Chapter 206: East, Ishay (1)
The death of the Legionnaire’s right-hand man, Murka, caused an uproar in the demon lands.
The gist of it was that a man of Murka’s stature had been killed by an unheard-of human, only for him to be resurrected a few days later by a miracle of Heneryes.
Naturally, Keraph could not help but recount the information about me, and now the Returned from Paradise is his top priority.
However, given that I killed Murka, he believes I’m not a normal person and is still gathering information.
What’s odd is that the Legionnaire hasn’t made any moves despite the death of his prized recruit; he hasn’t been seen in the Demon King’s Castle much in recent days.
It’s not like he’s locked himself in his room and weeping over the loss of Murka, so he must have something else up his sleeve.
Heneryes’ warning suggests that he is preparing for the resurrection of the Demon King’s alter egos, the Archdemons.
In any case, Keraph concluded that the blind man with a white bandage over his eyes was a dangerous figure to demons and assassins alike, so it was better to keep a low profile, or at least stand out enough to get protection.
I told Keraph, who was now a double agent, to pay attention.
Finally, he spat out the thought he had been swallowing.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about whether I should tell you or not… I think it’s better to tell you. Lord Zetto, you won’t believe this, but…”
Keraph informed me of Lucia’s strange behavior.
When Aizel kidnapped me earlier, it was Lucia that Keraph found. Apparently, he had given the letter to Lucia, and she had given it to Yuri.
She repaired the letter’s torn seal with wind magic and even mimicked his handwriting in an instant.
Even I thought it would have been better to call Lucia, Keraph had come to a similar conclusion and he called her but Lucia’s actions caused Yuri to appear in her place.
It was an unbelievable story and it sounded like Lucia had intentionally twisted the situation.
Keraph was also hesitant because he knew how Lucia was perceived.
I don’t trust him completely, so I think he was worried that he might say something and lose credibility.
He wanted to wait to tell me until after he had personally investigated Lucia, but this also bothered him because he felt like he was hiding the truth from me.
I told him I believed him. More precisely, I said I would believe Lucia’s strange behavior.
In retrospect, it makes sense to me that he would try to deliver the letter to Lucia, assuming that Keraph is quick on the uptake, and that he has nothing to gain by sowing discord between Lucia and me with a lie that would be hard to believe even if it were true.
What matters now is why Lucia did what she did.
“Look, they must be from the East!”
Lucia, never one to sit still, pointed out the window and exclaimed.
Her voice was as cheerful as ever and her smile was innocent, with no hint of suspicion.
In the game, Lucia graduated from the academy in the usual way, with either a happy ending or a bad ending.
I still haven’t figured out why she did what she did. She’s always been weird enough without doing that in the first place, so it doesn’t make sense.
Then, in response to Lucia’s voice, Yuri, who was sitting across from me, stirred and looked out the window.
“Oh, it’s real. We’re finally in the East.”
In the midst of the fast-paced scenery, a group of large men dressed in Eastern-style clothing stood facing a herd of bison on the side of the road.
“What are they shouting at the cattle? Are they herders? Zetto, can you hear what they’re saying?”
Curious, Yuri asked me, opening the crack in the window slightly.
“I don’t know how you can hear them from a train moving at such a high speed, anyway, and I don’t have all-round hearing…”
Amon frowned, and I, who had been listening out the window, spoke up.
“…It does sound faintly familiar.”
“Maybe it was all-powerful?”
Kaen tilted his head and glanced at Amon suspiciously.
“So, what do they say?”
“Well…”
Scattering the energy, a large man stood out from the group, his arms crossed, shouting something along the lines of, “We are the Green Forest, stop the train and give us everything you have!”
“It looks like they’re a group of Eastern bandits called the Green Forest, probably trying to loot the train.”
“…But they’re looking at the cows?”
“They must have gotten caught by Edward.”
In response to Yuri’s question, Aizel answered for me with a sullen voice.
