Chapter 7 — What Happened to Make Him So Rude?!

Ayaka Shinozaki made her way to the village she had seen on the Dragon Plains while surveilling the area from a hilltop near the ruined bus. After discussing the situation with the various units in her head, she'd decided that heading to the same place as her classmates was a bad idea.

Ayaka may not have been an ordinary human, but she was only a few times stronger than one. Her classmates, however, had acquired bizarre new powers. In order to exact her revenge, she would need to do some research first.

This is the Mental Health Unit. The Personality Unit is displaying an abnormal state of mind. Immediate treatment is recommended.

Yet another new unit had appeared.

"Why? Because I said I was going to kill them all?"

Correct. Such an objective should not be placed at a higher priority than our own survival. What would we accomplish by doing such a thing at this point? We should be focusing our efforts on staying alive and returning home.

"We can do that once they're all gone." Ayaka couldn't think of anything but revenge against those who had left her for dead. She didn't care about returning home or ensuring her own survival in this place.

As the Project Execution Unit, I am opposed to the Mental Health Unit's assessment. After suffering through an unreasonable ordeal, she has sworn to take revenge. Is this not a perfectly ordinary example of human behavior? Your "treatment" would be to erase her memory, I assume?

Correct. The dangers of an obsession with suffering or having her mind dominated by thoughts of vengeance cannot be overlooked.

Yet erasing her memories and replacing them with something new isn't an acceptable solution. It isn't something that real humans can do.

Ayaka, being far from ordinary, wasn't too thrilled with the other units' fixation on trying to make her "more human." However, she did agree that wiping her memory was unacceptable. If she allowed that to happen, her identity as the Personality Unit would be erased.

Project Execution Unit, opposed.

Mental Health Unit, in favor.

Diagnostic Unit, opposed.

Medical Unit, opposed.

Battle Unit, opposed.

"Personality Unit, opposed."

This is the Judgment Unit. Due to a majority opposition, the proposal has been rejected.

Really, it was all just her talking to herself. While that was going on, Ayaka had arrived at the village.

With the settlement standing before her, she began to have her doubts. The small community was surrounded by a wall, but it was only a thin, fragile-looking wooden structure. It didn't seem particularly useful as it only came up to her waist. It looked pretty careless for a place where dragons were known to roam.

Certainly, the city to the north was far better defended, with proper walls and cannons.

There wasn't anything special at the entrance, so Ayaka made her way inside. The villagers were running around in a panic, gathering their possessions outside their homes.

"Are they trying to 'sneak out under the cover of darkness'?"

I don't know about that, as it is the middle of the day, one of the other units offered, but it definitely looks like they're intending to flee somewhere.

The villagers finally noticed Ayaka as they loaded up their carts. For a moment, they seemed scared, but perhaps because she looked like nothing more than a young girl, they quickly went back to piling up their belongings.

Ayaka approached the villagers and started to call out to them, "Hey, can I ask you a — actually, what would I even ask?"

She had come there in search of information, but hadn't thought far enough ahead to figure out how to actually obtain it. Then again, there was a noticeable problem well before worrying about what to ask. Despite the locals muttering back at her, she had absolutely no idea what they were saying. And it was quite clear that they wanted nothing to do with her; they made an obvious show of avoiding eye contact and going firmly about their business.

This is where the Translation Unit should show up, right?

Don't be absurd! How could I possibly translate a language from another world without any clues?

She was hardly in a position to start gathering information. As she mulled over what to do, yet another unit made its appearance.

This is the Analysis Unit. It seems you are concerned about the language barrier, but thanks to the ongoing digestion of the dragon's brain, I have managed to extract some fundamental linguistic information. It may prove useful in understanding the languages of this world.

"Hey, maybe it's weird to ask this so long after I ate it and all...but where exactly did that dragon go?" Ayaka asked, rubbing her stomach. She felt quite full, and her stomach had puffed out a little, but it was impossible for her to believe that a dragon bigger than the bus she had come in on was somehow crammed into her gut. She had been too desperate while eating to pay such things any mind, but now that she thought it over, it seemed rather unlikely.

It is currently contained in our subspace pocket. I am the Subspace Management Unit, by the way.

"What does that even mean?"

Think of it like the pocket of that cat-type robot. Our true body is also within that space.

"True body?"

Correct. Our current body is intended to imitate that of a human, with the intention of creating an artificial form. However, we were unsuccessful in recreating an organ with the power of the human brain in such a compact space. As such, an enormous processor has been placed within a subspace pocket, allowing us to simulate human thought processes.

"Your technology seems awfully lopsided," Ayaka remarked. Despite being able to use and manipulate things like subspace pockets, they found the task of replicating human intelligence rather difficult.

The creation of artificial humans is still a developing field, after all.

"Well, okay. So can I use that to store stuff, then?"

No, please consider it a space that you cannot retrieve items from. You may imagine it as akin to having an enormous stomach.

