CH 14

“Ojou-chan, are you the relative of gods…no, that can’t be.”

Frank-san shrugged his shoulders upon looking at me who was shaking my head, denying it with all my power.

“Not a chance, not a chance. The country I was living in was Japannnn.1

Ah…I was still feeling dizzy after shaking my head.

But just as my body was feeling a bit giddy, Leon-san stopped it by gently hugging me from behind. As I looked up at him with a feeling of gratitude, my eyes met with Leon-san’s, and I felt a bit tenderness from his gaze.

I thought that Leon-san wasn’t an expressive person, but when I looked at him like this, his emotion was perfectly expressed.

I was somewhat happy from realizing this fact, so I tried smiling.

As I smiled, Leon-san’s eyes slightly turned rounder.

I noticed the slight change of his expression and became happier when his face loosened into a smiley one.

“Uwaa. It’s my first time seeing leader making such kind of face.”

“It’s also the first time for Argo. Well, it can’t be helped because Yuuri-chan is so cute.”

“Yeah. I agree with that. Well, she’s certainly cute…”

“Isn’t she?”

Uhyaa. I felt like running away for some reason upon hearing Argo-san and Amanda-san’s conversation…Being told that I was cute made me happy, yet I also felt embarrassed at the same time.

As expected, do they view me as cute because I am small? There doesn’t seem to be anyone who’s small here in this fort, certainly.

In order to cover up my slightly reddening face, I covered my cheeks with my both hands. Uuu…

“’Japan’, huh? I’ve never heard of that country before. Where is it?”

I couldn’t answer Frank-san’s question.

Really, I wonder where is it from here?

How can I return home?

I reflexively grasped my hands tightly on top of my lap.

“That is…That, I don’t know…”

“You’re lost, huh? How did you come to this country?”

“That is, how to say it…after I passed the exams to become a sage, I suddenly passed out, and the moment I regained my consciousness, I realized that I had been sleeping on top of that hill, then I was picked up by Leon-san there, something like that…?”

“’Sage’…huh?2 What is it?”

“Uhhm, in short, it’s someone who can use both offensive magic and recovery magic.”

“Which means there are other people like Ojou-chan?”

“That’s right.”

“I see,” Frank-san crossed his arms as he thought.

It didn’t really matter, but as expected, his arms were really thick. When he crossed his arms like that, his muscles seemed to be excessively huge.

“What kind of thing is this exam to become a ‘sage’?”

I looked up at Leon-san and explained.

“It means fighting with the master that’s on the top floor of the Sage Tower. If we win, we will be recognized as a sage.”

“It means a one-on-one duel?”

“That’s right. But I went with a friend ‘til we reached the front gate.”

Basically, when one switches their job to be an advanced job, one has to fight the said job master alone. But the place where the master resides is located deep in a labyrinth, and one has to go with a party in order to solve the labyrinth.

There were also lots of strong demons appearing during when I went to the Sage Tower, so it was rather impossible to reach the top floor alone.

There was a rumour that you’d be directly transferred into the boss room after accepting a quest in the next update, but…

“Anyway, nobody has a clue about the Sage Tower?”

“We’ve never heard of such thing. Does it exist in the Demon Forest?”

“That’s right. It’s a tower built in the middle of the Demon Forest.”

“Yuuri…that’s impossible.”

“Eh?”

“What’s there in the center of the Demon Forest is the Sacred Mountain Meteora. It’s not the Sage Tower.”

“…Eh?”

“Let alone someone who could climb up the Sacred Mountain Meteora, nobody could even reach its base. The monsters in the Demon Forest are just that strong.”

Eh…but…

“In the first place, isn’t the [Demon Forest] that Yuuri talks about different from the [Demon Forest] that we know?”

“Different…?”

“That’s correct. If Yuuri went to the ‘Sage’ Tower through the Demon Forest, it would mean that she entered the Demon Forest through some country in this Elysia continent. As far as you can see, Yuuri’s race is human. If that’s the case, one would normally enter the Demon Forest from somewhere near the Ares kingdom. Thus, the closest town to Demon Forest would be Graham, but if they supplied their food there, they should have passed through Izel fort. But we didn’t see such kind of travellers, and Yuuri didn’t even know the name of the fort. In other words, the [Demon Forest] that Yuuri said should be different from the Demon Forest here, shouldn’t it?”

Uhm…It’s not that, but the Demon Forest I entered was the Demon Forest inside the world of the game, though…

But if the Sage Tower isn’t located in the center of the Demon Forest, doesn’t that mean this Elysia continent is different from the one I know in the game?

Ah, that’s right. A map!

Wouldn’t it be fine if I were to see the map that Leon-san and Argo-san were seeing when I entered this room?

“Ah, uhm…If it’s alright, can you show me the map of Elysia continent? I might be able to figure something out after seeing it…”

“…No problem. Argo, bring it here.”

Argo-san brought another map, not the one that was hung on the wall.

Ooh. This is this world’s world map, huh?

The shape of the continent was the same as the one I remembered.

There was one big continent that was divided into six, from the upper right were the Demon Empire, Dwarf Republic, the beastmen’s Urg Beast Kingdom, the human race’s Ares Kingdom, the nameless country of the elves, and the Niflheim where the fairies reside.

The Demon Forest filled one third of the continent and was located in the center of the continent. Furthermore, the Sage Tower was…supposed to stand towering over the surrounding in the middle of the forest, but in this map, the place was occupied by a mountain called as the Sacred Mountain Meteora instead.

The alphabets in which this map was written looked similar to the Runes that my friend who majored in the Northern European literature showed me. But the moment my eyes saw them, those alphabets were converted into Japanese.

For the time being, I was glad that I was saved from the troubles of not being able to read the alphabets of this world…

“This…The Sage Tower should be in where the Sacred Mountain Meteora is, but…”

“Where is ‘Japan’?”

“It’s not in this map. I mean…I wonder how I could go there…”

“Which means Yuuri doesn’t know how you went to the ‘Sage’ Tower through the Demon Forest from ‘Japan’?”

When I deeply nodded, Leon-san gently patted my head.

“Then, you can try looking for ways to return to ‘Japan’ from now on. We will help you.”

“T…thank you very much…”

Tears brimmed over my eyes upon hearing such kind words. Leon-san then adjusted the way he hugged me, as he turned me around to hug me tightly from the front. Then, he also comforted me by patting my back.

‘Plop…plop…,’ the sound of my back being patted synchronized with the sound of Leon-san’s heartbeat that I heard from my closely pasted ear.

Being pampered like a child like that, I cried loudly with all my heart for the first time since coming to this world.

This was the moment I realized that this current condition was neither a dream nor a fantasy, but this was the reality.