Chapter 5

After dinner, Zotto gave me a tour of the village. That said, Ebba-berg was so small there wasn’t much to see. The slightly larger building in the center of the settlement was the church, and the house standing on the hill was apparently the Lord’s manor. Other than those, most of the buildings looked more or less the same. The population was 136. There were 34 houses in total.

“Still, we’ve got the Labyrinth of Lagas nearby, even if it’s small, so traveling merchants come by sometimes,” Zotto explained grandly.

Which, conversely, meant there were probably isolated lands where merchants never set foot at all.

“The Labyrinth of Lagas, huh? That’s where Ria gathers magic stones.”

“Yeah. Since the Labyrinth of Lagas only has one basement floor, it’s full of nothing but wimpy monsters. That’s why, once I turn fifteen, I’m gonna help Big Sis and go into the labyrinth too.”

So that giant spider qualified as a “wimpy monster”…

Ria was likely lying so her little brother wouldn’t worry.

“Hey, old man.”

“I’m not an old man. It’s Kota.”

“Fine, Kota. Are you gonna marry Ria-nee?”

What on earth is this kid talking about?

Ria is cute, but at sixteen, she’s completely outside my strike zone.

Besides, I…

“Sorry, but I’m already married and I have a wife I love.”

Even if she has been cold lately.

“Oh… is that so…”

The cheerfulness vanished from Zotto’s face.

“What’s wrong? Did you want me to be your dad?”

“It’s not that. I just thought… if Kota became family, we’d get to eat lots of tasty things. You’re loaded, Kota. Those apples and those oranges you peel with your hands were delicious.”

“They’re not oranges, they’re ‘mikan’.”

“Whichever…”

I got the feeling that, in his own way, this boy was starved for affection from an adult.

“Wh-what are you doing!”

I forcibly hoisted Zotto up and gave him a shoulder ride. His body was startlingly light, and that made me feel a pang of sadness.

“I’ll bring more tasty food next time, okay?”

“Really?”

I couldn’t see Zotto’s face from below, but the brightness had returned to his voice.

“Yeah, I promise. So don’t pull my hair so hard. What’ll I do if I go bald?”

“Eh? Bald guys are popular, aren’t they?”

Seriously?!

Is that how it works in this world?

Both my grandfathers on my father’s and mother’s sides are bald, so I’m actually quite worried about it. Maybe I should keep a future move to this land in mind…

No, wait!

I have my beloved Emi. I don’t need to be popular with other women.

After that, I asked Ria to summon me again once her mana recovered, and then I had her send me back to my original world. The “Sowing” Skill became mine for good! Not that I felt particularly joyful about it…

When I opened the red door and returned to my world, I was back inside my car, driving on the highway. This part is always nerve-wracking. I was just glad the road wasn’t crowded. While no time had passed at all in this world, over three hours had gone by from my perspective. I was a little tired. I decided to grab a coffee at the next service area.

Buying a cup of coffee from a vending machine, I idly checked my smartphone to find a reply from Emi.

—I promised to go out to eat with Mayu tonight. I think I’ll be late, so please go to sleep ahead of me.

Mayu-san was Emi’s best friend from her student days. Since I’d originally planned to be home much later anyway, Emi must have made her own plans. If that whole summoning business hadn’t happened, I would have gone to the mountain summit and wouldn’t have been home until around 8:00 PM.

And besides, I was full from eating stew with Ria and the kids…

We wouldn’t have been able to eat together anyway…

Things just haven’t been clicking lately…

I reclined my seat slightly and closed my eyes.

Clara Ansbach, a Knight Bachelor and the Lord of Ebba-berg, listened to the report from her elderly steward, Egon, with a grim expression.

“It seems no household has anyone they can spare as a retainer. After all, the prolonged conflict has caused the number of young men to plummet.”

“I see…”

Clara’s face clouded further as she muttered. Even so, her beauty was not diminished in the slightest. Though she had a somewhat sharp gaze, she was naturally a kind-hearted woman with silken, smooth white skin and beautiful silver hair. She was running out of time.

This year, Clara had succeeded her father, who died in battle, becoming a Knight Bachelor. Fortunately, the inheritance of the family estate had gone smoothly, but there was a law stating that a Knight Bachelor must participate in military service in the Royal Capital once every four years.

Military service was not something Clara loathed.

As the only daughter of a knight, she had received strict training in the martial arts from her late father. Moreover, in this world, it was not at all strange for a woman to participate in war or hunting.

The problem was the lack of retainers to accompany her. It was common sense for a Knight Bachelor to be accompanied by at least three retainers as subordinates. However, during the long years of war, Ebba-berg had sent out many men as soldiers, and most of them had never returned. This was the result of her late father, the previous lord, taking a large number of young men to the battlefield.

Now, there wasn’t a single person to spare in Ebba-berg. The Ansbach family, who had been knighted and granted this land in her father’s generation, had no relatives nearby to rely on.

