Log Horizon Vol 8 Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – A Life of Quite Average Schoolgirl

Isuzu clutched a lute to her pounding chest and stepped onto the twenty centimetre high stage. Although she felt like she’d burst, her consciousness slowed and she met the eyes of her partner for the day, Tohya. He grinned and lightly kicked his impromptu drum set made of cans and boxes lashed together.

 

Isuzu herself gave a bold seeming smile and lifted her lute slightly higher, the An Die Freude that Maryelle had made and the Roderick Firm had remodelled.

The stage was tiny, if you looked over it from right in the middle, it went about ten metres in each direction. The café was one of the many in Akiba’s centre streets, The Bloom Hall.

Originally, it was nothing more than an abandoned building but it became part of Oceanic Systems’ experimental reform project and passed into the Adventurers’ hands. After that, the store received many repairs and was now owned by The Seventh Drum and Fife Band.

From the beginning, much of the management of the shop itself was done by People of The Land because the Adventurers were too busy to have time for managing a shop and business work. In Akiba, dual managed establishments were the current style, almost like symbiosis.

The country style shop was lit extravagantly with Magic Lights.

And in that light stood Isuzu with her head bowed as she clapped her hands loudly.

There were about seventy seats, and all of them were filled.

There were canvas covered sofas around amber tables, and hanging on the wall with the menus were hand written event schedules.

The Adventurers and People of The Land gathered together in Akiba had, with some back and forth, built a store together. It wasn’t focussed on building efficiency or safe interior design, the individual guild halls, houses and shops, all had to be hand built.

The shop was a mish-mash of moods, there was a small veranda like stage and it resembled a mix of a restaurant, a fast food joint, and a live house. In a fantasy novel, it would be called a tavern; but Akiba’s adventurers weren’t like the adventurers in those novels, bathing themselves in alcohol, if pushed, they’d say that eating was more important than drinking, the store reflected this way of thinking too, it had a bright and cheery atmosphere.

Looking over the store, Isuzu relaxed slightly. In the audience, she could see many unfamiliar faces, and firmed her resolve.

It was fine to be nervous.

If she could enjoy herself at the same time, she’d be able to become more skilled.

Isuzu stopped thinking, and strummed the first note.

Before the performance, her head had been full of thoughts, and she understood what bursting with emotion felt like.

They’d been given time for six songs. Those thirty minutes were long enough to grant any wish, but short enough to blink three times and miss.

Isuzu’s joy and hope burst from her throat as sound, Tohya matching the rhythm, kicking the drums with a smile floating on his face as Isuzu scattered notes into the air.

The Amber Dragon’s Claw she was given by Shiroe glided down the strings, it wasn’t the usual way to play, but it made for a showy performance. In the corner of her head, she thought it sounded like the roar of the sea at the beach.

Happiness pressed upon her like waves.

Strumming the taught strings, the vibrations reverberated through her fingers, up to her wrist.

Hundreds of times stronger than carbonated water, Isuzu’s happiness bubbled.

She had an instrument in her hands, just from that, her cheeks slackened. The instrument responded to Isuzu’s wishes, giving the first cry of a baby, the first cry was a beautiful riff, it was Isuzu’s duty to nurture it.

Like birthday wishes, Isuzu’s words hung upon her lips.

It was her plain, ordinary voice, but it filled the room.

In this world with no electrical amplification, it was her natural voice, but it was still plenty to fill the small store.

Isuzu always felt strange doing this. Could a common country high school girl’s voice echo like this?

Isuzu had been playing here for a month, but if she counted on her fingers, how many times she’d been on stage, she wouldn’t need more than one hand. Of course, before the catastrophe, living in the outskirts of her hometown, she’d never done anything like this. Where there was mainly empty land and fields around where she lived, the closest she’d come was a box like karaoke room.

That was why, every time her voice was so sweet and carefree, she couldn’t help being surprised.

However, that was only for a breath.

Her reverie only lasted a moment before it was swallowed up in the flood of sound.

A burning shiver ran through her arms, and she strained her voice through her quivering throat.

It wasn’t anything special, on earth it was just a common rock number, a song Isuzu remembered from her childhood, hearing it in her father’s collection. Isuzu played and sung the song that brought such a desperate heat to her.

Wrapped in Isuzu’s troubadour aura, Tohya took care of the drums, but there were no other instruments.

By the old world’s common sense, this wasn’t a bad, it was a small scale group, just breaking onto the stage.

But even that, in front of Isuzu’s happiness which was boiling like the air above the pavement in the summer, was meaningless.

