In the Land of Leadale Vol. 6
Copyright
In the Land of Leadale 6
Ceez
Translation by Jessica Lange
Cover art by Tenmaso
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
RIADEIRU NO DAICHI NITE Vol. 6
© Ceez 2021
First published in Japan in 2021 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo.
English translation © 2022 by Yen Press, LLC
Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ceez, author. | Tenmaso, illustrator. | Lange, Jessica (Translator), translator.
Title: In the land of Leadale / Ceez ; illustration by Tenmaso ; translation by Jessica Lange
Other titles: Riadeiru no daichi nite. English
Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2020.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020032160 | ISBN 9781975308681 (v. 1 ; trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975308704 (v. 2 ; trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975322168 (v. 3 ; trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975322182 (v. 4 ; trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975333447 (v. 5 ; trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975334598 (v. 6 ; trade paperback)
Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy. | Virtual reality—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.C4646 In 2020 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032160
ISBNs: 978-1-9753-3459-8 (paperback)
978-1-9753-3460-4 (ebook)
E3-20220818-JV-NF-ORI
CONTENTS
Cover
Insert
Title Page
Copyright
The Story Thus Far
Prologue
Chapter 1
A Confrontation, Heavy Lifting, an Old Friend, and the Road Ahead
Chapter 2
A Journey, the Beginning, Craftsmanship, and the Situation at Hand
Chapter 3
A Growing Family, the Life of the Party, Further Info, and the Truth
Chapter 4
Mental Fatigue, a Skeleton, Camping, and Omnipotence
Chapter 5
A Questioning, a Reunion, Rebirth, and a Future Date
Epilogue
Bonus Short Story 1
The Dungeon Master’s Assistant
Bonus Short Story 2
Fish and Cats
Character Data
Afterword
Yen Newsletter
The Story Thus Far
Keina Kagami, a girl bedridden after a tragic accident, lost her life while playing the VRMMO World of Leadale when her life support short-circuited from a power surge. However, she suddenly woke up in an unfamiliar inn and was shocked to find she looked just like her avatar, Cayna.
Keina then learned from the inn’s proprietress, Marelle, that two hundred years had passed since the Game Era, and the seven original nations had consolidated into three. Unable to return to the past, Keina acquiesced to living on as Cayna and learning more about this new world among the inn’s hospitable villagers.
She soon discovered her Guardian Tower from her Skill Master days was still nearby and met up with its Guardian, a talking mural who informed her the other towers were low on magic and presently inoperable. Since Cayna had no contact with the other Skill Masters and figured a visit to each would be a good way to gather info, she decided to set out on a globe-trotting journey.
After meeting a kobold caravan leader named Elineh and his escort, a mercenary leader called Arbiter, Cayna accompanied their group to Felskeilo’s royal capital while continuing to learn the ins and outs of her new surroundings.
Once in Felskeilo, Cayna registered with the Adventurers Guild, met prime minister Agaido and his granddaughter, Lonti, and helped the pair capture a runaway prince. Her impressive skills sent the public into a tizzy as she chased the boy across the water before safely apprehending him, earning her Agaido’s support as a noble.
She also reconnected with the three sub-characters she had submitted to the Foster System back in the Game Era. Not only were they considered Cayna’s “children,” the trio had also become important national figures.
First, her eldest son, Skargo, a handsome elf, was now (for reasons unknown) the High Priest and third most influential figure in all of Felskeilo.
Then there was her eldest daughter, a beautiful elf named Mai-Mai. She was now married and served as headmistress of the Royal Academy.
Finally, Cayna’s second son, Kartatz, a sensible dwarf, ran a large shipyard.
Cayna, having had no experience with love, let alone marriage, was dumbfounded to find she had suddenly become a mother.
Meanwhile, she confirmed the Battle Arena in the capital to be the Ninth Skill Master’s tower. After a series of twists and turns, the awakened Guardian told Cayna more about what had happened in the past and revealed that Leadale’s servers had since shut down.
Her hope of meeting other players completely dashed, Cayna holed herself up and despaired. However, Skargo and Mai-Mai rushed in to lift their mother’s spirits. With the help of her children, Cayna regained her positive outlook on life.
Afterward, Cayna agreed to serve as Elineh’s guard on a trip to the northern nation of Helshper. Along the way, she stopped by a remote village and followed an odd moaning that rose up from the bottom of a well. This turned out to be Mimily, a mermaid who had somehow been swept away from the ocean’s depths. After partly renovating the women’s bath to give Mimily comfortable living quarters, Cayna used the reward money she earned from the incident to cover the mermaid’s daily necessities.
Elineh’s caravan left the village and headed for Helshper. They crossed the Ejidd River after Cayna used her skills to fix the fallen bridge, but a horde of bandits from the west attacked them at the border. Nevertheless, the caravan was able to skirt disaster thanks to the creatures Cayna had summoned earlier for unrelated tasks. She then used her immeasurable magic to transform the bandits’ leader into an icy flower and shatter him into a million pieces.
