Chapter 7
On the second day after falling into this strange world, though without regard to my intentions, my destination was decided for me.
“With this settled, Black-kun, shall we go to the fort city Barga?”
When I was brought to the village for the first time, it was pitch-black, and I, the penniless, was guided to the inn along the dark street. The innkeeper was a an aunty who described the inn as having “Meals every morning and night, for the low price of just two silvers!” I didn’t have money, much less two slivers… Barorudo, who had guided me here, immediately payed the money.
The next morning, I managed to get up in time for breakfast and consumed a meal for the first time in this world. Remy and Ashley also met me in the dining room on the first floor of the inn and took a seat nearby so we could talk while eating together. No, I had heard the story, so I didn’t listen.
Fort city Barga? I was accompanied to this village in order to confirm the Goblin den, so I wonder what I had to go there for. An arrest, possibly. Last night I only had to do simple communication, but I still do not have any identification or anything similar to it, so I am really suspicious.
“Black kun, you don’t have even an adventurers registration? Well you don’t look in any way to be a merchant or craftsman, so the closest place to get identification is Barga. Therefore you must get proof of identification, and then you can cash in the goblin’s obi (band) and get some money, as well as some Guild Points after you get registered.”
Adventurers…… I somehow can understand that, but I wonder what the difference is from an explorer? But it seems I wont be arrested. Certainly an ID card would be good to have, and to collect knowledge early on will be important in this world. I also need to know as soon as possible if it is feasible to return to my original world.
I nodded to Remi and approved her suggestion. In the meanwhile during us talking, Ashley had consumed her meal silently and calmly…. Or perhaps I should say refined and elegantly… however she was truly a beautiful person. Her blonde, medium length hair was illuminated by the morning light. She gave off a divine brightness, and I thought I had seen the original world again.
“Yeah, please accompany me, but eat first and we will leave immediately afterwards. Black-kun, can you ride a horse?”
I denied her while shaking my head. As expected, there aren’t horses in VMB, but motorcycles and bikes…….
“Then, Ashley, please arrange for a carriage.” We should keep the carriage light so we can get there in half a day, but with the extra luggage and tool bag we’ll have to leave as early as possible so we can get there before dusk. And borrow something like a picture book from the Village Chief. Along the way we should teach Black-kun how to pronounce and read Orlando so he can be able to speak directly, eventually.”
“Hai, understood. Then I will go immediately, and I’ll be back later.”
Ashley finished her meal and left the dining room. I could hear thanks to the automatic translation and the translated sentence was displayed in the head goggles. This is thanks to the translation function for text chat as well as voice chat in VMB. It is only a matter of time before I am able to speak properly.
Originally I was not only in VMB, but I had shown my face in international competitions of other FPS titles, including European ones, and learned to speak some of the words just fine, mainly English. That’s why, I had the automatic translation turned off at first.
Remi’s eyes became sharper just a little while ago, and I saw this after I had confirmed Ashley had left. She had short brown hair and was also a very beautiful woman, but there was a very strange atmosphere.
“I will be teaching you to speak Orlando and some common words through various stories that consist of these words. That short cane of yours, what is your purpose for coming here with that?”
The possibility of being arrested apparently still does not seem to be zero…
“I hardly think that you would believe what I am saying even if I spoke. I myself don’t know why I am here. I sort of fell into this alien world on my own, so I’m just kind of.. lost. And fir my purpose, I am going to live here and get back to my world if it is even possible. But I don’t think you would believe me, even if you could understand me.”
I stared at Remi as she seemed to be turning it over in her mind to try and understand what I said.
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The shaking is amazing…. For now, I have gotten into the carriage, rather, we are loading the carriage. Remi’s sitting in the drivers seat and is operating the carriage.
Ashley and I are loading hay into the wagon to feed the horses, and sat side by side with it as a cushion to read one of the picture books, a children’s fairy tale. Or rather I was being read to and told what it means.
However the road on which we are driving is not neatly paved, and the carriage bounces and vibrates, occasionally leaping in the air giving the feeling of weightlessness, with the book following along with it through the air. It doesn’t seem to be car sickness, I guess carriage sickness?
The books that we are reading were borrowed by Ashley from the village head, and told of the building of the Kurt Merga Kingdom. At least one of these books were put into every village and city, and the village head would read the book to the village’s children. It’s like some kind of patriotic education?
Summarizing the founding of Kurt Merga, one of the adventurers born in the old days, about 500 years ago, was determined to help the populace suffering from the oppression and tyranny of the time. The land for and funds were gathered by diving into newly discovered underground labyrinths to the southwest of Orlando, and after cleaning and purifying the land, he established a new country there. The country accepted many who suffered from the tyranny of the other countries, and resisted pressure from those foreign entities who got angry at another country stealing it’s citizens.
In other words, the adventurers who work on the ground is different from an explorer who dives into labyrinths? I think it is all the same as hunting monsters, but there is probably some other clear distinction.
Ashley taught me the pronunciation and intonation of each letter one by one as we headed to the fort city Barga. It seems we have arrived without incident in Barga, but I would not be surprised if something did go wrong.
The sound of multiple somethings running could be heard, but there was no indication on the map of anyone else nearby, so it seems they were farther off.
“Hey, it comes…increases.”
I put my hand on the drivers seat and told this to Remi and Ashley while standing up.
“Black-san? I don’t see anything around us, though….”
“Running, I hear, increases.”
“Ashley! ‘Glass Wolves’ have attacked in this area! It is likely that they will attack the horses! We should stop here and fight them.”
Remi judged the situation and decided to stop, then leaped from the coachman’s stand. Remi lifts the sword that had lain across the driver’s seat and unsheathes it. The sword was a wide, two-handed blade about 1m in length, double edged, also known as a Claymore.
From the sack Ashley had stuck into the carriage, she also…
Out of the sack came a sword longer than it…. and then a round shield, also longer than the sack….. As for that? It’s generally known as a item box or an endless back, but isn’t it similar to using a different dimension for storage?
Ashley’s weapon was a short sword about 70cm in length and a round shield that was a buckler. Ashley pulled it from her sheath and was increasingly vigilant towards the rear of the wagon.
“Black-kun, I don’t know how you fight, but I’ll have to rely on you for guarding the middle. Which direction are they coming from?”
I kneel in the wagon and set the mode on the MP5A4 from safety to 3 bullet burst fire. I pointed to the forest on the north side of the highway. On my map I could now see the dot. There were three of them, and they were moving incredibly quickly! Behind the trees, a black dog came into sight. The length of just one of them… Probably about 5 meters in length They passed through the forest quickly.
“They, attacking!”
I declared this and opened fire, aiming at the animals and pulled the trigger twice to hit their torsos. It had very fast movement speed, but I couldn’t aim that fast, not even the best player in VMB could, even with VMB having high speed movement. I shot ahead of them where I expected them to be and hit the first, then the other two continued ahead, unaware that the one ahead had died, and tumbled and fell over it’s corpse.
“That’s amazing… (or after all, it’s that magic attack of an unknown attribute from that magic weapon that was in the report.). Black-kun, that was wonderful skill, do you want to skin it? We can sell it’s hide.”
“N-no. First, hurry, let’s.”
I have never skinned an animal before… In this world something like that is natural and common, but it is not possible for me, nor is it the norm for someone from my world. It isn’t possible to do it, because I don’t have the knowledge of how it works; It seems that common sense is not enough anymore, and it cannot further my knowledge. There is no point to accumulating knowledge when I can’t understand it. In that way we re-continued our journey and arrived at Fort City Barga without incident.