Mana Z.

Many layers of wide-range sorcery force field stretched around the village, but the most powerful barrier among them was composed of anti-detection sorcery that could only be infiltrated with a certain level of spirit arts training.

The anti-detection effect was considerably weaker against intruders approaching from the air, but the villagers were informed from the moment they entered the barrier’s range. Even Rio, who was flying closer through the sky, would probably be detected soon.

At last, Rio thought sentimentally as he looked upon the giant tree of Dryas, towering near the village.

Roughly two weeks had passed since Rio had departed from the Yagumo region; even though he could fly with spirit arts, it had been a long journey.

As Rio immersed himself deep in thought, a tingling sensation ran through his entire body. He had entered the barrier, meaning the village would undoubtedly be able to sense his presence as an outsider. With the village right before his eyes, it was only a matter of time before someone came flying out at him.

Rio halted in his flight and remained airborne.

Meanwhile, the lavender-haired girl took a look at Hiroaki’s appearance. Her eyes widened. After a pause, the middle-aged man next to the girl murmured something to her. Immediately after, the girl started walking toward Hiroaki with determination. The man followed, as well as two other young-looking knights. Hiroaki braced himself warily.

“U-Umm, my name is Flora. Flora Beltrum. I’m the second princess of the Kingdom of Beltrum. May I ask if you might possibly be... the hero?” she questioned nervously, having stopped at an appropriate distance from Hiroaki. For some reason, he was able to understand her words.

Hiroaki inspected the self-proclaimed princess and cocked his head in suspicion. “Hero...? Me?”

It was fishy, but it somehow matched the current situation perfectly. In fact, it was extremely similar to the prologue of the world-jumping fantasy novel he had read most recently.

“Y-Yes! The Sacred Stone I carry in my custody suddenly began to glow, just before it let out a huge pillar of light. According to the prophecy of the Six Wise Gods, the hero will appear by the Sacred Stone one-thousand years after the Holy Era begins.” Flora explained in a rather rushed way as best she could.

Hiroaki organized his thoughts. “...Ah, wait, hold on a sec. Let’s calm down first, princess. Putting aside the meanings of all those words for now, what you’re saying is that I appeared by the Sacred Stone you carry. That’s why I’m the hero?”

“Y-Yes. That’s why.” Flora nodded.

“I see. Well, this is a fairly cliché situation if I’ve ever seen one. And you can understand Japanese, for some reason. I suppose being on Easy Mode isn’t that bad...” Hiroaki murmured to himself.

“U-Umm.” Flora carefully watched Hiroaki’s face. “May I please ask for your name, great hero?” she inquired.

“...I’m Sakata Hiroaki.” Hiroaki ruffled his hair in a pompous gesture. “Just to clear it up now, Sakata is my family name and Hiroaki is my first name. I’d like to ask you something too. Where am I?”

“This is Marquess Rodan’s territory in the northeast of Beltrum. The consulate of the capital of Rodania.”

“Have you ever heard of these country names: Japan, America, England, France, Germany, or China?”

“Erm, I have not.” Flora shook her head apologetically.

“I see...” Hiroaki sighed a small sigh.

I’ve got an idea of the general picture now, at least... This is what you would call your typical cliché fantasy trip. Judging from the princess’s attitude, there’s no mistaking that the hero is of a similar status to royalty. If so, whether I’m actually the hero or not, would it be better to pretend I’m the hero anyway? While it’d be annoying to be treated as their go-to guy to solve all their problems, I don’t want them to look down on me, and I need more information. If I’m going to negotiate with them, I need to stand above them.

At the very least, Flora was a fair maiden, and it wasn’t bad to be respected as a hero. And so, he braced himself to be able to carry himself with skill and tact.

“So, who’s your friend there?” Hiroaki addressed the middle-aged man standing next to Flora. He appeared to be of a rather high-ranking status.

“Pardon my rudeness. I am the duke, Gustav Huguenot. Due to certain circumstances, I am currently serving as Her Highness Princess Flora’s guardian. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Duke Huguenot pasted a sociable smile on his face and greeted him respectfully. However, his eyes showed no trace of weakness as he carefully observed Hiroaki.

“Got it. For now, I’d like to get a better understanding of the situation. I’m sure you would agree, right? Don’t you think we owe each other some explanations?”

Duke Huguenot nodded agreeably. “Indeed, that is true. Allow me to show you to a place where we can discuss this while seated.”

“Great. Thanks.” Hiroaki headed toward the mansion with Flora and her entourage.

◇◇◇

Several minutes later, Hiroaki was lowering himself into a sofa across from Flora and her group.

“This is George Rodan, the lord of this territory,” Duke Huguenot said.

“An honor to meet you, hero. I am most delighted to welcome the hero of legend into my humble residence.” The middle-aged Marquess Rodan bowed his head at Hiroaki with reverence.

“Yeah, nice to meet you. Are you going to tell me the names of those knights over there, too? They seem pretty young... Even younger than me, and I’m nineteen.” Hiroaki curiously looked at the two knights standing behind Flora.

“They’re our sons. As you can see, they’re in their mid-teens, and have a long way to go. I allowed their presence here, hoping it would be a good lesson for them. Does this displease you?”

“I see... The sons of Huguenot and Rodan. I don’t mind, but... I’d like them to remove their weapons, at least,” Hiroaki warily requested while leaving his own longsword by his side. The two young knights stiffened by a fraction.

“Pardon our rudeness. You two — disarm yourselves,” Duke Huguenot ordered them with a smile.

“Yes, sir.” The two boys nodded uncomfortably, taking their scabbards from their waists.

“I shall take care of those.” A girl in noble clothing approached from the corner of the room and retrieved the two swords.

“Thank you.” The boys greeted the girl with a small bow.

“This is a good opportunity. The three of you, introduce yourselves to the hero,” Duke Huguenot urged.

“...Nice to meet you, hero. I am Stewart Huguenot.”

“...I’m Alphonse Rodan. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The two boys introduced themselves to Hiroaki first in stiff voices, watching him with faintly dubious eyes.

“It is an honor to meet you. My name is Roanna Fontaine. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” The noble girl smiled elegantly as she introduced herself.

Hiroaki widened his eyes, captivated by Roanna’s smile. “Yeah... Nice to meet you. Sorry, but you were standing in a corner, so I didn’t notice you. I cannot allow a lady to remain standing while I sit, though... Won’t you take a seat?”

Roanna shook her head with a troubled expression. “No, I’m...”

“If the hero says to sit down, then take a seat, Roanna,” Duke Huguenot insisted.

“...Thank you very much for your consideration, hero. Then, if you would excuse me.” Roanna lifted her skirt and curtsied, then entrusted Stewart and Alphonse’s swords in her hands to a servant and sat down on the sofa. Hiroaki watched her with a smirk at his lips.

“Now, may we proceed to the main point of our discussion, hero?” Duke Huguenot asked. Hiroaki nodded coolly. “There’s something I’d like to ask first.”

“What might it be? If it’s something we can answer, we shall answer to the best of our ability...”

“What summoned me was that Sacred Stone thing held by Princess Flora, right?” Hiroaki asked, looking at the princess.

“Y-Yes. That’s right!” Flora agreed almost nervously.

“The fact I’ve been summoned means that — naturally — I can go back too, right?”

“Huh? Go back? Umm, that’s...” Hiroaki’s question must have been unexpected, as Flora was rendered speechless. Her reaction was enough to tip off the sensitive hero.

“Oi oi, don’t tell me you summoned me here with no way for me to get back.”

“No, it’s just... Umm... I don’t know...”

“If you don’t know, then doesn’t that make this an abduction? Taking someone away against their will is considered a crime in this world, too, is it not?” Hiroaki pushed without giving Flora time to respond.

“I-I’m sorry. I don’t know the circumstances either, so we’re actually a little troubled by it all...” With her naturally gentle disposition, Flora could do nothing but apologize in return; her side of it had no idea what was going on, either. The Sacred Stone had summoned Hiroaki by itself, so calling it an abduction was a rather extreme way of misunderstanding the situation.

“Ah, it’s not like I’m trying to be mean. It’s just that I’m the one in a bind because of this, you know?” Even Hiroaki seemed to feel ashamed of persecuting a pretty girl like Flora, as he inclined his head guiltily.

“Hero, isn’t your attitude toward Her Highness rather rude? Is this the proper manner of a hero?” Stewart objected with furrowed brows.

“Stewart!” Duke Huguenot called in a stern voice.

“Guh... My deepest apologies,” Stewart said with a vexed expression.

Duke Huguenot bowed his head deeply at Hiroaki. “Please pardon my son’s rudeness, hero.”

“Ah, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not trying to pick a fight or anything. It’s just that I had a life in my original world, too. One that was unfairly taken away from me. I just wanted to make that clear. If you all participated in my abduction, then we should approach this in a logical manner. Even if you suddenly tell me that I’m the hero, there’s not much I can do about it.” Hiroaki shook his head.

“That applies to us, too... And the abduction is a misunderstanding. It looks like there is a need to lay all our cards on the table and discuss things properly. We vow to tell you everything we know at this point in time, hero. Will you lend us an ear?” Duke Huguenot asked with a slightly perplexed look.

“Yeah, that’d be great. Even if you talk about Six Wise Gods and Sacred Stones and heroes, it doesn’t really make sense to me,” Hiroaki said with a relaxed smile.

After that, Duke Huguenot explained various facts to Hiroaki, including their request for the hero’s cooperation.

At that very same moment, Miharu and the others were wandering about the grasslands

Chapter 7: Preparing to Move
A month and a half passed since the shopping trip in Amande. During that time, Miharu, Aki, and Masato had remained shut away inside the rock house, cramming the common tongue of the Strahl region into their heads. Since nothing could proceed if they weren’t able to speak the language, they prioritized learning the language over everything else, beating words and phrases into their heads from morning to night, even during meals.

While there is plenty to be said about the number of hours needed to acquire a foreign language to a conversational standard, Rio’s Japanese guests were able to study the Strahl common tongue for over 400 hours over the span of a month and a half — that culminated to nine hours a day on average. That number became much higher once their own voluntary self-study time during breaks was included.

In the beginning, a lot of the time was spent explaining the grammar structures in Japanese, but as time passed, more emphasis was placed on conversation. The lessons proved to be successful, as the three were able to converse to an optimal degree. As the eldest, Miharu showed the most remarkable improvement — as long as her conversation partner spoke slowly, she was able to reply with halting speech.

On one morning after a month and a half had passed, Rio and Miharu were cooking breakfast in the kitchen and speaking to each other using what Miharu had learned.

“Haruto... can you give... frypan?” she asked Rio in a clumsy Strahl tongue.

“Sure, here you go.”

“Thank you very much. Bacon egg or fried egg... Which do you want today?”

Rio thought for a moment before making his request with a faint smile. “...Let’s see. I want to eat a fried egg today.”

“Understood. Leave it... to me.” Miharu picked up the frying pan and pumped her fists in a cute gesture.

“You can say quite a few things now.”

“It’s all thanks... to Haruto.”

“It’s because you worked hard, Miharu.”

“No... it’s because... you were teaching... constantly.”

“Since the three of you have learned quite a few words at this point, I’m thinking it’s about time we moved from this field.”

“Moved...?”

“Yes,” Rio interrupted, speaking in Japanese. “This conversation is about to get complicated, so I’ll use Japanese now. Staying here like this makes it hard to move around, and that’s ineffective for gathering more information about your friends. There are some trustworthy people I know that we may be able to rely on, but I’ll need to ask them first. The probability is low, but there’s even a chance these people may know something about you guys.”

“I see...”