Isuzu was singing on her stage.

It was a much more vividly moving experience than she had imagined.

In the light from the magic lights, Isuzu was no longer Isuzu, she had become someone else, the thin, freckled, curveless high school girl had vanished.  She had become the lute-strumming troubadour Isuzu, who was full of confidence, wearing a shining smile.

The overwhelming happiness cleared her sight.

Many people were watching Isuzu from the filled seats.

They were all smiling.

The dwarf shop manager’s mouth was drawn together in a line, but even they were enjoying the rhythm. Isuzu’s feelings were pushed out through the lute like an arch of F notes.

Nyanta and Serara sat by the counter, Serara shivering with red cheeks, and Nyanta smiling whilst watching over her. Serara holding her shaking fist in front of her chest was really cute. She was the girliest girl that Isuzu knew. The calm gentleman Nyanta’s silver whiskers twitched as he enjoyed the performance.

Their calm aura flowed into Isuzu and gave her lute even more brilliance.

The first song ended. Most of the room were hitting the tables in time with the drums, like they were percussion instruments. It felt like she had a bass drum in her stomach. Her braid swinging in front of her eyes, she spun on her foot and started preparing for the next song.

It was irritating.

Had her happiness been received by everyone?

Even in her giddy dizziness, she still managed to properly thank her lute. The lute was her partner.

After being rescued from Hamelin, she didn’t know what to do, and found this lute in the Crescent Moon Alliance. The guild master Maryelle was a carpenter, and had made it a long time ago. It had been added to and upgraded here and there, and barely looked like it had originally, even so, it had healed her feelings of loneliness from this alternate world.

Isuzu and the lute were already of one mind and body.

In this world without school or clubs, she didn’t just play her lute, she did housework for the guild and hunted with her friends.

But in this world with no TV, web, cable or films, if she wanted to hear music, she had to play it herself.

At the end of a ribbon like cable from her trusty partner, there was a shell with a globe inside that raised her voice. An artificial spirit that magnified sound from the trunk of the lute. It was because the Roderick Firm had remodelled it with the low-level follower summon item Siren’s Shell. It was originally a lute for old style music, but the remodelling gave it more width and feeling and evolved it into a deluxe mystery instrument. Even so, Isuzu loved her partner.

The Magic Light met her eyes and smiled brightly.

I forgot. Thank you.

Filled with those feelings, Isuzu nodded.

What song was it now? She was dizzy and didn’t know. She thought it was the third or fourth.

She felt like she was about to fly away, like she had grown wings and blown away the fragments of fatigue.

Was this also part of the stamina of an adventurer?

That wasn’t right.

Rather, it was like a cable had attached to her back and was pouring energy into her. The store was filled with the sounds of clapping and stomping, it was like a furious avalanche of happiness. Isuzu cheerfully sang an absurd rock number, one of the oldies from her father’s collection.

She didn’t think it was a good performance.

At any rate, Isuzu had no musical talent, she’d been told that time and again by her father. She was a country high school girl, the only things musical that she’d done were school festival type things, and after school karaoke. She hadn’t received any instruction in those things, and was no match for her musician father.

However, or perhaps because of that, it had nothing to do with this wondrous moment.

That emotion wasn’t happiness.

It wasn’t anything so vague, it was the clear energy of the moment.

The invisible, intangible, colourless power that slept inside everyone. In Isuzu, in Tohya, in Nyanta and Serara, in everyone in that store.

It was overflowing and raining down upon the stage, the lute was connected to Isuzu and performing, so talent had nothing to do with it. This enjoyment, and everyone’s joy were proof of that.

Next to the entrance furthest from her, Isuzu saw a glint of gold.

It was the dog-prince, his face full of excitement, waving both arms at Isuzu. Just from seeing that, Isuzu’s lute broke past its limits. Isuzu was filled with feelings she didn’t understand, her face relaxed and she broke into a big smile, waving the neck of the lute in reply. It was embarrassing and awkward, and she didn’t know what to do. The notes around her turned pink and overflowed.

She needed to put her all into the next number too.

It was Isuzu’s sworn friend, her colleague, her designated bag carrier and her guard when walking, the dog-prince, Rundelhous Code’s favourite slow ballad.

It couldn’t be helped, this next song would be a prize for Rudy.

Isuzu thought that and took a deep breath.

Reading the mood of the soft light from the Magic Lights, Isuzu started singing the next song.

It would be today’s most important performance.

 

“It’s a little warm tonight isn’t it ~nya”

“It is, Nyanta-san”

If you walked a little from the store, the streets were deserted.

