Prologue and Chapter 1

PROLOGUE

[THE WASTE HEAT OF THE BEGINNING]

—This is really, really not good.

Feeling the hard texture of the ground against his face, he realized that he had fallen facedown on the ground. He couldn’t move, even when he tried, and he already couldn’t feel his fingers. What he did feel was a certain heat, and it overwhelmed his entire body.

—It’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot.

He coughed and vomited the blood he felt rising in his throat—the source of his waning life. So much came out that it frothed at the edges of his mouth. With his hazy vision, he could see the ground in front of him stained red.

—You’ve…got to be kidding me… All of this is mine?

Feeling as though all of the blood in his body had spilled out of him, he reached a shaking hand to try to find the source of the heat that was burning through his body. As his fingertips reached the large cut in his stomach, he understood.

No wonder it felt so hot. His brain must have been mistaking pain for heat. The clean gash that ran through his torso was so deep it had almost sliced him in half. Only bits of skin were still holding him together.

In other words, he had run right into a checkmate in the chess game of his life. As soon as he realized that, his consciousness immediately began to fall away from him.

Before his eyes, he saw a black boot descend, making ripples in the red pool of his fresh blood.

Someone was there, and that someone…was probably the one who killed him.

But he didn’t even think to look that person in the face. It didn’t matter anymore.

—The one thing he did wish was that she, at least, would be safe.

“—baru?”

He felt as if he heard a voice that rang like bells. That he heard that voice, that he could hear that voice, felt like salvation to him more than anything else, so—

“!”

With a short scream, someone else crumpled upon the carpet of blood.

She landed right beside him. He lay there, weakly attempting to reach her.

Her white hand fell, powerless. He lightly grasped it in his own bloodstained grip.

He felt the fingers of her hand move slightly to accept his own.

“Just you wait…”

He seized his fading consciousness, pulling it desperately back to buy a bit more time.

“I’m going to…”

—find a way to save you.

In the next instant, he—Subaru Natsuki—lost his life.

CHAPTER 1

[THE END OF THE BEGINNING]

—This is really going to be a problem.

With no money and no idea what to do, he repeated the thought over and over again in his mind.

Well, it wasn’t completely accurate to say he had no money. The wallet in his pocket was filled with all the cash he owned, enough to go on a little bit of a shopping spree if he had to—under normal circumstances. But in this case, “no money” is really the only way to describe his situation.

“Yeah, but the currency system here is completely different, isn’t it…”

The young man flicked his rare notched ten-yen coin in the air and breathed a deep sigh.

He didn’t really have any features about him that stood out. He had short black hair and was of average height, being neither short nor tall. He was a bit muscular, though, as if he had been working out, and the cheap gray tracksuit that he was wearing really suited him quite well. He had small irises, so the whites of his eyes stood out, but right now, the way his eyes were downcast, he didn’t have a very aggressive or championing look to him.

He looked average enough to be quickly lost in a crowd…but right now, most of those passing by looked at him out of the corners of their eyes as if they were looking at something strange they had never seen before.

But that was to be expected. After all, among all those onlookers, not one of them had black hair, nor were any of them wearing tracksuits. They had blond hair, red hair, and brown hair…some even had blue or green hair, among others, and they were wearing armor, or black robes, or the kind of costume a dancer might wear…that sort of thing.

As he stood before the waves of open stares, the young man crossed his arms and had no other option but to accept the truth.

“This has got to be one of those…” he said, snapping his fingers and pointing out toward the crowd of onlookers. “One of those so-called ‘I’ve been summoned to another world’ deals, right?” he said as an oxcart-like vehicle pulled by a giant lizard-like thing crossed in front of him.

Subaru Natsuki was an extremely ordinary boy, born on Earth, the third planet in the solar system, to a middle-class family in the nation of Japan. If you were to sum up his nearly seventeen years of life, the previous sentence would be enough to describe him, and if you felt the need to add anything else, the extra sentence, “He was a third-year public high school student with a tendency to not show up to class,” would be sufficient.

