Chapter 5 — Infinity Shield! The Power to Call Forth Unlimited Shields!
Vivian walked in the lead with the other three following behind her. At some point, they had started climbing another hill, the road they were following leading up one of the many bald mountains in the basin.
“It’s pretty far, isn’t it? We’re heading to the city where you live, Vivian?” Tomochika asked.
“I thought it was pretty close, seeing as you ran here,” said Yogiri.
The slope was gentle so it didn’t seem like the mountain was all that tall, but not knowing where they were going made it feel a little more strenuous.
“I just got excited when I saw the Yogiri Takatou Signal!”
“What exactly is this Yogiri Takatou Signal?” he finally asked, having heard the strange term numerous times now.
“If I close my eyes, I can see a vague purple color coming from the direction you’re in. It gets thicker and clearer as you get closer.”
Vivian stopped and closed her eyes as if she wanted to demonstrate it. Yogiri began walking in a circle around her, but even with her eyes closed, she had no problem following his movements.
“What do you think? There’s no way you can escape me!”
“Was that also a power given to you by God?”
“Yes! In addition to the unique blessing given to each apostle, we are also given the Yogiri Takatou Signal!”
“The name ‘apostle’ really makes you think there are a number of you guys, doesn’t it?”
It may have been unrelated to the apostles Vivian was talking about, but Yogiri couldn’t help but think of the Twelve Disciples.
“Correct! I don’t know how many there are, but I am definitely not the only one!”
Are we going to have a whole bunch of people start following us around? Back home, Yogiri had dealt with all sorts of folks trying to kill him, but they had never been able to track him so easily. And if that tracking ability was a power given to them by a god, it wouldn’t be that easy for him to avoid. It was starting to sound like a real nuisance.
“When did you get this power?”
“This morning. Wait, no, last night? Malnarilna came to me in a dream! I was told that the villain Yogiri Takatou would be coming to this land!”
“So the people with that power only exist in this country?”
“Judging from the timing, that would seem to be the case,” Mokomoko answered.
“But why is this god or whatever suddenly paying attention to me?”
“Maybe they’re sick of your behavior...” Tomochika offered, giving him a pitying look.
“Maybe I killed one of their followers, and they’re angry with me over it.”
But if that was the case, they should have tried to punish him directly. He felt like investing power in some apostle and sending them was too indirect. Or maybe they’re on guard against my power? If they only sent empowered disciples after him, his power would never reach them directly. If they understood that, it was quite likely things would get much more irritating as they continued using roundabout methods to reach him.
“For someone calling me a villain, you seem awfully easygoing about spending time with me,” he noted. It was strange. If he was a villain fit to be singled out by a god, Vivian should have been more afraid of him, but she seemed certain she wouldn’t become a casualty herself.
“Because whoever my opponent is, it’s no problem for me! I have resistances to everything and can reflect any attack! Oh, and that’s not just my shields. My body is invincible too!” she declared proudly, puffed up with self-confidence.
“What do you think?” Tomochika whispered. “Will your power work on her?”
“No idea. I can’t tell until I try,” he whispered back, “though I’ve never met someone it didn’t work on before.”
“At any rate, you seem rather lazy, Yogiri Takatou! For a hill like this to have you out of breath, you must be incredibly out of shape!”
Now that she mentioned it, Yogiri was the only one who seemed tired. Tomochika had always had quite a bit of endurance, and the robot that Mokomoko was controlling couldn’t get tired.
“I can’t help it. People don’t normally climb mountains in their everyday lives. Wait, you don’t get tired because you’re a robot, right Mokomoko? Could you carry me?”
“You’re going to paint an awful picture here, Takatou.”
“Jeez...fine. I’ll lend you one of my shields,” Vivian cut in.
“Uh, sorry. I don’t follow.” He would have understood if she had offered to lend him a staff or something, but he had no idea what to do with a shield.
“Wait, where did you even get that?” Tomochika asked. “You weren’t holding it earlier, were you?”