In this alternate world with no electronic media, trains or cars, the noise of city life was non-existent. There were festivals like the Libra Festival, but that was different, and the mornings and evenings were getting colder, so the streets were deserted at night.

Isuzu, Rundelhous, Tohya, Nyanta and Serara were in good spirits, smiling as they went back from The Broom Hole.

On the main streets, there were Firefly Lights dotted here and there, and the party had Rundelhous’ Magic Light to guide them as well.

Rundelhous and Tohya were talking excitedly ahead of everyone, Serara and Nyanta were enjoying themselves too, and Isuzu followed behind, wrapped in a fluffy aura of joy.

Tohya and Rundelhous were carrying large amounts of luggage, but Isuzu only had her lute, cradled against her chest. Because they were only walking through the town, they were all in casual wear and didn’t have their weapons with them. Around the time they’d joined Log Horizon, their lives hadn’t calmed down at all, so they had few personal belongings, but now, because they had their own rooms in the guild house, they had more casual wear. Now that they thought of it, it had been half a year since the defensive battle at Choushi.

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Rundelhous looked back at Isuzu, walking slowly behind them, and asked

“Miss Isuzu, are you okay, are you tired?”

“Not at all, I’m full of energy!”

He misunderstood, Isuzu was just satisfied with watching everyone else.

“We should go back to the guild house before we get too cold ~nya.”

“To eat too!”

Whilst Nyanta and Tohya were having that back and forth, they crossed a small intersection.

They were all walking down the night roads with happy faces.

Isuzu and Rundelhous were used to Log Horizon now.

Log Horizon was a kind and comfy guild. Isuzu had become good friends with Minori, she felt like she had known the diligent younger girl for years now, Serara too. Isuzu really liked the girl standing next to Nyanta, with a melty smile on her face.

Isuzu’s sworn friend, Rundelhous, had also relaxed since when they were in the Forest of Lagranda. Rundelhous and Tohya had become friends as “the boys’ group”, when they were together, it was really noisy. Isuzu would say that their mental age fell when they were together.

They also gradually got to know the senior group of Shiroe, Nyanta, Naotsugu and Akatsuki. The eldest in the guild, Nyanta, was an easy to get along with, calm dandy. The guild’s kitchen was his domain. The young group had been caught by their stomachs and fallen in love with his cooking.

Tohya and Rundelhous had come to understand Naotsugu by talking with him. He always was the life of the party in their banter, but Isuzu thought he was a surprisingly considerate person. If there was a problem with the decoration or facilities in the guild, Naotsugu was the first one to talk to.

Recently, Naotsugu, Tohya, Rundelhous, and sometimes Nyanta had some male bonding time. They said it was special training, they’re sometimes a bit childish, but Isuzu and Minori pretend not to see. According to Naotsugu, they went out here and there, but they came back with silly grins and mud clinging to them. Minori and Isuzu would smile wryly and go to prepare the bath.

Akatsuki was a quiet and sharp woman. She seemed shy but still replied somewhat curtly when addressed. When Isuzu first joined the guild, she disliked her a little, but she was really a kind person with a hidden sense of humour. She enjoyed washing and cleaning and, without any help would stealthily implement large scale cleans. In the blink of an eye the sheets would be airing on the veranda.

Since the New Year, Tetora had joined and was their free healthcare. She certainly wasn’t a shy person, the first time they’d met, she’d grabbed Isuzu in a hug, not just Isuzu, everyone apart from Akatsuki, who had quickly side-stepped.

On the other hand, there was the guild master, Shiroe, who they didn’t understand for a long time. At mealtimes he’d absentmindedly pass out the seasonings and plates, not anything special. He’d nap in the afternoons on the sofa in the living room, seeming exhausted. When it was time for cleaning or shopping he’d say something like

“I’m no good at this, so I’m going to my room.” And hard-heartedly leave it to Naotsugu and Akatsuki.

If you listened to the rumours in the town, you’d hear all sorts of things, like ‘His eyes are sharp.’ Or, ‘He’s a wicked schemer.’ Or, ‘He’s playing with Akiba’s fate.’ Or, ‘He’s the mastermind behind the Round Table.’ Or, ‘He’s not good enough’. Isuzu would agree with the sharp eyes, but many of the others she thought “Is that really true?”

Aside from the rumours, Isuzu also had her long-time friend Minori, according to her, Shiroe was a “really upstanding young man, kind, good at taking care of people, wise, gentlemanly, the one I want to-”

It was like there were three types of Shiroe, inconsistent like daily specials for lunch.

