Rio looked around the darkening field curiously before giving the three a strained smile. “Around here should do,” he muttered.
The place they had arrived at had flat ground, and was a fair distance away from the road — unless someone was staring attentively from the road, it was an area that couldn’t be easily spotted.
“Wait just one moment... I’ll prepare it right now,” Rio said, before placing his hands against the ground and manipulating the dirt to make a stable foundation. To Miharu, Aki, and Masato watching him from the side, however, it was unclear as to just what he was doing.
“Dissolvo.”
Rio held out his left hand equipped with the Time-Space Cache and chanted the activation spell. In the next moment, the space before his eyes distorted greatly, twisting like a vortex. Then, it was over in the next instant, leaving a huge rock house in its wake.
“W-What in the world...?” Aki muttered in utter shock. Miharu and Masato were standing there looking at the rock building in astonishment.
Rio smiled at their reactions. “It looks like a regular old rock, but the interior is a nice living space. Come this way,” he said, walking over to the door with familiarity.
Miharu and the others remained where they were, staring at Rio’s back and the stone house in shock. Rio invited them inside once more.
Chapter 4: Explaining The Circumstances
Miharu, Aki, and Masato all held their breath in unison after Rio stepped into his rock house.
The sight of a spacious living and dining area brightly illuminated by magic artifacts greeted the three. In the corner of the room was a staircase that led to the second floor.
“Please, have a seat on that sofa,” Rio said, then went to the kitchen alone and prepared several drinks and wet towels. Rio’s guests sat on the sofa nervously and looked around the room in wonder.
“Here you are — you must be thirsty. There’re seconds if need be, so don’t hold back.” Rio handed them three metal mugs filled with iced tea.
“T-Thank you very much.” Miharu gratefully accepted the drink. They had been walking through the arid grasslands with only a small amount of food and water rationed between them the whole time, so having the issue of dehydration solved was a huge relief.
“Thank you, Haruto! I was really thirsty... More, please!” Masato said, having gulped down the drink before immediately requesting another with sparkling eyes.
“...Have a little restraint. Geez,” Aki muttered to Masato with an exasperated look.
“It’s fine. Seeing someone drink that enthusiastically makes it worth it. But your stomach will feel cold if you drink it too fast, so be wary of that. Or, there’s hot tea instead,” Rio said with a smile, pouring iced tea into Masato’s mug.
“I’m sorry. My brother has no manners... Thank you very much.” Aki bowed her head timidly before putting her mug to her lips. Like the others, she was thirsty, too, and her mug was soon drained.
Without a moment’s delay, Rio refilled her mug; Aki blushed with embarrassment and thanked him again, this time taking her time to enjoy the flavor.
Meanwhile, Miharu was watching Aki and Masato eagerly drink their tea with a smile on her face, before bringing her own mug to her mouth.
After everyone replenished themselves and took a breather, Rio looked straight at Miharu, who sat across from him. “Can you tell me why the three of you were in a place like that?” he asked.
The three of them looked at each other before Miharu answered on the behalf of the other two. “Actually, we don’t even know ourselves. We just found ourselves standing in a field with no idea as to what was going on...”
“I see. So that means you don’t know where you are, right?”
“Yes, I have no idea. Umm, where exactly are we...?”
“The Strahl region in the continent of Euphelia. If I told you you were in a field near the border between the kingdoms of Galarc and Centostella... Would that ring any bells?”
“T-They’re all names I’ve never heard of before. We’re not in Japan, are we?” Miharu asked with all her remaining hope, her expression darkening with worry.
“Unfortunately not.” Rio shook his head apologetically.
“T-Then where are we? Somewhere in Europe?” Aki asked impatiently.
“...I’m sure that you have witnessed all kinds of spectacles over the course of today. Do you really believe you’re still on Earth?”
“That’s... T-Then where are you saying we’ve ended up? And who are you, anyway? Why can you speak Japanese?” Aki asked, worriedly, in a rougher voice. She didn’t seem to want to face reality.
“...At the very least, it isn’t Earth. The name of the place is as I told you just now. Also, the reason why I can speak Japanese... is probably because I used to be Japanese, maybe?” Rio shrugged as he answered with a bitter smile.
“Eh...?” Aki and the others were taken aback.
...The three of them don’t know anything... about this world, or why they came to a world like this. It’s just like me, when I woke up nine years ago with my memories of my previous life. No... they’re even more clueless than I was. At least I had my memories as Rio... Rio watched Miharu, Aki, and Masato with a sorrowful expression.
“U-Umm, what does ‘used to be Japanese’ mean...?” Miharu asked Rio timidly.
“It means exactly that. Maybe if I called it my ‘previous life’ instead...? You may not believe me, but I have memories from another life... The life when I was a university student in Japan.” Rio averted his gaze uncomfortably as he answered.
“Erm...” Miharu, Aki, and Masato were at a loss for words, unsure of how to respond to that.
“At any rate, I don’t have any objective proof of formerly being Japanese, but that’s why I can speak Japanese, so I would appreciate it if you could just take that at face value. More importantly, don’t you want to know what happened to the three of you?” Rio gave a vague smile before quickly changing the subject.
