Yogiri and Tomochika reached the city in the north around sunset.
"That was pretty far. It was, what, an hour of walking? So probably around four kilometers, give or take."
"Man, I didn't think it would take us this long to get here," Tomochika said, her voice a shade angry.
Judging from the position of the sun, they had been brought to this world in the morning. Despite all that had happened since, the main reason it had taken so long to get to the city was that Yogiri had once again fallen asleep.
"I can't help it. I get sleepy when I use my power."
"Isn't that problematic?" Tomochika asked, a little concerned. After all, right now her safety was resting entirely on that power. It wasn't surprising that it would be a source of worry for her.
"Not really. It's not so bad that I couldn't stay awake if I really wanted to, and I can still feel people's intent to kill when I'm asleep."
"There really is no downside to it, is there?"
Leaving Tomochika to her grumbling, Yogiri surveyed the scene before them. The first thing that he saw was an enormous wall wrapping around the entire city. It seemed the entrances were all closely guarded. In short, it was a fortress city, which strongly suggested they were protecting themselves from dangerous enemies on the outside.
"Hey, does it look like they're shutting the gate to you?"
"It's probably normal to shut the gates at night..."
"Hurry up, then!"
"I mean, I guess, if you want to."
Tomochika broke into a sprint, with Yogiri following after her.
"Excuse me! Would you mind if we went inside?!" Tomochika called out to the man at the gate. He was wearing western-style armor and carrying a spear. He must have been a soldier.
"@@@@@@@@@@?"
"I don't understand a word he's saying!"
"I think it's normal not to speak the language when you arrive in a different world."
"A little, understand. You Japanese?" The guard spoke up again, this time in broken Japanese.
"Yes! Can we enter?"
"Wait. Lord, call."
The guard led them to a waiting room just inside the gate. After taking a seat and waiting for a while, a man who was clearly Japanese entered the room. The splendid clothing he wore indicated that he was the Lord that the guard had referred to.
"Are you two separate from the ones who came at noon? Man, what a pain. What do you want?" he said, not bothering to hide his annoyance.
Since, in this world, you were given an important position if you survived the process of becoming a Sage candidate, this Lord must have been one of the Sage's servants.
"We got separated from the group who came by earlier and are trying to catch up to them. For now, could we at least enter the city?"
After talking it over, they had decided to try and reunite with their classmates. Even if they had been used as bait, being trapped alone in another world was something that Tomochika wanted to avoid.
That said, even putting aside Tomochika's thoughts on the matter, Yogiri had felt the same way. If they wanted to get back to their own world, they would need to find the Sage and get the relevant information out of her. The best way to do that would be to stick with those who were trying to become Sages themselves.
The Lord clicked his tongue. "Normally, we charge an entry fee, but I assume you lot don't have money anyway. We were told not to get in the way of the Sage candidates, so I guess you can come inside."
"It seems like the others went on to the capital. Where should we go to follow them?"
"Let me rephrase that. The Sage told us not to get in your way, but she never said we had to help you. Figure it out on your own."
"Well, thanks, I guess."
It seemed there was nothing to be gained by staying there. Yogiri stood up, prompting Tomochika to follow suit.
"Ah, right, right. If you don't have any money, I guess you won't be able to find somewhere to sleep. If you want, I can put the girl up in my mansion."
"No, thank you!" Although the Lord's eyes had taken on a rather vulgar look, Tomochika didn't give him a second glance. Grabbing Yogiri's hand, she pulled him out of the room.
Once they had made it into the city, she finally stopped and let him go.
"You really dislike him that much, huh?" Yogiri was a little doubtful.
Tomochika seemed strangely flustered. "Of course he makes me angry, but the main thing I'm worried about is his life. I was worried you might end up killing him."
"What am I, a serial killer?"
"I'm kind of surprised you haven't noticed."
"Hey now. It's not like I'm killing people just because I don't like them. What do you think I am?"Yogiri felt a little hurt. It wasn't a big deal, but it seemed like she thought he was just dropping people left and right for no reason.
