1 - 2. Fool's Errand. And then. Encounter.
“Eh, there’s no shift today!?” As Shigeru entered the entrance of his workplace, he was told that there was shift today. “Well, I think I informed everyone who was on the shift using a group email…Did you not check it before you came?” The one talking was a middle-aged, plump man. The manager of one of the stores of the national coffee chain “Mori no Kamado”, Itou, questioned him apologetically. Hearing him say that, Shigeru dropped his shoulders in disappointment. “Actually, after my shift yesterday, I “lost” my phone and wallet somewhere along the way.” “Eh!? That’s terrible. Do you not remember where you dopped it?” The manager was taken aback at Shigeru’s confession. He wasn’t lying. He did “loose” it somewhere along the way home. “No, but I am certain I “misplaced” it somewhere after I entered the bookstore and before I reached home.” “I see…If it’s a lost item, did you contact the police?” “It’s called a loss report or something right? I was thinking of going to fill one out after my shift.” That was a lie. Even if he reported it to the police, it would never come back. No matter how much the police force excelled, they would not search for his things on the other side of the dimensional wall. And also, if those guys make it back, they’ll return them to me. He recalled the figures of the “heroes”. This was those upstanding and honest people we were talking about. His things were safe with the “Heroes”, who would always kept their promises, and wouldn’t nick his stuff even by mistake. “But do make sure to get the phone service stopped immediately. Even if you have your phone locked, it’s very dangerous these days. If they are able to unlock it using illegal means and access some shady websites, you could be charged a ridiculous fee.” “Oh, that’s fine. I’ve already taken measures.” It should be fine. For one, there was no signal on that side. On top of it, the battery in his phone had long since dried up, and it had just become a rectangular brick. There was no way anyone would be able to access any suspicious sites on it. “Is that so? That’s fine then. But see, today, we suddenly had to arrange a meeting of all the managers in the prefecture in our store. Look, there were those high schoolers caught breaking the curfew at one of the rival chains, right?” “Ahh, that did happen.” Shigeru felt a bit apologetic, but he had no idea what the manager was talking about. From the manager’s perspective, it had only been a week, but from Shigeru’s perspective, it had been one week and three years. Those kinds of day-to-day events had receded to the edges of his memories. “That’s why all the area managers decided to meet up in a hurry. We’re gonna be closed all afternoon with the managers in the store, discussing how “Mori no Kamado” is gonna be dealing with minors from now. That’s why there is no job today. I apologize.” “No, that’s alright. It was me who lost my phone in the first place. But I’m in a bind now. Even if I want to go back, I’ll have to wait for the bus.” “You probably also had to pay the bus fare. I know, here, I’ll give you this. It should make it up to you a little.” Saying that, Itou took out a 1000 yen note from his pocket and handed it to Shigeru. “Eh, I can’t accept this!” “No, take it. From the address on you resume to here and back alone would cost you around 600 in bus fare, wouldn’t it? You can keep the change for something else. Well, it’s not an amount that I can lord you over with.” Shigeru dropped his head into a bow, forcefully. “Thank you very much!!!” “Ye, yeah. I’m going to return to the meeting now, so uh, take care on your way home. And also, make sure to go to the police!” “Yes!” Shigeru saw Itou off with a wide smile and respectful bow. Itou faltered a little seeing him such a state, but then collecting himself, he laughed and disappeared inside the store. As the door shut, Shigeru bowed deeply to it again and whispered. “The manager, messenger of the gods…” He grasped the 1000 yen in his hand, as if in a fever. The bus fare up to this point had been 320 yen, meaning that he had made 680 yen without having to work. It was a large amount that would net him 2 deep-fried horse mackerel lunch boxes at the special night offer at the supermarket near his apartment. No wait, if he waited around for the discount stickers, it was worth 3.5 of them. Of course, Shigeru had no plans to get on the bus on the way home. He had made the painful decision to take the bus in the first place because he had thought that he would not make it to work. Going back home on foot from his part-time job, nobody could complain about that, right? Nay, he would not let anyone complain. “What should I buy…Bean sprouts, pork tops, I’m out of them. Should I go with those? But wait, it might be better to wait a little and aim for a discounted side dish set…” While muttering to himself, he started walking on the path home. It was quite a “suspicious person” like behavior, but he was in a throng of people. No one was paying any attention to him. Murmur… Just then, Shigeru’s skill “Detect Presence: Slight” picked up something. “…What’s that? A fight?” In the other world, it was a skill that you picked up automatically if you served as a soldier, even if you were an idiot. It was not something special, but still, it allowed you to pick up on dangerous presences in wider vicinity than say, a villager could; “Detect Presence: Slight”. Even thought it was a peaceful other world, monsters were still born in it. It was the duty of normal soldiers to deal with them, unless they were massive amounts of them or a single exceptionally strong one, in which case the fighting elites known as adventurers or country armies delt with them. Incidentally, the “Paladin” [1] had the highest version of this skill called “Presence Reveal: Extreme”. The skill that he had gained while living in that other world was now pinging him like a radar. There are two reactions. Both are composed of multiple humans…But of course, there won’t anything here except humans. But, right now, I don’t wanna get involved in any kind of trouble. Straight down the road, turning right at the intersection. That’s where the reactions were coming from. It was exactly where Shigeru’s return path went through. If he tried to go around, he would have to go quite far. “I’m going to take little peek, just a little…” If it were a big fight, he would run to the nearest store and report them, he thought. If they had knives or some such, it would be quite scary (even though he thought he could probably deal with them), and even if he wanted to call the police immediately, he didn’t have a phone on him. And so, it was wait-and-see for now. He slowly stuck his head around the wall that was part of a store’s parking lot. The wall was high enough that he could completely hide behind it. “Like I said!! There was no CG involved! Our video was taken