At night in the Galura Canyon.
Tomochika and the others were in the roof rack of the armored vehicle.
They knew the way to the Kingdom, but the canyon was deep and rugged.
They couldn’t quite escape it yet.
Fortunately, the interior of the armored car was comfortable, and there were no problems with lodging there.
It was complete with a shower and a toilet, and there was even a simple kitchen installed.
Although it seemed quite impossible to remodel this in such a short time, it was the result of the technology of Hanabusa.
The two people who had finished eating were sitting side by side in front of the dining table.
Yogiri was playing his game as usual, and Tomochika was watching what was happening for some reason or another.
A fight between two martial artists was unfolding in the game screen.
He hadn’t chosen a hunting game as usual, Tomochika had recommended that he try a different one to get better.
However, it didn’t change no matter what game the unskilled Yogiri played.
He was unable to see an appropriate opportunity sufficiently, things like combos were out of question.
Even the inputting of the commands of his special move were poorly done.
“Hey. To improve in your hunting game, there’s no meaning in excessively moving your character in the game.” (Tomochika)
“Sorry. I feel like what you said is proper as well.” (Yogiri)
He was poor at seeing opportunities, so Tomochika thought he would get better if he was playing a game, but it seemed such a thing wasn’t easy.
In the first place, there is too much of a difference from the premise of a 3rd-person POV game where you can freely move the camera as compared
to a side-view fighting game.
Yogiri gave up on the game and let it sleep.
Tomochika was feeling a bit unpleasant.
While she was thinking about how to gloss over it, she heard a clang noise from outside.
It sounded like something hit the armored vehicle.
“What was that?” (Yogiri)
Yogiri took the lead and went out.
Tomochika followed him afterwards.
The bluish-white moon shone on the world of sand and rock.
A beautiful but desolate scenery was spread around.
“Hou~.” (Yogiri)
There was an owl on top of a rock.
When the owl noticed Yogiri, it quickly flew away, but an envelope was left behind.
Yogiri picked it up.
The two returned to the armored car and sat in front of the table.
They validated the envelope.
For the address, it was their names written in Japanese.
“It’s a letter.” (Tomochika)
“This means that someone knows our location……” (Yogiri)
“Eh? Isn’t that bad?” (Tomochika)
While Tomochika was surprised, Yogiri confirmed the sender of the letter.
“I had somewhat guessed it……” (Yogiri)
The sender had helped them in the past; it was the concierge, Celestina.
“Ah……I feel like that person would be able to do that……” (Tomochika)
Yogiri opened the seal and read the letter.
Tomochika was shocked from the very beginning.
“In what way are you a knight!?” (Tomochika)
“Ah, that’s right, Rick-san was saying such a thing.” (Yogiri)
The letter started with a congratulatory address to him getting conferred as a knight.
According to what it told Yogiri, it seems that the trial had been accomplished when they had reached the 1st floor of the tower.
And, it seems that those who had fulfilled the trial were qualified to be a knight of the Sword Saint.¹
“It was very much like murder! It wasn’t simply just a gathering of people……” (Tomochika)
Tomochika felt
felt that she knew that there were adequate gains from the trials for now.
“But, how did she know that?” (Tomochika)
They had stopped by the tower in the canyon by chance, and he had recently become a knight by mistake there.
Tomochika thought that there wasn’t any way for Celestina, who was in a distant city, to know about it.
“Concierge magic?” (Yogiri)
“So, a concierge is too all-purpose!?” (Tomochika)
Tomochika thought it was the same as the remark she let it end with.
Yogiri read the next part of the letter.
The main part was a report about the assets they had invested.
It roughly said that it seems to have almost doubled.
“Doubling……in such a short time?” (Tomochika)
“That’s rather strange. According to this report, it has been 2 weeks.” (Yogiri)
“Huh? But it shouldn’t be that much if only that much time has passed?” (Tomochika)
『That’s it. It seems like the flow of time was different for other places because of the influence of the barrier that was surrounding the tower.』(Mokomoko)
Then, Mokomoko butted in.
