Chapter 5 (1/2)

*Mira’s POV *

Gai and I returned to Ilga Village so Captain Kenan and his group couldrecuperate. Here, would study hard on the basics until we depart towards the capital in two weeks.

「Eh? Didn’t you already promised to teach me magic? 」(Gai)

「You may receive my or the knights’ guidance on the magic I have previously taught you, FacemTorch. However, Globus IgnisFireball is too dangerous, so it’s forbidden.」(Swyn)

Since it would be dangerous if fire attribute magician behaved recklessly, he was made to promise not to use his magic irresponsibly, so even if Gai was hesitant, he couldn’t do anything.

Because it’s mostly n.o.bles that attending the academy, the majority of new students would have already learned the alphabet or history from a tutor. That took priority so that they could follow the lessons, while we were ignorant of our own country since we hardly could read a single letter.

The literacy rate of this world is far lower than j.a.pan. It’s natural, since there is no compulsory education.

The children would succeed their parents’ work. If they didn’t want to become the heir, the male could find new field, or leave village to become craftsman’s apprentice or a Hunter. The female becomes a bride, and their duty is to tie the different families together.

There is no need to know about the country’s history, and if someone never left the village, there will be no problems even if he couldn’t read or calculate. Swyn-san just noticed this truth, after all this time, so he declared the basic studies as priority and we must be studied every day. What a painful thing.

I saw the academy enrollment doc.u.ment that my Papa needed to sign, but of course it wasn’t written in j.a.panese language. Even thought I was able to remember my previous life memories, I don’t have any problem to speak with this country language. Yes. A child’s learning ability is amazing. But, maybe as an adverse effect of remembering my previous life’s memories, it’s hard for me to learn the alphabet.

「What’s wrong with this overly decorated pseudo-alphabet!」(Mira)

I, who had accomplished many things in the past, screamed this inside my mouth.

Fortunately writing this pseudo-alphabet was similar to writing the Latin alphabet so I could somehow learn it, however it was hard for me to read and write it. Where had the child’s learning ability gone to? Dear G.o.d, while you’re at it, I want a language cheat.

j.a.panese was my strong point. I also skilled in j.a.panese cla.s.sical literature. I even could also relatively read Chinese cla.s.sical literature. However, I sucked at English. If I study the grammar, I don’t know the vocabulary. If I memorized the vocabulary then I’ll forget the grammar.

「I certainly never left j.a.pan before.」(Mira)

So I declared, but I strongly remembered my previous life’s memories were full with holes. Far from being abroad, I’m currently in another world; I want to laugh at this.

I could get a perfect mark on j.a.panese history, but if this world’s, then I’m afraid I’ll receive a failing mark.

「The cause of my poor studying must be because of this alphabet’s fault!」(Mira)

I was writing while watching the sample Swyn-san had written before and complaining in a volume no one could heard.

The subjects that I was bad at in my previous life were every subject except for j.a.panese. By the way, how could I, who gets brain freeze every time I took a glimpse at katakana, smoothly learn this country’s alphabet and history? It’s impossible right? I was repeatedly reminded not to be arrogant. However, even so, I need to give it my best,

Math was easy. It was only from what I had see on the doc.u.ment but it seems that they use the Arabic numerals, a decimal system. I spontaneously gave thanks to G.o.d. Thanks to my previous life memories, the basic arithmetic was easy, easy. If it’s addition and subtraction, even if the math involves a large digit number, I could still easily perform mental calculation. So formidable that I think it’s equal to an imaginary abacus. I am completely undoubted. Of course, I’m not serious.

While I was humming with an imaginary abacus, I heard「Mira is strange」from Gai.

Of course, I then performed “punishment time” that was pa.s.sed down to me from my Mama on the rude childhood friend.

And thus, I finished learning this country’s history.

...... however...... But it seems the storm was far from over when the lesson about the foreign countries were mentioned.

✦✧✦✧

Fimeria Kingdom was founded eight hundred years ago. To the north of the continent, the tall Yggurd[1] Mountains stands towering over the surrounding land. On the north slope of the mountains that stretches from southwest Euransia Continent to the northern region was a great sea of trees. It’s called the Demonic Forest where monsters and magic beasts dominate. The Capital City is located south of the Yggurd Mountain.

「Why establish a country in such place! Moreover the Capital City s located between Yggurd Mountain and the plains, it’s too close to the Demonic Forest!」

This is must be what every citizen in this country had thought. If I could do it, I want to press a question to the founder king.

However it looked likes high ranked monsters that were difficult to subjugate, never crossed over the Yggurd Mountains. Since the founding of this nation, this fact didn’t change. They always took a detour and crossed the Kirg[2] Mountains that stretched out in the east of the capital. The main reason is because deep inside Yggurd Mountains, a Demon Lord is sleeping.

