Bonus Short Stories

Hobbies: Reystov

I flicked my wrist and cast the baited hook into the glimmering surface of the water. There was a light splash. A circular ripple spread out and soon faded.

“...”

“...”

Beside me was a swordsman of few words, sitting with his lips drawn together and a serious expression on his face. It was Reystov. The two of us were river-fishing together; he’d invited me after we finished a job.

Even after the battle at the Rust Mountains was over, there was no end of things to take care of. The habitats of beasts and the like around here had changed a lot after the battle with Valacirca, and there was an increase in incidents of beasts wandering into where people were living. We were never left wanting for troubles or battles.

One of these was a request, made by Tonio and taken on by Reystov and myself, to kill a monster of a fish that had found its way into the river connecting Torch Port and Whitesails and was now obstructing river trade. The word “monster” really did feel like the most fitting way to describe its appearance. It had wet, slimy skin, big fat lips, eyes that stared at nothing, and a mouth crammed full of thin, venomous fangs. Its body was large enough that it could swallow a person whole, and it was highly aggressive.

The two of us had gone out on a small boat and headed towards the area where a lot of people had said they’d seen the creature. It took a bit of effort to find, thanks in part to underwater enemies we had to fight on the way, but the battle itself was over in a flash. I caught a glimpse of the monster-fish’s silhouette while using Searching magic, and before the word “there!” had even left my mouth, Reystov struck like lightning with his Word-engraved, extending sword. In the fraction of a second it had, the monster-fish moved underwater as if to dodge, but it wasn’t enough. One strike was all it took. Pierced through a weak spot, the monster-fish expired immediately and plopped belly-up to the surface of the water.

Reystov was so efficient, I almost wanted to applaud.

He drew the body close to him with a rake he had prepared and cut off a fillet as proof of the kill. All that was left was to go back home, and that was when Reystov suddenly suggested we go fishing for a bit.

I thought about it. It was no wonder the gigantic monster-fish had chosen this place as its home; there were a lot of sunken ruins in the river around here, and I could see the silhouettes of plenty of fish swimming around. It looked like a pretty good fishing spot. We had plenty of time on our hands, and we’d already gone to the trouble of bringing out the boat. The aftermath of Valacirca had settled down recently—our efforts were starting to pay off—so I thought it could be a nice idea to relax for a little while with our lines in the water. And so, I agreed.

As I started to wonder what we were going to do for gear and bait, Reystov produced two fishing rods and a pot containing doughballs from the back of the boat. I watched him shrug and laughed, realizing that he’d been planning on fishing from the start if he saw the opportunity. Even this dignified veteran swordsman had a playful side.

The two of us baited our hooks and cast out our lines, creating two light splashes in short succession. We sat there quietly with our lines dangling into the water, and every so often, we muttered a few words of conversation. I asked what the bait he was using was made of. He replied that they were made from flour and egg yolk, and the trick was to mix in a little honey. That was how our conversation started.

After that, we covered a lot of things: the town, the people in our lives, swords and spears, and all the adventures we’d been on so far. What surprised me was that Reystov offered me some pretty deep insight on the roots of some of the town’s problems. It probably came from his own experiences. Ours was far from the first town he’d drifted through.

Reystov, whose interests mostly lay in going on constant adventures to polish his sword skills and win honor and glory, had set aside time to think about the town for me. Though he would never say as much, I couldn’t help but think this was an expression of friendship. It made me happy.

That said...

“Um, Reystov?”

“Little longer.”

“Reystov, the sun’s getting pretty low in the sky now.”

“Little longer.”

As usual, Reystov was having what they call fisherman’s luck... or, to be blunt, he hadn’t caught a thing. As the sun slowly declined towards the horizon and I started to get itchy about leaving—it really would be bad if we didn’t head back soon—the float sunk.

“Oh!”

There was a tug on my rod. I hurriedly pulled. I’d hooked a large trout. I reeled it in, caught it in a net, and threw it in the basket, which was reasonably full with all the other fish I’d caught.

I felt awful.

“Little longer...”

“Reystooov!” I whined. Reystov had now gotten completely stubborn.

Get ready, I told myself. It looks like you’re camping out tonight.

Hobbies: Meneldor

The outfit consisted of a soft, black satin shirt and neatly sewn woolen pants, a thin cloak of well-tanned leather with polished, plain wood buttons, brightly colored cuff bracelets, high-quality deer-leather boots, and a jade hair ornament adorning his braided silver hair.

“Good?” he asked.

I ooh’ed. “It’s amazing. You’re like a prince.”

“It’s not that amazing.”

Inside a room of my mansion in Torch Port, Menel huffed a short laugh, dressed to the nines in newly tailored clothes. He normally wore hunter’s attire, which was uncompromisingly practical, but when he seriously decked himself out, his clothes and half-elf features worked together to make him look like a young noble or something.

“You really do have style,” I said.

“Ya, well, fairies and other spirits are fussy as hell about appearance.”

“Huh? They are?” I said, unintentionally wide-eyed.

Menel looked at me with a face that said, “You didn’t know that?” but even I had things I didn’t know. Gus had an encyclopedic knowledge and a strong memory, but his knowledge of the worlds of the fae and the fairies was pretty spotty in places. On top of that, there had been no elementalists in that city of the dead. Without them, Gus had figured it would be difficult for me to truly understand and appreciate knowledge about fairies, so he always put off teaching me about them in favor of more important things. Because of that, I only had superficial knowledge about spirits and the fae.

“Huh, you really don’t know.” Menel hummed in thought. “You know how they often say stuff like... things that are beautiful or perfect catch the attention of otherworldly beings?”

“Yeah.”

Similar ways of thinking had been part of my previous world, too. In order to avoid disaster and not attract unworldly beings, some people would give their children strange names or deliberately leave a single imperfection when constructing a building. That concept, that “beautiful things” were imbued with a certain kind of magical or spiritual power, could be found in many places across the world even in my previous life.

“Ephemeral beings who wander the transient world, you who love the beautiful, you who adore the radiant, you who detest the ugly, you who revile the sullied...”

Menel recited what sounded like a verse of poetry from memory.

“The fae have a different character than the gods. They’re picky, and they play favorites. They give their power to beautiful things, and they won’t look twice at anything ugly.”

“So in a way, they have easy-to-understand standards... Oh, wait a minute, is that why elves are so graceful?”

“Ya, that probably has to do with it, too.”

Being beautiful, in both a physical and a mental sense, increased the support that the fae and the fairies would provide. In short, there were advantages to being graceful. A society formed to make a lot of use of the powers of fae and nature’s spirits would naturally become noble and elegant in certain aspects.

“I mean, that’s the reason I keep my hair long, y’know? The transient world’s well known for liking long, beautiful hair.”

Now that I thought about it, Menel put practicality first in hunting and battles, yet he’d never once shown any sign of cutting his long hair, which took a lot of effort just to take care of. I’d also met a group of elves from Lothdor during the Valacirca incident, and I remembered most of them having long hair as well.

“So that’s why you don’t cut your hair.”

It all made so much sense that I couldn’t help feeling satisfied by the explanation. So it was all so the residents of the transient world would take to them...

“I shouldn’t make it out like they’re all the same, I guess. They’ve all got their own type.”

“Type, you say.”

“I mean it’s not like, have a handsome face and then they’ll like you. They’re not that simple.”

The fae and spirits associated with light and fire liked flashiness and preferred people with sunny, positive dispositions, as well as those who held intense anger inside them. The fae and spirits associated with air and water had a preference for unworldly people who didn’t obsess over material things. They also liked everything graceful and delicate, as well as people who had conflicting emotions like joy and sorrow inside them. The fae and spirits associated with earth and trees preferred those with simple and collected personalities, as well as easygoing, peaceful optimists. They were fond of aspects like simplicity and functional beauty.

“Or take the fae of darkness, chaos, fear, or jealousy. They tend to love people twisted with deep obsession, jealousy, bloodlust, brutality, or passion.”

Menel told me that the “beauty” the fae admired took many different forms.

“And all the elven settlements and clans have different aesthetics depending on what kinds of fae they revere and what kinds of boons they mainly have.”

“Umm, there are places that specialize in fae of darkness, chaos, fear, and jealousy?”

“There are, but... well, they’re not really places you’d wanna go.”

He told me that most of those places were a little shady. Some were harsh environments where there was no choice but to become good at going along with stuff like that, while other times, there were ruffians who used abilities from those kinds of fae to fight, or executors who used those abilities to lay curses.

“So when you see an elementalist, it’s important to keep in mind the impression you get from how they look. What they can do and the vibe they give off match up, most times.”

“I see,” I said, nodding.

I never interacted very deeply with the world of fae and spirits, but maybe it was time I deepened my knowledge a little.

“So, we got a bit off-topic. What are you doing, then?”

“Huh? Me?”

“Uh, ya? The king’s brother invited you to the party, remember?”

“Yep.” I nodded.

After the Valacirca scare was past, Ethel had invited me and Menel to attend the party he was going to hold in Whitesails at the winter solstice, the day after which the days started to get longer again. In other words, it was a party to celebrate the beginning of the new year. As His Excellency’s knight, I naturally had no objection to accepting his invitation and wishing him a happy new year. However...

“So, clothing? This is what I’m planning on wearing.”

“Huh? I was going to wear the formal clothes I always use for—Is that... wrong?”

With every word, Menel’s eyes became narrower and narrower. By the time I realized I’d misspoken, it was too late.

“Will. Will, brother. Think about how much attention you attract, you idiot!” He slapped me on the back of the head. “You’ve pulled off one hell of an achievement, and everyone’s gonna be like, ‘Okay, here he comes, what’s the legendary paladin’s entrance gonna be like?’ and you’re gonna walk in wearing the same, safe-ass outfit you wear every year?!”

“But formal clothes are expensive, and they’ll have to work really fast to get some made up now!”

“You can afford it! And the workers’ll make an effort for you! More to the point, you’re the one who’s meant to be creating jobs for the tailors! Knock off your weird money-saving thing and drop some fig cash!”

“B-But I’m no good at fashion...”

“You’re popular. Even if the clothes look a bit weird, just wear them with confidence and everyone’ll just accept it like that’s the style!”

Whap, whap.

“That’s it, I’m getting some made for you! Bee and Tonio probably know what’s in right now. I’ll talk to them, and we’ll get your outfit ready by the winter solstice!”

And so Menel dragged me to the tailor’s. As I listened to him talk about materials and color schemes, I learned for the first time that there was a side to him that was really into extravagant clothes.

“We’re gonna ace these clothes, and when you’re at the party, you’re gonna hit on a girl or two and show me you can pick one up. I’ll help you out.”

“Whaa? No way! Impossible!”

“What’s impossible?!”

“I can’t handle talking to women, there’s no way!”

“How is it you’ve got so much guts when you’re fighting monsters, but you get cold feet when it comes to women?!”

“I can beat monsters! You just hit them with muscle!”

“Are you ever gonna do anything about that barbarian brain?!”

And so we continued, arguing and laughing noisily.

Hobbies: Tonio

It was a board with stately character, polished by months and years of time. Squares of sycamore and walnut were laid alternately in a nine-by-nine checkerboard pattern. It was a very involved piece of woodwork. Silverwork and a subtle carving of vines decorated the board’s edges. This may have been part of a game, but it was more than that. This was a piece of art. I stared at it, captivated.

“Hoowee! That’s so pretty!” Bee exclaimed from beside me.