After entering the Helshper capital, Cayna met Caerick, the founder of the continent’s top merchant company, Sakaiya. She was soon struck by yet another startling revelation.
Caerick was Mai-Mai’s son from her first marriage—in other words, Cayna’s grandson. Plus, Caerick had a son of his own as well. Cayna had become a great-grandmother with zero effort. It was all too much for her.
A fissure formed between grandmother and grandson after a minor misunderstanding, and Cayna’s confusion only worsened when Caerick’s elder twin sister, the knight Caerina, apologized on his behalf. But with Caerick’s help, Cayna made plans to raid the bandits’ den to the west after learning of another Guardian Tower within the group’s territory.
Caerina tried to stop Cayna, but Cayna pushed her way into the bandits’ lair and soon realized their leader was actually a demon player. Enraged by his selfishness and deplorable behavior, she challenged him to a battle. The demon was no match for the limit-breaking Skill Master; moments before he seemed about to meet his maker, the Helshper knights arrested him. Since Cayna possessed Game Master–level authority, she was able to use one of her Special Skills to reduce the demon player’s strength to only 10 percent.
Seething with resentment, he cursed her name as the knights took him away.
Upon awakening the nearby Guardian Tower, Cayna discovered it once belonged to her no-good friend and fellow guild member, Opuskettenshultheimer Crosstettbomber, aka Opus. When the Guardian entrusted her with a book, a small fairy leaped out and joined Cayna on her journey.
Cayna planned to give Mimily the extra money she had earned by eliminating bandits and creating Buddha statues that had earned Elineh a small fortune. On her way to the village, she came across Kartatz, who was busy building a bridge across the Ejidd River. She was later surprised to see Mimily had become a cheerful laundress after taking a proposal of Lytt’s to heart.
After returning to Felskeilo, Cayna accepted a request from the Adventurers Guild to obtain some horned bear meat and simultaneously ran into Lonti and Lonti’s friend Princess Mye in town. Cayna agreed to act as their guard,
and the three girls embarked on the mission together. Cayna also learned about Princess Mye’s crush on Skargo.
Meanwhile, Mai-Mai’s husband, Lopus, an avid admirer of Cayna’s “ancient arts” (skills), threw his failed experiment into a garbage pit at the Felskeilo Royal Academy.
However, the garbage pit in question happened to be a Collection Point during wartime in the Game Era, and the failed experiment included every ingredient needed to activate it. As a result, a giant dolphin-headed penguin monster manifested in the capital.
When the city fell into mass panic, a few stepped forward to face the threat: the knight captain Shining Saber and adventurer Cohral, former players and guildmates who had once fought alongside each other.
But even the combined strength of the players, knights, and mages barely kept the monster at bay. Just as all were certain the capital was doomed, Cayna charged in with her mighty magic to land the finishing blow.
Running into the former players Shining Saber and Cohral further convinced Cayna that her awful friend was still stubbornly alive somewhere, too. Cohral gave her some info about another Guardian Tower, and she was excited to take care of that while also searching for this friend of hers.
Cayna then decided to take a quick trip to the remote village, where she met a study group from the far southern nation of Otaloquess. However, this scholarly act turned out to be a ruse. Among them was a spy intent on persuading Cayna to come to Otaloquess, which was ruled by Queen Sahalashade—who happened to be the Foster Child of a high-elf community member named Sahana, who had been like a little sister to Cayna back in the Game Era. This made Cayna the aunt of a queen, which once again rattled her to the core.
A mentally drained Cayna then promised to take Lytt on a flight once she located the next Guardian Tower, known as the Palace of the Dragon King. To that end, Cayna briefly accompanied a squadron of knights who were heading out to take care of the remaining bandits. On the way, a small misunderstanding resulted in everyone believing she was Shining Saber’s fiancée.
After parting with the knights halfway through the trip, Cayna headed for the fishing village where the Palace of the Dragon King was supposedly located. What she found, however, was a ruined village shrouded in a strange mist and overrun with zombies and ghouls. It was here that Cayna met two adventurers who also came to investigate, as well as the young girl they were protecting—the village’s sole survivor. Exis, a dragoid adventurer, was Cayna’s former guildmate who used to go by Tartarus on a secondary account. Mutually overjoyed by their sudden reunion, the pair vowed to work together to take back the village.
After summoning her cat-eared butler, Roxilius, to protect the orphaned girl, Cayna teamed up with Exis and his partner, Quolkeh, to destroy a pirate ship that controlled the souls of the deceased. Cayna awakened the Palace of the Dragon King’s Guardian, adopted the young survivor, Luka, and decided to permanently settle in the remote village to properly raise her.
