Chapter 12 - Tru- truck-kun~ Where are you? I really want to go isekai now~

"Hiya!"

The samurai sword moved in a diagonal arc falling high up in the air, the wielder light on her foot came down bearing the blade from a high arc long jump.

*Woosh!*

Her Opponent sidestepped towards the left evading the blade with a meter long gap and then stepping forward while moving his guardless sword (*1) in a one-handed side swing towards the Samurai woman's waist.

*Clang!*

Quick on her feet, she moved back and parried the sword upwards with the back of her weapon causing his attacker to stagger. Using the moment when her attacker had to stabilize himself from the recoil of two pieces of metal striking one another, She stepped forward.

"Ha!"

With a move similar to that of kendo she performed a textbook overhead slash.

*Woosh!*

Then another

*Woosh!*

And another

*Woosh!*

Her attacks come faster and faster. Still, her opponent continued to evade the attack not even moving his own blade to block the strike.

The tempo may have gotten faster but the timing is still the same.

"Right Here!"

With a sudden burst of speed, he moved two steps forward and delivered a pommel strike on his opponent's outstretched hands. Having used a lot of her stamina with that continuous attack, she was too late to react. The pommel of her opponent's sword hit the center of the handle. (*2)

With the shock coming from the sudden blow, she loosened her hold on the handle. She managed to grab on it though, but by then the opponent's blade was a few inches away from her neck.

"I win."

He smiled. Moving the blade away from her neck and doing a sword twirl before sheathing the blade back into its sheath.

She sighed and nodded with a smile. Sheathing her Katana back into its sheath as well.

"It is your win, next time I will be the winner."

--

[POV Markus]

Hello Markus here, today me and Yae have just finished our sparring match for the morning the score is 17 - 8 on her favor. Stuff happened after the whole Crystal Cricket Fiasco. It has been a few weeks since then and well.

"Wow, Mr. Ortias sure knows how to wield that strangely shaped sword."

A Princess of the country decided to come and join us.

--

[Flashback]

Moments after the party defeated the Crystal Cricket and Markus woke up from his involuntary Nap. - Narrator

*Clang!*

*Crack*

"Well even when dead, this crystal thing is hard."

Having modeled a hammer the remains of the Old blade, knife, and some parts from the Dullahan. I tried to bash the remains of the Crystal Monster, some pebble-sized crystal piece and it managed to crack the metal of the hammer.

"We need to tell the Duke about this."

Linze piped in, she looked around at the remains and said.

"This was were the old Capital of Belfast Kingdom once was, there must have been a reason why they suddenly had to change the location of the capital."

Elze realized something and pointed at the Crystal remains.

"I bet this thing must have something to do with it."

"Question who will go to the Capital and talk to the Duke?"

Yae asked everyone.

Everyone bar me was pointing at Touya.

"Touya"

"Mr. Touya"

"Touya"

"Markus"

"Wait, what?"

I, who was busy using my magic sense (*3) suddenly reacted when I heard Touya's voice saying my name. I managed to piece together two separate pinky sized pebbles into one larger pebble. Mana works as a glue for these things it seems.

"I needed someone with me to help explain things to the Duke and I know you girls would want to tell the guild that the quest is complete."

'Touya where did you learn to talk like that? Was it Me?'

I mentally asked looking at Touya's plotting face after he said his piece.

The girls looked at each other and nodded. Smiling they look at me.

"Markus also has Affinity with all elements thanks to Touya."

"Yeah, he can also use all kinds of Non-Element Spells because of Touya. (*4)"

The twins proved they are indeed twins by looking identically smug about something.

'These twins really are...'

While I was looking at the twins feeling speechless, I felt Yae's hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry Markus, you kind of, have no choice in the matter. We want to go back and rela-, I mean to tell the guild that the quest was complete. Touya needed someone to help him explain the situation with the Duke."

Yae, I know you sound well-meaning with your reasons but your true thoughts are leaking.

--

"And so the two boys went and entered the portal towards the Duke's Castle."

"You do know the Duke lives in a Mansion and not a Castle right. Also, why are you talking like a Narrator?"

It was with a not serious Atmosphere that we exited the gate portal and arrived at the gate of the Duke's Mansion. The guards had just opened the gate and got surprised by our sudden appearance.

*Neigh!*

The sound of a galloping horse came from inside the Duke's compound and a Carriage came out. It suddenly stopped in front of the two of us with the Duke suddenly opening the carriage door dragging Touya inside.

"No time to explain, Mr. Touya, come with me, you as well."

The Duke called to me as well seeing as Touya and I was by the gate.

--

It was an assassination attempt, someone poisoned the king and he was in a critical situation. Thankfully Touya was at the entrance. Yes, like some sort of Luck or god's will caused the event to coincide with Touya's arrival to the Duke's place when it happened.

'I call bullshit on this one. The gods of this world freely alter things towards Touya's direction.'

I thought as the Duke was explaining what happened to both of us and the happenings in the capital which led to this situation. It is a conspiracy, a neighboring kingdom, the Mismead Kingdom wanted to form an Alliance with Belfast it was a new kingdom of demi-humans that came into power some 20 years ago.

The king was agreeable to this movement, them being a Demi-human nation naturally, there will be those who will oppose the king's decision. The Duke points out that this must have been done by them and used the fact that a representative of the kingdom of Mismead came to have talks with the king to create this scandal.

Arriving at the Palace, the three of us headed towards the king's room. We met a sleazy looking noble on the way along the stairs. Duke growled out the name Count Balsar.

You know how in movies where the Culprit lingers at the scene of the crime and sometimes be seen talking with the lead detective and saying that the culprit has been caught? you can really tell that the guy has the air of 'Main Suspect' around him.

This count screams 'That is the Culprit' to everyone who sees him.

The guy was even saying damning things like "Should the worst happen to the king the nobles would be in arms, you know." (*5) He was even smiling smugly as if he already won.

When the Count was halfway down the stairs Touya sneakily cast 'Slip' on the count's next step causing him to slide and tumble downwards. I also cast a spell 'enchant' on his shoe. A one-time activatable 'Slip', it will not cast the spell not until I activate it myself. It is for later.

We reached the King's room and saw six people inside. A middle-aged woman wearing a crown, a youthful-looking old man wearing a general's uniform, the royal doctor which is an actual old man, a young girl in beside the queen, the King who looks similar to the Dukes and...

My brain stopped working. There she was, a young woman with an hourglass figure, long jade-green hair and gold eyes. She is wearing long white clothing while holding a magician's ornate staff.

My brain rebooted and I shook my head, anyway. Looking back at the room. The Duke was explaining my and Touya's presence. The Duke explained that Touya can cure the King which he did. The king was cured as if nothing happened to him.

I shook my head...

"Touya, if you are going to cure a person who suffered from being poisoned of any kind you should also recover that person's strength. Excuse me..."

I do not know what came over me but I wanted to somehow one-up Touya in this situation. After asking permission to cast a spell from the King which he allowed.

"Full Heal."

(6*) Based on what I learned from talking with Linze regarding healing spells the upgraded version of the Heal spell is Greater Heal and the AOE Mass Greater Heal. I recreated the effects caused by Refresh, an element based spell that helps recover stamina, and applied it to the spell Heal.

The heal spell saturates the cells of the target with which increases the target's natural healing ability. I had used the spell often enough to get familiar with the way the mana moves around my body. I managed to accelerate my training thanks to this and another spell I developed.

The spell did its job, the King recovered his strength much quicker than just casting Refresh on him. He thanked me and Touya and proceeded to have a tearful moment with his wife and child.

I mentally smirked, I saw the Jade haired Miss Magician look at me intensely in the corner of my eye. My outward expression only showed me calming down after being stared at by everyone and doing a great service to the king.

Though the princess was looking at Touya all this time prompting him to ask her what she wanted. The Princess' "Are you okay with younger girls?" got me laughing like a loon at Touya's face.

--

Then 8 of us along with the Count and the Mismead Representative did a 'Crime Scene Investigation' where Touya outed the Count as the Culprit all along to the shocked look of the Culprit who thought he could get away with it. His escape was foiled when I activated 'My Trap Card' he slipped and fell down having the youthful old man, who is actually this Country's General Commander, apprehend the count and questioned.

--

The seven of us are now sitting in a room in the castle, it was called a Solar (7*), talking about the event earlier based on the confession of the ex-Count he was the culprit of not only poisoning the King but also the one responsible for sending the cloaked man with the Lizardman summon to attack Sue and her Entourage from way back then.

The Duke let slip that Touya can use magic from all elements. Touya sensing something troublesome about to happen to him had also outed me as someone who can use magic from all elements.

Jumping forward a bit.

After Charlotte learned that we can use all magic types and even all non-elemental magic she gave us a scroll to read which Touya cannot, I can although slightly since the characters used was archaic but has a similarity to the current Alphabet.

Charlotte had us use the Magic Reading, a non Elemental spell that can let the user read any written words. Touya used the spell and I followed soon after. We started reading the various scrolls she presented on us.

"To Make Cockatrice Noodle Soup, Start by preparing the cockatrice. It needs to be boiled until completely coo- ...What the hell?"

Really Chicken noodle soup archaic version? I checked the other paper.

"In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar, and bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 90 mi- Why are all these things recipes?" (8*)

We got bombarded with other scrolls from the ages past but I always most often than not get the Archaic cookbook.

In the end, the King had to step in and talk Charlotte, who by this point was salivating at the chance to expand her research, to step back a bit.

Charlotte revealed that her research was very quite broad and planned to have Touya and me translate for her, Touya had to step in and presented Charlotte with a Reading Glasses Enchanted with 'Reading'. She started reading the various scrolls and realized she can actually read them now. She excitedly picked up all the research materials she placed on the table and left.

Though why am I being dragged in as well? Touya that smug piece of... Still, when the Princess declared that she wanted to marry Touya right in front of her parents made me grin.

"FBI sir it is that person!"

--

Charlotte noticed that after using the spell reading for the first time, I can still read the ancient letters even when the spell effect duration was over. She also remembers me creating a new spell by combining the effects of Refresh and Heal.

It was kind of expected that she managed to figure out the spell components from just looking at me cast it once. We made a deal since I know the spell Gate, I can commute from Leaflet to the Research Room in the Capital every afternoon on the weekdays.

I was hired as her Research Assistant. Her being the only Royal Court Magician in charge of researching, she needed one badly. Translation has been the most time-consuming part of the research made the job level next to impossible. Aside from being paid a generous amount of money, I get to see such beauty up close. It was a win-win.

Later that same day we, Touya and I, talked with the Duke and the King about the Crystal Monster we fought at the old Capital Ruins. The Ruin Text that Touya took a picture of was placed on a piece of paper with the use of the spell 'Drawing', it was a magic printer print.

[End Flashback]

Which leads us to now. Having most of my afternoon being inside a research room reading various things from the ancient past, I have to train even earlier than before in order to have time to have a proper sparring match with either Elze or Yae. Touya I can spar rarely since he likes to spend most of his alone inside his room in the inn. Linze does not like sparring.

Then the princess decided to join Touya and the group in their adventures. I can only do Quests on mornings on weekdays and on the whole day weekends. I most often than not use the Quest Targets, if possible, as target practice using the spells that I just uncovered and learned.

"Mr. Ortias?"

Oh yeah, She was talking to me...