“It’s well made,” said Menel as he gave the board a rough look-over—but he handled it with respect. “You couldn’t make something like this around here. Doesn’t look like it was snagged from some ruin, either. This an import from the north?”

“Yes. I discovered it when I went to make some trades the other day. I fell in love with it at first sight and purchased it on the spot. I couldn’t help myself.”

The one smiling with a hint of embarrassment was Tonio, the merchant.

“Do you like Infantry?” I asked.

“I do.” He laughed. “If only I were any good.”

Infantry was the name of one of the most popular board games in this part of this world. The players would decide who was to go first, then take turns moving one of their pieces, of which there were eight kinds: the pawn, the giant, the wyvern, the fairy, the caster, the priest, the knight, and the king. The goal was to take your opponent’s king.

The closest thing from my previous world was probably board games derived from chaturanga like chess or shogi. It was a two-player, zero-sum, finite, deterministic game of perfect information. The people of this world were similar physically and identical in their souls to the people of my last. It made sense that the games they came up with would be similar.

“What about the pieces? Wow, these are really elaborate as well! Whoa!” Bee cried out as she gazed at a beautifully carved milky-white piece that had probably been made from the fang of a marine creature. The piece she was holding was a wyvern with its wings folded and its neck held imposingly high. Within the game, it was considered a major piece; it could move a long way along the diagonal and was easy to use.

“This one’s pretty, too,” Bee said, continuing on to pick up an androgynous fairy piece. This too was beautiful. “Hm? Doesn’t this one look like Menel?”

“Huh? You think?” Menel tilted his head.

Tonio watched the two of them with a charming smile. We were currently gathered near the front of the store at the trading company Tonio was running by the port. We’d dropped by because he was carrying out a deal that for various reasons we had to be present for. After that was done, Bee turned up as well, and we all started talking about random topics. The conversation led to Tonio bringing out this Infantry set.

Tonio, who was normally so sedate, had showed the set to us with a little bit of pride, so he probably liked it quite a lot.

Bee, who was gazing hard at the beautiful board and pieces, suddenly turned to Tonio and said, “Hey, can I have a play?!” Her eyes were sparkling cheerfully.

“Of course you may, Robina.” Tonio nodded with his usual smile.

“Okay, Menel, let’s play!”

“Me?! Why?”

“’Cause Will looks like he’d be good at it! And so does Tonio!”

“And I look like I’d be bad, do I?!”

“In comparison? Yeah, I think so.”

“You wait, missy.”

They must both have been familiar with the rules already. They set up the pieces, flipped a coin to decide who would go first, and started to play. Tonio and I watched as the game progressed... and... yep.

“Huh? Ah, the wyvern was covering that?! You’re kidding?!”

Menel cackled. “You let your guard down...”

Menel made short work of Bee’s sloppy play. Menel’s own skill was nothing especially noteworthy, but the way he invited carelessness, set up traps, and drew his opponent into them was cunning and greatly suited him.

“Gaaah! I lost!”

Tonio laughed. “All right, Robina, why don’t you and I play a game?”

“I’ll never win against you!”

“No, no, give it a try. I’ll give you a handicap.”

Tonio exchanged seats with Menel and boldly removed his giant, wyvern, fairy, and caster pieces from the board. Bee looked at the board for a while, unusually quiet, then said, “I think I could win now!”

And she started her match against Tonio. She made several mistakes and had pieces taken as the game went on, but ultimately—

“Yeeeah!”

She won.

“Oh dear,” Tonio said and laughed. “Losing that many pieces was quite punishing, it seems.”

As we played around like that, making lots of noise inside the store, passers-by and people who lived around the area started to pop their heads in.

“Oh, nice and lively in here.”

“Infantry?”

This was still quite a rural area, and pretty much everyone knew each other. It made for a relaxed atmosphere.

“Would any of you care to play?” Tonio smiled at them engagingly. “I have a number of other boards. It may be your chance to defeat the Paladin.”

