The ruins of Alterna were next to the Ark. To the south, the Tenryu Mountains loomed over the old city, and beyond them was Yori and Riyo’s home, the United Kingdom. The most important person in the United Kingdom was a king named Ruden Arabakia, who was also Yori and Riyo’s father. They were the daughters of a king. That made them genuine princesses.
But setting that aside, after the four of them passed through the forest to the north of the ruins of Alterna, they came to a barren land without much green in it, and there were more ruins there. Manato was currently observing them from a distance.
“It’s much smaller than Alterna was, huh?” he said. He currently only had his sword and dagger on him. His bow was useful when hunting, but totally ineffective against Lumiaris’s converts. The bow and quiver together were pretty bulky, so if he wasn’t going to be hunting, he was better off leaving them behind. He was, however, wearing a backpack just in case he came across something he wanted to bring back with him.
“It was once a keep,” Haru said. He was still wearing his mask and cloak. He’d apparently been dressing like that for decades. “Deadhead Watching Keep. It was originally built by a race called the orcs.”
“Come to think of it...” Manato twisted around and touched the sewn part on the back of his jumpsuit. “Were you the one who fixed this, Haru?”
“Yeah,” Haru replied.
“He worked on it with a needle and thread,” Yori explained. “While you were sleeping, we were in Haruhiro’s room, listening to him tell stories about great-grandpa. He worked on it as he was talking. That takes some skill.”
“I’m just used to it,” Haru replied brusquely.
Yori was wearing her coat, but she was dressed fairly lightly underneath. Her top only covered the upper part of her torso, and her pants looked really tight. The glasses-like thing hanging from her neck by a strap was probably for when she rode her dragon. Her red sword was in a scabbard slung across her back, and she wasn’t carrying anything else other than a knife.
Riyo was in her leather jumpsuit, and also had those long gloves and boots on—the kuduses and hadumas. The bag she held by a string as she carried it over her shoulder was like a backpack, but it wasn’t very thick. Manato didn’t know what to call it, so it was just a bag to him. It had a bunch of pockets that looked like they had knives in them. Manato vaguely recalled being told that Odradd used throwing knives, so that was probably what those were. Her glasses with the strap were apparently in the bag too.
“Juntza was telling me once, when someone feeds you and gives you shelter for the night, you’re indebted to them for, uh, hospitalizing you...?”
“Showing you hospitality,” Riyo immediately corrected him.
“Yeah, that! You have to repay them for their hospitalness.”
“No, not hospitalness. Hospitality.” Riyo was looking directly at Manato, but her expression remained unchanged. “The idea is that by letting you stay the night and feeding you, they have done you a great favor that must be repaid. It’s a concept that’s also practiced by multiple tribes and cultures across the Red Continent.”
“Huh. Is that right?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure know a lot, Riyo. Kinda like Juntza.”
“I don’t really know that much. If anything, there’s far more that I don’t know than that I do.”
“Wow. With me, it’s not that I only know a little, it’s that I don’t know anything at all.”
“So?” Yori said with a shrug. She seemed a little exasperated. “You were talking about being indebted?”
“Oh, right, that. I’m indebted to Haru. And not just for a night’s shelter and a meal. He loaned me clothes and a sword and even mended my clothes when they got torn. Also, he gave me two meals, not just one, so I owe him for, uh, one night’s rest, two meals, clothes, a sword... Eugh.” As he counted it all up, he started to laugh. “It’s a lot. And I need to pay him back for all of it.”
“No, you don’t,” Haru said, his masked face turned toward the ruins.
“It’s not even about feeling indebted to you. It’s more like I want to pay you back.” Manato nodded. “Yeah. I’ll make sure I do.”
“Please don’t.”
“I shouldn’t?”
“It’s not really my place to stop you, but still...”
“I was wondering what I could do. In Japan, we had finally found ourselves a house and were planning to live there until we died. But since I don’t have anything like that here, I dunno, hrmm...”
“It sounds like you’re looking for something to challenge you,” Yori suggested.
“Yeah. Maybe that’s it. Or is it?”
“Or something worth living for,” Riyo offered as an alternative.
“Something to live for!” Manato turned to look at Riyo. “That’s it! Something to live for! One of my comrades said the same thing. When we were all together, he said he felt like he had something to live for. He died before we found the house, though.”
“Oh, so he died,” Yori murmured.