Apparently unaware of his feelings, Tomochika had already moved on and was excitedly inspecting their surroundings. "Hey, look! This is totally a classic fantasy city, isn't it? Oh! There are even people that look like cats! Beastkin, I guess?"
A stone road ran through a town of stone-crafted buildings before them. It was a scene that Yogiri had long grown accustomed to — that of medieval European cities from his video games.
"Looks like they don't have electricity. I guess charging this thing is really going to be impossible."
"Are you still on about that? I think the more important question is, what are we going to do now?"
"Well, whatever we're doing, I guess we should do it while we still have daylight. Any ideas?"
"First, I think we should get some weapons!" From her tone, it appeared that Tomochika thought this was a matter of great importance.◇ ◇ ◇
They couldn't read the language of this world, of course, but they used the pictures on the signs to eventually locate what appeared to be a weapons shop. Yogiri and Tomochika made their way inside.
"I'm not sure we really need weapons to protect ourselves."
"But if we rely solely on you to protect us, you'll just flat-out kill everyone we come up against."
"Live by the sword, die by the sword, you know? That's what they get for attacking us."
"But if we have weapons, maybe it'll discourage people from attacking us in the first place."
"I wonder about that. I don't think that having weapons will make much of a difference." It was highly unlikely that a pair of amateurs wielding daggers and the like would deter anyone who truly meant them harm.
The inside of the store was quite luxurious. Apparently, there was a significant demand for weapons, which likely meant a corresponding level of local danger.A wide range of gear was on display within, and a number of customers were browsing the wares. Behind the counter were what he assumed to be several particularly high-class items.
Among the customers were beings who were clearly not human. Other than the cat-eared people that Tomochika had pointed out, there were also those covered entirely in fur or scales. It seemed there were a number of different races in this world.
"What about this?" Tomochika asked, handing Yogiri a sword with a blade about thirty centimeters long. From the way she handled it without any hesitation, he guessed that she was somewhat used to dealing with them.
Yogiri took the sword from her. It was lighter than he'd expected and felt comfortable in his hands, but he didn't think it was something that he'd be able to use effectively.
"If we want it for intimidation purposes, shouldn't we get something a bit more dangerous-looking?"
"Walking around with something heavy will be difficult. And you don't look all that strong."
"Maybe I don't need anything after all. I think it's just going to get in the way." Trying to use a weapon that he wasn't familiar with would only open him up to lowering his guard.
"Oh. Well, I'm not going to force you or anything." She began looking around for a weapon of her own. "Hmmm, walking around with something big will be inconvenient, but the smaller ones won't have much of a range...could I put a nock spear on this...?" Picking up the bow, Tomochika continued to mutter to herself.
"Not to interrupt, but how do you plan on talking to the clerk?"
"I can just show them the weapon and hand over some money, right?" You could call it excessive optimism, but she was pretty brave. She didn't seem at all bothered by the obvious language barrier.
In the end, she picked a small bow and quiver and brought them over to the counter.
"Excuse me, do you speak Japanese?"
"Okay! I understand! Japanese people my specialty!" He was hardly fluent, but the natives of this world had likely grown used to dealing with otherworlders.
As Tomochika pulled out a handful of money, the clerk's expression turned to one of surprise. Apparently, she had taken out a whole lot of it. But all the pair had on them were coins and jewels that looked fairly expensive. As it was too much of a nuisance to try and count it all out, she handed it all to the clerk and left it at that.
"Buying it is all very well, but aren't bows kind of hard to use?"
"It's fine, I'm used to it."
"Oh, were you in the Archery Club?"
"I wasn't in any club, but yeah, something like that," she said, putting the bow into her backpack. After that, they left the weapons shop behind.
Standing just outside the store was a girl with cat ears. From the way she was staring, it seemed she had been waiting for them.
"You guys from Japan? First time seeing you around here. You having any problems?" She called out in fluent Japanese — although her speech was peppered with bizarre, cat-like "meows" between each word.