by Aneko Yusagi
My theory was that he didn’t like the fact that she had been more useful than he was in the battle with the waves.
She was very pretty, just as pretty as Raphtalia. Motoyasu, the Spear Hero, certainly spent a lot of time appraising the beauty of women—and Rishia was near the top of his list, too.
She, too, looked younger than she really was. I guess most people in my party don’t look their age. If you took a glance at Rishia, you’d probably think she was fourteen or so, but she insists that she’s actually seventeen. To sum it up, she looked really young, and I never really got the sense that I could depend on her for very much.
That reminds me. Lately she’d taken to dressing in a very strange way. She’d been wearing a kigurumi that looks just like Filo. She says she wears it because no one can tell if she’s crying or not when she’s in a kigurumi.
She had more surprises in store than just that, though. When we asked the queen for a battle specialist to help us improve our fighting skills, the old lady that showed up (who was a master of the Hengen Muso style) declared that Rishia had the sort of innate talent that only came around once every hundred years. And to be fair, she did pull off a good hit every once and a while. Actually, it was thanks to one of those lucky hits that we managed to make it out of the last battle alive. But most of the time she wasn’t so great.
But damn it! What were we doing in jail?! How were we supposed to get out?
It could only mean one thing: we’d been captured by Kyo. But how?
How could this have happened to us?! Damn it!
“Let us out!” I shouted, rattling the door of the cage. I had never been thrown in jail before. I wasn’t about to start crying about it, but I certainly didn’t want to be there. Since I’d come to the new world, I’d done plenty of things that could have gotten me thrown in jail. But I’d never actually ended up in one!
I was innocent! I’d been proven innocent!
Or . . . Maybe someone had just found me passed out and put me in a jail cell because they didn’t know what to do with me. I might be level 1, but I’d still find a way to fight back! A long time ago, an accessory dealer had taught me a lot about working with metals and jewels. Maybe I could fashion a key to get us out of there.
As I shook the door, I wracked my brain for a solution. I was thinking so hard about it that I barely noticed when the door just suddenly swung open.
“What the . . . ?”
“Feh?”
The door wasn’t locked. What was the point of jail cell if you didn’t lock the door? Whatever—it was better than being locked in.
“Um . . . okay. Well, let’s figure out where we are. Raphtalia, Glass, and the others might be somewhere nearby.”
“Alright.”
We quickly slipped out of the jail cell and looked around the stone-walled prison. The next room over was furnished pretty nicely. It looked like someone was living there. There was a thick bed, a sofa, and a bag that appeared to be full of food.
One of the jail cells had been renovated into a proper room. Raphtalia and the others were nowhere to be seen.
“Raphtalia! Filo! Where are you!? Answer me!” I shouted. There was no answer, so at the very least they couldn’t have been within earshot.
“Alright, I’ll lead the way. You follow me and keep an eye out. I’m depending on you.”
“Um, okay! I’ll do my besties!”
Oh jeez. Now I was even more worried than I had been.
“Hm . . .”
The prison must have been empty, because we didn’t run into anyone at all. The further we walked, the more confusing it got. Walking around an unfamiliar building made me feel like I was in a labyrinth.
Something wasn’t right. If we were in a labyrinth, I’d expect to run into monsters or something. Luckily enough, we hadn’t come across anything dangerous . . . yet.
We went along lazily following the path until we came to a dead end. There was a mysterious door set in the wall, and it was glowing with colorful, rainbow-like light. It was built under a strange arch, and the colors all swirled in strange patterns over its surface—like the surface of a bubble in the sun.
“What . . . What is this?”
“I don’t know.”
If I’d learned anything from my years of playing video games, it was that strange objects like this normally teleported the player to a new location. But I’d never seen anything like it since I came to this new world.
“Nothing’s going to happen if we stand here being scared of it. Let’s go through.”
“Feh . . .”
“What are you so scared of? Let’s go.”
Rishia stood there hesitating, so I grabbed her hand and pulled through the doorway with me. But what I saw on the other side left me speechless.
“What the . . . ?”
We were standing on a white sand beach. The sun blazed overhead in a clear blue sky, while waves rolled on in the distance. I turned back to where we came from and saw the doorway standing behind us in the sand.
“Feh! What’s going on here?!”
“How should I know?”
I didn’t know what was happening, but I knew that whatever this doorway was, it was capable of teleporting us through space.
“Get it together. We need to figure this out.”
I turned away from the ocean and looked the opposite way. There was a grassy field that was bordered by the beach and a close thicket. We didn’t have any other leads at the moment, so I decided to head for the field.
I hadn’t heard from Raphtalia or the others yet, so there was no time to waste standing around. We were running out of time. We had to find Kyo and make him pay for what he’d done.
“I know all this seems a little crazy, but we have to keep going. Would you rather wait here for help? Who knows if anyone will come?”
“Feh . . .”
