Summoning Japan – 56

CHAPTER 56 – SIDE STORY – THE FORGOTTEN WORLD (2)

“Are you… the one who fell from the sky…” muttered the young knight, looking down at Oka, who was lying on the bed. “My name is Justide, a knight that protects this part of the Kals District. The situation has been explained to me by Doctor Barthus here. Now, I’d like to ask you some questions, alright?”

“Yes, I’m Oka Shinji, belonging to the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force. I will answer any questions that can be answered, but I, too, have some questions.”

“Then, let’s begin. I hear that you hail from outside this Esperanto Kingdom. Is that true?”

“Yes, without a doubt.”

“So how did you get here?”

“It was an accident. The flight instruments went haywire and we were flying in visual flight, but it seems that a super-large bird was sucked into the jet engine, which then broke down.”

Justide failed to understand the jumble of incomprehensible words and wrinkled his eyebrows.

“Then, you don’t have business in the Esperanto Kingdom?”

“Yes. In a nutshell, it was all an accident.”

Silence.

“Well, uh, how do you make that flying machine you were in?”

“It’s too complicated for a soldier like me to understand how it works…”

“Well, I thought that if we could make it in our country, we could shoot arrows from the sky and it would be a useful weapon.”

“By the way…” Justide continued, pulling out his sabre and thrusting it towards Oka’s throat at an unstoppable speed. Oka, who was too injured to react properly, froze.

“You… aren’t you really a monster? What is the true purpose of the recent invasion of the kingdom? Answer!”

His angry shout echoed in the quiet room.

“M… Mr. Knight, stop!!” Doctor Balthus shouted.

“Justide, please stop!” Saffine joined in.

Oka’s eyes filled with the fear of death.

“Hmph!” He snorted as he put down his sword. “There is fear in your eyes. They are the eyes of a man who is not prepared to die, even as a soldier.”

“The kingdom is the last stronghold of humanity, so how can you suddenly believe that other kingdoms exist?” He continued. “The legends say that they promised massive reinforcements, yet no reinforcements ever came. There is a high likelihood that this is an assassin sent by the  demons.”

“But the flying vehicle he was talking about was really there, and I saw a lot of corpses that looked awfully human!” Barthus argued.

“Let’s hear it from you!” Justide turned to Oka. “You claim that you came from outside the Grameus continent. Therefore, it must exist in accordance with the legends! Why didn’t you send the promised reinforcements when our ancestors were struggling?!”

Oka answered the confusing development with equal confusion.

“I hear that legends about the Demon King’s army can be found all around the world and remain particularly detailed in the Topa Kingdom. However, since I’m from Japan, I’m not familiar with the tales of this world.”

“There is no reason not to know the legends while being human! It would be a sophistry!!!”

“Please calm down and ask your questions!!!” Saffine yells. “Calm down… he’s just an injured man.”

“May I ask a question as well?” Oka asks the knight.

“What is it?”

“You mentioned earlier that you have recently been invaded by monsters. Is this country currently facing systemic attacks from the demons?”

“That’s right! You’d know if you were a monster, but two districts have already fallen to monster invasions, killing more than 20,000 people.”

“2… 20,000 people?! Can those regions be reclaimed?”

“No, not yet.
“It is safe to say that this country is a nation of walls. By expanding its walls, the country has expanded the range of human habitation. Therefore, if a district were to fall, it would be very difficult to reconquer it, as there are not enough ways nor is there enough space for the army to enter.”

Justide stood up, continuing, “This is good enough for now. I’ll report all of this for time being and, even if this guy is a monster, if he’s the only one, it’ll be okay since he’ll be under our supervision.”

Bringing his mouth close to Oka’s ear, he whispered, “A warning to you if you’re human: Don’t touch Saffine. That’s the woman I want as my future wife.”¹

“… huh?”

The knights were gone.

---

One week later — Morning

Oka Shinji had recovered to some extent, being able to move once again.

It seemed that the items he had been carrying when he was carried out from the plane’s wreckage had been brought to him without the locals knowing that they were actually weapons, so he now had camouflage equipment, a bulletproof vest, hand grenades, and a Type 89 assault rifle in his room.

Additionally, by talking to Saffine, he was gradually learning about the Esperanto Kingdom.

