76 - Episode 2: Where Are We? We Are the Three Idiots!
When suddenly reflecting on its own origins, it was unable to identify the cause of its occurrence.
It only knew that it was born from some kind of wish.
However, it did not know what it should do.
Confused, within the time that simply passed by, it met that person.
It was abrupt, sudden, and without context.
A being of a higher order in terms of recognition. One called a god in words. The creator of this world.
The god spoke.
"I am surprised. To think a being like you would establish a self so quickly. This world does not even have people's prayers yet."
It understood. That it was an irregular existence. Irregulars create bugs in the world's system. Therefore, it should be erased.
"Wah! Wait, wait! Don't just start disappearing! It is fine for you to stay! No, in the end, I would be troubled if you did not stay!!"
The mother and father of this world, and the god who first recognized its existence────the proper name, Refill, was somehow flustered.
●
As if a spark of electricity had run through, consciousness awakened.
"Where is...?"
When Marianne opened her eyelids, there was a piercingly blue sky and the branches of trees. Sitting up and looking around, she found herself in the middle of a deep forest where trees grew thick. Marianne tilted her head, wondering how she had moved into the forest when she had been in the city until a moment ago.
"Marie. Are you awake?"
"Honestly, you are quite carefree."
"Geo? Ray?"
Geoglyph and Later were nearby, each observing the surroundings or checking their equipment.
"Where are we?"
"That is what I want to ask. Ray, how was it? Is this inside the Empire?"
"I did a quick check, and judging by the temperature and vegetation of this season, as well as the small animals, I think we are in the north. At the least, we are not inside the Empire."
"The north, huh. If it is around the Empire, there is the Duchy of Marbel, the Republic of Meizal, the Kingdom of Albestein... I hope it is nearby. Honestly, I thought random teleportation only happened inside dungeons..."
"Teleportation...?"
"Judging by the situation."
According to Geoglyph, after being enveloped in that mysterious light, they realized they were here.
"Is it just us? What about the three girls?"
"Just us. Either they remained in the Imperial Capital, or they were caught up in that teleportation just like we were..."
"If they were caught up just like us, Latia should be there, so I think it will be fine. All three of them have enough power to at least defend themselves."
"You are unexpectedly dry..."
"I am worried. However, even if I panic like a normal person right now, it is not as if I can go to those girls, so I am just correctly recognizing the current situation."
Latia is well-versed in navigating the world to the extent that she is entrusted by her clan with negotiations between elves and other races, and while she is in her mid-teens by human standards, her actual age is forty. If not for her special hobby (chunibyo), she is the most adult among the three girls. He judged that if they had teleported as a group of three like the Three Idiots, they would at least not be lost on the streets.
"Anyway, Princess, what was that?"
"That?"
"Probably the cause of why we were sent here. The magic circle that appeared behind you at that time.────You, just what did you call forth?"
"Even if you say that... I did not use any summoning arts at that time."
At Later's question, Marianne tilted her head and Geoglyph added a supplement. However, Marianne did not know what they were talking about. At the very least, she had not even uttered the shortened chant, Hyakki Yagyou, which serves as the key to summoning.
In this world where chantless casting is a taboo, and especially for Marianne, who is not well-versed in the abyss of magic, it should be impossible to perform a summoning without even the activation chant.
"You did not use summoning arts? Then was it an accident? Or did the seventy-two beasts slip out of Marie's control...?"
Ignoring Geoglyph, who began to speculate muttering to himself, Marianne turned to Later.
"In the end, what was that? I was enveloped in light before I could confirm, so I do not know what happened."
"Us too."
"Huh?"
"Something appeared from that magic circle. We certainly witnessed it. But we do not remember what it was. We did not lose consciousness like the Princess, so it was only a few minutes ago."
"Memory... no, is it governing phenomena? Did it make something that existed vanish? No, considering Marie's amount of magic, she should not be able to produce that much output... then, is it some other ability...? Wait, then what is this teleportation phenomenon?"
Marianne, who felt a snag particularly at the part about memory in Geoglyph's monologue, tried saying it out loud.
"Could it be... was that form a golden spider?"
"What?"
"I said, a golden spider."
"Hah?"
"I am saying a golden spider, aren't I?"
She tried saying it several times, but both Geoglyph and Later only tilted their heads. Marianne was appalled, thinking they should not suddenly become hard-of-hearing protagonists, but────.
"No, Princess. Why are you suddenly speaking in words we do not know?"