Then he threw a smile at me, saying, “What do you say?”

I nodded. “I’m up to the challenge.”

“Oh, he’s confident!”

“I’ll never have stronger arms than this guy, but I might stand a chance at Infantry!”

Before I knew it, more and more people had gathered and all set up boards, and games were being played all over the store. Despite some mutterings from Menel that told me he wasn’t really into this, he went along with it surprisingly well by playing against himself. Bee seemed to be enjoying spectating and went around watching how the different matches were unfolding and chipping in comments. As for me...

“Daaaah, the Paladin’s too good!”

“The way you use this giant to protect the knight so it can come forward is very clever.”

“And your castles are so damn strong. Strengthening with the priest here, was that called a Tower castle?”

I was wiping the floor with all my challengers. These kinds of board games were also something Gus had trained me in, so I was pretty good at them. I looked over at Tonio. He had a smile on his face as he cheerfully played one of the people who had come to his store.

“Well done,” he said after a laugh.

“Tonio, buddy, you almost had me!”

It got to the point where drinks and snacks were brought out. The lively Infantry tournament continued until it got dark, with laughter filling the shop. And then finally it wound to a close, and everyone went their separate ways.

As I helped Tonio clear up, I dropped a casual comment. “Tonio, those were all very close matches you played.”

“Yes, that’s exactly the level I am, it seems. How embarrassing.”

“Oh, no, I think it’s amazing. Losing by a hair every time is harder to pull off than winning.”

When I said that, Tonio’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “You weren’t fooled.”

“Well, I kind of got the feeling. I thought you’d be more interested in everyone having fun and making good memories than beating your opponents into the ground.”

“Is that because I’m in the business of selling things?”

“No.”

Certainly, it was better for business if he left a good impression rather than a bad one, and that might have contributed to his decision. But there was a bigger reason.

“It felt to me like you just wanted a lot of people to like Infantry.”

When I said that, Tonio gave me a deeply peaceful smile. It wasn’t his usual business smile. It was a very transparent expression for him.

“I lost my wife many years ago. She was often in poor health, but she liked to play Infantry.”

I was speechless.

“We often played together,” he said calmly. “She was very strong. I was no match for her.”

Somewhere in his voice, I could sense the affection he had for her. All I could do was nod and continue helping him tidy up. I couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say.

After our work was almost done, I said, “Tonio, would you mind having a game with me? A serious one.”

“No, I wouldn’t mind. Let’s play.” He smiled.

In the now-dark room, under the wavering light of a lamp, Tonio and I sat on opposite sides of that beautiful board and took turns making the satisfying sound of a piece against wood.

To cut a long story short, Tonio’s fairy chopped the head off my king.

I said, “Good game” to him, and Tonio thanked me. After that, every few times I stopped by his store, Tonio and I would play a game of Infantry together.

Hobbies: Bee

“Will, let’s go eat! I heard about a good place!”

I happened to stop by Whitesails one day because I had something to decide on with Ethel. In the evening, she came bursting into my room, and the above words were the first out of her mouth.

“Hey, Bee. You look well.” I replied with a grin, amused by her beaming smile and the fact that she’d shouted about food before even giving a greeting.

My friend and red-haired troubadour, Bee, really loved food. When asked about the subject, she would say, “Breakfast, dinner, high tea, elevenses, low tea, and supper! Eating for pleasure has been a part of halfling culture since ancient times!” However, I knew several halflings who didn’t eat as much as she did, so I thought Bee was probably just a glutton.

“But you usually go off on your own, right? Why did you come looking for me this time? Is something happening?”

“Well, the thing is, the place I’m interested in is a kinda rough area near the port. I heard the fisherman’s soup there is really tasty.”

“Aha.”

The port made use of a lot of physical laborers, and with all the boats going in and out, there were also a lot of dubious people coming and going around there. Some of those streets just didn’t feel safe.