I didn’t want to wait. I didn’t want to sit around hoping for something that might never happen. When I was framed and thrown out into the streets, there wasn’t anyone who could help me. Even if I found someone who believed me, they didn’t give me any way to prove my innocence. That’s when I learned not to depend on others. It’s true what they say—if you want something done, you had to do it yourself.
“I’m coming with you. I’m coming, so please don’t leave me behind.”
We headed for the field.
It wasn’t long before a creature I’d never seen before approached us, looking pretty angry the closer it got. I still didn’t know where we were, but the world seemed to function the same way the last one did—which is to say there was status magic that you could use in battle.
Maybe it was because I was down to level 1, but now that I couldn’t use any of my other shields, I was stuck with the one I had, and I wasn’t sure if it could actually protect us from anything.
Luckily all the status boosts and special functions I’d earned by unlocking all my previous shields were still in effect, which meant that I was more powerful than my lowly level 1 would imply. Furthermore, the power-up method that I learned from Itsuki, the one where you use the materials from defeated monsters to raise your stats, tied those boosts to all my shields at the same time. So all those boosts and abilities were still accessible.
Taken all together, I figured I could probably hold my own against a mid-level monster if I had to.
There was a monster in the bushes, something kind of white and angular. I looked at it closely, and its name appeared in my field of view.
White Box
I’d never seen the monster before.
It turned in my direction and came flying straight at me.
I immediately shoved my hand forward and snatched it out of the air
The monster was about the same size as my head. It was white and . . . square and . . . Wait . . . Was it a cardboard box?
It must not have appreciated being grabbed, because it opened its mouth—or whatever it was—and bit me.
It wasn’t strong
enough to deal any damage. I’d never seen one of them before, but I had memories of something similar.
“This thing is like a balloon. Rishia, have you ever seen one of these things?”
“Feh? No, this is the first time I’ve seen one. I’ve never even seen one referenced in a book.”
Hm. If Rishia—by far the most bookish person I knew—had never heard of these things, then we must have been in a very strange place indeed. If you could depend on her for one thing, it was her knowledge.
“It’s just a weakling. Here, I’ll hold it. You stab it.”
“Okay!” she said, and then stabbed the white box with her sword.
The box let out a crushed sound, folded up flat, and X’s appeared where its eyes had been. It stopped moving.
What a weird little monster.
It acted just like the weak little monsters you’d find in a field of any online RPG. Oh well. I guess the balloons back in Melromarc were sort of the same thing.
Received 15 EXP
The monster was really weak, but it gave quite a bit more experience than the balloons had.
“It was pretty tough.”
“You’re just not very strong.”
Even if she leveled up, she didn’t have any abilities. I checked her stats, though, and they were actually pretty high, considering her low level. So maybe these boxes actually were a bit tougher than the balloons.
I absorbed the fallen white box into my shield.
Just as I suspected, the monster was like the balloons in another way. It unlocked some status-boosting shields when I absorbed it.
Beginner’s Small White Shield conditions met!
Beginner’s Small White Shield
abilities locked; equip bonus: defense 2
Well, that settled it. It unlocked a shield with the exact same stat boost that the first balloon I killed had. It was basically just a small boost on top of what my shield was already giving me. I’d seen it all before.
“Here’s the plan. I’ll hold the monsters down while you kill them.”
“Alright! Tee-hee!”
Oh jeez. More giggling.
Rishia was such a klutz. Now we were out leveling together, just the two of us. It reminded me of when Raphtalia and I had started leveling up. I wondered if I had been safer back then. Oh well, no point in dwelling on it. We kept on walking over the field. As we wandered around leveling and searching for our friends, I also found a lot of plants that looked like they were medicinal herbs. I figured they must have been, because they looked a lot like the plants we used to make medicine back in the last world.
And just like in the last world, the plants unlocked a shield like my Leaf Shield.
This time it was called a Tree Leaf Shield, which was weird because the leaf that unlocked it didn’t come from a tree—though the plant did seem to have the same status effects as the medicinal herbs I was used to.
As we came across a variety of monsters, I noticed another strange thing. Almost none of the monster’s names were written in katakana. Creatures resembling the rabbit-like usapils I’d come across in the last world were replaced with similar monsters, but this time they were indicated with the kanji for “rabbit.”
And like I’d noticed when we defeated the white box, the monsters seemed to give more experience points than I was accustomed to. In the few hours we spent wandering the field, I had already reached level 9, and Rishia had reached level 16!
I was careful to thoroughly break down any monsters we defeated for materials and drop items. We spent a few hours leveling up.
After I’d gained a few levels, a few of my shields became available again. I couldn’t help but notice that certain shields were still unavailable. I didn’t have any idea what the problem could be. What if I could never use the Soul Eater Shield, or the Chimera Viper Shield, again?
“Huff . . . Huff . . . I’m getting tired,” Rishia sighed as she followed close behind me. She was clearly out of breath.
