◆Chapter 9: A Reliable Little Scholar
◆Chapter 9: A Reliable Little Scholar
I jerk awake. My vision is blurry from just waking up. My brain isn’t working well either. I instinctively think I have to go to school soon or I’ll be late. I try to crawl out of bed—one that feels much softer than usual.
“Urk,” I cry out when I hit my stomach on something. The impact wakes me right up. I look down and see a girl clad in a dress crying as she hugs me.
“Big Sister!”
“…Cia?”
“Yes, I am your Cia. I am so relieved you came to…”
Instantly, Cia’s surreal elegance and loveliness call to mind the extraordinary past few days.
“Ahh, right. I fainted after helping Lex.”
“You had been running around the entire time since the prior day… You must have been exhausted.”
Physical fatigue was definitely a part of it, but it felt more like I was hit with lethargy from the inside. I think the source was this mysterious power I’ve never used before—the power to purify. I have to be careful with how I use it from now on, just in case it isn’t as limitless as I thought.
“Oh yeah!” I snap back to my senses. “How long was I asleep for? It’s not night yet, is it?”
“I-It isn’t, but it will be nighttime soon.”
I follow Cia’s gaze out the bedchamber’s window. Outside is slowly turning dark; it looks to be around evening time.
“I have to hurry and purify the zombies in the city before nightfall!” I push myself up.
“Big Sis! You can’t with your health! Besides, it is already too late for that—”
“But if I don’t go now, everyone will revert into zombies… Last night will happen all over again.”
We won’t ever move forward if we have to repeat our castle siege strategy every time night hits. I would rather take the risk and purify until every zombie is gone from within the city limits.
“As for that problem, we may have an answer,” says a knight standing in the doorless doorway. My eyes fly open the second I see that familiar face.
“Lex…!”
“I am glad to see you awake and well.”
“Thanks to the hard work of a certain someone.”
We smile at each other without saying anything else.
“Okay, care to explain what answer you came up with, then?” I ask, breaking the silence.
“Yes. However, it is not I who will be doing the explaining, but this person here.”
Lex steps aside, allowing a short boy into the room. He looks slightly older than Cia. Unlike the knights in their plate armor, he’s wearing airy, loose clothing. That, paired with his neatly trimmed auburn hair, gives the impression he’s a nobleman’s son.
“He is Grantz Kingdom’s royal scholar—”
“Pino,” the boy cuts Lex off. “Let’s not waste my time and get down to business.”
He comes off as self-important and cocky. For a moment, I doubt a kid his age could be a scholar, but Cia and Lex acknowledge him as such, so it seems to be true. In any case, I’m not a person of high status who needs to be paid respect, so it doesn’t bother me if he wants to act assertive.
“Um, I’m Mizuha. Nice to meet you, Pino.” I hold out my right hand to shake hands with him.
“Eek!” he squeaks and hops back. He’s clearly avoiding my touch. Did I do something weird? Or does my hand still reek of zombie?
Cia parries my worries with her knowing smile. “Rest assured, Big Sis! I thoroughly cleaned your hands!”
Yep, they aren’t putting off a foul odor. What a considerate child she is. Maybe she just couldn’t take being around that horrid stench without washing it, but I’m not going to press her on it. Ignorance is bliss.
But if stench isn’t the reason, I’m even more at a loss as to why Pino is avoiding me. What if it’s a visceral rejection of me? I’ll be depressed if it is.
“S-Sorry, but I don’t believe in shaking hands. I hope you don’t take offense,” Pino says, rushing to explain himself.
His panic makes him look his age, instantly erasing the superficially polite impression I had of him. Honestly, I don’t get what anyone would have against exchanging handshakes, but I’ll go along with it.
“Got it. It’s cool if you have a reason.”
“Sorry about that. Back to our prior topic of discussion… Getting straight to the point, it is possible to make it through the night. And it’s pretty easy to do too.” He says it like he’s sure of it.
“I have a hard time believing that, after running for my life from the super zombies last night. They ran at ridiculous speeds. I simply can’t foresee outrunning them—”
“That’s the key right there. Your first big mistake is thinking we have to take them on.”
“Are you implying we make it so they can’t find us? I hate to poke a hole in your plan, but they targeted people inside the castle they didn’t know were there last night…”
“I can see why they would. The castle is full of things zombies react to.”
What is he getting at?
My confused head tilt seems to be what Pino expected, because he flashes a satisfied smirk.
“A few zombies were still left here and there in the castle after you fainted. Oh, don’t worry. We didn’t sustain damage to our numbers, because the knights confined them in the dungeon. But I was able to experiment on those zombies.”
“What kind of experiments?”
