Familiar Faces (2)
I wandered without destination, studying the faces of the people who lived in Neo-Solitron.
Being a great city, it held every sort of soul imaginable. Broadly speaking, they fell into three kinds.
“Live for the day, eat for the day.”
“Is this money or a rat’s tail?”
“I should’ve learned a trade instead of philosophy.”
“Why don’t we all just open a chicken joint together?”
The lower class, wrapped in filthy rags.
“Daddy, I want a Honey-Butter Black-Sugar King Candy!”
“Just a little longer, my little princess~!”
“You brush your teeth before bed or Mommy’s going to scold you.”
The middle class, dressed in clean cotton.
“Hah. This is serious. The miners’ grumbling grows worse by the day. At this rate we might see a revolt…”
“Laborers are nothing but barking, snorting pigs. Pick the hardest worker each day, call him ‘Worker of the Day,’ and toss him a few coins. They’ll be too busy competing to cause trouble.”
“What a splendid idea!”
The upper class, gleaming badges pinned to luxurious silk.
But damn if their conversation didn’t set my teeth on edge.
Mines? Neo-Solitron had mines?
I filed the detail away for later.
In any case, this was Neo-Solitron: every stratum of society packed into one place. Completely different from any stage I had walked before.
Martolan, Goldon, Evergreen Village—all shared one trait. The enemies of this Runaway Ninja had always come from outside, never from within.
In Martolan, the territory where I debuted as an adventurer, I had gone all the way to Maple Leaf Village to fight dinosaur yokai. In Goldon I had held the walls against invading yakuza. In Evergreen Village I had battled bee yokai from far away.
True, I had beaten the samurai Aileen and the Iron Lobster Knights to death in Martolan, but those third-rate clowns weren’t even worth calling enemies. You don’t give a grand title to someone who dies pissing herself.
Because I had always fought outsiders, few people around me had reason to doubt my identity. I almost never needed a cover story.
This time was different. The force threatening Neo-Solitron lived inside the city itself.
The internal enemy that ruled the streets was the Sword Saints’ Society—a pack of sadistic, murder-obsessed samurai.
To fight these bastards while living in the same city, without drawing their suspicion, I needed a perfect disguise.
Like Bat-Ninja.
Bat-Ninja.
A chaebol heir who lost his parents to yakuza, entered the fallen ninja village called the League of Ninjas, mastered every technique, then fled—creating the legend. A fellow Runaway Ninja, he spent his days as a rich second-generation playboy and his nights as Bat-Ninja, fighting while dodging the eyes of the yakuza.
The fallen ninja leader Ra’s al Kol.
The psychopathic yakuza Joker.
The muscle-bound samurai Venom.
Even the sewer yokai Killer Crocodile.
The villains who appeared in Bat-Ninja’s story had been something else.
Anyway, I needed to follow his example and forge a flawless alibi. I had to lean harder into the adventurer persona and sell the citizens of Neo-Solitron on the idea that I was harmless.
Thud!
“Nin?”
“Ah, I’m so sorry~!”
Lost in thought, I was clipped on the shoulder by a woman arm-in-arm with a man. She was the one who bounced off.
“Hey, it’s because your shoulders are too broad.”
“You wanna die, oppa?”
The couple giggled and kept flirting.
“It’s fine. Go on.”
“Really, I’m terribly sorry. Take care!”
No real malice, so I let them pass.
A couple. Being part of a couple made a pretty good cover, too.
Of course, I had been in a couple once myself.
Oppa~! Are you free tomorrow?
She had been a year younger. I accepted her confession lightly, just to hide my ninja power and cosplay as a normal person.
She wasn’t my type. I preferred more mature women.
She only confessed because she lost a punishment game, you idiot! What woman would ever confess to a loser like you? Listen to me before you die of embarrassment!
Naturally I ignored the words of that uncivilized ape, my little sister.
Oppa…? Why do you only ever reply with nin-nin…?
We were both quiet types, so we never talked much. Both busy, so we rarely met. Still, I was certain we cared for each other.
Oppa… T_T I’m sorry T_T It was a punishment game with my friends haha. We agreed to pretend to date for a week lol. So we never actually went out~!
Too embarrassed to face me, she left only a single text and vanished.
I accepted it quickly. Where there is meeting, there is parting.
“Want to go see that thing today?”
“What thing?”
“‘King Lizard vs. Ape’! They use special fabric for the costumes—supposedly super realistic!”
“I can’t stand low-brow plays like that.”
“Why? It sounds amazing!”
“A good play needs a message.”
“Isn’t it enough if you just enjoy it?”
Their chatter still floated behind me.
Wait. A play? A play? Wasn’t that basically the same as a musical?
I remembered trying to see a musical in Pushkin Village and ending up stuck with some boring storytelling session instead.
This might be my last chance to catch a real musical.
“Excuse me!”
I chased after the couple at once. On a free day like this I had to see it.
“Yes? What is it?”
“Where can I watch the performance?”
“Um… go that way from here, then that way…”
Oh for fuck’s sake. Who the hell understands directions like that?
“If you’re going, let’s go together.”
