Isekai Rebuilding Project: Volume 2 Read online

“Even the signature chant of the Nebuta festival is theorized to have derived from the Ainu language. While we’re at it, Kyosuke Kindaichi explored the theory that the word Emishi derived from Ainu, too.”

  He was a famous linguist in Japan, by the way. Her trivia DLC strikes again.

  “What do you think, Tia?”

  Of course, I wasn’t asking about the Nebuta festival nor the Ainu language.

  “The timing is too perfect to brush it off as a coincidence.”

  The course of this world’s history changed after my death. The Inspector had said that beriberi casualties drastically decreased afterward. I didn’t choose that world though. I refused to solve the issue by war and demanded a redo. The history we were writing now was one where Eiji the Hermit was not killed, so Syfer and Millia did not flee the country, and Azur and Noura won’t go to war.

  “But the answer was shown.”

  “Mm-hm. I agree, Eiji. I think the god of this world learned from your mistake.”

  I didn’t ask that the god learn. It was obvious. During war times, day-to-day luxuries are taken away. Beriberi wouldn’t stand a chance, just like it didn’t in Japan during WWII.

  “Theory: The god of this world summoned someone else. Not as an aid for humans, but for monsters.”

  “Agreed. Then, everything makes sense,” said Tia.

  The kingdom of Noura was at war with strangely organized monsters and their newfound strategic tactics. It was outlining this one possibility.

  “But, why now? If summoning can be done willy-nilly, wouldn’t it be much easier to tweak the history of when Shizuru was here?”

  No need to bring in Mister Fix-it. The god of this world just had to kill the hero on the spot after he defeated the Demon Lord. None of our current problems would have surfaced. It just seemed that everything the god of this world did was reactionary and didn’t quite hit the mark.

  “Time is irreversible, I assume. I think the god can deal with what has happened, but not remove the source of the problems.”

  “I got a do-over, though.”

  “And who made that happen?”

  “Right.”

  It wasn’t the god of this world. The Inspector had done that. And she had called it the card up her sleeve. That’s not something you have an abundance of. It’s a one-shot move to turn the tables.

  “History was changed, and a war-free future was beginning to be realized. If this isn’t in someone’s favor, there’s only one thing to do.”

  “Oh boy...”

  Summon someone, not as a hero, but as an enemy to the people, to save the people. It may sound ridiculous, but it wasn’t all that complicated. It is said that any human organization (a country, for example) needs a common enemy to bond together. What had the prolonged peace in this world brought?

  That was an ironic question, though. The same could be said about Japan: did the Japanese people mentally grow through the past seven decades of peace? Well, even if I didn’t bring up extreme examples, I hear that, in most retail locations, the employees have a good relationship. They have a common enemy: the customers.

  “That is extreme to another degree. You owe a sincere apology to every retail worker.”

  “I am terribly sorry.”

  “Mm. So the next person summoned this time is an enemy to humanity.”

  “There still is the question of whether or not being reborn or transported here as a non-human species is possible.”

  “I’m the precedent of that. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

  That’s right. Here’s the woman who turned into a Dragon. And that’s more scary than Atsushi Nakajima’s “Sangetsuki.” In that story, it was only a tiger.

  “Perhaps this person was convinced to stand up for the monsters oppressed in this world.”

  “That’s ridiculous...ly probable.”

  “Mm.”

  It is just a difference in points of view. Goblins, and other monsters, were only nuisances in the eyes of humans. Naturally, they were hunted down and killed. But monsters were not created to become human prey. They had their own lives and the right to live them. Why were they hunted down, when all they wanted was to live their lives?

  If humans had to eat them to survive, then it couldn’t be helped. Each species for their own. But did humans need the monster fur and fangs to survive? Were they only hunted to make human life more convenient? Did humans own this world?

  “Those are arguments we hear all the time on Earth, just for animals instead of monsters.”

  By conservationists and animal rights groups. I don’t think they’re wrong. If Earth had a heart, it might wish for humans not to exist. Humanity, like an ungrateful child, has only hurt our Mother Earth. Still...

  “That, too, is merely a talking point of humans.”

  Tiamat jumped in. I agreed. At the end of the day, humans are humans. Nothing more and nothing less. We can try speaking for the animals, but even then, it’s only human assumption. The same thing was happening in Noura too, I imagined.

  “This isn’t a battle of humans against monsters.”

  “Mm. Humans against the person controlling the monsters.”

  We chuckled together. Of course, none of this was backed up by facts. Just a guess, based on prior knowledge and bias.

  “Time to churn our brains, Eiji. How do we take care of this situation?”

  I crossed my arms. We couldn’t leave it be. If war worsened, there would be countless casualties on both sides.

  ...There was no point in pretty words, though. I wasn’t concerned with casualties on the monsters’ side. Baze and Hieronymus were good friends of mine, but this was another matter entirely.

  “First, we have to find the enemy’s headquarters.”

  “To cut the head off?”

  The dragon crooked her neck.

  5.

  “It’s not that we’re going to start a fight,” I answered as we watched the overjoyed residents of the city.

