Estimated reading time: 10–13 minutes
Chapter 2
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Let me briefly touch upon a man named Ryūgūin Ouji.
To be blunt, he is a handsome man and a fool.
He’s such a mama’s boy that he mutters 「Mama」 in his sleep, and despite being a high school student and a minor, he’s an unbelievably spoiled brat.
This may not have been a problem while he was in Japan, but now that he’s been summoned to another world, his personality has become a tremendous detriment.
First of all, although he bragged about 「saving the world,」 he did not train at all.
More accurately, after joining me for training on the first day, he never showed his face at the training grounds again.
In other words, Ryūgūin valued himself above all else and was a person who knew nothing of hard work and perseverance.
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After completing the first day of training, I didn’t see Ryūgūin’s face for several days.
When I asked the captain who was providing us with combat training, he replied,
「He says he’s not feeling well. Well, it can’t be helped since he’s come to an unfamiliar land.」
A few days later, I ran into Ryūgūin in the royal palace and called out to him.
「Long time no see, Ryūgūin. How are you feeling?」
「Feeling…? Oh, yeah, cough cough. I can’t stop shivering. I can’t stop coughing, and I have a fever too.」
「Let me take a look and see how you’re doing.」
Ryūgūin slapped away my hand that I extended out of genuine concern.
「Don’t touch me! Do you doubt me?! I’m the Hero!」
He shouted with an expression I’d never seen before.
「Whoa, sorry about that. Don’t get so angry.」
I took a step back, startled by Ryūgūin’s glaring eyes.
「Just so you know. You work hard at your training or whatever it is, and come to the Hero’s stage—my stage. I have other things I need to do rather than sweaty stuff like that.」
With those words, he left the scene with a light step, no matter how you looked at it.
On the other hand, my steps were extremely heavy.
I tried not to complain about feeling unwell.
However, even though I didn’t say it, I was beginning to feel fatigued both mentally and physically.
It had only been a few days, but I had been brought to an unfamiliar land and had been undergoing nothing but hard training. It was only natural.
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No matter what we did, a single month was not nearly enough time.
If there wasn’t enough time, we had to find it from somewhere.
Where? There was only one place we could cut back on.
The answer was sleep time.
We simply needed to increase the number of hours of activity per day to make up for it.
Even if I screamed, 「I’m going to die! You idiot!」 the ultimate choice presented to me was either 「die now from training」 or 「die from entering the dungeon without training.」
They weren’t giving me this absurd training out of spite.
After all, we only had a limited amount of time.
Naturally, we had to raise the quality of the training to the extreme.
That’s why, no matter how many times I collapsed like a rag doll, I desperately caught my breath, scolded and encouraged myself, saying, 「This is to survive.」
This is a story from during training.
Perhaps because they saw the fatigue in my movements, the healers, led by the Saint who was waiting at the training grounds, surrounded me.
It had become a habit of mine to receive healing magic when I collapsed and continue training.
To put it bluntly, this was hell!
「I can still keep going!」
As I put on a brave face and got up to urge the continuation of training, I was given even more training by not only the captain but also the elite knights.
Basic training such as swinging practice was a given, but in practical training, it was a daily occurrence to get the living daylights beaten out of me.
The time spent on such dense training was approaching more than fifteen hours a day.
Exhausted and unable to move again, I lay sprawled out on the spot.
Someone came to my side, looking down at me.
I couldn’t see their face due to the backlight.
「Even if you’re sleepy, it’ll be fine with healing magic. Sir Yamada.」
I’m not a robot.
Who the hell said such a ridiculous thing?
The person I finally recognized was the Saint—and she was like an expressionless robot.
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As a result, it was fine as long as there was healing magic.
I worked hard, sleeping only about two hours a day.
I worked hard (tears).
I don’t know why this other world uses a 24-hour system or why the sense of time is the same as on Earth.
I’m not an expert, after all.
More importantly, you there who think there’s still plenty of time left even after subtracting fifteen hours of training time from twenty-four hours a day. I might forgive you if you apologize now.
In the short period of one month that was allotted to me, I had to not only train for combat but also study the general knowledge of this world. If you add the time it took for that, lo and behold.
A total of twenty-two hours a day.
It was a level that would make even the people of ancient Sparta in Greece turn pale and say, 「No, we didn’t say we could do that much.」
You think Ryūgūin at least studied?
No, you’re giving Ryūgūin too much credit.
Of course, Ryūgūin didn’t study either.
Speaking of which, I happened to pass by Ryūgūin in the hallway.
When I asked him, 「Don’t you think you should at least study a little?」 Ryūgūin replied,
「Study? What good will that do when I return to Japan? You have strange tastes. Besides, if there’s something I don’t understand, I can just ask someone, right?」
I objected to that.
