Fairy Tale Chronicles-Volume 1, Chapter 16

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

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「Stop right there!」

Hiroshi and another knight had been locked in a duel until Douga had spoken up, relaxing and taking their distance from each other. Since he had free time, Hiroshi was currently being forced to participate with the knights in their training in order to resolve battle-related problems.

「He’s continuously tied with 20 people and counting.」

「Yep, guess when it comes to people who actually train ’emselves, I can’t do much.」

Hiroshi could only give a wry smile at Julius’s review of results. In actuality, Hiroshi’s attacks didn’t get anywhere with this platoon, who were the elite of the elite in this order of chivalry. With that being said, the knights as well could not peacefully accept these results.

「Hiroshi-dono, are you really a craftsman?」

「Honestly, it felt like we were taking on Sir Douga, or even someone with more resilience than him.」

「Nah, other than actin’ as a tank, I’m purty average at everythin’ else.」

「But that’s already ridiculous!」

One of the imperial guards burst out, but Hiroshi tilted his head, not able to comprehend what he was trying to say. Why were they so surprised that a tank was essentially a novice with attacking in terms of division of roles?

「Be as that may, do ye not think that by merely learning how to deal with attacks, your skills also get an ample increase?」

「There aren’t many people who can pack so much into just one Smash, you know.」

「Whaddya mean? Old man and Ju-san could easily do that much if they put their minds to it.」

「All we did was match you. Plus with your level of defense, there isn’t even any point in attacking you with practice swords like these, because no amount of firepower could break through that.」

Cut down by Julius so easily, Hiroshi had an expression of discontent on his face.

「I am sure that ye have many a thing that ye’d like to say, but first, I’d say that ye need to understand yourself a bit more precisely.」

「How do I even begin to precisely understand myself…」

「No need to hurt your brain over it. The gist is that your defense is at least equal to Sir Douga, or even superior in certain aspects.」

(I think I had a similar conversation with Makoto way back), thought Hiroshi as Julius and Douga did their best to make him aware of his own capabilities. But it seemed like Makoto was on to something, as he hadn’t thought that he would have more than an equal chance of winning against Farlane’s strongest, Julius. In all honesty, they couldn’t find it in them to understand how someone’s actual power and their cognition of it could be so contrary, having gone through many a battle themselves.

However, it was pointless to give up just because of that. First, though the swords were just shams used for practice, they had to help him understand that it was not normal for someone wearing nothing but clothes to receive the steel-like, earnest hit of a trained knight head-on and just say “Ow, that hurts!”. If he were in the same situation, even Douga would get some sort of bruise and it was normal to break some bones as long as you didn’t mess up. Incidentally, as to why Hiroshi was wearing only regular clothing, it was because if he were to wear training armor, his movement would become absurdly slow. Julius had noted that if any future battles were like the previous, he wouldn’t be fighting with armor anyway, and Douga had added that various adjusted enchantments were on him to prevent him from likely getting any wounds, which was how he had ended up participating in a mock battle with just his clothing on.

In addition, no matter how far you searched in the world, there was no way you could find someone with the kind of magic resistance that could nullify and crush Great Magic unleashed by someone with higher-than-average mana. All things considered, this meant that it was practically impossible for humanoids (elves and dwarves included) to damage him with magic. With these two conditions in mind, it was best to think of this man as impossible to kill by normal means.

With that being said, his attack power being less than that of an average adventurer was a minus that they couldn’t ignore. After all, the moment that he could no longer fool his opponent with his abnormal defense, they would focus their attacks on Haruna, undoubtedly behind him, and the situation could get ugly from there. He needed to be taught thoroughly that as long as he couldn’t think of a plan to strengthen his firepower in a short amount of time, he would first have to figure out how to not let his opponents know that he was a paper tiger.

「First, do something about your weapon. The handaxe and shovel you use aren’t too bad either, but they’re a bit too light.」

「Even if ya say that…I dunno if I have enough time to make the ingredients, and how many do I even gotta have?」

Both of them began contemplating Hiroshi’s question. From what they examined out of his skill with his main weapons (excluding a number of large ones), the non-heavyweight weapons that he could use decently were only his dagger and shovel. Everything else was that of an amateur. With the aforementioned weapons, he could easily slay a Berserker Bear, and could in a sense hold his own against Pieranorks, but as he didn’t have any attack skills other than Smash, they had no choice but to conclude that he was not by any means at a satisfactory level.

Out of all that, if they had to identify anything particularly good or bad, they felt that he was a bit more adept at axes and blunt weapons. Adding to the fact that there wasn’t enough time, they would probably do well to start from there.

「I suppose it wouldn’t be hard to give him a two-handed axe.」

「And a weighty one with a long handle at that…Yeah, something along the lines of a pole axe.」

「Or mayhaps he could go for a blunt weapon like Heavy Mace as opposed to an axe. At any rate, a lad like yeself probably wouldn’t suffer any fatal wounds even without a shield, so all ye need use is something with a bit of power.」

Douga and Julius brought over bulky, heavy weapons to show Hiroshi. They were all weapons that had bad handling and slow attack speed in the game, and if you were to hit someone it would be over for them but these weapons were still not popular. Without quite a bit of strength and adjustment, even assuming you hit your target, it would collapse your balance, leaving you wide open to plenty of hits. It was quite understandable why they weren’t popular.

