Volume 3 / Chapter 2 / New Language Barriers
The tavern was noisy, but more noisier than usual. The bartender couldn't really blame them, especially if the rumors from the capital had been true. There was a part of him that didn't want to believe such things, but it was obvious he was merely wishing for whatever seemed convenient for him. He worked his way up the ladder in order to open up this tavern on his own terms, but for the world to have such a bleak future ahead of it, he couldn't help himself in thinking that all his efforts were in vain.
Even so, it was his role to let the people drink until the end of days came. If they could enjoy their time under his roof until the day where the bitter goodbyes must be abruptly sent, he wouldn't mind it too much. It simply put a dampen on the mood, knowing that he was probably the only sober guy left in the tavern. Everyone else wanted to drink their own sorrows and fears away, all while he waited for the rumors to confirm themselves into his reality.
As he took his eyes off of one customer, it seemed like a new one would come in. Though, it wasn't anyone he was familiar with. Usually, his customers were mainly folks that were from the town, so he had many chances to know their faces, their names, and sometimes, even their stories. It was easy for the bartender to know if a traveller, whether merchant or adventurer, had arrived.
From the looks of it, it seemed to be the latter from how he was dressed. An extravagant set of armour, fitted with high quality metals and an eye-catching red cape trailing behind him. It looked a bit too much like he was showing off, but the battle damage on his armor suggested it wasn't for show.
Nevertheless, he looked too much like a noble. From his blonde-hair tied back in a ponytail, his skin, which looked to not have experienced a lengthy duration of his assumed occupation, and his ambience that made his smiles seem so natural, the bartender would have no trouble in thinking such things if he wore proper clothing. It wasn't unheard of that nobles would sometimes become adventurers, but they didn't come around these parts very often.
His spear looked very valuable as well.
That, and his handsome looks. Even as a person of the same gender, the bartender couldn't deny that.
Wherever he may hail from, he was a customer and as such, it is his duty to serve his drinks with the utmost care. The man sat down at the bar, noticing that he was being stared at, and gave a brief smile at the bartender.
"What will it be for today?"
"I'm feeling peckish for something. Anything, really."
"Are there any preferences?"
"Nothing too hard for me. I still have to meet up with my party members after this and I don't really want to show up too drunk or anything. Other than that, feel free to surprise me."
"Certainly. Right away."
The bartender went to work immediately. Without a moment of hesitation, he worked on the man's drink out of pure muscle memory. The Alcor Vigor was something of his own prized creation, brewing from a variety of ingredients he could get his hands on rather easily. In recent times though, it was foreseen to be more difficult to get the ingredients in the future, if not then for a higher price.
Even then, it was still one of his beloved drinks to make for people and whenever someone came by with such a vague order as letting the bartender decide for them, he would always recommend the Alcor Vigor. Though the taste might not have been for anyone, the bartender did have a sixth sense for these types of stuff. He knew what it tasted like and from how he perceived his customers, he could just tell if they were going to enjoy it or not.
With a shaken combination of ingredients poured into a mug filled with ice, he pushed it over to the adventurer. He glanced at the concoction and held it before his lips, taking a gentle sip before a regular one. With a smile, he nodded before placing it back on the table.
"It's pretty good."
"I appreciate the compliments."
"Is it usually this rowdy here?"
"At night, it would be, but we're in the middle of the day. To see this many people drunk at this time of the hours, it's evident to see this irregularity."
"I'm not wrong in assuming it's not concerning some type of festivity around these parts, right?"
"You would be right. It's just something that's on everyone's mind as of the moment. Haven't you heard the rumors yet?"
"Rumors? Well, I'm not from around these parts, so anything local, I wouldn't know."
"It's not a local thing, but I'm surprised that an adventurer like you hadn't heard about it yet. Were you coming from the capital?"
"No, I was on my way back to the place to finish up the documents for the request me and my party members were doing."
"Ah, so that would probably explain it. I won't mind telling you then."
The bartender sighed heavily as he looked over to an assistant of his, bringing in a tray of mugs. She, as well, were starting to feel the effects of the rumors, trudging around unlike her usual self. He grabbed it over the counter and started washing them for the next customers to use, all while keeping his voice directed to the adventurer.
"Surely, you've heard about the waves of destruction, right? I heard it managed to destroy a village near a coast within Melromarc's border, not to mention that it might be happening all over the world. The king managed to summon the Cardinal Heroes to our land, but something must have gone wrong. Not only have the heroes turned their backs on us, they've escaped the capital and they're roaming right now. They say that the heroes are convicted of crimes against the country."
"Oh, that's really terrible."
"I, for one, don't really want to think about it, but it's something that should be kept at the back of everyone's mind. The world may be coming to an end, without heroes to save us from the waves of destruction. We can only pray that a miracle happens to save us, but from how the prophecies are going, it's not looking too good."
"Yeah, and I heard that only the Cardinal Heroes can fight back the waves given the circumstances. I guess people can try to fight it off themselves, but I guess people think it's inevitable."
"And that's why people are drinking out of their minds right now. It's good for business, but what good is business if you don't have a future to spend your profits on?" A solemn sigh escaped his breath. "I'm just serving as a regular old bartender until the end hits us. I wonder how much longer I can take this, watching the old regulars fall to their despair."
"Hmm. I'll keep that in mind, but you know? Maybe people are getting the wrong idea. Assumptions are made all the time, especially whenever they aren't sure of anything. Instead of thinking reasonably, they let the fear do the talking. Ah, but what would I know? I'm scared of a few things in my life, so what's another one to add to the list?"
The man took another sip of his drink and spent some more time talking to the other patrons of the tavern. He must have been asking more about the rumors and when all was said and done, he started to prepare his departure. From his pocket, he pulled out a few coins for the empty glass.
"How much was it?"
"2 silvers."
"Alright, here you go."
He placed the coins on the table, but as the bartender counted them up, he raised his eyebrow. "Sir, it seems like you've overpaid. You've provided 3 silvers."