Excuse me! I have determined how to use the language that the dragon understood. I'll handle all of the translating, so please speak as you normally would!

"All right, let's start by asking someone what's going on," Ayaka murmured, turning to a nearby villager. "You all seem to be worried about something. What's wrong?"

But all that she heard in reply remained meaningless noise.

Seems like it won't work. Their linguistic structure is too different from the dragon's.

"Well, it was a dragon..."

The fact that the beast would speak a different language from humans was fairly predictable. The villager, however, looked startled. A moment before, he had been treating her with suspicion and hostility, but now his attitude had suddenly changed. Dropping everything in his arms, he ran off into the gathering crowd.

Hmm. It appears they are afraid of us.

Ayaka stood there for a moment, taken aback, before the villager who had fled returned with an old man.

"Ex-cuse me, true you speak dragon words?" the gentleman asked falteringly.

"Hey, this is a translation, right? Can't you just translate it normally?"

I suppose. I did find the grammar a bit strange, but I'll simply translate the meaning directly.

"Yes, this is the only language I can speak," Ayaka replied. "But who are you?"

"I am the chief of this village, and a dragon priest," he said, almost reverently.

"The others can't speak the dragon's language?"

"No, it is only passed down to the priests."

If this individual can speak both the dragon's and the humans' languages, we can use that as a clue to learn the local language ourselves, noted the Analysis Unit.

"Things seem pretty chaotic around here. What's happening?"

According to the priest, their village was on the verge of being attacked. There were numerous settlements on the Dragon Plains, each protected by the great dragon. That protection came primarily from the worshiping of the dragon in this particular village.

The only person able to communicate with their protector was the dragon priest, who passed on his secrets to a single successor in each generation. In this land, the power of the dragon was absolute, and losing its protection was as good as dying. As such, this village had tremendous authority throughout the region and essentially ruled over the other settlements.

"And that protection has disappeared?"

"Yes, the dragon's presence suddenly vanished. The other villages have risen up in revolt against us, but...all we do here is pray. We have no means of defending ourselves."

If a rebellion had already started, the village must have had quite an oppressive reign over the area. But Ayaka didn't care much about the plight of the locals.

Won't we be able to solve the language problem if we simply eat this man?

"I said I won't eat humans, remember? Why don't we just bring this guy with us and learn from him normally?"

"Um, who exactly are you?" the village chief asked, staring at Ayaka as she lapsed back into Japanese.

Step to the right!

At the sudden command from the Battle Unit, Ayaka complied, narrowly dodging an incoming arrow. Thanks to her quick response, the arrow embedded itself in another villager's head instead.

Watching the villager fall to the ground from the corner of her eye, Ayaka turned to search for the source of the arrow. A group of mounted soldiers was charging towards them, weapons drawn.

"This village is kind of unpopular, isn't it?"

We can't dodge the next attack! Cover your head!

Ayaka was doubting her eyes. One of the soldiers had fired a single arrow. As it flew, it split again and again, becoming a hailstorm of sharp projectiles.

"There's no way to survive that, right?"

It was like a wall coming straight for her. Escaping it would be impossible, and even if she tried to defend herself, she'd take a number of fatal injuries.

This is the Dragon Language Unit. Please say "Dragon Scale" out loud!

"What, are you a new Unit?"

Yes! I am a subunit of the Battle Unit, created as a result of analyzing the dragon. Now please, quickly!

"Dragon Scale?" Ayaka did as she was told. Mere seconds after she spoke the words, the rain of arrows struck, bouncing off the air just in front of her and shattering, leaving her entirely unharmed.

"Oh, ohhhh, th-this is the dragon's...!" The village chief had at some point crouched down behind Ayaka. It was rather bold of him to use her as a shield like that.

"What was that?" Ayaka asked.

Dragons in this world possess special magical abilities, operated through their native tongue. In short, whether or not a dragon's ability to be resilient, fly, or breathe fire stems from a kind of magic that we don't fully understand, we can tap into that power directly through the creature's language even without knowing precisely how it works.

"I don't understand the details, but basically, I can use the dragon's abilities now, right? Is there anything else I can do?"

Yes, there are other options, like Dragon Claw, Dragon Wing, and Dragon Breath.

"Kind of skimped on the naming scheme, didn't you?"

In reality, they require rather complicated incantations, but upon translation they can be summarized more simplistically.

"'Breath' means it's going to come from my mouth, right?"

No, the abilities have been conceptually simplified as well, so you can fire from anywhere.

"I see." Ayaka stretched out a hand, facing her palm toward the approaching cavalry. With Dragon Scale, she would probably now be impervious to anything they could throw at her. But the fact remained, they had tried to kill her. That wasn't something she was willing to forgive.

"Dragon Breath."

With those two words, the grassland before her was set ablaze.

Everything within Ayaka's line of sight was incinerated. Not a shred of the approaching soldiers remained.

"Nice. If I can do that, I can probably deal with my classmates easily, right?" Despite the act of mass slaughter she had just perpetrated, Ayaka was deathly calm.

