Chapter 531:
Katakana!
AS WE WALKED UP THE STAIRS, Zinal said, “Ivy, the wayyou perceive things scares me sometimes.”
I gave him a funny look. “What do you mean?”
“When you saw how quickly that innkeeper changed his tune, didn’t you find him interesting?”
That was Zinal for you. Sharp as ever.
“Yeah, I thought he seemed entertaining and wanted to talk to him,” I chuckled awkwardly.
Zinal rolled his eyes. “He’s not a bad egg, but he’s just…sketchy, y’know? And you call that entertaining…”
My father sighed in agreement. “Don’t you dare introduce people like that to Ivy.”
“But, Dad, doesn’t the innkeeper seem like your master?”
My father’s expression soured.
“Come on, don’t make that face.”
“But my master… You know, the innkeeper does also seem like he loves to make fools out of people.”
Make fools of people… Yeah, the adventurers tried to intimidate him, but he wouldn’t play ball. I didn’t notice at the time because the adventurers’ bad attitudes distracted me, but looking back now, it seemed like the innkeeper was baiting them. He baited them, then made fun of them…
“You know, now I’m incredibly interested in the sorts of friends you’ve had, Ivy…” Fische said.
I thought back to all the people I’ve met. “They’re all very good people, and very broadminded. They listened to everything I said with open hearts.”
They were all willing to lend a child an ear, so I knew I could trust them. Looking back now, I really met so many good people… Wait a minute.
“Oh! Dad…we forgot about the faaxes!”
“Agh!”
We’d sent everyone faaxes, then never followed through. Everyone might be worried. Could we check the faaxes here? In this village…that might be filled with problems?
“Let’s send the faaxes at the next village.” My father also seemed to be rubbed the wrong way by this place.
“Okay. Let’s make sure we don’t forget.”
“That’s right, I remember you asked about summoning circles in the last batch of faaxes,” Zinal said.
We nodded. I remembered telling him and Fische about the people we sent our faaxes to.
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
“There was Captain Oght and Vice-Captain Velivera in Ratome Village, the Sword of Flames and Lightning Royals…who else… I was a bit distracted at the time, but looking back now, you sure sent a lot of faaxes. And all of them were to people with a few big quirks.”
I gave Zinal a funny look. “Well, you’re probably the quirkiest of them all, Mr. Zinal.”
Comparing everyone I’d met, Zinal was likely the most complicated to deal with, especially considering how he masked his true nature. That was on a whole other level.
“Awww, Ivy, what do you mean by that?”
“Yup. You’re the hardest egg to crack. And your personality is warped. Well, actually, that’s probably a facade, so I can’t quite place it. Hmmm…yes, you really are the quirkiest of them all. But you’re only quirky out of kindness.”
He hid everything to protect the feelings of others. It was just difficult to thank him for it when he treated me that way. Personally, though, I wanted to know what was under the mask.
“Ivy…?”
Zinal’s slightly different tone of voice lifted my gaze from the floor. For some reason, Zinal had an indescribable expression on his face. Meanwhile, my father and Fische were smiling at me, trying not to laugh.
Agh! Did I say something bad? But I don’t think what I said was wrong. Then again, I probably could’ve worded it more carefully.
“Um…Mr. Zinal?”
When I called his name, he quickly reached out and tousled my hair. I looked up at him, but he avoided my gaze for some reason.
“Huh?”
“Our rooms are over there.” Zinal released my head, pointed down to the room at the end of the hall, and started to shuffle away. He didn’t seem angry…but what was it?
“Don’t worry about him. Let’s go,” Fische said.
I nodded, and we headed to our rooms.
Zinal glanced at my father as he unlocked his door. “After we talk to the innkeeper, we’re gonna go scouting. You two just stay here and relax the rest of the day.”
“Sure you don’t need my help?”
My father was quite good at picking up rumors and also at telling the difference between the useful and useless ones. He said it all came down to experience.
“Nah, you two shouldn’t leave the inn for the rest of the day. We need to find out just how far that rumor about Marya traveling with a father and child spread.”
Right, there was a rumor about a father and child protecting Marya. I do wonder if that rumor mutated at all.
“Got it. And thanks,” my father said.
We entered our room and found it much bigger and more comfortable than we’d expected.
“There’s a bath on the first floor,” my father said. “It’s closed for cleaning between ten in the morning and noon, but you can use it any other time. I’m going to switch on the magic item now, so nobody can hear us in here.”
“Thanks. So they do have a bath. I’ll have to take a nice long dip later.”
“Good idea. I’m tired from all that traveling.”
We shouldn’t have been tired, since we’d gone on serpent-back for the final leg of the journey. Right, maybe I should ask my father now what’s special about this inn? Zinal said he would tell me, though… Guess I’ll ask him later. There might be some big reason.
We gave the room a cursory examination, then decided it was safe to let the creatures out of their bag. My father opened the lid of Toron’s basket.
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Teryuuu?”
Mrrrow.
“…Pefu!”
The slimes flew out of their bag and immediately explored the room.
“Ivy, did you lock the door?”
“Oops! I forgot.”
I doubted anyone would come into our room without knocking, but you couldn’t be too careful.
“Wow, apparently, they can cook you whatever you want for dinner as long as you ask for it by lunchtime. And if they can’t manage that day, they’ll cook it the next day.”
My father happily read over a piece of paper while I leaned in from the side and looked. It listed the names of the dishes they offered, along with simple descriptions.
Borscht, stroganoff? Shchi? Borscht sounds familiar… Where do I know it from? And what’s stroganoff? How strange. I feel like I’m just barely missing it…
“I’ve never heard of these dishes,” my father remarked. “I kind of want to try them. Should we order some?”
“Sure.”
Oh, all the names of these dishes are written in katakana! Wait a minute…
I looked at the menu again. Everything was written in katakana, an alphabet I’d used in my past life.
…What does this mean?
“Wait a minute—faax!”
“Faax?” My father was puzzled. “Ivy?”
That’s right! Why didn’t I wonder about it the moment I first saw it? The first time I saw a faax, I thought it was written in katakana! But that makes no sense. Oudegeuz—this world—has its own alphabet. So why is “faax” written in hiragana? And now there’s this menu, which is written in katakana. I’ve seen all sorts of things and foods here with the same names they had in my past life, but not in the same alphabet.
Wait a minute—no, looking back, I think some of the food carts used hiragana. It all seemed so normal to me that I never gave it a second thought.
“Um…Ivy? What about faaxes?”
“Dad…my brain is mush.”
“Sounds like it. What’s wrong?”
When I saw the bewildered look on my father’s face, I calmed myself down a little. “The script we use to write the word faax—is that in the Oudegeuz alphabet?”
“The script? Ohh, right, it is written in weird letters. Yeah, that’s Oudegeuz’s new alphabet. And come to think of it, I’ve been seeing a lot more of those funny-looking angular letters pop up.”
“So, the letters we use to write the word faax and the ones on these menu items…they both belong to alphabets from my past life.”
“What?! So that means there’s definitely more people besides you with past lives.”
It would mean that, yes. Plus, hiragana has been around here for a while, and now there’s more katakana popping up. Could it really mean I’m not the only person here with a past life in another world?