"2 silvers for the drink. 1 silver as a tip."
"If that's the case, I appreciate the thoughtfulness."
"No, I should be thanking you. I just needed to get some confirmation on some things here, that's all. Seems like this was the perfect place." Before the bartender could question what he meant by that, the adventurer was already departing. He left the Alcor Vigor half finished and while he didn't mind people wasting some of the drinks, the bartender felt like this interaction was a bit odd. "Oh, and by the way. You should add some sort of citrus flavour to it. It might enhance the taste a bit more, but have a slice of the fruit along the edge. It might be the kick that needs to be absolutely amazing."
The person smiled softly.
"Maybe a slice of lime would do."
"Oh, the Alcor Vigor was not good enough?" In honesty, he was slightly defeated by the thought that his guess was wrong. "My apologies then."
"No, I'm not saying that, but just because the future might be bleak, it doesn't mean you have to stop trying to grow, right? It's really good, but it could always be better. Up until the bitter end, as they say. I'll be taking my leave now, so thanks again."
The bartender glanced at the empty Alcor Vigor as the strange adventurer departed the tavern. He almost made a small chuckle, just staring at how the condensation had dripped from the glass mug. He never really thought about improving the Alcor Vigor before, but now that the adventurer mentioned it, a citrus flavour might be the thing to induce it to new heights.
"Up until the bitter end, huh?" He grabbed the mug from the bar and washed it up, all to leave it for the next customer. "So there are people that have some semblance of hope after all. Even in hearing such terrible rumors, he still kept his head high and his attitude intact. Maybe I should do the same."
However, there was still something that the bartender did not know. Maybe the world was bigger than he knew about it, or perhaps it was a noble thing, but it did leave some confusion on his hands.
What exactly was… a lime?
-/IV/-
"You sure took your time. Were you chatting it up with a few girls in the tavern as well? Did you even remember the reason why you walked in?"
"Eh, you worry too much. I got what I needed."
"Oh, guess why I have to worry in the first place?"
Motoyasu chuckled as he left the tavern, only to have Ren casually call out to him. Apparently, Ren wasn't a big fan of coming in alongside with his older friend, but considering that this world held some semblance of medieval fantasy, there shouldn't have been any hard age restrictions. Even so, Ren kept himself against the tavern's building with crossed arms, loitering around to wait for Motoyasu to come back out.
The others weren't around. When they arrived in this town, they decided to split off in order to gather more information concerning the reputation of the Cardinal Heroes and their possible rumors. Ren ended up tagging along by Motoyasu's side, leaving the others to split themselves up into two groups to how they desired. Itsuki went along with Eclair while Raphtalia stayed with Naofumi.
Motoyasu had to be honest. He was baffled by the fact Ren wanted to come along to the tavern, despite refusing to step one foot inside. With the wonders of what Ren could be thinking, it was probably to drag him out if he ever took too long. He didn't think himself as irresponsible and unfocused, but Ren's perception of him apparently was.
It didn't bother him too much.
"Anything new you found out?" Ren asked, getting straight to business. He started walking over to a more deserted area of the street as Motoyasu walked by his side. "Seems like it's the main topic of some of the people here, from the few conversations I managed to overhear while standing here."
"You didn't think to approach them for more details?"
"You don't think that would have been suspicious?"
"I mean, I did just that in the tavern," Motoyasu answered, pointing a thumb back where they came from." People don't usually think about the worst case scenario all the time. If you just feign ignorance, people will just tell you, thinking you're simply curious about it. Easy as that!"
"Easy for you to say," Ren grumbled.
"Anyways, it doesn't seem like there's anything new for us to learn. All I was able to do was get some confirmations on our assumptions. Rumors are spreading that we've been declared as criminals by the king for the crimes committed against the castle. The Church has been using this opportunity to claim that the Sword Hero, the Bow Hero, and the Spear Hero as mere fakers, brought alongside the Shield Demon."
"It won't be long until security gets tighter around these towns," Ren concluded. "So far, the majority of people haven't realized that it's the reality they're living in, treating it more like an absurd rumor that gets passed along. That's the type of ambience I was getting from the people on the streets, going about their day and talking about the accursed Cardinal Demons like it was another topic in their normal lives."
"Yeah, there were more rumors saying how the capital has already dispatched many knights outwards to look for any clues for them, but they could only cover so much area. I guess we're lucky that the knights' numbers are a bit thinner here, but I guess that means we can't stay around in a single town for too long. All we have to do is worry whether or not the local guards are going to take it seriously yet."
"You couldn't find anything else that might help us out?"
"Well, what were you expecting from a tavern?"
"Not much, but I wouldn't mind being surprised. Confirming some assumptions is already more than what I was expecting when you decided to waddle in like that."
"What part of me walking made you call it a waddle!?" Motoyasu's voice was a little loud, but he ended up laughing, despite Ren not trying to make a joke there. "And also, don't underestimate the influences of taverns. In Emerald Online, it was taverns and adventurer's guild where many people come to relax and talk about things that are ongoing in the game's world like special events. I'm surprised Brave Star Online didn't have a place like that."
"... I, uhm, think they did?"
Considering the fact that Ren was reluctant to enter in the first place, something told Motoyasu that even if Brave Star Online did have a similar community hotspot location, he wouldn't have been coming around there often. Didn't Itsuki off-handedly mention that Ren plays solo the majority of the time too? He supposed everyone enjoys games differently from one another, so he shouldn't really say anything more about that.
"N-No, that's besides the point," Ren said, shaking his head. "Anyways, I'll keep that in mind for whenever we need to collect more information in the future. I'm guessing that Naofumi and the others wouldn't come up with anything too revealing to our situation."
"Well, it wouldn't be too bad to keep our ears opened for a little bit longer."
Motoyasu walked by Ren in silence for a bit more time. It wasn't as if he wanted to let the conversation stop there since he wanted to check up on Ren's mentality for himself, but it felt like Ren wanted to say something every moment. He simply kept faltering and when they made eye contact, Ren would glance away, trying to pretend it was natural.
