Chapter 2: Changes

Chapter 2:
Changes

 

POV: ASAHINA KYOUSUKE

 

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?” I whispered after arriving at our supposed destination and looking around. The marks I’d left on the trunks of the trees hadn’t changed. Even without them, I remembered the unique characteristics of many of the trees we’d passed, so I knew we’d returned along the same path, but the clearing was nowhere to be seen.

“H-hey, what’s going on?!” yelled Waki, frantically looking around. “This isn’t the rendezvous point! You tricked us, Asahina!!!”

Waki was leading the pack, so he should have known better than anyone that we’d followed the markings to a T. He was probably lashing out because he was flustered and anxious. But getting flustered in a situation like this could have lethal consequences. As I carefully watched our surroundings, I drew my white katana—the Hakuryuu—from its sheath.

“Calm down, Waki. We’re surrounded,” warned Hosoyama quietly, just as Waki was about to start wailing again. I was

impressed Hosoyama had noticed we were being encircled. Her senses must have been more attuned than I gave her credit for. First her poison testing skills, now this—she was a girl of many hidden talents.

“On your guard, both of you. Stay near me,” I said, scanning right and left. There was an unfamiliar and unexpected scent of death in the air. This could turn very bad, very fast.

“Here they come!”

As soon as I heard Hosoyama’s cry, I brandished my blade. The monsters were moving so fast my eyes could barely keep up with them. It would be difficult for me to fend them off while protecting my companions. I couldn’t make out what the enemies looked like, though their arms looked more like branches, so it was easy to assume they were some kind of tree monster.

“…I don’t do well with having to fight and protect at the same time,” I whispered low enough that my companions couldn’t hear. My class was Samurai, not Knight. My specialty was cleaving foes in two, not defending the weak. As such, my defense stat was fairly low, and it usually fell to Tsuda or Nanase to keep the rear fighters safe while Satou and I focused on taking out the enemies. With no Tsuda in sight, the only person around to protect Waki and Hosoyama…was me.

“They should be coming into view any second now…” murmured Hosoyama.

It was strange—we could all sense their malice coming closer and closer, yet we still couldn’t see what they really looked like. Wait a minute. Could it be…

“Watch out!” I cried, whirling around and cutting straight through the tree monster that had snuck up behind my companions. Its branches were mere inches from the two of them. “They’re tree monsters! Be on the lookout for their branches!”

I’d identified our assailants, but we were already surrounded, and it was nearly impossible to tell the monsters apart from the real thing. Trying to feel their respective presences didn’t work either since they had us surrounded.

“We have no choice. I’ll just have to cut down each and every one.”

I drew my second katana from its sheath at my waist. This was the blade they had given me when I first learned my class back at Retice Castle. With one blade in each hand, I was able to make use of my Dual Blades skill. It was something I’d practiced in private night after night but still hadn’t mastered. It was decidedly more difficult than simply wielding one sword with both hands, and you had to give up on defense and focus on taking the enemy out before they could hit you.

“Psst! I know this probably isn’t the time or place, but do you remember Asahina ever being this bullheaded before?”

“H-how should I know?!”

I could hear my companions talking behind me, but I was too focused on the battle to listen.

“Dual Blade Technique: Sakura Tempest!”

This was a skill that sliced indiscriminately in every direction and from every angle, like falling cherry blossoms picked up by a mighty gusting gale. Yet even this would not be strong enough to cut these foes to their cores. I could hear the monsters bellowing in pain from having their branches cut, which meant it was time to deal the decisive blow.

“Dual Blade Technique: Blade Whirlwind!!!”

A gust of wind blew through the area. I could hear Hosoyama squeal, and Waki wailed in surprise behind me. When the wind died down, all that remained were severed trunks of trees all around us and no signs of life to be found. I had successfully dispatched each and every one of them.

I let out a sigh and sheathed my blades.

“That was wild, Asahina!”

I turned around to find both Waki and Hosoyama still standing, neither of them having suffered any harm. Still, the attack had served as a sobering reminder of how dangerous uncharted territory could be and that there was no way the old me could have possibly made it out of the situation unscathed. I took a moment to acknowledge just how much stronger I’d become since leaving the castle.

“Sorry for suspecting you earlier,” Waki went on. “I should know better than to think you’d ever deceive us. I guess I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“It’s fine. You were caught up in the heat of the moment. Anyone would lose their cool in a situation like that.”

Waki certainly wasn’t the deepest thinker of the group, but at least he knew how to apologize and own up to his mistakes. Being able to unreluctantly admit one’s faults was an important skill, and I admired him for that. Most of my classmates and I had rarely shared any interactions before we were summoned to Morrigan, but now I was finally getting to know their respective strengths and weaknesses.

“So, what do we do now? I’m guessing those marks we left were all on those tree monsters, so now we have no way of regaining our bearings,” Hosoyama said.

I scanned the immediate vicinity. “…It looks like we may still be in luck,” I said.

 

POV: NANASE RINTAROU

 

BY THE TIME I WOKE UP, about an hour had passed. After assuring Gilles I didn’t need any more rest, I sat up. My body felt heavy and tired. Casting not one but two new enchantment spells at the same time had taken more mental energy than anything I’d done in my short life. I had a major headache too. I’d never even focused that hard during a heated gaming session before.

“It’s probably because you tried using spells outside your wheelhouse. Sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed you like that,” Gilles said, clearly feeling more than a little guilty.

Enchantments were a type of magic that were only effective when placed on someone other than the caster. They used a type of mana different from what was used in attack spells, which meant only certain people could use them at all. I’d only used attack spells before today—the support spells had hit me like a bolt of lightning.

I should have expected as much, really; video games always had power-up and speed-up spells, and there was no reason for this world to be any different. Since I generally played a tank-type character, I only ever focused on attacking. The existence of support spells had slipped my mind.

Part of me wondered if one reason Gilles had taught me those support spells was because he felt like my magical repertoire was lacking, but it was also clear he wanted me to buff him to ensure his own stamina and mana wouldn’t run out. And I couldn’t really blame him—after all, I often sacrificed my weaker characters to ensure my main powerhouse could survive too.

“Those monsters attacked us like an organized group, wouldn’t you say?” I wondered aloud. “Which means it’s likely other groups of them are not too far from here.”

Treants didn’t strike me as migratory creatures, so I could only assume we were trespassing on their home turf. Something told me they’d been waiting for us to split up so we’d be easier to pick off; we had to be playing right into the enemy’s hands. I expressed this line of thought to Gilles, whose eyes went wide as he let out an awkward laugh.

“You heroes, I swear. You and Akira share an awfully unique way of analyzing things.”

Now it was my turn to laugh awkwardly. “Well, he and I do like a lot of the same genres, so I guess that makes sense. There’s a form of entertainment back in our world that requires some tactical knowledge, albeit not to the extent a solider like you would have, obviously. But that’s where Akira and I are coming from. I’m sure if you asked someone like Kyousuke, though, he’d give you a different answer entirely.”

“A ‘form of entertainment,’ you say…” Gilles muttered under his breath.

I could totally understand why someone in his position would have a hard time seeing tactical warfare as entertainment. Maybe in a few hundred years, when this world was at peace and there was no longer any war to live in fear of, they’d develop something similar. Especially if there were experienced tacticians like Gilles still kicking around. Come to think of it, does Tsukasa like video games? He didn’t look like the sort of person who would be caught dead even watching anime, let alone playing video games, but you could never judge a book by its cover. I’d have to remember to ask him later.

“Well, I’d say your theory is probably correct,” Gilles ultimately said as we got up and started gathering our scattered things. “This is absolutely treant country we’re walking through. I have no doubt they’re attacking the other groups as well. One of the nasty things about treants is that they can perceive an enemy’s overall strength. They can’t anticipate our idiosyncrasies and combat techniques, mind you, but that is still the main reason they’re so hard to take down. Can you guess why that is?”

“…It’s probably their main defense mechanism. If I were a treant, I’d use that ability to assess the relative threat level of my enemies and then gather up enough of my treant buddies to make sure we could overwhelm them through sheer numbers.”

We were now running at full speed through the woods, but I could see Gilles, his gaze aimed determinedly straight ahead all the while. “We split our party of eight into three groups, and while this is merely speculation on my part, something tells me they didn’t send their strongest forces to fight our group.”

Just then, a pillar of light shot up from the forest in the direction we were heading. A moment later, a delayed clap of thunder rustled through the trees.

“Yes, something tells me they sent their main forces to attack the hero’s group,” Gilles continued, his face turning deathly pale as he picked up the pace.

“That was one of Tsukasa’s skills, wasn’t it?” I asked.

“I believe so. But my main concern is that if we’re not careful, all this fighting is going to awaken the Lord of the Forest.”

According to Gilles, one of the previous summoned heroes had awoken the Lord of the Forest by accident and had a hell of a time getting out of that mess. And if the previous hero’s party had trouble with it, there was no way our little group could ever stand a chance. The Lord of the Forest was a great dragon that had been slumbering in the forest for centuries, even back during the days of the great war between Morrigan’s four races, and it was closer to a deity than a monster. I understood why Gilles had gone so pale in the face. Humans generally didn’t fare well when they faced off against gods.

“Uh-oh. Looks like we’ve got stragglers!”

As we were sprinting toward the pillar of light, we encountered another group of treants, almost invisible as they hid among the regular trees.

“They were probably separated from the others,” Gilles surmised as he looked at them.

In that case, maybe I could test out that idea I came up with earlier. “Hey, Gilles? Do you mind if I take these ones out?”

Gilles agreed, on the condition that he could stand close behind me in case things turned dicey. I stepped toward the treants as Gilles watched closely.

“Welp, uh, here goes nothing! Rocket Punch!”

I cast a swirl of wind magic around my clenched fist, then thrust it out in front of me. Similar to the technique I’d seen Commander Saran use in the Great Labyrinth of Kantinen, the magic shot out in a straight line from me, blasting away any and all treants unfortunate enough to be standing in its way. They weren’t vaporized as they had been by the commander’s spell, but they were blasted to pieces. It certainly got the job done, but I wouldn’t want to use it on any humanoid monsters that would explode in a gory mess of blood and guts.

“Nanase, what in the world was that? What did you call it? A ‘rock-hit punch’…?” Gilles asked, looking at my hand curiously.

I had heard from the knight who instructed me back at the castle that Commander Saran was an eccentric with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and something told me Gilles wasn’t any different. He was the type that would stop at nothing to learn something once it caught his interest.

My Rocket Punch (patent pending) wasn’t anything too complex, really—just a technique where I cast wind magic around my fist and then unleashed it. It was partially inspired by something I’d seen in a ninja manga once—an attack that sent millions of microscopic wind blades flying toward the target, which would cut the victim on the cellular level. The manga had run for over twenty years before finishing, so my memory of the plot was pretty vague, but I was glad I’d remembered not to actually hit the target with my fist, as that could lead to nerve damage. I also remembered a part where the protagonist turned into a shuriken and threw himself at the enemy, and even shedding a single tear when the story concluded, as it had started as a serialization around the time I was born.

I explained the inspiration of Rocket Punch (patent pending) to Gilles as we ran. If there was ever a chance to bring Gilles back to our world, I would have loved making him read the series.

“We’re almost there. Prepare yourself!”

It wasn’t long before three people I recognized came into view, and my nostrils were assailed by the scent of something burning.

 

POV: TSUDA TOMOYA

 

I AWOKE A FEW MINUTES AFTER Satou tagged me out to tremors shaking the earth. My eyes were immediately drawn to the fighting taking place right in front of me. My muscles were so sore from the previous battle that they screamed in pain every time I tried to move, but since I wouldn’t be doing much fighting this time, it didn’t matter.

