After taking the pig's order, Yamazaki and I left the meeting room. I followed Yamazaki to his place in the office hall. He sat down and took his smartphone, in hopes of finally reaching our customer, unfortunately, unsuccessfully.
"What do we do now?" — I asked him.
"Do you think we have many options left? For now, I'll try to reach the customer."
Yamazaki doesn't lose his hope, huh.
Half an hour later, we were still unable to reach our customer. He has been unavailable since yesterday, I wonder what happened to him. Yamazaki pulled back his chair, raised his chin and looked at the ceiling. He let out a deep sigh after a while.
"Sigh… I guess we have no choice. Smile, Kazuya-kun, we will have a trip to the Lar world."
"Hooray…"
***
Once we arrived, men dressed in odd costumes greeted us. I assume it is some kind of uniform. Yellow overall with green lines and some kind of creature depicted on their chests with purple color. Is it a dragon? Hard to tell without staring at it right in front of it.
The men were holding long spears, more than twice their height. Long enough to almost reach the ceiling. Seriously, either expand your building or replace your spears with shorter ones…
The Lar world. At first sight, it looks very similar to our stereotypical medieval period view. After we left the funny-looking guys with spears, we were greeted by a miserable sight of the streets. Or, rather, it looked miserable at first.
When I said stereotypical view of the medieval period, I meant it quite literally. In our minds, the medieval period was some kind of dark age. Misery everywhere, death everywhere, incurable illnesses and diseases everywhere. The wealthy rich looking down upon the poor. Prideful knights serving their suzerains, flaunt one's honor to the left and to the right, every moment they could. The burning of witches etc. Was it that bad, though?
I mean, as a Japanese person I don't have to care about the European's perspective of the medieval period, but they are quite wrong to believe everything that is shown to them in the movies. The rest of the world as well, we are not really better.
People tend to forget that quite a few universities that are still active nowadays were founded during that very dark age. New architectures were developed, ancient Greek and Roman texts were translated, thanks to which a lot of ancient material is preserved to this day. Doesn't sound that much of a dark age to me.
And like this, the miserable first view of the streets changed. Yes, it didn't look great, but I can't tell that people looked sad or miserable. The market was quite lively, the people were loud and energetic.
"Three Laro! Three Laro! One Karupi for three Laro!"
"This is a scam! Mr. Navalo sales one Karupi for two Laro!"
"Lady, why don't you go to buy from Mr. Navalo then? Go away! You are disturbing my business!"
Weird naming, but this was to be expected.
pat
I felt Yamazaki's hand on my left shoulder. I looked at him, he stretched his arm and pointed at a statue.
"We split now and meet in one hour under this statue."
I nodded.
Yamazaki then walked into the left direction, and disappeared inside the crowd almost immediately.
"Um, excuse me!" — I patted someone's shoulder.
"Hm? What yer need, young boy" — a middle-aged, no, an old man answered.
"I wanted to ask you if you heard about the recently appeared hero named Yuuto?"
"Yu… who? No way in hell this is a real name. Is this a joke? Brat, I don't have time for yer jokes, begone."
Huh…
…
"Excuse me, have you heard of a man named Yuuto?"
"No" — the old woman shook her head.
"But would you like to try these delicious Mamogi? Only two Laro for one piece!"
Old woman! You take advantage of my lack of knowledge! I don't know what a Mamogi is, nor if two Laro is a good price for it!
…
"Uh, excuse me… I am searching for Yuuto. Have you heard that name?"
The merchant faced me with quite an irritated face, but it changed once he saw me.
"Oh, that's a strange but lovely costume you got there, son! How much do you want for it? I can give you 10, no! 30 Laro!"
Answer my question! And how much is a Laro worth anyway?!
…
Argh… I am exhausted. I think I'll ask a couple of more people and then return to the statue. There is no sense.
"Excuse me, there is someone I am searching for, his name is Yuuto, have you heard about him?"
"Oh my, of course I know him! Wanna come inside? I'll tell you everything~."
Oh! Finally, what a relief! The woman dragged me to the side, to a building. I was so relieved by the fact that someone finally responded positively, that I didn't realize I was dragged into a brothel, full of naked women casually walking by.
"O-o-oi! The hell is this place?! Do you really know anything about him?!"
"I may do, I may not, you will get everything you want inside~."
She grabbed my hand and squeezed it between her breasts. Then came closer to my ear and whispered — "I will tell you everything in detail~" — as she ended her sentence, she licked my ear.
Gulp
S-should I relax a bit? The scent of her perfume and the softness of her body… it's so comforting… I… no!
"Boy! Wait!"
I have only one woman in my mind! I must stay faithful to my Angel!
I escaped the devilish building and ran back into the crowd.
Damn it, how did nobody ever hear his name? This is odd. Usually, every candidate, no matter his role, is treated like a hero in the dimension he was brought to. It's only natural, they possess knowledge that is unknown to everyone here. How come Yuuto is unknown? He was supposed to deal with the problem of the constant demonic attacks on the people. To save countless lives! And yet, no one ever heard his name.
One hour had passed, I asked countless people and got the same answer every time. I approached the statue and sat down, waiting for Yamazaki. A couple of minutes had passed and Yamazaki came out of nowhere. Yamazaki looked tired.
"Let me guess" — he said first — "no one ever heard his name?"
I nodded.
Yamazaki then sat down next to me and released a big sigh.
"Same here."
