Chapter 532:
How Many People Are There?
“HEY, DAD. The hiragana script in faax…do you know when people here started using it?”
My father thought about it, and my heart raced while I waited for his answer. Other people in this world might have come from the same world as me. What sort of people were they?
“About two hundred years ago,” he finally answered.
Two hundred years ago. So somebody like me lived here that long ago. Incredible.
“I just think lettering similar to faax has been around a bit longer.”
“Really?”
“Somebody who handled some damage from a big flood we had here about three hundred years ago wrote about it. And they spelled the words flood damage in a script that wasn’t from Oudegeuz. But that script hasn’t been seen anywhere else, so it never caught on. I think most people don’t even know about it.”
Hiragana was in a text from three hundred years ago? So maybe whoever popularized the spelling of “faax” was someone else. Come to think of it, he said katakana caught on much faster. So does that mean there’s at least three others besides me?
“The way I see it…maybe there’s actually a lot of people here with past lives,” my father said.
I nodded in agreement. When you considered the timeline of the new alphabets being added, different people being involved was the natural conclusion to make. The only issue was that you couldn’t be sure, since names for things spread in different ways.
“Y’know…this is kind of exciting. Wanna look into these alphabets a bit more?”
I caught myself immediately nodding in agreement. I mean, if there were others in this world with past lives like me, I wanted to know what they had done. But I was also concerned about this village’s situation.
“Let’s ask Zinal and Fische about it when they get back,” my father suggested. “They’re scouting this village anyway, so they might already be looking into the writing system.”
Looking into the writing system? But would they really feel the need to do that?
“Sometimes people use mysterious alphabets for evil.”
For evil?
“Oh, you mean like a communications cipher?”
My father nodded. “They’ve probably already checked out the strange alphabets. Then again, we won’t know for sure until we ask.”
Well, now I have to ask! But they’re busy trying to figure out what’s wrong with this village, and I don’t want to get in their way.
“Zinal and Fische are very busy, aren’t they?”
My father thought about my question. “They’re busy, but they’re always eager to take on another job if it sounds fun.”
I immediately pictured Zinal’s eyes brimming with mirthful excitement. But wouldn’t it be too much to ask now?
“Maybe we should see how they’re doing before we ask?” I suggested. We needed to figure out what was wrong with this village first anyway.
“That’s fair. We have to consider the worst-case scenario here.”
What worst-case scenario would that be?
“You noticed how strange the villagers here were acting, right?” he asked.
He’s right. They seemed more than just gloomy…they seemed anxious about something. Like they were obsessively watching their surroundings…
“When there’s a power struggle, the worst thing that can happen is innocent bystanders dying in the crossfire.”
I nodded in agreement.
“Let’s hope it’s not happening here, but it definitely does occur. And if it is happening here, we’ll need to figure out how deep the problem runs before we can find a way to solve it.”
How deep it runs?
“Take this village—there’s a power struggle within the adventurer guild. Let’s say somebody got caught up in it and died. Then the village watchmen would come together. And if they resolved that crime, that would mean the power struggle only ran as deep as the adventurer guild. Only the people behind that one crime would need to be punished. But ask yourself this: What if the village watchmen didn’t mobilize?”
If they didn’t mobilize…
“Then the village watch is also part of the power struggle?”
“Exactly. Sometimes relations between the village watch and the adventurer guild take a bad turn when each side tries to prop up a guild master who will benefit them. The problem runs much deeper in that case, because it no longer affects just one area. Then, if the merchant guild gets mixed up in it, you have the worst-case scenario. That would mean nothing in this village is working the way it should.”
“Wouldn’t that mean…the people in power can do whatever they want?”
“Correct, and nobody’s around to stop them. From the way these villagers are acting, there’s no telling how far the rot has spread.”
Uh-oh. Looks like we’ve come to another crazy village. Why does this always seem to happen wherever we go…?
“What’s up? You look grim.”