“Holy Sword Technique: Celestial Judgment!”

As Satou raised his sword overhead, a pillar of light shot forth from it and singed my retinas. I could feel the immense power condensed within that pillar of light.

We’d all leveled up quite a bit since leaving the castle, both through real combat and training. But even so, none of us came close to Satou. It made sense for the hero to be a cut above the rest, but it felt like for every step forward the rest of us took, Satou took ten or even twenty. Sure, he did get knocked out earlier, but he was protecting me and Ueno. It was clear to everyone that he learned and grew far more from each battle than the rest of us, which was why I’d decided to place all our bets on getting him healed while I held off the treants.

“Graaaaagh!”

All monsters standing in the path of the beam were vaporized instantly. This holy sword technique did no actual cutting—only vaporizing. When I looked at Satou, he reminded me of Commander Saran after fighting valiantly to clear an escape route for us down in the labyrinth, and while Asahina was who I aspired to be more than anything, I wouldn’t blame anyone in the world for idolizing this Satou.

“Heeey!”

After Satou’s technique had annihilated the monsters, a brief silence fell over the forest, before being broken by what was unmistakably Nanase’s reassuring voice. I knew that with Gilles on his team, there was little chance of them being felled by the forest’s monsters, but you could never rule out the worst-case scenario. Nanase was one of the few people in our class who got along with everyone and would go out of his way to come talk to me in the corner sometimes, so the thought of him dying saddened me greatly.

“Nanase, Gilles! Y’all hangin’ in there?” Ueno piped up.

At first glance, neither of them seemed to be injured, which came as another relief, but just when Satou was about to open his mouth to ask what they’d experienced, a flustered Nanase cut him off: “Don’t worry about us, we’re fine! We need to get out of here!”

As Gilles picked up Ueno (who still couldn’t move her legs), Nanase and Satou both lent me their shoulders so we could hurry onward. I could only imagine what the rush was.

“According to Gilles, there’s a high likelihood that last attack of yours could have disturbed the Lord of the Forest of Demise, Tsukasa—a monster that even a previous hero’s party wanted nothing to do with! We’d better get out of here while we still can,” Nanase explained as we ran, and my jaw dropped.

I turned to my side to see that Satou was making much the same expression.

“Lord of the Forest?! You sure he ain’t just pullin’ your leg?” asked Ueno dubiously.

“Yes, which is why we need to hurry!”

Sure enough, once we’d made it about a hundred meters away, the earth began to tremble beneath our feet, and we all fell over.

“An earthquake?”

“No, a bellowing roar. From the Lord of the Forest he just told you about,” Gilles said, his voice a hushed whisper. “It doesn’t sound like he’s fully awake quite yet, but even so…”

Before we left, Crow had warned Gilles that there was a fearsome dragon in these woods that spent much of its time in a deep slumber. However, if anyone were disturb its rest, it would ensure they were never heard from again. It was hard to say how much of the story was just an old wives’ tale and how much of it was true, but I couldn’t imagine Crow making something like that up just to spook us.

“…Well, I think it’s safe to say we didn’t wake him up this time. I should have warned you all about him before we got here though. That was my mistake,” said Gilles, walking a few steps forward. He stopped, set Ueno down on a nearby rock, and began crudely dressing her leg wounds. The wounds weren’t too serious, but they would make it difficult for her to walk.

“Well, for now, we should make regrouping with Asahina’s team our first priority. We’ll need Hosoyama to heal Ueno’s legs,” said Satou, though how we were going to find them remained a mystery. This was a vast, deep wood, and we’d already run around so much that I’d completely lost my bearings, and the only landmarks in any direction were trees.

“Hey, y’all! Look at this!” Ueno shouted from her rock perch as the rest of us mulled over our options. She was pointing at a specific tree up ahead.

“Hey! Could that be…?”

 

“Asahina, Waki, Hosoyama! Glad to see you’re all safe and sound.”

When all eight of us were finally reunited, we found ourselves, surprisingly, back at the same small clearing we had originally started from. When we’d arrived, Asahina’s team was already there, waiting for us with a huge haul of various fruit. None of them were injured, aside from maybe a few small scrapes. We all laid out our respective findings and divided them equally among ourselves. Apparently, Hosoyama was able to distinguish the edible things from the inedible, so she served as our poison tester. My and Gilles’s teams had been attacked by enemies fairly early on, so our hauls weren’t nearly as impressive as Asahina’s team’s. Still, I’d enjoyed catching fish from the river with my bare hands, difficult as it was.

After we all proceeded to dig in, Asahina was the first to speak. “I’m impressed you were all able to make it back here. You didn’t use any sort of waypoint marking system, did you? We thought about using smoke signals to guide you back here but worried it might only draw out more monsters. We were starting to think the three of us might have to camp out here alone tonight.” Asahina was clearly pleased to see everyone again, as he was being a fair bit more talkative than usual.

Hey, these fish taste just like sea bream, even though they look a lot more like carp. Pretty tasty! We’d simply grilled the fish and seasoned them with what little salt we had left, so it was a fairly primitive dish, but as people always said, an empty stomach was the greatest seasoning of all. I listened in on my teammates’ conversations as I stuffed my face with bite after bite.

Whenever it came time to determine our next course of action, it was usually Asahina or Satou who made the big decisions. Occasionally Gilles would throw his hat in the ring and offer alternate suggestions, but he generally kept pretty quiet and went along with what we decided. After hearing Asahina talk so much, despite almost never opening his mouth in the classroom, I began to wish I could hold conversations with him too someday. His manner of speaking reminded me a bit of Oda’s, though he probably didn’t realize it. I wondered if one of them was trying to emulate the other, or if their speech patterns had simply rubbed off on one another.

“We actually have your waymarkers to thank for that, Asahina,” said Satou with a sheepish smile in response to Asahina’s query as to how we found our way back.

Everyone had seen that Asahina was leaving marks on the trees, but our team figured that because we were only going to be heading one direction, there wasn’t really a need to mark our path. Therefore, any unnatural carvings in the trees meant that Asahina’s group had passed through that area, so it stood to reason that as long as we followed only the marks on real trees and not those on monsters, we would eventually find our way to his team. And luckily for us, Ueno had spotted one such waymarker right after Gilles finished dressing her wounds.

After Satou finished thanking Asahina for his efforts, he turned to face the rest of us with a solemn look on his face. “It also sounds like I got hit with another curse somehow, which put all of you in danger. For that, I’m really sorry,” he said, bowing his head extremely low.

I gained a newfound respect for him at that, especially since he could have kept quiet about the curse and no one would have known. The curse was already broken, so it wasn’t a threat to us anymore, and neither I nor Ueno had the intention of revealing that detail to the others.

“I see. So you were already under that curse when you suggested we split up.” Asahina had thought Satou put us in groups with people we didn’t mesh well with in order to bolster our overall teamwork, but even given Satou’s style of leadership, I found it hard to imagine he would try such an untested method in such a dangerous place where one small slip-up could mean death.

“Correct. If it hadn’t been for Tsuda’s quick wits and Ueno’s help, or Gilles and Nanase telling us about the Lord of the Forest, we probably never would have made it back here,” Satou replied, head still lowered in shame.

The rest of us looked at each other.

After making eye contact for a while, Hosoyama took the initiative and responded on behalf of us all. “Raise your head, Satou. As our leader, you may have a heavy burden to bear when it comes to making decisions like this, but that doesn’t mean we expect you to shoulder it alone,” she began. Obviously, hindsight was twenty-twenty, but the important thing was that none of us had died, and we were still united in our goal of making it home. “The only mistakes you made today were not taking more aggressive measures to avoid being cursed, and trying to bear all of the team’s burdens alone. We may be getting closer to the demon continent, but we’re still firmly in beastfolk territory. If we can’t even handle this much as a team, then there’s no way we’ll stand a chance against the Demon Lord, let alone at making it back home. We all need to work on improving ourselves, not just you.”

Hosoyama looked around at the rest of us for agreement, and we all nodded our heads. Satou bit his lip and raised his head with a relieved expression, as though a large weight had been lifted off his shoulders. She was right, though—if we couldn’t handle the monsters here, we’d be toast against the monsters up ahead. Personally, I felt like I’d gained a lot more determination during my battles, but it still wouldn’t be enough. I needed to hone my skills and temper my mind a lot more.

I needed to be strong enough to fight alongside Asahina.

“Well, now that our bellies are full and our minds are at ease, I’d say it’s about time we discussed our next move,” said Gilles.

I looked up as Gilles laid a large map in the center of our circle so everyone could see. It wasn’t anything like the highly detailed atlases we used back in school, but a crudely drawn map. Still, I had a feeling that ancient maps of Japan would have been no more detailed, so it was probably just a testament to how accustomed we’d grown to modern luxuries.

“This is a map I drew from memory based on the one we had back at Retice Castle. I know it’s quite primitive, and I apologize for my lack of artistic talent, but I’m afraid it will just have to do,” said Gilles, before pointing his finger at the northern half of the leftmost of the four islands on the map. “This is about where we are right now. I’ve drawn a magnified version of this area, which is right here.”

He pulled out another map and laid it on top of the first. This one showed an enhanced view of the forest itself. “At our current pace, we should be able to make it through the forest to the rendezvous point in another thirteen days. But that doesn’t take into consideration any time for rest or enemies we might encounter, so perhaps a more realistic estimate would probably be about thirty days.”

So it would take an entire month, basically. You could snail mail a package all the way around the world in less time than that back where we came from, but this world had neither trains, planes, or automobiles. We truly were blessed to have been born in the era we lived in.

“And if we aren’t there by the time Akira catches up to us, who knows what he might say…” Satou whispered, grimacing. He clearly hadn’t intended for the rest of us to hear that, but we all did, so he could only smile awkwardly in response.

I’d only met Satou in high school, so I didn’t know that much about him, but even I was observant enough to notice he had a deep-seated grudge against Oda. I mean, virtually any time he did anything, he’d glance over at Oda, only for his face to twist in frustration upon realizing Oda couldn’t possibly care less. I didn’t understand where his jealousy came from—it wasn’t as though Oda was anywhere near as academically successful as Satou, let alone socially. Yet for some reason, he seemed to despise the very sight of him.

Not that I understood Oda’s side of their beef any better. As a loner who hid in the back of the class, I’d had even fewer interactions with him than with Satou, but I had certainly observed Oda’s obliviousness. It was like he had a different way of looking at the world, and he gave off an aura that suggested he never paid attention to anything that was happening right in front of him—as though his mind was always wandering off somewhere else.

I had no hope of ever truly understanding what made Oda tick, yet after being summoned to this world alongside him and having several close brushes with death, there was one thing I’d learned: for Oda, life had always been a struggle, even before coming here. I wasn’t sure if he had a terrible home life, or his family was suffering from enormous debt, or what, but I could tell he’d been living his life under constant pressure. He wasn’t anything like the rest of us, passing through each day on inertia alone—for him, every day was an uphill battle. And that hadn’t changed one bit after coming here, either—he still had a single-minded focus on living to see the next day and making it home safely.

I couldn’t help but wonder if that was what Satou found so annoying about him. Because no matter what we did, we could never get Oda to spare a single thought for the rest of us. He simply sat alone, his mind focused on whatever it was he needed to do to move forward. Personally, I didn’t mind it all that much, but it seemed like Oda’s behavior didn’t sit well at all with Satou. His frustration had reached a boiling point now that Oda had spent all his time with his new companions, like Amelia and Night, despite the fact we had all known him longer and shared the same goal as him. Though it seemed Satou recognized Oda had little choice but to leave us in Retice when he did, especially since we were all still under the effects of a curse.