Incidentally, a mace is essentially a long pole with a large steel sphere at the edge. If you were to attach thorns to it, it would become one of the weapons known as a Morning Star. Its biggest selling point was that you didn’t have to think about the direction when swinging it, and its rustic and barbaric nature made it a specialized, primitive weapon for fending off any weapon.

「Ya say it like it’s easy, but these’re all tough ’n hard t’handle. I mean, d’you even know how scary it is just to swing it at the air?」

「Nonsense. Ye’ll understand once ye practice swinging it around fer a bit. Heck, even I can make a fine swing with that large spear.」

「Do ya really think it’s convincin’ t’hear that from someone of yer occupation, old man……」

「Still, try it at least once. If ye feel that it doesn’t fit you, then ye can think of a more suitable weapon.」

Douga added, and while albeit reluctant at first, Hiroshi decided to pick up two of the more prominent weapons that boasted heavy weight. There are those who would go a step further and choose a halberd for strengthening one’s attack power with long-handled weapons, but versatile weapons such as those took time to learn how to handle them. Plus, being the complex shapes that they were, the tips were quite heavy, rivaling the Pole Axe and Heavy Maul in terms of bad handling. If he were using these types of weapons, it might be more applicable to Hiroshi’s skills if he were to choose something akin to a Great Axe with a short handle.

「Now, it is true that we don’t have many places to store this weapons. I’ve sent someone to go find some, so in the meantime, I suppose I’ll get some more concerns out of the way with ye, lad」

「Concerns?」

「Aye. The most concerning thing is that after having participated in 20 battles, ye still aren’t used to doing mock battles, but well, let us leave that be for now. I saw earlier that ye were running into attacks. Why is that?」

What Douga had said about “running into attacks” wasn’t the most precise description. More accurately, despite clearly being frightened, Hiroshi would for some reason come closer whenever he detected motion from an enemy.

「Ahh, ya mean thaaat.」

「Aye, I do. Though it not always be a bad idea to gallantly step forward, I think it be a bit excessive in your case.」

「Well, it isn’t like I step forward with all this courage or anythin’…」

At a glance, it might seem as if it required courage in order to plunge headfirst into an attack. However, Hiroshi utterly denied that. As if demonstrating interest in that way of thinking, not Douga, but Julius sought out more information.

「If you aren’t mustering up the courage to do such things, then what are you doing?」

「It’s quite simple really. It ain’t like runnin’ will help me escape takin’ a beatin’, so I may as well just go right to gettin’ hit ’n take less damage in the process. It’s from experience that I charge headfirst. Sorta like when small fry villains lose their nerve and charge at the hero? Same thing with me. I’m just desperate.」

The two of them sort of got what Hiroshi was saying. It was true that there was many a person who would lose to fear and recklessly charge at opponents who were clearly out of their league. Still, looking at the situation comprehensively, they were pretty sure that doing the same exact thing to someone lower than one’s level was a bit too much on the paranoid side. With that being said, it was at least better than cowering in one place. They decided not to press further.

In actuality, when Haruna had been attacked by the Berserker Bear, the reason why he had gone in front of her to cover her wasn’t because of anything like chivalry, justice, or courage. It was the simple reason that even if he were to abandon Haruna, he had no confidence of escaping the bear. After all, it was normal for Berserker Bears to not let any human-sized creatures out of its sight until they killed them. Being slow, Hiroshi could only choose between getting hit sooner, or later, once Haruna had become a corpse. As long as he had no easy path out of this situation, he might as well just get it over with, which was why he had ended up getting hit. Any straightforward thought processes like saving his classmate to have her be indebted to him or saving her because he would feel bad otherwise? None whatsoever.

Even in the case of the Piaranorks and afterward, he generally had no choice but to get himself hit, which was the only reason why he had consistently put himself in front of the enemies. Leaving aside incidences when he could take enemies like Giant Spiders by surprise, if he could escape or push the problem onto someone else without issue, he normally prioritized running away without fighting, no matter how weak the opponent.

This was the kind of man they were talking about. Of course there was no way he would be insistent on sharpening his battle prowess. Sure, he was vaguely aware that this wasn’t a good habit, but he always found himself hesitating to learn battle skills. If he were still in the game, he could bring himself to casually learn more, but this was reality. At this rate, it seemed like he would continue to end up being forced to do things that he didn’t want to do, so he just couldn’t find it in himself to become motivated.

「Well, for the time being, let us leave aside this talk of fighting. If ye cannot decide on a weapon, then there is not much I can teach ye.」

「It is as you say. Which leaves us with the vanguard, yes?」

「Aye. How about we leave Fortress for later and focus on Out Phase and Around Guard?」

「That sounds about right.」

The two of them decided to focus on breaking through ranged attacks and catching the opponents’ attention. In Hiroshi’s case, it seemed that his pure body defense was above that of a metal-armored knight, and on top of that, he had soft laser armor called Wyvern Laser Armor that was superior even to full-plated armor in defense. Surely there wasn’t any point in further raising his defense by training.

「Let us start with Outface. I shall show ye once, so look well.」

Douga said, bursting into focus. The next moment, there was a feeling of pressure filling the room, to the point where the shockwaves were physical, and Douga, the source of all this, looked as if he were the size of a small mountain, albeit an optical illusion. There was no escape. If they were to do nothing about it, they would all die. Overwhelmed by that fear, Hiroshi stepped forward and let his instincts push him onto Douga, stopping him in the nick of time.

