Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash Volume 6

“...Besides, I can’t see that well without my glasses,” Tada confessed.

“Ohh. Yeah, glasses and helmets don’t work together that well, huh.”

“Either way, I don’t need one.”

“You’re a stubborn man, Tada.” Tokimune laughed and twisted his head
around. The kobolds still hadn’t attacked yet. “They’re spooked, huh. By us.
Hey, Tada. You up for a competition? See who can kill more?”

“No way.”

“Huh? Why not?”

“I know I’d win. It’s pointless. Let’s do something better.”

“What?” Tokimune asked.

“See who can get out of the Cyrene Mines first.”

“I like it. I’m in.”

“I’ll win.” Tada stepped forward and swung down with his two-handed sword.
There was a howl. One kobold collapsed.

Not one to be beaten, Tokimune charged forward, thrusting his sword into a
kobold’s mouth. He soon lost the leeway to keep tabs on how Tada was
fighting. After Tokimune took down the kobold, he used its body as a meat
shield as he killed another.

“Ha ha! Ha ha!” He could hear Tada laughing.

He was having so much fun that, even as he was almost buried in the pile of
kobold corpses, Tokimune smiled. With a smile, he thrust his sword out through
a gap in the bodies.

“Gah...!”

That was Tada’s voice. Tokimune turned to look. Tada was down on all fours.
Had he been hit? Better go help him, thought Tokimune, but he couldn’t make
his way there through the bodies.

“Weren’t you going to win this, Tada?!” he shouted.

Tada tried to rise. It didn’t work. He wasn’t fast enough. One elder kobold got

to Tada.
Someone grabbed that elder kobold violently from behind, snapping its neck.
“...Old man!” Tokimune cried.
“My name is Inui!” The thief, Inui, who looked like a middle-aged guy if ever

there was one, went on to break another kobold’s neck. “I am Inui the Demon
Lord! Behold my supremacy!”

“You make no sense!” Tada took his time getting up, then swung his two-
handed sword around chopping up kobolds. Tokimune pushed aside the
corpses, too, kicking a kobold and stabbing it with his sword.

“Being the old man you are, we thought you’d ditched on us!” Tokimune
shouted.

“The Demon Lord never flees! He never curries favor! Butter Roll!” Inui
seemed to be in a weird state of mind. He went around snapping kobold necks,
snap, snap, one after another. “Also! I’m only twenty! Not an old man!”

“Seriously?” Tokimune was so surprised that he just stood there for a second.
Not good. He was wide open. The kobolds didn’t take advantage, though. Inui
and Tada were on such a rampage that they didn’t have time to. Naturally,
Tokimune had no intention of letting those two have all the fun.

“Inui! You get in on this, too!” he shouted. “First one out of the Cyrene Mines
wins! Got it?!”

“May the darkness of ruin spread through the world’s dawn! I, the Demon
Lord, shall be victorious!”

“I’m going to win!” Tada yelled.
“Nuh-uh! I’m the one who’s gonna win!” Tokimune called back.

Encyclopedia of Rare and Bizarre Beasts

“What the hell?”
Anna-san crouched down, dejected. She was all alone in the Old City of

Damuro. Maybe wandering away from her comrades to relieve herself had
been a bad idea. But what else could she have done? Anna-san’s stomach had
been bothering her since that morning. In other words, she had told them she
was going to take a leak, but there was the risk it wouldn’t end there. As such,
she couldn’t very well do it nearby.

“After all, Anna-san is a lady, yeah? Yeah...?”

What was more, it had taken her a long time. But she couldn’t have stopped
in the middle and gone back to ask them to wait for her. That would have been
really awkward. Besides, though she called them her comrades, it wasn’t as
though they were close. It was a party that felt like a mish-mash of leftover
people, one that hadn’t even formed that long ago.

It had been a little over thirty days since she’d come to Grimgar. Anna-san
had been through a number of parties. She knew why. Her language. It was
unclear why, but while she could more or less understand pretty much
everything the other volunteer soldiers and residents of Alterna said, she
couldn’t speak the same language as them very well.

No one else was like Anna-san. This was shocking, and made for a tough
situation. Even so, Anna-san tried to speak her mind. It made her feel awkward
if she didn’t. However, no matter what she said, they didn’t try to understand
her.

Not many pushed back against her openly, but all of them disliked having
Anna-san around, and she was treated as a nuisance. If she protested the unfair
treatment, things only got worse, and ultimately the party would break up.
However, later Anna-san would sometimes find that everyone but herself was
working together again. In other words, they had worked together to stage the
breakup of the party just to rid themselves of her. They didn’t have to go to all
that trouble — they could have just chased Anna-san out. Thanks for nothing!

She knew what was up. It had played out differently this time, but it was the
same thing. Anna-san was in her comrades’ way. That was why when Anna-san
went off on her own to take a leak and didn’t come back for a while, they took
that as their cue to leave. Anna-san had been left behind. In the middle of the
goblin-infested Old City of Damuro. They had basically told her to go to hell. The

dummies!

There was a sound behind her. Anna-san turned and looked in surprise. When
she saw what looked like a goblin in the distance, she panicked and quickly tried
to hide in the shadow of a nearby building. For some time, she held her breath
and stayed still. When she timidly peeked out, the goblin was nowhere to be
seen. She was relieved, but then her stomach started to hurt again.

“Ow... Wow... No... Tummy pain...”

Anna-san sweated profusely and writhed in pain. As she did, she thought she
heard something like breathing. When she turned to look, wondering what it
was, the goblin was right next to her, sword raised above its head. It was about
to swing down at Anna-san.

“...Oh, my God!”