[Phew, the greenery isn’t what it used to be either, should I be impressed that it still exists after being so ravaged.]
Sierra, who had been hugging me, snorted and laughed.
Then there’s a panicked cry of “Stop! Why won’t the train stop!” and a bandit facing the bison is knocked off its feet by the bison’s charge and rolls on the ground.
“At least they didn’t tell us to deal with them this time?”
Seeing this, Crank questioned.
As he said, when we had encountered a group of bandits on our way to the desert before, they had purposely stopped the wagon and told us to subdue the bandits.
“This is a trip to expand our horizons, not a normal tour.”
Orphele said, leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes.
Orphele’s reaction was understandable, as he had been the one to shatter the ice that sealed the Lich, a family achievement, in the north, and the one to become a “human watering can” and “human shower” in the desert.
“Anyway, I guess it’s the East now!”
After three days on a transcontinental train we finally arrived in the East.
“This is your first time in the East, isn’t it?”
I whispered to Aizel, who was staring blankly out the window.
“…Yeah.”
“I hope you have a good time.”
“Thanks, Zetto.”
For Aizel, the East was a future she had never experienced before.
She had died before traveling to the East unconditionally. When I had been playing the game, I had pictured her boarding the Eastbound train.
This journey meant as much to me as it did to her.
“By the way, did you say where we’re going is called Ishay?”
“Yes. It’s the country in the East that is closest to the West and the first to adopt Western culture.”
“Oooh, Ms. Yuri. You know quite a bit about it, don’t you?”
“Hm, this is basic common knowledge.”
“Zetto said you’ve been to Ishay, right?”
Aizel asked, lightly ignoring Yuri’s display of knowledge.
“Yeah, I remember going there, though I was a kid.”
Yuri’s eyes widened at my answer, and then she muttered, “You didn’t tell me that…” in a low voice.
Aizel looked at her and smiled faintly.
‘Happiness, joy…’ Aizel’s emotions were written on the relationship chart she glanced at.
I wonder if that’s all it takes to make such a difference, but I’m used to it now, as their moods fluctuate from one day to the next.
I wonder if it bothered Kaen that the word ‘excited’ was consistently written on it.
“Well, anyway, I heard that Ishay doesn’t ostracize the West.”
“Are there countries that ostracize us…?”
“Yes. It’s probably more accurate to say that they’re closed-minded than exclusionary, but there are some groups that abhor magic, so if you meet them, you’d better be careful.”
Edward, who happened to be passing through the hallway, answered Lucia’s question.
“They abhor magic…?”
“The East is more accustomed to martial arts than magic. They deal with mana differently than we do, they hone it, they…”
I trailed off, and Edward tapped me on the shoulder.
“…They call it inner energy.”
“Excellent. If there’s anything else you guys don’t know, feel free to ask Cadet Zetto, and I’ll leave you to it, I don’t want to be the bad instructor who interrupts the cadets’ rest.”
It wasn’t that he couldn’t be bothered to answer questions.
With that, Edward flashed me a wicked grin and waved, and I was soon bombarded with questions from the cadets, who had a lot of questions about the East.
Fortunately, the questions were limited to what I knew, so I was able to answer them without any hindrance.
“So, where is Zetto’s birthplace? What country is it?”
“Umm…Hometown.”
Lucia’s question was difficult for me to answer since it was my first time in the East.
“It was so long ago that I was a child… I don’t really remember where.”
I remembered answering Priscilla’s question earlier that I wasn’t sure where I was from, so my answer was a bit vague.
Soon, Aizel scribbled something in a small notebook.
[When did she do her research on me…?]
Sierra, who had tilted her head to look at the notebook curiously, muttered.
“A list…?
It looked like a bucket list of sorts.
It contained sentences that were supposedly things she wanted to do.
It wasn’t a good idea to sneak a peek at the notebook, but it couldn’t hurt to memorize these things.
“Let’s go to Zetto’s hometown together.
Below that sentence, she was scribbling.