One thing was for sure though: they both had their own personality issues, and I didn’t envy Asahina one bit for having to be the mediator between the two.

 

POV: ODA AKIRA

 

IT WAS A DIM NIGHT, barely lit by the light of the moon—long after most of the city had already gone to sleep. I’d come to a part of the city not far from the estate where I’d killed Gram mere days before. Our group had already made its way out of the city, but then I remembered a bit of unfinished business I needed to take care of. Crow, Lia, and Amelia were camped out on the outskirts of town, waiting for me to finish what I came here to do. Night was, as always, perched up on my shoulders.

“This must be the place…”

I came to a stop at a place near Gram’s residence which, despite being in the middle of the city, was not a place many citizens took notice of for it was concealed by a unique barrier and thus appeared to the naked eye as nothing more than a vacant lot. The barrier posed no obstacle for someone with World Eyes like myself.

If I were ever in a position where I needed to keep someone hidden from the outside world, I figured I’d try to hide them underground. As long as you hid the entrance well enough, most people would be totally oblivious to the fact that there were underground chambers just beneath their feet. It struck me as ever so slightly humorous that Gram and I seemed to have similar thought processes when it came to such matters. But the labyrinthine layout of the city of Uruk made it the ideal sort of place for one to hide just about anything.

“Shadow Magic, activate.”

At my command, the shadows swallowed the illusory barrier whole, being careful not to damage anything else around it. I still wasn’t quite sure where my Shadow Magic came from, but it was highly versatile, so I used it an awful lot. I was sure Commander Saran would be over the moon if he could see me now—after all, it was only after he had passed that I learned to properly control my shadows. There was a sound like shattering glass as the barrier broke, then a door appeared on the ground where previously there had been nothing at all.

“You ready, Night?” I asked.

“Of course, Master. Whenever you are.”

I opened the door and peered down into a dark cellar, the moonlight creeping in just enough for me to check my footing by. It was extremely dusty, which told me there probably weren’t people going in and out of here on a daily basis, and there was a staircase just beyond the door that seemed to connect to an underground passageway. As this was Gram’s handiwork, I had been expecting more trickery than a simple barrier, but it seemed we lucked out. Granted, the barrier had apparently kept the place hidden this long, but it still felt a bit anticlimactic.

Suddenly, I sensed that something was off and realized there wasn’t a doorknob on the inner side of the door—presumably to keep whatever was inside from getting out. As I stepped down inside, I slowly groped through the deepening darkness, the echo of my footsteps the only sound. The stairwell was just barely wide enough for a single person to descend, but I was losing light fast. It would have been wise to bring a lantern of some sort.

Obviously, there was a reason I’d come here, one I’d briefly forgotten thanks to Crow being in such a rush to get out of the city, but I’d made a promise back in the elven domain to help save their kidnapped family members. Granted, I did tell them I’d only do it if I just so happened to stumble upon them along the way, but still.

When it came time to carry out Gram’s assassination, I did a quick scan of the surrounding area, and it was then that I discovered the hidden door. The aftershock of the actual assassination made me want to get out of there as fast as I could, and I hadn’t investigated further. But technically, I had stumbled upon the door along the way, so to not come back and check it out would have meant breaking my promise.

“…Feel bad for those guys. I’m sure the elves would do anything to come save their families themselves, if they only had the power to do so.”

I tried to put myself in their shoes. If my mom or my sister, Yui, were to ever get kidnapped, and it was possible for me to try and save them but other factors made that a difficult proposition, I’d probably want to ask for someone else’s help too. Now that I had all these powers, I’d just go and save them myself. Since elves lived longer lives than even beastfolk, and had far greater mana to boot, they’d probably had to swallow their pride in order to admit they needed help, and I didn’t want to spit on their grief.

“Did you say something, Master?”

“Nah, sorry.”

After descending what felt like two stories underground, we finally reached the end of the staircase. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I could see a lot more of my surroundings.

Suddenly, a voice with a strange intonation and an obvious regional accent echoed through the hall. “…I kin hear ye walkin’ there. Ye gonna ask me t’make that medicine again? I already told ye, I’m done makin’ drugs that only hurt folk! Starve me if ye wish. I’d sooner die than be a part o’ yer wicked schemes! Now let these innocent folk return ta their homes!!!” The voice was shaking with fear, yet I could feel a strong will coursing through it.

“…Aha. You must be Amaryllis Cluster.”

According to the documents Night had pilfered, she was the former pageant winner who was being forced to make the drugs that Gram used to turn his mercenaries into killing machines. Lia’s people had been seeking her out for quite a while as well, but I doubt they expected Gram’s drug operation to be right under their noses; these things always seemed to be right where you least expected them.

Come to think of it, when we registered for the pageant, they used our adventurer dog tags to confirm our identities, but most forms of ID in this world showed one’s class in addition to one’s name. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had noticed this girl’s apothecary class and decided they were going to hold her hostage from the start.

“…Beggin’ yer pardon? Sh-show yerself!” said Amaryllis, her voice a lot less confident now that she realized I wasn’t one of her usual guards. Happy to oblige, I used a mana stone to light a nearby torch. “…An’ jes’ who might ye be?”

With the torch alight, the two of us were able to lay eyes upon each other. Amaryllis sat behind thick metal bars, along with several women huddled together on the ground for warmth—and not just beastfolk women, but elves and humans too. It suddenly hit me just how much colder it was down there compared to the surface, and many of the women were shivering, their lips purple. We needed to get them somewhere warm as quickly as possible.

“…We’ll talk later,” I said. “We need to get you guys out of here.”

With a single flourish of my daggers, I cut through the iron bars, yet the women were not so quick to celebrate their freedom. They all turned their eyes to a single girl among them.

“Let us get one thing straight first. Can we trust that you’re on our side?” asked the human girl, whose beauty was such that she stood out even among the gorgeous elven ladies around her. Her manner of speaking was much more formal now, and her previous rough accent was gone entirely, yet it was still the girl who’d yelled out antagonistically when we’d first arrived—the one known as Amaryllis Cluster. Apparently, even the elves and beastfolk had acknowledged her as their leader. Or at the very least, they seemed to trust her with their lives.

“I think you could say that, yeah,” I responded. “After all, I’m here on orders from Amelia, princess of the elves, and Lia, princess of Uruk. But if you can’t trust either of them, feel free to stay down here and rot, I guess.”

I was only namedropping Amelia and Lia for effect, but I was fairly sure they wouldn’t mind. Even if Lia wasn’t actually a princess anymore, the two of them were aware of and sympathetic to these prisoners’ plight. And it was imperative I got the prisoners out of this dreary, freezing dungeon as quickly as possible, so I could simply apologize for this little white lie later. Just as I expected, the elven and beastfolk women among the group became visibly more at ease upon hearing those two names. Amaryllis, seeing her companions reassured, gave a little nod.

“I apologize for my previous impertinence. If your intent is to truly rescue us, we would be forever grateful,” she said, prostrating herself before me with such perfect form that it reminded me of the little worker bee Liam back in the elven domain. It occurred to me Amaryllis was probably from Yamato, based on her gestures and her previous lowborn accent.

“You can be grateful to me all you want, but only after I see you all to safety. All who are able-bodied, help those who can’t stand up on their own. If anyone can’t walk at all, Night and I will carry you.”

Night nodded, then hopped down from my shoulders and embiggened himself. A few of the beastfolk captives shrieked at this, but they were just going to have to deal with it if they wanted to make it out of here alive. The only people behind the iron bars still able to stand and walk on their own were a few of the elves. The beastfolk, Amaryllis, and two other humans would have to climb onto Night’s furry back. Even the beastfolk who’d been so reluctant to trust a black cat quickly grew infatuated with his warm fur coat and nodded off. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“…Okay, Amaryllis. You’re the last one,” I said, reaching down to her after everyone else had climbed aboard.

She shook her head and returned to where she’d been sitting. “No, I shall remain here. I have no right to live on the surface any longer,” she declared, a fierce will burning in her eyes. I could only sigh in response. She reminded me of Amelia—stubborn to the point that she’d condemn herself to death. “I spent many moons crafting horrible tinctures for villainous ends simply so that I might live another day. I must atone for my sins… It was the other captives you were sent here to save, no? Please, forget about me and be on your way.”

Unfortunately for her, my brain didn’t have a convenient Memory Erasure function, nor did I possess Amelia’s father’s Forgetting skill. I instructed Night to take the other women up to the surface ahead of me, and he nodded before dashing off toward the staircase. Amaryllis seemed relieved by this, but only until I walked over and sat down in front of her. The torchlight illuminated her sickly pale face, which possessed a very refined beauty. Even if she wasn’t quite as traditionally attractive as Amelia or Latticenail, it was still difficult to see such beauty reduced to an emaciated husk.

“You’ve got it all wrong,” I said. “I’m not here for the reasons you think I am.”

I had only sent the other women up to the surface without her because they seemed to be fast approaching their physical and mental breaking point, and while I had said they were free to stay down here and rot if they wanted, I had no intention of actually leaving anyone behind. And that included Amaryllis.

“…Whatever do you mean? If you are truly here on behalf of the elven and Uruki princesses as you claim, then I assume that means Gram’s crimes have been exposed for the entire world to see, as well as the similarly horrible atrocities my medicines have wrought. Otherwise, you would never have found this place.” She looked at me with renewed skepticism in her eyes.

I sighed and prepared to let the cat out of the bag. “Technically, I’m not here on orders from Amelia or Lia. That was just a little white lie I told to make the elves and beastfolk feel more at ease. In reality, I’m only here because of a promise I made.”

“Oh? And what promise would that be?” she asked, cocking her head curiously. This girl would not have made a very good poker player, because her emotions were written all over her face. I decided to satiate that curiosity.

“I was asked to save you, and everyone else being held captive, by the men of the elven domain…and apparently I have a hard time saying no to that sort of thing.”

Though, I probably would have rescued them even if I hadn’t made that promise. The elves hadn’t asked me to save the beastfolk women or Amaryllis, after all, but I wanted to do it. The moment I started comparing Amaryllis’s sheltered lifestyle to Amelia’s back when we’d first met, it was all over for me.

 

POV: GILLES ASTI

 

WE ALL WISHED to make our way through the forest as quickly as possible, but it was proving to be a much more arduous trek than we could have imagined, and the frequent monster encounters weren’t helping matters.

“It’s headed your way, Nanase!”

“Roger that! Get down on the ground, you freak of nature! Wind Blade!”

Heeding Asahina’s warning, Nanase let loose his magic spell. It was a starter-level spell that all wind mages learned early in their training, yet when Nanase cast it, it was powerful enough to be on par with intermediate spells. If I looked closely enough, I could even see wind gathering around him. Were we not in the midst of battle, I would have asked how he managed to get so much power out of that spell. It wasn’t long before the flying monster we were fighting fell to the ground. Asahina and Satou, seeing their opportunity at last, held their weapons aloft.

 

To explain how we’d found ourselves stuck in yet another combat scenario, we have to go back in time about five minutes. Having successfully escaped from the treants, reconvened, and eaten our fill, we began walking through the forest, carving a path where there was none before, hoping to avoid as many monster encounters as possible.

“So hey, what was up with those weird balls they gave us for the labyrinth, anyway?” Waki asked, following one of his tamed cats.