There was still pressure in the air, but it was a shell of its former self. Not true fear, like earlier. Something inside of Hiroshi continued to whisper that as far more fearsome thoughts racked his brain. Sure, the physical fear was less than before, but it didn’t even compare to the mental fear. However, the trauma and danger he had experienced prior to this overpowered it. Because of the memories of his past, Hiroshi had been able to regain his composure in under a millisecond.

「Hm, so it was a dud. Quite the guts ye have there, lad.」

「Nah, that was mighty scary, I’ll have ya know. But thinking ’bout it a bit, it ain’t nothin’ compared to chocolate.」

「Chocolate? And what might that be?」

「It’s food. Dun worry ’bout it.」

Hiroshi thought about the incident that had given him gynophobia, and then the cause of all that, candy, as he shivered with a face too pale to be made fun of. Douga and Julius were completely off the mark, wondering if he had been drugged or something.

「Well, anyhow, have ye gotten the gist of what kind of technique Outface is?」

「Uhh, yeah, I’d say so.」

「Then I shall teach ye the ropes, so first make sure to practice in order to activate something similar.」

「Ya got it.」

Afterwards, Hiroshi would practice the art of pressure numerous times with a voice full of vigor, until he finally was able to activate a similar move. Due to Outface taking the effects of one’s mental power, when Hiroshi had finally gotten said move, he ended up emitting a dangerous amount of pressure, which caused even Douga and Julius to have to resort to momentarily letting out serious bloodlust, frightening their surroundings in more ways than one. But let us keep that to ourselves.

「As I’d expect from the oldest library in the world. That is an impressive amount of books.」

「When there are this many, I don’t even know where to begin…」

The library in Wulls Castle was literally a sea of books. Haruna and Tatsuya, who had been assigned to search the library on this day, were at an utter loss for words as they stammered at the staggering collection of books. Incidentally, Makoto and Mio were acting as both Aearis’ guards and instructors, in the middle of instructing her on how to protect herself with a dagger.

「You mustn’t be so surprised by this much. The great library of Rufeus is what you should marvel at. It’s already the same size as this castle and yet is still filled to the brim with books.」

When Tatsuya and Haruna had made such bewildered comments, Sir Molt, the chief of the court magicians, laughed as he told them that. When they heard that, neither of them could conceal their aghast expressions.

「But uhh, leaving aside all the jokes, where do we start?」

「Right. Haruna, have you wanted to know anything since coming here?」

「There are a lot of things, but I’d say that the whole thing about guests from the unknown continent. Also, sort of felt like this was involved here and there, so I would also say data on Alfemina-sama, or if you prefer, this particular god.」

「Then, I guess I’ll hit the history books. We could very well find a hint there.」

The two of them decided to start their investigation from a fairly innocent point. For better or for worse, the two of them both had little trouble with reading books. It was just that they weren’t sure whether or not the books here would be easy or hard to understand, and even for them, it was difficult to read hard, long chapters that were like theses.

「Now then, please do allow me to excuse myself back to my workplace. If you have any questions, please do ask the librarian. And if you wish to enter the prohibited book storage, simply send someone my way and I shall deal with it quickly.」

「Okay. Thank you very much.」

After Sir Molt declared like a good-natured old man that he was back off to work, Haruna bowed in gratitude. Narrowing his eyes at that, he mentioned something to Tatsuya and the aforementioned librarian before bidding them farewell and walking off. After watching him leave, Haruna followed suit and asked the librarian where the bookshelf in question was, taking several books.

「…」

「…」

「…This is still the first volume and I know it’s too soon to judge, but there’s less information than I thought there would be.」

「…What a coincidence. It’s unexpectedly sketchy for me too.」

There was so little information that they didn’t even need to say “miss”. After all, nearly all of the contents involved fairy tale-like info. There should have been written mention of the people or historical facts, but to be bluntly honest, these articles didn’t remind them of anything remotely resembling that.

「This isn’t directly related to what we’re trying to investigate today, but…」

「What is it?」

「The legend of the founding king. I’d say it’s pretty darn difficult to judge whether it’s factual or fabricated as a myth…」

Intrigued by what Tatsuya had just said, Haruna borrowed a book and skimmed the book. As for the contents…

「Annihilating over a thousand wyverns with one strike?」

「Or things like stopping over ten thousand troops with one horse, or remaining unscathed even when they took the full brunt of the magic of an evil god’s retainers- just a lot of insane stuff.」

「Yeah, I really don’t know what to think of this.」

「Right?」

Tatsuya replied with a wry smile at Haruna’s remark. Honestly, in their former world, this would have been regarded as preposterous and that would be the end of it, but this world was in the style of Fairy Tale Chronicles. Leaving aside the magic of the retainers of an evil god, they couldn’t necessarily rule out the act of stopping a thousand wyverns. There was an event from the administration in which a player used only one extra sword skill to defeat about five hundred wyverns and monsters of equal level, nearly destroying them all. Judging from what happened that time, even if it were an exaggeration that the enemies had been defeated with one swing, the chances that someone had legitimately wiped out a thousand wyverns in the blink of an eye were fairly high.

As for halting a military force of over ten thousand, with Hiroshi being able to choose the terrain and charging right in, he would undoubtedly succeed. If he truly had the physique that he had in the game, it would essentially be impossible to kill Hiroshi with human firepower.