“Ah…”
Consider the shoulder-bump paid for.
“Let’s go. To the place with the play.”
Hall 1: King Lizard vs. Ape
Hall 2: The Icicle Kingdom
Hall 3: The Gift of Room 100
Hall 4: Waving the Baton in Telas
Hall 5: The Calamity of Datiman
Hall 6: The Guardian of Goldon
Hall 7: Red Whale Magic Tower — The Truth of Lucid Dreams and the Correlation of Brains in Glass Tubes via Electrons
Hall 8: Red Whale Magic Tower — Self-Development Education for a Safe Future Design and Comfortable Retirement
Hall 9: Red Whale Magic Tower — The Benevolent Influence of Frontal Lobotomy
“The Guardian of Goldon?”
The moment I arrived at the theater I nearly screamed.
There was only one bastard who deserved that name—me.
Delbanas, chieftain of a bandit alliance, sets his sights on Goldon, already ruined by civil war. Brave soldiers and adventurers stand against him, yet victory seems impossible. At the desperate hour before the siege, a mysterious stranger appears…!
“What the hell.”
Even after reading the blurb, it was clearly me.
My fame spreading was fine. But why wasn’t I being called the Runaway Ninja?
I grabbed the still-awkward couple and asked.
“How do people even know about what happened in Goldon? Carriages haven’t been running that route for long.”
“It’s famous these days.”
“What?”
“An adventurer who fought alongside everyone there brought a detailed record to the guild. Nothing secret about it, so the guild sold copies to rich hobbyists. The hobbyists hired bards to adapt it, and the story spread from there… you know how it goes.”
The only adventurer who had fought with us, besides my own party, was Sayleen.
Had her meticulous nature made her write everything down?
But if she was going to record it, why not call me the Runaway Ninja? Why “Guardian of Goldon”? Had the story gotten twisted?
“Thanks for the explanation. But why ‘Guardian of Goldon’? Wasn’t that person called the Runaway Ninja?”
“Well, yeah, but the pronunciation’s so rustic. Nobody even knows what it means. Doesn’t ‘Guardian’ sound cooler?”
“Absolutely not.”
A guardian was not the strongest being under heaven. Only the Runaway Ninja could claim that title.
Coolness didn’t matter. The meaning inside the words did.
“Besides, that guy has another nickname, right? ‘Judge of Martolan’ or something?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Even if you wrote “Runaway Ninja” in giant letters on the biggest sheet of paper in the world, these people still wouldn’t take it in.
Orphe had screamed it at the top of her lungs back in Goldon, too.
Was this the barbaric reality of another world?
“Well, I understand. Enjoy the play, both of you. I’ll be going. Suddenly got busy.”
“Ah… okay…”
Play or no play, every scrap of interest had vanished.
I felt like my soul had been violated.
“Souvenirs! Get your souvenirs~! Handmade by the theater troupe itself~!”
A woman in ridiculous clown clothes was pushing a cart around like a yogurt lady.
Souvenirs? Might make a decent gift for Orphe.
I glanced over the goods and spotted a Runaway Ninja figure.
A tiny toy of a man painted so dark it looked racially discriminatory.
“One ‘Runaway Ninja,’ please.”
“Pardon?”
“The Runaway Ninja.”
“Excuse me?!”
“…That one right there.”
“Ahh~! The product name is listed differently~! Here’s ‘The Guardian of Goldon’!”
Orphe, are you watching? This is the suffering I endure for your sake.
“Hssss…!”
Clutching the figure, I walked for hours just to burn off the rage.
No—I walked to find companions who could help build my alibi.
Really.
“Robin?”
The voice that called me belonged to Orphe, who had somehow appeared behind me.
My pathfinding instinct must have kicked in; I had returned to the spot where we parted.
The sky had already grown dim. Time really flew.
“Finished?”
I hid the figure and approached. It was a surprise gift, after all.
“Yeah. Housing prices were crazy expensive. Still, I managed to haggle the conditions down and get a good deal.”
Orphe’s left hand was full of documents. Sending her alone had been the right call.
“How?”
“I gave our names and showed the guarantee we received in Goldon. The landlord was thrilled. Seemed like he knew the lord of Goldon.”
“Nice work.”
“But why are you hiding your hand?”
Sharp kids were the worst. Before she could press further I simply held it out.
Orphe took the figure in her right hand, turned it over, and examined it carefully.
“Bought it for you. Paid a fortune on the black market. They say a master craftsman breathed life into it…”
“You went to the Crossroads Traveling Theater Troupe?”
Mind-reading?!
“Have you turned into a queen-bee yokai?”
“Look here. It’s written small right next to the product name.”
Shit. She was right.
“—Looks like I’ve been scammed. This is…”
“You don’t have to say it.”
Orphe shook her head and slipped my figure into her coat.
“I like it. Thank you.”
“Gratitude… difficult.”
Well, at least it worked out?
“So do we head home now?”
“The landlord wants to see our faces once. We should meet up with Diana and Tribo and go to the main house. He’s a noble, so just watch your manners.”
No problem there.
“Let’s go.”
A noble who already looked on us kindly. That was rare indeed.