Vol 1 Chapter 3 – Tutorial Stage 2 (In Gaming Terms)

“What is this thing?”

The massive iron gate looming in front of me was tall enough to give me a neck cramp just from looking up at it. I had no idea how many meters high it was. There was a manga like this, wasn’t there — the one where the protagonist gets eaten in the very first chapter. I only read up to about volume ten, though.

“The Royal Capital is circular, with one entrance at each cardinal point. This is the North Gate — closest to the Royal Palace.”

Elena held her bangle up toward the center of the gate, and a beam of blue light shot out in a straight line. I’d seen that in anime too — Castle in the Sky, or something like that. Light points the way, leads you to the thing, insert name here. I’d watched it a million times since I was a kid, and I still cry at the fortress scene every time. What did the robot even do wrong?!

With a grinding, rust-heavy groan, the gate began to swing open tow— nope. Nothing. It didn’t open. Why.

“How long are you going to stand there staring up? Over here.”

I looked where Elena was pointing — and there, tucked in the lower right corner, was a normal-sized door. She was already heading toward it.

The decorative reliefs around it cleverly camouflaged it, but sure enough, that was the actual entrance, so much for the grand fantasy moment. It was basically the kind of side door you’d find built into the massive gate of a mountain temple — or, say, the front entrance to a clan of assassins living on a mountaintop. No beast lurking here to tear me apart as I slipped through the little door, at least.

“Were you expecting the big gate to open?”

“Well… It’s enormous, so yeah.”

“I know, right?! It only opens for royalty, or when dignitaries from other regions come through.”

Not very exciting, is it, Elena said, puffing out her cheeks.

…Wh— adorable. Genuinely adorable. I want it on the record: Elena’s face is exactly my type. I’ll probably mention that again.

The moment I stepped through the door, the scenery shifted completely.

Western-style cobblestones, gas lamp-style lanterns, and colorful-roofed houses clustered together in cheerful rows. What caught my eye immediately: the lanterns were floating in midair. The residents were dressed in unmistakably fantasy clothing. And every single one of them was carrying some kind of weapon.

Terrifying.

Oh, and the hair — as colorful as the rooftops, if not more so. Red, green, white — the full spectrum was represented.

I was sure that if I looked closely enough, the strangeness wouldn’t stop there. That butcher’s meat over there, for instance — I had absolutely no way of knowing what animal it came from.

“See those white towers over there?”

“Is that the castle?”

“It is. The North Gate is closed, but we came in from the back side.”

Despite being dressed in my outrageously casual white T-shirt and jeans — basically a walking anachronism — the locals barely gave me a second glance. So the whole “happens all the time” thing was apparently the genuine truth.

I’d been rubbernecking badly enough to fall behind, because Elena’s voice suddenly came from several meters ahead.

“Utaki — don’t wander off, it’s dangerous~.”

“Oh — right, sorry.”

“You look like the type who’d disappear the second I looked away. Should I hold your hand?”

She tilted her head slightly as she said it.

Hold on. Hold on hold on hold on. Was this one of those stories? The kind where flags start stacking up from the very beginning? And not just flags, either — something else might be rising too, not saying what. This is an all-ages release. Allegedly.

I mean, I wasn’t inexperienced with girls. Something like this was nothing.

…

…Yeah, I wish. I really, really wish that had been my life. Tragically, it wasn’t. Damn it.

The painful reality was that I lacked the dense protagonist’s talent for obliviousness. My only available responses were either transparently obvious ulterior motives or deliberate flag demolition. Neither was a great look.

A beautiful girl studying me with a puzzled, slightly suspicious expression, though?

That wasn’t entirely unwelcome.