「Let’s leave the whole founding king thing aside for the moment. It isn’t like we care whether it’s a myth or the truth.」

「Well, that is true.」

「It currently feels like I can’t say much on this unless I read some more. Although I did find something that slightly contradicts what we were thinking in the first volume. Interested?」

「Contradicts? What do you mean?」

Tatsuya had nothing but a bad feeling when he saw Haruna’s subtly troubled expression.

「You see, it seems like not all the guests from the Unknown Continent absolutely have to be Japanese or players.」

「What?」

Tatsuya couldn’t help but let out a voice of astonishment at these unexpected words. He had managed to keep it in a low tone, but with just a bit more noise or more people around, it would have been dangerous.

「According to this, it seems that the first guests to come from the Unknown Continent were of African descent.」

「But if that were the case, couldn’t it just be that black people who came to Japan were playing the game and got mixed up in it?」

「Well, apparently, upon seeing Wulls at the time, they were shocked at the development of its civilization.」

「…」

At that, Tatsuya found himself quiet down as he felt an extremely bad premonition. If what Haruna had said was true, then that would mean these were tribes who had no connection whatsoever with developed nations. It was even possible that these people had wandered in here a hundred years ago in earth time.

「Upon further consideration, stories about being spirited away have been all over the world for ages and are too numerous to even count, so it doesn’t necessarily have to mean that people are sent here because of a game.」

「So are you saying you believe all that, Haruna?」

「Initially I was in half belief half doubt. But now I’m in that exact situation, so I don’t see why not.」

Haruna said with a straight face, and Tatsuya realized that what she said made sense. Though he did think that the majority of so-called spirited away incidents were abduction or the lack of a body, but considering their current position, he wouldn’t be surprised if there were some legitimate cases in which people did wander into a different world.

「Well, it’s still a bit too early for conclusions, so I’ll read the book a bit more.」

「Guess I’ll do the same. Doesn’t seem like it’ll be easy to find hints about how to return to our own world, but we might be able to learn about what’s happening in this country.」

「Exactly. In that case as well, we have to do something about that first or else we may find ourselves in a bad situation when we go to other countries.」

Thinking of their convoluted situation, even if they were to find a way to get back to their original world, it was dubious if they would just say “Okay, sure” and let them return just like that. They at least had to do something about Katrina and that mysterious lackey of hers, or else even minimal safety was shaky at best.

「Then do you have any sort of hint regarding that?」

「Didn’t the man who came into the temple call the pollution of the earth with miasma “purification”?」

「Yeah.」

「In other words, that way of thinking is the opposite of Alfemina’s temple, so I’d say one candidate is some sort of opposing religion. Seeing as how their methods are established, there seems to be an appropriate amount of history surrounding it, so even if the patterns are different, there should be similar incidents that they’re causing. Also, I can’t say that I don’t have any idea as to who the people are who summoned Cerberus, as old man Douga mentioned. Although this relates to the game and I only just remembered as I was reading through various documents.」

「True, I think those sorts of things would come up if you investigated the history, but aren’t all the particulars inside of the restricted section?」

He nodded at Haruna’s remark. However, it wouldn’t be productive to suddenly go into the restricted section. Before they did anything else, they needed to find out what incidents occurred in which time periods and what group caused them.

「Before we go into the restricted section, we’d best tie up loose ends here. It’s too risky to just read through a bunch of secretive history books all at once.」

「I see, got it. Then I’ll go sort out anything related to the guests from the unknown continent.」

「I’ll leave you to that then.」

Deciding where their next direction would be, they began opening any books that caught their eye according to the memo paper on hand. Occasionally they would exchange books and check each other’s data in order to fill up their memos with sufficient information.

「It will be afternoon shortly. What shall you be doing?」

「It’s already that time?」

「Okay, then how about we briefly clean up and report our findings while having some lunch?」

After the librarian had approached them, they both decided to take a breather. They certainly felt like they had maybe bit off more than they could chew in one day.

「Then, let’s go ahead and meet up with Hiroshi-kun…」

Half-rising to her feet, Haruna felt a strange sensation in the corner of her brain.

「…Hm?」

「What’s wrong, Haruna?」

「Well, how should I say this? It feels like something’s asserting itself…」

「Asserting itself? What do you mean?」

「I reeeally don’t know. Let me concentrate for a moment.」

She said to Tatsuya, focusing her attention on the strange sensation in the back of her mind. This was clearly some sort of outside interference. But this wasn’t one of ill intent. It was currently unclear as to whether it was dangerous or not. The line was…

「Coming from the restricted section, maybe?」

「Restricted section? But isn’t there a magical seal there?」

「Yes. It is sealed with enough power to where I cannot immediately unravel it.」

Tatsuya made a face at the librarian’s comment. Haruna had a slightly anxious expression on her face. Judging from experience, this would unmistakably lead to nothing good.

「Well, right now we shouldn’t think so much. How about some lunch…」

As Haruna was about to propose that they leave the problem for later, the unpleasant feeling of assertion violently halted her.

「Shut up already!」

「You really feel something?」

「The only people who would tell lies like that are attention whores…」

「True enough. Well, from the looks of it, we can’t do much of anything until we get into the restricted section.」

Tatsuya didn’t even bother to hide his bothered expression, whereas Haruna simply gave a weak nod. Seeing all this, the librarian made a mad dash to call over Sir Molt. Haruna felt gratitude for such quick action as she held her head at how brutal this presence was.