“So, I heard you were coming to town, and I thought, this is perfect.”

“So I’m your handy tagalong?”

“Yep. I’ll treat you, though!”

I laughed a little. “You’re about the only one in the whole of Whitesails who would come up with the idea of making the Paladin your bodyguard while you go around the city looking for places to eat.”

“Aren’t I great?” she said, and we both grinned.

I immediately set about getting ready. If I was going to be heading into a rough area, I had to make sure I didn’t carry more money on me than necessary and didn’t dress in a way that made it look like I had money, either.

“You’re so careful. Even if a gang of thieves attacked us, I know you could win.”

“Even so, there’s no need to increase the amount of pain and grudges in this world.”

I dressed myself in a worn-out cloak that didn’t look very high quality, and the two of us talked as we walked through the city. We headed towards a slightly dusky street close to the dock where boats unloaded their goods.

“Hmm. There’s the landmark I heard about, so... Ah, there we go!”

Bee led me towards one of the street’s smaller taverns. An old lantern was tied to the tavern sign, and several wooden boxes were stacked outside. Warm light and a jolly atmosphere leaked out through the entrance and the windows, both of which were being kept wide open. Inside, many boisterous men were pouring drinks for each other, laughing in loud voices and shooting jokes back and forth.

We skipped on in, and a chirpy member of staff with fuzzy black hair and brown skin called out, “Welcome! Please sit wherever you want!”

“Heya!” Bee replied in a voice that was equally as cheery. “I heard your fisherman’s soup was good? That for two please, and something to drink.”

“Coming right up!”

Very quickly, we were served rye bread, ale, and the fisherman’s soup we were here for. The weak ale and the hard, sour rye bread were, to be honest, pretty much what I’d come to expect from this area. But the fisherman’s soup Bee had heard so much about, which came served in deep soup bowls, was in a class of its own.

“Ohh...”

“Now this...”

Not all the fish the fishermen caught in their nets were fit for normal sale; some were too small or a type they weren’t targeting. This tavern had probably bought those off them for cheap, boiled them in seawater along with, again, likely leftover vegetable scraps from the market, and finished off the flavor with herbs. That was probably all it was, but once we tried it after briefly saying grace, we both agreed it was also terribly delicious. It was a salty soup with the rich flavors of the ocean, including tender shrimp, prawns, and whitefish that fell apart beautifully. Bee and I bolted it down feverishly.

“Seconds, please!”

“Oh, and me!”

After drinking some weak ale and refreshing our palates, we went back for more fisherman’s soup. Soaking the hard rye bread in it was also very tasty. In the end, two helpings were gone before I knew it, and without it ever occurring to me to make conversation.

“Thanks, that was really good!”

“It was delicious!”

“Thank you very much! Please come again!”

We paid our bill with copper coins and left quickly. It felt wrong to stick around too long after eating when they were busy. Besides, I’d felt a probing gaze on me at more than one point during our meal. I didn’t want the back of my head bashed in on our way back from the tavern. I reminded myself to stay alert.

“Thanks for inviting me today, Bee,” I said, smiling. “That was delicious.”

“Huh?” Bee looked at me with wide eyes and tilted her head.

“Huh?” I went wide-eyed too, confused by her strange reaction.

“What?”

Just as I was about to delve inside my head to see if I’d forgotten something, Bee looked at me, mystified, and said something terrible. “Did I say just one tavern?”

“Wha?”

“It’s not often I get a good bodyguard like you, so I was planning on trying out all the taverns I’d heard about on the streets around here.”

“H-Hold on a second, isn’t that a little dangerous?”

“And there’s no need to worry, ’cause even if we are attacked, the Paladin’s right here! It’s so nice to able to try out all these places without having to worry about safety, you know?♪”

“W-Wait a sec! Bee! Bee?!”

All the food I ate that day tasted very good, but for some reason, I ended up losing a little weight.