The Early Bird (2)
The Early Bird (2)
Honestly, I had been curious.
Where in the world did they find the time to race across that entire vast empire from end to end while somehow seeing every last side quest and bond event?
Of course, I had never once seriously attempted to analyze it by poking at game settings or anything. In the first place, there was no such thing as a "second playthrough" in real life. From that perspective, the protagonist's life was inevitably confined to a single first playthrough, and during that first playthrough the protagonist could never possibly see every bond quest.
Side quests, too, were often hidden, and if you simply forgot to talk to an NPC they would slip past you entirely.
So I had just filed it all under "game convention" and moved on. Just as no one seriously questioned why an FPS character didn't die from a single bullet or why they could shrug off gunshot wounds just because they wore a little body armor, I figured RPGs adopted that simplified time system because making time flow realistically would be far too punishing for the player.
But what happened when that translated into reality?
In an FPS's case, it would probably shift so that the protagonist was so formidable they simply never got shot while picking off every enemy one by one. In reality you couldn't die over and over the way you did in a game, after all.
So what about that RPG-distinctive sense of time?
The answer was: you crammed it all in, fighting the clock every step of the way.
In the game, weekends like this didn't happen every single time. Implementing literally "every weekend" would have made the game far too long. So during the first semester they spaced out major events to buy time and ran about three weekends total. During the second semester there were two at the start, and then the main story kicked in properly and the protagonists were out roaming beyond the academy.
And on each of those crucial weekends there were seven side quests in total. Three in the morning, three in the afternoon, one at night.
And "morning" meant exactly what it said: morning. The time from waking up until lunch. Typically from seven in the morning until noon. Within that span: "three."
But, common sense alone suggested four in the afternoon and three in the morning would make more sense, wouldn't it? No matter how I thought about it, the morning window was absurdly tight.
And side quests weren't even the only problem. The "bond events" between the characters who appeared in this game overlapped with that same "morning, afternoon, night" structure too. Side quests on one track, bond events on another. And those bond events weren't just stand-in-place-and-chat-for-a-moment affairs, either. Errands, consultations, training, studying, helping with a request that character had received—each one was a story that demanded anywhere from several dozen minutes to a full hour of your time.
Thinking about it that way, under the assumption of seeing every bond event, it did make sense to deal with side quests early during this window—side quests that, by design, carried no time limit of their own.
... It made sense, but.
"Four in the... morning...?"
Four, she'd said?
Four in the morning!?
They had already been out on the highway hunting beasts at that hour!? Were they out of their minds?
What was more, the party consisted only of Leo and Claire, just the two of them.
Ah, right. I had already seen in the game's background lore that the academy's round-the-clock stagecoach service was a reputable operation. In fact, people in the area used it fairly often because it ran precisely between stations on schedule without veering off anywhere or steering passengers into the hands of bandits. The locals had to pay, of course.
The twenty-four-hour service was apparently for the benefit of the unhinged types who, like Leo and Claire, moved around even in the dead of night. Still, even knowing that, I had never imagined anyone would actually board this stagecoach and travel before the sun was even up, at an hour like this.
"Oh? Sylvia?"
Hearing my footsteps as I arrived right after they had felled the target Elemental Dog, Claire turned around.
The streetlamp glow was bright, so I could clearly see Claire's slightly dumbfounded expression.
"... Would it be all right if I asked what you two are doing here at this hour?"
I tried my best to keep my voice even, so as not to betray the fact that I had jumped off the stagecoach and run over.
"Huh? Uh..."
Had I looked angry? A little flustered, Claire glanced at Leo. Leo shook his head as if he didn't quite know either.
"Well,"
In the end Claire spoke first, without having fully gauged the situation.
"Leo and I were doing morning training—"
"... Morning training?"
"Ah, yeah."
Even though I had cut her off, Claire continued her explanation calmly, not looking particularly offended.
"Every morning, mental cultivation, and then sword drills. That's how we train, day in and day out."
"... Morning?"
I looked up at the sky.
It was slowly growing lighter. Yet anyone could see it was still "night." The sky had taken on a faint blue tint, but honestly, to anyone's eyes it was simply the middle of the night rather than dawn.
"Uh, yeah, so?"
Claire tilted her head.
So that meant they got up at four in the morning and... no, wait.
The fact that they were already doing mental cultivation and sword drills at that hour meant they woke up even earlier than that. On top of that, it must have taken quite some time just to get here. No matter how clear the roads were, the only transportation we could take was the stagecoach.
Horses... well, they could have ridden here, but I didn't think they owned horses. The academy did have a stable, but hardly any of the students kept personal horses there.
Automobiles existed too... but the students who got around by automobile were probably even rarer than those who rode horses. Besides, at that time automobiles faced all sorts of restrictions inside the capital because of friction with the coach drivers.
Bicycles... I supposed they could have ridden those.
But I hadn't spotted any parked bicycles on my way over, so probably not.
"Don't you get tired or anything, waking up and moving around at this hour of night?"
"Tired?"
At my question Claire's expression turned genuinely puzzled. Then she looked toward Leo.
Leo looked equally bewildered.
...I felt an unidentifiable cold sensation.
No, it wasn't just the chill of the pre-dawn air. It was more, how should I put this...
Not a physical reason but something connected to my own state of mind.
"Er... so, that's... it's related to your ki, right?"
"Ki?"
I had no idea whether they were spouting the kind of thing you'd hear from a cult recruiter asking if you'd found the Way.