「I hear that the situation is becoming a bit drastic…」

It didn’t even take five minutes for Sir Molt to appear in the library from when the librarian called him over. He must have really hurried over.

「Yeah, Haruna started saying that there was something exerting itself in the direction of the restricted section.」

「Is this true!?」

「She just wouldn’t shut up for the last few minutes about wanting you to head that way…」

Judging by Haruna’s exhausted expression, Sir Molt figured that she wasn’t lying. Besides, if Sir Molt were to accompany them, they could enter the restricted section whenever they pleased, so there was no point or merit of telling a lie like this.

「But to pierce through the seal and call out to you, it must be quite strong…」

「You don’t have to tell me that…」

As if bolstered by Sir Molt’s arrival, the calling became louder, and a groggy Haruna grumbled with a pale face and dry smile.

「Anyhow, at this rate, Haruna won’t last. Let’s hasten with investigating.」

「Indeed.」

When Sir Molt hurriedly went to temporarily unlock the seal to the restricted section, the presence that was targeting Haruna became a straight line.

「Which way?」

「…This way.」

Still pale-faced, she traced a line with indistinct steps. Enshrined in the bookshelf ahead of them was a grimoire that was emitting quite the immense amount of mana despite being sealed off. There were plenty of other grimoires gathered on the shelf, and it was honestly difficult to tell which grimoire it was based solely off of the book bindings, but by simply examining the mana it was clear which one Haruna was searching for.

「…So you want me to take you out from there?」

The book binding had no words on it, but was illuminated by a faint light as if answering Haruna’s call. The moment she saw the response and took it into her hands, Haruna’s eyes narrowed.

「Sing? What are you talking about?」

The book cover had no words on it either, but it blinked in order to answer Haruna’s question. She found herself sighing at how troublesome this was, but determined that nothing could progress unless she did as it had said, she opened the grimoire and came up with lyrics in her head and a rhythm to accompany it. Reacting to the song, light poured out from the grimoire. 𝘧𝒓e𝑒𝑤e𝙗𝚗o𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝐜𝐨ｍ

「…These guests from the Unknown Continent are really all out of this world, aren’t they…」

「Sure, I admit that I’m different from the average person in Farlane, but please, it’s a little too much to lump me together with her or Hiroshi.」

Tatsuya couldn’t help but interject at Sir Molt as he muttered in awe. No matter what, he was reluctant to be compared to Haruna and her extra skills, Hiroshi and his extreme crafting specialization, or even to Makoto and her over Level 600 head-on battle prowess. Tatsuya could at most handle some different kinds of magic, but not to the point of making it into even the lower level of advanced players.

「But what is that anyway?」

「I do not know. The restricted books are dangerous in that they either choose the person or attempt to consume them, so I do not know the details either.」

「And you don’t have any sort of list of inventory?」

「That we do, but it is more than a thousand years old, so it is unclear which book pertains to which specific item on the list.」

As if testing the answer he had heard from Sir Molt, Tatsuya took out a comparatively mellow grimoire out. Just like the previous one, there was nothing written on the front cover or binding, and looking at it didn’t help with figuring out which book it was. He flipped through the pages, but they were all blank. Nevertheless, he could sense the strong mana.

「I see. Now it makes sense why a simple index wouldn’t be able to pinpoint these.」

「Precisely. And even amongst the grimoires, there are especially dangerous ones that have been quarantined, so I do not think the ones in this area will be especially problematic…」

「So they’ll either look like there’s nothing in them, or you won’t even be able to open the pages, essentially.」

「That is correct.」

Tatsuya was marveling in the corner of his head about how this was quite good for security purposes. At least for security, but as they were blocked off in this area, no matter how low the risk was, it was doubtless that none of them were anything but troublesome. At least judging from how Haruna was doing, he didn’t think these were harmless books in the slightest.

「…Finishing up anytime soon?」

「It…would seem so.」

At the same time that the third song’s climax had ended, light gradually began to illuminate their vision. Then, as the reverberation of the last phrase faded, the light all disappeared and the grimoire that had been drifting in front of Haruna closed by itself, returning to the bookshelf it was previously on.

「So what was that all about?」

「……Sorry……、……still……、……processing……」

Haruna crumpled onto the ground, her face pale and breathing raspy. She seemed to be troubled in some way.

「Okay. Can you stand?」

「……Can you……、……wait……、……a bit……。……Kind of……、……feels like……、……all my stamina……、……was taken……、from me……」

And Haruna certainly sounded sluggish. Making a sidelong glance at Sir Molt, who seemed to be unsure whether he should look at this strangely appealing version of Haruna, Tatsuya calmly took out a Level 5 stamina potion from his bag.

「Well, at least drink this.」

「……Mm……」

She took the stamina potion from Tatsuya, drinking it dry and taking a small breather. Despite her proportions, Haruna didn’t normally exude any kind of erotic appeal, so it was rather awkward to suddenly have her burst with glamor at a time like this. Tatsuya knew what the cause was, but the same could not be said for Sir Molt, who felt truly uncomfortable.

「Feeling a bit better?」

「Somehow, yeah. Sorry for making such a fuss.」

「Well, it’s basically an irresistible force, so no worries.」

Tatsuya said as he helped her up. Hiroshi wouldn’t be able to do considerate things like this due to his gynophobia. Even if he did think to do it, his body would definitely reject it first.