The one that Isuzu thought of was when he stood at the cross-roads in Choushi with his strict face, asking for secrecy, she thought (even though she hadn’t seen a real one) that he was almost like a judge.

She thought that saving Rundelhous wasn’t a matter of chance, but a foregone conclusion, he really was an amazing person.

One day, after she knew him better, she’d asked Nyanta who had just said

“Shiroecchi has eldest-son-syndrome.”

To Isuzu, Shiroe was someone who tried so hard it defied common sense. He was someone who had such amazing talents, but also unexpected bad points.

She could understand Shiroe a little better now, so felt like she could help Minori.

Like that, Isuzu got along with Log Horizon as time passed.

She thought everyday was busy, even if there was nothing that needed to be done, people still got hungry through the day, and if people got hungry, they needed food, so the food needed preparing. Log Horizon had Nyanta who had a sub-class of Chef, but that didn’t mean that everything to do with food should be pushed on to him.

In the first place, in this world, there weren’t any conveniences like pre-cut vegetables, seasonings, and instant meals, so cooking was hard labour.

If you wanted to cook something fancy, those preparations could easily take an entire day. On top of that, there weren’t net-supermarkets that would do home delivery, you had to go and buy the food yourself.

Delegating all of that work to Nyanta would be unfair. Even if there wasn’t anything cooked in the mornings, there was always something left out for breakfast, on top of that, two days of the week were set as “Chief Nyanta’s rest days.”

The preparation of food was on everyone’s minds, so the most noticeable stores in Akiba were the food and drink stores. Places were you could just decide to go and eat on a whim, set meal and soup stalls were very common. As could be expected from a place where gamers gathered, there were many stores which sold food which was simple and filling, but there were also bakeries, take outs and other stalls. And even a few fashionable restaurants for dates.

From the beginning there were many shops which sold food and drink, but the 8th Shopping District had led the way, opening a shopping mall under the guard rails by the abandoned Akiba Station, where you could find familiar flavours.

On “Chief Nyanta’s rest days” the guild members would eat out at one of these shops.

The range on offer had changed a little around the end of year celebration of Snowfell.

Isuzu had been scouted at an open stage night at The Broom Hole, and about once a week after that, she’d done small life concerts like today.

Being a bard didn’t increase your singing or musical ability, but adventurers who didn’t have bard as their class, or a similar sub-class had limits placed on their musical abilities.

If they had the Diva sub-class or similar, then, depending on their practice, they could sing well, the limitations wouldn’t drag at their feet. Bards however, could remove the limitations from people around them, so when Isuzu was on the stage, Tohya, Minori and Serara could use backing instruments and keep a rhythm. Unfortunately, the dog prince himself had no musical talent so was mainly there for support.

“Minori-chan would have liked to do this too.”

“She would have ~nya.”

“She couldn’t, she had work.”

“With Charashin-san, right?”

“Miss Minori is a working woman.”

“Ahahahaha.”

“But, she should be finished now.”

“Isn’t she going home with Shiroe-niichan?”

Her heart was pounding in her ears, but listening to her friends’ conversation in front was slowly soothing her. It was like the loneliness as a dream leaves you, but even so, the indelible happiness still followed her.

(She wasn’t a pro like her father, but she sometimes played the lute to make herself feel better.)

She didn’t think she’d ever go on stage.

But more than those worries, she loved music; she gently caressed the lute in her arms. Like a hanging fruit, the trunk hung from the neck. She was more accustomed to the wooden bass, but the lute had a more delicate, old sounding tone.

(Uehehe.)

The wooden bass she used to use was a mass produced model (though still ridiculously expensive for a student like Isuzu) but this lute was a one of a kind item made by Maryelle. It was decorated with two strings of elegant rainbow-coloured mother of pearl down either side. Compared to when she received it, it had been remodelled here and there, but it still had the resemblance to a dolphin that Isuzu liked so much.

“Rockers have to have a favourite instrument!” That was what Isuzu fervently believed, and her lute, the Flying Dolphin was hers.

“What’s up, Isuzu-neechan?”

“Fueh?”

“Isuzu-san?”

Before she knew it, everyone was gathered around her

“Eh? Eh?”

“You were grinning, nee-chan.”

“I was not!”

“You were, you were smiling.”

She put a hand against her cheek, to check for herself, and sure enough, her cheeks were drawn into a smile.

“Miss Isuzu is still excited.”

“That’s not it, Rudy!”

