The Good Times
Time passed.
Orion found himself gradually adapting to this world.
"Nngh…"
Stirring beneath the light that spilled through the window, Orion pushed himself upright. The place he called home was an abandoned cabin. It looked as though it had been deserted for quite some time, but once you grew used to the cold, living there posed no real inconvenience.
"Ugh. Tch."
The moment he woke, Orion checked the nightstand beside the bed. It had become habit by now. There sat a tiny strongbox, completely empty.
"What a pain."
He stretched hard, climbed out of bed, and pulled on his clothes. An empty coffer meant it was time to go hunt magic beasts again. Depending on the size of the creature and the purity of its Magic Stone, a single kill usually secured enough funds to live on for three to five days. One day of hard work bought him several times that in lazy, idle living.
"Ah well. Shame, but what can you do."
With a touch of regret, Orion glanced toward the foot of the bed. Three or four books lay scattered there — a hobby he had picked up after falling into this world. What else was there to do in a place you knew nothing about? No games, no videos, no smartphones at all. For someone steeped in the modern world, the only real option had been to lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. That was when he discovered novels.
"I'll hurry back and crack open the next volume~"
People said prisoners started reading books once they were locked up. Orion's state of mind was probably not so different. In a place with nothing else, simply being able to read words was its own joy, its own happiness.
Holding on to that little flutter of anticipation, Orion took up his sword and stepped out of the cabin.
Eight years went by.
Orion had grown to an age this world considered adulthood.
"No way — it ends here? When does the next volume come out?!"
And yet his homebody life, allergic to anything troublesome, rolled right on. Orion knew full well what people would say. If you cast him as the protagonist of some novel, wasn't he supposed to be out there slaying magic beasts by the score, his adventurous spirit ablaze? He had the ability for it. The talent, too. Magic beasts that took whole parties to bring down, Orion could handle alone without breaking a sweat. That was precisely why none of them dared come near his cabin.
Still, a quiet why? lingered in a corner of his mind.
If he had known this world inside and out, things might have been different. Suppose it was one of those tired old plots where slaying the strongest magic beast brought peace to the land. Orion might have given it a try, at least once — if the world ended because of that beast, he would die along with it. And getting filthy rich by hunting magic beasts in bulk? He didn't even need to think that one through. Hunting them in droves and becoming wealthy both amounted, strictly speaking, to becoming famous.
This quiet little life was already pleasant and happy enough. Did he really need the admiring stares of people who had once treated him like a monster? Besides, fame came packaged with envy and jealousy. In other words, it meant trouble.
"I don't need to be famous. Just hurry up and release the next volume."
With a wistful sigh, Orion snuffed out the light and pulled the covers over himself.
That was when it happened.
Thud— thud— thud—
Why was the night so restless?
Already in a foul mood, Orion grabbed his sword at once and stepped out of the cabin.
In the year that marked roughly fifteen years since he had come to this world, Orion faced the greatest crisis of his life.
"I'm screwed."
Beside the bed stood a large wooden chest, always positioned so it would catch his eye. Inside it was something that made life easy, comfortable, cozy, and happy. The world at large called it money.
"I'm actually screwed."
Orion opened the chest and smacked his forehead in pure despair. Nothing but dust filled the empty box.
"If ignorance is a sin, then I guess I'm guilty."
A heavy sigh escaped him. A man who had known nothing but eating, sleeping, relieving himself, and hunting magic beasts, Orion had never developed any sense of economics. Originally he had gotten by selling the spoils of his hunts or collecting the bounties that came with them. Then one day, pure luck had smiled on him.
He had woken to a restless night and found a massive magic beast — easily over three meters tall — standing right outside his door. Ordinarily, magic beasts never so much as ventured near his cabin. Bemused, Orion had beaten the thing to death, and the next day he hauled the carcass down to the village. Every last villager had stood there with their jaws hanging open.
A week later, when Orion came down to the village as usual with his spoils in hand, someone stopped him.
You're giving all of this to me?