「So I’d like to ask again, what was that?」

「The main part was about special magic related to Alfemina-sama, I guess? I learned various other things, but most of them were overlapping what I already use, and the ones that were new honestly felt like they were mostly useless.」

「Oho? Could you give a specific example?」

「I’ll talk about it when we meet back up with Hiroshi-kun and the others.」

「Alright.」

Responding to Haruna’s answer, they finally got to finishing up in order to head to lunch.

「Sir Molt, would it be all right if you were to keep this a secret from everyone other than His Majesty, Prince Layotte, the high priest, and Aearis-sama?」

「Understood. However, if His Majesty determines that it is necessary, I may end up leaking the information for his sake…」

「If it’s what His Majesty has decided, then we have no intention of complaining. However, so that we know how to conduct ourselves, we would greatly appreciate it if you were to at least inform us, even if it’s after the deed.」

「I will convey this to him.」

They then got to finishing up and going their separate ways for lunch. This was the moment when they had decided to walk the narrow path, but the people from Japan wouldn’t recognize that fact until much later. At this point in time, all Haruna thought of this was that she had some strange magic forced on her.

「Wait right there, brat.」

Hiroshi had begun to head to where Haruna and Hiroshi were for lunch, but was suddenly stopped by one of the authorities who had been present at the audience with the king the previous day.

「Umm, how can I help you?」

He was a bit startled at the leader’s sour face, as it looked like he had shoved a lemon into his mouth and crushed it, but Hiroshi did his best to humor him for now. But the man spoke in a threatening tone with fierce eyes.

「Be quick about your investigation and then get out of here.」

「Well, you see, as long as we get good results, we were planning to do that…」

「I will acknowledge that you fiends have saved Elena-sama and Aearis-sama. His Majesty allowed you to investigate the library just for today, so I will overlook that too. And unlike the fools who attempted to harm Elena-sama and Aearis-sama, I have no current intention of opposing you fiends. Be as that may, I do not intend to let you fiends simply loiter around here.」

「Well, as I said, once we have the necessary information gathered or I hear that it has been, we will indeed set out as soon as possible…」

Hiroshi answered the truly hard-headed leader while seriously quivering.

「I am willing to compromise this much for you, and you intend to talk back to me?」

「Eheh…」

Hiroshi really didn’t know what to do at this point. The guy wasn’t listening to a thing he said. Not heeding Hiroshi’s clear dismay, the leader continued blurting things out.

「It is true that even a fiend such as yourself are a one of a kind potion master in this world, but if your mere presence rattles the palace and the country is ravaged by chaos, I would argue that your existence is unnecessary. In fact, your very presence here is unfathomably troublesome. So get the bloody hell out of here.」

He said the last bit with enough malice to kill a man before walking off as if nothing had happened. It was quite impressive that this leader was so difficult to talk to, yet didn’t feel like he was gloomy in the slightest. Judging from the fact that he hadn’t been affected during Aearis’s purification in the temple infiltration, he probably was immune to miasma.

In other words, he was just a stubborn, but faithful old man. There was no way that this man could accept utter strangers like Hiroshi. As the man had declared, they were not currently doing anything problematic, and he would not oppose openly or secretly those who the royal family had chosen to protect, but it was a different issue when it came to not letting them stay too long. If it meant chasing them out as soon as possible, he would still complain about their presence so long as it wasn’t out of actual opposition.

「What a friggin’ drag…」

It really was a drag. It made things even worse that the person wasn’t a bad person. Sighing to himself about having to report this as well, Hiroshi caught Makoto and Mio out of the corner of his eye and called out to them.

「Well then, let’s talk about them results up till noon.」

Hiroshi and the five of them formed a circle in a perfectly inconspicuous corner of the courtyard, handing out the lunch they had prepared as they had a meeting. Needless to say, they had taken precautions against eavesdropping.

「Looks like I’m up first. I don’t got nothin’ at the moment though, other than takin’ half a day to be able to activate some sorta outface thing.」

「And what happened on the firepower side of things?」

「We settled on swingin’ around a pole axe for the time being. Bein’ real with ya, I think I’d have some trouble with learnin’ attack-related skills.」

Basking in the smell of the prepared food, Hiroshi finished his own report. As the drinks last night had been filled to the brim with poison, Hiroshi was appraising this food as well with his top detection skills. It was made at the knight’s mess hall and not the guest one out of precaution, but declaring it safe as a result was a little too careless. So even with the alluring scent of food before them, not a single person tried to even touch it.

「So you still ended up not focusing too much on the offense…」

「Well, as long as Hiro doesn’t try to go off on his own, we should be fine for the time being.」

「Right, right. Plus we can easily support him as things are.」

Makoto’s shoulders dropped when she realized that there wasn’t any major problem that had been resolved. Meanwhile, Haruna and Tatsuya hadn’t expected much of him, so they were lenient on him for at least learning Outface.

「Still, wasn’t that a bit fast?」

「Maybe those settings that we started out with’re still in effect, like Haruna said?」

Makoto and the other two made dubious expressions at that query. Haruna began a supplemental explanation after seeing their expressions.