Placed at a fork in the road of life, such as “whether to pursue a college degree or jump straight into the workforce,” people are generally forced to make a decision one way or the other. That sort of decision-making is something everyone has to deal with and part of what we call life, but in Subaru’s case (you might call it his specialty) he was a bit better than your average Joe at running away from things he did not like. In avoiding such a decision, the number of his unexcused absences had piled up, and before he knew it he was a bona fide truant, the kind parents weep over.

“And to top it all off, now I’ve been summoned to a whole different world. I guess that seals the deal. I’m a high school dropout now. But seriously, what the hell is going on?”

He felt as if he was having a not-so-well-thought-out dream, but even after pinching his cheeks and smacking his head against a wall, he wouldn’t wake up.

Subaru sighed. He had drifted away from where he was, getting all sorts of curious looks, and was now sitting against a wall in an alley just off the main road.

“Assuming I really have been summoned to a fantasy world…the state of civilization appears to be the usual, medieval-like setting. So far, I haven’t seen anything mechanical, but the roads are pretty well paved…and of course I can’t use any of my cash.”

As for whether he could communicate with the people here, and regarding the value of goods, those were things that Subaru checked immediately upon realizing he had been summoned to a different world.

Fortunately, he had no problem communicating, and he was able to confirm that commerce was handled in a currency of gold, silver, and copper coins. His first contact, a merchant at a fruit stand, wasn’t all that welcoming to him, though.

As for why Subaru was so quick to accept and understand his current situation, the fact that he was a modern Japanese youth poisoned by anime and games had something to do with it, and for that he was very thankful. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that as an adolescent boy, this sort of otherworldly summoning was the kind of thing you’d dream would happen to you, but on that note…

“Without a little bit more of a welfare safety-net thing going on, a laid-back guy like myself isn’t going to be able to deal, you know?” Subaru complained.

Given his current situation, and pitiful starting equipment, he couldn’t help it.

His belongings consisted of a cell phone (which looked like it would run out of batteries soon), a wallet (filled with membership cards from various video rental stores), a cup of instant ramen he’d bought from a convenience store (pork bone and soy sauce flavor), a bag of crispy snacks bought from the same store (corn soup flavor), his favorite gray tracksuit (unwashed), and well-worn sneakers (two years old). That was it.

“I don’t even get a single Excalibur? I’m done. What am I supposed to do in this getup?”

Well, there’s only so much you can hope for when you’re summoned to a different world on your way back from the convenience store. It had happened in the blink of an eye.

Subaru had already gotten hungry and eaten half of the one thing he had that might have been of any use—his pack of crispy snacks—before realizing that he had just gone through his only source of food. But worrying about it wasn’t going to help him now.

Even if he’d wanted to put his hopes on the possibility that this was being staged as part of an elaborate reality TV show, the large lizard carts and look of all the people passing by nipped that in the bud.

“The fact that no one seems to be paying attention to them means that they’re probably normal…both those giant lizards and the half-humans.”

Subaru grumbled and looked on as people with strange outfits and colorful hair passed by, but out of all of them, the ones who really drove home the fact that he had been summoned to another world were the half-humans.

Without having to look too long Subaru could see people with dog ears and cat ears, and there were even some who looked like they were lizardmen. But of course there were also ordinary humans, the same as Subaru.

“So this is a world with half-humans…and probably wars and adventures, too. As for whether there are any animals I’m used to around… I’m not too sure, but given that lizard cart thing…it looks like they use animals in the same way we do.”

After putting all of that together, Subaru let out a long breath, but not a sigh. If things unfolded the way he had fantasized about before about otherworldly summoning, he ought to be able to use his knowledge of modern civilization to hold sway over everyone else…but there were a lot of things that still didn’t make any sense.

“The truth is, I have no idea what to do next, and I still have no idea how or why I was summoned. I don’t remember stepping into a mirror or falling in a pond, and if I’m to believe this is the otherworldly summoning format I’m used to, where is the beautiful girl who summoned me?”

The lack of a main heroine in this otherworldly summoning setup was a big hole in the plot. If this were taking place in a 2D world, someone in the creative department was seriously slacking off. If Subaru was really summoned for no reason and then abandoned just like that, it put him on the same level as single-use disposable goods.

Now that Subaru had finished establishing the state of his surroundings, he really couldn’t think of anything better to do than return to his default state of escaping from reality.

“I guess if I keep this up, it’s no different from locking myself up in my room back home.”

The thought of his parents crossed his mind, but right now he wasn’t in a position where he could just sit around feeling homesick. Thinking he had to do something about his current situation, he stood back up and turned back toward the main road, but… Just as Subaru was about to walk out onto the main road, he almost bumped into someone who moved out in front of him.

“Oh. Sorry ’bout that.” Subaru gave a short apology and tried to continue past, but…

“Hold up!”

…he was grabbed firmly by the shoulder and pulled back into the alley. Nearly falling over himself as he turned around, Subaru looked up to see that the person who had thrown him back was a man with a large build.

Behind that man were two of his buddies, and the three men stood in such a way as to block Subaru from exiting the alley onto the main road.

The way they moved, it didn’t appear this was the first time these men had done this, and Subaru had a bad feeling about what was going to come next.

“Umm… May I ask what you three fine fellows plan on doing with me?”

“Oh, it looks like this one here’s a smart one! Well, nothing to worry about. Just give us everything you’ve got on you, and there’s no need for anyone to get hurt.”

“So that’s the deal, huh? Yeah, I guess it would be. Ha-ha… This really sucks.”

The men’s gazes were filled with scorn and ridicule. They looked like they were in their twenties, with the meanness of their personalities reflected in their faces and dirty appearances. They didn’t look like they were half-humans, but they certainly weren’t saints, either.

You couldn’t call it an unusual plot development. Encountering thugs was a way to show the dangers of everyday life. In other words…

“Damn, I’ve triggered a compulsory event.”

As he looked at the men smirking, Subaru tried to hold the status quo with a fake smile and considered his options. He was in quite a pinch, but since the beginning of time, in stories where humans are summoned to other worlds, those humans tended to be able to wield some kind of superpower. If Subaru had been summoned to this world under the same conditions as the stories he was familiar with, it was very likely that he had been given some sort of power. With that thought, Subaru felt that his body was a little lighter than usual.

“I’m starting to get the feeling that this world’s gravity is, like, only a tenth of my world’s. I can do this. I can do this! I’m going to mow you all down and make this the first chapter of my glorious future! You’re only here so I can pull experience points off of you, you scum!”

“What the hell is he going on about?” said one of the men.

“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure he’s making fun of us. Let’s kill ’im,” replied another.

“Took the words right out of my mouth… You’re going to regret this!” returned Subaru, before flying forward with a straight jab from his right hand, aiming for the big man in front. Subaru’s fist collided with the man’s nose, but he also cut his fist on one of the man’s front teeth and started bleeding.

—I hit someone for the first time in my life! Wow! It hurts way more than I expected.

Subaru was confident in his fighting form, but he had never been in a real fight before. The man who was punched fell to the ground. Without taking a moment to pause, Subaru leapt at another of the men, caught off guard, as his next target. With a clean arc he landed a kick on the side of the next man’s head, slamming him into the wall of the alley.

This was going even better than he’d expected, and he started to be sure of the notion that he was invincible in this new world.

“I guess in this world my stats are pretty good! What a rush! Now to finish this!”

Turning back around, Subaru bent forward to beat down the last man standing, when his eyes centered on what that man was holding in his hand: a glinting knife.

Immediately Subaru dropped to his knees, bent over forward, and with a spectacular single motion prostrated himself, pressing his forehead against the ground.

“I’m sorry, that was absolutely terrible of me, I ask that you forgive me and please find it in your generous hearts to spare my life!”