  The torches were casting deformed shadows on the stone-paved roads. Before we knew it the sun had completely set, surrounding us with the dark of night. Still, the people showed no signs of settling down. In fact, the party raged even harder. I wondered if many of them would be able to get to work tomorrow. Perhaps they got PTO for hangovers.

  “Mm.”

  Tiamat’s response was short, probably because she knew exactly what I meant. Thanks, partner.

  “There’s no point in winning that fight.”

  Exactly. Why the god of this world summoned another person from our world, I didn’t know. Only god may have known. Literally. There was something I did know, though. Now that the god has summoned one, it didn’t make a difference to summon more. Even if we defeated the one who was summoned this time around, the god of this world would summon someone else. Our battles would never end.

  “Besides, war is never better than peace.”

  I tightened my fist. The hero had planted some seeds of destruction for this world. That much was indisputably true, and I couldn’t defend that. He had brought over something that should not have existed in this world yet. No choice of words would get him a decree of innocence. But no one could deny his achievement of defeating the Demon Lord and establishing an era of peace.

  “Even if Shizuru the Hero destroys this world as a result, I will never condone summoning a Demon Lord to correct that course.”

  “I mean, I’m happy you’re that passionate about my brother you’ve never met... But what are we going to do, specifically?”

  Tiamat seemed a little embarrassed. A brother of hers might as well be a brother of mine.

  “Talk.”

  “Talk, huh? Wasn’t that how you were killed before?”

  Yes, indeed-io. Totally taken off guard. My big mistake.

  “I won’t fall for it again. Negotiations are what I’m good at, anyway.”

  “I thought you were a lowly bureaucrat and not a crisis negotiator.”

  Don’t call me lowly!

/>   I mean, it was true. I called myself that all the time, but it was annoying when someone else did it.

  “I don’t take care of the concerns of our city’s valued citizens for my own enjoyment.”

  No one goes to the city clerk’s office just to vent or anything. Precise answers and specific suggestions are always required of us.

  Take questions about taxes, for example. That isn’t something that I can ever answer ‘don’t worry about it’ to, nor give them some sort of discount. So I’m left talking about how they can pay their taxes. Can they pay it in installments? How much of their income could they put towards it each month? That’s the kind of discussion I have with people who come to me. If they still have trouble paying their taxes from poverty, I show them to an appropriate department.

  We’re not just there to let people vent, but to set up real solutions. That’s my kind of talking.

  “A little different from my kind of talk.”

  “Right.”

  Tiamat was a school counselor in Japan. According to her, the first priority of counseling is to listen. Specific solutions are not often expected of them. Lecturing is out of the question. It was completely different from bureaucratic discussions.

  “So, what are you going to talk about?”

  “How to coexist.”

  “That’s a big one. Humans and monsters to coexist? You think we can do it?” Tiamat laughed.

  It wasn’t going to be easy. Humans and monsters coexist in many fantasy pieces without issue, but I had a good idea of how difficult that really was to achieve.

  Monsters ate humans. As long as that remained true, cohabitation was impossible. Unless one or the other was completely caged or something. Of course, that was not coexistence, but the set up of owner and pet. There are zoos and bear farms in Japan, too; who could claim those setups to be coexistence? The difference in how we obtain nutrients was a wider divide than most imagine.

  “Isn’t it a little dismissive to give up on discourse without even trying?”

  “That is true,” Tiamat agreed.

  Just because the enemy started a war, it didn’t mean we had the option of giving up on all forms of contact. Brawling to the death was just too idiotic.

  “We’ll find their base and negotiate with their boss. I suppose that will be our angle.”

  “Yep.”

  Tiamat and I shrugged our shoulders. I thought we were contemplating peaceful plans like researching seafood and finding rice bran or a substitute for it. It just didn’t seem like this world was willing to give us peace.

  We decided that we would hunt down the surviving monster army. The day after the massive party in the city, I told as much to Earl Agamemnon, who was clearly hung over.

  “They are powerful and multiply quickly. If we leave them be, they will soon regain their strength and attack again, as many times as it takes. In order to prevent that, we have to go for the head.”

  “Oh, my... To think that you all have Noura at your hearts, Sir Eiji...”

  “Not particularly. Nations and borders don’t hold that much importance to us. We are here to save people. That’s it.”

  Whether they were from Noura or Azur didn’t really matter. As a result, we were just going to end up helping Noura.

  “Master Hermits...”

  “That being said, we are unfamiliar with the land in Noura. It would be of great help if you could provide us with a guide. And any passes you can print would be a big, big help.”

  This (a little pushy) request was actually to give us a bit of ethos. I was technically an F-rank adventurer, so there was nothing suspicious about me traveling down the main roads for no reason. Since Noura was at war, all people would think was that I was here looking for mercenary work. I didn’t think we would get lost too easily either, since we had Tiamat’s DLC packs on our side.

  On the other hand, if we could wave the Earl’s figurative banner, and have his people accompany us, we could roam much freer. Use every connection you have. That’s the Eiji style. I explained all of this to Earl Agamemnon, too. If we were to upset him and be rejected, that was fine by me. It was against my beliefs to use people through deception. If I was going to use them, I would disclose that fact up front.

