Log Horizon - Volume 10 - Chapter 2.6

6 
“Roe2?” 
“Who’s that?” 
After they finished reading the letter, those were the first words spoken. 
Naotsugu and Nyanta knew the name Roe2, while Akatsuki and Tetora didn’t. His companions’ reactions were split. 
“She’s Shiroe’s sub-character. Another character he made on the test server in order to check out the game system, back when this was a game. She was a Summoner, and she went by ‘Eroko.’” 
“Eroko, huh?” 
“Eroko is…?” 
“Well, I’ll tell you. Eroko is a sub-character Shiroe created. She has huge boobs.” 
“So they’re huge?! Hmmm. In idol terms, that’s sinful, isn’t it…?” 
“Is that true, my liege?” 
Shiroe had been about to explain, but Naotsugu had gotten in ahead of him. 
As Shiroe scowled at him—You don’t have to tell them that stuff, thanks—Tetora and Akatsuki latched on to him with unexpected intensity. Even as he tried to retort, It’s not that important, is it? the two of them were jostling each other and quibbling about it. 
“Eroko” was a nickname KR had given her. LambMutton was the one who’d spread it around, and Naotsugu had jumped on it. It was an awful trap, right at the beginning of a serious story. 
Possibly because he’d read the mood, Nyanta went on, as if to smooth things over: “So mew’re saying that Roe2 wrote this letter? How did it reach mew?” 
“Minori delivered it. Apparently, they met her on their journey.” 
“I see. In Saphir…” 
“Is that right.” 
The town of Saphir. At the sound of that name, Akatsuki and Naotsugu both swallowed their words with bitter expressions. The individuals gathered here were the older members of Log Horizon. Even Tetora had heard the particulars of the younger group’s encounter with the Odysseia Knights. 
It was Akatsuki who dispelled the gloomy atmosphere, however. “Then, when it comes down to it, does that mean you were the one who sent it, my liege? It’s your sub-character. How could someone like that send a letter?” 
“She calls herself a soul that has inhabited Roe2’s character data. In the section about the Travelers, mew see. She says they’re intelligent life-forms from another world.” 
“Whoa, crap. Hey, Shiro. It’s an alien from another planet. What is this, sci-fi?” 
“At the very least, that’s what she says. According to this letter, there are two types of Traveler: Fools, like her, and Geniuses. She says they are artificial intelligences created with the mission of harvesting a resource known as Empathiom.” 
Everyone fell silent, clearly processing Shiroe’s words. 
Was it because the story had been too bizarre? Growing worried, Shiroe looked around at his companions and made eye contact with Akatsuki. Akatsuki’s round eyes looked up at him blankly. All he could sense from her was an aura of trust. She’s not thinking anything, Shiroe thought, feeling just a little relieved. 
“Naotsugu.” 
“What? Did that manage to throw even you for a loop?” 
“I really will have to plan that galactic tour, won’t I? For my new fans.” 
“Man, you just don’t change, do you?!” 
Forcibly detaching the self-proclaimed idol—who was skipping with joy and saying “Ooh, what’ll I do? Pheromones, pheromones”—Naotsugu went on, breaking down the information. 
“Travelers, huh? That story couldn’t really get crazier, but you’re not actually that surprised, are you, Shiro? Why’s that?” 
This wasn’t true, and Shiroe told him so: 
“It’s only… Hmm. I’m not sure how to put it; I’d been thinking about it, in a vague way. Wondering why we came to this world. It is weird, isn’t it? If this is really another world, a fantasy world, then it couldn’t possibly look this much like the Elder Tales we know. This goes far beyond the level of coincidence. But the idea that it’s a game world and we’ve been sucked into it is nonsense. Not even possible. Anyway, as far as we know, technology hasn’t advanced that far.” 
In response, Naotsugu and Nyanta nodded firmly. Akatsuki and Tetora were waiting for Shiroe’s next words, looking intrigued. 
