Chapter 7.4

Chapter 7.4

「Now. Why don’t we share what we know with each other? I haven’t heard what you were doing before you met us, Makoto-san.」

「Let’s see. To be honest, Mio and I don’t really know what’s going on, so we couldn’t tell you much.」

「Y’all got registered as adventurers, and we got the bare minimum of the place fixed up. I think y’all have settled down enough that we can talk about this, right?」

It was nearing bed time that night. They had asked Douga and the other people from Farlane to get some rest first, so the Japanese people could talk about their situation.

「Before we do, can I?」

「Mio-chan?」

「Back in the bath, earlier. Reena-san and Elle seemed a little off. What did you do, Mako?」

「Oh, that? A part of me was serious, and another part of me just couldn’t take looking at her like that, I guess.」

Makoto must have meant Rayna, who still acted like she didn’t know how to interact with the group, and while she did anything she was asked of, she seldom expressed what she wanted for herself. Makoto seemed to see a time bomb in that.

「It’s nice that she repents for what she did, but if she keeps worrying about what the people whom that matters to don’t really care about anymore, it just mucks up the vibe of the group, you know? Thought I should jump in.」

「Mmm… Sorry you had to do that.」

「Don’t sweat it. It’s a job for someone mature on the outside of the incident, anyway. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing fit for Tatsuya, either, so I did it. Right?」

Makoto, perhaps because she was always the sane one in the group, observed and acted well with the group’s best interest at heart, in a different way than Haruna did. The group collectively found themselves with newfound respect for this woman. For this particular incident, Haruna couldn’t do much because she was so involved in it.

「Hm? Then all that before with makin’ breasts bigger. Were ya playin’ a part then, too?」

「Both of us are dead serious.」

「All righty then…」

It looked like wanting to lop off Haruna’s breasts wasn’t too far from the truth, either. Haruna kind of regretted her gratitude for Makoto.

「Well, all of that, aside. Where do we start talking about things? I probably know about this country the most, but you guys probably know about our overall situation the best.」

「Hmm… I think you’re right. Let’s start with when each of us were transported here.」

Haruna responded.

「Okay. I was about three months ago. Haruna, you and Hiroshi are like six weeks in, right?」

「47 days, I think.」

「This is our tenth day, I think.」

Tatsuya chimed in. Their times of transportation were quite spread out.

「So, I was wondering…」

「Mm?」

「Yeah?」

「Was it a big deal after I disappeared back there?」

「Not really.」

「Just an official announcement that said a corrupted e-mail would force-close ya client.」

Makoto was slightly disappointed but understood. But, then Tatsuya dropped this bomb:

「Come to think of it, when I got sent here, Hiro was logged in when I was.」

「Huh?」

「Hold on. Makoto-san, do you remember the date you were sent here on?」

「April 27th, I think…」

「We were sent out on April 27th, too. I was logged in, and I wasn’t looking at the real-life clock, but the in-game time was 1:31:52p.m.」

The group couldn’t help but look aghast at Haruna’s eerily detailed account.

「Wow, you remember it down to the second…?」

「I pretty much never forget anything. Besides, I was in some trouble that day, running late for an appointment so I kept checking the clock. I mean, that was the time right before I went through the Transportation Gate, so I don’t know the exact time I was sent here.」

Hiroshi nodded in agreement. While he couldn’t recall down to the second, his foggy memory confirmed that it was about 1:32p.m.

「I don’t remember the time of day.」

Makoto replied.

「For us, I don’t think it was passed 1:40.」

Tatsuya added.

「Okay. So it looks like the condition for being sent here is receiving a corrupt email on April 27th, and not taking care of it before going through a transportation gate, or else using a transportation spell or stone. And it looks like the difference in minutes or seconds back there translated up to a few months over here.」

The group couldn’t argue with that assessment.

「So, Haruna-san and I just happened to wanna transport almost at the exact same time.」

「Uh-huh. I think we were very lucky in that sense. If we didn’t meet each other, either of us could have died to that bear in the beginning.」

The word “bear” triggers a curious look from the other three. In response, Hiroshi and Haruna told their story of their first encounter with a monster rafter arriving to this world.

