Log Horizon - Volume 8 - Chapter 4.3

3 
After midday, Saphir was bustling and lively. 
There were lots of small settlements on this plain, where harvests were abundant. As their central hub, it was Saphir’s job to accumulate resources. On top of that, the town was right on the highway that linked the East with the West. It was a city of commerce, and it saw lots of merchant traffic. 
In early March, it was still too soon to say that spring had really begun, but the snow had started to melt, and the water in the Favorwell River was rising. This was the time of year when wild vegetables began to sprout and dishes celebrating spring appeared on dinner tables. 
Recently, as the high-performance vehicles made in Akiba and Minami began to flow to merchants, the amount of traffic had gradually increased. The choice of whether to build another inn or add on to the existing one had been the biggest topic in town for the past few months. 
Minori and Serara were walking down the town’s avenue together. They were on their way to stock up on food and consumable items and to gather information. 
As a city of commerce, Saphir had a market and shops with a decent selection of merchandise. They weren’t shops for Adventurers, but considering the articles they were looking for, it was actually more convenient this way. 
They’d made proper preparations in Akiba, and the bulk of their supplies were seasonings and goods that kept well. They’d made sure to eat the fresh foods first, so they were nearly out of them. They’d always intended to replenish their stores at the towns they visited. 
“They’ve got potatoes, greens, and strawberries!” 
“Should we buy some strawberries?” 
“Yes, let’s!” 
The pair put clusters of wild strawberries into their tote bags, adding them to the things they’d already bought. 
Since the bags weren’t the magic sort, they were quite stuffed and bulky already. As the bags hung from the girls’ hands, the People of the Earth teased them, calling them “young wives.” There was really no help for it. 
“Wahh… Oh, don’t call us that.” 
“We, um, we’re not! We aren’t that yet.” 
Serara squirmed and Minori protested (tentatively, her face red), but the mood didn’t last long. 
They were shopping, according to plan, but there was something that worried them. 
“Telechats aren’t getting through.” 
“It’s true…” 
They’d noticed that telechats weren’t connecting while they were camping, but at the time, they had brushed it off as “one of those things.” In any case, the telechat function wasn’t easy to activate well if you couldn’t use both hands. You had to gesture in order to select another party from your friend list or accept a telechat. In consequence, if the other person was fighting or doing some other type of work, the telechat might not get through. That was the difference between regular telechats and party telechats, where you could get a message to the whole group just by shouting. 
As a result, it was fairly common for the other party to not respond to a telechat, particularly if that “other party” was Shiroe. He tended to be in meetings quite a lot. 
However, Boreas’ Moving Temple had worried them, and when they’d investigated, they’d learned that it really did have the effect it was rumored to have. It seemed certain to them that the telechats weren’t simply “not connecting.” They were being jammed. 
They didn’t know what the range of the effect was, but at the very least, telechats seemed to be restricted throughout the entire town. 
The range seemed far too wide to be the effect of the Moving Temple they’d passed near the Boxroot fortress, and Minori thought there might be another Moving Temple somewhere in town. However, they had no intention of searching for it. Even if they found it, they didn’t know how to shut off the effect, and if they broke it or something, they’d probably call another sort of trouble down on their heads. 
“I think it’s probably because of that Moving Temple,” Minori said. “I don’t know where it is or what sort of effect range it has, but even so.” 
“I think you’re probably right.” 
“Yes…” 
This was a headache for Minori as well. 
The white wolf cub at Serara’s feet seemed to have picked up on the mood. It looked dejected, too. 
“What should we do?” 
“Um…” 
Minori’s eyes went to the notebook in her hand. There was a folded map of the vicinity between its pages. It wasn’t something she’d drawn herself. It was a map of the surrounding area that Shiroe had copied for them. 
Their destination wasn’t that far away. They were planning to make their preparations here, in Saphir, then go into the mountains. It wasn’t a reckless move. If they left from this town, they’d be able to follow the river up the mountain. That was why they’d traveled along the Pacific side in the first place. 
In terms of distance on the map, it was probably about twenty kilometers. Even taking into account they’d have to climb mountains and would need to find and hunt their targets, it didn’t seem all that hard. At the earliest, they’d be able to return to the town in three days, and no matter how long the trip dragged on, it probably wouldn’t take a full week. 
