“Akasha? Ah, there you are! Could you come with me?” Father asks, beckoning to me from the doorway to my bedroom.

“What is it?”

I raise my head from the open book in my hands to look at him. He seems about to collapse from exhaustion, like always, dark circles drawn under his eyes, and heavy eyelids half-closed over them. He’s probably stayed up all night again, working in his lab.

I’ve long since given up discouraging him from doing that, since he’ll go right back to it just after telling me he’ll stop.
Continue reading

“Here is Fushia City,” Solaire says, pointing through the train’s window at the buildings rising in the distance. “It isn’t actually the capital of Tonarr, but it certainly is its economic center. It’s a young city, too. It was built just a bit more than two centuries ago, and since then, with shrewd planning from its ruling family, it has developed up to this state.”

It looks different from any other city I’ve ever seen – admittedly, I have seen few of them.

Mostly, Fushia City distinguishes itself by being grayer and dirtier.

Another difference is that, while a thick wall encircles most of the city, the west side of it actually isn’t protected like this. There, bordering the city, I can see the edge of a very wide hole.Continue reading

Inside the locomotive.

I can’t help but salivate at the sight in front of me.

Dozens of magic cores are embedded in sockets of various sizes, all over some sort of altar. And all those magic cores are of quite high quality, too. They would make for a very nice meal after those days of fasting.

But if I did eat them, the train would stop moving…Continue reading

Gah! This guy is almost as clingy as Lilly!

I liked him much better when he was surly and suspicious and silent and vaguely afraid of me.

It’s not like his questions are complicated, but it’s annoying to talk so much. And it’s tiring, too. Telepathy doesn’t actually consume any blood-qi, but it does require concentration and focus. It’s mentally tiring.

…Why did he suddenly become so talkative?Continue reading

“Akasha. A-k-a-s-h-a. Aaaakaaashaaa. Hahaha! What a strange name!”

[…]

I don’t really see how it’s any stranger than any other name, though. And why does she look so delighted about it?

“Oh, so you’re a mercenary? Aren’t you too young? Isn’t it dangerous?” Lilly asks, looking over the identification card I handed to her. “Oh? What’s with this? It says here you’re 29 years old.”Continue reading

I keep watching out for a mountain covered in pink trees, or maybe just something that might rouse one of the old, dusty memories buried in the confines of my brain.

No luck, as of yet…

This wind is starting to annoy me, though. It keeps blowing into my ears. It’s really uncomfortable. I try to keep them flat against my skull, but it doesn’t help much. Perhaps I should just go and see if I can find somewhere to sit at the back of the train, out of the wind. The train’s own bulk would shield me without preventing me from watching the landscape as I wish.

Yes, that’s a good idea.Continue reading

So this is an identification card.

It doesn’t look like much. And it’s filled with incorrect information. I’m not 29 years old. And I’m not an oni. And I’m not a 5th-rank warrior.

And this ‘Mercenary rank: F’ written on it…

Jasper tried to explain it to me, but I’m still not sure I understand. Apparently, fulfilling tasks for the High-Sea Verse mercenary group will increase my rank. Things like escorting people from one city to another, or hunting dangerous wild beasts or mutated monsters from the Frontline, or gathering alchemical ingredients in the wilderness…Continue reading