“Ones that test what it is zombies react to.” Pino grins and holds up three fingers as he continues his explanation. “Based on my results, I can conclude zombies respond dramatically to three things. First, they react to people who enter their limited range of vision. Second, sound. And lastly, light.”
“Light? Like candlelight and fires?”
“Exactly. And what time is light easiest to see?”
“…Right. At night.”
That certainly explains why the zombies targeted the castle and broke inside even if they didn’t see people. Candles were lit all around the castle last night after all. Torches blazed throughout the courtyards too. I don’t think there were many places without light.
I’ve always had this view that evil things hate light, so the brightly lit castle actually put my mind at rest too. I can’t believe that turned out to be the thing that drew the zombies to us.
“Ah! Then the way to get through the night without zombies is—”
“Yes, you’re on the right track. We can get through the night by killing all the lights within the castle.” Pino smiles victoriously and adds, “See? Easy, isn’t it?”
◆◆◆◆◆
“MM!” First thing the next morning, I go out into the courtyard and stretch.
The zombie blighted environment around the rotten capital city has left a dark fog over the sun, but at least the air isn’t bad, since I took care of purifying the area within the castle walls. Waking up to such a refreshing morning is only possible thanks to Pino.
Keeping all light off and lying low within the castle saved us from being attacked by zombies last night. Some of them ran around on top of the castle walls, while others rammed the walls, but that seemed to be their normal behavior rather than a reaction to people. It goes without saying that it was a dauntingly surreal scene anyway.
“I see the holy priestess is an early riser.” That youthful voice is at odds with its commanding tone.
I turn around to where Pino is walking toward me from the inner gate while yawning. “I had to go around purifying the zombies who came over the walls.”
“And secure us food supplies,” Pino remarks as he looks around me. Apple trees grew around the courtyard while I was taking care of business. The castle has gone from imposing and stately to a friendly apple plantation.
“Want one?”
“…I actually haven’t had a thing to eat since becoming human again. I’ll take one.”
Pino stretches up to pluck an apple from the closest tree, but he’s just a few inches too short to reach it. He must be terribly embarrassed, because he glances at me with a face redder than the apples. He’s kind of cute.
Pino jumps out of desperation, snagging one of the apples and ripping it off the branch, dropping leaves on his head in the process. He takes a violent bite out of the apple as if to shake off his humiliation. A split second later, his eyes go rounder than the apple as if he’s had a great shock. He’s reacting like a character from a cooking manga.
“Th-This is a fairly delectable apple.” Pino ravenously devours the crunchy fruit, polishing it off in a matter of moments. He must really like it. “While it’s tasty, we’ll have a nutritional imbalance from eating just apples, not to mention quickly grow sick of them.”
“I totally agree. Not that we have the luxury of complaining.”
“We’ll have to increase our food options eventually.” As Pino goes on about our future, he stares closely at the apple core in his hand. “I’ve gotta say, though, it leaves a bad aftertaste when I think of this as fruit grown with your spit. Whoa, why do you suddenly look so happy? I’m speaking ill of you. You’re creeping me out!”
“Sorry. I’m just so happy to have finally met someone who reacts normally…!”
My sensibilities were starting to tarnish with everyone around me viewing my spit as some kind of gift from God. I’m relieved from the bottom of my heart to finally come across someone with a sane reaction. Pino seems to have picked up on why I reacted that way too. He heaves an exasperated sigh.
“This kingdom is full of easygoing people, after all.”
“They’re all good people, though.”
“I can acknowledge that.”
Pino’s proud tone lets me know just how much he loves Grantz Kingdom. As a scholar, he can attest to it with his intimate knowledge of this kingdom. Speaking of which, I just remembered I had some things I wanted to ask him about.
“Oh yeah, you’re a scholar, Pino. Do you know all sorts of things?”
“That’s a monstrously vague question. Well, I’ve been granted the position of scholar at my age. I’m confident in my wealth of knowledge.”
“Say, do you know of any items or magic that connects to another world? Hey, wipe that look that practically screams ‘What’s wrong with this woman?’ off your face.”
“I merely reacted as you expected I would.”
I never thought a boy so much younger than me would turn such scornful eyes my way. It’s the kind of look that lays bare just how much of a hopeless case I am, and that kills me on the inside.
“Yeesh, this is what I get for expecting a halfway decent question from you…”
“But you aren’t too startled by it, are you?”
“Of course not. You are a strange and unknown being that can purify zombies and nature alike. Nothing startling about bizarre, unfamiliar information coming from you.”
“Ooh, you sound kinda smart.”
“…Are you making fun of me?”
“Never~~!”
“So you say. I know you’re judging me based on appearances too.” Pino sulkily turns his face aside. What an understandable concern.
“Well, I’ll be honest with you. At first, I was like, ‘How’s this little kid a scholar?’ But Lex and Cia acknowledge you as one, and above all else, I can really tell how smart you are after talking with you like this.”
