherlyn’s handshake.
She smiled, and I have to admit it caught me a little off guard. It was charming for sure, but there was also a fierce, leopard-like beauty to it. Some kind of elegant, feline power. That was just kind of the whole vibe she gave off, I guess. She seemed like the type who could slip her way out of anything... But above all else, what really caught my attention about her was the overly ornate crown on her head.
“Oh? You curious about this?” Sherlyn noticed my line of sight and flicked the crown on her head. “Does it suit me?”
“Uh, yeah, it does.”
“Ahaha. You don’t have to force yourself to compliment me,” Sherlyn said with a good-natured laugh. “This little puppy is actually my biggest headache right now.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s discuss the details inside, Rekka.”
At Hibiki’s urging, I let the three of them into the house.
“More foreigners....” Chirika commented when she spotted Chelsea and Sherlyn.
Having recovered somewhat from the shock of her strange situation, she seemed to be settling into her own groove. But when Hibiki saw her...
“A samurai? Hey, Rekka, don’t tell me...”
“Then don’t ask.”
“...I know it’s really too late for me to be questioning this now, but how do you always manage to get dragged into such ridiculous stuff?”
“I honestly couldn’t tell you.”
Hibiki and I both sighed in unison. Since we shared similar bloodlines, we both understood how the other felt.
/>
Meanwhile, Sherlyn was exploding in a fit of excitement upon seeing Chirika.
“Oh my gosh! You’re a ninja, right?! Amazing! I’ve never seen the real thing before!”
“A ninja? No. I’m a samurai.”
“Samurai? Either way, it’s a first for me! Will you take a selfie with me?”
“What is this... ‘selfie’?”
Wow, that was a heck of a generational gap and a cultural gap.
“Never mind that. What did they come here for?” Chirika pointed to Sherlyn and asked.
“Well, Sherlyn’s actually in a bit of a bind right now, so she came to me for help,” I explained.
“What?” For some reason, Chirika sounded rather unhappy about this. “Boy... Weren’t you going to save my story? We must rescue Princess Izuko without delay. You do not have time to waste on anyone else.”
“H-Hey now, wait just a minute...” I scrambled for the words to respond to Chirika’s flash of anger. “Your story is important to me, but so is Sherlyn’s. I fully intend on saving you both, but I can’t prioritize one over the other. So... could you please hold on for a little longer?”
Chirika still seemed somewhat displeased, but she nodded grudgingly. She probably only accepted my request because she didn’t have anyone else to rely on. But it wasn’t like she was being selfish. I knew she was only snapping at me and demanding my help like that because she was desperate to save Princess Izuko. Yet as much as I wanted to help her, I had to help Sherlyn too.
“Sorry about that. Now, could you tell me what happened? I think Hibiki mentioned some kind of curse.”
“That’s right. Miss Samurai over there is waiting, so I’ll keep it short,” Sherlyn said, then flicked the crown on her head like she had earlier. “Plain and simple, this crown is cursed. According to the rumors, anyone wearing it will die in ten days.”
“In ten days?!”
“Uh-huh. And it took some time to track you down and get here, so I have three left, to be exact. And with every second that passes, it squeezes a little tighter around my head.”
Sherlyn had been speaking lightheartedly, but when I looked closer, I could see her forehead was pale and covered in a light sheen of sweat. She seemed to have been in pain for a while now.
“Where did you even find something like that...? If you’re a friend of Chelsea’s, are you a treasure hunter too?”
“Nah, not me. I don’t have any interest in the treasure itself,” she said, shaking her head.
But then she looked up and snapped her fingers. A great, billowing puff of smoke appeared at her feet and filled the room in the blink of an eye.
“Uwah! Harissa, open a window!”
“I-I’m on it!”
Harissa was the closest to the window and managed to get it open. The smoke quickly cleared after that, although it left everyone’s eyes watery.
“Blech, maybe that was too much smoke...”
That included Sherlyn too, apparently. This was her doing though, wasn’t it? Maybe she actually had a screw loose somewhere... Or so I had to wonder, but then my vision completely cleared.
“Huh? Sherlyn, your outfit...”
“Yup, I wanted to surprise you a little, but I kinda botched that one,” she said with a laugh.
She was now wearing a silk hat on her head and a cape neatly draped over her shoulders. The crown was peeking out from beneath her hat, but the getup still distinctly reminded me of...
“A magician?”
I could almost see the rabbit and playing cards in her hands.
“Nope. I’m not an illusionist either, although I can do some magic.”
“Then what are you?” I grumbled, wanting to know the answer already.
“Sorry, sorry. I’m actually a phantom thief.”
“Phantom thief? You mean like a burglar?”
“That title sounds so unrefined, so I don’t care much for it... but you’re not wrong.”
I wasn’t expecting a burglar—I’m sorry, a phantom thief. But I’d saved the likes of space pirates, mad scientists, and vampires before, so I wasn’t opposed to helping her as long as she explained herself.
“Wait, does this mean you obtained that crown by...”
“I most gracefully snatched it out of the exhibition at the museum.”
“...”
