“Hey! Are you up?”
With the addition of a man’s voice, Seiichirou could no longer ignore the situation. He got up very reluctantly.
“What is it?” Seiichirou asked, cracking open the door and peering out.
The boisterous man on the other side of the door shoved his face close to Seiichirou’s. Seiichirou pulled back in surprise; the man had opened the door fully and let himself in.
“Hiya! I’m Norbert Blanc! Helmut told me to bring you some books and clothes!”
As Seiichirou examined the man who had so enthusiastically greeted him, he saw that in one hand he was holding three books that were roughly the size of pocket paperbacks and a cloth bag with garments inside.
“Oh… Thank you.”
I see, so he’s Helmut’s messenger? Then that means…?
“So you’re joining the Royal Accounting Department, I hear? I’m in the Accounting Department, too! Nice to meetcha!”
The man’s blond hair fell in a loose, carefree style, and he wore a shirt with a white-and-blue design. His blue eyes looked straight down at Seiichirou without a trace of shyness.
“I’m Seiichirou…Kondou. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Kon…do?”
Seiichirou, tired of having the same conversation over and over, wondered if maybe he should start introducing himself as Kondo from the beginning. But the man in front of him—Norbert—broke out in a smile.
“Sei it is! The pleasure’s mine!!”
I guess there are frivolous, happy-go-lucky guys in other worlds, too…
Seiichirou recalled the previous year’s new hires from his office in Japan, which was now very far away. The corners of his mouth curled up of their own accord.
Σ Σ Σ
The morning after Seiichirou Kondou had been abducted (summoned) into another world, he stood alone at the rear entrance of the Romany Kingdom’s royal palace.
He hadn’t been kicked out, nor had he been stood up for some arranged meeting.
Because of his deep-rooted company-slave mentality—or rather, because of his Japanese spirit—he had arrived of his own volition thirty minutes before the time Helmut had told him.
After the exuberant Norbert had given him his books, clothes, and other necessities the day before, he had shown him around the building. There was a buffet-style dinner in the dining hall. As Norbert explained everything, they ate dinner together and took a dip in the bath during an off-peak time. The residents’ communal bathing room was massive, so as long as Seiichirou avoided the busy hours, he could use it without any problems. He had minor complaints, like the soap lathered poorly and that the towels were scratchy, but he was still grateful because he had almost given up on the prospect of being able to soak in warm water.
Throughout the meal and bath, Seiichirou asked Norbert all sorts of questions about this world.
How to count numbers, time, the cycle of the year, currency… Everything Seiichirou inquired about was related to numbers in some way. Mathematics was a concept, and if he knew them, he would understand the standards through which this world operated.
If Seiichirou was to organize the information he had just learned, the first point would be that each day was divided into six hours: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Wood, and Light. Clocks also existed. Seiichirou had watched the clock while counting and found that the concept of “one second” was the same in this world, and so one hour was 120 minutes—or two cycles around the clock.
The year was also divided into six months (Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Wood, and Light), and each month was sixty days. This world seemed to have a propensity for numbers divisible by six.
The numbers in question, in both the books Norbert had brought him and on the clocks, were expressed as Arabic numerals, which Seiichirou knew very well.
But here, another question arose.
Seiichirou could read the books Norbert had brought him.
From the very beginning, Seiichirou had thought it was strange that he was able to understand what these people said, and he had wondered if perhaps he could understand the written language, too. Somehow, every sound he heard and everything he saw seemed to be auto-translated.
As a test, Seiichirou had written something in Japanese and shown it to Norbert, and he had understood it perfectly.
Seiichirou didn’t know how it worked, but maybe it was an apology from the thing they called God for abducting him from his world. It was certainly convenient, but Seiichirou was quite disappointed that he might have lost the opportunity to learn new mathematical formulas.
The reason Norbert wasn’t with Seiichirou presently, despite working at the same place, was simple: oversleeping. Norbert overslept, of course.