Prostration—it was the most exteme form of showing absolute submission to another and the lowest form of Japanese humility. Just where did all of that fired-up feeling go? Subaru felt as if he could hear the blood drain from his body. Desperately clinging to any hope of mercy, he tried to make himself seem small and continued to apologize.

With a knife involved, fighting was out of the question. No matter how you might train yourself, if you were stabbed, it was all over. All things in life are transient.

Before he knew it, the two that Subaru thought he had defeated were back on their feet. One was holding his bleeding nose and the other was shaking his head back and forth, but other than that both looked as though they were in surprisingly good condition.

“What?! You mean to tell me that my one-hit knockout punch only did that much damage?! What about my superpowers?!”

“I dunno what you’re going on about, but shut your trap! You’ve really done it now!”

It looked as though Subaru had been completely wrong about being summoned into another world coming with the promise of some kind of powers. He wasn’t really any stronger than he had been before.

One of the men stepped on the back of Subaru’s head, scraping his forehead against the ground and causing him to bleed. Another then kicked him in the face, and Subaru curled into a ball as tightly as he could as he was subjected to further acts of violence.

After all, the one who hit first was Subaru. The men didn’t hold back at all.

—Crap, this really, really hurts. Like, I could die. No, seriously.

Unlike in his own world, there was no guarantee that these thugs wouldn’t take his life. At this rate, it would be better to try one last-ditch effort to retaliate before he was beaten to death…

“Stop moving, you whelp!”

“Ow! No, don’t… Ow! Ow! Ow!!”

The man with the knife stomped on Subaru’s hand as he tried to get up, then readjusted his grip on the knife so that the tip was held back toward his arm, ready to strike.

“After we make sure you can’t move we’re going to take everything you’ve got. That’s what you get for acting tough, you punk…”

“I-if you’re looking for money or valuables, I’m sorry but you’re out of luck. After all, I don’t have a cent on me…!”

“Then those strange-looking clothes and shoes’ll do just fine. You can just stay down and be food for the alley rats!”

Oh, so there are rats in this world, too, Subaru thought. I hope they aren’t big, like monster rats or anything. Subaru looked at the knife about to come down as if it didn’t concern him at all, distancing himself from reality as best he could.

Subaru didn’t see his life flash before his eyes, and he didn’t feel like time was slowing down, either. The end would probably come like the cutting of a thread, he thought.

—But just then…

“Hey! Out of the way! Out of the way! I’m talking to you! Move!” yelled someone in a flustered-sounding voice as they dashed into the alley.

Like the men, who suddenly looked up, Subaru managed to glance up in the direction of the voice, though he couldn’t move his body.

What he saw was a small girl with longish blond hair dashing by. From her red eyes, you could sense a strong will, and her one canine tooth sticking out made her look like quite a prankster. She seemed more cheeky than anything else, but Subaru felt that if she smiled she would look pretty cute.

As if it had been staged for a comeback, the fading light of hope Subaru had been holding lit anew.

He was waiting for this kind of development.

The girl, in her well-worn clothes and unclean appearance, had stumbled upon this attempted murder and robbery in the act! What would surely happen next, was that with an overflowing sense of justice this girl would save Subaru’s life, right from the clutches of death…

“Whoa! You look like you’re in quite a pinch there, but sorry! I’ve got my hands full right now! Good luck! Live life to the fullest!”

“Wait, what?! Are you serious?!”

Unfortunately, that hope was shattered in an instant.

The girl raised her hand in an apologetic sort of gesture and didn’t slow down as she continued racing down the alley. She went right past the men and kept going toward what should have been a dead end, kicked off against a wooden plank set up against the end wall, grabbed the top of the wall, and lightly flung herself up onto the roof of one of the surrounding buildings, where she disappeared.

After the girl was gone, a silence fell upon the alley. It was as if a hurricane had just passed. Both Subaru and the men were dumbstruck.

However, this didn’t mean that Subaru’s situation had improved at all.

“Doesn’t what just happened make your anger just sort of melt away and make you want to change your minds about all of this?!”