The kingdom could be said to be a city-state with a population of around 300,000. The entire country was protected by its ‘city’ walls, while the monsters roamed the exterior. Originally, it was the land of the descendants of the army sent to defeat the Demon King in the age of legends — a world forgotten by the rest of the world.

The residents of this country seemed to believe that they were the last survivors of humankind. When the population increased to some extent, in order to build a new district, the city walls were extended with enormous sacrifice and effort and the residential areas were expanded. The center of this kingdom was a natural fortress, complete with fertile land and water sources.

“It’s a world I’ve heard of somewhere…” Oka murmured inwardly.

*knock* *knock*

“It’s breakfast. Come down, please.”

He could hear Saffine’s voice on the other side of the door. Oka finished washing up and headed to the dining room.

“Itadakimasu!”

The usual breakfast began. Since the country was on the edge of existence, the food was simple, no consideration was given to the umami, and the bread was dry. Nonetheless, Oka was grateful to the family, who had saved his life for free and were feeding him, even though they themselves were not wealthy.

“Oka, how are you feeling?” Barthus asked.

“I feel like I can run now,” Oka responded, laughing a bit.

“Hahaha~, it’s already at the point where you can just walk it off now.² By the way, a scientist from the Royal Office of Science has something to ask you. I’ve been instructed by the country to bring you to the crash site of a flying machine today. Can you come?”

“… Understood. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to answer, but I’ll go with you.”

After the meal, Oka began his preparations. Due to the events regarding the knight the other day, he put on his bulletproof vest over his camouflage uniform, additionally wearing his helmet and slinging the Type 89 assault rifle with live ammunition over his shoulder.

“Alright!”

Led by the well-prepared Doctor Barthus, they set out for the city of the Esperanto Kingdom.

---

“Off we go!”

“But… are you sure you want to go, dressed like that?” Barthus asked. Unlike the knights of the kingdom, who had no sense of fashion and beauty, Balthus had an indescribable expression on his face.

“Yes, I’ll stick with this outfit.”

“A… ahhh, well, whatever. Let’s go, then.”

The carriage departed, carrying Barthus, Oka, and Saffine, who insisted that she come along.

---

Through streets lined with three-story brick houses, horse-drawn carriages trotted slowly over the cobblestone. There was no elegance in this town, and the faces of the people were dark, as if they were despairing for the world itself. The despair of not knowing when or where death will come…

After leaving the town, the carriage went through a rural area with many fields. The birds were singing, and cow-like creatures were grazing leisurely. Eventually, a darkened patch appeared on a small hill — the C-2’s crash site.

Approaching the scene, they saw several soldiers and what looked to be civilian officials standing by the wreckage.

As the three of them got out of the carriage, Oka heard the familiar clear voice of a young man.

“Come this way!”

“Justide…”

At the time, even though he was badly injured and couldn’t move, he remembered the unpleasant incident in which a sword was struck at his throat and where he was trembling in fear of death.

“This way! The scholars from the Royal Office of Science have something they want to ask you! But it seems that you don’t have the guts of a soldier and your cultural prowess is lesser than ours… Barbarian,” Justide spat. 

Holding back the anger boiling within him, Oka headed towards the crash site.

---

“Oh~! You’ve come a long way! Your outfit is really exciting, too! I can feel the cultural difference. I’m Sei, a scholar with the Royal Office of Science. Nice to meet you.”

He was slender and a little weird, asking enthusiastically for a handshake as he talked to Oka.

“Mm. Nice to meet you, too.”

“By the way, is this your country’s creation?” The scholar asked Oka, pointing at the C-2.

“Uh… yes, I’m told that it’s a domestic plane.”

“Fuu~ amazing! I don’t understand what’s going on here at all. 
“Despite the fact that it was producing so much magic power that it was flying through the air, there was no residual magic detected! It just doesn’t make sense…”

“Ehh, it’s not magic power, it’s –”

Zooooooonnn

As Oka tried to reply, a heavy bass roared as if something had exploded, causing everyone to look in the direction it came from.

“It’s — !”

About two kilometers away, smoke was rising near the city walls, conforming that something from the outside was invading.

“De… demon!!!” Someone shouted, and the area was in an uproar.