A good question. The investigation report following the minotaur ambush on the beginner levels the Great Labyrinth of Kantinen stated that it was the monster-repelling smoke bomb Satou had thrown which had lured the beast. While I was originally quite determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, it wasn’t long after that incident that Commander Saran was killed, and everything was thrown off course. It was also then that Akira, the boy who’d been vital in slaying the minotaur, was forced to flee the castle—something I was fairly certain the royal family had planned for all along.

“I don’t know,” said Satou. “All I know is that the last one I threw was handed to me by the princess herself. We were using them to try to avoid any more unnecessary fighting… Though come to think of it, I think the last one I threw was a different color than the rest…”

At this, my eyes widened. You could buy smoke bombs for repelling monsters as well as luring them in at any Adventurer’s Guild branch—and their respective functions were denoted by different-colored smoke. This was information we had been planning to teach the heroes, but it seemed the royal family had beaten us to the punch.

“Do you remember what color it was?!” I demanded.

“W-well, not vividly, but I wanna say it was red?” he replied, turning his head to the sky as he racked his memory.

I knew it, I thought to myself, my hatred for the self-serving royal family somehow growing even deeper. “Well, as I’m sure you probably surmised based on its different color, red smoke bombs are actually designed to lure in more powerful monsters. They’re normally used by higher-level adventurers for the purposes of leveling up without having to descend all the way to the deepest levels of the labyrinth. So, the princess gave you smoke bombs that would not protect you from harm but actually put you in grave danger. Though we knights should have done a better job of checking your equipment. Forgive me.”

I bowed my head low, but Satou quickly ordered me not to in a fluster. I wished the royal family could have had even a fraction of his humility. I remembered a time when they hadn’t been such awful humans, content to use their subjects as tools to advance their power. We knights were supposed to protect the king from his enemies, but in reality, it was his people who needed protection from him.

“Still, why would they try to sabotage Satou, of all people?” I pondered aloud.

“Who knows? Maybe they decided they didn’t need a hero anymore,” said Nanase.

I tilted my head and thought about this a while. Even before the actual summoning took place, after the queen had passed away, I could tell that the royal family had developed an obsession with the hero summoning ritual. The queen’s death was when things started to turn. The king from long ago was a kind and generous man who always went out of his way to spare a thought for us knights…and a far cry from the king of now.

“…Well, in any event, we’d better get moving. Let’s just pray we don’t run into any more monsters, shall we?” I said, trying to change the subject.

“Uh, Gilles? Where we come from, that’s called ‘jinxing it,’” said Nanase with a weary look on his face. For once, I was grateful Akira wasn’t around because I knew he wouldn’t have let me get away with blatantly avoiding the topic like that.

We walked for a while, until suddenly a great shadow fell over us, and we all drew our weapons immediately. I gripped the hilt of my sword, all the while admiring how these children had grown in the short time they’d been in Morrigan. Hesitantly, I turned my head to look up at the sky, and my words caught in my throat.

“Is that a whale?!” cried Satou, apparently recognizing the giant behemoth floating through the sky and blocking the light.

It had an enormous mouth and a body like a fish. When I strained, I could just make out a few sharp fangs, as well as beady black eyes staring down at us. It had apparently decided we were prey, and I felt altogether silly for how soon this had happened after praying for no more enemy encounters.

“If we want to have any hope of doing serious damage to that thing, we’ll need to find some way to bring it down to the ground!” I cried. “Try to use long-range magic to knock it out of the sky!”

Right on command, Asahina let loose a spell without even missing a beat. “…O purgatory flames, bring forth thy conflagration and reduce these heretics to ash! Inferno!!!”

Asahina’s flames shrouded the sky. Inferno was a high-level fire spell and more than powerful enough to consume the giant beast and incinerate it whole. There were few people in this world who could handle such advanced magic, which only made it all the more impressive to see an outsider with such a strong grasp of it.

“…It didn’t work?!”

And yet, when the flames subsided, the monster emerged, completely unscathed. The only noticeable difference was that it was flying a lot closer to the ground than before.

“It could be immune to magic! Try to bring it all the way down!” ordered Satou, and everyone tried out their own ranged attacks.

“It’s no use! Nothing’s working!” Waki cried out in despair.

It was clear our attacks were landing, even if we couldn’t use our full power, but the behemoth didn’t even budge. I’d encountered several enemies in my life that were immune to magic, but this creature seemed immune to Waki’s arrows, and Hosoyama’s and Ueno’s poison throwing daggers as well. They all struck the beast, yet it remained flying, unharmed.

I let out a sigh despite the tense situation. The closer we get to the demon continent, the more even normal monsters will begin to defy expectation. Now I could see why Akira was so reluctant to let these kids—or myself—tag along. Though he sure had a strange way of showing his concern for their well-being. I had only known him a short while, but he reminded me of a certain socially awkward blacksmith in that regard.

“It’s attacking!” yelled Tsuda, holding up his greatshield to protect the rear fighters. He had grown quite a bit since we entered this forest—perhaps that was what such a dangerous place did to a person.

Wait! Now’s not the time for thoughts like these! I rebuked myself.

The beast let out a bellowing wail, then fired hundreds of sharp, needlelike objects from its belly. I deflected as many as I could with my sword, then looked around to see if the others were safe. I smiled in relief; though a little worse for wear, the fire in their eyes had not yet been extinguished.

“It’s headed your way, Nanase!” I cried.

Suddenly, I felt like I could understand why Crow had taken on Princess Amelia as his pupil, despite saying for years that he was done mentoring others. To see one of your own protégés actively growing and improving was one of the greatest feelings in the world. It made me want to stick around as long as I could, just to see where these kids ended up.

“Roger that! Down to the ground, you freak of nature! Wind Blade!”

 

POV: TSUDA TOMOYA

 

OUR ATTACKS WEREN’T WORKING, which meant we were helpless to do anything but defend ourselves. It seemed this forest was intent on testing our mettle through trial after trial.

“Dual Blade Technique: Chaos Edge!”

With nigh-unseeable speed, flashes of white and silver light crossed paths as Asahina drew his blades and attacked the monster which Nanase had brought to the ground, yet even this didn’t scratch the beast’s hide.

“Graaaaagh!”

Satou swung his sword down with immense fervor, only for it to be deflected as well. Nanase continued casting his wind magic from the rear to keep the whale pinned to the ground, but he couldn’t keep doing that forever. Neither magic nor physical attacks seemed to be doing any damage to the monster—it was seemingly invincible.

“Please don’t give up!” I cried.

I was standing right in front of the whale, struggling to support my greatshield as I protected Hosoyama, Ueno, and Waki behind me. I couldn’t let the monster’s needles, with their shimmering and obviously poisonous tips, hit any of our three support members. Slowly, I began taking a few steps back, trying desperately to come up with some sort of plan, when a lone figure dashed out from behind me.

“Hosoyama?!” I gasped.

“What are you doing?!” Ueno cried.

Hosoyama sprinted toward the beast while dodging its attacks with such speed and fluidity that I had to wonder if she’d been secretly taking ninja lessons in her spare time. She seemed to have a goal in mind, yet I couldn’t possibly imagine what it was. I knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t do something so brash without a plan, though.

Asahina, Satou, and Gilles all looked utterly astonished and immediately tried to move in to protect her. Nanase was too focused on maintaining his magic to notice, but with Gilles at her side, she would probably be fine. However, the look on her face said she was the one with the plan, and, though her voice was too distant for me to make out, she seemed to be quickly laying it out to the others. My two less agile teammates and I were stuck in place, blocking the enemy’s needle attacks and creating an opening for the others to attack. Which I didn’t mind, given that we probably wouldn’t have been able to contribute much offensively, but it would have been nice to at least be given a heads-up. This whole thing was taking years off my life.

“All right, let’s do this!”

At Gilles’s signal, the three attackers began assaulting the monster simultaneously. They were all attacking the exact same spot on its hide, with a fluidity to their teamwork and attack order that allowed them to never get in each other’s way, which was pretty impressive considering they hadn’t practiced. Though perhaps the most impressive thing was that Gilles was keeping up, despite not having the initial stat advantage that all of us summoned heroes received.

“Now, Hosoyama!”

It was hard to see from where I was, but it seemed Asahina, Satou, and Gilles had cooperated to bore a hole in the beast’s thick hide, though it was only big enough for someone Hosoyama’s size to stick her index finger in. Still, this meant the beast was not actually impervious to our attacks—even if it took a hero, a samurai, and a knight all working together to the best of their ability to even put a dent in the thing. It spoke volumes to Hosoyama’s observational skills that she was able to notice our attacks were indeed damaging the beast while the rest of us were too busy panicking, thinking that the monster was invincible. I’d heard it said that a woman’s true strength only became apparent when her back was against the wall: at least in this case, it seemed completely accurate.

“REEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

The beast bellowed in despair, and its attacks weakened before ceasing entirely. I kept my shield up, just to be safe, though I could only assume the attackers had rendered the beast completely incapable of further attacks. Ueno and Waki hesitantly stepped out from behind me, and we all cautiously made our way over to the beast. Asahina, Satou, Gilles, and Nanase, who’d been keeping the beast pinned down the entire time, were all gathered around Hosoyama. Just how in the world had she pulled it off?

 

“You absorbed its HP?!” Waki gaped, his cheeks stuffed full of meat.

We had all gathered around a fire on which we were roasting the slain whale monster’s flesh, eating only the edible parts. After it was dead, its hide became soft enough to cut through with an ordinary knife, and it was Hosoyama who suggested we eat it (after using her poison-testing abilities to make sure it was safe, of course). Hesitantly, I asked if she was really sure it was safe for us to eat, to which she replied with a hearty nod, grinning from ear to ear. I didn’t know how she could be so certain, but I had to trust her.

I still hadn’t grown accustomed to eating the monsters we killed, but there was no denying they were far more delicious than plain old livestock meat. I’d been told it had something to do with the small amount of mana flowing through bodies after death. Every time we went to an Adventurer’s Guild branch, the waitresses always heartily recommended monster flesh as the special of the day. Apparently, even retired adventurers couldn’t get enough of it.

“Yep. It’s pretty much the exact opposite of healing magic, which uses your own mana to restore someone else’s HP. I was inspired to teach myself after watching Yuki do her disenchanting. It was pretty tough to perfect, since you can’t really ‘feel’ HP the same way you can feel mana, but I eventually got it down pat. It’s called Guzzler.”

Hosoyama seemed awfully proud of herself as she made a peace sign and smiled from ear to ear, but all I could think was what a disgusting name that was the skill. It made her sound like a human garbage disposal that would devour literally anything—even literal trash. First the poison-testing thing, now this… I was beginning to have concerns about the direction in which Hosoyama’s life was heading.

“That said, you have to be touching your target for it to work, and it won’t work through thick hides like the one on our blubbery friend here, but keep it in mind as an option, okay?” she implored, and I couldn’t help but nod.

Satou, however, seemed less than amused. “It’s a good thing that strategy worked out this time, but next time we might not be so lucky. And what were you thinking, running out from behind Tsuda’s shield like that without even telling him? What if you had startled him and he loosened his grip on his shield? You could’ve killed him, Ueno, and Waki—not to mention yourself—through your own carelessness!”

I was surprised at his unnecessarily harsh tone. I’d never known Satou to get so spun up at anyone but Akira, and seeing him frowning angrily was a sight to behold. He continued raking Hosoyama over the coals, even after she’d hung her head in shame.

“I may be the hero, but I’m not a superhero. I can’t protect all of you at once. Next time you feel like trying something like that, you’d better talk it over with your companions first, and get someone else to go with you. I refuse to lose even one of our party members, especially over a stupid mistake.”

