ch41-ch60 · 057-ch49

Chapter 49 — Shadow Mystery Tale ①

"Still, Kakuriyo, huh..."

For thirty years, he'd lived in the other world he'd been transported to. Even an old guy used to other-world fantasy hadn't thought he'd end up going to the hidden side of Earth — Kakuriyo.

Of course, he'd had the desire to go if he could. ◇ Two days after Ginreibo's story.

At Sai's house, Hexaria, Hiyori, Mio, and Ginreibo had gathered.

Everyone was armed the same as when they conquered Shinjuku Tower.

Sai wore his usual light armor, Hexaria was in her full suit.

Hiyori and Mio wore the designated "clothes woven from spirit-spun thread," kitted out as adventurers.

That said, the teleportation magic circle was still being prepared.

Hexaria was doing her final checks here and there.

So Sai and the others were each preparing in their own way.

Amidst that, Ginreibo, still in his crow form, hopped over.

"Lord Sai. I truly am sorry for the trouble."

"The Shadow-Eater thing is our problem too. If we leave it alone, it'll come to the present world as well."

The Shadow-Eater was one of the monsters called "Demon King" that had appeared in the other world too.

Demon King, but it was only Demon King-class. Not just one — multiple existed.

Back when Sai was traveling in the other world, he'd seen the devastation of regions destroyed by the Shadow-Eater.

A being that devoured all living things, leaving mountains of rubble in its wake.

If something like that came to the present world's Japan, it wouldn't just be a big problem.

There'd be no way to counter it.

Everything would end.

The Shadow-Eater was that vicious an existence.

"Sensei, have you fought that Shadow-Eater before?"

"Just once. Back then... I was young too, and I didn't know how to beat it, so it was really rough. We fought it with a ton of adventurers, and finally found a way to take it down..."

Hearing that, Ginreibo was astonished.

"Hm, then Lord Sai. You're saying you know how to defeat that thing..."

"Yeah. I've seen it taken down in person. Plus this time, I've got a 'trump card magic' that can counter the Shadow-Eater. ...Not that it'll be easy to finish it off. I'll need Hiyori and Mio to work hard too."

"Leave it to us, Sensei! I'll give it my all!"

"Me too!"

Hiyori and Mio both showed their motivation at Sai's words.

"By the way, after we take down the Shadow-Eater, we're going sightseeing in Kakuriyo."

"Really?"

"We're adventurers. Gotta etch the rare sights into our eyes."

The time Sai spent traveling the other world was less than ten years — a short period in a long life.

But the sights he'd seen through that journey were still burned into his heart.

"Ooh, that's so like a real adventurer!"

"You're a real adventurer yourself, Hiyori."

"Well, you know, we're Shinjuku Tower–only, right?"

In the other world, adventurers were people who fought monsters and blazed into the unknown. In Japan, they were people who explored to conquer Shinjuku Tower.

The meaning was definitely a bit different.

"Alright then, on this Kakuriyo trip, how about I teach you a little about the fun of being an adventurer?"

"Hehe, I'm looking forward to it!"

As they were talking, Hexaria, having finished her preparations, came over.

"You lot, my preparations are complete."

The group turned to look at the magic circle drawn in a corner of Sai's home.

"Ooh. A magic circle. Awesome, this is a real magic circle, right?"

"I don't know what's written on it, but it really is..."

Sai looked puzzled at the two girls' amazement with the magic circle, but quickly caught on.

"Right. Magic circle development hasn't progressed here, has it..."

"So it seems. At yesterday's lecture, one of the attendees asked about it."

On Earth, magic circle development still hadn't progressed.

Magic itself had become usable through magical power, but the current situation was that they hadn't yet reached advanced formulas like magic circles.

Apparently they could make simple ones, but they fell apart the moment you tried combining them.

That was the state of things.

Apparently there were scholars who'd tried magic circles from historical texts, but none had succeeded in activating them.

"With this... we can go to Kakuriyo..."

Ginreibo was also astonished by the magic circle he'd never seen before.

"Indeed. This is a magic circle for us to enter Kakuriyo as 'spirits.'"

Originally, worlds are walled off by a powerful force.

But there are several ways to break through these walls.

Simply using power to teleport. That was the method Ginreibo had been using.

But of course, it consumed a massive amount of magical power.

Alternatively, there was a way to teleport using only mana, like the First Hexaria's tower in the other world — but that was a brute-force method only possible because it was built in the Age of the Gods.