"Ah, so it sounds like that to Ray. For me, it is completely masked. It is a nonsensical rhythm that cannot be recognized as language."
Marianne, who had not thought that they truly could not understand her words, was speechless.
"As a test, Marie, try writing those words on the ground. Let's see... in Japanese, which only we can understand."
"Y-yes..."
Following Geoglyph's words, Marianne used a nearby fallen branch to write 'Golden Spider' in Japanese on the ground. At least to Marianne it looked like that, but it seemed the two were different.
"Oh? What is going on here, the ground is pixelated."
"Cognitive interference... Moreover, for it to be the form and shape, it is not something a human uses. It is applied to the existence itself, including the name."
"Meaning?"
"The existence is eighteen-plus."
"What, I was surprised for nothing.────Just like the Princess."
"Wait, Ray!? What does that mean!?"
"Why not reflect on your usual behavior, where the conversation flies in an erotic direction whenever there is an opening? Now, about that thing, do you have any recollection of it?"
"No, I do not know either. I only summoned it once a long time ago, and since then, I had completely forgotten its existence."
Marianne tried to tell them everything from her contact with the golden spider and so on, but Geoglyph crossed his arms and closed his eyes for a while, and eventually shook his head and gave up.
"...No good. There is too little information. I am at a loss."
"If the teacher cannot do it, then I cannot either. Then, for now, let's put the cause aside and figure out a way back.────Teacher. Is there no such convenient thing as teleportation magic?"
"There is. Though it is a theoretical concept. If you try to do it without magic tools or facilities, think of the difficulty as being equivalent to Origin Magic."
Geoglyph was already almost certain that the structure of this world was made by mimicking the Earth of his previous life────namely, a planet. On top of that, when considering teleportation magic, the influence of rotation and revolution is unavoidable. There are ways to ignore them entirely, but then it would only be possible to do large-scale preparations at the destination or perform time teleportation.
And neither of those is realistic at this point.
"The Zero-th Formula. The same level as that 'Broken Reality'... By the way, Geo, what is your current magic stock?"
"About one ten-thousandth of my peak. Even so, I increased it from zero over this past month. I was anxious about having no stock."
If it were that magic that grants all one's wishes, it would probably be possible, but the amount of magic required to exercise it is ten years' worth, even for Geoglyph, who is off the charts as a mage. Moreover, he had used it all up about a month ago, and currently, he is apparently only around the level of a slightly strong mage.
Well, there is no point in wishing for what is not there, Geoglyph sighed and called out to Later.
"For now, let's aim for a human settlement. First, even if it is just a guess, I am counting on you, former truck driver."
"If we assume this is the north of the Empire, we just need to go roughly south, right? And the tree rings are over there and the sunlight is this way────alright, let's try sending this way first."
Then, Later passed magic power into the Rig Veda attached to his right arm. After trembling for a moment, the Rig Veda fell to the ground like mercury, twisted its shape to become a metallic spider, and ran south into the forest. It seemed to be a substitute for scouting. Since it is like a drone that shares vision, it was certainly a fitting role.
"Ah, you could use it that way too."
"I become defenseless while using it, and it can only go as far as my magic limit. At worst, if we can map without using physical strength, the survival rate will increase."
"Hmm... then, I will too."
"Wait."
That is true, Marianne nodded and tried to use the shadow beasts to scout in a different direction, but Geoglyph stopped her.
"What is it?"
"Regarding this matter, I know your summoning arts are the cause. At the very least, that magic circle was created with Marie's magic. I am not doubting you yourself, but I doubt your summoned beasts. I think it is better not to use them carelessly for a while."
"...That is true. No, it is just as Geo says. In the end, I know almost nothing about those children."
At that restraint, Marianne thought for a while and then agreed.
Shadow beasts bearing the names of the seventy-two pillars of Solomon. They possess abilities and forms based on them, but they are not the things themselves. In the first place, it is unknown why demons from another world can manifest in this world, or why they obey her despite being able to rival or even surpass Marianne's total magic capacity.
At the very least, she agreed with the opinion that it is better to refrain from using them until the cause of this teleportation phenomenon can be identified.
"Oh? I can see a town."
After a while, Later raised his voice.
"That was fast."
"What does it look like?"
"Roughly seven kilometers away in a straight line from here. Well, since we are walking through the forest, the footing is a bit bad, but if we walk slowly, it should take us about an hour, right? The town is reasonably large. At least it seems like we can manage a place to sleep and some information. ...I did not run into Kazuha and the others."
"They are also a gathering of children. Then I think they will aim for a human settlement first, just like us. If they were caught up in that teleportation, we will run into them eventually."
"True. ...Man, now that I can see the way forward, I am getting hungry. Teacher, do you have any food in your storage magic? At worst, if you have ingredients, I will make something for you before we depart."
"Sorry, but I do not. I planned for it to take a few more days to organize. Right now, the inside of my storage magic is completely empty."
"Are you serious? Then, Princess. Do you have anything?"
"My storage magic does not have a ceiling-less capacity like Geo's. Once I put in clothes, cosmetics, and various necessities, there is nothing left────"
Just as the Three Idiots breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they could somehow settle down, Marianne suddenly noticed something.
"────Geo. Did you just say the contents of your storage magic are completely empty?"
"That is right. From materials to food to money and everything else, I am totally broke. I have only the clothes on my back and this staff I was holding right before I was kidnapped by you."
When she realized that fact, Marianne began to break out in a cold sweat.
Normally, it is common for adventurers to carry their own luggage or hire a porter. However, these Serious Breakers are different. Since the leader, Geoglyph, possesses storage magic with an otherworldly vastness, everything from materials to food was entrusted to him.
For the sake of it, they each carry minimum luggage during subjugation or exploration requests, but basically, the party's shared assets are left to Geoglyph. Therefore, having heard that Geoglyph would spend several days organizing his storage magic starting this morning, they had decided to take a break from adventurer activities for a while.
As a precaution, it was agreed that in such cases, Marianne, who can also use storage magic albeit to a lesser extent, would take on a sub-role, but────.
"────Princess. What did you do?"
"Umm... well... we stopped by Berture the other day, didn't we?"
"We did."
"I wonder how Forty is doing."
To the two who reflected on the events in the gambling city of Berture, the idiot nodded with a knowing look.
"At that time, I lost almost all of my current assets, didn't I?"
"That was compensation, so it was not a result of gambling."
"Stop it, teacher. She probably cannot maintain her peace of mind unless she thinks of it that way."
They immediately called out the falsification of memory, but because Marianne was poking her index fingers together and seemed to find it hard to say, a bad feeling was rushing over them.
"And so, you see. Since then, I have not withdrawn a single copper coin from the place where I deposited them..."
"No way..."
As expected, the premonition was correct.
At this point, the two idiots belatedly grasped the situation. Marianne is a considerable wealthy person because she runs her own business. That can be seen from the fact that she casually put out twenty thousand gold coins in Berture. Therefore, both Geoglyph and Later had taken it for granted that as long as Marianne was there, there would be no worry about money.
"This is all of my assets..."
A few silver coins appeared timidly. Roughly several tens of thousands of yen. They do not know where this is, but if they are to travel across countries, it is a bit────no, quite severe.
Dark clouds suddenly gathered and turned into a storm over the path that should have been visible. They say mountain weather changes easily, but the lives of idiots are the same.
"W-what are we going to do! I cannot use storage magic, so I am seriously penniless!? All my luggage except the Rig Veda is in my room, and I do not have my guild card, so I cannot withdraw money or take requests!!"
"I-I do not have a wallet or a guild card either! I was in the middle of organizing, and I did not think this would happen!"
"Is this cashless in the true sense!?" the two idiots held their heads.
Furthermore, since Marianne had caused the commotion as a bit of a prank, her guild card and other hand luggage were in her room. Somehow, these Three Idiots, despite having ability, had lost even the means of 'earning money easily' which is adventurer activity.
"Marie (Princess)?"
"Pii!"
Ignoring that exchange, just as Marianne (the culprit) tried to slowly leave the scene as if performing a strategic retreat, the hands of the two idiots landed on her shoulders.
"Alright, you understand, right? Princess."
"You will take responsibility for involving us in this, okay?"
"S-specifically...?"
"Sell other valuable things."
Needless to say, things owned by Marianne.
"N-no... the rest of my storage magic is clothes, accessories, cosmetics, and other necessities... they are a maiden's refinements!?"
"They will bring some money if you sell them, right!?"
"Fuginyaaaaaaa!!"
Marianne tried to resist, thinking it was unthinkable to sell those, but she was unable to resist the violence of numbers and ended up having to cough up everything in her storage magic.
She later recounted that she never thought she would be told 'Hey, try flying a bit' even after reincarnating into another world.
Next time, next week.