「Even for “Kill it with Poison” strategy, this is went too far.」

I think this is the common tsukkomi from the citizens.

In any case, even though the exact location of it was unknown, the aura of Demon Lord leaking out from the seal was so frightening that neither wild beast nor high ranked monster dared to approach. Only low ranked monster that didn’t possess enough intellect to fear crossed over the mountain.

Then, the Euransia Continent’s Eclipse Age’s Demon Lord’s Sealing was a fundamental episode on every nation founding story.

✦✧✦✧

Some 800 years ago, the continent was ruled by one Empire. At that time, the ones living there were not only humans, but also elves, dwarves and various other races, living in coexistence. It seems that even dragons alsolived there. However, during that peaceful age Demon Lord and the Demon Race that served him suddenly appeared. It seemed that they were existences that were created by cruel experiment by the emperor who had lost his mind.

Swyn-san didn’t talk about the experiments in detail. When asked, he ambiguously answered「When you’ve become adult then you will know about it.」It must be something dreadful, I guess.

The emperor was slaughtered by the Demon Race and the Empire collapsed, the animals that were influenced by polluted magic power transformed into magic beast one by another, the continent was transformed into a world of destruction and cruelty. The Demon Race gleefully killed humans, torched cities, and made humans killed each other like a game. That was maybe their revenge on the humans.

The humans were trembling in fear, they pa.s.sed their days while praying that the Demon Race didn’t set their eyes on them and tried to escape. The one, who save this world, were Fraluca Fimeria-sama[3], who later becomes the Fimeria Kingdom Founding Queen, and a Hero-sama who had been chosen by the Spirit King.

「Oow! Hero! Then that means Fimeria is a country that was founded by a hero? It often happens in fairytales, that the hero will marry the queen.」(Gai)

「No, Fraluca-sama was engaged to her childhood friend and married him.」(Swyn)

「Childhood friend?」(Gai)

Gai steal a glance at me.

「What?」(Mira)

Why you seeing me like that? With my physical strength it’s impossible to fight like Hero-sama, you know? But if there is a “Anywhere Door”[4], then maybe I could sometimes perform a Grand Magic on the battlefield and hit the enemy hard.

「No, nothing important」(Gai)[5]

Gai is strange.

Swyn-san was also a bit strange. Seeing us and smiling with an unclear intention. But when our eyes met, he cleared his throat and returned to lecture.

Fraluca-sama made a contract with Earth Spirit King, she was an existence that can be called as Miko[6], with her fiancée Thor-sama[7], they helped the Hero.

They wander around the continent and gained the support from 6 other magicians from the Empire’s feudal lords and their relatives ―― they’re the founders of the royal family of every nation today ――, to slaughter the Demon Race, defeat the Giants who boasted their strength, and saved the people. Finally, Fraluca-sama and Thor-sama accompanied Hero-sama and confronted the Demon Lord. In exchange of Hero-sama’s life the Demon Lord was sealed under Yggurd Mountain.

Although the magic beasts still remained behind, peace had more or less returned. However, there only humans remained. When Demon Lord first appeared, its race was uncertain, so there were rumors floating around that time were that the Demon Lord came from the Elves, who well-versed in Magic and hated humans, and so they were persecuted.

「Moreover, other races showed their disapproval and created a divide between the races. For that reason, there is an accepted theory that after the Demon Lord had been sealed, being disgusted with humans and feeling the danger, the other races migrated to Yggurd Mountain.」(Swyn)

「Is there any proof that they didn’t get destroyed by humans?」(Mira)

Hearing my question, Swyn-san made a bitter smile.

「The proof of that was the existence of their specialty goods like swords or fruit wine, or cloth fabrics. They aren’t that abundant like in the olden days, but even so, these goods can still be found circulating in the market. Though in post Eclipse Age they’re more expensive, however, strangely they never run out of stock.」(Swyn)

「Never run out of stock? But if you drink the alcohol it will be consumed up, right?」(Gai)

「So is the cloth. It is used to make clothes, so in time there will be none to wear, right?」(Mira)

「That’s right. However whenever the fruit wine and cloth stock diminished and the price begins to rise, a man, who called himself “the Middle Man”, will sell them wholesale to the market cheaply. Of course, although the merchants were asking him where he got his stock from, he dodged those inquiries evasively. Even when they tailed him, he shook them off.」(Swyn)

Yeah. What a mysterious person.

By the way Swyn-san had said that the merchants tried to follow him; however are they really only doing just that?

After all, those were rare specialty goods, right? That man may have sold it wholesale cheaply, but it’s hard to imagine that there aren’t any merchants who didn’t want to sell it in high price. For those people, the man, who’s selling wholesale and monopolizing the goods, is an eyesore. They want to get information about the supplier somehow. There even would be some shady people who will try to use underhanded methods.

