In the Land of Leadale - Volume 2 - Chapter Pr

The Story Thus Far 

After a terrible accident, Keina Kagami was only able to live off a machine. 

With so much free time on her hands, she started playing the VRMMORPG Leadale and quickly became addicted to the joy and physical freedom it gave her. Along with Kee, the AI assistant her uncle created for her, Keina made a name for herself as a Leadale powerhouse. In the world of the game, she was a member of the rare high-elf race and a Skill Master who had obtained every possible skill. 

One day, as her uncle and cousin’s care for her weighed particularly heavily on her mind, a power outage shut down the equipment that was keeping Keina alive, and she soon perished. 

…Or so one might think. 

For reasons unknown, she awoke in an unfamiliar wooden room in the body of her game avatar. Naturally, Keina couldn’t hide her confusion at suddenly becoming Cayna, her Leadale character. 

Here she met the plucky yet motherly inn proprietress, Marelle, and her cheerfully helpful daughter Lytt. 

After talking with the two, Keina realized she was in one of the inn towns of Leadale’s former White Kingdom. She was surprised to learn that there were now three kingdoms as opposed to seven and that this town was nothing like it had been in the game; instead, it had become nothing more than a poor, remote farming village. She decided to stay there for a while and used this time to improve the local water supply, take down some bears, build a public bath, and then take down even more bears. 

Just as Cayna was thinking about moving on to a bigger town, a wagon caravan of merchants came to the village. She used her superior Magic Skills to heal a badly wounded mercenary guard traveling with the caravan, and her extraordinary healing prowess caught the eyes of the mercenary captain, Arbiter, and the head of the merchant caravan, Elineh. 

The caravan had plans to go to Felskeilo, a main distribution point for goods, located in the center of the continent. Cayna decided to accompany them, all the while learning basic knowledge about this new world. During her travels, she reunited with her youngest son, Kartatz, who worked as a shipbuilder, got caught up in the capture of a prince, and made connections to a marquis. 

Cayna then reunited with her daughter, Mai-Mai, headmistress of the Royal Academy, and was astonished to find she was already married. This rash of incidents led her to believe it might be the wrath of her terrible friend. 

She discovered a Guardian Tower while taking on a request from the Adventurers Guild and subsequently discovered that there were no longer any other Leadale game players left, the shock of which caused her to hole up in her room at Marelle’s inn. 

However, her eldest son, Skargo, now a powerful High Priest (a title that really must have been some sort of sick joke on the Admins’ part) and master of bizarre Effect Skills, soon came calling. His incredibly impactful visit relieved Cayna of her worries, leading her to have an honest conversation with her three children and forge new (for Cayna, at least) familial bonds. 

She then met up with Elineh, who asked her to serve as a guard on the caravan’s journey to the northern nation of Helshper, which was currently overrun with bandits. 

On the way there, they stopped back at the inn town where Cayna rescued a lost mermaid from an underground water vein and left her in the villagers’ care. 

When the caravan arrived at the Helshper border, Cayna and her allies soundly defeated a group of bandits disguised as sentries. The whims of an unknown individual brought her to cross swords with Arbiter, but by reaffirming the extent of her own physical abilities, Cayna managed to swiftly deal with the issue. 

However, the flickering shadow of a certain player deepened her suspicions. 

Prologue

After the mock battle with Arbiter that reaffirmed Cayna’s battle prowess, Cayna found that her mind was spinning for the rest of the trip to Helshper. 

The primary source of her consternation was the psychological magic that an unknown figure had used the other day at the campground. Since Cayna herself hadn’t been affected at all, she was under the impression it was a low-level attack. 

However, her magical resistance was so strong that no one in the entire continent could ever hope to match it. More importantly, this attack seemed incredibly effective on the mercenaries and ordinary citizens. As proof of this, Arbiter and his men simply thought they got a bit carried away last night without actually understanding the reason for their elation. 

The spell’s effects also seemed to center around the group that had focused on Cayna. Everyone else in the caravan who had remained a distance away and the Flame Spear co-leader who had been watching over them didn’t seem the least bit affected. 

“Nghhh…” 

“Hey, miss. You tired from using too much magic?” 

“Pardon?” 

Arbiter must have taken her yawning and glum expression as a sign of magical overexertion. Cayna had been continuously using Movement Up ever since they crossed the border, and a lot of people in the caravan were worried about her. 

It wouldn’t be unusual for most mages to collapse under the stress of maintaining such a spell for even half a day. Of course, for someone like Cayna with MP in the tens of millions, it would be surprising if she used up even 1 percent of her magic after going the whole day like this. She’d been using the skill MP Healing since the very beginning of the trip in order to stay fully replenished, so it really wasn’t the least bit of a burden. 

“No, no, I’m just fine. This is way easier than Attack Magic.” 

“…Yeah, but still, y’know?” Arbiter said as he looked out over the caravan. 

The mercenaries were keeping a close eye on their surroundings. But they weren’t the only ones affected by Cayna’s Movement Up spell; it affected everyone. 

Take the horses, for example. And the wagons and carriages. And the families of the merchants who were relaxing inside those carriages. With all these subjects under the effects of the spell, anyone would wonder if the caster was exhausted. 

Arbiter looked reasonably doubtful as he tried to glean Cayna’s condition from her expression. 

“I’m okay, really. I’ll be sure to let you know if I’m getting tired.” 

“But weren’t you zoning out just now?” 

Bull’s-eye. Cayna averted her gaze. 

“There’s just a little something I’ve been worrying about. It has nothing to do with our journey, of course.” 

Cayna insisted fervently that her uneasiness was completely unrelated to their travels. Arbiter nodded reluctantly before leaving her side, and Cayna stroked her chest. 

Yikes, that was terrifying! Arbiter was staring me down. 

“That is to be expected of a mercenary leader. He is extraordinarily perceptive.” 

Kee made a good point, but it wasn’t like she could always keep up with every mysterious behavior. 

They hadn’t seen any signs of bandits since entering Helshper, but they weren’t out of the woods yet. 

Cayna put “that idiot” out of her mind and instead focused on strengthening the caravan’s defenses.