When I made it to the end of the narrow back alley, I found four people. It looked to be two men having an argument with two girls. Both of the men seemed the nasty, rough sort, but the girls were exceptionally adorable.

The girls looked to be around my age, perhaps younger. The two of them were so alike that I almost thought I had been seeing double. I wondered if they were twins, perhaps. Looking closer, they had their differences. They looked different around the eyes, and one had long hair while the other wore hers short. But even then, they had the same silver hair.

Both of them wore the same black jacket and white blouse, but the girl with longer hair wore culotte shorts with black knee socks, while the girl with shorter hair wore a flared skirt with black tights. It was easy to tell that the long haired girl was full of energy, while the short haired girl was more neat and composed.

“This isn’t what we agreed on! You said you’d buy it for one gold!” The long haired girl yelled at the men, who both stood grinning as if arrogantly mocking her. One of the men held something like a deer’s antler made of glass.

“Hmm? Whaddya mean? I said we’d buy your Crystal Deer’s antler for one gold if it was in perfect condition. But lookie right here, it’s scratched! A damaged antler’s only worth one silver, so that’s what we’re paying you. Go on, take it and scram!” A single silver coin rolled to the ground at the girls’ feet.

“That doesn’t even count as a scratch! You were never planning on giving us a fair deal, were you...!” The long-haired girl glared menacingly toward the men, while the short-haired girl quietly bit her lip in frustration.



“...Fine. I don’t want your money. Just give us back the antler.” The long-haired girl said that and took a step forward. Disproportionately large gauntlets appeared on her arms as she advanced toward them.

“Oh, afraid we can’t be having that. This was a fair trade, y’know? I never agreed to give it back—”

“Ah, excuse me. Do you have a moment?” I spoke up, and everyone’s eyes fell upon me. The girls seemed confused, but the men looked almost ready to jump me.

“Huh? Whaddya want, kid?” one of the men said with a snarl.

“Ah, not you. I meant the girl over there,” I replied calmly.

“Eh? Me?” was the only response I got from her as I ignored the scowling man and called out to the girl behind him.

“I was just wondering if you might sell me that antler for one gold.” For a moment she stood flabbergasted. Then my words finally seemed to click with her, and she answered me with a smile.

“It’s a deal!”

“The hell it is! Don’t go selling things that belong to other people—” Suddenly, the crystal antler shattered to pieces in the man’s hands. The stone I had thrown met its mark.

“Wha...?! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“Whatever do you mean? I’m free to treat my belongings however I’d like to. Oh, though I guess I haven’t paid for it yet. I’ll do that now.”

“I’ll kill you!” One of the men bellowed as he pulled a knife and charged right at me. I managed to dodge him easily by paying attention to his movements. For some reason I just knew that I’d be able to dodge his attack. I could see everything, from the man’s movements to the knife’s trajectory.

That had to be the result of one of those gifts that God had given me to bolster my body and my senses. I bent down and swept the man’s legs from under him. He collapsed to the ground face-up, and I drove my fist into his body in one swift motion.

“Gah...!” He passed out right on the spot I had knocked him down with that one final grunt. It seemed that the move I’d learned from my grandpa had come in handy.

When I turned around, I noticed that the other man was fighting the long-haired girl. He swung around a hatchet, but he couldn’t seem to get a good hit on her and his blows kept bouncing off her gauntlets. When she saw her chance, the girl stepped forward, quick as lightning, and swung a tremendous right hook straight into the man’s face.

He collapsed to the ground with his eyes rolling back in his head. Amazing.

Well... if I had known it’d be that easy, then maybe I wouldn’t have shattered that crystal antler... I actually regretted doing so. There was no point regretting past decisions. I’d thought to calm the situation peacefully by removing the source of the argument, but it seemed that had been a poor plan. I took one gold coin from my wallet and went to hand it to the long-haired girl.

“Here, one gold coin.”

“...Are you sure? I mean, it’d really help us out, but...”

“It’s fine. I’m the one who smashed the antler to pieces. Wouldn’t be fair to go back on my word now.”

“In that case... thank you.” With that, she accepted the coin with her gauntlet-clad hand.

“Oh, and thanks for helping us out there. I’m Elze Silhoueska, and this is my younger twin sister, Linze Silhoueska.”

“...Thank you very much!” The short-haired girl spat out those words, bowed, and gave me a little smile.

Seemed they were twins, just as I had thought. The long-haired one was Elze, and the short-haired one was Linze. Easy enough to remember. Though I still couldn’t tell them apart except by hairstyle and clothes.

“My name’s Mochizuki Touya. Oh, uh, Touya’s my given name.”

“Hmm... Your given name and family name are backward? Are you from Eashen?”

“Ah... er, yeah. Somewhere around those parts.” Met with the same reaction as Micah from the inn, I just left it at that again. All those reactions did, however, move thoughts of Eashen to the forefront of my mind. I wanted to know what kind of a country it was.