It never occurred to her to run away. Her mind went blank. Anna-san was
about to be killed before she had the time to think, I’m dead.

Until a woman cut the goblin down, or rather pulverized it with her sword.
“Hah!”

There was one awfully large female warrior in the party. She wore a horned
helm, chain mail, and was the tallest in the group despite being a woman. That
warrior suddenly appeared behind the goblin.

She clobbered it in the head with the flat of her blade, not the cutting edge
for some reason. It was an incredibly wide swing. That only meant it was that
much more powerful, because the goblin was swept to the side and fell down.
The female warrior then jumped into the air, stomping down on the goblin’s
head. There was a wet noise as its head caved in and blood splashed all over. It
even got on Anna-san’s face.

“Wha... Wha... Wha... How...?” Anna gasped.

“You okay?” With no expression on her face, the female warrior offered
Anna-san her hand. Anna-san was trembling, so the female grabbed her by the
arm, pulled her up, then lifted her up and carried her. “You don’t look okay.”

“Y-You... Wha...?” Anna-san sputtered.

“You cute critter,” said the female warrior. “I was worried, so I came looking.”

Queued quitter? The female warrior said something that sounded like
nonsense to Anna-san, and then she frowned a little.

“The others wandered off. Useless trash. I’m sick and tired of them.”

“Why, you...” Anna-san began.

“You’re cute. I was worried.” The female warrior started to walk, still carrying
Anna-san. “Call me Mimorin.”

“...Mimorin?”

“Yes. Mimorin. And you’re Anna-san. Okay?”

“...Okay,” Anna-san said.

Mimorin smiled slightly.

Anna-san kept looking at Mimorin’s face for a long time.

The Dozing Yorozu

The Yorozu Deposit Company operated year round, never taking a holiday,
from seven in the morning to seven at night. At any time, for any purpose, the
fourth Yorozu would be waiting at her window to handle business.

There was always a steady stream of customers—or that was what she would
have liked to say, but on occasion, there were times when it was oddly dead.

Yorozu sat behind the counter on her personal leather chair. She wore a red
and white outfit accented with gold that had been tailored specifically for her,
as well as a gold-rimmed monocle. She also had a golden pipe.

The fourth Yorozu was poised, with an air of composure. Of course she was.
For she was a Yorozu. No matter what might happen, or when, a Yorozu always
had to be able to respond with a ready wit. Even if she had “free time,” that
changed nothing. A Yorozu was to make appropriate use of such “free time.”
Yes, for instance, this time, the present Yorozu was thinking about her
predecessor.

The previous Yorozu had been her great-grandfather. He had remained in

service until the age of 92, reigning from his glorious position at the window of
the Yorozu Deposit Company. Then, only half a year after relinquishing his seat
to this fourth Yorozu, he’d died of trivial causes. By the will of her great-
grandfather she had inherited his position and become the fourth Yorozu.

There had been resistance within the company to the idea of a young girl like
her becoming Yorozu. The truth was, even her own father and grandfather had
opposed her great-grandfather on this. Despite that, her great-grandfather had
held firm. The reason was clear. When compared to her father, her grandfather,
and her elder brothers, or the head clerk, the sales clerks, the apprentices,
compared to anyone else, she was the most fit to be Yorozu. That was why she
had become the Yorozu. These words from her great-grandfather were carved
deeply into the back of her mind:

One does not become a Yorozu. One cannot become a Yorozu. A Yorozu is born
a Yorozu.

She understood well what her predecessor had meant. For as far back as she
could remember, she had not once forgotten a thing. When she’d realized her
memory was unnaturally good, she had prepared herself to become the Yorozu.
Only her great-grandfather had known how prepared she was. Her father, her
grandfather, her elder brothers... no one else had known. That was because her
great-grandfather had been just as she was. A Yorozu knows another Yorozu.
No one but a Yorozu can understand a Yorozu.

It seemed that, as she had been embracing the memories of her predecessor,
with whom she had shared a unique and absolute closeness, and for whom she
felt a limitless affection for, the Yorozu, of all people, had fallen asleep at her
post.

When she opened her eyes, she saw a young man with a rather drab face and
sleepy-looking eyes standing there idly.

“Wh-What are you doing, insolent one?” the Yorozu demanded.

“...Uh, it looked like you were taking a nap. You seemed to be enjoying it, so
I’d have felt bad waking you, y’know.”

“I-I was doing no such thing. The Yorozu does not nap.”

“Is that how it is?” the insolent one asked.

“I-Indeed. The Yorozu is a Yorozu, you see.”

“Wow... That must be tough. I mean, on an afternoon like this, you get
awfully sleepy, don’t you?” When the insolent one covered his mouth with one
hand as he yawned, it nearly made the Yorozu yawn, too.

The Yorozu banged her golden pipe on the counter. “The Yorozu is not sleepy,
and does not have free time to waste in idle banter. State your business,
insolent one!”

“You look pretty tired to me, though?”

“Your business!”

“Right. ...Hold on, how long are you going to keep calling me ‘insolent one,’
anyway?”

“Forever! For so long as the fourth Yorozu remains Yorozu, Haruhiro, you will
always, allllways be the insolent one!”

“Whaa...” The insolent one scratched the back of his head and sighed. “Well, I
guess it’s fine.”

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Copyright

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: Volume 6
by Ao Jyumonji
Translated by Sean McCann Edited by Emily Sorensen

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the
product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2015 Ao Jyumonji Illustrations by Eiri Shirai All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2015 by OVERLAP
This English edition is published by arrangement with OVERLAP, Inc., Tokyo
English translation © 2017 J-Novel Club LLC

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the
scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the
permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s
intellectual property.

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Ebook edition 1.0: November 2017
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