After happening a few times, Motoyasu decided to take the lead.
"Got something you want to say, Ren?"
Ren rubbed the back of his head, slowing down his pace. "Uhm, I've been wanting to say this for a while, but…" His face turned a bit red, trying to hide it by turning his flustered face away. "S-Sorry about what happened at the castle."
"Oh, that old thing?" Motoyasu enthusiastically threw his arm over his friend's shoulder. "Water under the bridge! I'm just glad you came back around!"
"M-Motoyasu, what are you—!?" Ren struggled instinctively from the physical contact, but his grip was too tight for Ren to simply slip out of.
"I'm not going to let you slip away again like that." Motoyasu's voice turned somewhat somber and serious. "Naofumi won't, and I'm absolutely certain that Itsuki won't either. Friends make up and let bygones be bygones. All that counts is what happens from here on out."
Ren stood still and silent, letting Motoyasu a few moments to chuckle at the friend's attitude. The fact that Motoyasu could control his emotions to such a precise degree had been incredible. All Ren really knew how to do to his emotions was to hide them away, then act cold as its defensive mechanism.
"But I completely beat the crap out of you."
And yet, Motoyasu's emotions could still be influenced by sudden remarks like that.
"Like, it was so one-sided that when I broke out, I started to feel bad for you immediately!"
"Could you not say it so seriously like it was going to be obvious from the start!?" Motoyasu released his arm from Ren while wincing from the verbal attack, laughing through awkwardness. "Look, there was only so much I could have done against someone like you. For what it's worth, I think I did a pretty good job."
"Well, you hung on enough for Naofumi and Itsuki to arrive, but at the moment, it was completely unplanned. You just got lucky."
"I-I know I did, but you don't have to remind me! I needed to hang on as long as possible," Motoyasu sighed, scratching his head. "I was surely not going to give up on my friend like that, even if he was smashing me into the ground."
"Oh, I did much more than smash you into the ground."
"CAN WE MOVE ON ALREADY, PLEASE?"
"Yeah, anyways." Ren looked away again. "That's what I wanted to say. Sorry."
Motoyasu's eyebrow raised with a realization. "Hold on a moment." A playful smirk came up along his face. "Was that the whole reason why you wanted to tag along with me?"
"Ugh, why can't you just shut up and take my apology!?"
Even the brooding Ren Amaki has his times when he could make quite the embarrassed face. There was no doubting his imagination while his friend tried his best to move away from that topic in conversation and in physical reactions. In other words, he sped up in order to give himself the space to recollect himself.
Motoyasu laughed as he shouted out for Ren to wait up.
The group was supposed to meet back up at the local inn where they got two rooms, one for the guys and one for the girls using whatever money they had left. Although it was still a decent sum when the heroes piled it together, most of their sources were locked away from them. Requests from the adventurer's guild would endanger their identities and it wasn't as if the king was going to provide them with more money if needed.
As they talked about that between themselves down the road, Motoyasu raised a question.
"Can't we just sell our stuff in order to make money?"
"Yeah, but what exactly can we sell? I was thinking about materials, but we really need those for our strengthening methods, right?"
"So we have to strike a perfect balance between selling our stuff and using them for enhancing our weapons. Easier said than done though."
"Yeah. The four of us split the materials in between ourselves, added with twelve different methods that use up materials. That's a chunky amount."
"They don't all use materials, but my problem lies in the fact in the process of some of the methods. Some of the strengthening methods have a chance of failing too, so we won't be getting stronger by much if we go through that method. We can actually get weaker."
"And materials sell for pretty low in small quantities, while we don't get much of the good stuff when materials are converted into weapon energy. We might have to forgo most of it and just focus on your strengthening methods for now."
"Well, I literally can't think of a scenario where we would have to spend more money than what's needed, but I suppose it'll be good emergency funds for when we'll need it. But then there's the fact that us four don't even receive experience points when fighting alongside each other. That alone is going to be problematic."
Ren grumbled. Out of any system that he was up against, this one had been the worst one ever. No matter what they decide to do, they would always end up with an efficiency problem.
If they fight together as a team, materials would be easier to come across and they can work on the strengthening methods in the process. However, they lose experience points, aside from Eclair and Raphtalia. Adversely, if they send themselves to opposite directions to level up, it becomes more difficult to grab materials by themselves, while also putting danger among the lone hero.
Personally, Ren wasn't bothered by that, but he was certain that Naofumi and Itsuki might have issues with that due to her weapon. They couldn't figure out a good system yet, but the temporary solution was to stay in a town and have somebody head out based on a rotation. Of course, Raphtalia would be paired with Naofumi for damage, and Eclair would go with Itsuki to provide him a frontline.
"You would think we would figure something out by now."
"There's no need to fret over small stuff, Ren."
"... I genuinely don't think this is something small."
"Well, that's not what I meant," Motoyasu said, laughing it off. "What I was trying to say is, we can tackle this one step at a time. We got something in motion, so there's no real need to worry much about it. Until an idea strikes us from left field, I say we need to focus on getting a grip on our new lives."
"Yeah, as heroes turned to criminal fugitives to the country. Just the way I like it," Ren groaned sarcastically. "Anyways, where did Naofumi say that he would be heading?"
"I think they were going to investigate a few stores and see what's been stirring up in there."
"I know we said to wait for him, but I think we got what we were looking for, at least for now. How about we go ahead and look for him? The town's pretty small, so I doubt we'll miss him if he's out on the main streets."
"Yeah, sure. Want to stand guard on the outside while I check indoors?"
"I feel like I'm losing something by answering that question."
Motoyasu chuckled, knowingly teasing his friend like that.
After checking a few stores, Motoyasu noticed Raphtalia through the windows of a bookstore. Beckoning Ren to follow in with him, they headed into the store with chimes ringing for their entrance. Raphtalia had immediately looked over, waving after seeing who came along.
"Ah, are you two done with your side of the investigation?"
"More or less," Ren answered. "I think we got as much as what we can get."