「As expected, the majority of dwarf forged equipments that are circulating in the market originated as goods that was sold by the previous owner, but once in a blue moon new equipments appeared in the market. It wasn’t antique excavated goods either, since there is no chips in them, but an authentic recently created good. When they do appear, a large amount of money would move.」(Swyn)

「That’s why it was said they must be hidden somewhere, right?」(Mira)

「Yes. The one place where humans don’t dare to tread are places like the Yggurd Mountains. So it’s said that their hidden village is located at that place and that the true ident.i.ty of that man is a dragon.」(Swyn)

「Dragon!? But dragons are HUGE, right?」(Gai)

「They are indeed big. Sometimes, a dragon’s shadow could be seen in the sky of Yggurd Mountain.」(Swyn)

Gai and I looked at Yggurd Mountain’s direction together. Although it could be called as close by, its distance wasn’t something you can reach by walking a day or two. Even so, I know about dragon and their large size.

「Dragon is a race that is skillful with magic, just like the elves. These two races could have taken human appearances that wouldn’t be sensed as out of place.」(Swyn)

As a matter of fact, it seems that the Demon Lord is a dragon. Years before the Emperor was killed, he routinely dispatched dragon subjugation corps, while simultaneously hunting for every magic beast. I was told that the dragons also disappeared after the Demon Lord is sealed.

「In the land where only the Human race exists, the people endeavored for its restoration. That was the beginning of the Hunter Guild. The early members traveled around to eliminate animals that had transformed into magic beasts or purify the contaminated land with the first Guild Master, Thor Fimeria-sama. The King Consort of the Founding Queen. That’s why Hunter’s Guild’s main headquarters is located beside this country’s Royal Castle.」(Swyn)

Thor-sama could use fire attribute purification magic, so it helped a lot during the land restoration. He also went to other countries if he was requested to, and so he was the person who laid the foundation for the current guild system. But it seemed that it caused many problems for governmental affairs as the Queen also followed him.

Perhaps, that person was also a reincarnated person. Since the Hunter’s Guild is similar to an Adventurer’s Guild, its existence signified the clichéd staple of another world, isn’t it? Then, seeing that there is case like me, I can’t say that there aren’t any other reincarnated people that could remember their previous lives. Possibly, the Hero, who defeated the Demon Lord, who was a j.a.panese person summoned to another world.

Whoa, that’s something I don’t want to happen to me. After all, that’s absolutely abduction. If after being granted a skill, I’m ordered to fight and put my life on the line for the country, then I will devote the cheat to the maximum extent in order to escape!

「There is one more thing I want to tell you. It’s about the Continental Meeting Conference that is routinely held even to the present time. Their first agenda was how the newly found nations would divide and rule the continent. It was decided that the seven magicians would rule a part of ruined continent as kings, so they held a conference to discuss about this.」(Swyn)

First, each magician stated the land they wished to rule, but the negotiation fell into a stalemate regarding the former grain producing region. Although it had been desolated by the war with the Demon Race and was a danger zone infested with magic beasts transformed from normal animals, the lands still hold their former fertility. After removing the debris, leveling the gouged land, and plowing it...... it might take time and effort, but that region was attractive. However, the biggest problem was that region was close to the Yggurd Mountains where the Demon Lord is sleeping.

If in the unlikely event, the Demon Lord revived, it would be the first region to be damaged. They wanted the grain producing region, but fear take precedence. In the middle of this, a young girl raised her hand.  Among the seven magicians, she was the youngest. She was an Earth Magician who was singlehandedly responsible for the protection against Demon Race army. She still hadn’t said which land she wanted to govern.

「If no one wants it, then I’ll take it.」(Girl)

At that moment, the others showed their disapproval. Though they’re afraid of the sleeping Demon Lord, they were annoyed about giving it to the young girl. They said 「It’s dangerous」, 「That land is arduous.」, contradicting whatever opinion they had before.

「Many of my relatives have the earth attribute. They are people who hold the concept of “honorable poverty”[8] in esteemed regards. I wonder what kind of state it is in now, but surely it will bring about harvests and could give relieve to the people that are suffering in starvation...」(Girl)

The girl looked around at the bitter faces of the magicians.

「...even if they are the people from other country.」(Girl)

After giving a speech that implicitly indicate food export, the other magicians entrusted that land to the girl. That was the origin of Fimeria Kingdom’s Founding Queen.

Some of the magicians schemed to take that land after it had been restored and became prosperous. However, when they heard the Queen’s next words, they gave up.

「If you invade this land, then I don’t know if the sounds of battle would awaken the Demon Lord or not, but I think everyone here doesn’t wish for another Eclipse Age.」(Queen Fraluca Fimeria)

✦✧✦✧

The Founding Queen, Fraluca Fimeria, seemed to have a quite decent personality. Well, she even turned the Demon Lord into a s.h.i.+eld for national defense. Thus her political measures were inherited by the current King Blumcias Yul Fimeria[9].