My hand shot to my cheeks in surprise.
“Ivy?”
“I was just thinking…problems seem to show up wherever I go.”
I’d had that thought many times before. It felt like an unseen force was guiding me. Zinal had decided where we were going this time, and even though we’d known in advance that this place was a little problematic, none of us had imagined it would be this bad. Was it me? Did I have something to do with it?
“I can’t argue with that,” my father said, resting a big hand on top of my head. Then he gently rubbed my hair.
“You think so, too?”
“Yeah. I only know everything that happened to you before we met through hearsay, but I do think your life has been way too eventful.”
That’s for sure. It almost feels like I’m doing something wrong, even though I haven’t done anything…
“This isn’t your fault, Ivy, okay? Don’t get it twisted.”
I looked up at my father with a start.
“I would tell you not to obsess over it…but I’m sure you’d do that anyway.”
Of course I’d obsess over it. If I get mixed up in a problem, my father gets mixed up right with me. I could even put my creatures in danger as well.
“Believe me, I’m enjoying myself.”
“Huh?”
“Even with our troubles, I really have fun traveling with you, Ivy.”
Really?
“And your monsters are having fun, too, right?”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”
Mrrrow.
“Gyah!”
“Pefu!”
My creatures answered one after another, and I couldn’t help but be surprised. How long had they been listening in? They’d been bouncing off the walls until a little while ago.
“Thanks, guys.” I felt a little better. “When do you think Zinal and Fische will be back?” This village was so troubling that I was worried.
“Knowing them, I don’t think they’ll take long.”
A smile filled my face. I could tell that my father’s trust in them had risen quite a bit somewhere along the way.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. Yeah, they’ll probably be back before we know it.”
They were master interrogators, after all. Ordinary people wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Now, Ivy, what should we order for dinner?”
My father showed me the menu. Borscht, stroganoff, shchi… I read the names again and I still had a feeling I’d heard of them. Especially the first one, borscht. I was seeing the color red for some reason.
“Can you read them?” my father asked me curiously.
“Huh? Weren’t you reading them earlier?”
“No, I can’t read this. The descriptions under them give me a general sense of what they are, though.”
“Oh, I didn’t know. Okay, well, from the top down, it’s borscht, stroganoff, and shchi.”
“Shchi? Are you sure that’s not supposed to be stew?”
“No, it’s ‘shchi’… Maybe it’s a misprint?”
The description says it’s a tangy soup with a cabbage base. Tangy, huh? Then it has to be something different from stew.
“What should we order?” my father asked.
I’m not sure. Okay, so borscht is soup made from a red vegetable and filled with meat. Oh, so that’s why I was seeing red earlier! Past Me knows what this soup is, but maybe she wasn’t super familiar? Okay, and stroganoff is a meat dish.
“Stroganoff sounds the best to me.”
Since my father loved meat, that didn’t come as a surprise.
“I’ll try the borscht,” I said.
Red soup tickled my curiosity. It looked bright red in my mind, but was it really?
“Okay, I’ll place an order. I’m also gonna go take a bath. What about you?”
A bath! It’s been ages since I’ve had a nice, long dip!
“I’ll take a bath, too. Yaaay, bath!”
We got our bath things and left the room. We checked the time first, but it was still a little early for our creatures to have their meal.
“We’ll feed you guys after our baths, okay?” I said.
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”
“Gyah!”
“Pefu!”
We tightly locked the door and walked down to the first floor, where we saw Zinal and Fische.
“Oh, taking a bath?” my father asked.
“Mr. Zinal, haven’t you gone out yet?” I asked.
“Nope, we already finished.”
Huh? Already? Wait. Is it just me, or do they both look…very, very angry…?
“We’ll talk later,” Zinal said. “Also, we don’t need our cargo anymore.”
Yup, Zinal is quite angry. His voice is so gentle, but it’s so cold I can feel my blood icing over!