“Let’s take a break.”
I was a bit surprised that there were so many monsters in such a place. Maybe it was because of the strange way we got here. Where were we?
I sat down to rest for a bit. I was starting to get really thirsty.
We didn’t bring a bottle or canteen or anything like that, so we were going to have to find some way to access fresh water. I habitually picked medicinal herbs when I walked, so my bag was starting to get full of them. Of course I hadn’t brought my pestle and mortar, or any of my other compounding or crafting materials, so I’d have to use my shield to make things. I put some materials into the shield and had it start compounding from a recipe I’d memorized. It seems the recipe was flexible enough to work with these new plants, so it appeared to be working.
Maybe if I were a chemist by trade I’d have been more excited about experimenting with a whole new array of plants—but I wasn’t, and it kind of annoyed me that I’d have to study all these new things.
“We’re doing pretty well for ourselves, don’t you think Naofumi?”
I was deep in thought for a little while, and Rishia wasn’t able to tolerate the silence any longer.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Good thing the monsters aren’t too strong around here.”
“I’ve gotten a little stronger, haven’t I?”
“ . . .”
Should I have told her that even though she’d gained fifteen levels her stats had hardly changed at all? Any change was so minimal it could have been attributed to a margin of error. I sat there worrying about how to best respond to her, when I noticed the sound of bubbling water nearby. There must have been a river.
I should have known! We were by the ocean, so of course there’d be a good chance of a river being nearby. I was thirsty, too, so I decided to go check it out. I pointed in the direction of the sound, and Rishia nodded, understanding exactly what I meant. She must have been thirsty, too.
We followed the sound and came across a riverbank.
There was a bridge made of fallen trees a little further down the bank from where we stood.
I had no idea where we were. I had no idea if the water was safe to drink. I took a long hard look at the water—it seemed clear and fine.
I scooped some up and drank it.
“Whew . . .” Rishia sighed. She relaxed after taking a deep drink.
We had come quite a long way from the shoreline.
Sitting there, drinking at the river, I was reminded of the day that we all camped out by the riverside in Melromarc.
At the very least, we were still capable of surviving here. We might have not been very strong yet, but we could survive. When I saw that I was at level 1, and that I couldn’t use any of my shields, I’d been really worried. But we still didn’t know where we were or what was going to happen next. It was no time to let our guard down. Whatever was going on, I knew one thing: I had to unlock more shields and get them powered up.
Maybe it was because of our low levels, or maybe there was something else going on, but I wasn’t sure when I should start thinking about powering up the shields. If I found a better shield right after I powered one up, it would be a waste. On the other hand, if I didn’t power up what I had, I might run into a monster that I’d be unable to overpower.
I was running the various options through my mind when I noticed a strange monster splashing through the river nearby.
“Is that a kappa?”
Sure enough, it was. The monster was green and frog-like, its back was covered with a tortoise shell, and it had a little water-filled saucer balanced on its head. It looked almost human, and it walked upright on two legs, just like how my childhood yokai picture books had depicted them.
“Gwah,” the kappa barked at me. It seemed angry.
Looking at the strange monster, I wondered what it would be called in the world I’d been summoned to. Was it a monster? A demi-human? A beast-man?
My shield was capable of translating the speech of people, so I wondered if
it could translate what the kappa was saying. Unfortunately there was no time to find out. The kappa’s throat puffed up wide, and it was clearly about to attack us.
“Air Strike Shield!”
The kappa barked and sent a high-pressure stream of water shooting at us, so I quickly used Air Strike Shield to block it. The shield appeared in mid-air between the kappa and us, just in time to intercept the beam of water. But the attack was too powerful, and the shield shattered in an instant.
It must have been because my level was still so low. I hadn’t powered up my shield, either, and . . . this kappa monster was surprisingly powerful. If it thought we were enemies, then it didn’t really matter if it was a monster or a human.
It opened its mouth and started to charge up for another water beam attack, but we sprinted over to it before it got a chance to use it.
“Gwah!” it barked, swiping at me with its claws. I blocked with my shield, and it swiped at me with its other arm.
“Second Shield!”
Another shield appeared in the air and stopped the monster’s claws. That was my chance! I slipped behind him and grabbed his shoulders so he couldn’t move.
“Rishia!”
“Feh?!”
Jeez . . . Rishia! Did she have to be confused about everything?
“Hurry up!”
“O . . . Okay!”
“Gwah!” the kappa croaked, preparing to shoot a beam of water straight at Rishia. Like I’d let that happen!
I tightened my grip on its shoulders and forced the monster to the right, causing the water beam to miss. The kappa was kicking and writhing in my arms, but it couldn’t slip out of my grip.
“What are you waiting for?! Hurry up, Rishia!”
“Fehhh!” she shouted and stabbed at the kappa’s stomach, but the little thing was tougher than I’d expected, and it didn’t show any signs of going down yet.