The previously empty-handed Vivian was now holding a shield.
“Heh! I possess the ability Infinity Shield: the power to call forth unlimited shields! I can create and erase them at will!”
“You know, the way she just adds the word ‘shield’ to everything kind of reminds me of the Dannoura School a little bit...” Tomochika observed.
“Please don’t associate us with the likes of her,” said Mokomoko.
“So how will a shield help me climb a mountain?”
“You throw it and then climb on!”
“Is this kid stupid or something?!” Tomochika asked bluntly.
“How rude! Malnarilna even showed me how to use it! Watch!”
Vivian threw the shield, and then quickly jumped onto it. The fact that she was agile enough to accomplish the move made one think she would be better off just running. The shield flew straight forward, then returned with the same vigor.
“Oh! The Boomerang Shield power activated, so it just ended up coming back!” she cried, clutching her head as she ended up right back at their side.
Yogiri was at a loss for words. “I was a bit on guard since she seemed so suspicious, but I guess she isn’t really a threat, is she?”
“Not that we can let our guard down,” Tomochika added. Even if Vivian herself wasn’t a danger to them, they couldn’t ignore the power working behind her.
“Wait, if I put the shields on my feet, can I make them spin like wheels?” The girl continued talking to herself.
“Okay, putting aside what the shields can do for now, how far away is the city?” Yogiri asked.
“It’s right over the mountain.”
“Is there nothing closer than that? Like where the carriage came from?”
“There is, but it would be irresponsible to lead a villain like you to such a place!”
“I don’t really care where it is. We just want information, so I guess we can ask you directly.”
“What? And what evil deed do you plan to commit after collecting my information, you pervert?!”
“We’re not interested in you personally at all.”
“Well, that is just rude!”
“I want to know about this country. Like where are we, where is the capital, and where is the emperor?”
“And what would you do if you knew? Are you plotting to head to the capital and assassinate the emperor?!”
Judging from their experience thus far, it was highly likely they would end up fighting the Sage and Emperor Yoshifumi when they met, so Yogiri had a difficult time arguing with her.
◇ ◇ ◇
The island of Ent was long and thin, stretching from east to west and divided into two large territories named East Ent and West Ent. Originally, the boundary between the two hadn’t been particularly clear, but with the arrival of the Sage Yoshifumi, it had been made very precise. A crevice almost large enough to split the island had appeared in its center, so now travel between the two sides was limited. The current capital was in the east, while Yogiri and Tomochika had arrived at the southern end of West Ent.
Yoshifumi had come here and made himself the emperor of Ent about ten years earlier. Up until that point, a single family had ruled over the island, but Yoshifumi had deposed them. Most of the people who had lived there were driven into West Ent at that time, and according to them, the east was now populated mostly by savages.
“So we refuse to recognize the Empire of Ent!” Vivian explained as they once again started climbing the mountain, their guide offering a simple explanation of the area’s history.
“Putting that aside for now, I guess we’re in the west,” said Yogiri. “Things look pretty bleak here.” They could see nothing but stone and earth, with no sources of water. It would be difficult to survive in a land like this.
“That’s all because of that guy, Yoshifumi. Just like it looks, you can’t survive using normal means.”
“Then how do you live here?”
“You either receive charity or steal it for yourself. You saw what happened earlier, right?”
“You mean those guys with the mohawks?”
“That was an adventurer with the merchant role and a band of ruffians.”
“By adventurer, you mean the kind that hunts monsters?” Tomochika asked. It was a common enough term in video games, but she wasn’t sure what it meant in this context.
“Yes. They go on adventures for personal gain on the western side of the island.”
She explained that adventurers were divided into numerous occupations and undertook an activity known as “adventuring” in West Ent. The people in the west could be rewarded by assisting those adventurers in their work.
“The ruffians are the ones who turned up their nose at charity and decided to live by taking what they want by force. That might make it sound like a proud choice, but in the end they are still scum who rely on the same system as the adventurers.”
