Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy
Iris
“Mhm, indeed! It would be improper to dress a lovely maiden in a short, indecent maid outfit that reveals ulterior motives. The true purpose of work attire should be faithful to its original intent, modest, and elegant with a long hem…!”
“Um… If it pleases you, then I’m glad!”
“Yes, I’m greatly pleased!”
With a fervor that seemed on the verge of tears of joy, he… Master Nephilim, continued to adjust his position and angles around me, clicking away with the shutter of his magical contraption, a camera he claimed to have crafted himself.
While smiling wryly at him, I brewed tea with the teapot I brought from the kitchen. During various instructions given during my stay at Rolandia Castle, I had been thoroughly trained in the art of tea making, so I had a little confidence in these matters.
It seemed that such gestures were greatly appreciated, as when I served tea to Kirsche-san, who was dressed in a ladylike Lolita costume, there were moments when he took several shots of us together without much change in pose.
Seeing him so delighted, I couldn’t help but recall the movements of the servants working in the castle, and I ended up providing services to enhance the photos.
…This is kind of fun.
Receiving such joy with just my actions made me feel like I had become a model, and it was starting to become a bit addictive.
Thus, we played at having a tea party, I tied Kirsche-san’s hair while she was dressed as a lady, and we mimicked various master-servant roles… eventually, we got a bit carried away, embracing each other for a slightly sensual pose… and the photoshoot came to an end.
After the shoot, Master Nephilim looked up at the sky, covering his large single eye with his hand…
“…Oooooooooooohhhhhhhh…”
…and let out a weird groan. It seems he was overwhelmed with emotion, but now, his request should probably be fulfilled.
“Phew… That was embarrassing…”
“But you seemed to enjoy yourself towards the end, didn’t you?”
“W-Well… maybe… a little…”
Kirsche-san smiled mischievously at me, seemingly quite pleased with herself.
Looking back now, what were we even doing…?!
The mischief we got caught up in during the shoot finally came back to haunt me when things calmed down.
Learning from this bitter lesson, our cooperation with Master Nephilim’s hobbies came to an end… for that day.
Master Nephilim poured tea into a special cup made for him… I could barely hold it with both hands, but when he held it, it looked the size of a cream container for coffee… and the atmosphere turned serious once again as we began discussing matters.
“…You want my permission to make that armor? Very well, go ahead.”
“You would, Master?!”
The first to speak up was Ouka-san.
Her request to make Nii-sama’s armor was easily granted.
“Yes. Until now, you only had the skills but lacked the drive. I didn’t want to entrust my secrets to someone as frivolous as you…”
With that said, he swirled the contents of the cup before looking straight at Ouka-san… and his stern expression softened slightly.
“It seems like you’ve finally got your head on straight, so I’ll give you a passing grade. I’ll lend you the materials, by all means, give it a try.”
“T-Thank you very much!”
Standing up abruptly, Ouka-san bowed her head.
With one problem resolved smoothly, the atmosphere around us relaxed.
“…There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask for a long time.”
“Hmm?”
Next, it was Nii-sama’s turn to raise his hand.
“I’m aware that what I’m about to say sounds absurd. But… do you undoubtedly remember forging the sword Ars Ray for Reiji?”
“Of course. The design of that sword is my original. No one else could forge it…”
“When did it happen, then?”
“…Huh?”
“We disappeared from this world seven years ago. And from what we’ve heard from others, before that, we had no connection to situations that would require weapons.”
…This was something that had bothered us several times before.
Our entire existence here is questionable. Originally, we shouldn’t even be in this world.
However, to the people of this world, a select few people like myself, Nii-sama and the currently absent Scar-san, were treated as if we’d always been a part of it.
Especially him, Master Nephilim… Although we had some interaction with him as an NPC in the game— as Nii-sama just mentioned, chronologically, we should have no connection with him in this world.
“So… when did we meet, then?”
“Hmm… Have I met you before… That’s… huh?”
Master Nephilim pondered over Nii-sama’s question… then quickly furrowed his brows while numerous question marks appeared over his head.
“Now that you mentioned it… it’s true that we shouldn’t even have met…?”
“…But you seemed to know about us from before.”
“Yes. I have memories of meeting you, being commissioned, and forging the sword. It’s strange, but… indeed, we never actually met. However, it’s a fact that we did meet. What does this mean?”
Even among the people we encountered, there were those who remembered our past. But Master Nephilim’s reaction was the first of its kind.
“…Sorry, I truly have no idea. But, some things start to make sense. Like why I was able to create something that shouldn’t have been possible…”
Saying so, he tapped the hilt of the “Ars Ray”, which was placed on the table, with his fingertip.
“This Ars Ray is powered by a Dragon Core, the highest quality material that can only be extracted from a True Dragon… If you hunt for something like that somewhere, the world would be in an uproar.”
