She Finds a Sword and her First Job

Robin looked up at the board. For a small town, there was an awful lot of request papers up there. But only the ones with the green stars were the ones she could take. After glancing around the board, she easily found a cluster of green-star request papers, and moved over to take a closer look.

There was a request to find a lost cat. While Robin was fine with it, it was possible that she wouldn't finish the job before nightfall. That was no good if she wanted food and shelter by then, so perhaps that was a job for another time.

There was a request to help reorganize a warehouse. Robin didn't know what kind of warehouse it was, but she already had the idea that it would include heavy lifting. While she was good with a sword, and could easily lift a proper metal sword, no one would believe that with the way she looked. Moreover, she was tired, and didn't want to do something too laborious her first day.

'Hmmm... fixing the roof... exterminating rats... hold on!' Robin zeroed in on a request which seemed simple enough. It was a request to weed an old courtyard to prepare for an upcoming ceremony. If it was this, then there should be no problem. Robin was used to weeding her brother's garden on the weekends, so she was perfecly fine with it. And the reward was five silvers!

Robin happily picked that one and brought the request sheet to the receptionist's counter.

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In Ekkinshire Kingdom's capital city, two important men were having an audience.

"But if everything was in order, and the magic circle was activated, then why didn't the hero appear?" the prince asked.

"Perhaps he has appeared. With such a long-distanced spell like this, I can think of a few reasons..." The elderly man replied.

"For example?" The prince asked.

"Disruption due to pre-planned counter-measures, or distortion due to magic resonance." The old man replied. "Since only you and I know of this undertaking, it's unlikely that it was a pre-planned distruption. Therefore, it is more likely that this is a distortion due to magic resonance."

"Magic resonance?" The prince asked.

"When a person is particularly suited for a magical item, then there will be a small amount of attraction within a certain area.

However, if the item one resonnated with was very powerful, and contained high amounts of magic power, then it's likely that the attraction force of the resonnance could easily change the trajectory of a long distance spell.

Take, for example, when Edgar the Wise found himself in the Forgotten Woods on his way to the Alliance meeting. It was there that he found the Artemis Bow, one which brought him to victory every time." The old man explained patiently.

"Then, if the hero arrived elsewhere in my kingdom, how am I to find him?" The Prince frowned in thought. The old magician shook his head.

"Did you not hear what I was saying, Your Highness, Prince Christian? 'Distortion due to magic resonance.' means that the hero resonnated with a highly-magical item that was most suited for him. Out of all the magic items in the kingdom, which would the hero be most likely to wield?"

"You mean that one!" Prince Christian stood up from his chair in surprise.

The magician nodded. "Indeed. It is highly likely that the hero has landed somewhere close by the Hero's Sword, in Kinsward town. It shouldn't be more than a few hours carriage ride to get there."

The prince stood there for a moment in silent thought. Then he nodded his head and looked up at the wisest man in the kingdom, "All right. Make arrangements for me. We leave as soon as possible. I wish to witness this year's sword ceremony in person. Find me some clothes to disguise in, as well."

The old magician nodded his head. "And if his Highness, the King, should ask for you?"

"I shall be in bed with a bad cold and in need of rest." Prince Christian replied. "Even my father, the King, knows that a cold can only be resolved with bed rest."

"Very well. It shall be as you have said." The old magician replied, before exiting the private audience room. Prince Christian moved to the window to look out across the capital city. Soon, he would see the hero, himself, in person. What would he be like?

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"A-choo!" Robin sneezed loudly. "Haha, maybe someone is talking about me?" She chuckled to herself as she looked down at the map that was drawn for her. While Robin herself was not a Japanese, she had become familiar with the culture. She had even dabbled in a bit of animes of her favorite stories. And, at a certain point, she had learned Japanese simply so that she could read the rest of her favorites books without waiting for the translators.

"According to this map, the courtyard should be around here....ah, there it is!" She looked at a somewhat large courtyard. It was mostly grass, with a few trees here and there. The problem was that the grassy area was also healthily dotted with dandelion blossoms.

'A normal weeding job. Perfect! I should be finished before sundown.' Robin thought as she examined the courtyard.

A bench seat under a pavillion was off to her right, and in the center of the courtyard, was a square area marked out by cobblestones. But, what drew her attention was not the cobblestones, so much as the item in the center of those cobblestones.

She hadn't noticed it before, when she was examining the weed population. But now that she was looking, it was hard not to notice.

A large, moss-covered stone stood in the center of the cobblestones. And there, standing upright inside of that stone, was a sword.

Robin's eyes grew wide. Anyone who had ever read the story of king arthur would probably be thinking the same thing as her. She itched to touch it and try to pull it out. But, remembering her mission, she turned aside and immediately started weeding, working from the outside edge inwards.

Robin had remembered that dandelions were edible. So, if she didn't have enough for food, then she could use these as emergency rations. Several recipes for foods and drinks were stored in her head from when her brother taught her.

There was dandelion wine, dandelion root coffee, "Dandelion jelly, Kentucky Dandelion Greens, Batter-fried Dandelion blossoms, Dandelion Pesto..." Remembering the taste, Robin couldn't help but feel hungry again. But, taking into account what she had with her, she would probably only have dandelion salad.

The others required ingredients that she didn't have on hand-oh the scourge of becoming poor! It was too bad that most of the dandelions had blossomed. The dandelion leaves tasted best before the flowers bloomed, but the flowers were also edible, so it wasn't too bad.

The weeds in this world were indeed similar to simple yellow dandelions. In fact, in terms of appearance, nutritional, and medicinal effects, they were exactly the same as regular dandelions. However, what Robin didn't know was that there was a hidden danger to these weeds.

It was fine to pick the yellow dandelions, but there was a certain magical monster plant that disguised itself as a dandelion. The only way to distinguish it was the one red petal in the center of the flower. That's why weeding always came with an accompanying risk. If you couldn't recognize the disguised monster plant before you got close to it, the odds were that you'd be severely injured, or even killed due to the ferocity of the monster plant's counterattack.

And one of those monster plants was certainly present in the courtyard.