“The changes that have followed the Catastrophe are strange, too. In this world, realistic physical laws and common sense from when this was a game are all jumbled together. It’s as if someone took the two sets of rules and mixed them. I’ve always thought we weren’t just sent to this place at random. I also thought there might be some third party here who could explain it. Not the People of the Earth, or a player like us; someone able to explain the situation… I think that’s probably Roe2, the one who sent this letter.” 
In terms of narrative convenience, it was the being known as a deus ex machina. The mastermind who presided over all the mysteries. The ultimate person in charge, who would resolve the situation. However, Shiroe had also realized that nothing like the being he’d hoped for existed. 
“She’s not a god. I realized partway through that she’s nothing so convenient. I mean, if this world is a world, and the People of the Earth are really alive and just like us, then that god would have known the reason they were born and their destiny. That hasn’t happened. Because they are human as well, and because this world is a world, I thought there were no gods. Even so, somebody is there, and I’d considered looking for them. Since that was the case, I was surprised, but not all that much.” 
Naotsugu gave a big, macho grin. “Is that right.” 
“The letter is very hard to understand, though, isn’t it?” 
“Not ‘very hard.’ Impossible.” 
As Akatsuki pointed at him, correcting him, Shiroe picked up the stationery again. 
“I think it’s hard to understand because she’s trying to explain something we aren’t familiar with. It’s true that I don’t understand the principle of providential horizon or the fundamental principle of consistency.” 
Shiroe didn’t mention, however, that he did understand them in a hazy way. He understood without really understanding, or rather, he was able to grasp the general meaning from the look of the words. However, if things were the way Shiroe imagined them to be, then this other world—“subworld Theldesia,” according to Roe2—was in the middle of a test intended to produce a certain result. Shiroe wondered whether it might not be a special kind of sandbox mode. 
In this place, even simple decisions had great meaning. Unfortunately, that meant Shiroe had already created the Round Table Council while simultaneously being unable to state his prediction that there existed a time limit to this world. 
“In other words, these Geniuses are monsters from some other planet. The monsters came from that other place to steal Empathiom, some sort of mystery energy. This Roe2 person is an alien from the same world as the monsters, but she’s got a good heart, so she’s warning us to watch our backs.” 
“Whoa, I understood that! You’re really smart… Even if you are Naotsugu.” 
“What’s that ‘even if’ supposed to mean?!” 
“You’re brill-i-ant, Naotsugu!” 
“Don’t climb on me! Hey!” 

Shiroe and Nyanta laughed at Akatsuki, Naotsugu, and Tetora’s carefree banter. True, if you summarized the contents, that was just about what it boiled down to. 
“Still, that isn’t all. There are places where it’s difficult to link reasons and meanings, as if descriptions have been omewted here and there.” 
“You’re right, Captain.” 
Shiroe let his gaze fall to the text, which he’d already read over and over. 
“I’m not sure, but I think that’s intentional. It doesn’t feel as if she was worried about information leaks… Does that mean, at this stage, it’s something that shouldn’t be classified? Or is it something that would inconvenience them?” 
“Nah, that’s not it.” 
Naotsugu cut them off. 
“It didn’t feel like that kind of letter. I bet it’s more that she thought it was common-sense stuff everybody knew, so she didn’t bother explaining it.” 
Now that he mentioned it, that might be true. In terms of what Shiroe and the others knew, the letter was preposterous and strange, but it seemed sincere to Shiroe as well. 
“Do you believe it?” It was Tetora who’d spoken, in a voice that was abruptly serious. 
Naotsugu shrugged under the idol’s gaze, while Shiroe scratched his cheek as if troubled. Eventually, he nodded. “Yes.” 
“Frankly, I think the contents are absurd. That letter sounds like nothing more than a tall tale. But we wandered into another world that looks like a game out of the blue one day, and compared with that, I don’t think what it says is all that crazy.” 
“Well, that’s definitely true.” 
