The Black Sky Pirate Laughs Beneath the Moon. The Crimson Mage Howls at the Stars (1)

"Reiji! I'm counting on you!"

"Leave it to me!"

Deep in the forest, a brown giant came charging through. Called a Giga Boar, it was about the size of a two-ton truck, and it could run right through smaller trees, knocking them down.

Its coat was far from "beautiful." It had probably spent a lot of time rolling around in mud pits, because mud clung to it in patches all over. Its bristles were as hard as wire, so they didn't come loose even when it crashed into trees with considerable force.

And directly in front of that charging Giga Boar was—me.

"Here goes..."

I thrust both hands forward and used 【Wind Magic】 to create a huge ball of air.

"You're not getting past me!"

I fired it straight into the Giga Boar's brow.

'BRROOOOOOO!!'

With its stride broken, the Giga Boar pitched forward and tumbled over. Its enormous body came rolling toward me.

This was that thing you often saw in action movies: at the end of a car chase, a car rolls over and flies through the air.

"Hup."

I leaned back and dodged it by the narrowest margin. Then I used 【Wind Magic】 again to make a bed of air that gently caught the Giga Boar. I even added 【Earth Magic】 to soften the ground, so it could support that enormous body—if it made a hard landing, the Giga Boar's meat would be ruined.

'Snort! Snort-snort!!'

"Oh, you're not unconscious yet...? You're way too sturdy."

It seemed to have broken a leg when it fell, and the soft earth kept it from standing up. Even so, the Giga Boar was thrashing so violently that I couldn't approach it easily. That was when magic came in handy. I made a pointed, cone-shaped stone appear with 【Earth Magic】 and shot it into the brow I'd struck hard with 【Wind Magic】 earlier.

'Snort... ooooooh...'

That finished off the Giga Boar.

Its body was twitching, probably from rigor mortis—but at that size, it wasn't really "twitching" so much as going "thump, thump, thump."

"Hey... Did you get it...?"

I heard a tentative voice, so I raised a hand.

"I got it! Over here, Muge-san!"

Muge-san came rumbling over, the engine going chug-chug-chug-chug.

The thing making that noise was a metal vehicle roughly the size of a ramen stand, just a little smaller. It had four iron wheels, and its body was made of black iron with rust showing through.

It moved a little faster than a walking human, belching black smoke from its chimney.

But it wasn't made to carry people. Most of the vehicle was engine. Muge-san came along standing on a platform at the rear, steering it as he went.

"Wow, that's a big one."

Muge-san blinked his golden eyes. His pupils were vertical slits, like a cat's, and his ocher body was mottled with brown markings.

This lizard-like beastfolk was a citizen of the Lef Magic Empire.

"Think our Cat-chan can haul this?"

"We'll give it a try. If it seems impossible, we can remove its organs to make it lighter."

"No, no! A lot of people have requested the innards, too~ We'll do our best. Right, Cat-chan?"

That rusty black steam car was what Muge-san called "Cat-chan," and he doted on it. Apparently, its mood varied from day to day, though I of course couldn't tell.

Muge-san climbed down wearing leather coveralls, but there was no tail sticking out from his back. He wrapped the chain attached to Cat-chan around the Giga Boar and got Cat-chan moving. It started forward, huffing and puffing.

"It's in a bad mood, but Cat-chan's doing its best!"

"I-is that so...?"

About fifteen minutes later, we emerged from the forest. A sparse grassland stretched out before us, with patches of reddish-brown earth exposed here and there.

The sun beat down, radiating heat. It was supposed to be early summer, climate-wise, but the heat was more like midsummer. It would have been cool in the shade, since there wasn't much humidity, but... there wasn't any shade anywhere.

A wide road ran through the grassland, and a fifty-person caravan was taking a break there. That was where we were headed. The caravan had no steam cars, only several enormous wagons strung together.

Dantes-san, a fellow member of the Silver Balance party, came out from farther away and waved at us.

"—What's with that Giga Boar?"

"—That's huge! It's amazing you managed to take it down."

"—Looks like we'll be eating some tasty meat tonight."

I could hear the caravan members' delighted voices.

"Reiji-kun~ Over here, y'know."

"Ah, yes."

I spotted Mimino-san and Non-san, my fellow party members, and headed over to them.

Both Mimino-san and Non-san seemed to be taking a breather beneath a parasol. When Dantes-san and I returned, they served us tea.

I gulped mine down, and the slightly warm herbal tea tasted wonderful.

Ah, tea after a hard day's work was the best.

"...I could really use an ale."

Dantes-san muttered that, but—

"You'll have to hold out until the next town."

"Dad, you need to lay off the alcohol for a while, too. The money you earn just keeps disappearing into your drink bill."

