In the Land of Leadale Vol. 5 Page 4

  Liothek’s tower was filled with the usual, but Cayna also found several arrows with words like thorn, centipede, and weird stuff written on them.

  She must have been dying for something interesting, Cayna thought wistfully. The girl wore an Antonietta janthina or flapjack octopus costume whenever they met, so Cayna had no clue what Liothek actually looked like.

  Roxilius said he’d focus on the village perimeter and fields and broke away. Luka and Lytt had made their way toward the center of town, so Cayna decided to check the entrance. Finding eggs in the tall, overgrown grass was easy enough, so her skills felt unnecessary here.

  In the meantime, Cayna remembered to ask Kuu where Opus was.

  “Opus? Opus?”

  Kuu gazed up at the sky and mulled over this question with a troubled look.

  The fairy would probably figure it out in due time, but Cayna rephrased her question since Opus was a nickname only she and the other players used. Cayna had asked Kuu a while back if Opus ever teased her. Instead of, No, he didn’t tease me, it was possible her headshake had meant, I don’t know this Opus.

  “I’m asking about the person who locked you away in that book.”

  When the fairy shook her head with another bewildered look, Cayna realized Kuu might not even remember being put there in the first place.

  “Hmm? Okay then, where did you first come from?”

  She seemed to understand this question and excitedly chirped, “Sanctuary! Sanctuary!” Whether or not sanctuaries were exciting was beside the point.

  “A sanctuary? I know what a church is, but what’s a sanctuary?”

  “I believe a sanctuary is a place where a god is enshrined.”

  Kee’s input was extremely helpful, but Cayna knew zilch about the gods of this world. Which was pretty sad, considering her son was a High Priest.

  It was possible Kuu herself had a connection with the gods, but that wasn’t Cayna’s focus at the moment.

  “I better leave this to the pros. Should I ask Skargo?”

  Cayna was discussing this with Kee, but anyone else would think she was talking to herself. One full basket floated beside her while she took out another. She’d need more, of course.

  Considering the speed and precision with which Kuu gathered the dropped eggs, the fairy likely had skills of her own. Her tiny body could only grab one at a time, but she seemed to be strangely enjoying herself. Kuu used to be intangible, so she was probably thrilled to race around touching things. Cayna felt the same way the first time she experienced the game’s environment.

  When they returned with two full baskets, Luka, Lytt, and Roxilius were already there. In addition to the basket Cayna gave him, Roxilius had filled a second basket he borrowed from another family. Lytt’s apron was also brimming with eggs.

  “Looks like there are lots more old eggs out there, huh?”

  “Yeah…but…we can’t carry them.”

  “Indeed. I borrowed another basket but set a limit for myself. The search would be endless otherwise.”

  In total, the group had gathered over one hundred eggs. Cayna used magic to roughly categorize them. Were they old or new? Such criteria were subjective, so Cayna couldn’t tell how old an egg really was. The skill was known as Classify, and the basic idea was that it could organize anything the player specified. Back in the game, this was undeniably a Throwaway Skill you ignored the second you learned it. Most Skill Masters agreed there were too many Throwaway Skills created for no other reason than to add more quests. It was unclear whether Classify’s survival this far in the future could be considered a lucky break.

  While they were working, Latem stopped by with news.

  “Miss Cayna, my dad says there’s a message for you from Sakaiya.”

  “A message? From Caerick?”

  “I dunno. It just said, ‘Please visit when you have time.’”

  “Oh, okay. Maybe an order for magic rhymestones finally came in?”

  “Well, that was all. Later!”

  “Huh? Hey, wait!”

  Latem ran off before Cayna could reintroduce Kuu. He was grinning ear to ear, so she assumed he enjoyed helping out the family business.

  “Lady Cayna. If the eggs still need sorting, I…”

  She shook her head at Roxilius’s offer to cover for her.

  “It’s not like I need to leave right this second. I can head to Helshper tomorrow.”

  “Understood. In that case, I’ll distribute the fresh eggs. What shall we do with the old ones?”

