Instant Death

Yogiri and Tomochika sat down at one of the meeting corners in the hotel's lobby.

Opposite of them sat the concierge and rolled out on the table lay a map.

"My name is Celestina, concierge at this hotel."

"Ah, right, hello."

Since Tomochika tagged along Celestina introduced herself anew.

"Now, the distance from this city, Kuenza, to Valeria, the royal capital, is roughly 140 kilometers. To put it into more familiar terms, it's about the distance from Osaka to Nagoya."

"That's so easy to understand it's baffling again!"

But that was the fluently Japanese speaking Celestina for you, being familiar with the geography of Japan may have been to be expected.

"Osaka and Nagoya, huh. I wonder which would be the royal capital?"

(Note: A Japanese history reference.)

"Takatou-kun! Could you not raise such an ominous allusion!"

"There's quite a lot of ground to be covered until you arrive at the capital, but I have been told that your classmates are traveling on foot. Since their side objective is to gather experience and raise their levels on their way, I suspect them to pass through the ancient woodlands of Hakua."

Yogiri took a look at the map.

If they were to head to the capital in a straight line they would have to go through the Hakua old-growth forest, the Garla canyon and the Meldo plains.

However, there was no way from them to tell where on that route their classmates currently were.

While Yogiri was in thought like that, Celestina showed them several sheets of paper.

"Here's a chart of the monsters of Hakua with their respective habitats, and here's an encounter rate, calculated by considering the monsters' ecological habits. The levels of the sage candidates may be low, but they're still stronger than regular fighters; keeping that in mind and accounting for their probable time spent resting I believe them to be somewhere around this area."

Celestina pointed at the map, upon which a symbol appeared about halfway through the ancient woodlands of Hakua.

It seemed to be around 20 kilometers away from Kuenza, less than Tomochika expected.

"Oh? They didn't get further than that in one day?"

"The forest of Hakua is a dangerous region, this group could be called rather quick."

"And it seems we've got multiple options for catching up to them, but the one Celestina recommends is to go by train."

Yogiri, who had already heard the story, added on to the explanation.

"Indeed. By making a detour around the Hakua forest by train and getting off at the Hayabusa station, located between Hakua and the Garla canyon, you should be able to get ahead of your classmates. The only problem with this route is that should your classmates face unexpected difficulties and change their course it would be difficult to catch up to them. In that regard it would be better to follow them on the route they passed through themselves. If you were to gather information as you advanced catching up to them should be fairly easy. However, entering Hakua as just the two of you would be quite reckless, I recommend first gathering companions and preparing various equipment for this route."

"Personally I'd be fine with going by train. If we don't manage to group up with them on the way then we can just head to the capital, sooner or later they'll get there as well. Also, chasing after them sounds like a pain."

"Why do I feel like 'sounds like a pain' is your main reasoning?"

The conversation stopped for a moment and Celestina placed two bits of paper on the desk.

"Here are two train tickets bound for the capital, valid today."

"How do you even have these at hand!?"

"This hotel reserves train seats at all times."

If they had requested travel companions and equipment she would probably also have provided them in a heartbeat, Yogiri thought.

And so traveling discussions were settled for now and Celestina moved on to the next topic, placing two necklaces on the table.

"Since Takatou-sama said not to worry about money it turned out a little expensive, but here are the requested necklaces. They are magical items that instantly translate languages, but even so, trusting them completely isn't to be recommended either, so I suggest consulting these as well."

So she spoke as she put two books on the table.

On a side note, all the items Celestina was bringing forth had been stored on a shelf behind here.

"They are dictionaries for this world's language and Japanese. Pronunciation is described with katakana, they should be helpful for studying. I could give you lessons in the language, but sadly time only allows for this much, my apologies."

"No-no, no need to apologize――"

Tomochika was a little taken aback my Celestina's deep bow of her head.

"Next, these rings will allow you to hide your status, customized in a way that makes them display one that shouldn't cause any problems.

As she spoke she placed two rings on the table. They had a simple design and were silver in color.

"Normally they only display a single fake status, but taking your position into consideration I decided to apply a two-layer disguise. Under regular circumstances you will appear to have the status of a commoner, and should that status be seen through a sage candidate's status will be displayed."

"I see, so we'll be pretending to be sage candidates pretending to be commoners, huh. And when that first disguise is seen through we'll just look all the more convincing."

"Although the first disguise won't be breached that easily, I dare say."

"Hearing Celestina-san say that with so much confidence makes it feel like it might as well be impossible to crack…"

"You can also change which status is currently being displayed at will. Tapping the ring three times in succession will make it flash in red light and change to the status of a sage candidate, another three taps will make it flash in green light and return to the commoner status."

A particularly doubtful person might see through both layers or tell them to remove their rings, but if they were ever doubted that much then they were probably seen through from the start.

Where these rings would really show their worth was in letting them avoid being approached by random thugs in cities like last time.

"And finally, this."

She placed something square-shaped on the table.

Whatever it was, its sides were roughly 15 centimeters in length, its material was metal and attached to it was a crank.

"Since I don't specialize in industrial design it turned into such an awkward form, I apologize."

"Huh? What's that? Something you made?"

"Quite so. Turning this crank generates electricity. Please use this cable to connect your gaming console to it."

"Sigh… Of course you'd be able to make a charger…"

Tomochika was both astonished and dumbfounded.

"Magnets are easy enough to acquire, so making it generate electricity wasn't that difficult of a task. The problem was matching the electric power's standard and adjusting the power output. Condensing it to such a size was the limit of a single night."

Some slight frustration could be felt in the way she seemed to want to add on that she could have made it even more compact if only she had more time.

"How'd you get this cable?"

The cable appeared to be pre-made, so Yogiri asked about it. Indeed, even in Celestina's case, making a PVC cable and a fitting connector in a single night didn't seem doable.

"Due to the summonings there are some Japanese products circulating in this world, although quite limited in quantity. Finding a charger itself would have been the quickest, but sadly I wasn't able to. However, instead I was able to acquire various different pieces with which I was able to create a finished product after all. Pardon me, but would it be possible to attain your satisfaction with this substitute?"

Despite her usually impeccable appearance, here she showed a hint of unease.

"This is more than enough, thank you."

Yogiri gave her his most genuine thanks, which she received with a smile.

The previous night he had decided to try asking the concierge for help, but he would have never thought that she would go this far for them.

"I heard that concierges never say 'no,' but to think it was the same in different worlds…"

Tomochika, despite still being slightly shocked, voiced her admiration while Yogiri quickly put on a ring and necklace. When he was about to put the charger into his rucksack he saw that it was already full with treasure. Without hesitating he took out the valuables and made place for the charger.

"Oi, Takatou-kun, what are you doing?"

"There's not enough room, okay? Actually, hm… Celestina, can we let you take care of this?"

"Certainly. I shall handle it with responsibility."

It was quite the fortune, but Celestina didn't seem bothered in the slightest.

"Can we really leave this much behind? I mean, I'm still carrying some, but still."

"I didn't take out all of it, we should be fine. Ah, right. Since we're leaving it with you, could we ask you to invest it?"

Yogiri spontaneously thought of it and decided to ask her. Somehow he felt like Celestina would be able to raise a profit.

"Are you certain? One can never guarantee success in such financial matters."

"It's fine even if you lose it, we'll be leaving it all to you."

"Takatou-kun, even a concierge has their limits, you can't just ask her to――"

"Understood." 𝒇r𝙚𝙚𝓌𝙚𝑏𝗻𝑜𝘷𝗲𝘭.c૦𝑚

"You won't say 'no' even to that!?"

Even Yogiri, who only asked on a whim, was surprised.