There was also the method of accidentally rolling through a hole in the barrier and teleporting.

That was the pattern of how Sai was transported to the other world where Hexaria lived.

Or how weak demons from Kakuriyo flew into the present world.

This was fundamentally about accidentally slipping through a hole that happened to open — teleporting to your desired location was all but impossible this way.

Another method was to transform into a type the barrier can't block.

An existence present in both the present world and Kakuriyo. In other words, pretending to be a 'spirit' to break through the barrier.

With this method, you could travel to another world with the same feel as a normal teleportation.

After hearing this explanation, Ginreibo bowed respectfully to Hexaria.

"As expected of Lady Hexaria. Your vast knowledge is most appreciated."

Suddenly curious, Hiyori asked a question.

"In that case, with this teleportation magic circle, could we go to the other world where you and Sensei were?"

"Impossible. With my current magical power, I can teleport to the Kakuriyo this one was in, but to teleport to the world I was in, the magical power and mana required are hopelessly insufficient."

Is it a distance problem? Hiyori tilted her head.

Either way, it didn't seem like it would be easy.

Hiyori accepted that, while beside her, Mio was taking notes.

For a girl who wanted to master magic, this conversation was prime learning material.

"Alright, it's about time we head out. Get into the circle."

Sai and the others stepped into the magic circle.

A flicker of anxiety and tension ran through them.

"Here we go."

The next moment, within the magic circle, a black light raced through—

◇

The party arrived in another world.

Before the teleportation, their location had been Sai's home — an old, converted neighborhood factory from his grandfather's era.

The surroundings should have been the ordinary cityscape of Tokyo.

And yet, the place they arrived at was near the coast.

They were startled by the faint scent of the sea.

"Where could this be...?"

"Earth has thin mana. I can't pinpoint a teleportation to a specific location."

"I see."

Hexaria answered Mio's question.

Hiyori, meanwhile, was looking up at the sky.

"Ugh. The sky color's all weird. And what is it, this strange feeling..."

"I can't say for sure without a proper investigation, but it's the same as the other world."

"What d'you mean?"

"Ah, over there... the world where Saria and I were, there are places like Kakuriyo too. Over there, they call them world layers. Like the material world, the demon world, the spirit world, the divine world. Probably, this place is what we'd call the demon world in the other world."

In the other world's lore, the material world and the demon world were said to be two sides of the same coin.

Two worlds. The material world and the demon world standing side by side.

Like a platter supporting these two, there were the spirit world and the underworld.

And encompassing all of them was said to be the divine world...

In Japan, they lumped other worlds together as Kakuriyo, but the world where demons lived and the world of the gods were surely different.

"I see..."

After hearing Sai's explanation, Hiyori nodded in understanding.

Among exorcists, it was said that Kakuriyo had districts — a place where gods lived, a place where demons lived, a place where human souls rested.

But how exactly those places were divided had never been clear.

Light had finally been shed on something that hadn't quite clicked for years.

Sai's explanation, in the end, amounted to "the worlds themselves are fundamentally different."

It definitely made sense once you heard it.

In that case, this was essentially Japan's demon world.

Sai, as party leader, called out to Ginreibo.

To get their bearings straight.

"Alright, standing around here won't help. Ginreibo, do you know where this is?"

"I do not... but if I fly around a little, I may be able to tell."

As a crow, Ginreibo could naturally fly through the sky.

He was a tengu well-suited for scouting.

"Alright, Ginreibo scouts from the air while keeping watch. We'll start walking at our own pace."

Sai and his party began walking through Kakuriyo — the demon world.

Behind Sai, Hiyori and Mio started walking.

Their faces held an excitement that seemed out of place for the dangerous realm of Kakuriyo.

"Hehe, this is amazing, isn't it, Hiyori?"

"Yeah, I get it. Right now, we feel like real adventurers."

The adventurers who fought in Shinjuku Tower were, so to speak, dungeon explorers. No matter how far they went, they were forced to fight under stone walls and ceilings.

And now, those girls were walking through a world they'd never seen before.

A sky that wasn't blue.

Untouched wilderness that had likely never known a human hand.

There was no way they wouldn't be thrilled by this sight.

Their enemy was the Shadow-Eating Demon King.

Now then, the adventure begins. ◇ Thank you for reading.

The subtitle reads as "Shadow Mystery Tale."