Three weeks had passed since Shigeto and Regres set off to climb the Ladder. It seemed that the weapons requested by the brothers Chiron and Panon from Regres were repaired, but with the client absent, they couldn’t receive them.
With no contact from Shigeto, the three left behind in Dudur Valley gradually began to feel anxious.
Slowly but surely, the three climbed another step up the Ladder, reaching the fifth step. Especially Sakuragi had already climbed into the four-digit ranks, feeling the greatness of the spirits known as Tendai.
“Senpai, it’ll be okay. Reg-san is with him.”
“I know… I understand that. But still, I’m worried.”
“That may be so.”
While having dinner, as Kimishima and Sakuragi talked, Nishina was busy devouring a second serving of meat.
“But seriously, Takato-kun, aren’t you eating too much?”
“Huh? Is it okay, Sakuragi? Gotta eat to build up strength.”
“Ah, magic users don’t need that much strenght.”
“Even so, you do engage in close combat training, right?”
“Well, yeah. But I don’t want to bulk up like you, you know.”
Training in close combat was handled by Mainui, but there were two melee fighters, Kimishima and Nishina. Apparently, Mainui didn’t prefer training them together and alternated between the two on a daily basis.
Mainui, once called the “Spear Princess” by Regres, was indeed a master of the spear. Her spear, named “Resonant Spear”, split into two prongs like a tuning fork.
It was a weapon devised to take advantage of Mainui’s special magical attribute of manipulating sound waves.
Though born into nobility, Mainui was from a minor branch and wasn’t particularly affluent. Her father worked diligently as a federal official.
Mainui’s inclination towards the path of martial arts stemmed from her original attribute being “non-attribute”, which made her more suited for martial training than magic, as taught.
However, while she excelled in the sense of battle, her physical and magical abilities weren’t exceptionally high from a young age. Whereas her peers who aspired to be knights steadily improved their skills as they climbed the Ladder, Mainui’s ability increase upon climbing wasn’t as significant.
This was likely due to the spirit she possessed being a 12th-ranked spirit. Despite opposition from her father and others to steer her away from the path of combat, Mainui refused and wished to become a knight.
The turning point in Mainui’s life came during her apprentice years.
During training at the knight academy, whenever it was Mainui’s turn for the warm-up call, the amplification magical tool used for that purpose would break. When Spellsess, who happened to hear about this incident, investigated, it was revealed that Mainui possessed a special magical power capable of manipulating waves such as sound.
From then on, everything about Mainui began to change. Magic couldn’t be practiced without understanding how to use it. For those deemed “non-attribute”, if their attribute was discovered, all the better. But if it couldn’t be identified, the path of its use would be forever closed off. Spellsess noticing Mainui’s attribute became the greatest turning point for her.
Due to her inherent tendency to push herself, Mainui threw herself into climbing the Ladder more than anyone else, reaching the height of 9 steps at a young age. But while her ranking remained in the four digits, she felt she had reached her limit, and then an incident occurred.
It was a gruesome murder case where eight women were killed. Spellsess, tasked with uncovering the truth, deduced that the culprit was a superior officer in the Federal Army.
In a battle against the man, whom everyone thought was at an advantage, Mainui emerged victorious, and a change occurred. The compatibility between the Resonant Spear developed by Spellsess and Mainui was tremendous, and she came to be called the “Spear Princess” alongside her youthful and beautiful appearance.
That was a story from twenty years ago.
With her ingrained honesty and self-pushing training, naturally, Mainui’s special training was rigorous. It was intense. However, the two endured without complaint, and gradually, their basic physical abilities increased.
Returning from training one day, after delivering materials, Sakuragi approached them happily.
“Takato-kun, it seems like a traveling merchant is here.”
“Oh, really? I wonder if the old man brought the cushions.”
Traveling merchants came about once a month or so. They could procure items requested in advance, so when the traveling merchant came last time, they had requested cushions for Shigeto and Kimishima.
Until then, Nishina had always lent his cushion to Kimishima when riding on the pack animal cart, so finally having comfortable travel was greatly anticipated.