“More like it killed the mood and now I’m even angrier. Don’t think you’ll get to die a pleasant death!”

The men kept their feet planted on Subaru so he couldn’t move. As Subaru looked at the glint of the knife in the man’s hand, the death that loomed before him seemed ever more real.

—No, I mean, you’ve got to be kidding. I can’t die this easily, can I?

A twitching smile formed on Subaru’s face as he looked around desperately for someone to deny the death that was coming his way. However, no such convenient development came. The tip of the knife drew ever closer.

A feeling of resignation came over Subaru and he felt tears welling up in his eyes. It wasn’t fear that overwhelmed him; it was more the feeling of emptiness that this would all end without him accomplishing anything.

In the midst of this overwhelming despair, feeling as if he had been abandoned by everyone and everything…

“Hold it right there, you evildoers!”

That voice overcame the noise of the crowd, the vulgar insults of the men, Subaru’s own heavy breathing, as well as everything else, and shook the very foundations of the world.

When people say, “Time stood still,” they must surely be talking about times like this.

There was a girl standing at the entrance to the alley.

She was beautiful. She had long silver hair, with braids in it that reached down to her hips. She was looking straight at Subaru with violet eyes that shone with intelligence. In her soft features were both elements of youth but also mature beauty. There was also a noble air about her that gave her a dangerous and bewitching charm.

The girl was about one head shorter than Subaru, which made her around five feet, three inches tall. The clothes she wore used white as a base color, and there was nothing terribly ornate about them, but on the other hand, the simplicity emphasized her presence.

The one thing that stood out was the white cloak the girl was wearing. It was emblazoned with embroidery that depicted a bird of prey, adding to her impression of majesty.

However, it wasn’t the clothes she wore that made her shine so.

“I will not stand by and watch any more of your wrongdoing. That is enough.”

Her voice, like silver bells, rang beautifully in Subaru’s ears, and for a moment he forgot the situation he was in. He was completely undone by the silver-haired girl’s presence.

The other men seemed to be just as shaken up as Subaru was.

“Wha… Who do you think you are…?”

“If you stop right now, I’ll let you go. In a way, this is my fault for not being cautious. So do the right thing and give back what you stole.”

“Hey, what she’s wearing looks expensive. You think she’s nobility? Wait, huh…? What we stole?”

“Please. It is very precious to me. I’d be willing to give it up if it were anything else, but I absolutely can’t in this case. Please. I won’t do anything to you, so please just give it back.”

The girl looked as if she was pleading with all her heart.

However, there was an inexplicable feeling of pressure that rose within the group. Something was happening that was hard to explain.

“W-wait a minute! We don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“…What do you mean?”

The men pointed to Subaru, still underfoot.

“You didn’t come here to rescue this guy…did you?”

“…Those are some weird clothes that boy is wearing. Did you all have a fight among yourselves? I don’t think three against one is really fair, but…if you’re asking me if I know this person, I haven’t ever seen him before in my life.” Perhaps it was because she thought the men were trying to change the subject, but you could hear an amount of irritation in her voice. Because of that, each of the men rushed to explain themselves.

“Wait a second! If you’re not after this guy, then we’re not involved! I bet it was that girl from before!”

“You said you had something stolen from you, right?! That wall! You see that wall? She jumped off that wall and ran away on the rooftops!”

“She’s farther back! Back past that wall! At the rate she was going, she’s probably another three streets down!”

As the men continued to plead their innocence, the girl turned her eyes to Subaru, as if asking whether these men were telling the truth. Without thinking, Subaru nodded.

“Hmm… It doesn’t look like you’re lying. So the one who stole from me is down farther ahead? I’ve got to hurry…”

The girl turned away from Subaru and the men and toward the main road. The men clearly looked relieved. Subaru, faced with the reality of his abandonment, started to enter a state of shock, when…

“Still, this situation is one I can’t just ignore.”

As she turned back around the girl put her hand up, palm facing outward, and a series of shining lights began to dance in front of it.