The act of slaying a dragon is all but something out of a fairy tale in this world.
In fact, when Walter-san, the Mercenary King, brought to him a single Dragon Core, it caused quite a stir… Master Nephilim reminisced with a distant gaze.
“And yet, something like this exists right here, forged by my own hands, despite there being no stories of a True Dragon being hunted anywhere… This is purely a speculation on my part, but do you mind hearing me out?”
Everyone nodded at Master Nephilim’s words. Seeing this, he continued to speak.
“This world’s very history must have been rewritten somewhere.”
“No… surely not…”
Nii-sama was in total disbelief.
And I’m sure Ouka-san and Kirsche-san, who were probably wearing bewildered expressions like me, did the same.
“I know this sounds ridiculous to you, but bear with me. Although it seems to have been lost among humans, there’s a story that’s been passed down among long-lived species like us.”
Well, listen to this story as if it were just a story… With this preface, Master Nephilim began to speak.
“Before this world took its current form, it was a much broader world. This world was just one continent among many at the time.”
“A continent…?”
“Yes, and at that time, the country that ruled over the entire continent flourished with advanced magic and the use of a certain metal. It was said that civilization thrived by using it— it was hard yet flexible, capable of various processes, and depending on how it was processed, it could store light or manipulate gravity… There was even a characteristic where it could become a fantastic magical furnace or a magic tank. For us blacksmiths, it was a dream-like metal.”
So spoke Master Nephilim.
Certainly, it’s an unbelievable metal, but hearing this story, I couldn’t help but think…
…It’s quite similar. To a certain metal that exists only in the legends of the world we came from.
“Is it a real thing?”
“It exists. I have a little bit of it in my possession.”
With a proud expression, Master Nephilim puffed out his chest, but soon returned to a serious expression and began speaking again.
“…But that country greedily developed civilization and eventually opened the door to the world’s forbidden truth. It’s a place where the memories of all organisms gather, where the world’s information is recorded, and the fate that leads to the past and future is compiled, leading to omniscience…”
“…The collective unconscious, Akashic Records?”
“It’s known as Akasha among us giants. That civilization finally came into contact with it and became able to control it.”
“Something like that… exists?”
Nii-sama remained skeptical.
If that were possible, one would perhaps gain the ability to distort the world as one pleases. It’s unimaginable how much compensation would be needed to correct that distortion.
But then again…
“The magic we use even now is similar. In terms of rewriting the world and manipulating it to your liking.”
“That’s… one way to put it, yes. But the scale seems completely different…”
Certainly, if we look at things in another way, we were casually doing similar things all the time. If such technology were perfected, perhaps it wouldn’t be impossible.
“You can get anything you want. Death no longer becomes something to fear, and there’s no need to work tirelessly anymore. And so, those who laid hands on omniscience and omnipotence quickly reached their zenith…”
“But, such things, in human hands…”
“Well, of course. Such things are beyond the control of humans, let alone those living in the material world. The civilization that happily touched taboos enjoyed prosperity for a while, then suddenly perished overnight. At the same time, this world was cut off from the original world, and the survivors were left to live burdened with sin… and that’s the end of it.”
…In our world, as seen in stories like the Tower of Babel, it’s not uncommon for highly developed civilizations to suddenly disappear.
However, this… this story, although it has a different perspective from what I know, I’d heard of it before.
“That’s about all I know. We tend to lean toward knowledge in our own areas of interest, and I’m just a simple swordsmith.”
“No, it was a very interesting story. Thank you.”
“Besides… if you ask that old man who seems to have been around since forever, perhaps he’d know more about it.”
I think Blanche-sama said something similar when I consulted her about our future direction…
“Is he the Elder Dragon living in the north…?”
“Oh, yes, that’s the one. Well, if you’re interested, why not pay him a visit?”
Master Nephilim nodded as if he understood my intention.
…Yes, once this Great Martial Arts Festival’s over, our next destination should be the royal capital, and then to the Elder Dragon.
With that in mind, I began to plan our future course in my head.
Fortunately, we were currently traveling with His Majesty and the others. If all goes well, we should be able to hitch a ride back to the royal capital.
As I was making these calculations, Ouka-san spoke up next.
“Hey, Master. That metal used in that civilization, is it the super hard one that looks like copper we saw before?”
“…That’s right. But I won’t let you use that. It’s not something to be used lightly.”
“I know! I was just curious about it, that’s all.”
I also had something I wanted to say in response to those words.
Glancing to my side, I saw that Nii-sama was also furrowing his brows, and Kirsche-san, who seemed unfamiliar with such discussions, wore a puzzled expression.
A continent cut off from the world overnight.
A powerful metal used in the civilization that flourished there.
This bears a striking resemblance to the legend of a certain continent in our world…
APM - Translation 