“If possible, I’d like to ask those people to look after you while I finish some personal errands of my own and gather information. What do you think?”

“Umm... I’m sure you have your own life to concern yourself with, so it’s okay if you put us second. We’ll let you decide what you need to do,” Miharu said apologetically, bowing her head to Rio.

“All right. Then we’ll move closer to Amande today. I’ll have you guys wait there while I pay a visit to my acquaintances. It’ll take roughly two weeks for me to return, so I’ll leave Aishia behind to protect you, and if you need anything during that time you can feel free to go shopping in Amande, too,” Rio said with a slight smile.

He wasn’t shameless enough to suddenly bring Miharu and the others along to the spirit folk village and just leave them there for the spirit folk to look after. The spirit folk had already cut off contact with the outside world, so it was possible that they would refuse, but he would go through all the proper steps to make the request.

“I’m sorry for making you have to consider every little thing. As you’ve been looking after us, I won’t say that we’ll be fine... but I’m sure we’ll somehow manage ourselves, especially with Ai-chan here. So... you can leave the house to us.”

“Okay, thank you.” Rio nodded amicably in an effort to avoid making Miharu worry any more than she already was.

Afterward, they had their breakfast, then moved the house to the middle of a forest on the outskirts of Amande. There had been rumors of people going missing along the western road the last time Rio had gathered information in Amande, so he set up the house near the east side of the city instead.

◇◇◇

The next morning, Rio dressed himself in his Black Wyvern armor and prepared to leave. “All right then, Aishia — I’m leaving everyone to you,” he said in the living room.

Aishia nodded quietly. “Sure.”

While she looked like a fragile young woman, Aishia was actually a humanoid spirit ranked high-class or greater. Since she could use the same level of spirit arts as Rio, there was no one better for the role of a bodyguard.

“I’m going to leave this spirit stone filled with essence with you while I’m gone, so you can use this to replenish your magic essence if anything happens,” Rio said, handing Aishia a pebble-sized emerald green spirit stone that glowed. It was possible to store an enormous amount of essence in a green spirit stone, even one of this size. The Time-Space Cache Rio received from the spirit folk used a stone of a similar size, too.

“...Understood. I tied a temporary path to Miharu just in case, so it’ll be okay,” Aishia said, taking the spirit stone.

“With Miharu... Really?” Rio’s eyes widened, and he looked at Miharu.

“Yes. Apparently, we have quite a large amount of magic essence within us? I don’t really get it, but I told Ai-chan she could use whatever she needed.” Miharu didn’t seem to fully understand it all yet, but nodded firmly anyway.

“...I see. I’m relieved, then.” Rio was interested in how the three of them had a large amount of essence, too, but was glad that that was the case so he didn’t have to worry as much about them.

“Please go safely, Haruto,” Miharu said.

“Yes. You don’t have to see me off from here,” he replied.

“Have a safe trip, Haruto.”

“See you later, Haruto.” Aki and Masato offered their words of parting to Rio as well.

“Thanks. Make sure you two listen to Miharu and Aishia.”

“Ahaha, we know.”

“That’s right! We’re not kids anymore!”

Aki and Masato nodded with strained smiles.

“You’re still a brat, though,” Aki noted.

“And there’s only one year difference between us,” Masato retorted, starting their usual bickering.

Rio watched Aki and Masato get up to their usual antics with a smile. “Looks like you’ll be all right to me. I’ll be going, now,” he said, and turned on his heel. He was relieved to see the youngest of the three showing no signs of worry.

Rio opened the front door and waved back at Miharu and the others, who were waving with all their might. Finally, he looked at Aishia with an entrusting smile, before the door shut.

“The three of you need to study until Haruto returns,” Aishia said.

“Ugh, so we’re doing the same old thing even with Haruto out.” Masato hung his head gloomily.

“We don’t have a choice. If we can’t speak the language, it’s too dangerous to even go outside. You’re the most behind, so work harder,” Aki said with an exasperated expression.