  “It’s a bit iffy whether or not they’re edible. Maybe I can use them for Convert?”

  Sixty eggs were deemed safe as long as they were cooked first. The rest made no guarantees. Roxilius left to distribute the edible ones among the villagers, and Lytt took eggs to her own family.

  Since the message on a Find-It Buddy couldn’t be erased, Cayna decided to loan the arrow out for egg hunts. She heard more than a few villagers had fallen victim to a rotten egg—this was undoubtedly because they had no way of separating the good and bad. This world apparently didn’t have methods like the saltwater test to help tell the difference.

  “Perhaps you could inform someone?”

  “And who am I supposed to tell exactly…?” Sharing the test with the Merchants Guild would create an uproar and end up a huge pain, so she thought maybe her grandson could speak for her. “Anyway, how could players leave behind board games and stuff but not mention this little life hack?”

  “It appears the balance of knowledge was unequal. After all, there were not many women.”

  “Female players, huh?”

  The female players Cayna had known included a pervert who was way TMI, a silent eyesore, a complex case of siscon, and a mascot obsessed with all things weird. Not a great lineup. The memory alone struck Cayna with a wave of exhaustion, and she suddenly needed a nap.

  “Are we…throwing these away?”

  “Nope. Watch this, Lu.”

  The girl obeyed and curiously observed the basket packed with leftover eggs.

  Cayna picked three and cast Convert on them. The eggs in her outstretched hand were momentarily covered in a rainbow film before turning black, and each shrank to the size of a thumbnail. She used Search and discovered they were pieces of iron.

  Cayna dropped these into Luka’s hand and cast Convert on three more eggs. This skill changed one’s items into other random substances. There were plenty of pros and cons, though, so it was yet another Throwaway Skill.

  First, each conversion cost a significant amount of MP. This number varied with the target, but those three eggs alone cost 100 MP.

  Second, each time was a gamble since you never knew what you were going to get. Cayna placed a grain of iron, a stone, a piece of square timber the size of an egg, a snail shell, a small bottle, and many other unrelated things into Luka’s hands. One disappeared into thin air. Considering they started as eggs, the grain of iron and the bottle weren’t so bad. Still, the rest were garbage.

  For the time being, Cayna decided to bring everything home in a basket. She couldn’t just flout the law by littering, and some items would likely prove useful around the house.

  The next day, Cayna left Luka with Roxine and teleported to Helshper. She had assumed Kuu would want to stay with Luka, but the fairy absolutely refused to leave Cayna’s side. Kee’s quiet suggestion that maybe she couldn’t leave Cayna was a bit unsettling.

  Now that Kuu had a physical body, Cayna thought she would need to eat and had asked Roxine to prepare a variety of dishes. Nonetheless, the fairy continued to casually skip meals except for the occasional teaspoon of honey. Assuming Kuu only ate sweet things, Cayna offered her sugar; this, too, was a dud. Since the fairy ate nothing but fruit in the morning (and a single, tiny bite at that), she concluded Kuu’s diet was limited to natural sugars.

  Kuu used to skittishly hide away in Cayna’s hair when she was invisible, but gaining a physical form had made her surprisingly inquisitive. Kuu sat on Cayna’s shoulder as they walked Helshper’s bustling main road, and her eyes danced at the surrounding sights. Keen-eyed passersby who spotted her either stared in shock or froze solid. The former were mostly women while the latter were the elderly.

  At one point, they passed what looked like a group of female students, who whispered among one another and began stalking Cayna and Kuu. Sensing the fairy was in imminent danger, Cayna rushed to Sakaiya.

  “Great-Grandmother?!” Idzik, the young master of Sakaiya, exclaimed when he saw Cayna fly in.

  The employees shot suspicious glares at the girl who had charged into the shop but jolted at their young master’s reaction. Not only was she a relative, but if Idzik’s form of address was to be believed, she was also two ranks higher than Sakaiya’s founder, Caerick.

  “Sorry for barging in like this, Idzik.”

