Subject Runes - V1 Chapter 14

Did he just say “Japan”?

My heart slammed hard in my chest, and my pulse shot up. That one word hit me so out of nowhere that my throat went dry from the tension, and I swallowed hard. Maybe I had heard him wrong. Maybe I was just freaking out. Still, I forced myself to ask, carefully and slowly, about what he had just said.

“Did you just say Japan?”

“Yeah. That’s where you’re from, isn’t it?”

He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, calm as hell. Mr. Whatshisname didn’t look shaken at all.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because your spell chant was clean Japanese. And that sodium explosion stunt from earlier? No one from this era comes up with an idea like that.”

There was no doubt now. This guy was a reincarnator too. Mr. Whatshisname looked at me and grinned.

“Relax. I’m not planning to do anything to you. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve met another reincarnator, so I’ve been thinking all damn day about how I should talk to you. We happened to get a chance to stand watch together, so I figured I’d just go for it.”

“So that means you’re Japanese too, right?”

“No. I’m American.”

An American?

That answer caught me completely off guard. Then how the hell did an American know my Japanese sounded natural?

“I’m American, yeah, but I live in Japan. I’m a serviceman assigned to the United States Navy’s Seventh Fleet.”

That explained it. No wonder he had noticed the Japanese.

“Can I ask what era you came from?”

“…The 2020s.”

“So we’re from the same time…”

“Where did you live?”

“Tokyo.”

“I was in Yokosuka.”

After that, we started talking like we’d known each other for years, tossing all kinds of shit back and forth without holding back. I never would’ve imagined that I’d end up geeking out over Japan-specific local stuff inside a dungeon in another world. The whole turn of events was insane.

And because we were speaking the local language of this world, there wasn’t even a language barrier. Somehow I managed to keep a conversation going with an American for a long time. Which was wild, because I can’t speak English for shit.

Mr. Whatshisname had apparently already gotten married in this world, and his wife was an adventurer too. No kids yet, though. He also couldn’t use magic, so he had never known that Japanese was used for chant spells.

Now that we had gotten friendly, I decided to bring up the thing that had been bugging me since morning and that I really, really wanted to say.

“There’s something about your name. It’s long as hell and kind of hard to say. From now on, can I call you Mohorovitch instead of Mr. Whatshisname?”

Mohorovitch was the kind of name that showed up on tests, so it rolled off the tongue way easier.

“Hm. In our culture, calling each other by our first names is the polite thing when you’re close. Calling each other by family name feels stiff and annoying. Well, if you really insist, you can just call me ‘Sir.’”

Sir, huh. Pretty damn military.

More importantly, why did he hate being called by his last name that much? Were all Americans like that?

“Understood. Then I’ll call you Sir. Is that what people called you in the Seventh Fleet too?”

“More or less. For the record, I was a major before I got reincarnated.”

Major. A U.S. Navy major.

Isn’t that crazy high-ranking?

No wonder the guy gets called Sir… I think. Hell if I know.

And now I was getting nervous.

“Major… Sir Major?”

“…Yeah, no. Somehow that sounds even weirder.”

By the end, the whole thing had turned into the kind of nonsense conversation that only happened late at night when your brain was half dead. Still, running into another reincarnator out of nowhere made the time fly by in an instant.

Back at the campsite in the Dungale Labyrinth City around that same time, Dan and Neon were on watch.

“Hey, Neon.”

“What?”

“You call Azoth by his name, but you call Senior Selene ‘Seren-neesama.’ Why?”

“Maybe because saying ‘Selene-neesama’ puts two ‘ne’ sounds right next to each other, and that’s annoying.”

“That’s not what I mean. What I’m saying is, you feel way more like Selene’s little sibling than Azoth’s.”

“Isn’t that just because we have the same hair and eye color?”

“That too, I guess. But I mean the way you act around them. The closeness. The vibe. Something about the way you treat Azoth and the way you treat Senior Selene feels fundamentally different.”

“I get along better with Azoth, though.”

“That’s exactly it. I can’t explain it well, but the kind of closeness you have with Azoth and the kind you have with Senior Selene don’t feel the same at all.”

“Ghk… W-well, coming from someone as dense as you, Dan, that’s definitely just your imagination.”

“You really had to go that far? Well, whatever. I can’t put it into words myself… Sorry. Forget I said anything.”

Whew, that was close. Somehow I managed to throw Dan off. Nice one, me.

Meanwhile, at the campsite in the dungeon at Mount Bispor Volcano—

“Cain. That magic you used when you saved Burn… was that, by any chance…”

“Yeah. It’s exactly what you think it is, Wolf.”

“So it really is. But why did you enroll at this academy? Someone like you could’ve gone to Fi—”

“There’s a lot behind that.”

“…I see. Fine. I won’t ask any more.”

“By the way, Wolf, can you keep today’s business between us? At least when it comes to Azoth and the others, I want to tell them myself.”

“Understood. I promise. Out of everyone here today, I’m probably the only one who’s noticed.”

“Yeah, figures. So what are you going to do about Rogers?”

“He’ll probably quit the club, but even as an upperclassman he still looks like the kind of guy who’ll cause problems. Neither Sasha nor I have that much influence, so there’ll probably be things we won’t be able to cover.”

“Yeah. But this isn’t really just an academy problem. It’s a problem with the whole noble society of the Argent Kingdom…”

After breakfast, we packed up the tents.

Then the investigation of the temple beyond the door began. From here on out, this was the researchers’ job. As adventurers, there wasn’t much for us to do except keep watch over the area.

Still, I was interested in ancient ruins. Honestly, when I chose this quest, this part was even more my real objective than fighting magic beasts.

I mixed in with the researchers and carefully examined the ruins, looking for any trace that might connect the ancient magical civilization to Japan. At the back of the room stood an altar, and its sides and ceiling were packed with murals and all kinds of patterns. They probably meant something, but just looking at them wasn’t enough for me to figure out what.

The researchers split up and started sketching the murals in detail. I wanted them to investigate the altar already, but I couldn’t just mess with it on my own, so I sat quietly and waited for them to finish, staring at the patterns on the walls.

“Hey, Azoth.”

Before I knew it, Marl had come over and sat down beside me.

“Thanks for yesterday. For listening to my worries.”

“O-oh. Yeah. If it’s me, I’ll listen anytime.”

What Major had said was still taking up way too much space in my head, and I had totally forgotten about my conversation with Marl.

Wait. What the hell did I even say to her again…?

“You know, I’ve never really had confidence in myself. Once I start doubting what the right answer is, I’m the kind of person who just freezes and overthinks everything. But after talking with you yesterday, Azoth, I started feeling like maybe I don’t have to think so hard about everything. Maybe it’s okay to be honest about how I feel.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“And on top of that, you even declared that you’d keep trying together with me.”

“Declared… I did?”

Marl giggled, looking like something inside her had finally cleared up.

“Man. If you weren’t engaged to Selene, I could’ve introduced you to my parents.”

“Introduced me to your parents…? Ah—right! I remember now!”

At that moment, every last bit of my conversation with Marl from last night came flooding back.

I had gotten carried away by that late-night mood and started saying cheesy crap I’d never normally say. I had completely screwed myself.

When I glanced at her, Marl was blushing and grinning at me like she was enjoying the hell out of this.

“Just kidding, Azoth. Hehe.”

“Eh…?”

So it was a joke…?

But I was so damn embarrassed that all I could do was clutch my head.