I read, listen, and write down the national history that sometimes makes me wanted to give a tsukkomi. I was immersed in studies ever since we returned to the village. Even though I was a pet.i.te-hikikomori that loved reading in my previous live, it was indeed tiring.

To study efficiently, rest is also important, so I recited a famous adage. I took a break from my studies and took a walk at the outside.

As I was walking in a path inside the forest near the village, I picked up the edible berries that Earth Spirit had told me. Currently it is Twelfth month. Is it because this land has a mild climate so that I could harvest them now? Or because the fruiting season for this other world is different? I remembered that j.a.pan’s berry season is in early summer.

I washed the berries with spring water, and used leaves as a subst.i.tute for a plate to share it with the Spirits.

「Ah! I found a Rabo fruit」(Gai)

While waiting for me, Gai, who was sitting near the spring, looked up and discovered a fresh fruit, before nimbly climbing the tree. As expected from a feral child. He had reached the branch that bears the fruit with surprising swiftness.

Rabo fruit’s appearance is similar to a cherry[10] but its taste is similar to American cherry[11]. It’s one of my favorite foods. Unlike mint, its name is different from that of my previous life, so I mustn’t carelessly refer it as cherry.

「Gai, be careful, okay?」(Mira)

Although I know that a child has a light body weight, if the branches snap, then he could fall, and, even for Gai, he would be injured

Even if we had learned about body strengthening magic, I think it would be impossible to cast it quickly. Also, we haven’t actually been taught it yet. Although I seem to be able to perform it using my previous life’s manga knowledge, they might surprised that I could use it even though I haven’t been taught it. While I have resolved to use the cheat, I don’t want it to recklessly stand out.

「Don’t worry, don’t worry. Yotto[12].」(Gai)

Ignoring my worries, Gai plucking the fruits and after successfully getting it, he looked around for further fruits to pick and then bended himself forward.

「It’s dangerous. There is berries in here, so for afternoon snack it is enough.」(Mira)

「It will be fine. Mira, you like Rabo fruits, right? If you turn them into jam you can take them to the capital, right?」(Gai)[13]

“Ugh, what a terrible temptation.” Rabo fruit has a sourness mixed inside its sweetness, so it’s delicious. I really like its taste. If it turned into jams, it could be keep for a long time, and I don’t think I could get my hand on a wild Rabo fruit in the capital.

「I’ll drop the Rabo fruits, so catch it.」(Gai)

「Eh? Wait a moment!」(Mira)

Even if you tell me to catch it, I don’t have anything to catch it with, like a hat. Something that can be used is......

Even if I frantically searched, there’s no such thing in this place.

「You can use the skirt right. I’ll drop it right now.」(Gai)

「Rejected!」(Mira)

How could you say that! I don’t wear pants under it you know!

Ignoring my protest, he dropped the Rabo fruit.

「Aaa, mou. Wind Spirit, please.」(Mira)

I stretched out both of my hand towards the location where it will drop, and pour out a bit of magic power. Since I think I’ll absolutely bite my tongue, and there is no time to say the chant, only spoke out what I had imagined.

「Wind Container」(Mira)

With making a weak whirling sound, a small whirlwind came out on top of my hands, which caught the fallen fruits and deposited them in the middle of the vortex.

「Mira is really skillful.」(Gai)

Gai who saw my magic from on top of the tree, spoke enviously. When I looked up, he was already was hanging on different branch.

「Just from seeing magic once, you are able to imitate it, put it into use, and control it. Even though you are bad at drawing.」(Gai)

Sorry about that. After all, for me Arts is only 2 dimensions.

「It has nothing to do with that. Since I invoked according to my imagination, actual art skill had no relation with it; most likely. After all for this magic, I used the falling leaves collection by the wind as the reference.」(Mira)

I couldn’t possibly say that it was thanks to anime. But, the benefit of film technology was really amazing

「Ah, so it’s that, huh? I can understand.」(Gai)

This time he dropped the fruits without any warning. Muu, please say something when you do. What will you do if it get crushed by the fall? It would be wasteful.[14] While I was protesting inside of my mind, I safely caught it using wind magic.

「But it’s a secret that I can use magic, okay?」(Mira)

「Why?」(Gai)

I can use magic that haven’t been taught to me. I couldn’t possibly said that you know.

「Swyn-san made me promise right? Since it will dangerous if I use it recklessly, I won’t use it if Swyn-san’s group is not there.」(Mira)

Well since the part about promise was the truth, my mouth smoothly slipped out suitable excuse. I don’t want to be scolded, so it’s a secret. It’s a common promise among the children.

「Is that so? If the penalty is not being given meal, then that’s not something that you want to happen.」(Gai)

Since I’m still growing I don’t want that to happen. Absolutely positively don’t want that.[15]