“Fufu. Let’s show Haruto how much we’ve improved when he comes back,” Miharu said with a smile.

◇◇◇

Once Rio stepped outside, he spoke the activation spell to use the Time-Space Cache on his left wrist.

“Dissolvo.”

The air above his hand warped, and a jade green spirit stone appeared. While it was the same color as the Time-Space Cache, its size was larger than the other spirit stone.

“Transilio.”

Rio activated the spirit stone in his hand — the teleportation crystal. The air around Rio and the teleportation crystal instantly started to distort in an exaggerated way, and in the next moment, Rio disappeared. The view in front of Rio’s eyes changed immediately, too.

“Looks like I made it back safely,” Rio murmured to himself.

Gentle rays of sunlight filtered through the trees of the forest scenery spread before him. It was his first time actually using the teleportation crystal, so he was surprised at how the scenery had changed in an instant. Thankfully, it seemed as though he had been able to teleport to the correct coordinates.

The crystal changed from green to turquoise; as the amount of magic essence inside a spirit stone increased, the color changed from colorless to blue. As it continued to increase, the colors changed to turquoise, leaf green, then finally jade green — so quite a large amount of essence was used.

I don’t think I should be that far from the village, but where is this exactly?

Rio put the teleport crystal away into his pocket and smiled at the vaguely familiar scenery. Then, he kicked off from the ground and rose into the air to check his current location, breaking through the canopy and into the skies above the forest.

I’m outside of the residential area... but pretty close to the village — about one or two minutes away by flight. At this distance, they may have detected the distortion in essence from the teleportation sorcery I used.

Someone may have set out to get him already. With that in mind, Rio began to fly toward the residential district visible in the distance at a leisurely pace.

Sure enough, a group of people were waiting in the skies above the village. There were several warriors of the village, with Orphia among them.

“See, it is Rio after all! You came back fairly quickly this time,” she said with a happy smile as she approached.

“Hello, Orphia. I have a little news this time... and a request,” he said somewhat apologetically.

“I see... Then we should hurry to the elders immediately. Follow me — it’s this way.”

Orphia seemed to sense that Rio had an important matter to discuss and began to lead him away without asking any further questions. The villagers around them followed.

“Thank you very much. The truth is... my contract spirit woke up,” Rio said as he flew alongside Orphia.

“Eh, really?!” Orphia asked with widened eyes.

The spirit sleeping within Rio had been a humanoid spirit, after all. To Orphia, who held spirits in high regard, the awakening of Rio’s spirit was a big deal.

“Yes. Due to certain circumstances, she isn’t present right now, but I’ll discuss more about that — as well as my request — with the elders.”

Orphia nodded. “I see... I’m sure everyone will be shocked. Let’s hurry over!” She watched Rio’s expression carefully before raising her flight speed by a small amount.

◇◇◇

Rio and the others landed before the giant tree house that was used as the town hall of the village. Latifa was waiting there, along with Sara, the silver werewolf, and Alma, the elder dwarf.

“Latifa... Sara and Alma too...” Rio’s eyes widened when he spotted the girls.

“Ehehe. There was a big pulse of mana, so everyone was excited that Onii-chan might have come back. We saw Onii-chan flying in the air and hurried here,” Latifa explained proudly. She must have run, as she was still out of breath.

“The two of them were in such a hurry — it was a huge pain,” Alma interjected with a wry smile.

“Y-You’re the one who decided to come along, Alma,” Sara added on in embarrassment. Orphia smiled.

“Fufu, so the two of you both wanted to see Rio again as quickly as possible.”

“Mrgh...” Sara and Alma groaned in embarrassment, but their lack of denial implied it was the truth.

“Onii-chan, you came back quickly this time.” Latifa beamed a smile full of purity and innocence.

“Yeah. My contract spirit woke up, and I have a lot of other things I wanted to discuss,” Rio answered with a faintly strained smile.

“Y-Your spirit has awoken?!” Sara and Alma were both taken aback