Bonus Short Stories

* May contain spoilers. Please read these after finishing the volume.

The Land of Strife

Reiji Mukudori

“What kind of country is Tenchi, anyway?”

On a day much like any other, I posed that question to my Tenchi-dwelling friends from college.

“Oh dear. Why would you ask that?”

“I just felt like learning more about the place.”

Marie had gotten me curious when she’d said that Tenchi’s Nanshumon clan actually used the Death Soldier job, which I’d picked as my third. All I really knew about the country so far was that the median level of tians there was exceptionally high.

“You’re all from there, right? Can you tell me more about the country’s culture? The general vibe?”

“Hmm... the vibe, huh? I’d say that it’s...” Akiyama stopped mid-sentence, only for the other three to finish it for him in unison. “The land of strife.”

I’d heard the exact same description many times now, both in and out of Dendro.

“Not a month passes there without civil conflict,” Fuyuki — who was affiliated with the Hokugen’in Daimyo clan — said, reminiscing about something. “We had one just recently, in fact. Civilian casualties are rare, if that’s what you’re worried about, but the tians who take to the battlefield have a strong ‘BRING IT ON’ attitude. They’re all really tough, too.”

“It’s basically the Sengoku Era with leveling thrown in,” Kasugai added as he nodded. “The tians there are also skilled at martial arts, so they’re often way stronger than mid-tier Masters.”

“It’s pretty advanced, though. There’s a bath in every home, and most of them even have flush toilets,” Natsume said.

“Well, Altar’s a traditional fantasy land, but it’s no different in that regard,” I said as I remembered all the facilities the kingdom had.

The people of Dendro enjoyed many of the modern comforts we had here on Earth. Most of them had been introduced by people who had “Cat” as their last name — probably members of the dev team, specifically Tom.

“What about you, Akiyama? Got anything to say about Tenchi?”

“Well... I don’t live on Tenchi’s main island, but I can say that the cuisine has a Japanese vibe too. Though, due to the different flavors, they often use unconventional kinds of meat or western veggies, so even though the food is Japanese at its core, it often seems somewhat... thrown together.”

“Ah. I get what you mean! It’s a bit fancy and colorful!” Natsume voiced her agreement.

I knew what they meant. Dendro had ingredients we didn’t have on Earth, like monster meat or Remberries.

“Oh, and though Tenchi is constantly at war with itself, they do have someone at the top.”

“The ‘Conquest General,’ right?” I asked. “From what I can tell, that’s Dendro’s ‘Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians’ AKA ‘Shogun.’ What’s he like?”

“Hmm... compared to actual historical people... he’s not Ieyasu, at least.”

“Not Yoshiaki Ashikaga either, that’s for sure.”

“I guess he’s closest to Yoshiteru Ashikaga.”

“That’s the one they call ‘Swordmaster Shogun’...” I said in mild amazement.

I did expect the head of a country in Dendro to be strong, though — just like Azurite in our own Altar.

“But apparently, he’s weaker than his predecessors from ancient times. Our Daimyo said that the Conquest General’s powers change depending on how much land he owns, and he doesn’t have all that much of it right now.”

“I mean, Tenchi’s an island country, so there’s a limit to that anyway, right?”

It might not have always been an island country, though, huh? I wondered.

Time passed by as we talked, and when it was almost time for the next lecture, we split up and focused on our studies.

I learned quite a few things about Tenchi. The question now was... would I ever get a chance to go there?

The End

A Popcorn Deficiency

Death Soldier, Ray Starling

Recently, Shu had begun going on regular hunting trips.

The quest he’d done with Lei-Lei hadn’t been his only recent endeavor. He’d also been seen riding Baldr to distant lands many a time. He’d said that he was out making money so he could buy as much Baldr ammo as he could, and though that was fine and all, there was one little problem.

We were having dinner together one day when I handed him a letter. “Here. It’s for you,” I said.

“Fur me? What is this, fanmail?”

“...Well, knowing you in real life, I can understand why you’d assume that, but no.”

Our letterbox used to be filled with letters addressed to him, and I vaguely recalled many envelopes being strangely heavy. That was in reality, though. This ursine goof right here in Dendro would never get any fanmail... except maybe from little kids.

“That’s a petition I was asked to pass over to you.”

“A petition...? Ohh...”

Shu opened the envelope, read the letter, and nodded in understanding.

“This person wants me to start selling popcorn again.”

Someone was petitioning Shu to resume running his “KoD’s Popcorn” stall.

Apparently, he’d only started selling popcorn to make some money while King of Beasts was in Gideon. He couldn’t leave the city while she was here, but he still wanted to make a profit he could turn into ammo, however little it may be.

Demonstrating his immense skill as a cook, his popcorn turned out to be so good that he gained a devoted following of regulars and, well, business was booming. But with KoB having left Gideon, Shu was now able to resume hunting and make money far more efficiently, so he’d simply ended his venture into the popcorn industry.

The supply was gone, just like that, but the demand from the fans was still there, and one of them had gone on to write this petition.

By the way, this person was none other than my friend and duel ranker, Chelsea. She’d become a fan of Shu’s popcorn too, and after her clan fell apart, she’d wanted to turn to it as comfort food, only to have no luck finding him or his business.

I’d found her in an awful state. Her eyes were lifeless, and if Dendro had a stat for sanity, hers would’ve been at rock bottom.

Once Chelsea had noticed me, she cornered me against the wall and slammed her hand into it so hard it shattered — her Poseidon gave a huge bonus to STR growth — before giving me this written petition to deliver to Shu.

Though “asking” might’ve not been the right word, since I felt like she would’ve done something really drastic if I’d refused. Her clan disbanding, her complete lack of involvement in the saucy love drama, and her popcorn deficiency must’ve put her in a really bad spot...

Is the popcorn thing really as bad as the other two, though? I wondered.

“...Shu, you didn’t put anything weird in your popcorn, did you? Why is it so addictive?”

“How beary rude! I told you I only used clean and proper ingredients, all bought on the market!”

“So you’re skilled enough to get absurd results even with ordinary ingredients, huh? Oh, and though that’s the only actual petition I got for you, people ask me if you’re gonna sell popcorn again all the time. Max did just recently, and Nemesis is asleep right now, but she often says that she misses it.”

“It got more fans than I imagined, huh?”

KoD’s Popcorn went on to make a return when Shu started making lots of it and storing it in inventories to sell on consignment.

Getting to eat the popcorn she loved so much did end up making Chelsea feel a little bit better.

The End