Hm?
Sniff-sniff
That's a rather familiar scent. I approached Yamazaki's face closer.
"Huh? What's the matter?"
"…"
"What?"
"Is that a hickey on your neck? You had your fun, huh?"
"I don't understand what you are talking about" — he looked away.
Yeah, sure. I bet you don't. At least wipe the lipstick print on your face away.
Tsk
Am I being envious? I must stay faithful…
We spent some time just sitting and staring at the sky. At some point, the sky started getting darker.
"We can't return without that brat" — said Yamazaki and stood up.
"Let's go find a place to sleep."
I hadn't expected him to be so determined about his task. Well, he would be, if he didn't spend time in a brothel meanwhile…
We walked down the street searching for a hotel to sleep in. That was quite a hard quest, I have to say. After almost an hour, we finally found a hotel, or at least something that could be one. The sign depicted a roof and two cups of beer under it. It could be a tavern.
As we entered the building, a cup crashed into the wall just a meter away from our heads.
"How many times do I have to reject you? No! No! And once again, no!"
"But hear me out!"
A man of my age was speaking to a woman behind the receptionist desk.
"If you don't leave, I will break every single bone of your body" — she said with a calm yet cold expression on her face.
The man turned around and went upstairs. Poor one.
"Uhm, excuse me" — Yamazaki spoke to the woman.
"Oh! Dear customers! How may I help?" — her face changed drastically.
"We need two rooms for a couple of nights."
The receptionist poked the cheek with a finger.
"I am sorry, but we only have one room left. But we can add a second bed to the room!"
We both looked at each other with a look of disgust.
Urgh… sleeping in one room with him…
"Yeah, we will take the one room with two beds" — said Yamazaki, gnashing his teeth.
It's not a pleasure for me either…
"Great! It will cost you 10 Laro per night, food costs are excluded. Here are the keys" — she handed them over to Yamazaki — "Room 12, on the second floor, second room to the right next to the stairs."
After getting the keys, we went upstairs to examine our temporary residence. There is nothing I could say about, honestly. It's just a relatively small room with one bed and one small desk next to the window. A second bed would probably fit in here, but then we will have to forget about any free space inside.
grrrrr — a sudden noise coming out of my stomach broke the silence in the room.
Huh…
"What is it, Kazuya-kun? Are you hungry?"
grrrrr — Yamazaki's stomach chose to make an alliance with mine.
"…"
"…"
"Let's go down and eat something…"
"Uhm" — I nodded.
…
The tavern downside does not have any menu, you just get what the cook had fun cooking today.
Today's menu, a pea soup, accompanied by a plate of mashed potatoes and vegetables. We took our food and found an empty place to sit down. I immediately began eating my soup, and right after that, the mashed potatoes. It isn't tasty at all, but for the moment, more than enough.
Huh?
I looked at Yamazaki's plates. He ate his mashed potatoes, but had not a single spoon of his soup.
"What?" — he asked me.
"Nothing."
"Peas are disgusting, I would rather starve to death than eat them. Do you want it?"
"No, it's fine."
You don't expect an adult like him to be so picky about food, but, whatever.
Sigh
"I am relieved that Saru wasn't sent here. I bet he would be lost after one hour, heh."
"Probably" — Yamazaki answered — "this is why I didn't tell that pig whose fault it was."
Huh?
"What do you mean?"
"Mhm?"
"You didn't tell it's Saru's mistake?"
"No, I didn't. I predicted that the pig would send him here. I don't know Akashi-kun that well, but I doubt that sending him here would be a great idea. Don't you think so?"
"Uhm, probably…"
Taking responsibility for something Saru did, that is certainly not a thing I expected Yamazaki to do. I continued eating my mashed potatoes, when someone sat in front of us.
"Sigh, honestly, why is she so mean to me…"
I raised my eyes, it was the same boy who spoke to the receptionist back when we entered the building.
"Mhm? What are you looking at?"
"Oh, nothing, forgive me."
An awkward silence took control over us. I looked at him and realized he wanted to start a conversation, but didn't know how to start one in the first place. It seems that neither I nor the boy in front of me, was comfortable with the awkward silence on the table.
"Uh… love problems?"
"What? Ah…" — the boy rolled his eyes — "yeah, something like that… Tal is my name."
He stretched his arm.
"Kazuya, nice to meet you" — I shook his hand.
"Kaz… Kazwaya… urgh… Kaz?"
"Uh… Kaz would be fine, I guess."
"Just hear me out, Kaz! We have known each other since we were kids, we were even in love with each other back then, but now she straight up ignores me!"
Uh, I guess she means that receptionist?
"It's only natural that people's feelings change over time…"
"I don't want to! Mine didn't change a bit! I still remember the day we took a bath naked, seven years ago! She had a cute mole right on her hip."
Oi, don't you think you reveal too much personal information to somebody you know only for a couple of minutes?
"Say that again?" — a figure appeared behind Tal's head.
"Hiiek! Maen!"
"I didn't know you casually walk around and tell pridefully that you saw me naked" — she said with a tilted head and a calm, yet scary face with a smile.
"I should have already broken every single bone of your body."
"Wait! You are mistaken! I didn't show off!"
"I. Don't. Care." — she raised a besom and targeted Tal. The next instance, the besom hit Tal's head. He fell down on the ground, but Maen, in her rage, continued to hit him.
Poor Tal… but you deserve it.
…