"The very first thing you learn in the Grace school... is the method for circulating clear ki through your body. In order to wield sword aura, you have to maintain a clear and tranquil mind at all times, and to keep that state of mind you can't afford to be tired, so you learn to govern your heart through meditation..."
Leo gave me that explanation in a tone that sounded as if he was desperately suppressing polite speech from slipping out.
Haah.
Ki? Tranquility? Mental state?
Hold on. This was an industrial-era steampunk fantasy setting, so why were they reciting what sounded like a sutra?
....
Ah, right.
Well.
I had been deep into the lore, so I did know.
This world was, in the first place, a setting where terms like Sword Saint and presence-sensing were tossed about without a second thought. Exhibit A: Claire, who had fought me, had launched a sword aura at me. Sword aura, in an Age of Enlightenment setting—how absurd was that?
But, ta-da, in this world magic also existed, and Mana Stones too! Absolutely! No! Such! Thing!
"...."
Even so, I hadn't realized that meditation for soothing mental and physical fatigue and clearing the mind had any function beyond self-hypnosis.
"So,"
I decided to ask one final question.
"Are you both telling me that even if you don't sleep very long, through your morning meditation you can drive away fatigue, maintain a clear and tranquil mind, and still wield sword aura perfectly fine?"
"That's... right?"
Leo answered as if wondering what could possibly be strange about that.
Ah, so I was the odd one.
I had been mistaken.
I was the one in the wrong, wasn't I?
Maybe I should have at least considered the possibility that the protagonists really would clear every last in-game side quest after all!
"... Hey."
No, wait a moment.
I felt a shiver run down my spine again. It was probably just my imagination, but I felt as though my body temperature had dropped by about two degrees.
Then... what about the other characters?
When the protagonist Leo undertook side quests, the number of people he could bring along was only six, including himself. Two of those were support characters who followed in an auxiliary role.
So what about the other characters who stayed behind? Did they do something like side quests too?
What happened if the protagonist split the work with them?
"Sylvia? What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Seeing me frozen in place with cold sweat beading on my forehead, Claire approached with a worried look and asked.
"...."
I shot Claire a brief glance,
Then once more.
Turned back time.
*
I resolved to get a driver's license.
Sitting inside the jolting stagecoach, I made that decision.
I wasn't entirely sure whether this world even had a system called a driver's license, but in any case, I would learn how to operate an automobile. That seemed like the best idea.
Horses required constant care from a person. Automobiles needed maintenance too, of course, but they were still better than a living animal.
Besides, for me personally, learning to drive an automobile would be far easier than learning to ride. And once I was near one, I'd be able to get back in and go anytime.
Yes, just like now.
"...."
Whatever words the driver sitting on the coachman's seat might have said, they probably wouldn't have reached me clearly, but even without hearing his voice I could sense from his demeanor that he found this situation enormously uncomfortable.
Of course he would.
Information about the truly important students was passed along to academy staff. They all likely knew I was an imperial princess, and naturally seeing me riding a coach alone at this hour might have made them profoundly uneasy.
Well, they probably didn't think I was sneaking off to assassinate someone.
"...."
All the same, from a coachman's perspective, if he looked at a high-ranking person with a nasty-looking disposition sitting there in stony silence, arms crossed, glaring straight ahead, he would probably wonder whether he had done something wrong.
Of course, he had done nothing wrong at all.
I was simply annoyed for my own reasons.
"We have arrived at the eastern highway of the capital."
"... Thank you."
The coach stopped, and hearing the driver climb down and open the door while speaking, I stepped out and offered my thanks.
"The next coach won't come for another thirty minutes. Will you be all right?"
"I'll be fine."
Perhaps sensing something unusual from my curt reply, the driver promptly bowed, gave a quick salute, and climbed back onto his seat.
"...."
I stood watching quietly as the coach receded into the distance, then slipped my hand into the pocket of the coat draped over my shoulders and pulled out my pocket watch.
Tick-tock, tick-tock—perhaps because the night was so quiet, the sound of the clock seemed unusually loud.
"... Three thirty."
I murmured that quietly, then looked up at the sky.
The moon was bright.
... Hoo.
After letting out a deep sigh, I began to walk slowly.
Well, fine.
I'd finish this quickly and go.
At least I had turned back time and gone to bed early last night, so I had managed a whole five hours of sleep.
....
Should I learn that meditation thing too?
*
An Elemental Dog was not a particularly powerful beast. Although the name called it a "dog," it was larger than a wolf, and its fur color and the effect swirling around it varied according to its elemental attribute.
Of course, in this reality those "effects" manifested as real wind, grass, fire, ice, and the like that I could see directly.
I had run into such creatures several times already.
They made excellent shooting practice.
The contents of the quest request were: "An Elemental Dog has appeared on the highway and is threatening travelers. Please deal with it."
The Elemental Dog that appeared before me had green fur and looked as if it wore the wind itself wrapped around its body. Surely if I captured it like this and took it back to Earth, I could sell it for a great deal of money.
But here, it was just a commonly seen beast.
"... Haaah."
I abruptly plunged into a state of profound post-action clarity.
In other words: had I seriously woken up at dawn just to hunt this one thing?
Even though I'd already known it would be a monster like this?
"... Grrrr."
As if it understood just how dangerous the lone human standing before it could be, the Elemental Dog kept its distance and growled.
"...."
Clack.
Staring at that dog, I wordlessly drew back the bolt and chambered a round.