“I don’t think it’s going to take very much time,” Minori said decisively. 
“Maybe about three days…?” 
“A little more than that.” 
“Once we come back here, we’ll be safe, right?” Serara asked. 
“I think so.” 
In fact, it was that very thought that had brought them to the town. 
Minori had meant to ask Shiroe for advice once the telechat function was back, but right now, the circumstances wouldn’t allow it. 

“If we could only talk to Shiroe…” 
“If we could talk to Nyanta…” 
Their words overlapped. The two of them gazed at each other, seriously, then burst out laughing. Apparently they’d been thinking the exact same thing. 
As a matter of fact, they had a lot of things they wanted to ask about. 
The Odysseia Knights. 
The disquieting magic item known as Boreas’ Moving Temple. 
Roe2, the woman who overlapped with Shiroe in Minori’s mind, no matter what she did. 
Something was changing in a big way. Minori could feel it clearly, the way the echoing rumble of the earth traveled across great distances. 
Still, she didn’t know what it meant. It felt as if she’d gotten a secret message, but bits of it were written in a foreign language. It was terribly irritating. 
“This is so frustrating. I’m sure Shiroe would understand it, but…” 
“Minori…” 
As Serara consoled her, Minori mentally switched gears. 
She was still quite inexperienced, so she didn’t have time to wallow in pessimism. She had to solve the problem in front of her. The current issue was whether they should make for the Redstone Mountains or abandon their journey here and turn back. 
There were advantages and disadvantages to both courses of action. 
Pressing forward when they couldn’t report in or ask for advice via telechat was definitely dangerous. 
However, on the other hand, Minori couldn’t say whether turning back now would be any safer. Since they didn’t know the effective range of that peculiar magic item or how to disarm it, they might not be able to use telechats even if they returned to Akiba. 
Bringing back a report was important, but this was Shiroe they were talking about, and Minori had the feeling he’d gotten information about that temple just about the time she and the others had. 
In that case, should they go forward, or start back? Staying in this town and investigating was another option. Under the circumstances, letting the Magic Bag quest determine their moves didn’t seem like something Shiroe would advise. 
The question What would Shiroe do? was the only clue she had regarding how to think indicated to Minori that she clearly wasn’t experienced enough, but lamenting that wouldn’t get them anywhere. 
“I wonder what Roe2 is going to do.” 
“You know, that’s a good question.” 
“She said she was going to Ikoma…” 
“Do you suppose she’ll go with Dariella? She doesn’t need to go mountain climbing with us.” 
“True.” 
Having realized this, the two of them quickly made their remaining food purchases and discussed returning to the inn. 
They’d told Roe2 about going to the Redstone Mountains, but depending on the situation, they might part ways here. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to look around the town to see if there was anyone who could repair Adventurer summoning pipes. 
They’d passed several Adventurers as they were walking around, and it had planted the idea in Minori’s mind. If it came down to it, they were prepared to sell the cart in town, but if possible, they wanted to buy horses and take it back to Akiba with them. It was the first cart they’d ever purchased, after all. Minori was rather attached to it, and she thought her friends probably were as well. 
“But Minori, we’re staying here tonight, the way we planned, aren’t we?” 
“Yes.” 
“Then do you think Isuzu will be feeling better by this evening?” 
“She’s staying shut up in the room, isn’t she…?” 
Isuzu had remained in their room, saying she wasn’t feeling well. Rundelhaus seemed to know something about the situation, but all he’d say was that she’d be better soon. Isuzu had been a bit strange since the previous night. They thought she’d finally returned to the room early in the morning, and she’d seemed to be brooding. It worried them. 
“I’ll make Isuzu’s favorite mentaiko potatoes tonight!” 
“Can you make those, Serara?” 
“Of course! We bought potatoes, and we have mayonnaise.” 
As they made their way back up the avenue, their conversation died away. 
The wolf that had been gamboling around Serara’s feet pricked its triangular ears bravely, then began to run around in circles, glaring up at the sky and howling a warning. 
“Hmm? What is it?” 
Distantly, Minori heard Serara’s easygoing voice. 
Something had bled into the color of the hazy March sky and was moving slowly, with Sacred Mount Fuji behind it. The flock, which was closing in on them from far in the distance, was obviously what Minori’s group had come this far to find: wyverns. 
More than a hundred wyverns were approaching the town of Saphir.