「Well, you see. According to the game’s settings, the guests from the unknown continent are supposed have quicker growth than that of the average person in this world. So I was thinking that it might not be weird at all for us to also acquire skills more quickly.」

「Besides, the old man ’n everyone else were sayin’ things like “As I’d expect from lads from the Unknown Continent.”」

「Hoho, I see. So if I were to learn things related to crafting right now…」

「Yup, I think ya’d have about as easy a time as in the actual game.」

Makoto grimaced at Hiroshi’s answer. Of course things couldn’t go her way. For those who hadn’t gone through the trial of crafting, one might say “Oh, that thing that gets easier as you progress?” Still, if you were to think about it normally, it would only take around twenty years to master a field that would normally take one’s whole lifetime to master, in addition to all the skills that came with it, so it was still quite comparatively easier.

「And that’s how it is, so I bet I can learn that there Around Guard shouldn’t be too hard to git as a prerequisite. Although I worry ‘bout just how much trainin’ ya gotta do to be able to use it proficiently.」

「Ah, okay.」

「Also, this ain’t really as I expected, but there’re quite a few peeps who don’t think very well of us, regardless of miasma. Welp, not like we know whether they’re under the influence’re not just by meetin’ ’em.」

Makoto and Mio grimaced and nodded at what Hiroshi said. Someone had apparently said something to them too when they parted ways with Aearis. It seemed that by this point, only Tatsuya and Haruna had not encountered such people.

「Yeah, and I just finished bein’ told off by one of them authority figures from the meeting to hurry up ’n git goin’. But well, I think even if he tries to git us out, he probably won’t interfere with our investigation.」

「You sure it’s okay?」

「Well I can at least say they had no issue with purification, so they ain’t Barold’s henchman or anythin’.」

Tatsuya and Makoto seemed to be satisfied with Hiroshi’s information. In actuality, it would be more effective and less risky to make them facilitate the process by being in the library.

「I’d say the real problem here is Ellie’s maid.」

「I think so too.」

「That there gurl is dangerous. Honestly, even if I try ’n stick to the edges of the room, it’s too risky for me to go into Ellie’s place by myself.」

「I mean, even I don’t want to go in there alone.」

After they had finished breakfast that day, Hiroshi and Mio had gone to Elena’s medical examination before training just in case, and as they remembered the events that had transpired, they shivered all around. Especially in Hiroshi’s case, since he had been subjected to all sorts of things that aggravated him, which was why Elena and Mio had had to support him desperately.

But all that did was rub the maid even further the wrong way, making their relationship even worse.

「Just in case, we’ll git to medical examination affairs while we’re here, but I think it’s best we finish up and git outta here as soon as possible…」

「Agreed. So what about Makoto and Mio?」

「Nothing that’s particularly worth discussing, I’d say. Other than maybe that we can launch a protective barrier against flying weapons at a moment’s notice.」

Mio nodded at Makoto’s report with an earnest face. Aearis was also pretty reasonable for her age. Although it was troubling that her lack of exercise caused a lack of stamina, it wasn’t like she was a guest from the Unknown Continent. She couldn’t just solve this issue in a brief span of time.

「Elle’s seriously giving it her all. She should be getting up there pretty soon.」

「Sounds about right. Plus she listens to what people have to say and her reflexes aren’t half bad either.」

「Well that’s good to hear.」

「So, Sensei. We going to eat yet?」

Pestered by Mio, he made a slight grimace and nodded. He at least couldn’t detect any poison from any quick searches, nor did he have any bad feelings about it, so even if something had been slipped into it, they could probably just detoxify it by biting into some solmizen.

「Alright then, let us eat.」

「About time we get to dig in…」

After putting her hands together to exchange pre-meal formalities, Mio grumbled as she reached out for a sandwich. To Mio, who had about as much obsession with meals as Aearis did, it was quite testing to have food right in front of her but to not be able to touch it. With that being said, all these sandwiches involved were hard, black bread and your typical ingredients inserted inside- a very masculine, bare-bones sort of product.

「Y’know, I think this every time, but is there any way to do something about the hardness of this bread?」

「That’s cause we ain’t usin’ yeast. How ’bout ya learn how to ferment dough in the castle’s kitchen for now?」

「Oh yeah, you asked Prince Layotte to help out as well, right?」

Haruna muttered as she remembered. It wasn’t like she had forgotten, but it was just infinitely low on her priority list, so she hadn’t thought about it in the slightest. Ever since he had tasted the soft, fermented bread in the kitchen, Layotte had become obsessed with normalizing it. It would probably be best to just get over it and teach everyone as much as possible, both for the sake of his wish and for their own affluent eating habits.

「Heck, Lay even wanted to increase the production and normalization of takoyaki plates.」

「Sensei, I don’t think that plates alone will suffice.」

「Well yeeeah. Puttin’ aside green seaweed, the sauce ’n bonito flakes alone would be too difficult as of right now.」

The Japanese group’s conversation became increasingly derailed with the topic of food. The topic of what to eat was truly a fearsome one. Furthermore, the takoyaki plate that Layotte was so insistent about was more of a simple edition, where you would set it on a stove or hot plate. Both of those had the corresponding magic tools, so Layotte figured that all they needed was to make boards.

「Anyhow, let’s leave that to the side. It’s not high on our priority list after all.」

「True. Gettin’ back on topic, how was everythin’ on yer guys’ end, Haruna?」

「Well, we had a lot happen on our end…」

「Where do we even begin?」

Suddenly in the spotlight, Haruna and Tatsuya’s expressions grew fretful. It seemed like it was difficult for them to go about describing it.