“I suppose I have no choice but to hire people in the Royal Capital.”

She could not force any more sacrifices upon the villagers. A minor noble family like the Ansbachs had little to spare, but she would have to hire soldiers with gold. It would be a painful expense, but it was a manageable problem. Other nobles were in similar situations, after all.

But soldiers aside, she wanted someone trustworthy to serve as a personal retainer for her daily needs. Clara had hoped for a villager with a clear background, but that seemed impossible.

“If only this old man were ten years younger…”

“Do not speak of useless things.”

Egon was far too old to travel. Clara did not want to push Egon, who had served the Ansbach family faithfully for so many years.

“What about that girl? Surely there was a girl who enters the labyrinth to collect magic stones from monsters?”

“Do you mean Ria?”

“Yes, that’s the one. She’s clever and capable. I thought she would make a fine retainer.”

Clara’s question was almost a plea, but old Egon shook his head weakly.

“Her father died in the war, and her mother passed from a plague. Since she has a young brother and sister to look after, we cannot ask the impossible of her…”

“I see…”

Clara let out a deep sigh. All of this was the price of her vain father taking so many soldiers with him. She almost cursed her late father, but she managed to hold it back. She was the head of the Ansbach house now. She couldn’t show Egon a moment of weakness.

“By the way, regarding Ria…”

“What is it?”

“She mentioned that if you were truly in a bind, she knew of a potential retainer.”

“What!”

Vitality returned to Clara’s sunken face.

“Is it someone from this village?”

“No. I don’t quite understand it myself, but Ria called them a ‘summoned beast’.”

“A summoned beast? What I need is a human to be my retainer.”

“Yes, well. Ria says that this summoned beast is, in fact, a human.”

“A summoned beast that is a human? Is such a thing possible?”

“That, this old man does not know.”

It would be faster to ask Ria directly. Deciding this, Clara immediately sent for her.

The daily B-lunch at the employee cafeteria was chicken nanban. It was my absolute favorite. I had a feeling something good was going to happen today. Maybe things would even progress with Emi, stagnant as they were.

Yoshioka, the junior colleague who came with me, was eating the A-lunch: mackerel simmered in miso. He made such mature choices for a young guy. Yoshioka was what you’d call a geek; he knew a lot about various things and was fun to be around. We spent almost every lunch break together.

Having finished his meal quickly, Yoshioka was intently reading something on his smartphone.

“Man, this is too good…”

He muttered to himself with a satisfied, smirking grin.

“A game?”

“A web novel. This author updates every day, so I look forward to it.”

“Huh.”

I’d never read a web novel before.

“The one I’m reading now is a fantasy with a female knight as the protagonist. What do you think of female knights, senpai?”

“The usual, right? The type that gets cornered by monsters and says, ‘Kuh… kill me!!’ I think I’d prefer a kind healer over a harsh knight, if anything.”

“So you like the ‘healing’ type, senpai.”

“Even better if she’s well-endowed.”

“So not a ‘healer’ but a ‘peeler’? That’s so cliché. To not understand the appeal of a tsundere or a cool beauty…”

Just as I felt Yoshioka’s voice suddenly grow distant, I found myself in that small room in the gap between worlds. It seemed a call had come in for the summoned beast.

But Ria only summoned me three days ago. She said it would take ten days for her mana to recover. This time, I might have been called by someone other than Ria.

Regardless, it was time to get a Skill before I fly to the destination. Last time was “Sowing,” so I hoped for a good skill this time.

This was actually pretty good. I was happy to finally have a means of self-defense. It would be reassuring not just against monsters, but even when going on business trips to countries with poor public safety. Now all I had to do was fulfill the summoner’s wish and make the skill permanently mine.

As I excitedly reached for the door, I remembered something. I decided to take some local currency with me this time. It might come in handy. There was also the exchange machine the handsome guy had placed here.

Initially, I thought about exchanging 3,000 yen, but after second thoughts, I exchanged 10,000 yen. There were no fees, after all. When I put the 10,000 yen bill into the machine, ten small silver coins came out. The local currency unit was the “Marques,” and 1 Marques = 1 Yen, which was very easy to understand. One silver coin was 1,000 Marques.

I pulled clothes from my Spatial Storage. I changed into my suit, making sure it wasn’t wrinkled, and I was ready. I took a deep breath and touched the blue door.

“By the covenant with the God of Space-Time, I have been summoned to this land. O Summoner, what is it you desire of me…”

My heavy voice echoed through the room that looked like a large parlor. I was really nailing the atmosphere. After I dropped the promised line, the woman in front of me let out a tense gulp.

“My name is Clara Ansbach. I am the head of the Knight Bachelor House of Ansbach in Ebba-berg. This is my wish: O Summoner, accompany me to the Royal Capital as my retainer and assist me in my military duties.”

…Wait, is that a long-term assignment?

This person… might be a troublesome summoner.