「Not as bad as us, I guess, bad you guys were in quite a pickle, too, huh?」

「Well, if we hadn’t been in that pickle, I might have never met Haruna-san, so it might have been a blessin’ in disguise.」

「Uncle Doul took me in as soon as I got sent here, so I didn’t really struggle much, day-to-day-wise.」

「And in exchange, you take on the blunt combat work.」

「There’s not much else I can do, anyway. I don’t mind. Besides, I think it’s a lot healthier than being agoraphobic like I was in real life. 」

Hiroshi and Haruna couldn’t help but find strength (different from that in combat) in Makoto’s confidence. Hiroshi and Haruna were still afraid of facing off most monsters (other than spiders that they could take by surprise, for example). Regardless of the actual combat prowess that supports her confidence, her ability to fearlessly dive into quests that involve taking down monsters was a show of her strength. While she said that she was agoraphobic, judging by her attitude when she went out to shop for supplies and other interactions like that, she seemed to have overcome it during her life here. What a huge difference from Hiroshi, who even with Haruna (whom he had lived in partnership with for a month and a half) couldn’t get closer than a certain distance other than times when he really needed to, or was concentrating too hard to notice, without still being terrified.

「My three months here were pretty uneventful. I did a bunch of quests helping out Uncle Doul and Rayna under the form of singled-out requests. Other times, I would play Elle’s bodyguard-slash-friend. Long story short, it wasn’t too different from sticking with an NPC in-game. Did a lot of tutorial-ish stuff, too. Pretty good way to get out of your agoraphobic habits, I’d say.」

「All right. When we came to, we were already tied up… And you guys know the rest. I guess we should move on to what Hiro and Haruna accomplished in their month and a half.」

In response to Tatsuya’s prompt, they told them as much as they could. Although, the only major events during that time was the Antidote mass-production right off the bat, and taking down Piaranork while saving Aearis’ party, which occurred about two weeks ago. There were a lot of things that the group wanted to comment on, like running a curry-pastry and corndog food stand, or ending up taking down Piaranork only because they had to gather spider silk because of stains from said food stand, or their ever-expanding repertoire of condiments from soy sauce, miso, bonito flakes, and even takoyaki sauce or hibachi sauce. At the end of the day, however, they were pretty much acting under the mentality of a slice-of-life player.

「Can I ask you guys something?」

「Yeah?」

「Hiro. Haruna. Did you guys really want to get back to Japan?」

「Of course, Brother. We were doin’ everything we could to.」

「You got a place and filled up your kitchen. It seems like you guys were down to stay here.」

「Riddle me this, then. What the heck should we have started doin’?」

Hiroshi had a point, and as such, Tatsuya took a moment to retort. He had one point he could stress, though:

「Getting a place, sure. But no one needs to put so much effort into developing spices and dishes!」

「You haven’t thought this through, Brother. Say that again after ya keep eatin’ an average meal here for a week.」

「Hiroshi, I agree. You guys overdo it.」

「Then, Makoto-san. Feel free to prepare ya own meals.」

「I’m sorry. I was in the wrong, here.」

A way to power is through one’s stomach. Makoto couldn’t last a second before folding to Hiroshi’s threat.

「Well, in any case, thanks to Hiro and Mio, we never have to worry about getting food and potions. And thanks to Haruna, we never have to eat a bad meal. Like Hiro was saying, we are definitely in it for the long haul, so these things are pretty important, come to think of it.」

「Then, let’s move onto the next important question. How far along are you guys on the main quest?」

Makoto asked, in part to access everyone’s combat capabilities.

「Haruna-san and I’ve stopped after finishin’ the first chapter.」

「Same with me.」

Mio chimed in.

「I’m into the second half of the second chapter.」

Tatsuya added. Everyone was around or a little bit below the average of players who mainly played to fight. Of course, Hiroshi and Haruna had prioritized crafting and day-to-day life, so that wasn’t surprising to Makoto. Tatsuya seemed to have kept his focus on roleplaying, and the second chapter was rather tough for a magic-wielding player to beat, solo. The intermittent bosses and forced combat were much more difficult in the second chapter than the first, not to mention the chapter itself was much longer. Less than half of the population of players have completed the second chapter of the main quest.