  “You would make for a poor politician, Sir Eiji,” the Earl laughed.

  Yep, I know. Already been assassinated once. No big deal.

  “I understand your intentions. In that case, please allow my son to assist you in your journey.”

  With that, he introduced us to a young man named Ruey Agamemnon. He had spectacular red hair and a gentle face with a body built like a sable. He wasn’t as feral as Baze, nor as neat as Hieronymus, but seemed like an honest man. About as tall as me, too. His stature was extraordinary for someone of this world.

  Another looker! One more good-looking guy joins the party! Why am I being surrounded by these guys?! If I was a woman, I might have enjoyed the situation like Don’t fight over me, boys! Teehee! but I, unfortunately, am a man. I had no wife or children, but I did have a fiancée... albeit a dragon fiancée.

  “Sir Eiji. I will serve you to the best of my abilities!”

  Ruey straightened his back. Oh boy. What a refreshing young man.

  “Thank you, Lord Ruey.”

  “Please. Just call me Ruey.”

  Why are you blushing, Ruey? People might get the wrong idea.

  I felt a pat on my shoulder, and turned around to find Tiamat in her human form. Giving me a thumb’s up. I’m sorry. I didn’t have a clue what she meant by that gesture. What were you expecting of me, mi amor?

  6.

  We ended up parting with the Murdock troupe at Mostail. We couldn’t very well keep traveling leisurely on a performance tour. I was going to miss all of them after spending all day every day with them for the past month, but it couldn’t be helped.

  “We part alive. We shall meet again, if luck be on our side.”

  Mister Murdock extended his right hand, and I firmly took it.

  “Yes, we shall.”

  We were both grown men, so neither of us cried. I held back the heat welling in my eyes. From the corner of them, I could see Eily and Hieronymus saying their goodbyes. She was embracing him with tears falling down her cheeks. Woah. Lord Hieronymus?

  You didn’t cross the line, did you?

  When we met up again, it wasn’t going to be funny if Eily was holding a baby in her arms, much less one with cat ears and a tail.

  “And so our paths have parted. When will the sun rise to the day we meet again?” the elder narrated. Good.

  Mister Storyteller, I hope you never change. Take care, old man.

  Now we didn’t have much time to waste. We departed Mostail when it was still early in the morning. We were already a night behind. Even though we were traveling lighter than them, it was possible that there was already an unrecoverable distance between us. However, we had already traveled here, so we didn’t need to pack anything new. And Ruey was a warrior before he was the earl’s sun, so he only packed the essentials. Once we said our farewells, our steps were light.

  “Can you track them, Lord Baze?”

  “No probs. With this many tracks, I don’t even need to sniff.”

  What a reassuring Fenrir. We estimated that there were one or two thousand surviving monsters. If such a large group traveled together, they would naturally leave a trail. Not just tracks, but traces of food and feces, too. There were more than a few members in their party, and it was impossible to completely cover their tracks.

  “The thing is, they’re in a pretty big rush.”

  “You can tell that much?”

  “Their strides. Humans have longer strides when they run too, don’t they?”

  “Oh, I see.”

  I understood, looking at the tracks Baze was pointing at that most likely belonged to goblins. They were shorter than humans, and naturally had shorter strides than us. However, the tracks left behind were paced like a human jogging.


  “They were sprinting, most likely,” said Tiamat.

  “They wouldn’t last long, then,” Hieronymus answered.

  I agreed. Goblins, humans, or any other bipedal species aren’t really made for running, due to air resistance. Actually, quadrupeds keep their body as low to the ground as possible when they run in order to prevent as much resistance as possible. Which was also why bullet trains are bullet-shaped. Higher resistance means more energy expended. That’s why humans can’t sprint for long. Same with monsters, I assumed.

  “Suppose they fled the battleground as fast as they could,” said Tiamat.

  “Seems plausible.”

  Come to think of it, it didn’t seem feasible for them to travel all the way from their home base to attack Mostail. They should have some sort of base nearby, whether they set it up or conquered an existing settlement. The monsters had a general that came up with attacking Noura’s main port of trade. They would certainly have employed basic strategies like that.

  “Why are my good ideas always tardy?”

  I sighed. Pretty pathetic, if I do say so myself.

  “That’s because you’re neither a military man nor a warrior, Eiji. You’ve lived your whole life without interacting with political or military strategy. It wouldn’t make any sense at all if you were suddenly a strategic genius after coming to this world.”

  Tiamat consoled me. She was absolutely right. I was just a little bureaucrat, with no experience in politics or war. I had lived a peaceful life, without so much as being called in during a natural disaster. On the other hand, we were in a predicament where we couldn’t get away with ‘I never learned that, sorry.’

  “It could be an ambush.”

  “Mm. Seems plausible.”

  The obvious retreat, the obvious track, and most likely a base ahead of us. A trap? Set up to lure in and decimate Earl Agamemnon’s army following their tracks. By numbers alone, there were more than a thousand left of the monster army, and less than five hundred of the earl’s men. It was no contest. It wasn’t too far-fetched to think that the monsters would try to pull us into their home field, rather than fight us out in the open where they had a disadvantage.