Three days later, I thought the world was ending.
By the time I was fully awake I found myself doing duck and cover under the workbench in the corner of the shed like I was in an earthquake drill back home.
After a few minutes of waiting for something else to happen, I cautiously peeked out the door, and then went outside when nothing seemed to be on fire.
Through a gap between two townhouses I saw a towering pillar of smoke and dust climbing through the sky outside the city.
"Dammit, again?!" I groaned. Was it too late to send her back to Los Alamos?
—
As it turned out? Yes.
To nobody who'd met her's surprise, Megumin made a splash in the guild that morning when she was recovered enough to move after depleting her entire mana supply on the morning's fireworks.
As I walked in, I saw two members of the Watch dropping her off in front of the Guild with what sounded like some sternly worded warnings about doing extreme landscaping that close to town, and some equally vehement protests that explosions were a sacred rite and they should stop oppressing her beliefs.
Figuring that needed to work itself out, I took the long way around to the board to do some browsing, finding Taylor already there.
"Kobolds?" I asked, seeing what he was looking at.
"Yeah, a farm village a day from here reported a pack. Fancy a trip? Heard you just got back so couldn't blame you for taking it easy," Taylor agreed.
"And to think I used to like dogs," I complained. "Ok, sure! The take wasn't bad from my last one, but the dorm I want to move to wants two months rent up front."
"Oh hey, welcome neighbor!" Keith greeted me with a slap on the back as he joined us. "Grida's, right? I moved there a month or so back. Decent place, but don't dare be late with rent. No mercy!" he shivered.
Keith being basically one step up from Dust most of the time, I'm betting either they'd heard his reputation or he'd pushed one too many times. Either way, good to know!
"Everyone else showing up too?" I asked, meaning 'was Dust sober today?'
"Nah, he's sleeping it off but this might be a new low even for him," Taylor began, arms crossed in grave disapproval. He didn't elaborate, so I followed along as the three of us took our flyer to the counter.
—
Rin met us at the west gate, and then we set off. After waving at the guards on our way out, she turned to me.
"You haven't seen Darkness lately, have you?"
I shrugged. "Not since we turned in our last quest notice. Why?"
"Nothing major, she lives in the boarding house across the street but I hadn't seen her all week. There's no parties listed missing and nobody reported anything so I'm sure she's fine. It just seemed odd."
"Visiting family maybe?" I wondered. I'd thought more than once her gear was way too nice for a newbie to be carrying. Not in a flashy or show off way, she did all that herself, but you could tell by looking at it that it was well made and way more expensive than somebody starting out could afford. "I don't actually know where she's from."
"An estate somewhere, bet on it." Taylor added over his shoulder as he walked ahead. "Her accent's a dead giveaway, even if she wasn't blonde and blue eyed. She wouldn't be the first ex-noble to run off and join up with us cutthroats after her family kicked her out." He shook his head sadly. "Don't bring it up, none of those stories are pretty."
Having met her, I could make a guess. But Taylor was right, nothing in that was any of my business as long as she pulled her weight. Speaking of…
"Eyes on us," I warned the group as we left the plain outside the walls and approached the woods. They were well kept, the citizens had been trimming trees here for firewood for ages and it showed, but every once in a while a pack of something or other got a little too brave or desperate. "I count at least 10 so far, nothing huge in there yet."
"Sounds right. Heard somebody took out those Banes finally so they're probably not bait. And I'd rather not burn down the city's firewood supply if we can help it," he gave Rin a significant look. "Subaru, you're still running an agility tank build, right?"
I nodded, then realized he probably couldn't see me with his visor down. "Yeah, Challenge and Auto Dodge"
"Ok, stay on me for now, but maneuver as much as you need to. I'm going to Decoy them, if that doesn't pull them into the open then try Challenge and make a quick sprint looping closer to the tree line. After that," he shrugged, the plates of his armor rattling slightly "We might have to do this the hard way after all."
Howls immediately met Taylor's skill, an even half dozen burst into the open at the sprint, old, worn out knives and salvaged leather or cloth crudely wrapped around their upper bodies or heads meant these were the desperate kind.
"Snipe!" Keith spoke calmly behind us, while Rin unleashed a wind blade, dropping one each.
Both of our ranged fighters were readying follow up shots when another three kobolds joined the attack, but the delay would cost them.
