Hey everyone. Time for an early post. I wasn’t really planning on posting this today but I’ve been having a great day even though I’ve only been awake for 2 hours at the time of this post. I plan to make a rant post in a couple of minutes to get my feelings out of my system.

This chapter today has been brought to you by my procrastination on writing a term paper that was due the next day. So I finished this on Tuesday, worried about the paper until I went to sleep Tuesday, then wrote my 13-page paper Wednesday which took me all day while I was at work (I thank the Gods that I have a bit of a laid back job that allowed me to do that), and then I forgot to post it until today.

Now, fair warning, since I am posting this today, and was busy with school until now, as well as the fact that I only read through the next chapter to see what it’s about, I might not be able to get a chapter in by my usual time. I will work hard to do it since I want to keep my word on getting a chapter done every Friday/Saturday. Fortunately, the chapter isn’t long but, I’m just giving you a heads up.

Well, enough of this rant. I’ll give a longer one in a couple of minutes. In the mean time, enjoy.

The Agent and the Hero Express

Hello everyone.

I am the Holy Ulquiorra Religious Organization 『Agent』 Bernadette.

I, who was dispatched for the sake of completing a certain mission in secrecy, have met a single male in this land of Lizwadia.

His name is Yuu Yashiro-san. At the beginning, since he had the same first and last name as the assassination target, and moreover, possessing the same characteristics, I was about to ki☆ him but, having immediately felt that he was a different person, I averted the muzzle of my Magic Gun up, and it ended with me shooting with a *Bakyuun* at a hair’s breadth away from him.

He, even though I shot at him with a *Dokyuun*, stayed silent and gave me some food.

That’s right, he is a very kind, big-hearted male.

But him being a bit……no, unbelievably ecchi is a flaw though.

However, this encounter is probably what is known as God’s favor. I give thanks for this wonderful encounter.

That is what I thought.

That Yashiro-san, right now, is killing me.

「Ueeeeeeehhh」

Getting on all fours, I am in the middle of returning to the earth the large amount of foodstuff that I ate for breakfast.

Never again, as if I’d ride on a person’s shoulders ever again!

「Don’t talk in a way that sounds like it’s my fault. It’s because you were being annoying about coming along that I brought you with me, isn’t it? 」

「Isn’t making a maiden spew out vomit something one would never consider!」

Getting offended by Yashiro-san’s facial expression that looked like he was amazed by me, I stood up while my legs were staggering.

「The one who still hasn’t been hit yet should be the one to put up with it! Besides, just what the heck were those movements!」

Just when I was looking forward to having Yashiro-san give me a piggyback, a sudden sharp acceleration attacked me, and then various movements of left, right, up, down, and rotations were received with this body and several hours had passed……no, I was astonished. When I looked at the angle of the sun, it still hadn’t passed a few tens of minutes.

「Oya?」

When I tried to see the angle of the sun, having raise my head to look up, in my field of vision, a large shadow had come into it.

When I tried to stare at what it could possibly be, I understood that it was an unbelievably colossal large tree.

「……It couldn’t be, the Spirit Tree 『Eeast』?[1]……, So in short, this place is 『Altiera』[2], is it?」

In the south-western part of the continent, there exists an enormous tree that reaches even up to the clouds.

That large tree that is said have the possibility of being seen from the center of the continent if the weather is fine, is called the Spirit Tree 『Eeast』.

Since Eeast is a word in ancient Ishrel that possesses the meaning of “source”, “origin”, and “beginning”, in myth, it is treated as the first 『existence』 to form in this world.

The vast sea of trees that spread with that Spirit Tree as the center was 『Actvarte』.[3]

And then, at the base of the Spirit Tree, as if surrounded by 『Actvarte』, there exists a settlement of various sub-humans, starting with the Elves.

The sub-humans’ kingdom 『Altiera』. It seems to mean 『the Heart’s Country』 in a language from somewhere.