"As much as what I can get," Motoyasu smugly added with a correction.
His response was met with a jab to the gut from Ren. Was it just him, or did that just feel stronger than what he was expecting!? Motoyasu found himself suddenly wincing against a bookshelf for support, as Raphtalia could only wryly laugh at the duo.
"Unfortunately on our side, it appears that Master Naofumi and I could only gather rumors and such." Raphtalia sighed, letting that bother her. "Apologies for that."
"If it's rumors, it's still considered to be information. It's just that we'll have to take it in with a grain of salt."
"A grain of salt?" Raphtalia blinked, looking dumbfounded. "Are we… eating it?"
"That saying doesn't exist here?" Ren scratched his head. "Ah, I guess, I meant to say we have to treat it lightly. Have it in our pockets, but do not fully believe it since they are, after all, just rumors."
"I'm back, Raphtalia and—oh?" Naofumi came from the clerk's counter with a bag in his hand. He was surprised to see his friends here. "What are you guys doing here? Don't tell me we were taking a long time."
"No, we just… wrapped up our information gathering a bit early…" Motoyasu said, struggling to recover. His voice was decreasing in its croak. "We just thought to stop by and see what you two are up to…"
"Huh?" Ren's eyes immediately glanced at the bag. "What did you buy?"
"I presume books."
"Don't make me come back there, Motoyasu."
"I-I'll pass, thanks."
"Well," Naofumi said, holding it up, "I decided it might be worth it if we learned the written language of Melromarc while we're still here. If we head out without the ability to read, we might make more problems along the way. These ones are just some cheap children's books I managed to haggle down for a good price."
"That's a pretty good idea," Ren nodded. "I was thinking about learning the language as well, so I guess that's a good place to start. We can sell the books once we're done with them."
"That's the plan."
"Wait, but are you just going in blindly like that?" Motoyasu asked. However, he pulled back on the question quickly. "Oh, wait. Raphtalia knows how to read, right?"
"Yes, my parents taught me a fair amount, but it only amounts to the basics of the language," Raphtalia answered. "I'll be helping out Master Naofumi on learning the language tonight. Although, I wouldn't be able to teach you much outside of that, such as some of the complex terms we saw in the documents we picked up in the castle."
"Ahaha, I wonder if Eclair is still mad at me for that," Motoyasu asaid, amusing himself.
"Perhaps Mister Ren and Mister Motoyasu might want to join?"
"Oh my!" Motoyasu recovered at an incredible rate upon hearing that, holding up a fist before him. "Being taught by quite the lovely lady! You can count me in!"
"The more I spend time with you again, the more I'm starting to feel less apologetic about what happened at the castle," Ren growled. After shooting Motoyasu a dirty look, he sighed and turned to Raphtalia. "Anyways, I'll take you up on that offer as well. Thanks, Raphtalia."
"It'll start after we have dinner," Naofumi mentioned. "I still have to go buy some ingredients for tonight, so hopefully I won't be too long. Go ahead to the inn and we'll talk about what we need to discuss when I get back."
Ren nodded. "You don't need help with shopping?"
Naofumi did consider it, especially because that's how it worked back home. Since Naofumi worked on the meals, his friends would always offer to head the groceries for him. However, he turned them down in thai instance."I need to figure out this world's ingredients beforehand. The seasonings might be similar, but meat and vegetables are somewhat different. I need to know the stuff for myself before being able to send my friends out to do that work for me."
"Alright, then we'll head off."
"See ya later tonight, Naofumi!"
"I'm not going to be gone for that long, Motoyasu," Naofumi laughed. "I'll see everyone back at the inn. Hopefully, we can figure out a bigger picture of our situation there."
The two groups parted ways afterwards; Naofumi and Raphtalia headed further into the marketplace while Ren and Motoyasu went off. Motoyasu decided to hang around in the town until heading back, while Ren decided to get some quick experience in for himself.
Both of them knew that despite what Naofumi said, it was going to take a while. Motoyasu betted an hour, while Ren thought it was going to be two hours at minimum, especially considering Naofumi had the inventory to preserve an ingredient's condition.
Though, they completely forgot about Itsuki. Granted, they did unconsciously assume Itsuki would have joined the little study session, but that hadn't been the main issue that left their mind.
-/IV/-
"I'm not studying."
When the idea came onto Itsuki's plate, he defiantly puffed his cheeks out and turned the other way with arms crossed like a child. "Why are we even learning the language anyways!? We are supposed to be heroes, right? So we should be focusing on getting stronger, so we can protect people from evil! Just because we're considered criminals now, it doesn't mean we don't have to save the innocent from the guilty!"
"I can't believe this slipped my mind," Ren sighed, slamming his forehead on the table. "With everything that's been going on right now, I completely forgot Itsuki hates studying."
Thankfully, the table was already cleared from the bowls and plates that were placed out for dinner as they were finishing up for the night. They were discussing mostly the rumors about the heroes and what they could confirm. It amounted to much overlap, mostly things Motoyasu and Ren had already discovered on their end. However, the conversation then transitioned to what most of the group was doing later tonight, which prompted the invitation being extended to Itsuki.
"I-It's not that I hate it! I just found it… unneeded! Unnecessary! " Itsuki crossed his arms. "That's all! That's all to it!"
"If Ren is the one that says it, it must be true," Naofumi grumbled.
"Oh, no, definitely," Motoyasu nodded. "Ren knows him the best, after all."
"I-I'm telling you, that's not it!" Itsuki's face started to be flustered, slamming his hands on the table while standing up. "B-Besides, if everyone else is already learning the language, there's no reason for me to learn it too! If you guys are going to stay here, I'll just head out to get some experience points!"
"This late at night?" Eclair frowned. "I'd highly advise against that, Sir Itsuki. It becomes more dangerous against monsters once the moon comes up. During travels, it's always recommended to not fight in the darkness if it's not needed."
"I have a bow that can give me night vision for a few minutes! I'll be fine!"
"Doesn't that thing have a lengthy cooldown?" Ren asked.
"Hey, how would you know!?"
"Did you forget I took control of the Holy Bow for a short time?" Ren sighed, addressing his friend and at the same time, taming his stammers. "I was able to see the weapons you had and yes, I did use that night vision ability as well."
"Ugh, crap! I-I mean, never mind! That's besides the point!"
"It would be nice if you studied alongside everyone else, Mister Itsuki." Raphtalia gave Itsuki a gentle smile, trying to include him into the group. She would have felt a little guilty if someone had been left out and all that, as the person that was organizing this and teaching them. "I'm sure it will be fun!"
"No thanks, please! When I became the Bow Hero here, studying was the last thing on my mind!"
"Sir Itsuki, please reconsider. Literacy training is an important subject matter for an individual. Even as a knight, one must be literate if they wish to advance further into the ranks due to the necessity of reports, write-ups and documentation purposes. In other words, you'll certainly find some things easier when you have the ability to read our language."
"I'll just have someone else translate it! It'll be fine!"
Eclair narrowed her eyes in disapproval. "Sir Itsuki… We won't always be right by your side to translate things for you. What if the situation comes to a point where we'll need to split up, leaving you to encounter something you couldn't read?"
"I'll figure it out when I cross that bridge!"
"Miss Eclair, I don't think we can force Sir Itsuki to study if he doesn't want to," she wryly smiled. "Although it would be beneficial, it would be difficult for him to properly learn in that state of mind. I was rather hoping that Mister Itsuki wasn't going to be like this."
Eclair held a hand to her forehead. "How could a Cardinal Hero be so stubborn like this? I was certain that the Cardinal Heroes were supposed to be people of greatness, but here we have a Bow Hero who refuses to learn how to read."
"People of greatness, huh?" Ren glanced around at the table to his friends, then rolled his eyes. For some reason, he wasn't buying that the weapons summoned the right people here, himself included. He merely kept that comment to himself, letting out a heavy sigh in its place.
"I'm not sure how we can convince Itsuki…" Naofumi said, crossing his arms. After a second, he clapped his hands together and slightly bowed to his friend. "Pretty please, Itsuki? With a cherry on top?"
"Absolutely not."
Well, there goes Naofumi's only idea. He could have done something more drastic like not cooking for him until he agrees to study alongside them, but he felt that was a little too heavy on his consciousness for personal comfortability. Itsuki would have looked broken and before long, Naofumi would have given in anyways.
"Well, what else are you going to do?" Motoyasu asked. "Eclair just said that going out to hunt monsters was dangerous, especially if you're heading out by yourself."
"I'll just find something else to do! Easy!"
"Wow, great answer." Ren groaned, mumbling under his breath.
"I can try to make the studying a bit fun," Raphtalia announced, "but in studying with everyone else, that's already plenty of fun, right?"
"You're not budging him on that topic," Ren said, already getting up from the table. "Itsuki's a stubborn bastard when it boils down to it, especially on the weirder things."
"I appreciate the compliment," Itsuki scoffed.
"Is there a reason why you don't like studying, Mister Itsuki?" Raphtalia appeared to be strangely committed to this, despite just saying how they shouldn't be forcing him. Though, trying to continually convince him wasn't really an act of force though.
In actuality, Raphtalia was indebted to Itsuki as well. He was there to accompany Naofumi to the slave trader which resulted in her purchase. It was Itsuki's money that allowed them to afford the slave trader's price and not only that, he showed great sincerity in asking her to help her new master out. To teach him the language, that was the least she could do to return the favour.
"I-It's not that I don't like studying. I can study if I really have to, but I've been telling everyone that I just don't think I need to—!"
"Itsuki's bad at it."
"R-Ren!? Just shut your mouth already!"
Itsuki had already been lunging at Ren, trying to cover his mouth. Naofumi and Motoyasu could only laugh at the dynamic duo synergy that the two childhood friends had been, but Naofumi was worried that they were disrupting the staff here. They were being very loud in trying to fight against each other. Luckily, there hadn't been many patrons around to be annoyed, as if they had booked their own private space for free. In reality, this inn was simply low on clients for the day.
That was one of the reasons why they were openly talking about their collected rumors like this. in the first place, but Eclair seemingly had enough of their bickering and pulled both of them away.
"Why do I need to be acting as a guardian for the Cardinal Heroes?" Both Ren and Itsuki looked away from Eclair, but when she released them, their nonsensical arguing disappeared from its momentum. "If Sir Itsuki is simply bad at studying, that little problem could be resolved with peer studying. This is the best time for you to learn, if anytime at all."
Itsuki grumbled, not giving a clear answer.
"Master Naofumi? Are you good at studying?" Raphtalia asked from the side.
"Me?" Naofumi tilted his head in a ponder. "Erhm, I wouldn't say I'm terrible at it, but I could certainly be much better at doing so. Sometimes, the information just doesn't stick to my head all that well. A textbook reads differently than a novel, after all."
"I suppose textbooks don't necessarily drive the interest of whoever's reading it that much," Raphtalia giggled. "I tried to look at one of those books my father had, but I just couldn't make my way through the first few pages. I always liked the fantastical stories about the Shield Hero that my mother would read to me."
"So even then, I only get some good marks here, some bad marks there when I get tested on them." Raphtalia seemed a bit surprised before Naofumi elaborated a bit further. "Everyone of the Cardinal Heroes was a student attending some type of education before coming here."
"Oh? Was everyone rich?"
"No, education was something that all kids had to go through. I'm guessing it's not the same here. I can imagine that educational institutions are restricted to those that can pay the tuition."
"Yeah," Raphtalia nodded. "That's why my parents usually taught me what basics I needed to know like reading and arithmetic. We lived in a little village, so there weren't any school buildings there to begin with. It took me some time to understand it fully though."
"Ah, so we're in the same boat," Naofumi chuckled.
"Then if you're decent at studying, what about Mister Motoyasu?"
"Oh, me?" Motoyasu turned upon hearing his name. He had been watching the reprimanding scene being given out by Eclair in amusement until then. "I'd say I'm pretty good at it."
"Pretty good is an understatement," Naofumi smirked. "You consistently ace your tests and exams back home. If you consider that to be pretty good, I don't know what perfect would look like." Naofumi blinked at the obvious point that should have been made. "Oh, why don't you give Itsuki some pointers to studying? I'm sure that might help out."
"Well, he has to be on board first and—"
"Sir Itsuki will be attending the lessons."
Eclair returned to the table as she calmly stated that statement with confidence, leaving Itsuki to stand silently as if he was defeated; his eyes kept to the ground as he groaned noises. Ren kept his face away from the others, looking somewhat distressed, while Itsuki's eyes looked slightly red. The trio of Naofumi, Motoyasu, and Raphtalia looked at each other, all thinking the same thing.
What the hell happened when they weren't paying attention?
Only Motoyasu had the bravery to ask.
And Ren's response to that?
"D-Don't worry about it."
Itsuki had already been silent about the whole thing.
In meeting that reaction, they were concerned on whether or not they should really find out or not. With Eclair's chilling stares over to the Bow Hero, perhaps those things were better left to be untold to the innocent ears. There wasn't any need to communicate that to each other; mere awkward glances to the other two were more than enough to convey the messages.
-/IV/-
"So, this is the equivalent of the alphabet. Though, there's more letters here in comparison, so it's not like we can reverse engineer this to make things simpler," Naofumi sighed.
Once they returned to their rooms, Raphtalia had written down the letters for the language used in Melromarc. Apparently, other countries had different languages that they used and even if they had the same base, the culture would have changed up some meanings here and there. So far, they won't need to worry about such nuisances since there were no real plans to get out of Melromarc soon.
Though, it was more like it was going to be very difficult to escape Melromarc, so they should get comfortable while they still can. Raphtalia made copies for the others to look at for themselves, but Itsuki found himself leaning forwards with his hand planted up into his cheek to keep him from falling asleep.
"C'mon, Itsuki. Back straight and head up," Motoyasu said. "If you act tired, you're going to be tired. The best thing you can do is pretend that you want to learn the materials and in doing so, you trick yourself into reading a bit more than what you would normally read."
"It can't be that easy. It isn't that easy to convince myself in the first place," Itsuki complained. As if gravity dragged him down, his face slammed onto the paper. "I don't want to study thisssss! Let me do literally anything else!"
"It's better to get this out of the way as soon as possible. That's how studying works," Motoyasu sighed, a bit perplexed on how severe Itsuki's hatred for this went. "Here, look. Raphtalia said that if we attach these two symbols together, that makes the word "hero". You can even check it out on this book Naofumi got," Motoyasu continued, pulling out the supposed book, "right here. The full term here says "Cardinal Heroes", but we can split up the symbols for different meanings."
"Kill me now. Natural causes can't wait."
As Motoyasu tried to parse what Raphtalia taught him to Itsuki, Naofumi had to glance up from time to time to make sure that the group wasn't getting split apart from something like this. Raphtalia was personally helping him understand since he had some troubles on a few symbols, but both Ren and Motoyasu had been getting the hang of the language relatively quickly.
"You know," Ren said, eyes still on his paper, "I didn't expect Motoyasu to be good at studying." With a pencil in hand, he was even trying to diligently understand the language through writing it out for himself where it wasn't really needed in their context.
To be fair on Motoyasu's credit, Naofumi didn't think Ren was good at studying either. He always thought the friend would always forgo studying in order to play more time on Brave Star Online, but apparently, he always took his notes on a tablet, so he could transfer the notes into the virtual reality plane. Ren could even play Brave Star Online while having those notes out in the game.
For technology to be that amazing, Naofumi knew that he needed to get on that if they ever got back home. He had merely dismissed it because it was an overpriced gaming machine.
"Yeah, I didn't really expect it either when I first learned about it, but it would be difficult to see that a popular student at a university wasn't doing so good in his studying. He would always be the lynchpin of the study groups that he would attend. Have you ever seen what his notebooks look like?"
"I don't think there was ever an justified occasion where I would have even looked."
"If you did, it would surprise you. His notebooks are so detailed and neat, matched with highlighters and diagrams to make things easier on himself. Even his textbooks have an insane amount of sticky notes attached to them. He never really flaunts his studying habits though, so it wouldn't surprise me if you didn't know that."
"Well, I didn't. It really came to me as a surprise."
"Motoyasu is filled with surprises. Like for example, did you know he's really good at sewing too? He's the one that sometimes helps out with the tears in clothing and occasionally, he would even make some clothing on his own time."
"Sewing? That's a bit weird with all that—wait, he made clothes!?"
"He said he got that skill while working at his part time job. It was much cheaper to make clothing to match the trends in his opinion, so he just casually learned to do it."
"That's not something you just casually pick up!"
"You know, wasn't he the one to fix that jacket of yours? He didn't tell you?"
"Wait, seriously? He's the one that sewed up the hole in my jacket that one time!?" Ren turned in surprise, blinking with a drawn blank. His pencil even dropped through his fingers. "I thought I was going crazy! No one told me about it; Motoyasu never asked me for a thank you!"
"Yeah, Motoyasu noticed and quickly worked on it when you left it home. He's actually quite attentive to that kind of stuff. As much as you and Itsuki think of him as a womanizer, he's much more than that. Pay attention to how he pays attention to others sometimes, and you'll be surprised even more."
"Ugh, no thanks. That would actually mean that I would need to give Motoyasu credit for something." Ren shook his head. "I'm not mentally prepared to do something like that."
Naofumi laughed.
"If you get distracted, your momentum for studying will drop, Itsuki!" Motoyasu exclamations were doing their best to drill right through Itsuki's thick skull. "Once you get rolling, it's simple to maintain it. Hey, let's review and have a look at this symbol. What's the closest equivalent to this to our alphabet?"
"I-I don't know… They all look the same to me!"