  “Not at all. Father said you would be arriving soon. Has something happened?”

  “Some hyenas came after me, so I made a break for it.”

  “What?”

  Idzik wanted to know what kind of foes could force even his great-grandmother, the most powerful being on the continent, to run away. However, he restrained himself. This was no time to be prying into other people’s personal business. Leaving the shop to his subordinates, Idzik guided Cayna into the main building.

  “By the way, might I ask what you have on your shoulder?”

  “Oh, right. This is Kuu. Kuu, I think you already know, but this is Idzik. He’s my great-grandson.”

  “Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you!”

  Idzik was uneasy for a moment but soon viewed Kuu as a guest of honor and dipped his head.

  “It is a pleasure to meet you, Milady Kuu.”

  “Kuu is Kuu!”

  Kuu stood up
, and trails of phosphorescence followed the fairy as she darted around him. Hands on her hips, she puffed out her cheeks in an angry pose. Idzik, meanwhile, looked bewildered.

  “I think she’s saying she doesn’t like being called milady,” Cayna explained.

  “Is that so? But I must address all our honored guests with due respect.”

  He made a fair point, but there was no evidence Kuu was older than him since no one could confirm her age. When told this, he asked, “How about ‘the Most Honorable Kuu’?”

  This was apparently a fair compromise.

  Just like before, Cayna and Kuu were led to the parlor where they waited for some time. Finally, Caerick appeared from behind the sliding screen door.

  “I apologize for the wait, Grandmother! …And who might that be?!”

  “Hello, Caerick. This is Kuu.”

  “Kuu is Kuu!”

  Caerick had entered the room in good spirits but froze upon opening the sliding door. The subordinate following behind him with a box hung back in confusion.

  Cayna clapped in her grandson’s face to bring him back to his senses.

  “Hey, you’re the one who called me here on business. Why’re you getting worked up over something so tiny?”

  “Boo! Boo!”

  Kuu protested the tiny comment, but Cayna smoothed things over with a pat on the head. The fairy’s mood instantly turned around, and she flew around Cayna in a flurry of dancing music notes. Perhaps Kuu was a bit too much of a pushover.

  “You never fail to surprise me, Grandmother. Is this what they call a fairy?”

  “Yup. This is Kuu. She joined our family just yesterday.”

  “I’m slightly curious about your household… Did you say just yesterday?”

  “That’s right.”

  Kuu had been around pretty much the entire time but only officially joined Cayna’s household the day prior. Caerick stood in dumbfounded silence for a moment before shaking his head.

  Cayna heard him murmur something along the lines of “Yet another feat Grandmother is capable of.” She wondered what else he thought she could do.

  Once Caerick forbade the subordinate carrying the box to speak of Kuu, he spread some papers across the table and opened up the lid. There were small, dark gray stones packed inside. Magic rhymestones.

  “You already sent me plenty, but it looks like you’ve got lots left.”

  “Yes, there are many among the stones in the cool riverbed, so finding them is a simple task. I’m very grateful to those children from the orphanage for telling me the location. I paid them handsomely for their assistance, of course. Not to worry.”

  He hastily added this last statement when Cayna’s eyebrow rose at “children from the orphanage.” Disguising his nerves with an air of calm, Caerick took out two documents and showed them to her. They were order details from two nobles. Both stated the desired size and quantity of the processed rhymestone tools as well as the designated keywords.

  Cayna asked the specifics of each order and completed them one by one as Caerick explained. Regardless, she did ballpark figures.

  Most of the magic tools in question were smaller than the original rhymestones, so Cayna could pick up a stone from the box, process it, and set the keyword with one hand. Caerick handed the finished products over to his subordinate, who packed them away in crates in a separate room.

  Cayna continued processing stones down this assembly line and chatted idly with Caerick while he checked their quantity. She also took the opportunity to tell him how to differentiate between good and bad eggs. His eyes widened at her casual explanation.

  “I must make this known at once!”

  Just to be safe, Caerick scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to an employee to be sent to the Merchants Guild.

  “Is it that big a deal?”