"CHALLENGE!" I shouted, and raised my fists, bouncing lightly on the balls of my feet as two of them changed course for me. Once the pair was within about 10 meters I stepped back, then darted to Taylor's right trusting my skill's speed and agility boosts to let me keep them from catching me as they cut the corner on my sprint to the right. Darting back a little this time to keep kiting them as they approached again, this time one was a little slow to follow me, leaving a gap between them I was happy to exploit with a lunge to the near one's unarmed off hand side, a snap kick to the neck dropping it in it's tracks. If they'd stayed together I would've just kept kiting them around, but that was too good an opportunity to pass up.
The other continued the charge, and with the follow through from the kick I was in position for it, but Keith got it before it through the throat first, having finished off the main group.
"Nice!" I gave him a thumbs up sign, which fortunately meant what it did at home, and trotted over to confirm the kills.
It's funny what you can get used to. If someone told me a year ago I'd be making a living beating hostile animals to death with my bare hands I might've punched them for calling me a psycho. But here we are.
It was a long road to get there though, maybe even worse for me since starting out I didn't have the distance using magic or even a weapon gave to most people's first kills. I was too sick to eat for over a day after my first quest, everything I looked at reminded me of what I had scraped off my fists.
"We're good!" I called after kicking their weapons away gingerly and a good stomp to check for movement. Low level monsters weren't supposed to be smart enough to do anything like play dead, but it never paid to gamble on this stuff.
—
The apparently daily explosion wake up call was still barely visible outside town when I walked into the guild hall after finishing our sweep and tracking down two more similar sized groups that afternoon with Keith. Rin and Taylor having split off already for parts unknown.
"I figured that was you again this morning, MeguMegu!" I greeted her cheerfully at volume, enjoying her flinch and quick look around to see who heard my latest creation.
"I shall have you cease and desist mutilating my good name," she growled. "Megumin I am, and Megumin I shall always be!"
"Now don't be that way LoliBomber!" I replied with false cheer "Who could blame me for forgetting what you like to be called after being woken up before the roosters for three days running? It's not like anybody would want to sleep in once in a while right?" I moved to ruffle her hair around since she had her hat in her hands, and she drew back with a hiss.
"I confess I am unaware what you called me means, but your infuriating smirk tells me it can only be slanderous!"
"Isn't it only slander if something isn't true?" I replied with mock consideration "As far as I can tell, you're definitely both!"
I was totally ok with continuing this incredibly immature argument, that I was going to win, but as I was answering Keith's baseless accusation that I was turning into some sort of ladykiller with deserved scorn at his bad taste, a new voice interrupted us.
"Subaru Natsuki?" it asked warmly. Turning away from the trio I found an irritatingly handsome blond man in fancy navy blue armor greeting me like an old friend. "Just the man I've been looking for!" he continued as he put an arm around my shoulders.
"Ah.. I'm sorry…I" Getting the good old boy treatment from complete strangers wasn't something I was used to in either life, my NEET instincts were definitely no help at all here as I started to flounder.
"I'll need to borrow him for a minute, gent and lady. Thanks," the man, actually he probably wasn't much older than me now that I looked, steered me towards a table near one wall.
"Have we met?" I finally asked as we threaded our way over, "I'm sure I haven't seen you around…"
"Nope, not even once," he confirmed with a bright smile. So I wasn't dealing with an 'it's me' scam at least. "But you might've heard of me, I'm Kyouya Mitsurugi, Swordmaster and wielder of Gram. Call me Kyouya, Subaru. I've got a proposition for you, but first let me introduce you to everyone!"
We'd arrived at his table to find there were already three people waiting for us.
"These are my party members, Fio here is a thief" he gestured at the shorter and pink haired of the girls, and then the tall blue haired one "Clemea, a warrior. And of course you already know the last one."
Indeed I did, sitting at the table looking even more painfully out of place than I was:
"Hello, Yunyun."
"H-hello," she said softly, staring at the table intently except for a brief look in my direction.
"So, have a seat and order what you like. Then we'll move on to business." He signaled a waitress, who promptly hurried over.
Once she left to put in the orders, Kyouya smiled at the thief. "Take it away, Fio."
Clearing her throat, the thief began her pitch. "As you both know, the army of Demon King in the far north has been increasingly active over the last several years. This is but the latest of many flare ups in the war over the last decades, as they pour out of their strongholds to crush us, or we brave the plains of their heartland to do the same. No attempt in either direction has ever succeeded except temporarily." She paused, sipping from her wine goblet. "I believe we have a way to change that, and break the deadlock once and for all."
