The guild had jobs of every shape — monster extermination, gathering, surveys, the occasional weird one like babysitting.
We’d done several jobs by now, and yesterday our guild rank went up. Our cards turned purple. Out of beginner territory.
Which meant we could now take both black and purple postings off the board. The receptionist had given her stamp of approval.
Still — a careless run and we’d fail, and a bad one could be life-or-death. Stay sharp.
“North… ruins… extermination… mega… slime?”
I tried to read one of the purple postings. Thanks to Linze, I could now manage simple words. Reward: 8 silver. Not bad.
“Hey, this one—”
"" Nope. ""
Stereo veto. Both of them gave the worst face. That bad?
Apparently both of them found jelly-blob slime creatures viscerally disgusting.
“And those things melt your clothes off. No way.”
That was — too bad to follow up on.
“This one? Letter delivery to the royal capital. Travel costs included. Reward 7 silver. What do you think?”
“7 silver doesn’t divide evenly between three.”
“We can just spend the remainder on something together.”
Fair point.
I checked Elze’s pick. Client: Zanac Zenfield. Wait — that Zanac?
I checked the address. Yes — Fashion King Zanac’s Zanac. No question.
“How far to the royal capital from here?”
“Hmm — five days by carriage?”
Pretty far. My first long journey. But the return trip would be one Gate spell, so. Easy. Plus, once I’d been there once, I could Gate back any time. Useful infrastructure.
“Right, let’s take this one. I know the client.”
“Really? Settled then.”
Elze peeled the posting and went to the request desk. After submitting, she said the client would brief us in person on specifics.
Let’s go see him then.
“Ah, long time no see. How’ve you been?”
“Hello again, sir.”
Zanac noticed me the moment we walked into the shop. I explained we were here via guild job and he led us to a back room.
“The work: deliver this letter to Viscount Swordrec in the royal capital. Give my name at the door and he’ll know. I’d like his reply as well.”
“Time-sensitive?”
“Not urgent, but I’d rather you didn’t dawdle.”
Zanac said this with a smile and placed a small cylinder, wax-sealed and stamped, on the table.
“Here’s your travel expense. A little extra — keep the surplus, sightsee the capital.”
“Thank you.”
We took the letter and the funds and immediately started prep. I handled the carriage rental. Linze did the food shopping. Elze went back to the inn for our gear.
An hour later, everything was ready, and we set out.
The rented carriage was a basic flatbed, no canopy — but several times better than walking. I couldn’t drive it, but the twins could; their relatives had run a farm and they’d grown up around horses.
Result: the two of them rotated on the driver’s bench, and I rode in the back, bouncing along. Slightly guilty about that.
The carriage rolled steadily down the highway, exchanging waves with other carriages along the way, heading steadily north.
We left Reflet, passed straight through the town of Nolán, and reached Amanesque just as the sun was setting.
Inn for the night. …Wait. Hold on.
If I could use Gate, couldn’t I just teleport us back to Reflet, sleep at Silver Moon, and Gate back here tomorrow?
I floated this with the girls. Instant veto. What.
According to them: that would ruin the point of travel.
“You stay in unknown towns, you find unknown shops, you sleep in unknown beds — that’s the point. Don’t you get it?”
Elze, exasperated. If we were broke, sure — but we had travel money. Don’t be tasteless about it, in other words.
We picked an inn, slightly nicer than Silver Moon, before sunset locked in. Two rooms — one for me, a bigger one for the twins.
Carriage stowed, we went out for food. The innkeeper said the local specialty was noodles. Wonder if there’s ramen.
While we were wandering through town looking for a place to eat, an argument drifted up from a side street. A crowd was gathering — something was happening.
“What?”
I led us through the rubbernecks to the center. There: surrounded by several men, a girl in foreign clothing.
“That girl… unusual outfit…”
”…She’s a samurai.”
I answered Linze briefly.
A pale-pink kimono, dark navy hakama, white tabi, sandals with black thongs. At her waist, a long sword and a short. Black hair cut clean above the brow; behind, pulled into a ponytail that ended evenly at her shoulders. A discreet hairpin set off the whole.
I said samurai, but the impression closer to “Meiji-era schoolgirl” — haikara-san, maybe. The bearing was samurai though.
About ten men were circling her, weapons mostly already drawn.
“Thanks for earlier, missy. Came to repay you.”
”…Pardon? Sessha has no memory of services rendered.”
Sessha. Degozaru. First time I’d ever heard those for real.
“Don’t play stupid—! You busted up our crew, you think you walk away from that—”
”…Ah. The same group sessha turned over to the city watch earlier? That was your fault. Drunk and disorderly in broad daylight.”
“Shut your mouth! Get her!”
They came at her all at once. She slipped each one with light footwork, caught one man’s arm, and tossed him around her hip — he landed flat on his back, immobilized.
Read the opponent’s momentum, break his stance, throw. Aikido — or jujutsu. She kept going, sending two or three more flying, then suddenly wobbled and slowed.
The opening — a man behind her drew a sword and came in. Bad.
“Sand, come — blinding sandstorm, Blind Sand!”
I cast on reflex.
“Argh — my eyes—!”
A sand-blast meant to obscure vision. Not powerful, but enough buy-time. Meanwhile I drop-kicked the sword-wielder. The samurai girl was startled but assessed me as non-hostile and turned back to her opponent.
“Why are you sticking your nose into trouble?”
Complaining loudly, Elze waded into the fight and started delivering gauntlet-blows. Was she laughing?
After a bit, every one of them was down. Half were grinning-Elze’s work. Scary.
The town guard arrived, we left them to it.
“Sessha thanks you for the assistance. My name is Yae Kokonoe. Yae is the given name; Kokonoe is the family.”
The samurai girl bowed. Slight déjà vu.
“Are you — from Eashen?”
“Indeed. Sessha is from Oedo, in Eashen.”
Oedo. Of course there’s an Oedo.
“I’m Mochizuki Touya. Touya given, Mochizuki family.”
“Oh! Touya-dono is also Eashen-born!?”
“No. Similar to it but different country.”
"" Eh? ""
The twins behind me reacted with surprise. Right, I’d been letting people assume Eashen.
“Anyway — you were wobbling mid-fight. Are you injured?”
“Body is fine, sessha is… well… regrettably… lost sessha’s travel money on the road here…”
Grrumble. Yae’s stomach announced itself enthusiastically. She turned bright red and shrank a little.
The hungry samurai had arrived.