‘Zetto’s master is Sierra of the Purple Moon, so the Moon Kingdom, which is said to be the home of the Sierra, must be his homeland…’
It was good reasoning.
If I had predicted Sierra as my teacher from the beginning, I would have answered that way.
Moon Kingdom, the only nation that once united the East, though I don’t know what happened to it afterward, and it’s a much weakened nation now…Every once in a while, someone like Sierra shows up.
I know we’ll be stopping in the Moon Kingdom on this trip, and although it’s not my hometown, it’s a good idea to visit Sierra’s hometown, and maybe meet some of her friends and family.
[Hmph…Moon Kingdom…]
Well, Sierra didn’t seem too keen on the idea, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the story is.
Just when I thought the baptism of questions had subsided, an announcement came over the train.
[In a few moments, the transcontinental train will arrive in Ishay. To ensure the safety of our passengers before the stop…]
Following the announcement, the cadets on the train began to cheer.
“Finally…!”
“The train is uncomfortable. It’s cramped.”
“What are we going to do when we get to Ishay?”
And so the first-year cadets of Innocence Academy arrived in Ishay.
***
After arriving in Ishay, we headed to our pre-arranged accommodation, and then had some free time.
The instructors decided that since it was the capital of Ishay, and it was safe in many ways, there was no need for group behavior.
“Me, mixed gender?”
“There’s such an advanced culture in the East…?!”
As Amon and Crank walked through the hallway after unpacking, they read a sign and looked at each other.
The inn had a mixed-gender hot spring.
“…What are you guys thinking?”
“Zetto… You don’t understand… the greatness of this Eastern culture…”
“I know. You don’t know.”
“This is an opportunity!”
“Yes, it is an opportunity!”
“”The female cadets…””
Then Amon and Crank have a silly conversation where they say these things in unison, and their thoughts diverge at the end.
“You can see their bodies…”
“You can see the muscles…”
“…What are you talking about, Crank.”
“What does that mean, Amon…?”
They look at each other as if they don’t understand.
“Of course it’s a chance for me to examine and point out the muscles of the cadets, because I can see them with my own two eyes and tell them where they’re lacking!”
“No, of course it’s a great opportunity to admire the female cadets’ normally hidden bodies…!”
The two who disagreed so they looked at me and Orphele.
“What do Zetto and Orphele think?”
“I’d like to hear their opinions.”
“Either way, I don’t think it’s a conversation I’m qualified to have.”
“”And Orphele?””
At their urging, Orphele’s tightly closed mouth opens.
“…I don’t really like hot water, and if I’m going to wash, I can do it anywhere, anytime…”
“Hah, now that I think about it, Orphele, you had a drip…”
“A drip? What is that?”
“There is such a thing….When you can’t be bothered to walk to the bathroom, you summon a giant water droplet and wash yourself there.”
“Convenient, but… It’s not very romantic, and I’m sure mixed bathing isn’t something you come across very often…”
“Alas, I agree.”
I decided to put the hot springs on hold for now, as I had work to do.
So I left Amon and Crank to their heated discussion and started walking away.
“Uh, Zetto!”
Lucia spotted me from across the hall and called out. Behind her, I could see Aizel, Yuri, and Kaen.
“What are you going to do now that you’re free, Zetto? We’re going to explore the city from now on…!”
Lucia’s next question drew the attention of the entire group around her.
“I’m afraid I have other things to do.”
As much as I wanted to follow them and take a leisurely stroll around the city and go on an outing, I couldn’t… I had a job to do, a quest.
The princess of Ishay is currently being eroded by a significant amount of magick.
I wonder if the delay in coming to the East hasn’t worsened her condition.
It’s said that a large amount of divine power is required, but it can be solved by calling a saint, but the Holy Land and Ishay don’t have a very good relationship.
Normally, this would be a fairly cumbersome and complicated quest requiring special medicines, but now that I have a bizarre prosthetic hand that can absorb magick, it seems much easier.