She summoned more help—this time in the form of a cat-eared maid named Roxine—and spent the rest of the way home awkwardly listening to an assortment of colorful arguments that broke out between her two summons. Roxilius and Roxine (a combo like oil and water) helped her settle in the remote village and start a new life with her new family.
Cayna kept her promise to take Lytt on a sightseeing flight and invited a few other children along: her adopted daughter, Luka, and the local engineer’s son, Latem.
As they soared through the skies enjoying the wind in their hair, the group witnessed Elineh’s caravan being attacked by monsters. Cayna immediately rushed in to save them. Arbiter later told her that hidden monsters had surrounded the village, so she joined the mercenaries to drive them out.
Meanwhile, the children sneaked out of the village to make flower crowns. Just as monsters were about to attack them, a high-level White Dragon appeared from Luka’s pendant and repelled the fiends, its very breath leaving fissures in the earth. Cayna heard the deep rumbling that followed and raced back to the village. She took Luka into her arms and wailed with relief that her daughter was safe and sound.
In need of basic necessities, Cayna later flew to Sakaiya and came across Cohral’s party. They were responding to a request, and she took this opportunity to introduce them to her great-grandson, Idzik.
Caerick informed her that Helshper and Felskeilo would be conferring along the national border, and Skargo greeted Cayna upon her return to the remote village. He was scheduled to attend a meeting along the border and had decided to pay Cayna a visit en route.
Cayna and Roxilius bolstered the village’s defenses, and at the same time, she was surprised to learn from the village elder that the land belonged to the Harvey baron family. Mai-Mai’s husband, Lopus, was among their number.
Cayna decided later that a shopping trip was in order and invited Luka and Lytt along so they could broaden their horizons. Elineh’s caravan arrived in the village with impeccable timing, and the girls accompanied them back to Felskeilo. Cayna also used this chance to test out her self-sufficient, golem-powered wagon that would help make the journey more comfortable. Unfortunately, this golem stagecoach inadvertently caught the eye of a troublesome noble, and Cayna urged fellow chaperone Roxine to stay on guard as they entered Felskeilo.
The city was celebrating its biggest event, the River Festival. However, thanks to rumors of a strange shadow in the Ejidd River, citizens were too afraid to kick off the festivities. After receiving a request from the Adventurers Guild, Cayna left the children with Roxine and set out to investigate the river and solve the mystery.
Meanwhile, under the orders of a foolish noble, several members of the city’s seedy underworld tried to abduct Cayna’s loved ones. Tasked with watching the children in her mistress’s stead, Roxine took notice of the shady men’s over-the-top measures and fended them off while hardly lifting a finger.
After underestimating their target and assuming a maid and two children could be easily overpowered, the battered criminals fled to their hideout. However, a pair of terrifying demons dropped by, and a harrowing fate far worse than torture awaited the petrified men.
The following day, the knights visited the farthest corner of the slums and discovered the crooks’ bodies twisted into grotesque shapes. The men could hardly form words; the knights promptly put the city on high alert upon hearing the name of the fiend who committed the heinous act.
All the while, Cayna followed a lead from the Battle Arena Guardian and soon discovered that the large shadow in the river was yet another Guardian Tower. The tower, an enormous white whale, belonged to the First Skill Master. Cayna enlisted the aid of the knights and Princess Mye to help carry out her plan to settle the moving-type tower in one place, and they formed a ploy to trick the townspeople.
The ruse was a success, and the white whale Guardian Tower was soon situated upstream of Felskeilo’s sandbar. With the city’s concerns finally assuaged, the River Festival commenced, and Cayna was able to enjoy the festivities with Lytt, Luka, and Roxine.
As the celebration drew to a close, the aristocrat whose loathing for Cayna reached new heights was viciously attacked by a demon and his fiendish companions. The demon determined the petrified noble’s punishment with a coin toss.
Cayna next visited the ship factory with the girls and, after leaving them with Roxine, decided to do a bit of solo fishing. A large crowd gathered on the sandbar as she reeled in one huge catch after the other, and the festival after-party heated up. Then Cayna caught the monster that had been disturbing the river before the white whale ever showed up. Everyone else found its bizarre appearance terrifying, save for Cayna, who gave the baddie a good kick to the keister.
After a number of good-byes, Cayna and her crew headed home. They ran into Skargo and Cohral, who were returning from a meeting. Once Cohral told her about the issues with the game system and the location of the Abandoned Capital, Cayna became more eager than ever to find Opus.
Roxilius had been watching the house while they were gone, but a mysterious person had bested him and left behind a note that said only “Name her.”
Realizing this note was referring to Li’l Fairy, Cayna racked her brain and finally decided to name the fairy Kuu. Introducing her to the villagers taught Cayna that fairies were considered symbols of good fortune.