A dull thud rang out, like that of a hard object striking flesh, followed by the cries of the men as they were thrown backward. Then, there was a high-pitched sound as a fist-size clump of ice fell to the ground right beside Subaru.

The clump of ice, which seemed to have formed heedless of both the season and the laws of physics, quickly evaporated as if it were being eaten by the surrounding air.

“…Magic.”

The best word to describe what just happened immediately tumbled out of Subaru’s mouth.

There wasn’t any incantation or anything, but that chunk of ice had definitely shot out of that girl’s palm.

Magic—having seen it with his very own eyes for the first time, Subaru realized something.

“It isn’t quite as fantasy-like as I imagined… To be honest, this is kind of a letdown.”

Subaru had imagined there would be more light and energy being bounced around. In reality, all that happened was an unrefined-looking clump of ice suddenly materialized, was used as a blunt object for physical damage, and then suddenly disappeared. There was no feeling or anything put into it at all.

“Now…you’ve done it.”

Subaru’s feelings on magic aside, the other men, who had taken a real hit from those clumps of ice, got back to their feet. To be fair, it was only two of them who managed to get back up. The remaining man must have gotten hit in a bad spot, because he was still knocked out. But rather than this fact taking the fight out of them, it seemed to just make the other two men even angrier. Standing next to the man with the knife, the other drew out a blunt, club-like object, and both were ready to fight.

“I don’t care if you’re a magic user or nobility or whatever! I’ve had enough. We’re gonna kill you! Do you really think you can win a two-on-one fight?!” yelled the man with the knife, holding his face, blood still dripping from his nose.

In response to his threats, the girl closed one of her eyes. “You’re right, one against two sounds like it could be a little tough.”

“…In that case, would two on two be bit more fair?” As if it were finishing the girl’s sentence, a new, higher-pitched, genderless voice entered the fray.

Startled, Subaru looked around. The other men also followed suit, but there wasn’t anyone inside or at the entrance to the alley who looked as though they were the owner of that voice.

Then, as if to show both Subaru and the other men the answer to their question, the girl extended her left hand.

Sitting on top of her palm and white fingers, there it was.

“When you all stare at me like that, full of expectation, it’s uh…kind of embarrassing.”

Using its paw to clean its face was a small, palm-size cat that stood upright on its two hind legs.

It had gray hair and floppy ears. To the best of Subaru’s knowledge it was nearest to an American shorthair. That is, if you ignored the fact that its nose was pink and it had a tail about the length of its body.

Seeing the small, palm-size cat, the man with the knife seemed overcome with fear and yelled, “Y-you’re a spirit mage?!”

“That’s right. If you want to leave right now, I won’t chase after you, but make up your minds quick. I’m in a hurry.”

With that, the men rushed to pick up their fallen companion and leave the alley, but as they passed the girl on their way out, one of the men clicked his tongue and said, “I’m going to remember your face, you bitch. The next time we see you it won’t go this well for you.”

“If you do anything to her I’ll curse you and all of your offspring, you know? Though, in that case you won’t be having any.”

For the thug, that must have been his best attempt at intimidation, but in contrast, the cat’s response was light in tone but much more severe.

The cat didn’t seem to be completely serious, but the men paled more than they ever had before, and ran out into the main road without another word.

Once the thugs were gone, Subaru was left alone in the alley with the girl and her cat. Thinking that he at least needed to say thanks, Subaru forgot his pain and started to get to his feet, but…

“Don’t move,” said the girl in a cold emotionless voice. You could see in her eyes that she was being cautious. Even though she realized that Subaru was not with the other thugs, she wasn’t about to let her guard down, that much was clear.

It was actually Subaru’s reaction that was more out of place. Even though the girl was looking at him like that, he was fixed on her beautiful and bewitching violet eyes. Not used to seeing such beauty, Subaru unthinkingly blushed and looked away.

“See? I knew I was on to something. If he had nothing to hide, he wouldn’t look away like that,” said the girl.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***