None of this was really news to me, even this far out in the sticks word gets around. But breaking more than a century long deadlock? That sounded like a plot hook if I ever heard one.
Seeing she had our undivided attention, Fio went on. "We were in the Crimson Demon Village looking to recruit a wizard for the party, and one of the villagers, Neri…" she paused in embarrassment.
"Nerimaki," Yunyun replied resignedly.
"Yes, thank you. Nerimaki told me an interesting story. Long ago there was a powerful, advanced nation to the northeast of Belzerg, near Arcanretia. It was called the Desrovian Empire, and at its height it produced wonders unequaled today. Among these was the Destroyer that still haunts us even now, and…" she took out a sheet of paper from her satchel, hand copied from a different book it seemed. "The Golden Dragonfly."
On the paper was a rough sketch of what looked like a cross between a helicopter and an airplane if you'd never seen either one in your life. But annotated along the sides of the page was something I'd honestly half expected to never see again. "Design, Type 3, executive personal transport." I breathed, running a finger vertically down the kanji. "But this is just a really rough sketch. Was it ever actually built?"
"This was copied, from a copy itself, so I'm sure the details aren't all exactly right," Fio admitted. "But it existed. Kyouya was in the capitol to receive an award not long afterward, so I decided to pay the Royal Archives a visit on a whim. He was kind enough to ask the princess to allow me entry," She smiled warmly at Kyouya, then blushed and resumed talking hurriedly "so I was able to find several references to a machine that could travel between the Desrovian capital and Belzerg's within hours. It was last seen leaving Belzerg proper not long before the night Desrovia fell."
"S-so, where is it now?" Yunyun asked the obvious next question.
"Not in Belzerg, of course. It would've been found long ago. But while the capital of Desrovia was destroyed overnight, whole countries should take longer than that to die. There would have been other facilities that would've survived some time even without outside support. Which led me to this." She pulled out a heavily marked up map of Belzerg and the surrounding countries, including the known areas of the Demon King's domain.
"The only surviving Desrovian machinery left is the Destroyer. And any clues it holds are basically untouchable behind its barrier. But, if you trace where it's been reported, and it's pretty hard to miss, you see this." Fio ran a finger along the red line beginning in the Desrovian capital, then west through the Demon King's domain before turning south, then east again, then north, each direction seemingly at random through Belzerg, the Demon domain, even Elroad once. Except…
"Every time it's not in a foreign country entirely, it always loops through these old Desrovian military bases or fortresses." Yunyun noted, laser focused on the map. "That explains why the empire collapsed so quickly. Treason?" she asked sharply.
"Maybe, it's hard to know now. But for our purposes, what matters is this here." Kyouya took over and pointed at a spot just outside the ruined capital city. "There's always this little jog off the direct route to this flat, open area without anything marked before it heads into the city proper. And when you figure where airports are usually found I think it's worth looking into. It's the logical place a VIP transport would be right before a big event like activating your new superweapon to join the Grand Expedition."
"'kay," I began after mulling it over for a minute. "I can see it. That's a long, long way though. It's a week's travel past Arcanretia, and that's a long trip from here already. That's a lot of time and coin to lose on a wild goose chase, man."
Fio shrugged. "If it was more accessible somebody would've found it ages ago. As far as I know hardly anybody goes much beyond the old border anymore, it's basically wasteland further in now."
"Desrovia used to mean 'blooms among the stones'" Yunyun explained at my confusion. "I-irrigation works and pumping from underground w-water were the only things making it livable, when those failed after the Destroyer's attacks…"
Yeah, I could guess. Even if the Destroyer never crossed their horizon those people were doomed.
"Alright, I can't speak for Yunyun but I'm game."
"I-I'll go too," she quickly agreed, "I don't know Teleport or Advanced Magic yet though," she admitted, flushing with shame.
"Not a problem, that's still better than no wizard at all," Clemea assured her, not totally successfully judging by Yunyun's strained expression.
"Then I'll make the guild arrangements. Meet back here first thing tomorrow morning so we can sign the quest agreements and get the first coach towards Arcanretia." Kyouya instructed us, then finished his drink and rose to his feet, his party members quickly following his lead. I heard him compliment Fio as they walked away, Clemea pouting at being left out, and frowned to myself.
"Right. I'd say I have some packing to do, but it's not like I own that much." I began. "What I don't get is what I'm doing here. You're the best wizard in town, bringing you along is a great idea," she muttered something about Mini Megs, but I continued on "I know what I said. But what does he think I'm for? Unless it's baggage duty, and a mule is cheaper for that." I laughed. "Maybe smarter too!"
"That….that's really my fault." Yunyun admitted. Seeing my complete confusion, she elaborated. "I think Fio is on to something, enough to be worth the trip. But, I…I want someone on my side for something this big. If it came down to a decision, listen to Fio or believe me, say. Who do you think the others would pick?"
I didn't even have to think about it. "Fio, obviously."
"Exactly. S-so when they asked if I knew anyone to fill out the party and might have some useful skills, I remembered what you said."
"Unless there's a sewing themed puzzle involved in getting this treasure back I'm not sure what they are…" I began, "It's not like I know enough of the astronomy here to navigate with."
She shook her head firmly. "Chris trusted you enough to bring you along with us last time. And you were afraid of me when we m-met, but you were willing to give me a chance and trust me anyway. I-I want you to do that again." She blushed a bit and added, "A-and maybe talk to Kyouya for me too? Whenever I go near him Fio and Clemea's stares really hurt…"
—
The next morning, I arrived outside the guild hall just before opening at the second bell with only one thought in my head.
"Gods and ancestors preserve us, is this chick serious?"
I didn't mention it before, but at the meeting Fio was dressed like most Thief class adventurers, though she went in for more pink in her outfit than most. Of course Kyouya looked like he was on his way to a DragonQuest convention with his heavy, elaborately decorated armor. Meanwhile, Clemea looked like she was at the beach. She was cute enough to pull off, so I wasn't about to complain if she wanted to rock the 'battle bikini' look in town.
On the way to an actual battle…?
Kyouya and Fio didn't bat an eye at her loadout though, the two girls flanking their leader with packs shouldered chatting while they waited for us.
"Morning," I yawned and stretched, trying to cover my staring at Clemea. Judging by the pointed looks, I failed in that. You'd think she'd be used to it.
"I found out there's a wagon route that goes to one of the frontier villages north of Arcanretia yesterday," Kyouya replied to change the subject. "Should save us a day, maybe two." He looked past me and smiled. "Morning, Yunyun."
Maybe he couldn't see it from his angle, but neither of us could miss the coldness in his party mates' eyes as they copied his greeting. For my part I gave a cheerful wave and followed the other three inside.
The guild normally was the one who issued requests and kept track of payments and completion, but they also did custom jobs as well. Basically it involved registering ourselves as the quest giver and staking a fee for the listing that we then immediately accepted.
We could of course have just gone off by ourselves and nobody could have told us no, but there were some advantages that made it worth it. The guild did take a cut of the final value of whatever we found, but it also guaranteed fair distribution of the payment and provided information on the general area we'd otherwise have had to dig up ourselves or pay someone to. They made and kept a legal record of the agreement, which was of course useful for preventing problems later. Finally, they handled distribution of rewards to next of kin or whoever else we wanted our share to go to, rather than just dividing it up with one fewer person involved. Which was nice for strangers working together in preventing 'misunderstandings'.
Kyouya had set the wheels turning yesterday, so we just needed to read over the agreement and sign on the dotted line.
"Five way even split, payable after quest expenses, guild fees, and transport costs are deducted. Beneficiaries are all documented, and listing and escrow paid in full." Tatsuya confirmed, leafing through the documents after we'd all read them to confirm the agreement. "Everything seems to be in order. About three weeks travel time total?" he questioned. Lucky guy, Luna must have gotten the afternoon shift when she'd have to deal with all the cranky, dirty, worn out adventurers coming back for the day.
"Should be," Kyouya confirmed. Until then we couldn't expect anyone to come looking for us, though that far past the old border that was a fantasy anyway.
"I'd normally recommend against going that far, but for a party with a dragon slayer in it I imagine you'll be fine." he cautioned us. "Fortune's favor smile upon you, I'll see you in three weeks."
We thanked him and headed for the front doors, a familiar crowd of adventurers already forming around the board and a few waitresses moving breakfast to a few that wanted a good meal before heading out for the day instead of hard bread and cheese on the road.
Next stop, Arcanretia.