Isuzu’s voice got louder as she moved towards him, Rundelhous looked around with an amazed face and a kind smile, looking for support. Tohya answered his plea with.

“Isuzu-neechan really is amazing.”

“That’s not true at all, it’s just because I had instruments in the house when I was a kid, so I can sort of play them.”

“That’s not it ~nya. It made everyone happy ~nyaa.”

With a smiling Serara agreeing at his side, Nyanta praised her too. Her face went bright red, and the one who struck the final blow was the one who was supposed to be her ally, Rundelhous.

“Miss Isuzu is like a spirit of music, her enchanting melody enriches the night. Next week we’re going on a trip after all, I’m sure the people there will enjoy it…. Uh, what is it, Miss Isuzu?”

“I. Told. You. Rudy. Why do you say things like that with such a serious face!?”

Isuzu’s embarrassment overwhelmed her patience and she started chasing Rundelhous around.

She was happy, but couldn’t look at them in the face. The chase through the cold night continued until they reached they guild house.

 

It had been six months since the apocalypse, within all the ruined and abandoned buildings in Akiba, the one that had received the most improvements was the Guild Hall.

The seventh floor and up were originally like tenantless buildings for rent, when Elder Tale was a game and immediately after the Catastrophe, it was just space without a purpose. When the Round Table Conference was formed, the space became very valuable as it could be repurposed for many uses.

Even though the Round Table Conference was imperfect, they governed well. As the major guilds that made up the conference formed a not insignificant proportion of the citizens, the city had confidence in them. There weren’t many of the original citizens from when it was a game that opposed the rule, there were altruistic players which made voluntary events and such.

There was the self-governing organisation, but as long as they didn’t get in the way of what people wanted to do, that was fine. That’s how the general populace felt, but the Round Table Conference actually had far more to do than the citizens thought. If only they could let people just do what they wanted, but things needed doing, like determining priority for usage of buildings as stores because of course several people would want the same area.

“Phew, I’m finished here, Black Heart.”

In the corner of a large cafeteria on the first basement floor of the Guild Hall, the two of them spoke to each other. Log Horizon’s guild master Shiroe, and The Black Sword Knight’s guild master Isaac.

Light from the firefly lights around the ceiling streamed down onto tables which would seat two or four people, with geometric lines drawn on them. The space was split into many areas, further in there were private rooms and small conference rooms.

Shiroe’s group had taken up positions around an eight person table far into the area, maps, documents and writing tools lined up on top of it. Various tools and measuring devices had been added from the bag at his feet. It was the sort of table hogging that shouldn’t be seen somewhere where you eat, but they’d already finished using it for food.

Said Isaac’s second-in-command Rezarick, slumping with an aghast look on his face. Isaac just gave a smirk that said “don’t sweat the small stuff.”

It seemed like Isaac like the uniform, though Shiroe.

Recently he’d been working a lot with Isaac, but office work didn’t suit Isaac, every time he tried to have a meeting and draw up papers, they’d end up going for food and drink.

“I don’t really get it, but is this fine?”

“I don’t care about that.”

“Shut it you. And don’t call me ‘-kun’.

“But you know, since we came to this word, The Knights have been doing a lot of drills.”

He said that, but Isaac didn’t seem to be too serious about it, he was more focussed on the documents in front of him. Titled “The first people of the land training outline.”

“And like I said, we don’t need that kind of thing. How many levels do we want to raise them?”

Shiroe answered without looking up from his papers.

“I don’t want to spend ages on them.”

“Is that so? Oi.” Isaac turned to Rezarick who was standing behind him and asked “weren’t we going to power level them?”

“Power levelling would be a problem. They won’t be able to use their actual power.”

Isaac let out a big laugh and said

Even Shiroe thought there was no helping it when it was put like that. In the first place, even he didn’t completely oppose power levelling. For example, if a player already had a high level character, using that kind of method on a second or third character was fine.

“That area is fairly open, so don’t go all out please.”

Isaac’s face fell into a thinking expression as he ran a hand through his hair and fell silent for a while.

It was just past dinner time.

That was to be expected though, this space was like a cafeteria for the Adventurers and People of the Land that worked for the Round Table Conference. Many of the adventurers had their own guild halls, and would work there normally, Shiroe, Michitaka and Charasin all did this.

“You haven’t been able to contact that idiot Krusty yet?”

“What’s he thinking, leaving his guild like that, it’s going to fall apart.”

Answered Shiroe.

In general, MMORPG guilds were fragile things, they weren’t jobs with contracts, it was simply “let’s play together”. People who lived close, classmates or just people who wanted to communicate without the limits of a physical body, it was something more pure than friendship from physical meetings, but that itself was why they were so easy to break.