I was rather rudely about to remind her that people tend to reap what they sow, but I bit my tongue. Meanwhile, Chelsea tapped Sherlyn on the forehead.
“Oh, come on. Enough with the pretense. He’s going to save you, so tone it down a notch and just explain already,” she said with a tired sigh before turning to me. “Don’t mind her, Rekka. Sherlyn does steal things, but she’s known as a gentleman burglar where she’s from. In other words, she shares what she steals with the poverty stricken.”
“Really?”
I looked to Sherlyn, whose response was a shrug and a wry smile. It was almost like she was a little embarrassed about it... I have to say, I didn’t get her at all.
“She’s also originally from a family that can use magic, so we have that in common and kept in touch even after I left the Margaret clan.”
“I see... Wait, ‘originally from’?” I asked.
This time Sherlyn tapped Chelsea on the forehead.
“Now, now, Chelsea. You shouldn’t go revealing a woman’s past like that. That’s got nothing to do with this,” she said, pointing to the crown on her head.
All in all, between what I’d seen of her and what Chelsea had said, it didn’t seem like Sherlyn was a bad person. I decided I’d help her if I could, and pushed the conversation forward.
“All right, I get how Sherlyn obtained the crown. But how did you know about this curse, Hibiki?”
“Well, Chelsea asked Nartessia to investigate this for us... and that’s where we ran into trouble.”
Don’t tell me she demanded something in return for her research... Ugh, just thinking about it made me nervous. She really scares me.
“What’s the trouble?” I asked fearfully.
“As it turns out... That crown is apparently a relic from Atlantis.”
“A relic from Atlantis, huh?” I thought for a few seconds... then cocked my head to the side. “What’s Atlantis?”
Several people in the room dead fell over.
“Seriously? Atlantis is pretty famous, you know,” Tsumiki said, leaning on the table as she stood up and looked at me with dubious eyes.
“W-Well, it’s not exactly something we learned in school, so maybe that’s normal... Maybe...” Satsuki muttered, somewhat backing me up as she also stood up from where she’d fallen.
S-Seriously though? Had I just said something that stupid?
“Atlantis is the legendary continent that’s said to have sunk into the ocean,” Hibiki cleared her throat and explained. “But again, as a legend, no one actually believed that it was real. That is, until Nartessia deciphered the curse on the crown and found it brought death upon anyone who wore it... anyone who isn’t Atlantian, anyway.”
Ah, okay. So with that kind of curse on it, that would imply that Atlantis was real and that people from it did actually exist.
“And Nartessia was unable to remove that curse?”
“More like... she refused to,” Hibiki said dejectedly.
“‘The curse itself is ancient and the spell overly complex, so breaking it would take more time and effort than I have interest for the project...’ is what she said,” Chelsea muttered in a resigned voice.
“Hey, wait a minute. If Nartessia can do something about it, why don’t we just get her to do that? If you need some collateral, I can go get something from Aburaamu, the spirit world, or even the demon world that might interest her,” I suggested enthusiastically, but Hibiki and Chelsea shook their heads.
“The problem is time. Sherlyn only had ten days from the start, and Nartessia said it would take longer than that to break the curse under the present circumstances.”
Yeah, I guess break
ing it would be pointless if it was too late by then...
“But if we can’t break the curse, then how exactly do we save Sherlyn?”
“Mind you, Nartessia only said it would take too long under the present circumstances,” she repeated with emphasis.
“So then, what’s the plan?”
“According to Nartessia, in order to cast a curse with a formula this complex, an appropriate site would’ve been prepared. In other words, a ritual hall. If we can find clues about the nature of the curse there, then we can significantly shorten the time and the work that will have to go into breaking it.”
“Ah, okay.”
That meant there was still hope. Except that was when Tsumiki interrupted with a conflicted expression.
“But that crown is a relic from Atlantis, right? Even if it really did exist, wouldn’t it be at the bottom of the ocean by now? How would we even know where to look?”
That was true, but we had friends who could help us with both of those problems.
“Satsuki, please figure out the exact location of Atlantis for me.”
“All right.”
That was easily the kind of thing the Magic of Omniscience could find, so that was one problem down. As for the other...
“I’m going to head out for a bit.”
“Where are you going, Sir Rekka?”
“Just over there,” I said as I pointed out the front door.
I wasn’t going far, really. Just across the street to visit my neighbors from an ocean planet.
▽
And so, a total of thirteen of us—me, Satsuki, Iris, Harissa, Tsumiki, Hibiki, Chelsea, Shirley, Rain, Corona, Rachelle, Chirika, and Sherlyn—made our way out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean in search of the lost land of Atlantis.
For the record, Rosalind went home when she heard this was going to be a submarine trip. She’d suffered through that once on Berano, and had no interest in doing it again. Apparently being stuck at the bottom of the ocean had traumatized her that badly. But in exchange, she’d sent Corona to come along and help us out. Apparently, we were free to order her around. Rachelle, on the other hand, had simply tagged along uninvited. She just so happened to show up at the house before we left.
“Mwahaha! The army of young ladies has increased yet again! This smells like the start of more carnage!” she’d mumbled before imposing.
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 12 Page 3