Seiichirou had woken up early so he could have some wiggle room before his expected arrival time. He had cleaned himself up and gone to the dining hall to eat breakfast, but Norbert had not been there. After breakfast, Seiichirou had gotten ready and waited around for a bit, but from his guided tour the day before, he had remembered how to get to breakfast and the royal palace with ease. Feeling as though Norbert was not needed, Seiichirou had set out for work on his own.
I guess I am too early… Well, it’s probably better than being late, thought Seiichirou, looking at the watch he had been wearing when he had been abducted. He had not taken off the mechanical wristwatch because he could still use it normally as long as he did the conversions in his head.
Today, Seiichirou was wearing a white shirt with vertical brown stripes and a high collar—and white pants. Most of the civil officials wore shirts with high collars, and brown represented the Accounting Department. It wasn’t terribly uncomfortable.
Weather-wise, it felt like spring. Did this kingdom have a mild climate, or did it just happen to currently be that season? Bathing in the pleasantly warm morning sun, Seiichirou once again opened one of the books Helmut had lent him. It was a book about basic arithmetic, but Seiichirou found it interesting that occasionally the explanations for certain formulas would be worded differently than they were in Japan.
As Seiichirou was rereading the book in preparation for the day ahead and waiting for Helmut to arrive, a shadow fell over his head.
Seiichirou looked up and saw a man standing before him, clad from top to bottom in pitch-black (including his hair) clothing.
His clothes, which were starkly different from Seiichirou’s uniform, were decorated in silver. There was something familiar about him.
He’s the guy from yesterday…
The day before, in the room where Seiichirou had been summoned to this world, he had seen the foreboding man watching with a bored expression. Having seen him from only a distance, Seiichirou had gotten the impression that he was good-looking, but now that he was seeing him so close, it confirmed that he was a spectacularly handsome man.
He was not feminine, but Seiichirou had never met anyone for whom the word beautiful was more fitting. He had groomed eyebrows and sweeping black hair, as well as thick eyelashes and striking purple eyes. He was slightly taller than Seiichirou—perhaps slightly under six feet.
But above all else, he had a nice body. Seiichirou’s initial impression was that of the man’s sturdy muscles, which he could make out even through his clothes. He was not super buff, but he had the type of physique that girls probably liked.
“What are you doing here?”
The man looked so disinterested that, for a moment, Seiichirou hadn’t realized the question was directed at him.
After two seconds’ silence, Seiichirou saw that the man furrowed his brow, and so he answered.
“I’m waiting to meet someone.”
“Waiting to meet someone…? Who?”
Seiichirou was standing at the rear entrance of the royal palace, alongside the wall, a short distance away from the employee entrance.
Even though no one else who had gone in or out had paid any mind to Seiichirou standing there, reading his book, this man, who seemed to be disinterested in everything, had gone out of his way to walk up to him.
Seiichirou wondered what the man’s intentions were, but from his presence during the summoning and his general demeanor, Seiichirou assumed he was probably a high-ranking official and answered him politely.
“Helmut, from the Royal Accounting Department.”
“…Why?”
The man was interrogating him using as few words as possible, leading Seiichirou to hazard that his status must have been incredibly high. The failure to offer good faith to a conversation partner was a hallmark of powerful people.
“Starting today, I’ll be working at the Royal Accounting Department, so he’s going to show me around,” Seiichirou answered with a friendly smile.
Now the man was looking at him with deep suspicion.
“What for?”
Before Seiichirou could open his mouth, he heard a familiar, soft voice in the distance.
“Sei! Why did you leave without me?!”
Norbert ran up to them, dressed in the same uniform he wore the day before but with perfectly arranged hair, despite having overslept.
“What?! Commander Indolark?!”
The moment Norbert saw the man in front of Seiichirou, he skidded to a halt and stood frozen on the spot.
Sparing Norbert a sidelong glance, the man looked put off as his eyes fell upon Seiichirou before heading inside the royal palace.
“Wow, that was super scary! I’ve never seen the commander of the Third Royal Order that close before! What were you guys talking about?” Norbert asked, wiping the sweat off his face and walking up to him.
Seiichirou closed his book and tilted his head.
“Nothing. He just asked me what I was doing here.”
“Whaaat? Maybe he was worried about you because he knows you came here with the Holy Maiden during her summoning?”