---

This great me’s name is Justide Wyvrew, second son of the noble and prosperous Wyvrew family of the Kingdom of Esperanto, the last stronghold and last country of mankind, with its roots in the royal city of Rixal.

As a nobleman, I joined the Knight’s Order as part of my duty to protect my country. There, I refined my tactical thinking and honed my swordsmanship, earning the title of True Knight, a symbol of the height of swordsmanship.

Eventually, I was assigned to a remote area called the Kals District. It was an important mission to protect the kingdom’s food supply, but as you would expect in the countryside, it was a district full of old people. … However, one day, I met an angel.

She was the daughter of a doctor, a commoner, but when I saw her nursing an injured person, a shock ran down my spine. I would do everything I could to protect her from this bleak world. I swore this to my heart.

I’ve approached her many times, but she doesn’t quite look at me.

In this hopeless world, outside the kingdom is hell, but what if there are angels inside…

---

One day, an unidentified object fell from the sky.

It seemed that one survivor was brought to the doctor’s house, while the others died. Having an excuse to see Saffine, I excitedly went to her house.

The doctor, Barthus, told me that he was a young man of our race, and that he sometimes talked happily with Saffine…

Jealousy.

A feeling I had never before felt ran through my body.

The man said that he was a soldier from outside the Esperanto Kingdom. To be honest, I didn’t know if it was true or not. At the very least, he was a weak man who had trained his body, but was not prepared to be a soldier at all. When I struck my sword at him, there was the fear of death in his eyes and no matter how many such men I fought, I would never lose.

Today, the man wore a green speckled uniform, had an iron staff on his shoulder that I didn’t know the purpose of, and came to this place, where the unidentified flying machine had crashed. His appearance was far from that of chivalry and beauty. Truly, a barbarian of low culture.

I wanted to speak my mind to him, but I kept my mouth shut to avoid making a bad impression on Saffine.

However, if there were to be one positive aspect, his ethnic clothing would blend into the surrounding landscape and make it difficult to find him if he were to run into the woods. Perhaps this was the ideal clothing for surviving the outside world where the monsters roamed.

Suddenly, a deep bass roared and everyone turned in its direction.

“!!!!!”

Black smoke rose from the walls and many black objects appeared to be entering the human settlements.

“De… demon invasion!”

I looked back at the Royal Office of Science and Technology’s³ scholars, looked at Saffine, and looked at the others. I only had a dozen troops, including myself, but protecting the scholars was my current mission.

“Uoooooooo!!!”

From the barracks within the city walls, many soldiers were already responding to the invading demons and the battle had begun. The sounds of swords and clubs colliding with each other, coupled with the occasional cries of the demons, made those in the vicinity even more nervous.

A subordinate approached me with his report.

“Knight Justide! The guards are calling! 200 goblins, 10 orcs, 2 orc kings, and 1 jet-black knight have been confirmed as enemy soldiers invading the castle district.”

“What the — ?!”

I was astonished.

“T… two orc kings AND a jet-black knight?!”

If it were just goblins, everything would be fine. Even if it were orcs, we would still be able to manage if the soldiers made strategically advantageous movements. 

However, an orc king was twice the size of an orc and possessed intelligence, covering his entire body with iron armor and using it to deflect both arrows and swords. Furthermore, taking a blow from his giant axe, supported by overwhelming muscles that far surpassed those of humans, the swordsmanship of humans would be no more than child’s play.

In fact, during a past invasion by an orc king, it took a great deal of sacrifice to defeat it, and the only way to even resist it was to make it run out of stamina.

Two such monsters have come to this remote area where the troops were weaker. Moreover, in the report, the participation of a jet-black knight was confirmed.

A jet-black knight… It had the strength of an orc king, its body was covered with jet-black armor, and it wielded a sword so large that no human could possibly wield it. It has appeared on many battlefields and has caused many casualties, but no one has ever defeated it.

---

Not long after they were reported on, the two orc kings and the jet-black knight, riding a large horse, appeared before the walls.

“UOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

Soldiers from the barracks kicked away the goblin vanguards and rushed towards the jet-black knight. As is the nature of monsters and demons, when the strongest one is struck down, the weaker ones tend to disperse, so the soldiers made a beeline for the jet-black knight.

---

What on Earth is going on? Are hostile forces attacking us?