"If you think back, look at its shape. This is easier because it looks almost like the equivalent version to the letter. So in case, what could it be?"
Itsuki looked dead inside, but with Eclair trying to keep Itsuki conscious on the task right now, he had no real choice except to persist in the learning. He didn't know how much of this he could take; he just wanted to slam his head down and fall asleep.
"Though speaking on appearances, I would have thought Itsuki would have been good at studying. He looks rather prestigious, even while wearing the same uniform as you."
"Are you saying that I don't look studious?"
"Just a bit, if I'll be honest."
"Yeah, I must agree with Master Naofumi," Raphtalia commented. Ren shot her a nasty glare, causing her to wave her hands before him. "N-No, I meant the prior comment, not what you said in response!"
Ren sighed, letting Raphtalia continue. "If I took one good look at Mister Itsuki, he would appear similar to a noble and usually, the majority of them would have no quells in studying whatever subjects they are being treated to learn."
"That's probably knocked into their heads in an early life, but Itsuki didn't really have that same luxury. He never developed a habit of studying and whenever tests came across, he would cram as much as possible before barely passing it the next day or so."
"That's really surprising. Did his parents not try anything to have him study?"
Ren became silent for a bit, as if Naofumi accidentally crossed a topic he shouldn't have mentioned. "In a way," Ren sighed, "I guess you can say that."
Ren looked a bit uncomfortable in saying that, but before Naofumi could even think about it, Ren dismissed the topic all together. "Anyways, we should do what Motoyasu said and stay focused on studying." He picked up his pencil and started copying the symbols onto the blank paper. "Wouldn't want to be drawn out of it, would we?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Hey, Raphtalia? What's the pronunciation of this symbol again?"
"Oh, you say it like…"
The studying session between the heroes went on for about two hours, but Naofumi realized that this was the first time that he had done such a thing with his friends here. Even if they were living together, everyone was at a different education level. Itsuki was a third year in high school, while Ren was a second year. Ren at least had the privilege of having Itsuki help him out; at least, that's what Naofumi had assumed before discovering Itsuki's little quirk.
On the other hand, Motoyasu and Naofumi were attending the same university, but since their programs had been different, they didn't attend the same classes. They did occasionally have the same electives, but some of the classes were easy enough that full study sessions weren't needed.
It wasn't as if he never attended study sessions before. He had a few friends from university that he would occasionally meet up with in order to tackle the new material that troubled everyone's head. Going through problems and solving them as a group was great and all; he wasn't taking it for granted, but it hit differently when the study members were his closest friends and apartment roommates.
There was a pleasant feeling in seeing everyone trying to break the code on the language barrier for themselves, helping each other out on the way. Ren would come to ask about a few things that slipped his mind, Naofumi and Raphtalia would help him out. They scratched his back for that and he passed along the favour to make sure the information was getting through Itsuki's head.
The only reason Motoyasu couldn't finish it all was because he was constantly stopping his own study to ensure that Itsuki was caught up. Learning a new language was less about wrapping it around one's head, but instead to basically memorize it, so Naofumi could see how frightening it was. He remembered having a few problems with a second language in high school.
After the two hours, it was clear that this had to be a daily thing in order for them to get down to the basics. No sane person would have been able to understand a different language in a single night and from the rate they were going, Naofumi would guess that it would take about two weeks.
Though, Ren could slowly read through a small part of one of the children's books, which was the most progress anyone in the room had made so far; that progression was followed by Naofumi, then Motoyasu, and lastly…
Yeah, uh, Itsuki had his face planted in the table by the end of the session. It was going to take a bit longer than two weeks for Itsuki at this rate. The friends could only be amused at the suffering of his suffering, as terrible as it would sound out of the context.
"Well, Sir Itsuki made… some progress, I would like to hope." Eclair looked like she wanted to slam her forehead against the table, but as dignity could have it, she avoided the temptation.
"Thank you for helping me out, Miss Eclair," Raphtalia cheered. "Having another person teach them really does lighten the weight. Though, perhaps I should have been the one to be helping Mister Itsuki instead of you?"
"It would be better like this," Eclair sighed. "You have a certain leniency that Sir Itsuki would have abused to delegate his learning."
"Maybe that's true, but maybe not," she responded playfully. "Maybe I should go ahead and help out Mister Itsuki next time and we'll see."
Naofumi laughed a bit. "Yeah, Raphtalia can be really assertive when she puts her mind to it. I wouldn't worry much about it, Eclair. If anything, I'd worry about Itsuki."
Although he was tired, Itsuki could feel his spine shivering for some reason.
"Though, the image of the Cardinal Heroes having a study session like they were classmates at an educational institute…" Eclair crossed her arms, while glancing over to the others. Ren had been trying to get Itsuki into a bed, while Motoyasu was making some stretches from sitting down for a tad too long. "It wouldn't be the first thing I would imagine when someone tells me of the Cardinal Heroes."
"Then you don't really have to think of us as heroes," he responded. "For now, I suppose we're just regular people." Naofumi paused a bit, before double-taking his wording. "No, we were always regular people from the very beginning. In being brought back together outside of the mayhem that happened in the capital, we're probably simply returning back to how we usually act."
"I can't do that. Even if the world considers the Cardinal Heroes to be enemies, I know of the truth. As long as I have this truth, I'll always see the Cardinal Heroes as Cardinal Heroes. You're up against what seems to be the world right now, and I'm willing to serve until that is no longer the case. Not to say that I'll stop once everything is resolved."
"I'm glad to hear that's the case. Thanks for your help, Ec…lair…?"
Naofumi suddenly felt a bit lightheaded as he stumbled on his feet. Raphtalia immediately grabbed him to hold him up, looking concerned over the movement.
"Master Naofumi? What's going on?"
"N-Nothing, I just… I honestly don't know." He held a palm to his forehead, checking himself to see if it would happen again. "For a moment, it felt like my body didn't have any weight to it."