For this town, the arrival of a traveling merchant was a major event. While it only took about three days to travel from the city of Vadzul to Dudur Valley, those three days were tough. There were risks of encountering monsters along the way, and even camping posed many dangers.
Though the Dudur Valley had been reclaimed not long ago, encounters with monsters during travel on the roads were significantly higher compared to other areas.
While state soldiers and the like did occasionally come and go, it still wasn’t that simple to move around. As a result, people in the town traveled less, opting for risk-free shopping from traveling merchants.
Traveling merchants were essential to the town. A small unused house was refurbished, and sometimes, it was lent out for free during the traveling merchant’s stay. Indeed, traveling merchants were a major event in this quiet countryside.
Once they finished delivering the goods, the three immediately headed to where the traveling merchant was stationed.
People from the town had already gathered around the house where the traveling merchant was being hosted. The beast-drawn cart parked in front of the house had been modified from a pack animal cart into a mobile shop, and just seeing it opened up brought joy to the three.
While others were shopping, Kimishima and Sakuragi were checking the shelves set up on the cart.
“Hey there, missy, you’re back. Still here, huh?”
“Oh, of course, we’re here.”
“I’ve got two cushions for you. Is that okay?”
Saying so, the traveling merchant showed the cushions. Kimishima confirmed and thanked him.
“Anything else we could get?”
“Sure, sure. And remember, if you don’t buy, old man here will be in trouble. I wouldn’t mind if you bought the whole store. Hahaha.”
Remembering people’s faces was crucial in their line of work. Though it was only the second time, the traveling merchant remembered the three well. It was hard not to stand out when you suddenly appeared as newcomers in such a remote place.
“Anything sweet available?”
There were snacks of sorts in this world too. Sakuragi and Kimishima bought some firm jelly-like desserts made from fruit juice set with agar, along with dried fruits. Although they had money from the temple and the state army’s salary, the three generally had enough money to spare. They kept adding things they wanted into the basket.
“This, is it alcohol?”
“Hmm? Oh yeah, those bottles lined up there are all alcohol. Oh? You gonna drink, sis?”
“No… I thought it was for Sensei.”
“Sensei? Oh right, there was another person. They not here today?”
“Yes. They’re not here at the moment. I’ll cover the cost of the cushions instead.”
“Oh, I see. Thanks.”
Kimishima wasn’t familiar with alcohol, but being Japanese, she assumed rice wine would be good and bought a bottle of sake that her father recommended.
She started the abacus and when the amount was presented, she peeled off her divine citizen card and placed it on the payment machine. Once she entered the amount, the payment was complete.
“Thank you. I’ll be here until the day after tomorrow, so please come again.”
“Yes, thank you.”
After Kimishima finished shopping, Sakuragi, who had filled her basket with sweets, handed them to the itinerant merchant. And so, one by one, everyone enjoyed their shopping.
As it got darker, the number of customers dwindled. Knowing the approximate number of residents in this town, if they kept the shop open tomorrow and the day after, they would have finished their business for the time being. As the itinerant merchant attached boards around the cart to close the shop, a voice came from behind.
When the itinerant merchant turned around, a man was peeking out from the window of the house where he would stay for the night.
“Oh. Even such a countryside has such beauties.”
“Those two from earlier? They’ve been here since last month. Seems like they just transported here not too long ago. They don’t seem to know much about this world.”
“In a place like this? Why here again?”
“I don’t know much about it, but you know, there was talk a while back that a recent transmigrator suddenly took the place of a Celestial. That Carton who got killed then was apparently climbing the Ladder around here. I’m thinking there might be some connection after all.”
“Oh? So one of those kids is a Celestial?”
“Don’t know, but there was another one before. He wasn’t here today though.”
“That’s quite…”
After finishing the cleanup and locking the cart, which had become like a big box, the merchant turned to the man.
“Hmm? Hey hey. Stop joking about replacements. You’re the only guard I’ve hired. It wouldn’t be good if you got beaten up.”
“Hahaha. No way. I wouldn’t bother with such a replacement that would bring down a Celestial. I’m not a guard for such things.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