“I guess intelligence just overflows from you when you reach my level, but…”
“Take last night for example. We only got through the night thanks to your brilliant idea, Pino.”
“W-We did? Yeah, we did, didn’t we? But it only turned out that way with assistance from the Royal Knights. I couldn’t have achieved it alone.”
Pino is the proud type. Plus, he’s sincere when you stroke his ego. I can tell by this conversation that we’ll get along great from here.
In a good mood, Pino suddenly becomes talkative. “Now back to your question… When you refer to ‘another world,’ you mean a different world from the one we are currently standing in, correct?”
“Yep. Huh. Lex knew what I was talking about too. I’m surprised the people here understand the concept of other worlds.”
The theory is easy for me to comprehend because we have words and stories about it, but it doesn’t come up in everyday conversations. Maybe it’d be easier to understand if my world had a name used across worlds, but I’ve never heard of such a thing.
“Our god came from another world, so obviously we’d know of it. Why are you bringing this up?” Pino turns suspicious eyes on me, but I couldn’t care less about that right now. The important thing here is that he knows of another world.
“Can you tell me more about the world your god comes from?”
“You’re frighteningly hung up on this topic.”
“That’s because it’s super important to me.”
The world their god comes from and mine might be one and the same.
“I’m more surprised you don’t know anything about it. Even small children know about it.”
“How could I? I’m not a resident of this world.”
“Hold your horses. You just dropped that into the conversation…” Pino buries his head in his hands and crouches on the ground. “Uhh…” he groans.
Thinking he needs sugar to help his brain along, I ask, “Need an apple?”
“I do,” he replies. I pick an apple and hand it to him. After he scarfs it down like an animal, he springs to his feet. Holding up the two apple cores as stand-ins for “this world” and “the other world,” he begins working out the scenario. “Let me see if I have this right. You unexpectedly came to this world from another one. So you are looking for a way to return to that other—your former—world?”
“Oooh, you’re amazing, Pino! You comprehended that much in this little time!”
If I were Pino, this conversation would’ve ended with me worrying if the other person was in their right mind. It’s funny for me to feel this way, but even I think my story is absurd.
“I simply constructed my answer based on what you told me. Anyway, you’re making fun of me again.”
“Sorry, I’m just happy you took me seriously, because Lex wrote it off as being obvious since I’m the priestess and didn’t give it a second thought.”
“Allow me to make it clear that I respect Sir Lex before I say…don’t ever lump me into the same category as that meathead.”
His face is dead serious. It must mean that much to him. I’ll avoid tactlessly aggravating him by dropping the subject here.
“Having said that, I get how Sir Lex feels. After all, while you can believe in the existence of other worlds, it isn’t easy to believe someone came from one.”
“But you believe me, Pino.”
“Don’t misunderstand. I am speaking of it as a what-if scenario.”
“Tch. That’s not fair.”
“Now don’t get ahead of yourself. This isn’t the end of the conversation. I’m of the opinion that nothing will begin if I don’t start by believing you, so choosing to not believe you was never on the table for me.”
Can I interpret that as him saying he’ll try to believe me for now? I don’t really get his logic, but I’ll be optimistic here and be glad he didn’t flat-out reject the idea without listening to me.
“All right, as for our talk about the other world…let’s save it for next time.”
“What? Why?! Isn’t this where we get right into it?!”
“Don’t you have things to do right now?” Pino points out, gesturing with his eyes for me to look toward the inner gate. Lex, Sir Oden, and ten or so knights are heading this way.
“Aaah…” I unthinkingly groan aloud. I had completely forgotten about our plans to head into the city to purify zombies.
“Purifying Grantz Kingdom might not seem like your problem, but it’s something I need you to do.” Pino thrusts up his index finger as he suggests, “How about this? I will answer any and every question you have once you finish successfully purifying all of Grantz’s capital.”
“That’s what it comes down to, huh?”
“It’s not a bad plan in my eyes.”
Purifying the zombies in the city is a very dangerous job, but at least the danger drops significantly by not moving around at night. All the knights are going to help out too. In all likelihood, I can pull it off without a hitch. Most importantly, I had every intention of purifying the capital anyway, so gaining information about my world in the process will be killing two zombie birds with one stone.
“Okay, I accept your terms.”
“A wise decision.”
“Oh, but let me correct you on one thing… Purifying this country isn’t ‘not my problem’ anymore. Just so you know.”
Pino looks baffled for a moment before his expression gives way to one of amusement. “Not a bad reply for the holy priestess.”
“I keep telling you people I’m not your priestess!”
After snorting at my pitiful objection, Pino turns his back toward me and waves. “Happy zombie hunting, ‘Miss Holy Priestess of Spit.’”
“GYAH!”