"I-I mean, sure, but... Ever since the petrification wore off, booze has tasted so damn good I can't help myself. So this is Reiji's fault, really."

Why?

"Dad... are you going to turn to stone again?"

"I-I'm joking! Right, Reiji?"

"Don't drag me into this..."

I felt like Dantes-san was becoming more and more of a hopeless case.

Of course, our number-one deadbeat adventurer, Jelly-san, was sleeping in the wagon. Jelly-san had been gambling with the caravan's people until late last night, going on about whether Jelly-san had won or lost. In reality, Jelly-san's debt to me had only grown, so it wasn't "won or lost" so much as "lost and lost again." Maybe it was time I started tightening the screws...

"That Giga Boar should fetch a pretty good price, shouldn't it?"

Hunting during our breaks and earning a little pocket money was part of our daily routine, but today we'd managed to take down such a huge target. We were lucky.

Dantes-san said that hopefully, and then—

"Reiji-san, Dantes-san, let's have the Giga Boar appraised."

Muge-san came over, and we headed his way.

The Lef Magic Empire occupied a small stretch of land between the Holy Knight Kingdom of Light, the Kurvaan Holy Kingdom, and the unexplored land of "Canion." However, it was surrounded on three sides by steep mountains, which had kept foreign enemies from invading.

The Lef are reptilian beastfolk, a peculiar people who cannot use Talent Jewels. Because they were unable to use the Talent Jewels that were commonplace in this world, they had been persecuted many times in the past. As a result, they had shut themselves away in this narrow land and lived there.

In other words, outsiders like us could hardly get in—and we were lucky to encounter and befriend the caravan, one of the few points of contact with the Lef.

Even if they were isolationist, doing business with other countries wasn't a bad thing, and Lef people who ventured outside their borders tended to be good communicators.

"Wait, this much...? Is this really okay?"

"Of course, of course~ The Empire is close from here, and Giga Boars don't appear inside the Empire, so fresh meat sells for a high price."

The gold coins piled up in front of Dantes-san and me were Imperial gold coins in circulation in the Lef Empire. Each should have been worth around fifty thousand yen. There were nearly a hundred of them.

"Ale!"

Dantes-san struck a triumphant pose beside me. Well... I wondered how much of this Non-san would actually give him.

"Does 'Silver Balance'-san leave the Empire as soon as the Adventurers Guild's work is finished?"

"Actually, there's someone I want to meet, so I think I'll try submitting an application."

"I see, I see. These days, meetings with people inside the Empire go smoothly, so I hope it works out for you."

"Thank you."

"My, my, your skill in bringing down that Giga Boar was truly impressive."

"What about Cat-chan?"

"It's sleeping over there."

A silent steam car sat behind the wagons.

The Lef Magic Empire was highly advanced in inventions involving power sources, from coal-fired steam engines to magic-stone-powered machinery. Most of the magic airships circulating throughout the world were made by the Lef, too.

We took the gold coins placed on the table and returned to Mimino-san and the others. As expected, Non-san confiscated Dantes-san's share, leaving one dejected heavy warrior.

(Almost there.)

Fifteen days had passed since we left the capital of the Kurvaan Holy Kingdom, the Holy Royal Capital Kurvagne. In another two days or so, we'd reach the border between the Holy Kingdom and the Lef Magic Empire.

Back when I was working as a mine slave, Old Man Hinga gave me knowledge for free—someone I could rightly call my "mentor" in this world. On the verge of death, he entrusted me with the "Phosphorescent Magic Stone" hidden in his back molar.

He had said that with it, I could meet his granddaughter, Lulusha-san—or that I could sell it, if I preferred.

Although many things happened afterward, meeting Lulusha-san and telling her about Old Man Hinga's final moments was one of my two goals. The other was meeting Lark, my older sister who had also been a mine slave.

I had learned in the Kurvaan Holy Kingdom that Lulusha-san was in the Lef Magic Empire. I didn't know where in the Empire she was or what circumstances she was in, but fortunately, the Empire was small, so finding her shouldn't be all that difficult. Probably.

(...Talking about Old Man Hinga is depressing, but even so...)

That man died at Six Mine with only me there to see him through his final moments. I felt that someone besides me should properly pass on the fact that he had lived. After all, to El, the Holy Kingdom's rabbit priest, Old Man Hinga was "the foremost authority on deciphering ancient documents concerning the 'Covenant' and the 'Underworld,' as well as researching 'Talent Jewels,'" and "the brains of the now-defunct Forsha Kingdom"—Doctor Hinga.

—Reiji-kun, it's about time we got moving."

"Ah, okaaay."

Mimino-san called to me, and I climbed into the wagon.

Come on, let's go. Onward to a new land!