“H-Hey, Haruto. Does that mean we’ve come to a fantasy RPG world? It’s a world with swords and magic, right?” Masato asked rather eagerly.
“I never played those kinds of games in my previous life, so I’m not quite sure, but I believe it’s something like that. But unlike a game, there’s no reset button here,” Rio replied with a strained smile.
“Would we have been in pretty big trouble if you hadn’t come along, Haruto?” Masato asked in a cold sweat.
“...Yeah, you would’ve been made into slaves at that rate,” Rio told them stiffly and curtly.
“N-No way... Slaves...?” Aki murmured in a daze.
A pained expression fell over Miharu’s face, but her shock wasn’t as great as Aki’s.
“What do you mean by ‘slaves’?” Masato questioned dubiously.
Aki looked at Masato in exasperation. “Y-You don’t even know that?”
“I-I don’t. I’m bad at language and vocabulary. Do you know what it is, Aki?” Masato asked her sullenly.
“O-Of course I do. A slave is... Uhh... Umm...” Aki tried to explain the concept of slavery, but found herself at a loss for words. While she knew the general meaning of the word, she couldn’t explain it very well.
Miharu had a conflicted expression, too.
“Simply put, a slave is someone treated as an object instead of a human,” Rio interrupted.
“...Treated as an object?” Masato cocked his head, not quite grasping the concept.
“Maybe you’d understand it better if I said it this way: it’s the buying and selling of people, like animals. The person sold becomes the property of the person who bought them, so they have to do what they say.”
“H-Hah?! Isn’t that basically a pet?! And you’re saying that almost happened to us? How could they do such a thing?!” Masato yelled with rage, finally understanding the meaning.
“Black hair is unusual, and you look neat and tidy. Although you can’t understand the language here, it’s clear you had a good upbringing... So they probabl
y assumed you would sell for a fairly high price.” Rio gave his assumption in a serious tone.
Masato paused to take a breath. “...How could they do such a thing?! And the buyers, too... How horrible! What’s so great about treating people like that? We’re not dolls!” he said in a high pitched voice. For someone raised in a modern society, slavery was an evil violation of human rights.
“Well, the buyers have their own reasons for buying. Whether its fun or not aside, there are those who simply buy them because they’re a convenient way to get labor done...” Rio said, troubled.
He had already thrown away the morals he had as a modern Japanese person and accepted the necessity of a slavery system in their current society; that was why Masato’s anger toward slavery didn’t really stir him. At the same time, he hoped that his guests didn’t have the same morals as his own jaded ones.
“What’s... with that...” Unable to accept the truth, yet faintly aware that it was pointless to continue lamenting over it, Masato hung his head limply.
“...Let’s get back on topic. Have the three of you accepted the reality that you’ve come to a different world that isn’t Earth?” Rio smiled helplessly and focused his eyes on Miharu, who sat directly opposite him.
“...Yes,” Miharu nodded seriously. There were too many aspects that couldn’t be explained otherwise, and while she didn’t want to accept it, she had no other choice.
“Naturally, you want to go back to Earth... right?” Rio asked carefully.
Aki stood up eagerly. “W-We can go back?!” she asked.
“Calm down,” Rio said, silencing Aki. “My question was badly worded — I don’t know whether or not you can return, but I don’t think it should be impossible to achieve...” He shook his head apologetically.
“O-Oh. I’m sorry. I jumped the gun...” Aki apologized awkwardly.
“I don’t know why the three of you are here in this world. However, the location I believe you arrived at when you first came to this world had evidence that time-space sorcery was used — I was only able to notice your presence because I had detected those traces of time-space sorcery. That is why I believe the three of you were purposefully summoned into this world,” Rio explained.
“Time-space sorcery... you say?” Miharu repeated the words she was unfamiliar with in question.
“Yes. In this world, there exists a technique called sorcery. Sorcery cannot be explained by science. For example, the house I brought out in this grass field was stored through time-space sorcery.”
“So that’s what that was...”
“In order to use sorcery, a formula needs to be drawn and have essence poured into it. It’s a little hard to explain through words, so I’ll show you an example.”
As Rio explained, he picked up one of the quills that was placed on the table and began to draw a simple geometric pattern on some paper. Miharu, Aki, and Masato watched on curiously as he drew.
“This is a very basic formula. When I pour magic essence into it...” After finishing the formula several seconds later, Rio placed his hand against it and released his essence. The formula on the paper absorbed the essence, melding with mana to cause a world-altering phenomena.
Immediately afterward, a bubble of water several centimeters in diameter formed above the formula. The bubble then followed the laws of gravity and fell down, soaking the paper the formula was drawn on.
“A world-altering phenomena occurred and created water from nothing. That was elementary water sorcery, but by combining an endless number of possible formulas, you could control fire, create ice, form electricity, and all kinds of other phenomena.” Rio gave the minimum explanation before demonstrating it to them; they widened their eyes in shock at the sight of the soaked paper.
“W-Wow! That’s amazing, Haruto! So this is sorcery!” Masato was the first to snap to his senses and yell in excitement.