「But in the end, the only ones we can really trust are us who came from Japan, don’t you think?」
「It’s fine if you trust me. Because I’m the Hero. But I don’t trust you. Because you’re not the Hero.」
Humph, well, do your best, he said and went off somewhere.
Left behind, I headed to the library with a needless sense of frustration.
There are countless episodes of Ryūgūin being spoiled and trashy, but at the time, I forced myself to be convinced that it couldn’t be helped since we had suddenly been summoned to another world in a kidnapping-like act.
However, this was also my own indulgence.
I avoided a falling out by not questioning him too harshly.
If I had been strict with him at this point and questioned what he was doing without training or studying, my journey from here on out might have been a little different.
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Next, I would like to talk about the Princess of the Arcana Kingdom.
The princess was not present when we were summoned.
「We must do something about our own world ourselves,」 was her argument.
The Princess was part of the opposition to our summoning.
Just because she was in the opposition didn’t mean she was cold to us who had been summoned.
On the contrary, I met her almost every day in the library.
It started when she came to do some research while I was studying and struck up a conversation with me.
Our meeting was by chance, but for some reason, we got along well.
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「Sir Yamada, you work very hard every day, don’t you?」
Placing numerous documents related to national politics, the one who sat across from me was Princess Puffy of the Arcana Kingdom.
「Princess, you are the one who works hard every day, aren’t you?」
When I answered,
「Sir Yamada, as I’ve told you many times, please call me Puffy, not Princess.」
Princess Puffy smiled softly and bashfully.
My heart skipped a beat at her smile.
「Sir Yamada, please take a good rest once in a while.」
She always had kind words for me.
She was a person who was expected to be the next queen of the Arcana Kingdom, never neglecting her efforts and always considerate of others.
When I was in Japan, I rarely had a woman by my side that made my heart race.
However, when I looked at her face as she sat across from me and lowered her gaze to read a book, I found it difficult to maintain my composure.
She—Princess Puffy—was two years younger than me and a dazzlingly beautiful girl.
Her straight nose and soft, slightly droopy eyes.
Her white skin was said to be as flawless as white porcelain.
As for her blonde hair, which was also her trademark, it was rumored among both commoners and noble society to be like golden threads created by God.
Moreover, Princess Puffy’s beauty was so renowned that among certain high-ranking nobles, it was earnestly rumored that a single strand of her hair was being traded for platinum coins.
Furthermore, Princess Puffy’s beauty was not limited to within the country.
After appearing in public a few times, she was referred to as 《The Golden One of Arcana》 by foreign countries.
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My time with her was mostly limited to studying in the library.
So did we only study, you ask? That wasn’t the case.
When I noticed Princess Puffy letting out a sigh and turned my eyes to her, she invited me, 「Shall we chat a little?」 and we often engaged in conversation.
By the way, I also frequently invited her to chat.
This is a story from one time.
When Princess Puffy begged me to tell her a fable from Japan, I told her one.
「『Ah, you saw me, didn’t you? By law, I can no longer be with you.』 The crane told the young man and flew off into the sky. The young man spent the rest of his life regretting why he had looked, became a monk, and lived. And they lived happily ever after.」
「『And they lived happily ever after』 is not right! What a sad story!」
「Huh, no way! Are you crying?」
「I-I’m not crying!」
Although she was sometimes badmouthed for being uptight due to her beauty, in reality, she was a very tearful and deeply emotional girl.
This is also a story from another time.
This was when I talked about airplanes when Princess Puffy begged me to tell her about Earth.
「That is wonderful. I would like to visit your world too, Sir Yamada. An airplane that flies in the sky. How amazing is that?」
「Being able to travel around the world in such a short time.」
「Ah, isn’t that true freedom?」
When she admired it so much, I wondered and asked.
「Doesn’t this world have a means of traveling long distances in a short time?」
At my question, Princess Puffy showed a somewhat shadowy expression.
「In this world, we cast defensive magic on ships and have many wind and water magic sorcerers on board to operate them in shifts. Of course, it takes a lot of time.」
「No, no, we rarely leave Japan either. In fact, I’ve never even been on an airplane.」
It wasn’t modesty; at my age, there probably weren’t that many people who had the experience of riding on an airplane.
「Oh my, that is far too wasteful. If I were in your country, Sir Yamada, I would definitely ride on an airplane—then I would go somewhere where no one knows me…」
「Princess Puffy?」
「Oh, how unpleasant. I’m just joking, but it is a bit suffocating to live only in this royal palace for the rest of my life.」
I couldn’t forget the melancholic face Princess Puffy made as she laughed and said, 「Fufu.」
I wanted to get closer to her innermost thoughts.
And if possible, I wanted to touch her—her heart, and I hoped that she would touch mine.
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