In many cases, the core of the guild was its leader.

After Krusty had vanished, there had been people leaving D.D.D, they probably felt uneasy being in an organisation with no leader, and they couldn’t be faulted for that, especially when this world becoming real meant that a mutual-aid organisation was needed for survival. The fact that in three months with no leader, the number of people who had left the guild hadn’t reached fifty was a quiet miracle.

“You worried, Black Heart?”

“No way would I be worried about him, he’s a Berserker, he’s just off playing or fighting somewhere.”

Shiroe nodded vaguely in assent, he couldn’t quite deny Isaac’s words. He thought that Krusty had probably been launched into another server, or possibly a zone where telepathy didn’t function, events with those zones had existed when Elder Tale was a game. Of course, all that aside, it was still a serious incident, the possibility that Krusty himself was in trouble wasn’t small, but as Isaac said, if he were asked to choose who out of the Round Table personnel would be most likely to come back alive from some unpredictable issue, it would be Krusty. Even so, he couldn’t help but worry.

“What I’m worried about isn’t Krusty-san, but D.D.D and the Round Table Conference.” Revealed Shiroe.

D.D.D was the biggest combat guild, and also one of the most rigorously organised. For example, if you were to judge by their achievements in raids and battle quests, there were many shining stars in Akiba. Isaac’s Black Sword Knights and Soujirou’s West Wind Brigade were two of them. However, as the scope of the battles increased so did the need for a highly ordered structure and chain of command due to the needed tactics. In this, there was no guild to substitute for D.D.D.

Shiroe felt that the Round Table was a good self-governing organisation, but that didn’t mean he thought it was faultless. If a parliament of influential guilds was to temporarily show discord, it would show its unexpected fragility.

Honesty’s investigation of the Fairy Rings was proceeding well, but the amount of attention paid to it within the town was low because of the constant technological breakthroughs within the city. Those breakthroughs were slowly eroding the measure known as levels. The period where high levels meant prosperity were passing away.

Many adventurers hunted, but left a wide safety margin, for example, level ninety adventurers would hunt in level eighty five areas. Of course, they earned money and items, but their levels wouldn’t go up. Some guilds continued with extreme challenges, but it was safe to say they were the exception. They were the only ones with levels above ninety, but casual hunting could no longer make a large profit. There were people showing irritation with the current situation, to unite them, Krusty was important, Shiroe was having some difficulty handling the fallout.

“Shiroe-san!”

Charasin and Minori, who had been helping the head of the manufacturing guilds’ liaison committee appeared. Charasin was dressed as normal, but Minori was wearing civilian clothes for in the city. She looked like a student coming back from lessons as she looked happily at Shiroe.

Whilst the gesture was forceful and could cause others to get cold feet, Charasin just said “Thank you, thank you.” And cordially took the seat. His amiable nature was Charsin’s weapon, as Shiroe thought this, Minori had stood next to him and skilfully cleared the documents and set down sandwiches and a drink.

“Thank you, Minori, you didn’t have any problems at work?”

“Hey hey, Shiroe-dono, how about this, why don’t you give Minori-chan to us, she’s really skilled.”

“Oi, Charasin, you’re making passes at middle schoolers now? Been too long since you had a woman?”

To the giggling Minori, Charasin’s talkativeness was an everyday thing. Shiroe relaxed in relief and took a sip of his ginger ale and smiled. All of the drinks in Akiba were homemade, the ginger ale with a light hint of honey felt good.

There were a mountain of things to do, and the future looked tough. The capture of Seventh Fall where the Goblin King reigned wasn’t complete, and the round table wanted to raise everyone’s levels to at least thirty.

 

Rieze was being worked to death.

Above all, what was wearing on her was knowing what was important and what wasn’t. What to do and where to do it, Rieze had no idea. With the unease within the guild, and trying to understand and oversee the majority of the administration, the information volume was beating her down.

She didn’t know what to do or where to go and felt like everything she had done and everything she should do had failed, and continued through the night feeling like she was getting in the way of the administration.

Her feelings about what had happened were swirling in confusion, little troubles seemed like they were big problems standing in the guild’s way made fear sink in to her teeth.

Even without Rieze’s regard for Krusty, she’d had the pride to say she had seen his guild management the closest, it’s wasn’t just Rieze, but all of the Drei Klauen that had that kind of managerial role.

The individual divisions autonomous management systems were still functioning as well as they had under Krusty, if there had been a problem there whilst Takayama Misa hadn’t been able to act for a month, D.D.D would have disintegrated.