“Shut up — you don’t have to be so loud about it,” Aki said, expressing her disapproval at the noise from where she sat on the other side of Miharu.
“But, Aki... Did you see that just now?! Water appeared out of nowhere. This is sorcery! Sorcery!” Masato brushed off Aki’s scolding and innocently displayed how happy he was, which was quite apparent.
“It’s not as surprising compared to a house appearing in the middle of a field,” Aki said sullenly.
Miharu watched the two of them with a smile. “Right. Like Aki-chan said: this is no big deal when compared to how I made the rock house appear out of nowhere. That was time-space sorcery. I’m sure you can at least imagine how difficult it is to interfere with time and space?”
“...Yes. There’s no way anyone could do that normally.” Aki nodded with suspended disbelief.
“That understanding is pretty much the same even in this world, where sorcery is widespread. Actually, time-space sorcery is a technique that has yet to have any chance of being practically implemented. There’s a lot of variation in the types and difficulty of time-space sorcery, as well as exceptions like the one I showed you,” Rio said, emphasizing the difficulty of time-space sorcery. His goal was to make it clear how abnormal it was that they were summoned to this world in such a way.
“What do you mean by that? Everything you say is so confusing... I don’t really get it.” Masato cocked his head in confusion.
Rio simplified his words and gave a wry smile. “I believe the three of you were summoned to this world through time-space sorcery, but to recreate that sorcery to send you back to Earth would be almost impossible using the current state of sorcery in this world... Does that make sense?”
“I still don’t get it. Are you saying we were summoned with sorcery that no one in this world can use? Even though it’s sorcery that exists in this world?” Masato’s doubts were most justified.
“A lot of the knowledge about sorcery was lost in a war of the gods that occurred over a thousand years ago. The sorcery of that time was far more advanced than what we have right now. I believe the time-space sorcery that brought the three of you to this world was from that time,” Rio replied, feeling impressed at how direct Masato’s question was.
“A war of the gods... I see. If that’s how it is, then I can understand.” Masato seemed to be excited about something.
Aki sighed. “...You enjoy things like that, after all. I envy how simple-minded you are,” she murmured under her breath, her voice fading out toward the end. While it wouldn’t have been hard to believe all of this back on Earth, here, her brain was finally feeling tired.
Maybe we should stop here for now? The more complex stuff can be dealt with step-by-step later.
Rio realized with a wry smile that the most adaptable person in this group might just be the youngest, Masato.
“For now, that’s all I have on the reason why I think the three of you were brought to this world. With no obvious clues, we’ll have to dig further to find any evidence about how you can go back to Earth. Do you have any questions?” he asked, wrapping up their discussion.
“...Umm, actually... Just before we came to this world, we were in a group of five. Do you know if there are any traces of the other two being nearby?” Aki asked hesitantly.
“I don’t believe there was any other disrupted essence located in the area, but... if you were together, then the other two must have been near you, right?” Rio asked in contemplation.
“Yes. We were meeting up together after school and were just standing around and chatting.”
“Did anything abnormal occur? If time-space sorcery activated, then it would have looked like the air was being distorted.”
“Onii-chan... I was talking to my brother when it looked like he suddenly distorted, right before my eyes,” Aki answered slowly, thinking back to her memories.
“Your brother...” For a moment, Rio’s heart skipped a beat thinking she was talking about him, but immediately realized they were children from his mother’s remarriage.
“Umm, I was talking to an upperclassman named Sats
uki when she looked like she distorted. I may have been seeing things, but it looked like the distortion closed in around us, too,” Miharu explained, hesitantly recounting what she had witnessed herself.
“...And the same happened to you, Aki?”
“Y-Yes. It was only for a second so I wasn’t sure, but it was like a distortion that started from my brother grew larger and swallowed us...?” Aki tilted her head.
Rio analyzed their descriptions. Normally, the point of distortion starts from the target of the time-space sorcery. Based on what these two have said, the sorcery was activated separately, with this Satsuki person and Aki’s brother as the focus point, he thought.
“If it’s exactly as Miharu witnessed, then I believe there’s a high chance that those two were also summoned into this world through time-space sorcery,” Rio concluded.
Aki’s expression brightened immensely. “R-Really?!”
“Probably. If anything, those two were probably the ones summoned, while the three of you were dragged along for the ride. The reason why you were separated from the other two may be because the two time-space sorceries interfered with each other at such a close distance and messed up your teleportation coordinates, or something,” Rio replied, his expression darkening in stark contrast to Aki’s.
“B-But that still means my brother is somewhere in this world, right?”
Aki sought for the answer she wanted to hear; it was clear she admired her brother a great deal. The way she pleaded was almost as though she had found a ray of hope within a situation of utter despair.
“...I can’t be certain, but the possibility is most certainly there,” Rio answered vaguely with a troubled look.
While he believed there was a very high chance that that was the case, as long as he didn’t know what kind of time-space sorcery was used, he couldn’t afford to give her a confident answer. Not to mention that it seemed as though Aki had yet to realize that just because the other two were summoned into this world didn’t mean they were safe.
However, there was no need for him to agitate her concerns any further. After all, they first had to focus on solving the problems that were right in front of them.
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