"Naofumi is probably tired," Motoyasu said, keeping it light-hearted. "And just look outside. The stars are already out, bright in the skies. We should probably get some good sleep after a good study session, so that we can soak in the information more easily."
"Yeah, that's probably it," Naofumi nodded, turning to Eclair and Raphtalia. "You two should head over to your room. We'll close up for the night on our side."
"You know, I just noticed there were only three beds here."
Ren's sudden proclamation outwards caused the friends to turn over in confusion. Naofumi was sure to ask for a room with four beds, but it looked like there was a mistake somewhere. He suggested that they should go over to talk with the management of this place to get it sorted out.
"Oh, there were three beds in our room as well," Eclair mentioned.
"Was it possible that they didn't have any rooms with four beds?" Naofumi asked himself aloud. "That would make a bit of sense. People don't usually have four beds in a room in the first place. The most I've seen in a hotel was three, so I guess that rule is consistent here."
"Then we'll just send someone over to sleep with the girls."
Silently and without any changing expression, Ren had his hand on his sword the moment that Motoyasu mentioned that idea, readying to draw it on what he thought his friend was going to say. Something along the lines of "maybe I should head over to keep the girls company", but to his surprise—
"Naofumi, you should head over."
"Huh? Me?"
Ren's hand on the sword released as he continued to help Itsuki out into a bed.
"Yeah, I'll bunker down with Ren and Itsuki here. After all, Raphtalia is already used to having you around, right? I don't think she'll mind if you're the one sleeping in the same room as her."
Naofumi glanced over to Raphtalia, seeing that her face was a bit flustered. He supposed that the way that Motoyasu worded that was a bit suggestive.
"Who knows?" Motoyasu winked. "Maybe Eclair might give you two some alone time."
Okay, that was definitely supposed to be suggestive.
"Alone time? Sir Motoyasu, I don't… understand. I'm supposed to be sleeping in the same room as them, correct?" Alas, the comment from Motoyasu went over Eclair, leaving her to tilt her head. Though, Naofumi thought that was for the better.
"Ah, never mind. Judging from Raphtalia's expression, I'm sure she understood."
"I-It's not… I-I mean, I'm…" Her ears started to aim downwards. "Uhm…" Her stammering trailed to mere murmurs from Motoyasu's words, leaving Naofumi to come to her rescue.
"Oh, come on, Motoyasu. Don't tease Raphtalia like that."
"I do still think it's best that you, out of all of us, to head over."
"Well, I don't think there's any other real choice in the matter."
"Alright, well, that settles it." Motoyasu waved to Naofumi and the girls. "I'll see everyone in the morning."
"Yeah, good night, Motoyasu. Itsuki, Ren."
Everyone said their salutations to one another, leaving Naofumi, Eclair and Raphtalia to head over across the hall to their room. Already being in some light underclothing, Naofumi rolled his shoulders before hopping into his selected bed. Raphtalia took the middle bed and Eclair slept on the opposite end.
With the light turned off, Naofumi was about to drift to sleep until he heard Raphtalia calling from him from her bed softly. Not loud enough to wake Eclair up, but enough to let Naofumi hear her.
"Master Naofumi?"
"Hmm? Is there something you need, Raphtalia?"
"No, I just… I think I'm feeling what Miss Eclair was talking about." Naofumi rolled over to his side to see Raphtalia looking at him. "That the Cardinal Heroes… don't actually feel like heroes, with due respect. When I was a child, I would always envision the heroes to be extraordinary people that we couldn't fathom their greatness. However, seeing everyone act so casually with one another, it reminds me that everyone's just normal people as friends."
"That just means you're one of us already."
Raphtalia's eyes widened in confusion.
"You're part of our group, Raphtalia. So is Eclair. Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu might have been friends I knew before we got summoned here, but that doesn't mean no one else can join our friendship circle. It's not exactly an exclusive thing."
A soft smile came from Raphtalia. "I see."
"Well, we have a lot on our plates to deal with, but that's why if we're together, we have a better chance of getting through it. Hopefully, you'll stick around for that."
"What are you saying, Master Naofumi?" she lightly giggled. "Of course I'll serve you until the end. You saved me, gave me a reason to live, and you're giving me a slice of happiness here. I owe you my entire life and I'll make sure that I can help everyone here."
The way Raphtalia said it, it caused Naofumi to turn red a bit. Luckily, the lights were off, so Raphtalia couldn't see it, but what he didn't know was that Raphtalia was turning red as well. Once she realized that for herself, she nervously turned her head around.
"A-Anyways, have a good night, Master Naofumi."
"Y-Yeah…" Naofumi turned his head as well. "You too, Raphtalia. Sweet dreams."
For her however, everything about this scenario was already feeling like quite the vivid dream that she didn't want to wake up from.
[Author's Notes]
I can't make up my mind as to what type of upload schedule I want.
So I'm going to just return to the "I'll write a new chapter whenever I feel like it" type of deal.
I did want to make a rewrite for the first arc again, but I decided I'll just draft that one up for my own personal preference and never release the final version of that. It'll be easier on my conscious like that.
Also, I retconned the fact that they could gain experience together. They can't anymore, just as the world intended. It's hard mode difficulty for the boys. now
[Edit; I should have probably explained why I did this; anyways, there were two main reasons.]
[The first one, it was the reason of power scaling. When I first drafted up the idea, I thought it would have been cool for the sake of being cool. Now in retrospect, it would have been easy to see that this could easily spiral into letting them get stronger too quickly. Obviously, they're going to fight monsters as much as possible and get stronger much more quickly if they were able to ignore that experience restriction. In allowing the experience restriction to remain, I can control how strong they can become inbetween chapters. And it's much more narratively excited to have the underdogs trump over their enemies in such regard, I guess.]
[The second reason is actually shown a bit during this chapter. If I allow them to be able to level up together, that means there's always little reason for the groups to split off occasionally. Writing conversations between six people is difficult when done over and over again. For me, I personally like keep a maximum cap of four people in a conversation in order to keep focus, rather than be a bit scattered with all the dialogue being thrown from all angles.]