“…You’re right. I’m sorry, that was careless of me.”

“It’s fine. As long as you realize what you did was wrong. Now eat your food.”

An intense fire burned in Satou’s eyes as he watched Hosoyama obediently bow her head.

 

POV: WAKI DAISUKE

 

IF THERE WAS ONE WORD that perfectly encapsulated the way I felt deep down in my heart right now, it would be “pathetic.” Ever since we entered the forest…or really, ever since we ran away from the castle and had our first taste of real combat, my mind had been clouded by feelings of worthlessness. Every other boy knew how to fight for themselves, while I was stuck with the girls behind Tsuda’s shield.

Granted, animal trainers like me weren’t intended to fight on the front lines, but it was still possible to contribute if you could tame ferocious beasts and monsters. I could only tame small animals currently. I knew I needed to take time and level up in order to contribute more, but I couldn’t help feeling restless about how little I was capable of doing. In the time it took me to level up once, the others were leveling up numerous times, which was a normal discrepancy between active combatants and support classes, but even when I tried to train on my own, I couldn’t keep up with those gaining experience in combat. And up until now, that was the way I’d always excused it to myself.

“But now this is just starting to get sad, man.”

It had been Hosoyama who dealt the fatal blow to that whale monster. Despite being a healer, and having even lower overall stats than me, she still took down the huge beast with a single finger. I’d kept telling myself that it was just the class I’d been dealt that was holding me back, but that clearly wasn’t the case. If even a healer like Hosoyama could do more than was expected of her class, then surely, I could do it too. Maybe I couldn’t learn that guzzler skill of hers, but there must have been some way I could contribute to the battle like that.

“…Guess I’m just too stupid, huh?”

All throughout junior high and high school, I’d treated school as a place I went not to learn but to participate in extracurricular activities. I never really studied outside of doing my homework and right before exams, when all extracurricular activities shut down temporarily. And even then, I still couldn’t wrap my brain around subjects that required problem solving and a more creative mind.

“What’s the matter, Waki?” asked Tsuda, who’d heard me muttering to myself. He and I had been assigned to go down to the river and wash the utensils we’d used during our meal, though I’d forgotten he was there. He didn’t really stand out from the crowd, so it was often easy to forget he was even in class (though Oda was far worse in that regard). I couldn’t remember speaking a single word to him, though the way he’d tilt his head and look up at me with that feminine face of his certainly gave me some confusing feelings, which probably contributed to me avoiding him.

“Nothin’. Don’t worry about it…” I replied.

“Wait, let me guess. You’re still thinking about that skill Hosoyama came up with, aren’t you?” he pestered—and hit the nail right on the head. His eyes glittered as though saying “I’m right, aren’t I?!” and I had to take a moment to reassess whether this was really the same bashful Tsuda I’d always known. Maybe he’d only shown this side of himself to his close friends.

He seemed surprisingly friendly, so I decided to swallow my pride and open up to him a little bit. I knew he had to at least be smarter than me, so maybe he could offer some advice. “Well, I’ve just been feeling like if even a healer can drain an enemy to death, then surely there must be a way for a guy like me to take down monsters too, y’know? But I’m not exactly the sharpest crayon in the box, so if you have any good ideas, I’d be happy to hear them.”

“Hrmmm… A way for an animal trainer to participate in combat…” Tsuda mumbled, folding his arms as he mulled it over. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined me, the class clown, going on an adventure with Tsuda, the kid who kept to himself. I was honestly enjoying life in this world a surprising amount. Sure, there were times I got homesick when thinking about my mom’s cooking, but it felt really refreshing to not be hassled by everyone around me all the time.

Not to mention, there was no guarantee that time in this world moved at the same rate as it did in ours, so it was possible that that big club meet I’d been working toward was already over by now. It was equally possible this was a Rip Van Winkle scenario, and by the time we made it back to our world, we’d find that hundreds of years had passed. That sounded pretty outlandish, but so did getting summoned to another world. Anything was possible, as far as I was concerned.

“Well, if I had to guess, I’d say animal trainers probably aren’t well suited to killing monsters at all,” said Tsuda, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“What makes you say that?” I asked, as something bumped into my leg. I looked at my faithful cat companion nuzzling its head against my leg. It was the first animal I’d tamed, back when we were still living at the castle. I scooped up the furry feline and petted it gently on the head. It let out a low, relaxed purr.

“Now, I’m just guessing here, but isn’t the whole point of the animal trainer class taming and training monsters and animals? I feel like you should be thinking less about how you could help kill monsters and more about how you could get them on our side.”

I cocked my head. The statement brought us right back to my initial predicament: I simply wasn’t a high enough level to tame the kinds of monsters we were encountering. How was I ever going to overcome that fundamental issue?

“I think there’s more to being an animal trainer than getting wild beasts to do your bidding. I mean, just look at that cute, widdle kitty! I can tell it trusts you with all its heart, and not because you forced it to, either. Is it really that crazy to think you might be able to do the same with a monster if you approached it in the right way?”

I was finally starting to see where he was coming from. Basically, I had to come up with a spell I could cast on monsters to make them feel the same level of trust toward me that I’d already built up with the cat, something like brainwashing. I couldn’t tame a monster the traditional way, but with magic, I just might be able to make it work.

“Magic is a means of making the impossible possible, after all. All you have to do is think and feel it hard enough and the magic will do the rest for you. That’s how one of the knights at the castle explained it to me, anyway.”

It felt like I finally had hope again, and I laughed. Then I came to the sudden realization that I hadn’t laughed once since we entered the forest. I wondered if my companions had noticed and been worried about me. In my one hand, I cradled the sleeping cat, and with my other, I clapped Tsuda on the back (though not as hard as I could, since I knew he was dainty like a flower).

“Bwagh?!” he squealed.

“I owe you one, man! Thanks to you, I feel like I’ve finally got an idea of what I need to do!” I beamed, scooping up the clean utensils and standing up. “Also, you might wanna stop saying things like ‘cute, widdle kitty,’ just sayin’. Not that it doesn’t fit your personality, but unless you actually want people to mistake you for a girl, I’d maybe try to work on that.”

 

While I hadn’t interacted much with our party members back in the classroom, we’d been living together in this world for quite some time now, so it was hard not to see that they all had their own motivations and goals. Now that I finally had a goal of my own, all I needed to figure out was where to begin. I knew I was aiming for some sort of Brainwashing skill, but I’d never witnessed anything like that firsthand before—which was probably for the best. Still, it would have been nice to have a point of reference, but something told me the curse the princess of Retice had placed on us—the closest thing I’d seen to brainwashing—was a bit different somehow.

After fretting over it for a while, I decided to give up on figuring out for myself and ask someone for guidance. Maybe I could start by asking Hosoyama how she gained a new skill through willpower alone.

“Huh? You wanna know how to teach yourself new skills?”

I approached and asked her point-blank during lunch the next day, when she was inspecting her gear a short distance away from the others. She blinked in surprise at my request. “Yeah,” I said. “I know I can’t learn your Guzzler skill, but I was talking to Tsuda last night, and I came up with an idea for an ability that might be a good fit for me, but I don’t know where to start when it comes to turning an idea into an actual skill, y’know? Is there a trick to it, or what?”

I hadn’t used my brain so much since the last time I tried to memorize an entire textbook thirty minutes before an exam (you can probably guess how well that went).

“Aha. I was wondering why you two were taking so long to wash the dishes.” She grinned. “Hrmmm, I dunno if I’d say there’s a ‘trick,’ per se. All I did was take what the knights at the castle told us to heart, really.”

I scratched my head. We’d each been taught the fundamentals about stats and our skills from either one of the knights or a professional in our respective classes. This meant that we all received separate instruction and learned different things. I assumed Tsuda didn’t know what Hosoyama was referring to either, or he probably would have mentioned it last night.

“Er, do you mind running it by me? I mostly learned how to deepen my bonds with animals and stuff like that.”

And my instructor hadn’t been the greatest—though I could understand the royal family assigning their best people to the frontline classes like fighters or to healers like Hosoyama rather than to a less useful class like mine. It was a meritocracy through and through—you only mattered as much as your class did. Even similar classes like knights and samurais were treated differently.

The more time that passed since leaving the castle, the more grateful I became that we’d left.

“Oh, really? Guess I better make a point of sharing what I learned with the others too, then,” said Hosoyama. Her equal treatment of her peers served as a shining example compared to the people back at the castle. She was competent, patient, and pretty cute, to boot. I couldn’t even be jealous of her anymore. We were blessed to have both Satou and Hosoyama on our team.

“First and foremost, you need a steady heart and a strong mind in order to teach yourself new skills,” she explained. “Apparently, this is the thing that trips most people up, especially since it’s not something you can measure. Heck, we barely know how our minds work back in our world, even with all our scientific advances. But according to the knight who instructed me, one’s stats are deeply interlinked with their heart and mind, and there are people who have jobs dedicated to studying the relationship between them.”

I felt like I remembered Tsuda saying something similar last night. “So what you’re telling me is, I just need to want it badly enough, and eventually I’ll figure it out?” I asked.

“No, I think it’s a lot more instantaneous than that, usually. That’s how it was for me, at least,” she replied. This only puzzled me more, but she showed no indication of elaborating further and quickly held up two fingers to delineate the next step. “Okay, moving on. The second deciding factor is mana. As in, do you have enough mana to actually pull off what you’re trying to do? If you try to use magic that costs more than your personal supply of mana can handle, you’ll be lucky to even survive the side effects of the mana exhaustion. Worst case, the sudden release of all your body’s internal mana could cause it to break down on the molecular level. I knew my Guzzler skill wouldn’t require that much mana, so it wasn’t really a concern for me, but if the skill you’re envisioning would cost more mana than your max capacity, you’d leave me no choice but to stop you from attempting it.”

I gulped. Her expression was deadly serious. This was the first time I’d ever had a one-on-one conversation with Hosoyama, so I’d never peered deep into her eyes before. They were like whirlpools in that they sucked you in, and I could only nod absentmindedly in response.

“You heard what Satou said to me yesterday, right?” she went on. “About how we can’t afford to lose even a single member of our party? Well, I feel the exact same way. I admit, I didn’t really feel like much of a member of the team until yesterday, but that’s not the case anymore. I need you to promise me you won’t do anything reckless either, Waki.”

I nodded, understanding that her recklessness in testing our food and running toward the monster had been because she thought of herself as expendable.

Happy to see I agreed, Hosoyama smiled and then held up three fingers. “Finally, it has to be a skill that already exists. The only people who can create entirely new skills are a select few who’ve been chosen by the divine, apparently.”

The first sentence came as a crushing blow, since I was desperate for a discernible goal, but the second sentence piqued my curiosity. “Chosen by the divine? The hell? You sure they weren’t just trying to sell you on some cult religion?” I asked.

She frowned and shook her head. “Not at all. There’s only one real religion in this world, and it’s all based around Eiter, the God of Creation. It’s monotheistic, and the vast majority of people truly believe he exists. They don’t pray or make offerings to him, mind you, but there are an awful lot of believers, so I suggest you watch your tongue—especially when there are elves around.”

Apparently, there was a deep connection between Eiter and elven culture: they were his most steadfast believers. And because elves had such long life spans, and very credible records, there were many folk legends about him that were passed down, making him an even more tangible deity. In contrast, the demons had records that were considered utterly worthless, and many thought this was a result of some sort of cultural reset after the northern half of their continent was blown to smithereens, or that the Demon Lord was manipulating the information his people had access to. I wondered if Amelia believed in Eiter too.