Oka’s body tensed up as the apparent battle unfolded around him.

The army was firing arrows at the enemy and the cavalry was charging forward with spears, but…

They were defeating what seemed to be small demons and large, almost naked, pig-like demons, but they seemed to be literally unable to inflict damage upon the large demons in armor.

“Vuh!”

Within his line of sight, a large demon swung its great axe and what used to be a human was torn apart.

This was truly a battlefield, no doubt.

He began to analyze what he could and should do.

Is it okay to intervene in the conflicts of another country under the reasoning of self-defense? Probably not, but demons are supposedly treated as pests… If those three demons, the core of the enemy, are defeated, then the local army will take care of the rest.

While Oka was worrying, a big knight from the enemy camp, wearing jet-black armor and holding a sword bigger than anything any human could ever swing, leapt out and headed straight in his direction. Alone.

---

“The… the jet-black knight is coming!!!”

His men screamed and shouted. The knight that has never been beaten… A symbol of death and horror was barreling towards them.

Maybe it was because the royal flag (not the national flag) was standing at the crash site, but in any case, he felt helpless.⁴ However, he was in a leadership position, and he was the last line of defense for the scholars of the Royal Office of Science and the others who were depending on him.

“Do not falter! There’s only one enemy coming at us! Position yourselves! Miles, Keiro, Kounel! Prepare your bows!”

Even in his fear, he commanded with clarity.

The enemy jet-black knight approached them at a speed that was unbelievable for a horse.

“It’s closing in! Aim your bows!”

The three soldiers took aim.

“… Shoot!”

Pulled to their full extents, the arrows that were released flew straight towards the enemy, but the knight knocked them all down with a swing of his greatsword. 

The soldiers’ faces turned fearful.

And though the soldiers thrusted their spears in unison, they were no match for the enemy’s muscular strength, which no human could possibly attain, and were sliced up and blown away in a single hit.

Justide, the knight of the Esperanto Kingdom, was also blown away by the jet-black knight, hit in the face by a chunk of one of his men.

“Nuu!!!”

His armor and cloak, polished to a silvery white, were covered in dirt as he rolled into a heap on the ground. The enemy, ignoring him like the stones on the ground around him, used its huge horse to charge straight at the scholars of the Royal Office of Science.

“N… Not good!!!” Justide shouted.

Suddenly, two robed men stepped in front of the scholars.

gaouane4gtrfiahate////\\eai

They emitted a noise that sounded like an incomprehensible incantation.

“Hell Explosion!!!”

A bluish-white spherical object was born from the tips of the two men’s outstretched hands and bullets of light were fired at the jet-black knight. 

With its large sword, it easily cleaved the bullets of light, creating fierce explosions around itself in the process.

Its strength was the real deal and there was nothing they could do about it…

“Uwaaaa~!”

“No moooore~!”

“Kyaaaa~!”

The screams echoed around them.

Fear gripped all but the foreigner.

---

Oka Shinji, of the JGSDF, prepared to shoot with his Type 89 assault rifle as he had trained. When the big knight in jet-black armor approached him with its horse, he hesitated for a moment as to whether he should use his weapon on foreign soil. The second he hesitated, however, several of Justide’s men were quickly reamed to death by the black knight’s giant sword.

If he hadn’t stopped for that moment, they might not have died… The remorse and the obvious murderous intent directed towards himself, Saffine, who had saved him, and Barthus, was enough to erase any remaining hesitation from his mind.

Preparing to shoot once more, he aimed his gun at the enemy and pulled the trigger without reserve.

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TL Notes:

1:  So… if he’s a monster, it’d be fine, I guess. Here’s your L, Justide. gg ez no re

2: I think this is what it means? 「ハハ、まだ何とか歩く事の出来るレベルのケガですよ。」

3: Yes, the name changed in the raws. Or rather, people probably abbreviated its name to just ‘science’ in the kingdom. (王宮科学庁 for ROS v. 王宮科学技術庁 for ROST)

4: I have no idea what this is supposed to mean: 墜落現場に国王旗（国旗ではない）が立っているのが原因かもしれないが、いずれにせよ、どうしようもない気持ちがこみ上げるが、自分は指導的立場にあり、王宮科学庁の学者等を守護する最後の砦だ。