However, after Snowfell was over, like invisible metal fatigue, the guild was slowly crumbling and there was no end to the darkness in sight.
The thing that saved them from those days was Henrietta and the others.

“You’re looking pale again.”

Rieze had been abducted by Henrietta again to the Crescent Moon Alliance’s guild hall.

Rieze thought that the room gave a warm familial feeling.

She’d been invited under the pretext of a late lunch, a cream stew made by their chef, Girov. As it was still early February, the days were still cold, so it was a welcome meal.

Silence flowed through the afternoon guild hall, with only the occasional small voice, or the sounds of the kitchen being cleared.
It was the sound of life in a mid-sized guild, Rieze felt a sense of assurance from the sounds.

“You’re glaring too, Rieze. You look like my lord.”

“I’m okay, I’m not exhausted yet.”

Henrietta chided Rieze with a soft expression. Akatsuki was held tight in her arms where she’d grabbed her from behind.

“Hmm? Yes.”

“Ahem, and I’m twenty.”

“Yes.”

She still took exception to the difference in her appearance and age, but if pushed Rieze would say there were some advantages to looking young, of course, she wouldn’t have thought so in high school.

“It’s sort of strange.”

“Our ages?”

“You might be right.”

Rieze was surprised at feeling her face go loose, she’d been under more stress than she’d thought.

“No, that’s not true! It’s said that the cute are drawn together, we would have met no matter what!”

“But recently, when I rub against you, you haven’t been getting angry, I’m so happy.”

Akatsuki needed the warmth from being hugged closely.

At any rate, the time Rieze passed with her close friends was peaceful.

Akatsuki quietly bore Henrietta’s assault with a small shrug of the shoulders and asked Rieze a small question, it was what was worrying her.

“It is, I really relied on Krusty-sama a lot.”

“Shiroe-sama too, I suppose he would be, Krusty-sama had become the face of the round table’s diplomacy. It’s fine now, but when you take into account what might happen, it’s obvious.”

The Round Table Conference too was part of Krusty’s responsibilities, but of course, Rieze couldn’t handle that as well. She couldn’t handle it and had finally admitted it.

After the Catastrophe, Krusty constantly said things like “Nothing has changed” and “How we have managed the guild, and how we will manage the guild, won’t change. Life won’t change whether we’re here or there.” Many members thought it was just Krusty giving false promises, but Rieze knew, that was, without exaggeration, what he truly believed.

The youth that Akatsuki called ‘my lord’ was also someone to look up to. Log Horizon’s guild master also put his skills from conquering the game into conquering the Catastrophe.

But was it really that strange?

Had they continued to fight as themselves in this world which was changing completely, minute by minute?

In short, last year’s Akatsuki, and the current Rieze were the same.

Rather than that, focus on your own will and decisions, and how you wanted to live. That’s what Rieze thought. Krusty was like that from the beginning, Michitaka and Isaac were like that as well, so they were strong.
――She didn’t suddenly gain self confidence, but.

“I’m sure I’m causing a lot of trouble, and I’ll probably cause more.”

“…My lord won’t think of it as a bother. Besides, even if he did, I’d help.”

The always expressionless girl’s smile was like flower petals becoming visible.

She needed to take a step forward and stop hesitating due to impatience or unease. The self-condemning Takayama and Rieze weren’t the only ones trying to improve the situation.

 

In this world, many magic items exist of many different types, weapons and armour, equipment, books, furniture.

To be precise, in Elder Tale it was a ‘container’, an item which held other items, from convenient carryables like pouches and bags, to larger things like boxes, strongboxes and chests of drawers.

Dazanegg’s Magic Bag was a magic container item which could be equipped at level 45. There were other magic container items around the same equip level, but they couldn’t compete in terms of storage capacity and ease of obtaining.

Dazanegg’s Magic Bag was a must have item for mid-levellers in Elder Tale, the gateway to magic bags.

“Are you all ready?” asked Naotsugu, poking his head into the living room.

The younger group of Tohya, Minori, Isuzu and Rundelhous were preparing for a journey in the big room.

They were going to leave Kanto for the first time to obtain the raw materials needed to make the bag.
“The carriage is ready too, Naotsugu-san.” Added Minori, concentrating on her notebook with the preparations in one hand.

The destination is the Redstone Mountains.

Tohya had never seen mountains before so he was daydreaming and being fidgety.

“Hmm, It’s been a while since I travelled, but if you need any information, just ask me, Rundelhous Code.”