“But enough about that. Let’s get back on topic. As I was saying, you don’t have to know whether the skill you’re trying to learn actually exists or not, because if it doesn’t, the process just won’t work. What you need to worry about is the amount of mana it’ll cost and having a strong mind. But don’t expect it to be simple, either. If it were that easy to teach yourself new skills overnight, everyone in this world would be overpowered, and we’d probably have already made it back to Japan by now. If you hit any roadblocks, I’ll be happy to offer any advice I can, but for now, just do your best.”

And then, with a cute little wink, she gathered up her equipment and headed back to join the others. I felt suddenly warm at the sight and had to fan my face with both hands.

“Damn. First time I’ve seen a girl actually pull off the cutesy wink thing. No wonder Satou’s got the hots for her…”

I couldn’t help but notice that he’d been staring daggers at me the entire time I was talking to Hosoyama. And he sure seemed concerned about her risking her life yesterday, while obviously not caring nearly as much about the fact that I’d been in danger too. It was the sort of thing I probably never would’ve noticed back in Japan, but the new me could at least pick up on hints.

“Guessing she’d be the one wearing the pants in that hypothetical relationship,” I thought aloud, then let out a deep sigh more becoming of a weary old man than a spry youngster like myself as I feared for my classmate’s future.

 

POV: ODA AKIRA

 

PEOPLE OFTEN used the phrase “untrodden path,” but I’d never known what one actually looked like until now. The demons had refused to sustain friendly relations with the other races for several hundred years, meaning the part of the beastfolk continent closest to demon territory was overgrown with dense forests and there were genuinely no roads. We hadn’t even entered the forest proper yet, and we had already lost the trail; the fact that there weren’t even animal tracks to be found here was a bit unsettling.

Crow was serving as the leader of the group since he knew where we were going and was apparently taking us on the shortest possible route to the rendezvous point. The forest was eerily quiet, and while we occasionally came across spots where giant monsters had rampaged through, there were no other signs of animal life whatsoever. It was no wonder people and small animals steered clear, especially with all the annoying bugs buzzing around our faces.

And, as was probably to be expected given where we were headed, the closer we got to the demon continent, the more monsters we began to encounter. Lia kept barriers cast on us at all times so we didn’t have to be quite as cautious as we normally would. Even so, we had to stay on our guard, which certainly took a mental toll over time. Unlike the narrow corridors of a labyrinth, here, enemies could come at us from any angle, and it was exhausting to have to constantly watch your back. I could only imagine how tough it had been for the hero’s party before us.

I hoped they’d made it through all right. I assumed they’d taken a different route, though, since there weren’t any human tracks. All we’d seen were claw marks and monster tracks of different sizes.

As I surveyed the surrounding landscape, a thought suddenly occurred to me. I had no idea what Gilles was actually capable of, given that Commander Saran had trained me mostly in private. I knew he was at least agile enough to have pulled off that superhuman stunt where he ran along the walls of the labyrinth, and that he was able to do some pretty impressive team attacks, but I wondered how well he could handle himself with only his own sword to protect him. I knew he had Crow’s seal of approval, so I’d trusted him to serve as the heroes’ chaperone, but would Gilles be enough? Hell, even setting aside whether or not my classmates could hold their own in combat, there was also the very real possibility that they’d gotten lost.

Never in my life had I missed the convenience of cell phones more than I did right now.

“Um, Lord Akira? Could I have a word with you…?” Lia asked at one point as we were hurrying to the rendezvous point.

I slowed down to speak with her. Our current walking train had Crow in the front, followed by Amelia, Amaryllis, and Lia, with me at the rear, so we had plenty of distance between us and the others and it was easy to keep our conversation private.

I was surprised at how well Amaryllis was keeping up with the rest of us. I assumed she’d be pretty out of shape after being locked up for so long, but she and the other prisoners had taken care to stay as healthy as they possibly could while stuck in the tiny cell. She’d also served as the group’s de facto doctor since, given her apothecary class, she was the closest thing to a physician they had.

Still, she was by no means a combat class, so her stamina was lower than even Lia’s. Whenever she started to slow down, either Lia or Amelia would carry her for a while. Seeing the two of them fight over her (usually by asking whether she’d rather be carried by an elven princess or an ex-beastfolk princess) in contrast to her innocent gratitude was a sight I thought I’d never tire of.

After rescuing her from that freezing dungeon, but before meeting back up with Amelia and the others, I made a point to ask Amaryllis whether or not she’d like to come with us. If it were up to Amaryllis, she would have stayed down in that dungeon and starved to death, but my conscience wouldn’t allow her to do that. I wanted to save all of the prisoners—Amaryllis included.

She’d claimed she needed to atone for having made the medicines that turned Gram’s men into zombified mercenaries, so I presented her with a choice: she could either admit her crimes to the world and live in shame, die with dignity, or come with us and help develop a remedy that would reverse the effects of her concoctions. She’d thought it over before answering definitively with the same fierce glimmer in her eyes I’d seen when she was de`termined to die in that cell: she would make the remedy, no matter what it took.

Lia hadn’t said a word to me since I told her a little bit about Amaryllis as we were leaving Uruk, but I assumed she was just trying to put her thoughts in order before having a conversation. Both Crow and Amelia looked back when she called out to me but quickly turned around and kept walking to give us some privacy, having inferred from Lia’s expression that this wasn’t the sort of conversation they should be eavesdropping on. I honestly hadn’t known Crow was capable of picking up on social cues—if only he could be so considerate all the time.

“So, what’s up?” I asked once the others were too far away to hear us.

Lia looked down. Then, clutching her hands tightly in front of her chest, she looked back up at me with newfound resolve. “Okay, I know this is probably going to sound really strange, but there’s something I feel like I need to say to you, as a member of the beastfolk race,” she said.

I gulped. Pulling a “we need to talk” at this specific point in time could only mean one thing: it was about Gram. We’d been too busy for her to broach the subject this morning, so I was about 90 percent positive this was about the man I had killed… My heart pounded. I was terrified of what she would say.

“Hey, we got company!” Crow yelled just as Lia was opening her mouth to speak.

I drew my weapon and went into my combat-ready pose (a reflex I’d developed during my time down in the labyrinth), but Amelia made short work of the monsters with her Gravity Magic before I even reached them; evidently she and Crow really wanted to give Lia and myself a chance to talk.

I raised one hand to say thanks, and Amelia gave a quick smile before turning and continuing to walk alongside Crow. The two of them had been talking an awful lot since he’d taken her on as his pupil. Amaryllis, meanwhile, was too busy wandering around and gleefully checking out the different types of rare herbs in the forest to pay much attention to us. I figured she’d be fine as long as Crow kept an eye on her.

“Lord Akira? If I may?”

The little interruption hadn’t deterred Lia. Great. I really hated talking about heavy subjects face-to-face. “R-right, sorry. Go ahead, I’m all ears.”

“Then without further ado: Lord Akira Oda, as a former princess of Uruk, I wish to apologize on behalf of my race for the many troubles we have caused you, not to mention the other races of the world. For committing the unspeakable crimes of human trafficking and imprisonment, as well as the royal family’s role in covering it up, and for the way in which I spoke about your hero companions, despite their efforts to save us when the monsters broke free from the labyrinth. I could go on, but it would likely take all day. You have my sincerest apologies for all of the ways in which we beastfolk have wronged you and your people.”

I wasn’t quite sure what the proper way to react to a formal apology like this was, so I simply patted her bowed head. “C’mon, lift your head up. Trust me, I don’t hold any of that stuff against you. None of that is even the worst we’ve been subjected to since we arrived in this world,” I joked. I might have apologized back, but felt I didn’t have the right to, considering I did what I did for my benefit alone. “How do you feel about how this all went down? And about Amaryllis, for that matter.” When I’d explained to the group that Amaryllis would be joining us, and what our next moves would be, Lia didn’t visibly react at all.

“I could never forgive my uncle’s crimes… Or, rather, my former uncle. Not for the human trafficking, and not for what he did to Lord Crow’s sister, nor for what he did to Amaryllis. I think he absolutely did deserve to die, and probably a lot sooner than he did. And yet…” She faltered, looking down at the ground. “And yet, I just can’t accept that it was you who got to deliver his punishment and not Crow. I know you had your own reasons for wanting him dead, but now I worry Crow might regret it for the rest of his days. And even if he doesn’t, what will his motivation for living be, now that he’s finally obtained the one thing he’s wanted for decades? Do you think I don’t know what people often do when they feel they have nothing left to live for?”

I hadn’t thought she was naive, and I’d considered what Crow might do as well. Crow was undoubtedly in a very unstable place, and I could tell that, now that his revenge had been carried out, he was ready to die at any time. After all, he’d been an old man for a very long time already. Once he’d finished his duty of guiding us to the demon continent, it wasn’t hard to guess what course of action he might take.

“You’re right. I think that’s something neither Crow nor I really thought about before, but you also need to understand that Crow’s been living with this misery for a long time, so if he’s made up his mind, there’s nothing you can do to stop him,” I said, and tears began to well up in Lia’s eyes.

“I know that. Really, I do, but…do you know what he said to me the other day? ‘The moment I decided to dedicate my life to avenging my sister, I lost the ability to even think about my own happiness. And now I’ve roped in an innocent kid to do my dirty work for me. Think it’s pretty safe to say I’m going to Hell.’ So he has no intention of even trying to live or be happy again after this. He’s resigned himself to Hell itself…and that’s one thing I just can’t bear to see.”

Now her tears were pouring down her cheeks and falling down to the ground. But I had no right to dry them for her. Damn it, Crow. What the hell are you doing? I sighed and looked up at the sky. A big whale monster was floating gently by, so I went ahead and hit it with a bit of Shadow Magic to bring it to the ground, figuring we could use it for food.

“Well, let’s eat before we do anything else. Then you can start thinking about how to express those feelings to Crow. I’ll be happy to back you up. And I know Amelia and Night would be too.”

I didn’t want to commit Amaryllis to helping out, but I was pretty sure she’d assist us however she could.

 

POV: UENO YUKI

 

WAS BEING JEALOUS of someone something to be ashamed of? What about harboring a secret loathing against one of your friends? I knew from personal experience just how easy it was for envy to turn to despair, and ultimately to resentment. That’s how it had always been for me. No matter where we went, or how old we got, our relationship never changed. I’d known since long before we came to this world that I was inferior to Shiori.

“Wow! Shiori really can do anything, and she’s so cute too! How come you’re not more like her, Yuki?”

“How can you be Shiori’s friend when you can’t even do simple stuff like this?”

“Yuki’s such a boy’s name too. And why do you talk all funny, anyway?”

When we were little, I was constantly being asked such questions, and while I knew most kids probably didn’t mean to be cruel, they still left deep scars on my heart. Shiori and I were practically inseparable back then, and we did everything together. She was the very first friend I made at my new school after my dad was transferred from his job in Kansai. But as I quickly learned, Shiori was the kid in school everyone looked up to and wanted to be, so I was constantly compared to her simply by virtue of always being around her. From junior high onward, I made a point of staying far away from her and not talking to her until I regained my old happy self.

One would think most people understood that just because two people spent a lot of time together didn’t mean they’d be good at the same things, but it actually took me a long time to make that realization. Once I did, I was able to make up with Shiori and talk to her again like old times. After all, what did it matter if she was better than me at things I didn’t really care about, or if I still had my Kansai accent—ya got a problem with that, punk?! Still, my self-acceptance didn’t stop the other kids in class from speculating about the beef between us, and soon the rumors took on a life of their own and it felt like no one even wanted to give me the time of day.