Talk about a windfall. It was the largest bounty he had ever seen in his life — money bestowed by the Emperor himself. Convinced the sum would last him forever, Orion had promptly shut himself indoors. For years on end, he lived the life of a complete shut-in.
The inevitable result was that he burned through every last coin.
Civilization had marched on with the years. Railways spread across the continent, giving birth to a new invention called the steam locomotive. Methods for using Magic Stones were discovered, and Magic Tools were developed. With that progress came rising prices for food and daily necessities, climbing labor costs — the value of goods steadily declined, as was only natural. There had been rapid growth in a short span, and he had spent freely, but the real problem was that he had never even considered any of this.
"A rich freeloader? Not in this lifetime."
For years he had eaten whatever he wanted and done absolutely nothing bothersome. That alone was more than he could have asked for. Still, Orion closed his eyes and opened them again, clinging to a scrap of hope — maybe this was a dream.
"Hah. Not a chance."
The empty chest was still there to greet him. With a deep sigh, Orion trudged to the door and drew his sword. With all the free time he had, he had never neglected its care, and the blade was razor-sharp.
"…Time to get to work."
Shoulders slumped, Orion left the cabin behind.
"So that's the Grand Duke of Agnes? Hmm. Doesn't quite have the late lord's charisma, does she."
"A woman, then. Holding the Northern Continent together can't be easy."
"I hear magic beasts swarm beyond the Agnes Territory. I do hope she can keep them at bay."
Voices of concern drifted from every direction. Not long ago, news had shaken the entire Ruthenia Empire — the death of Derrick Agnes, head of the Agnes family that ruled the Northern Continent. The cause was old age. Anyone who had ever laid eyes on him would never have imagined he could die. Even past seventy, his presence had been formidable, and the sight of him with a sword in hand had radiated a vitality that suggested he might stride out to crush magic beasts at any moment. But even he could not defy the laws of nature. Growing old was simply the time one spent preparing to meet death.
In his place, someone had succeeded Derrick Agnes, who had ruled for over thirty years from a young age.
Every last one of them says the exact same thing.
His only daughter: Karen Agnes.
Struck anew by the weight of her father's legacy, Karen let out a quiet sigh. Derrick had fathered her late, at the age of fifty. And having lost her mother early to illness, Karen held no warm memories of either parent. Not that he had been a bad man. There simply had been no memories to speak of. He had always been busy; she had scarcely even seen his face.
I shouldn't have come. I expected as much, but I never imagined there would be this many shallow people. If I'd known, I would have stayed behind and cleared the backlog of work.
Karen pressed her throbbing temples and shook her head. Contrary to the crowd's fretting, her abilities were genuinely remarkable. They had to be. Sparse as her contact with her parents had been, Karen had received an education from early childhood. In recent years she had taken over every scrap of information from the steward who had served Derrick, completing a full transfer of duties. Territory administration and the progress of magic beast subjugation were both proceeding smoothly. Watching people prattle on in ignorance of all that left Karen thoroughly exasperated.
She had long known that nobles loved their gossip. They chose their words carefully out of regard for rank, but backbiting was still backbiting — and she could hear every word of it.
Karen fixed a murderous glare on a portly man standing nearby. He let out a squeak and fled.
Patience. Just be patient.
Karen forced down the anger rising in her chest. This was the nobles' annual social gathering, held without fail each year. Three years had passed since Derrick's death. Busy until now, Karen was attending for the first time this year — if only to show her face as a matter of courtesy. And nothing looked uglier than losing one's temper in a place like this. No matter how many people sniped, So what does a woman like you think she's going to accomplish?, answering them with hard facts would only leave people remembering, What's wrong with her? On the surface, this gathering was a place for light laughter and pleasant conversation.
Thoroughly fed up, Karen slipped out of the hall and walked a quiet corridor, turning the problem over in her mind.
Surely there must be some kind of solution.
That was when it happened.
"Oh, Karen! Perfect timing."
Her close friend, the First Princess Alice Ruthenia, spotted her and broke into a bright, sunny smile.