“Was there such a thing where what the barrier surrounded had its time slowed down?” (Yogiri)
“Well, even if you say it is the barrier or something like magic, I feel like it’s pointless to think about any more than that already……but I am sure that one month has passed!” (Tomochika)
Immediately after being summoned, Tomochika recalled that she was told to become a sage in a month by the sage Shion.
“Therefore, there’s no use in trying to hurry unreasonably. Even now, we are going as fast as possible.” (Yogiri)
Yogiri finished reading the letter and started playing the game again.
It seems that he wanted to challenge the fighting game once more.
“Although I remember playing the fighting game like that, Dannoursan
that, Dannoursan is a fairly brutal fighter, aren’t you?” (Yogiri)
“A sudden and harsh complaint!?” (Tomochika)
“Hey, you finished off the doll. I only played a little bit.” (Yogiri)
“Yup. Even so, I don’t want Takatou-kun to say it!” (Tomochika)
“But, even I am not able to put my fingers in people’s eyes?” (Yogiri)
Definitely, the technique of putting your finger into your enemy’s eye sockets, grabbing them, and slamming someone’s head against the floor is indescribably brutal.
『Well, it’s a common story. The avoidance of murder is instinctual. In melee combat, the sense of avoidance is at the maximum. An ordinary person isn’t able to thrust their fingers into someone’s eyes!』(Mokomoko)
“No, even I’m not able to do it, it’s because I chanted something like a spell!” (Tomochika)
There existed a technique to restrain the instinct of avoiding murder in the Dannourstyle, and the chant was what accomplished that.
Tomochika had chanted it before the previous fight.
『That is the opposite. Dannoura blood possesses a trait for attacking, and this is training for the sake of removing your opposing mentality of casual murder. Everyday life has come to us as brutality being the normal thing. Therefore, we sealed it due to suggestion!』(Mokomoko)
“What kind of training is that?” (Yogiri)
Yogiri heard it and appeared to be interested.
『Hou~, are you interested? Do you want to kill like you are inhaling a breath, boy? 』(Mokomoko)
“I didn’t say a person like a psychopath. I have never directly done it by hand because I didn’t feel like doing so.” (Yogiri)
Yogiri’s ability was surely detached from the feeling of death.
His actual feeling of slaughtering would become thin.
『Hmph. It’s a standard to train to use it on people. Although there is a limit, it is reasonably effective. 』(Mokomoko)
“Is that so. So, that so. So, anyone will be able to do it if they complete such a thing?” (Yogiri)
『It is also a standard to kill cats and dogs. A certain faction was imprisoned in a room while starving for four days with a savage cat, they weren’t able to do it without taking a blow to their mind.』(Mokomoko)²
“No no no, I can’t learn to do such a thing! Because I love cats and dogs! My soul is overflowing with protecting animals!” (Tomochika)
『Well, it’s hard to say that it is common now. Dannouras kill pigs and cows now. We were able to raise death penalty criminals a little while ago; they were killing as much as they wanted to for freedom even further before, but it has become quite difficult in the recent years.』(Mokomoko)
“Wait a minute! Did you study that!?” (Tomochika)
She certainly remembered that.
They would shoot through the heads of edible animals with a bow and arrow.
However, Tomochika had thought the cows and pigs were food.
『What did you think it was? Have you learned to sense the reaction of taking lives every day?』(Mokomoko)
“I thought it was education about a good diet……my mother had mercy, she was saying to kill it without bitterness……” (Tomochika)
Tomochika was dumbfounded.
She hadn’t even thought in the slightest that it was such a thing.
“Ah! So that’s why didn’t you have a rejecting response when seeing a bloody corpse……” (Yogiri)
Yogiri was unusually admiring her.
She was troubled on how to understand such a thing, but Tomochika didn’t think of a good excuse for it.
Translator’s Notes
¹ – Go ahead Rick, try to give Yogiri an order and boss him around. I’m sure it will end well….for us that is…
² – *slowly hides my cat behind my back*