Try not to let it go to your head.

"I guess I'll start by learning the language from this old man...uh, what?" As Ayaka turned around, she saw that the surviving villagers had all prostrated themselves before her.

It seems they will answer any of our requests after that demonstration. We should make whatever use of them we can.

"Well, if they plan on doing as I say, I won't treat them badly."

Ayaka found their reverence for her only natural.

◇ ◇ ◇

The moment Yogiri and Tomochika arrived at the palace, they were immediately shown to the audience chamber. Apparently, word had preceded them.

Within the chamber, they found their classmates already seated in chairs that had been lined up for them.

"Kind of reminds me of an entrance ceremony," Tomochika whispered.

"Were there really so few people with us?"

Yogiri knew a number of the students had already died, but even taking that into account, there didn't seem to be nearly enough of their former classmates present. He could probably figure out the class's original structure by asking Tomochika, but now wasn't the time for that.

The two snuck in, taking a seat in the empty back row. Announcing their arrival to everyone right now would create unnecessary confusion. Luckily, no one had noticed them enter.

As they sat down, a large man appeared from the opposite end of the room. He seemed to be in his prime, wearing a sword at his side. His well-defined body was noticeable even beneath the luxurious clothing. The sword he carried was likely not for decoration.

Seating himself on a slightly elevated throne, he looked down at the Sage candidates. There was no doubt that this was the king of Manii.

So, this is what people who hold authority are like in this world, Yogiri thought. The king could probably stand on the front lines and fight without issue. It was an entirely different image of powerful individuals than Yogiri had held up until that point. Then again, his only experience with heads of state so far had been the ones cowering in fear once they learned of his ability, so perhaps his perspective was skewed.

"I have heard your story. Congratulations on making it here after such a long journey," the king said, not bothering to hide how much of a hassle this obviously was for him. "Well, this is part of the job, I suppose. Per my contract with the Sages, there's nothing I can do about it. As Sage candidates, you've come here to accomplish feats of renown. In this country, there are two such feats you could likely accomplish —"

"Hey, hey, what are you talking all high and mighty for?" one of the members of the class interrupted, standing up. "We're not your citizens. We're from another world. Whether you're a king or whatever doesn't mean anything to us."

"Who's the idiot?" Yogiri asked. The boy looked familiar, but he couldn't recall his name.

"Shinya Ushio...but was he always so bad at reading the room?" Tomochika answered. There was no way this type of attitude was acceptable for an audience with a ruler of a country.

None of their other classmates seemed the least bit worried, though. While they didn't appear to be happy with his behavior, their disdain seemed to stem more from being tired of his antics than anything else.

"Oh? I had thought to show you some consideration since you were Sage candidates. I even prepared chairs for all of you. Normally, you would have to kneel before me, you know that?"

"And what makes you think you can just sit up there and look down on us? Who do you think you are?" Ushio challenged, walking unreservedly up to the throne.

As he did, the king got to his feet and stepped off the platform. "I believe I'm the king, actually. Well, you've amused me, so I'll come down to your level. Does that satisfy you?"

The monarch's tone was one of an adult speaking to a small and petulant child. While Ushio was tall for his age, the king still stood a full head above him. Combined with his large frame, his sheer presence dwarfed that of Ushio.

"What on earth happened to make him so rude?!" Tomochika wondered, mirroring Yogiri's thoughts perfectly. Even though they were in another world, this was still the head of a royal family, the king of an independent country. That alone deserved the utmost respect, but it seemed Ushio was too far gone to understand or care about etiquette.

"You have something to tell us, right? I'm sure you're busy too, so get on with it."

"Ahahaha!" the king roared with laughter, wholly unbothered by the upstart student's attitude. "This is the first time I've had someone act this way towards me! How refreshing!"

"What? Is he really going to let that slide? I'm worried for the country if so," Tomochika muttered, flabbergasted. She must have felt that Ushio's attitude was unforgivable.

"I suppose you thought that would be my response, didn't you?" the king said suddenly, drawing his sword. An instant later, he had separated Ushio from four of his fingers.

Yogiri hadn't even seen it happening. It was too fast for him to catch, but it was easy enough to piece together that Ushio had tried to block the sword with his bare hand and lost his fingers in the process. There was a reason most people wouldn't think to defend themselves that way.

Ushio stared blankly at the missing fingers for a long moment before the reality of the situation caught up with him. With a scream, he sank to the floor, curling up around his injured hand.

At the sight of it, the rest of the Sage candidates finally began to panic.

"Wait, how?! How did he beat the Eroge Baron's time-freeze ability?!"

"S-Somebody help him!"

"What's going on?! Goddammit! I can't use any of my skills!"

"Me neither!"

The king stared down at Ushio with cold eyes, but it appeared he had no intention of finishing him off. Satisfied, he nonchalantly returned to his throne.

"What the hell does Eroge Baron mean?" Tomochika mused in the midst of the commotion.