Where we were was, the Spirit Tree’s base, the sub-humans’ settlement. Though I say settlement, from that vastness, it boasted a size enough for a single town. In the vicinity, starting with the Elves, there were various relatively popular sub-humans such as Centaurs and Harpies that were coming and going. It was busy. It would seem that the place we were at was something like the main street.

Not being buildings made of brick like the ones we lived in, it was full of relatively simple buildings using things like wood and straw.

Could it be that because there aren’t any earthquakes nor typhoons in the vicinity of the Spirit Tree that the buildings are like this?

「Bernadette. You……Do you hate sub-humans?」

Yashiro-san had a somewhat cool, yet somewhat bitter facial expression.

……I see, Yashiro-san is a pro-sub-human race person.

「No. The “sub-human races should be suppressed” idea is the hardline faction’s fabrication.

Originally, in the scriptures, although there is differentiation, there is not a single sentence written in it that says that sub-humans are an evil existence.

In the first place, I believe that the way of saying differentiation is already just discrimination. Though it’s said that people are superior, from the start, that’s just something done by our human ancestors whose job was to maintain the world’s equilibrium.

Though I say this, nowadays, there are many believers that think that sub-humans are existences lower than themselves and despise them.

We, who maintain equilibrium, can only think of the idea of destroying the equilibrium and becoming the top as mere cynicism. Oh, that’s right, this is also something pretty recent but―――」

「Ah~, it’s fine already, it’s fine. Since I understand that Bernadette is alright with sub-humans, it’s fine already, thank you.」

Wha, how rude! Even though I answered while taking the trouble to mingle it together with the religious organization’s behind-the-scenes circumstances, for him to treat it so lightly……

「Mu~. ……By the way, Yashiro-san, why go to Altiera? ………Rather, please wait a moment. This Altiera takes one week by carriage from Lizwadia, doesn’t it? Even though we should have departed just before noon, it’s still just before noon, isn’t it?」

From Lizwadia, which is close to the center on the map, to this south-western location would take about one week to reach it.

That’s because, from this large forest containing the Spirit Tree to Lizwadia, the plains doesn’t have anything to block the continuing path.

Monsters don’t come out and thieves don’t come separately to such a place. It’s because they can’t do a surprise attack without hiding themselves.

Therefore, if you go with a certain amount of speed, one can arrive here from Lizwadia with about one week.

……Despite that, having departed from Lizwadia just a little while ago, it doesn’t even look like the sun has gone down.

「……B, by going to the extreme, it becomes possible for the Quick Move magic to make high speed movement that is close to transferring. As a defect, it seems that if you ride on the shoulders, you get enough discomfort to make you vomit!」

「Wh, what was that~!?」

It’s amazing! To take the Wind elementary level magic, which is referred to as high speed movement, to the extreme and become able to possess enough movement power to be able to call it a transference! Rather, if you knew about it, tell me about it before hand!

「W, well, let’s put that aside. If they haven’t changed residence since the last time I came here, an acquaintance should be here.」

「An acquaintance……Is it a woman?」

「Nn? ……Yeah, it is, what about it?」

Hu~n. ……So it’s gonna be another erotic talk, huh, is that so~.

While having a charming woman like me nearby, to go meet with a woman in such a distant location, I think that is already plenty rude but what do you think, lady-killer-san?

「You’re probably making another weird misunderstanding but, it’s probably not something like what you’re thinking of. ……If I had to say it, it’s a 『kindred soul』.」

At that bird of prey like smile, even my eyes were held tight by it.

…………Even though he’d be considerably cool if he were serious like this, just why is he always going full throttle with such a deplorable aura?

「Come on, let’s go.」

「uu………」

My hand being pulled, we crossed the crowd of people. Not being painful, yet being powerful………it’s kind of like, Yashiro-san really is a disappointing male in various ways.

Translator’s Notes:

[1] I can’t figure out a good spelling for this. Original: エーアスト

[2] Original: アルティエラ

[3] Original: アクトヴァルト