No one but him.

“God, you’re funny as hell, Ueno! I can always count on you to cheer me up.”

“Your accent? I mean, who cares? I can still understand what you’re saying, so what does it matter, y’know?”

By then, all the other girls were too busy going ga-ga for Tsukasa, but I’d found another boy who told me what I wanted to hear.

“Hey, Waki! Did I jus’ see you talkin’ to Shiori over there?” I called out, stealthily trying to ensure she wasn’t trying to steal my crush from me. I noticed he’d been moping around ever since Shiori had pulled off that crazy stunt of hers yesterday. Which was classic Shiori, by the way.

“Yep! She was just tellin’ me what the trick is for learning new skills and stuff. Do you know about all that, Ueno?”

I could feel my smile twitch. Of course I didn’t know. I’d hardly developed my abilities at all since we left the castle because how was I supposed to know what things an obscure class like disenchanter was supposed to work on? I’d probably come away from the lessons at the castle knowing the least about my class, aside from maybe Oda, who played hooky the whole time. But even he had private training with Commander Saran, and I bet he snuck into the castle archives to read up on stuff too.

Meanwhile, I didn’t know a darn thing. While everyone else was training in their respective fields, I’d spent most of my time cooped up in my room. Even if I wanted to go looking for books related to disenchanting, we heroes were forbidden from entering the castle archives. Commander Saran was working on figuring out a lesson plan for me, but he was so busy training Oda (not to mention his other duties as Knight Commander) that I felt lucky anytime he went out of his way to even come talk to me. Come to think of it, had I ever thanked Commander Saran for his help? My memories of our time back at the castle were pretty foggy—probably a result of the princess’s curse.

“Nope, I don’t know nothin’ about any of that. Heck, I prolly skipped more o’ those lessons than I showed up for. Found it purty hard to care about much of anythin’ back when we were stuck at the castle, y’know what I mean?”

It was a lie, but it was the best excuse I could come up with on the spur of the moment. Commander Saran had told me he’d call in a specialist in disenchanting for me, but he’d never gotten around to it. And I couldn’t bring myself to admit to my crush that I’d spent all of my training time leading up to the commander’s death twiddling my thumbs in my room. I just couldn’t. Still, I worried that maybe he’d judge me for saying I played hooky while he and the others were training hard. I was practically shaking in my boots, worried he’d think I was a lazy good-for-nothing, but to my surprise, he seemed delighted.

“Wait, so you’re tellin’ me you broke that curse on Satou and you didn’t even need their tutoring to teach you how?! That’s wild, dude!” he gushed excitedly, and I couldn’t help but grin. I was glad to see this world hadn’t changed him—he still knew how to tell me exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks to him, I was able to believe in myself.

“Monsters are approaching our position! Prepare for battle, everyone!” yelled Gilles, and everyone immediately reached for their weapons.

I let out a half-hearted chuckle at how routine this sort of thing had become—that even when we were sitting down to have lunch, we kept our weapons close at hand so we could jump into action at a moment’s notice. I wondered if we’d ever be able to return to being our old, carefree selves if we ever made it back to Japan.

“C’mon, Ueno! Let’s head back over to where Tsuda’s at!”

“Right!”

 

There was a loud clang as our cooking pot was knocked over. Someone quickly stepped in to stamp out the fire beneath it. Welp, there goes our lunch. And after we spent all that time cooking it too... I watched from behind Tsuda’s shield as our hard work went to waste in an instant. Monsters would attack us regardless of whether we were on our guard or trying to eat, and we had lost many a meal to them during our time in the forest—so many that I’d lost count. If only we had someone as strong as Oda in our group, we might not waste so much food and end up running away without eating until well past dinnertime, though I realized I had no room to talk, since I couldn’t contribute to combat whatsoever.

As someone who’d had the privilege of hiding behind Tsuda’s shield until the fighting was over, I resented that I felt useless. And even if Oda were there, we’d just foist all the combat duties onto him, which didn’t sit well with me either. If we’re just going to throw one of us to the wolves to save everyone else’s skin, then maybe I should just sacrifice myself and end it all…

“What in the HELL is a robot doing out here in the middle of the damn forest?!”

Waki’s frantic cry snapped me back to reality. He was standing beside me, cradling his cat and monkey as they trembled with fright, and I completely lost my train of thought. As it turned out, the “monster” that had ruined our lunch was a bipedal robot that looked like a kid’s toy from our world but seemed extremely out of place in this one. Though for a robot, its movements were remarkably smooth and natural. Maybe there was a person inside piloting it. Regardless, its silver chassis and the dull light coming from its eyes stuck out like a sore thumb in the forest, and it was obviously man-made.

It was about the size of an average adult and far too solid for our attacks to put a dent in it. On top of that, its attacks came too frequently for even Shiori to dodge (and she’d been able to evade the whale’s needles!) and they had a poison effect to boot. It could also switch between close-range and long-range attacks at will depending on how far away it was. In other words, it was basically our worst nightmare; I wanted to know what we’d done to its maker to deserve this punishment.

According to Shiori, it was being powered by mana and probably wouldn’t come to a stop until its mana supply ran out. The obvious solution was perhaps to try to exhaust its mana, but something told me that we’d run out of stamina long before that would happen. Oh, and Shiori’s Guzzler skill wouldn’t work this time, because we couldn’t get close to it—even if we could, would a robot even have HP for her to drain?

“Hey, Ueno! Sorry to bother you but is there any chance you could cure poison from where you’re standing?!” Tsukasa cried out.

Startled, I looked up and saw he’d taken a long-range attack directly to his left arm, which now hung limp. The poison was probably a paralytic. But if Tsukasa were to retreat, the robot would surely destroy Nanase and Gilles.

I nodded and then realized that perhaps there was another reason for the self-deprecating mental tangents I’d been having today. When Waki’s voice snapped me out of one earlier, it finally hit me: this was similar to how it had felt when we were all cursed back at the castle. Once, at an Adventurer’s Guild branch, I’d heard it was easy to get stuck in cyclical thought patterns when under the effects of a mental interference skill…and suddenly it all made sense. This robot was clearly state-of-the-art—what was stopping it from having a few hidden mental interference skills?

“Hey, y’all! I think this robot’s messin’ with our heads! Be careful!”

After making sure everyone was warned, I stretched out my arms and tried to move as close as I could to Tsukasa while casting my disenchantments. Thankfully, he was just within range of my detox spell, and his arm began to glow faintly with the spell, though I unfortunately wouldn’t be able to reach the others.

“Hey, Tsuda? Can we scootch on up just a bit?” I asked. “I can’t reach anyone but Tsukasa from back here… Uh, Tsuda?”

His shield had begun to wobble. Tsuda did, admittedly, come off as pretty dainty—even daintier than me—but this was unprecedented. I looked at his face and, to my horror, discovered lifeless eyes staring back at me. I bit my lip, rebuking myself for not realizing sooner that the robot’s curse would have obviously hit Tsuda as well, since he was standing between me and it. Now he was probably thinking about sacrificing himself to save the others like I had been only a minute ago.

I grabbed him by the arm and called his name over and over, but he simply shook me off as though he didn’t even recognize me. I was a disenchanter, so I had been able to figure out what was happening to me, but the others probably wouldn’t realize until it was too late. How had I not considered this possibility sooner?! However, if I stopped everything to try to lift Tsuda’s curse, I wouldn’t be able to cure our three fighters if they got poisoned while I was casting. What if they suffered serious injuries as a result? What am I supposed to do…? Maybe I’m just not good enough after all. I bet Shiori would be able to salvage this situation without even trying. But as I raked myself over the coals internally, someone came over and clapped me on the back: Shiori.

“Hey, keep it together! We’ll be in big trouble if you freeze on us now! What are you trying to do? Is there any way we can help? You’re the only one here who can dispel its magic, Yuki. We need you!”

When I saw the fierce determination in her eyes, I forgot to breathe. There was a time when I loathed those eyes more than anything else in the world, but right now, they were my biggest source of reassurance. I’d always gone on and on about how much I resented her, but never once did I take the time to examine who she actually was, even when I knew deep down that the perfect goody-two-shoes I was always comparing myself to wasn’t the real Shiori at all. I took a deep breath and then slapped both my cheeks at once to get my head back in the game.

“Waki, I’m gonna need you to hold the shield for a sec. Shiori, you run along and help the front line. C’mon, Tsuda, give it here,” I said, grabbing Tsuda by the arm. I was being a little rough, but that was the only way I could wrest control from a combat class like him (and despite what I said about him being dainty, he could still easily overpower me if he wanted). Ideally, I wanted to break the curse on him before he tried anything foolish.

“You got it!” said Waki.

“Take care of Tsuda for us!” said Shiori.

As the two of them set about doing as I asked, I started casting a disenchantment on Tsuda. But just then, my thoughts did another 180. It seemed the robot was able to use its mind control magic on us without much effort, as scary as that sounded. And on top of that, it was launching poisonous attack after poisonous attack on our frontline fighters, which left them in an awfully tricky situation. There was so much I needed to do, and so little time, and by the time I finished curing Tsuda, someone else could be under the robot’s spell. And on and on and on…

“If only there were some sort of vaccine for this stuff…” I mused.

But then I thought about it some more and was surprised at just how much sense that idea made. Seriously, what if we could make some kind of vaccine against mind control? Like a flu shot—how did those work again? I thought I remembered hearing they introduced a tiny amount of the virus into your body so your immune system could build up a resistance to it. As I’d been hit by its mind control and Tsukasa by its poison, and I’d cured both, I understood them better and maybe had a little immunity to them too. Maybe we could use that to help protect the others. Granted, I wasn’t even sure if it was possible to build up an immunity to magic, but it was still worth a shot. But then again, what if it didn’t work? We were in the midst of a heated battle, and one wrong move could spell death for us all.

Worst-case scenarios ran through my head one after another, until a loud voice shouted down at me from above.

“You got somethin’ on your mind, Ueno?!” Waki barked, trying his best to hold up the heavy shield the way he’d seen Tsuda do it.

He’d noticed I wasn’t really putting my back into my disenchanting, but when I looked up at Waki, another thought suddenly occurred to me. Hadn’t he been saying something earlier about teaching yourself new skills?

“Hey, Waki! What was all that stuff you were sayin’ about teachin’ yourself new skills? I’m thinkin’ I might just be able to do somethin’ about that dang poison, if nothin’ else.”

If I could make the vaccine idea into a skill, then it might just give us the advantage we needed. And if we were lucky, it might even work on the mind control too.

“You serious?! Okay, well, I’ll just tell you what Hosoyama told me…”

Time was of the essence, so he had to keep it as brief as possible, but I nodded along with his explanation as best I could. I see, so for most people it doesn’t just happen overnight, and if you’re really unlucky, it might end up destroying your body on the molecular level. Got it.

“You still sure you wanna try it? I mean, if something goes wrong…” Waki warned.

“What, I might pop like a big balloon? Pshaw, I ain’t worried ’bout all that.”

The light swirling around Tsuda abated as I finished dispelling the curse. After confirming life had returned to his eyes, I stood up straight. Now it was time to find out if I could teach myself a new skill or not. I moved next to Waki and peeked out from behind the shield to tell Shiori (who was healing Tsukasa and the others) that she could fall back.

I closed my eyes and focused. I’d witnessed firsthand the moment Shiori acquired her guzzler skill. One of the perks of being a disenchanter was that I could feel the flow of mana emanating from other people, and I could tell in that moment she was trying to channel her mana into something specific through feel alone.