“Yes, until halfway I was with Adventurers, but I came here from Bogport alone, so I have plenty of experience.”

“We know!”

“I’ve already got enough, Minori.”

Tohya was uncontainably excited. He hadn’t been travelling in the old world for a long time, and travelling far away was rarer still. On top of that, this time, it was just the young friends going on a trip, so it was much more exciting than a school trip, and using a horse drawn carriage just stirred a sense of romanticism.

They had belongings strewn across the floor.

Even so, he didn’t voice his thoughts, he knew Minori tried so hard, and to be worthy of being called an older brother (though Minori called herself the elder sibling) he had to look after his younger sister.

With that, Rundelhous fell to his knees and began scrabbling through the things on the floor.

“My brush is gone. I need it to keep my appearance as an elegant adventurer.”

Ignoring Naotsugu’s quip of “Really?” Rundelhous continued searching.

“Rudy.”

“It is, thank you for finding it, Miss Isuzu.”

When he was young, Tohya loved football, looking back on it now he didn’t know why he loved it so much, but for the energetic Tohya, running about with his friends after school, kicking a ball around was plenty.

It wasn’t through jealousy or hate, but he didn’t want them to stop playing because of him, so he put some distance between them, making sure they were all smiling was very important to Tohya.

So seeing Rundelhous, Isuzu and Minori happy relieved him.

What he’d protected wasn’t Rundelhous’ life, but everyone’s smiles, and all the time they’d been able to spend together. It was amazing to an extent Tohya had never imagined before.

After finally gathering everything into a small mountain, she gently stroked the lute case she was carrying under her arm.

“Isuzu-neechan, are you excited for the trip too?”

A tour? Everyone in the room, Naotsugu included, didn’t know what the word meant.

Isuzu stood up and strummed a hand across the case, her braids swung back and forth showing her happiness.

“That sounds awesome, let’s do a tour of the galaxy!”

Tetora appeared, followed by Akatsuki scolding her. If Shiroe came in, Log Horizon’s members would be out in full force.

When it was explained like that, Tohya had heard of it.

He’d not thought of going on a tour with the five of them (himself, Minori, Isuzu, Rundelhous and Serara who had been invited from the Crescent Moon Alliance.) but it was an exciting idea.

Tohya drummed on his rucksack, Isuzu looked a little surprised, but soon broke into a smile and imitated an instrument.

“No, there aren’t that many villages around, right, Minori?”

“Then it’s fine, let’s go, we need to go to a few anyway, for water and supplies.” Tohya proposed immediately.

Hearing everyone’s agreement, Isuzu’s face light up and she said “Yeah! A tour will be great!”

Rundelhous declared, standing up with a sunny expression.
Tohya didn’t really get music, but he could keep a rhythm on a drum, Serara could play on a simple keyboard, and Minori had been learning the lute from Isuzu, they might not  catch up with ‘artists’ but just helping Isuzu should be plenty of fun.

“This is going to be brilliant!” shouted Isuzu, grabbing a confused Rundelhous’ head. Rundelhous was the eldest among them, and the tallest, but he was still powerless to resist in the face of Isuzu’s skinship.

Tohya swallowed the words with a smile, realising he was the same when trying to go against Minori.

“Men show what they’re made of when it counts.”

“Minori, Minori! I need to go buy some more strings!”

These were Tohya’s thoughts as he watched the laughing guild members.

 

In Elder Tale, there were several types of carriages, but there had been innovation even there since the Round Table Conference was formed. Originally, the first high-class carriages used leaf springs, but new, lightweight materials for suspension and spring systems were being introduced.

With liberal use of abnormal techniques, The Roderick Firm amazed the citizens of Akiba with their goods. There was no clear meaning to adding aerodynamic tail wings, but the incessant addition of those parts was causing the market to be slowly saturated with cheap products.

In Akiba there were many products being manufactured, but carriages were the thing with the highest demand amongst the people of the land.

Among the items produced in Akiba, many used magic, so the people of the land with their low mana couldn’t use them, and the items to bring the comforts of modern day earth mainly made them wonder why the adventurers would go that far.

Items that were pocket change to adventurers were harder to buy for people of the land. Of course, nobles form the League of Freedom Cities Eastal could easily buy expensive items, but they didn’t bring the needed demand.

For that, the new forms of carriage were ideal.

There were of course those which used magic, but there were also mechanical carriages to provide convenience for people of the land. If the capabilities were raised too much, it would also raised the required driver level, but for the majority of lucky coachmen and trade

Chapter end