by Mamare Touno
The lower group, Minori’s group, was made up of five people.
Since the maximum group size was six members, they were at a disadvantage in terms of combat strength. However, since there were only eleven members, one group would inevitably have five people.
The cornerstone of the vanguard, the one whose job it was to draw attacks and delay the enemy, was Touya. He was a Samurai and Minori’s younger twin brother, and his level was 29.
The middle guard was Isuzu, a tall girl who was a Bard. She and Minori had been friends since their days in Hamelin, and now she belonged to the Crescent Moon League. She was a cheerful girl with freckled cheeks, and, unusually for a Bard, she used a two-handed spear. She was three years older than Minori, which meant she would have been in high school in the real world. Her level was 24.
There were three rearguard players.
First, a young male Sorcerer. Apparently his name was Rundelhaus Code. He wore a flashy robe, and his affected words and gestures made him stand out. It sounded as if he didn’t belong to a guild. That probably meant he was a solo player. His level was 23.
Next was a Druid named Serara. She’d taken care of them on the day they escaped from Hamelin. When Minori had talked with her, she’d discovered that their levels were similar, and they had quickly become friends. She was also in high school, which meant she and Isuzu were close in age. Serara seemed to have a crush on Nyanta, and she’d ridden beside him for the entire journey here. Her level was 25.
Then there was Minori herself, a Kannagi. She was a healer, and her level was 21, which made her the weakest member of the party. Shiroe had taught her that actions in battle had nothing to do with level, but she couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable.
The one bright spot was that the Druid Serara was also in her party. Even if Minori didn’t have enough recovery strength, if she was with Serara, she knew they would get by somehow.
I wonder if Captain Nyanta arranged things this way because he knew that, too.
“All right, for the next fifteen minutes, I want mew to hold strategy meetings.”
Nyanta clapped his hands and called “Go!” ending the orientation.
Minori and the others straggled into a group, still not entirely sure what was going on.
When she glanced up, the more advanced party—whose average level was about five levels higher than Minori’s group—had also formed a huddle a short distance away.
“Umm, so… What are we supposed to talk about?” The moment the group was together, Touya spoke.
“Don’t ask me.” Isuzu looked around the circle, her eyebrows raised in incredulous confusion.
“Hmmm. I expect that’s it. My friends: Shouldn’t we simply build our enthusiasm?” Rundelhaus, who held a two-handed staff, spoke with what seemed to be complete confidence. The young man had blond hair and blue eyes, and it made him look like a picture-book prince, but as far as Minori was concerned, he seemed a bit too much like a pampered rich kid.
“Um…”
“Oh, yeah! That’s gotta be it! We’re heading into battle, after all. It’s a dungeon, people! A dungeon!! Getting psyched up is key!!”
Interrupting Minori, Touya grabbed both of Rundelhaus’s hands and shook them vigorously. “That’s right! I see you understand! Enthusiasm is vital! Elegant grace is important as well, but the essence of men is enthusiasm and hot blood!”
Getting Touya’s support seemed to have encouraged Rundelhaus. For some reason, they were really hitting it off.
Although I think we were supposed to discuss patrol file and formation…
“I see. Yes, let’s do our best! It sounds like we’ll be training in this dungeon for a week, plus we’re teammates!”
Isuzu scrunched her freckled face into a cheerful smile. I really can’t say it now…
When she sneaked a glance to the side, she saw that Serara looked slightly troubled, too. Still, there was no help for it, and when she smiled at her, Serara smiled back. That alone was enough to relieve Minori a little bit.
While Minori and the others were having their discussion, the advance party had gone straight into Forest Ragranda. Minori noticed only because Nyanta loudly called out, “Go give it your best!”
Unconsciously, Minori squeezed both hands into tight fists.
It had been two months since their escape from Hamelin, and Minori hadn’t spent that time doing nothing. On the contrary, she hadn’t really taken to being a Tailor, the subclass she’d been forced into at Hamelin, and she’d neglected it in favor of training under Shiroe, with Touya.
She had only been level 12 at first, and thanks to the training, her level had climbed to 21. However, Shiroe and the others had often lectured them about the ill effects of leveling up rapidly, and she thought that the pace of their practice had been relatively slow.
More than anything, Shiroe and the other high-level guild members had always been there to watch over them in battle.
This time, although a relief camp had been set up outside the dungeon, they would have to explore it—and fight in it—on their own. She couldn’t have been anything but nervous.
She didn’t think she was afraid of losing.
She was afraid to disgrace herself.
The thought that she might waste Shiroe’s training seemed to turn her knees into sponges; they felt weak and shaky.
“What’s wrong, Minoricchi?”
Finding herself addressed suddenly, she started and looked up. There was Nyanta’s calm face, his eyes narrowed in their usual smile. His expression was inquisitive, and Minori shook her head vigorously. “It’s nothing!” she told him.
Seeing her, Naotsugu chuckled. “Geez, Minori. You’re such a worrywart.