from a fixed camera, and it was being streamed in real-time, how do you suppose we processed it!?” “No, no, it makes no sense! Think about it from a rational mind. That kind of entertaining video, there’s no way it real. What kind of clickbait is this! It’s not like everyone believes in it, but some people are starting to take it seriously, and it’ll become an urban legend and then we won’t be able to deal with it. I’m saying that you should stop doing such embarrassing things! It’s a nuisance to the other uploaders!” Shigeru saw two groups of people holding cameras. It seemed like 2 people, each belonging to one group, were getting heated up. “What’s this about the “Light Speed Knight”! You probably just copy pasted that from somewhere! Even the video was not real-time, but a processed version of yesterday’s recorded video, wasn’t it?” “Don’t be ridiculous! Our “Real Trains 24/7” is famous for it’s no processing, no modification style! And yet, that “Light Speed Knight” site started talking about it on their own, and all the complaints are coming to us. In fact, we’re the ones being bothered by this the most, you know!? We’re receiving emails from real train fans about whether or not we modified the video. Do you know how much the person in charge of that day’s video has suffered!!?” “That’s why I am saying that this is a publicity stunt!” “Earning from the site views and living on that, we’re different from people like you! We’re doing this earnestly in between our other jobs. Making a ruckus online about each and everything and calling it justice, I won’t accept something like that!!” “It doesn’t sound like anything but the howling of a loser! Right now, the people watching are thinking the same thing!!” “You!” “What!?” It became a quarrel where they started grabbing at each other. On both sides, the people started grabbing them and holding them back. It seemed like only those two were really fighting. Nevertheless– No matter how I look at this, they’re fighting because of me, aren’t they? Why did it come to this? People who heard the noise started watching them from afar. “Hey, this is it, isn’t it?” “Right, right, these are the people. But if they make this much of a ruckus, won’t they be arrested?” Nearby, two slightly short female college students were talking while looking at a smartphone screen. Even thought he felt a bit sorry, he used the fact that being 180 cm, he was a little taller than them, and peeked at their screen. “…are you serious?” They were looking at the “Light Speed Knight” video that he had checked before leaving his house. The view counter had passed 12,000. Shigeru had no idea, but the “Real Trains 24/7” was not “so-so” famous but was actually the number one recommended content creator in the train mania circles. The ones who were quarrelling with them were the verification maniacs, the “Clickbait Eradication Warriors”, not hesitating to incite a whole pitchfork mob online. They were kind of troublesome people that had a style of biting at everything, and they had as many haters as their intense fans. The video was spreading under the influence of the supporters of both sides, and had now gained a tremendous momentum. “You little…” “What!” The quarrel continued. Both of the parties had come out to the scene with cameras to find the “Light Speed Knight”. It became obvious that the two groups had bumped into each other and it had come to this. If you say it’s kinda my fault, it is. What should I do about this… Shigeru was troubled. It wasn’t like he could do anything. But simply turning around and leaving like this also didn’t sit well with him. I’ll watch how this develops a little more…just as he thought that, something happened. “Uwaaaaaa!!” “Waaaaa!!?” One of the quarrelling person flailed around too much and sprung from the people holding him back. No, the people holding him back had become a little bit fatigued and their hold had loosened. Suddenly losing what was holding him back, he tumbled forward, directly into the other person he had been quarrelling with. The other person tried to dodge him as the first one suddenly flew at him, and they became entangled. This is bad! Everyone felt that they were seeing that event in slow motion. The two, entangled together, fell and slipped through the gap in between the guardrails and tumbled onto the street. As they panicked and tried to stand up, the delivery truck of a moving company barreled towards them with such speed that they would not be able to avoid it. “Uwahhhhh!!!!” One of the two had fallen down tightly closed his eyes and tensed his body. There was no way they were going to make it. We’ll both be hit by the truck. Trying to endure the coming pain, perhaps the greatest he had experienced in his entire life. Crasshhhh!!! The wind blew. He felt as if they had been blown away. Ah, we were hit. I don’t feel any pain right now but I’m sure the pain is gonna spread through my whole body. Ah, if I’m gonna die, I don’t wanna feel any pain. Maybe because everything seemed to go by in slow motion, but many such thoughts went though his head. Dosaaaaaaaaa!! Their bodies hit the ground. He braced for the coming pain. Ouch, ouch! Their knees scrapped the ground, and their faces grazed along the ground. A tingling pain attacked him. Eh? He opened up his eyes. In front of him was the guy who he had just been fighting with. He also had a similar expression on his face. They were probably thinking the same thing. We’re not dead? “Hey, it’s gotta be a lie, right?” “That video was for real…” “He went flying! It was direct hit, I was recording it!” “I also saw it right there. He was definitely hit by the truck. How is he alive!?” Everyone was looking in the same direction, in a daze. On the spot on the street where they had been was now the delivery truck, facing this way, having used the emergency brakes. The front of it had a huge dent in it. No matter how you looked at it, it had hit something with great force. The train mania guy got up and looked in the direction everyone was looking at. “Eh? For real?” Forgetting his own injuries, he joined all the people looking in one direction, dazed. In the direction they were looking at was a single person. He had raised his upper body up and was cracking his neck left and right. He started rolling his shoulders, apparently checking over his body. “A, a knight? That’s a knight, right?” “It, it can’t be anything else…” Forgetting their quarrel, the guy from the train mania site and the verification mania site spoke to each other. Getting up causally, the knight stretched up widely. It seemed like he was just fine. He looked towards them. “Hiiii~!” Wearing a helmet, a man wrapped in a jet-black cloth. The man they had been searching for all day, the “Light Speed Knight” was standing right there. [1] Translated this as “Scared Knight” before, but this seems more appropriate. Will change the previous chapter as well. |