“Man, this thing’s startin’ to really get my goat. It can just zoom away and start usin’ ranged attacks whenever we get close, and its attacks are poisonous, to boot? And it’s got some sorta mind control, and its heavy metal hiney’s too thick for Tsukasa to crack? You’d think someone wanted us dead, but why not just use a more lethal poison and quit foolin’ around…?”

I was just thinking aloud now. I’d never been so pissed off by anything in my entire life as I was by the robot. It was said to take a strong will to learn new skills—well, anger was a type of will, wasn’t it? I was sure Shiori had learned guzzler by wishing with all her heart that she could save everyone from peril, but I didn’t have the heart of a saint like her.

“Seriously, y’all, what’s this thing’s deal? If it’s just tryin’ to screw with us, it needs to buzz the heck off! We ain’t got time to play with you, ya big heap o’ scrap!”

Thinking about how Shiori had done it, I let my mana course through my entire body as though I were about to start a disenchantment, and soon, I could feel the heat emanating from my limbs. Sometimes I’d gain a new skill after defeating an enemy, or raising my class level, but that had never felt like this, which was probably a sign of the different method of learning a skill. Soon, the swirling tempest of mana calmed, and I could feel that something was decidedly different about me—though I couldn’t tell you what exactly. Had I successfully acquired the skill? I immediately checked my stat page. When I saw a new skill at the bottom of the list, I couldn’t help but do a fist pump.

“Wait, did you actually pull it off?!” gasped Waki beside me.

I ignored him and wasted no time in testing my new skill.

It was called immunization. By design, it was able to lower the effectiveness of certain status effects, including poison, by raising the target’s resistance to any ailments I’d either been inflicted with or had experience disenchanting. It wasn’t one hundred percent effective all the time, unfortunately, but it would at least work on the robot’s mind control, so I was satisfied. Plus, something told me if I got too greedy and tried to make a true cure-all skill, my body would end up disintegrating. Teaching yourself new skills really was a dangerous business.

“Hm?”

The bodies of my companions began to faintly glow as I cast it on everyone simultaneously; just because some of us were protected behind shields didn’t mean we were safe from the robot’s abilities.

“Hey, guys, how d’ya like my new skill?!” I yelled out. “Lowers the effectiveness of poisons I’m familiar with! Works on mental status effects too! But it won’t make you completely immune, so still try to be careful, y’all!”

As I finished my simplified explanation of its effects, my party members all cheered. It seemed everyone had been holding back a bit for fear of getting hit with its poison or mind control, but now our three main fighters were able to go on the offensive. Granted, they still needed to find a way for their attacks to put a dent in the robot, but it was still a big step in the right direction.

“Nice one, Ueno!” said Waki.

“Thanks. But it ain’t over yet. If that thing’s got other poisons up its sleeve, we’ll still be up a creek fer sure!” I replied. It was definitely still a dicey situation. All we could do now was hope our frontline fighters could figure out how to kill it.

 

POV: SATOU TSUKASA

 

MY WHOLE BODY WAS BATHED in pale light. I had no idea how long this new skill of Ueno’s would last, but I knew we needed to defeat this thing before it wore off. I didn’t know if I’d simply gotten complacent after a few days without any particularly rough encounters or if my stamina was approaching its limit, but for whatever reason, my sword (which I’d trained with until it felt like an extension of my body) was beginning to feel heavy in my hands. Every time an enemy attack hit me, a searing pain shot through my arms, and my legs cramped up after every move. And now, even my head was beginning to hurt from constantly reanalyzing the situation to ensure I didn’t get hit. Needless to say, I was fast approaching my breaking point.

“Damn it… We’re so close, too…!”

We were only a short distance away from our destination—the safe house—and we were facing our most powerful enemy yet. The three of us doing most of the actual combat were already running on fumes and only remained standing through sheer willpower. Nanase’s magic wasn’t effective on the robot, so he was casting support spells on the rest of us instead, but his mana was rapidly depleting. I racked my brain, trying to think of ways we might defeat an enemy that was impervious to all of our attacks.

My first thought was to get in close and try to remove or disable its arms and legs, but it was too hard to even get within sword-striking range, and the material used around its joints was even harder than the rest of its body to protect the weak points; my sword simply bounced right off it.

My second plan of attack was a lot simpler: knock the damn thing over. If we all attacked the same foot to prevent it from moving around so much, we could potentially knock it off balance. When the opportunity finally presented itself and it lifted one leg high in the air, we all struck the other leg, but to no avail—it remained standing. How in the world could this thing be so strong and well balanced? Who the hell designed it? Even cartoon supervillains didn’t craft such annoying contraptions.

It was hopeless.

As my thoughts started veering in a negative direction, I lost the will to fight.

“If only I could harness the same power I used back then…” I lamented, thinking back to the fight with the tree monsters, when it was just Tsuda, Ueno, and me. I was down for the count, until Tsuda used one of his potions to revive me, and then I used a holy sword technique to slay all the monsters in one fell swoop. If I could do the same thing right now, we might just be able to defeat the robot.

I hadn’t been able to successfully pull off a holy sword technique before or since, which seemed odd since I was supposedly the destined wielder of that very blade. Perhaps the holy sword I’d been given by the King of Retice was a fake. There weren’t many surviving records that described what the holy sword was supposed to look like, either. All I knew was it had last been seen in the human country of Yamato before going missing. The only conclusion I could come to was that my successful use of a holy sword technique had been a fluke, and I couldn’t count on it happening again.

“Kgh?!”

Just then, I saw Asahina get knocked down out of the corner of my eye. He’d taken a direct hit from his blind spot. With Asahina out of commission, the fragile equilibrium we’d just barely managed to maintain was bound to crumble. Nanase used his wind magic to carry the fallen Asahina back behind Tsuda’s shield.

Now our only able fighters were myself and Gilles, with Nanase on support duty. Tsuda didn’t seem like he’d regained his senses yet, as Waki was still holding up the shield. This concerned me, because while Waki wasn’t exactly a weakling, he didn’t have the experience Tsuda had. I was sure that if he managed to block one hit from the robot, he wouldn’t be able to block the next. Then there’d be no way to block the robot’s long-range attacks.

“Look alive, Tsukasa! It’s coming for you!” Nanase screamed, and I quickly snapped back to the battle at hand, only to see the robot had knocked Gilles aside and was headed my way.

This was bad news. Waki and the others were right behind me. Even if I blocked its attack, there was a chance the reverberations from the impact would knock them off their feet. And if I tried to dodge or parry, it might just make them its next target, and that was the last thing I wanted to happen. But what was I supposed to do…?

Unable to decide, I raised my sword and braced myself nonetheless. But my legs wouldn’t move. The robot was closing in on me fast, and my body was shutting down, ignoring orders from my brain. I was no biology major, so I wasn’t exactly sure if that was possible—all I knew was that I couldn’t move. I watched my sword hang limp in my hands. I figured this was the end for me. Everything started to feel like it was moving in slow motion. Even if I was to die here, if I could at least find a way to protect the others, then maybe…

“Yeah? And who’s gonna protect you then, huh?”

Akira’s words rang through my mind. I couldn’t remember when or if he’d said those exact words to me, but the voice was unmistakably his. Though I had lost most of my memories from when I was cursed down in the labyrinth, so maybe he’d said it then. My sword, which still hung limply from my hands, began to twitch.

“Your job isn’t to keep the rest of us safe. It’s to defeat the Demon Lord.”

I could feel my senses returning to my entire body.

“You’re right. If I don’t defeat the Demon Lord, then who will?”

I couldn’t afford to die here.

 

ENGAGE SKILL: LIMIT BREAK

 

The still forest air whirled into a tempest centered on me, sending my hair fluttering upward. My body felt alive again, as though my previous fatigue had been a figment of my imagination. With my newfound strength, I easily stopped the robot’s attack with my sword in one hand, with no reverberation from the impact.

“But you know what else, Akira? I could never hope to be as cold and heartless as you, either, so I’m gonna protect not only myself, but the others too, and I’ll still beat the Demon Lord!!!”

Taking my sword in both hands, I mustered my strength. Our brief sword lock ended with the robot being sent flying. Then, my body moving effortlessly and exactly in accordance with each successive thought, I gave chase and drove my blade deep into its metallic hull before it even hit the ground. That same metal which had given us so much trouble was now being cleaved effortlessly in twain, and in a matter of seconds, I’d severed its arms from its body. Another swing of my sword, and the legs were gone too. The now-limbless robot finally crashed to the ground, and the impact blew off its lower half, sending nails and bolts flying in all directions.

“Huff…huff…”

I fell to my knees and gasped for air as my lungs agonizingly burned. I hadn’t taken a single breath while I was in my Limit Break state. Hosoyama dashed to my side, not even bothering to check if the robot was truly disarmed. What would she do if it still had another attack up its sleeve? It was too dangerous. But such thoughts died quickly as I struggled to reoxygenate my brain.

“Hang in there, Satou!”

My field of vision went white as Hosoyama cast Heal and Ueno cast Purge on me at the same time. Ueno’s other skill had worn off at some point, which was probably part of the reason my body had stopped listening to me—it wasn’t just fatigue, but paralysis too.

“That was way too reckless!”

“No kiddin’! I thought my poor heart was gonna burst right outta my chest!”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and laugh at how the girls’ first reaction wasn’t to congratulate me but to criticize me for being too foolhardy. That said, I appreciated having a bit of levity after the battle.

But suddenly Gilles cried out, as if to crack the whip on us for relaxing too soon. “On your guard!! It’s not over yet!”

I hopped to my feet, only to discover that the supposedly defeated robot and its scattered parts were vibrating and moving around.

“How in the heck is this thing still moving?!” I said, genuinely astounded. Still, I had the presence of mind to pick my sword up off the ground and use it to guard the two girls as we slowly backed away from the machine. Eventually, the robot’s chassis began to levitate in the air, its scattered parts floating back to it. I let out a deep groan. “Are you kidding me? It can regenerate itself too?!”

Then, as if in direct answer to my question, all of the robot’s parts—even the ones I’d cut clean in half with my sword—began to reattach themselves to the body, until the robot was completely put back together again, good as new. It was almost like watching a video in reverse. The reassembled robot brandished its weapons to attack us once more.

“…H-how the heck are we even supposed to beat this thing?” I heard Hosoyama ask in a trembling voice.

Feeling helpless once more, my sword fell to the ground. This time, I really had reached my breaking point. I didn’t even have the strength to pick my sword back up, and one wrong move could mean all three of us getting sliced in half. All I could do was glare defiantly at the robot. But just then, a voice rang out from the trees.

“Well, well. No one’s managed to give my Rabbot Mk 11 a pounding like that since the Lord of the Forest himself. How very intriguing…”

I looked around, searching for the source of the voice—which sounded much too childlike for a dangerous place like this. And despite sounding like the voice of a ten-year-old girl, it was also rather full of itself.

“What is it? Can’t fight anymore? Well, at least you have the decency to still try and protect your women, I suppose, which makes you a better man than that worthless son of mine… Certainly wouldn’t say no if a boy like you wanted to buy me a drink.”

I looked down to discover a pair of mischievous eyes peering up at me. The little girl was about two heads shorter than me, but it still felt like she was the one looking down on me. Just behind her stood another robot, much like the one we’d been fighting (which had stopped moving the moment the girl appeared). It seemed our savior had arrived. Relieved beyond words, I fell to my knees. My body wouldn’t move, but I somehow managed to cling to consciousness. Finally, it was over.