“Yep,” Manato said with a laugh. It wasn’t exactly funny, but he couldn’t help but laugh when he remembered the little Canary. “He was the kind of guy who smiled a lot. He was real tiny. And light too. He was sickly, and he always had a fever and a cough. Eventually, it got to the point where he couldn’t walk on his own anymore, so we carried him on our backs, and even then he would keep on smiling. I was hoping he’d get better, but he died. It was always raining, so it wasn’t easy to bury him.”
“Manato,” Riyo said, suddenly putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Hm?”
He looked at her and saw that she was hanging her head a little. Though she had touched his shoulder, she wouldn’t look him in the eye.
“My condolences.”
“Condolen... What? What’re those?”
“It means she feels sorry,” Yori explained on Riyo’s behalf, but Manato still didn’t understand.
“Sorry? Why?”
“You and your comrades were searching for a house, right? But that kid died along the way. She feels sorry for him because of that, and also for you losing your comrade. That’s what Riyo was trying to say.”
“Ohhh. I see. Yeah, it would have been nice if he’d at least lived until we got to the house. But he was having a good time up until he died, and was always smiling too. I don’t think you need to feel sorry for him.”
Manato lightly took hold of Riyo’s right hand which was resting on his shoulder. Since she was wearing her kuduses, though, her hand felt really hard under his.
“But thanks. You were being considerate. You’re a kind girl, Riyo.”
“No...” Riyo shook her head with a very small motion. No, actually, it looked like she was shuddering. “I’m...not kind... That’s not the sort of person I am...”
“Really? Well, I think you are. Yori too. It was nice of you to explain what Riyo meant. You’re kind, and amazing.”
“Of course,” Yori said, looking away and crossing her arms. “Yori’s skills and personality are perfect. That comes with being great-grandma’s great-granddaughter. Yori’s Yori, so doing something like that is no big deal. And actually...”
“Actually?”
“It’s nothing... Great-grandma said Manato was popular with girls, but you’re a different Manato...”
“You’re talking about Haru’s comrade? The one I happen to share a name with?”
“Well, yeah...” Yori said.
Haru touched his mask. “He was a man who drew a lot of attention, who was seen as special by others. He was very personable, and smiled a lot.”
“What do they call people like that again?” Manato wondered aloud. “Comedians?”
“That’s a person who tells a lot of jokes,” Riyo murmured. She was hanging her head again.
“Okay, that’s wrong, then. Is there another word for a person who laughs a lot? Well, whatever. It doesn’t matter.”
“Hand...” Riyo’s right hand twitched. “My hand.”
“Your hand?”
“I was hoping you could let go.”
“Ohhh, sorry.”
When Manato let go, Riyo quickly pulled her right hand away and clutched it with her left. Had he hurt her? That couldn’t be it. Manato hadn’t squeezed that hard, and Riyo’s hand was protected by its kudus.
“Is there someone in the ruins of that keep?” Yori asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Haru said, shaking his head. “Looking at it from this side, it probably seems like the walls are mostly intact, but actually, two-thirds of them have collapsed. And the keep itself isn’t fit for people to live in.”
“It’s not much use, then, huh?” Yori said.
“No. But Lumiaris’s converts showing up in Alterna made me curious about what might be going on around here.” Haru pointed to the west. “There’s a city called Damuro about four kilometers west of here. Over a century ago, it was a goblin stronghold. Now it’s a base for the thralls of Skullhell.”
Yori put her hand on her chin. “Which means this is Skullhell’s turf?”
“That’s right. There’s a factional struggle between Lumiaris’s and Skullhell’s forces all across Grimgar, but it’s always seemed like everything south of the Quickwind Plains is a backwater to them. The forces of Skullhell managed to take control of Damuro before Lumiaris’s could, and the Cyrene Mines a little farther to the northwest belong to them as well. They’ve beaten back a number of attacks from the Lumiaris faction over the years, and things have been pretty quiet around here lately, but...”
“Lumiaris’s converts might be taking aim at Damuro again. That’s your read on it, right, Haruhiro?” Yori suggested.
“It’s a possibility.”
“The converts we took out could’ve been a forward detachment.”
“Maybe.”
“So the main force, or at least part of it, would be somewhere in that keep, and they sent out that forward detachment as scouts to see if anything was going on in Alterna?”
“We don’t have confirmation of that, which is why I want to investigate this place. If I were by myself, I could’ve just holed up in the Ark and waited for the storm to blow over, though.”
“Well, should I go take a quick look, then?” Manato offered, raising his hand.