Chapter 21 – The Fold
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Probably because I had dove into the dungeon first thing in the morning, it was now already past noon. And although I didn’t feel hungry or anything like that, I noticed just how empty my stomach was, now that I’ve left the battlefield.
“With that said, it was decided that I would be teaming up with you. Please take care of me from now on.”
She lowered her head while sitting in seiza. Apparently she had received various instructions from the management in regards to me. As I kept staring at her sitting there like that, she pulled an apologetic expression.
…To be very honest, I don’t get the aim behind the order given to her. Even though they previously went as far as having her use force to get me to come to Tokyo for an investigation, they’re now rescinding all of that and telling her to work together with me? Why? That makes no sense. She’s being forced to follow two, contradicting orders. I don’t get what the person ordering her is actually thinking. No…maybe there are two people giving her orders?
At the point she knew that I fought that woman, I thought it might not have been a lie, but I told her to prove that she was truly involved with the management. Hearing that, she used her phone to contact some place. Immediately following, one point (the equal of 150 Yen) was sent to me via mail inside Dungeon Seekers by the management. With the subject line reading 『Evidence for Amamiya Satoha』, I had no choice but to accept.
“…The people, who come in contact with Dungeon Seekers through a QR code, don’t know what it is. They can’t tell what Dungeon Seekers actually is. Nor do they know just who we are. So allow me to take responsibility and explain all the various matters you should know,” she said with a serious expression after placing the right hand on her chest.
Her deep blue eyes were clear as she was staring at me. Although we had crossed swords at one time, I could doubtlessly tell that she was an upright, honest person. Or rather, I can tell because I crossed swords with her.
“You mentioned teaming up with me, but I don’t really understand what you want to do. I do want to hear the full story as soon as possible, but…,” I turned my back on her, moving to the sliding door. “You must be hungry as well, so let’s get some grub first. Is there anything you don’t like? Ah, I’ll cook, so take it easy.”
She looked flabbergasted. Deep inside I thought that cooking for two would definitely be a new, fresh experience.
｡ ₊°༺🫀༻°₊ ｡
We soon left the Japanese-styled room and I guided her to the living room. As she sat on her chair like a small squirrel, I held out the tomato-spinach pasta with sausages I made on the fly to her. I also passed her a fork and a cup filled with barley tea. It’s the sloppy cooking of a guy, but I don’t think that you could describe it as disgusting.
For a while she brooded about something while holding her fork with a clenched fist for some reason, before speaking up after seemingly having found her resolve.
“…I’m digging in.”
“Sure.”
With elegant movements she put the pasta into her mouth, using the fork. Immediately following, she curtly muttered, “Delicious…”
“It’s great to hear that it suits your taste. It’d have also been fine for me to cook up something more elaborate, but unfortunately I was too hungry to bother.”
I devoured the pasta without giving a flying damn about manners or stuff like that. I might have made a miscalculation with the amount. I should have made a lot more.
“Ummm…”
Putting down her fork with a clattering, she stared at me while releasing some incomprehensible noises.
“Why are we eating a meal together as if nothing happened…after having fought against each other just a little while ago? I mean, usually you would get kicked out of the house…”
She waited for my reply while looking as though she couldn’t help but feel mystified by this.
“I don’t know anything about your circumstances, but having my life targeted once doesn’t really matter to me. Also, I simply thought I’d make a decision about teaming up after listening to what you’ve got to say.”
“E-Ehh… No, eehhh….?”
I ate another mouthful of pasta and washed it down with tea. My way of eating was completely opposite of her refined, polite eating manners.
“…Pardon me, but what should I call you?”
“I don’t care, so use whatever name you like.”
She placed a hand on her chin and started to seriously ponder about it. Before long, she said, “Okay, I will take the liberty to call you Hiro then.”
“…You told me to not call you by your first name, yet you want to call me by my first name, Satoha?”
“Aren’t you currently using my first name as well? It shouldn’t be a problem then, right Hiro?”
…Touche. She’s been talking this and that about fighting, but I feel like we’re on the same wavelength when it comes to really caring much about stuff like this.
We silently continued our meal. Her way of eating was refined, but I also got the impression that she greedily devoured her portion in some respect. After finishing our lunch, we wiped our mouths with napkins and I put the empty plates into the sink. Then we faced each other, about to go on with our conversation.
｡ ₊°༺🫀༻°₊ ｡
At the very beginning, she told me that she’d like me to discard any common sense I might harbor. I answered jokingly that my common sense had gone out of the window on the day I entered a dungeon. She agreed with that line of reasoning and continued to speak.
“Before I talk about everything, you first need to learn something crucial about this world to understand what comes next.”
Her clear, dignified voice reverberated through my living room. Her side hair swayed as she pondered how to continue from there. Now that a grand word like ‘world’ was out on the table, I put myself on guard, wondering just what she might throw at me.
“Hiro. As a matter of fact, three versions of the world we inhabit exist.”
I unconsciously leaned my body forward due to her totally unexpected statement.
Three versions…of the world?
“Hiro, do you believe in other worlds…worlds different from the one where we live? They might be at the furthest reaches of the universe, or in a place you arrive at after being spirited away. Their shapes are different, but such otherworlds exist in the place where we live. They exist in the closest yet furthest locations.”
Her azurite eyes were pinned on me. She pressed her index finger’s pulp on the table.
“It is here. Right now, in this place. Everywhere on this blue planet.”
“…What do you mean?”
“I’m sorry since it’s only a conceptual description, but there exists another world which perfectly overlaps with the world where we live. It exists around us.”
…My thinking still cannot catch up with what she’s saying.
“The 『Surface World』, aka the world where we live, and, although it’s not like they’re two sides of one coin, the 『Inner World』which refers to the completely overlapping other world,” she slowly spun her words.
Let’s calm down a bit and sort things in my head.
Maybe deliberately giving me that time, she was waiting patiently for me.
“…For the time being, I’ve understood that some other world exists. You said there’s three versions, so what about the third one?”
I grabbed my barley tea and gulped it down, trying to moisten my throat which had become dry for some reason. Dungeon Seekers wasn’t just an ordinary tool. I had already expected that it might have some complicated back story, but I still don’t get it. The leap has been too big here.
“I told you that the Surface World and Inner World overlap perfectly, but it’s not like they’re completely identical. This place might be covered by an ocean or a town in the Inner World. In the first place, it might not even be a planet like Earth. However, both worlds have one thing in common.
『Dragon Veins』. Energy similar to the mana you use for your spells and skills is flowing through Dragon Veins. Everything else might be different, but this is the sole aspect both overlapping worlds share. And those Dragon Veins are also commonly referred to as the『Fold』.
Hiro, whenever you dive into a dungeon, you will always step through a vortex, right? That’s the path to the Fold. Or to be precise, the path to the military base of the Inner World located inside the Fold.”
“Huh…? Military base?”
She took a breath and brushed her hair behind her ear. After clearing her throat, she looked straight into my eyes and said:
“Dungeon Seekers is a weapon which has been developed by the government and regular citizens to oppose the Inner World’s invasion and gather items in the Fold.”
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Translation Notes: