Chapter 10

Koji was eating breakfast the next morning, having found some foodstuffs in the kitchen of the house he was staying in. In one hand he held his spoon, in the other the medal that he had been awarded. It was slightly warm between his fingers and was emblazoned with the emblem of the Order of the Unbroken Path on one side, and letters in a language he could not read on the other side. Perhaps he could ask Sylvia what they meant.

He was just finishing up his meal when he was roused by the sound of someone knocking on his front door.

Curious, Koji got up and went over to see who it was. He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of a teenage boy about his age in an Order uniform, sans most of the armor pieces. He was carrying a wooden container in his arms that was about the size of a shoebox. It, too, had the emblem of the Order stamped into the lid.

“Good morning, sir!” The youth said. “I have come on behalf of the High Lords to deliver your weekly salary!” He held the box out for Koji to take.

“Um, thanks,” Koji said, taking the box. It was rather heavy for its size. “Is there anything else?”

“No, sir,” The young man said, a little bit too loudly than was proper. “I’ll be on my way now. And if I may, it’s an honor to be in the presence of a hero such as yourself!”

With that, the delivery boy spun around and marched away rapidly, leaving Koji standing somewhat dumbfounded in the doorway of his house.

“A hero?” Koji repeated in a confused tone. Then he smiled and shrugged before going back inside, closing the front door behind himself.

Returning to the dining room table, Koji set down the box and ran his hand over its surface. It was smooth and polished, the texture changing slightly when it came to the Order’s symbol stamp. Without anything else to do, he pried the lid off.

Koji gasped in astonishment. Inside the box were stacks and stacks of gold coins, each one about the size of a 500 yen piece. There had to be at least a couple hundred in this container. With unsteady hands, Koji picked up one of the coins and stared at his reflection in the metal. It seemed to be made out of actual, real, solid gold. He had yet to see any other types of currency in this world, but he was pretty sure that he had just been given the equivalent of half a million yen at the very least, and even then he suspected that he was severely lowballing it.

He checked his windows and found no messenger hawks waiting for him, so Koji took that to mean that he had the day all to himself.

He wondered what he should do with his newfound free time. He had no idea what people did for fun in this world, though he assumed that, like back on Earth, it involved gambling. He thought about going back to Rena’s inn, but then he remembered that it would most likely be busy enough that Rena would not be able to spare time to talk to him.

“I’ll head over at night,” Koji decided.

After putting the chest of gold coins upstairs under his bed and taking out about fifty to put into his coin purse, Koji stepped out of his house and into the sunlight. He closed his eyes briefly and hummed with satisfaction. He still missed Japan, of course, but at least the sun felt the same in both worlds.

He set off to wander the city of Behalan, stopping to window shop whenever something interesting caught his eye. He spent a little of his money at a stall that was selling some kind of sugary treat on a stick, and stopped by a well to have a drink. He smiled bemusedly at the expression the candy vendor had given him when he had paid him in gold. It was probably the equivalent of buying takoyaki on the street with a 10,000 yen note.

Here and there he could see signs of older facilities that had been taken down by the Order during their thirteen year long occupation of the city. There was a sign that pointed to a place that had once held a water crystal, which had now been replaced by an Order-installed pump.

There were other signs, like old runes etched into surfaces that no longer did what they had been meant to do. He even passed by an old shop that had been closed down and condemned by the Order, with posters put up that said the business had been terminated for dealing arcane goods.

Koji fleetingly thought of the raid he had participated on the day before. The Order was all about making things better for humans, and that was something he could get behind. He was also, after all, a human being. For a whole other world, Koji was secretly thankful that he had managed to wind up in one that had other humans, instead of something like a place that was all elves or something.

A frown touched Koji’s face as he walked. He was still missing a great many details about how exactly he had ended up in this world, in this kingdom, in this city. He had not had a lot of time to think and ponder it, what with having been inducted into the Order of the Unbroken Path and helping them out, but now that he had a little peace and quiet time, he did want to know more about his circumstances. People didn’t just suddenly wind up in completely different dimensions for no reason, after all.

This brought Koji’s thoughts to the events of yesterday. While he was happy that he had been able to help out the Order again, his all too brief meeting with the cloaked figure remained in his head, like a dark cloud over an otherwise sunny day.

She had said ‘saraba’ to him. While Koji hadn’t bothered to ask what language the people of Behalan spoke, he found it unlikely that they were speaking Japanese. A new world would, to him, have its own language and he had somehow learned it while he had been relocated here. In fact, it hadn’t been until he had been faced with Japanese that he had realized something was different.

That brought up another domino sequence of issues, but Koji didn’t want to think about those. What he did want to think about, was how to meet up with that cloaked person again, and press her for answers. She seemed to be the only one in this world who might have insight on his situation.

“Not that I’m really going to get on their good side by helping push them out of the city…” Koji muttered as he kicked a loose pebble into a nearby canal. It hit the water with a small splash.

Koji looked up and realized with a mild sense of unease that his meandering had taken him to the exact canal where he had helped take down the smuggling operation. With the beginnings of a plan forming in his head, Koji began to make his way along the canal until he came to the building where the Order had fought the smugglers and ultimately arrested them.

The cloaked figure had been here, too, in the same boat as the magical contraband. Perhaps if he searched the building, he could find a way to get into contact with them.

It was a long shot, but now that the idea was in Koji’s head, he couldn’t think about anything else. He entered the building, which seemed to be an old apartment building.

It was cool and dark inside, and there were signs of the battle that had taken place two days ago. Scorch marks and dirty shoe prints on the tiles marked where the Order and the smugglers had clashed.

Nobody seemed to be here now. Holding up his hand, he made a pale gold glow around his palm to see better in this place.

He peered around the foyer. Aside from the gurgling of the canal outside and the muted sounds of chatter from the adjacent street, it was all quiet.

Koji searched the foyer, looking under chairs and benches, on top of tables, and underneath carpets. However, he did not find a single object or clue that was worth a note.

He did find a set of stairs that led up to the second floor, and without hesitation he mounted them. His footfalls were muffled by the carpet under his boots, and he soon reached the top.

This floor was just as dimly lit as the first. There was a small collection of rooms up here, and Koji spent the next hour hunting through them. Just like the floor below, it seemed that these apartments had been picked clean by the Order before he had arrived.

Sighing, Koji made to go back downstairs, but something shiny sparkled in the corner of his eye.

A tiny glint of gold in the corner of a room, almost completely concealed by piles of dust and grime. Curious, Koji walked carefully over to the corner and knelt down. Brushing the dust aside, his fingers closed around something hard and metallic.

It was a coin, not unlike the ones he had been given earlier. This coin was different from those, however. This coin was thicker and wider, and on one side had an engraving of two dragons chasing each others’ tails, and on the other side had an odd emblem that looked vaguely like a face with five upwards pointing prongs inside a circle, along with other glyphs and runes that he did not recognize or understand. This coin also had milled edges, unlike the ones in his coin purse, whose edges were smooth.

Koji wiped the last of the dirt off the strange coin and held it up to his face. The gold that it was made of seemed… richer, more vibrant, than any other gold he had ever seen. Like it was the purest ideal of what gold should be. He wondered what country this coin had come from, and how much it was worth.

He initially considered taking the coin to the Order to see if they could identify it, but something told him that would not be a good idea if he wanted to keep it. At best, it would be confiscated for evidence. Koji rubbed the coin’s surface with his thumb, noticing how the metal stayed cool no matter how much he touched or held it.

No, he would not give this to the Order, not unless he absolutely had to. He had a feeling that this curious coin could be of some help in finding the cloaked person, so he slipped it into his pocket and left the apartment building.

Koji walked back along the side of the canal and returned to the main street. Just like before, there were two Order guards standing watch with their spears and shields. As he walked past, Koji gave them a friendly nod.

The guards seemed to take a second to recognize him, and their faces lit up once they did. Then they threw Koji two of the most serious salutes he had ever seen. Slightly puzzled by this, Koji returned the salute and made his way back to his house.

After putting the mysterious coin under his pillow with his medal, Koji left his home again and headed down to Rena’s family inn. By now it was starting to get near sundown and he wanted to get something to eat and drink.

He pushed open the door to the inn, seeing the place half full of people who were drinking after the day’s work. In a corner sat a trio of patrons playing cards, and Koji smirked at his prediction about gambling.

Koji was about to sit down at the bar when suddenly a heavy hand fell onto his shoulder.

“Well, well,” said a gruff but somewhat familiar voice behind him. “Would you look who it is.”