“Listen up. If you run into trouble, step out in front. With your heart, not with your legs. Promise me, Micchi.” Naotsugu dropped a hand lightly onto Minori’s head, then walked away to speak to the other members.
Minori watched him go.
Naotsugu and Nyanta went around encouraging each member of the party and giving them advice. Serara was so moved she almost hugged them. Rundelhaus told them, magnanimously, that they could leave everything to him. Touya promised to bring back souvenirs. Isuzu gave an energetic bow of thanks.
“Okay, guys, there’s probably enough distance between you and the first party by now. Get in there! Give it your best shot!!”
And so Minori and the others headed into their first dungeon.
3
The morning after the ball, Shiroe’s group had breakfast on a spacious terrace.
The terrace balcony where Shiroe’s delegation had gathered held a variety of ornamental plants, and the summer sun shone brightly through its crystal canopy.
The terrace itself was about the size of a small conservatory, and three tables were lined up on it. It was an astonishingly luxurious space.
The menu was orthodox, consisting of fresh bread and eggs sunny-side up, cheese and ham, jam, honey and butter. There was salad, an assortment of fruit, and several types of beverages. Each was presented beautifully.
Shiroe would have been perfectly happy with rice mixed with raw egg for breakfast, but this hotel-style breakfast held absolutely nothing to complain about. In the words of Michitaka, the production guild member: “Hmm, well, it’ll do.”
For the past two months, cooking techniques and the level of cooking in Akiba had been advancing by leaps and bounds. Although he had no idea what sort of tricks they were using, the other day a shop that served beef rice bowls had appeared, stunning Shiroe.
Processed seasonings that resembled soy sauce and miso were hitting the market one after another. From what he had heard, factors related to fermentation and maturation meant it would take years for their flavors to improve, but the taste was so welcome to tongues that had grown accustomed to awful food that it brought tears to their eyes.
“Nn. Pass the jam, my liege.”
Akatsuki spoke to Shiroe; her tiny mouth was full of bread. Apparently her idea of
“ninja loyalty” was a bit different from the rest of the world’s, and aside from her calling him “my liege,” their relationship was a very candid one.
“If you don’t eat some salad, too, your skin will get rough, Akatsuki.”
Henrietta was itching to meddle with Akatsuki, but Akatsuki seemed poised for flight on her chair.
“What a fine morning this is, eh?!” Michitaka interjected.
As he said, the sky was a particularly beautiful blue that morning.
No wind blew on the glass-enclosed terrace, but the canals that ran here and there kept it cool, and the summer made itself known, not by its heat but by its bright, sparkling light.
“Indeed it is.”
“Berserker” Krusty was calmly drinking tea with milk. His attendants were also eating their preferred breakfasts. When they’d first arrived on the terrace, the three tables had been farther apart, and the caliber of the breakfasts laid out on them had clearly been different.
It probably mirrored the difference between “nobles and their families” and “servants” in the eyes of aristocratic society.
However, the party hadn’t paid any attention to that. They’d moved the tables closer together, passed the basket of bread around equally and were eating whatever they liked. If there wasn’t enough to go around, all they’d have to do was take some of their travel rations out of their packs. As a matter of fact, some attendants were drinking special thick, green drinks, even though (or because?) it was morning.
“This certainly is elegant. I assumed they’d prepare lodgings for us, of course, but I never dreamed…”
Henrietta’s words trailed off.
The previous night, after the ball, the lodgings they’d been shown to had been more of “a wing” than “rooms.”
One wing in the southeast corner of this floor of the palace held twenty rooms. In addition, it was equipped with small conference rooms, this terrace, a dedicated bath, a game room, a common room, and several reception rooms.
“Still, this is…hm.”
“What, Shiroe?” Michitaka asked.
“Michitaka. Is anyone who came with you a Chef?”
“Well, yeah. What about it?”
“It would be a good idea to have supporting Chefs and service supervisors, and we should have ingredients brought in. The group brought in for support should be no fewer than three and no more than six, and they’ll have to be skilled.”
“True,” Krusty said, responding to Shiroe’s words.
“What are you talking about? I don’t think they’re gonna poison us.”
Michitaka sounded perplexed. Shiroe answered him.
“No, I meant that all this space is probably intentional. …They’re assuming we’ll be receiving guests. The conference lasts about ten days, and I thought that was long, but various things are beginning to make sense. No doubt they will hold a big conference of sorts, but before that, there are probably going to be a lot of separate conferences or requests to chat—tea parties, if you will.”
“That’s probably true. As a matter of fact, I did get a number of invitations to tea during the ball yesterday.”
“Come to think of it, yeah.”
“I kept my responses vague, though.”
As Krusty finished speaking, his expression was as cool as could be. Still, under the circumstances, it wasn’t likely that the invitations would stop, and depending on the situation, some might be practically forced on them. Shiroe suspected they would need to prepare for it.
“I wonder what’s going on with today’s conference. …Hey, Caille.”
“Aye-aye, General Manager, sir.”
Michitaka called to one of the members he’d brought from his own guild. He ordered the young man he had called Caille to discern the schedule for the day’s conference events. He also reminded him not to forget to gather information.
Caille left energetically, and Shiroe, Michitaka, and Krusty returned to their tea. The three of them were seated at the same table. The others were at tables near enough that they would hear right away if spoken to, and it was safe to say they were sharing the same conversation.
“…Looks like the situation’s more complicated than I thought.”
Krusty and Shiroe nodded, agreeing with Michitaka.
Eastal, the League of Free Cities, was composed of twenty-four noble houses. The addition of the Round Table Council would make it twenty-five. Their territories were scattered all across eastern Japan. Each regent noble had their own territory; most controlled only one fortified city, the farmland that surrounded it, and several smaller villages.
The largest of these was the City of Maihama, under the control of Duke Sergiad. Even then, its population was only about thirty thousand.
Of the three girls who had debuted at yesterday’s ball, the remaining two were the daughter of Marquis Lester of Ouu and the granddaughter of Sugana, Lord of the Free City of Iwafune. The populations of both cities were around ten thousand each, which meant they were about average as far as nobles went.
Akiba had a total population of twenty thousand, of which fifteen thousand were Adventurers. Viewed in that light, it was easy to see how great a force it was. Setting aside the combat abilities of individual Adventurers, in terms of population alone, the town of Akiba was one of the five biggest cities in Eastal.
In addition, in this world, even in eastern Japan, there were countless tiny villages that weren’t under the protection of a specific noble or territory.
It wasn’t that these independent villages had objected to the rule of a lord and rebelled. On the contrary: In this world filled with monsters, they would have liked to be protected as citizens if possible. Apparently the lords were unable to send soldiers from their central cities due to distance and other reasons.
The role of a lord was to protect the safety of his citizens and territory. In some cases, in exchange for that safety, they collected taxes.
Of course, crimes occurred even within territories, and monster attacks probably happened as well. However, these unforeseen situations were completely different from not being able to muster an army large enough to provide protection.
If a village was less than a day’s journey on horseback from the lord’s castle, it could probably be protected, but it would require a constant military presence to protect villages that were farther than that.
Journeys and travel in this fantasy world took more time than one would think. In practice, rapidly mobilizing small units and using them to protect a wide area was an impossible feat.
Viewed the other way, there were lots of farming people living in this world who were not under the protection of a noble. If the lords could only obtain sufficient military power at low cost, they would be able to collect far more taxes.
Well, just knowing the general circumstances means all the information gathering was worth it.
To that end, the nobles had set their sights on the Adventurers.
This was why, even in the days when Elder Tales was a game, a huge number of quests had involved guarding villages or travelers and wiping out monsters.
Even if they had been rather like mercenaries, with a one-time payment, they could commission tasks that they didn’t have enough regular soldiers to perform. They could even take it a step further and contract out duties that normally belonged to regular soldiers. If they did, their regular soldiers would be able to go to a different region or fight on a different battlefield.
In fact, it hadn’t been at all unusual for lords to rely on Adventurers when an independent settlement that wasn’t under their protection was attacked by demons or demihumans.
Ever since the Catastrophe, Shiroe and most of the other players had been very busy trying to understand the circumstances, survive and retrain themselves. Naturally, the demand for Adventurers in these independent settlements was probably growing. In addition, it was likely that the lords were aware that the Adventurers had touched off a technological revolution in Akiba and elsew
here.
“It looks like this lot wants to curry favor with us. Not that I can’t see why.”
As he added honey to his hot tea, Michitaka spoke for all of them.
“Now I understand what you meant, Shiroe. ‘Our relationship with the People of the Earth’… We really did need to put measures in place here. If Akiba had stayed confused under these circumstances, there’s no telling how they would have tried to undermine us.”
“It’s still too early to let our guard down,” Shiroe responded, sounding glum. “There’s a good possibility that they’ll begin trying to undermine us now.”
His insight, although it erred a bit on the side of the fantastic, was showing him several bad scenarios.
“For now, let’s leave the talk about undermining for later. We can’t do anything unless we know the other guys’ basic action plans and what approaches they’re going to take.”
“True… What do you think, Shiroe?”
Responding to Michitaka and Krusty, choosing his words carefully, Shiroe began to speak of the situation he’d been processing since the previous night.
“I think it’s already fairly clear what the nobles are after. Initially, they came to gauge how ambitious the Round Table Council and those of us in Akiba were. That and, although this isn’t a nice way to put it, they wanted to see how barbaric we were. However, I think we can probably assume that these were resolved to a certain extent at yesterday’s ball. At the very least, they know we’re intelligent enough to hold a conversation, and that we seem to have common sense.
“Given that, their next goal will be to curry favor with us. Naturally, they’re likely to give Krusty or the Round Table Council a noble title. As far as they’re concerned, there aren’t many disadvantages to that. If there’s a cat, it should be belled. I think we can assume that all the nobles are in agreement on that point. Of course, there are probably many nobles who are jealous or feel rebellious. Still, they’ll put that off as a decision that’s already been made, and in the stages before that, they’re likely to begin making individual attempts to win us over.”