  “It is, Grandmother. Now we will have fewer cases of food poisoning.”

  Every country apparently dealt with similar issues at the dinner table.

  “Also, thanks for the wheat,” said Cayna. “Can I really have it for free, though?”

  “Oh, no, I’m certain I received payment. Perhaps the middleman made a mistake?”

  “But didn’t you only charge me for shipping? That’s basically a handling fee.”

  “It was a complimentary discount since this was your first purchase. I will request the full amount next time.”

  “Gotcha. Well, I appreciate it.”

  “But of course. You are helping me as well.”

  The two smiled at each other. Meanwhile, Kuu had grown bored of darting around the room and was now lying on Cayna’s head.

  “…In any case…”

  “Yes?”

  “I never imagined you’d be accompanied by a fairy, Grandmother.”

  “I guess fairies are pretty rare, huh? I had no clue.”

  Caerick frowned and warned that Kuu might draw the attention of eccentric dilettantes. They would approach Cayna with flattery and money or, if all else failed, resort to violence.

  “Having said that, Grandmother, you are utterly unrivaled. I expect anyone foolish enough to prove that wrong would spell their own destruction.”

  “Hey now…”

  She was amazed that he could make such a bone-chilling statement with a grin on his face. It was true Cayna showed no mercy to anyone who threatened her family, but she’d earn a bad rap if she went around giving everyone the bandit treatment. By that point, it’d just be showing off. Still, it was exhausting keeping her army of OP skills in check.

  As she considered a more peaceful method, Caerick offered Cayna tea and sweets as if to distract her.

  “We’ve completed enough orders, so let’s stop here.”

  “Huh? Don’t we need to do the ones over there?”

  “No, the nobles whose orders we just fulfilled are notorious attention seekers. Even if we say nothing, they will flaunt and promote our wares.”

  In other words, they were great walking advertisements. This also meant Cayna would be called upon more frequently. It was a hassle, but Cayna would do what she must to support her family.

  Cayna’s shoulders drooped, and she sipped the tea Caerick brewed himself. She nearly sprayed it everywhere when an urgent message tone suddenly blared in her head.

  “What the—?”

  “You have an urgent message from friend Shining Saber: ‘Potential incoming attack on the capital. Requesting aid.’”

  “Seriously?! I look away for two seconds and this happens?!”

  “Grandmother?”

  “Sorry, Caerick. It looks like something is going on in Felskeilo. We’ll pick this up next time!”

  “‘Something’? What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know yet, either, so I can’t help you there. Later!”

  “R-right. P-please take care.”

  “Thanks! Sorry for the trouble.”

  Teleport enveloped Cayna in its characteristic purple beam of light right then and there, and she disappeared in an instant. A sense of unease fell upon Caerick as he saw her off. If something big was happening in Felskeilo, he knew he had to check the situation with his mother. Although reluctant, he had no one else to contact on such short notice and resorted to Telepathy.

  It all began soon after Cayna and her family returned to the village. A ragged male adventurer and his crazed horse crashed into Felskeilo’s western gate. The gate was solid, so naturally the incoming man suffered the most damage. The collapsed horse foamed at the mouth, and the rider, sent flying upon impact, was covered in blood. He was injured, of course, but the man’s armor was so shredded that it hardly clung to his body.

  The soldiers at the gate rushed to take care of him. They doused the man in potions and checked his condition.

  “H-help.”

  “Hey, hang in there! Can you tell us what happened?”

  “Here, have some water. Easy does it!”

  A guard brought a cup to his lips. Water spilled over as the adventurer drank, and he hoarsely pleaded for help. The words they managed to catch horrified them.

  A horde of beasts and monsters had attacked a merchant caravan. His comrades were killed by monsters that half treated them like playthings, and the severely injured man was the only one sent to Felskeilo as a messenger. After feverishly relaying this information to the guards, he fainted from exhaustion.

  Even inexperienced soldiers like these knew better than to dismiss the man’s word as a lie or joke, and they immediately sent messengers in every direction.