「Well let’s just start with whatcha investigated.」

「All right. Then I’ll go first.」

Consenting to Hiroshi’s request, she began discussing what they currently knew. The information that Haruna had picked up about the guests from the Unknown Continent was as follows:

The first thing they were able to confirm was that there was no solid causual relationship between the game Fairy Tale Chronicles and the Guests from the Unknown Continent. Certainly, it was a bit difficult to insist that everyone had played the game at some point, especially when cyberpunk-esque elves had found their way in. Even in terms of Japanese people, there had reportedly been a man from the Warring States Period who came in after a young man who had been part of a special offense force during the second world war, so it was clear from the records that time didn’t have to always play the same way, and it was honestly a very brain-wracking find.

However, it was also true that there were several people whose description quite possibly matched that of players. Not all who had wandered in here ended up the same way: there were mixing cases of those who suddenly went missing and of those who were confirmed to be dead. It wasn’t clear whether or not the missing people were merely missing or had returned safely to Japan, but this possibility alone made it a huge find.

「……I know this ain’t the time to bring it up……」

After hearing Haruna’s explanation, Hiroshi opened his mouth fearfully.

「Something you’re concerned about?」

「Well, things like what happened to our bodies over there or what time it is over there.」

「……I do get what you’re saying, but yeah, no use thinking about it right now.」

「I know. I know, but…」

Everyone found themselves utterly silent at Hiroshi’s words.

「Also, there’s something I’m wondering about.」

「What?」

「Was just thinking that it’s peculiar for all these players to show up but not really make much of an impression here.」

「Ah, very true……」

According to Haruna, the players who had been sent here before, save one, were all your average players that made up the majority, not involved in much crafting. The only exception was that of a magic-obsessed person who had only really gotten to the Harvest skill, and no one had any experience with cooking, so at least in terms of culinary impact, everyone had yet to outmatch Hiroshi.

As to how she knew that, it was because among those who came from a different world, there were those who were probably at least on par with Hiroshi in terms of their medical knowledge. She had found a book detailing what skill sets those individuals had in comparison, so she was able to comprehend a decent amount about the people who had been sent here in the past. Of course, there were many of them who had come from some undeveloped area in Africa, sharing a similar food culture with each other like whole roasting or the occasional boiling.

For those who were accustomed to a more affluent diet, they had no knowledge of how to replicate it and she sort of felt something artificial or ill-willed about them.

「I really don’t get it though~」

「Well, if we just count the players, it would still be less than twenty people even with us included, so if we consider the population ratio then it’s practically a miracle that we even ended up being close to people like Hiro.」

「Yeah, that’s true.」 f𝐫ee𝘄ℯ𝚋no𝐯𝐞l.c𝘰m

Makoto couldn’t help but agree with what Tatsuya said.

「But in the first place, it’s quite abnormal to find someone who wastes their skills just to eat like Sensei.」

「Mio, yer purty tough on someone ya call yer “Sensei” as of recently.」

「It’s how I feel though.」

As he heard Mio declare with conviction, Hiroshi suddenly looked tired and had a faraway look in his eyes. Sure, he knew that he was a loser, but when his pupil, not to mention a girl of five years younger than him made a fool of him like this, he seriously had to question his life.

「Well putting that aside, what about your report, Tatsuya?」

「I didn’t find anything particularly decisive. All I know is that there’s some group of followers of an evil god that are running amok in this country.」

「Wow, totally haven’t heard that concept before…」

「Yeah, you’re telling me.」

Tatsuya grimaced at Mio’s straight remark. That term was all he had and no further information to go on, so it was inevitable to imagine that. At most, Makoto had informed him that she had crossed swords with a group of an evil god’s followers in one of the main quests in Chapter Four. Actually, there wasn’t even confirmation that an evil god existed in the game from the overall progress. Being that this was only a world resembling the game, there wasn’t even confirmation about a group of followers, so he had only briefly mentioned this detail.

「Well, with that being said, I kinda git it.」

「Get what?」

「The reason why Princess Katrina and her flunky were so pained to hear Haruna-san’s song at the party last night.」

「Oh great, so it really was my fault there…」

Haruna looked down as if receiving a shock. For Haruna, who enjoyed singing and having others listen in, it must have been shocking for the opposite thing to happen.

「Well, if they weren’t defiled by that there miasma, it was supposed to power ’em up, so they probably got what was comin’ to them.」

「So…?」

「I’m thinkin’ it was the effect of Song of the Gods. If Ki○Ki○Dancer were there, it mighta just took one move to round ’em up.」

「Yeah, but I don’t think being compared to them is going to make this shock go away either…」

「You’ll be fine, you’ll be fine. Just try singin’ when we find a buncha monsters teamin’ with miasma.」

Haruna nodded with a grimace at Hiroshi’s strangely determined words.

「Now, last on the list, from how ya been actin’ earlier it seems like somethin’ happened. What happened?」

「Well, this isn’t easy to explain at all, but……」

It took Haruna a bit of time to figure out how to answer after Hiroshi asked her, so she decided to explain one part of it that she knew to be factual.

「Well, a grimoire that was sealed in the restricted section seemed to take a liking to me and made me learn extra skills from Alfemina.」

Haruna spoke of it as a mere burden, but everyone other than Tatsuya stiffened upon hearing that. Even in such a situation, the sky still managed to be a clear and pretty blue.