“Besides, the sender of this letter, Roe2, seems to have a mischievous side. She’s written ‘PS—To Minori. I tried to write this seriously, like a big sister. I don’t know if we’ll be able to meet again, but I won’t forget mewr answer. I hope mew will illuminate mewr own future, just as mewr warm Empathiom illuminated me. —From mewr big sister.’” 
As Nyanta read the words aloud, Naotsugu’s and Akatsuki’s mouths hung half-open in clear astonishment. He was right: For an alien from another world, it was much too friendly. 
“Maybe whether or not we believe it isn’t the issue here. Maybe this Roe2 person is my rival.” 
“Is there anybody who’d be a rival to a half-idol?” 
“Akatsuki’s picking on me…” 
Possibly because he’d gotten fed up with the conversation, which kept getting derailed, Naotsugu raised his voice, taking charge. 
“Either way, it doesn’t look like we have anything to lose by believing it at this point. Basically, there’s something on the moon. Make contact. That’s all she’s saying, right?” 
Well, that’s true, Tetora admitted easily. 
“Right. Assuming we believe this letter, if we contact her companions on the moon, things should develop beyond where they are now as far as information is concerned, at the very least. I think we’ll get a hint about how to get back to our old world.” 
“It does sound like that.” 
“The mewn, hmm? I wonder what’s up there.” 
Well, it’s…, Shiroe started to respond, then stopped and turned to Akatsuki. 
She was looking up at him with an expression as if she’d just awakened from a dream. 
From somewhere untraceable, a clear, nostalgic echo, like the sound of a bell, rose in Shiroe’s ears. 
“Right… There definitely was something on the moon. Those vast memories, the shore of light, the offered vows—I saw it when I died in the Abyssal Shaft.” 
It had been an ocean that was shallow a long way from shore. 
The glass fragments that had rained down from Earth had held memories that were insignificant yet irreplaceable. He’d seen a brown puppy. A commuter pass and ticket gate. The weak light of a convenience store, floating in the darkness. Two people riding double on a bicycle, crossing an iron bridge. 
These things had drifted down silently over the winter beach that Shiroe and Akatsuki had walked along. 
That hadn’t been a dream. Shiroe searched Akatsuki’s eyes, tracing the memories that had stayed with him, trying to revive them. 
“On the moon’s beach, there was a clear, crystalline sound that traveled very far.” 
As Akatsuki murmured, her eyes went round, as if she’d been startled. 
Then, nodding several times as if incredibly happy, she caught Shiroe’s clothes and squeezed them tightly. It probably wasn’t a conscious gesture; it showed the curious depth of her emotion. 
“Yes. You spun around and around, Akatsuki, and you almost fell down.” 
“You pulled my hood up for me, my liege.” 
She spoke as if she were telling him a secret she was very proud of, and her voice brought Shiroe’s memories of that moment back to him more vividly. 
The serenity of that quiet beach had filled them. He’d sat with Akatsuki at the waterline on the shore of that clear blue inlet. The light that had wet their toes had been something remarkable, and they’d felt intense awe. 
On that beach, having passed through “death,” the two of them had looked at themselves and seen weakness. In the midst of regret so great it nearly crushed them, they’d discovered a small hope. 
That had been an extraordinary place. 
Shiroe understood this through an intuition independent of words. That beach held a secret he and the others didn’t yet know. It was the “moon” Roe2 had meant. If they managed to get to that beach again, he was sure they’d be able to return home. At the very least, they’d have the opportunity to do so. 
“Me too… I saw it, too! With you, my liege. I saw that sparkling stuff!” 
Shiroe nodded, responding to Akatsuki. 
Then he looked around at their companions: Naotsugu, Nyanta, and Tetora. 
Shiroe and Akatsuki had definitely stood on the moon once. 
For that very reason, they were able to believe the letter. 
“While we were there, we offered— It was probably Empathiom. Oaths. If we manage to go there again…” 
They’d be able to catch the edge of this world’s secrets.