The ruffians weren’t just people who chose to loot and pillage. They had specialized equipment and power on the same level as adventurers.
“Are roles different from the classes of the Gift?” Tomochika asked.
“A role is just like a job. It doesn’t give them any particular powers.” But by doing things that aligned with one’s role, they could receive contribution points. Those points could then be traded for goods or special privileges. “So the people of the former kingdom had no choice but to take the roles of regular townsfolk or ruffians.”
On its surface, that might have almost sounded fun, but the circumstances of the ordinary citizens were miserable. Even this island had places that were rich in water and greenery, but they were inhabited by monsters, placing them out of reach of the common folk. Even producing enough food to survive was difficult, and on top of that they had to deal with ruffians trying to steal what little they had. So they had no choice but to rely on the protection of adventurers, only able to survive by serving them.
“If that’s how things are, wouldn’t everyone be happy if the emperor died?”
“I guess that’s true! Wait, but I feel like a revolution led by a terrible person would also be a problem...”
“You said that it’s difficult to travel between the eastern and western sides of the island,” Yogiri said, “but that means it’s not impossible.”
“Even with a huge crevice between them, you could probably just go by boat,” Tomochika pointed out.
“The sea around us is a lair for enormous sea monsters,” Vivian explained. “A ship would be sunk moments after it departed!”
Tomochika wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. “We already killed them on our way here...”
“Making it through with the boat we made may be a challenge with the way the ocean currents are laid out here,” Mokomoko added. The boat they had made from Furemaru wasn’t really capable of moving through the sea on its own power, and since the people of West Ent effectively ignored the water, there weren’t really any boats around.
“Does that crevice split the whole island in two?” Yogiri asked.
“No, it’s only in the center. But north of that is a mountain range, and south of it is the Elven Forest. It’s hard going whichever path you choose!”
“I really don’t like mountains...” Even this gentle slope had Yogiri totally exhausted. He had no chance when it came to actual mountain climbing.
“There are elves here?!” Tomochika shouted.
“That’s quite a reaction.”
“I mean, we’re talking about elves! Isn’t that, like, a hallmark of fantasy?!”
“I feel like we’ve already come across a lot of fantasy races.”
They had encountered zombies, beastkin, and vampires along the way. But to Tomochika, elves were on a whole other level.
“So, why can’t we go through the Elven Forest?” she asked. “Is it, like, ‘We will not permit you to trespass in our sacred forest, human scum!’ or something like that?!”
“Do you like elves or something, Dannoura?”
“If I can choose my race in games, I only ever pick elves.”
“I don’t know if they would say something like that, but generally anyone who enters the forest is killed. People who have gone to take a look out of curiosity could only run away, barely escaping with their lives, at best. I’ve never heard of anyone making it through the forest. If we could casually walk through it, we’d be able to put much more pressure on the east.”
“Well, the forest sounds better than the mountains. They both sound difficult, but flat ground seems like a better option. And if we’re already in the south, the forest is closer anyway.”
“Yogiri Takatou, were you even listening to me?! I told you it’s too dangerous!”
“Why does it matter to you if I’m in danger? Since you won’t attack me if I don’t do anything, isn’t it better for you if I end up getting killed somewhere?”
“Like I said, it’s a problem if you die on your own! I have to be the one to defeat you!”
“You’re really stuck on that, huh?”
“Well—” As she was about to go on, they finally reached the top of the mountain. “Look! We just need to climb down the other side. You can already see the city... Hey, what is happening?!”
They could certainly see the city. But a thick plume of smoke was billowing up from it.
“A fire?”
“It seems like a lot more smoke than what’s normal.”
“Yogiri Takatou! Is this your doing?! How dare you do this to them!”
“Why would you think I did something to a city I’ve never seen and didn’t even know existed?”
At first, he had found her manner kind of amusing, but if she was going to keep going on like this forever, it was going to get old fast.
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