A ship suddenly appeared right in front of my eyes.
It wasn't that large, but it had a strange shape.
The hull was pitch-black, and the deck held silos. Six of them, all told.
At the center of the hull sat an oval white dome. That was probably the bridge.
The dome had a number of black openings in it — portholes, maybe?
Right in the middle of the hull's side, a golden frame was embedded.
The stern was fan-shaped, like a stealth fighter.
At the bow, a pure-white sphere was mounted.
That sphere also had a golden frame attached, connecting it to the center of the hull.
The underside of the hull curved in an arc, with red and blue lights blinking in lines without pause.
Looked closer and they turned out to be thrusters.
The ship's buoyancy seemed to originate from those, but I had no idea how it worked.
"A dimen… sional… teleport ship?"
And "Riv" — no, no matter how you looked at it… that was her, wasn't it.
Hmm. Definitely something to do with her.
"Mm… yeah… the Rujitsa… that's it…"
"Whoa! Riv?!"
Riv was suddenly standing right there. Seriously, when did she even show up?
"Riv…?"
"Mn... so it was... in a place like this..."
She murmured wistfully.
So it really was her ship, then.
"Did you say Lujitsua? You know of it?"
"I... know it... like, way too much..."
"Setting that aside, how are you able to perceive me?"
"Huh?"
"I shift my perception so no one notices me."
Come to think of it, nobody was making a fuss.
I'd felt something was oddly quiet — so that was why.
"Mn... for Riv... that sort of thing is... not even... a thing... nothing."
"Is Riv your name?"
"Mn... yeah. Nice to meet you..."
"I'm Isibara."
"I know... the will of the dungeon... anyway, kid... with this... you can get back to Hydrangea... and it's not even a question of 'a lot'... you absolutely can..."
"Really?"
"Mn... seriously."
In one smooth motion, Riv raised her hand toward the ship — and the scenery changed.
It was a white, elliptical space. There were stepped tiers with six black seats.
Four on the sides, one in the middle, and one at the front.
The elliptical space was narrower than I'd expected, and the ceiling was low.
— Where... is this?
— Probably. We're inside the ship. The bridge.
— The ship's... bridge?
— Mm... that's right... there we go...
She slid into the frontmost seat as though she'd done it a thousand times.
Then she touched and operated the console and control stick — things I'd never seen before — as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
A display materialized in the air above the bridge.
— Um, is this ship yours, Riv?
I worked up the courage to ask.
— No.
— Wait, it's not?
That unexpected answer left me deflated.
— Mm... this thing is... a Jiritsua... fourth ship... one fragment.
— A fragment?
— That is... like a daughter of the Sword Goddess...
— Huh? Is that what it means?
So there was an original, and this ship was just a fragment of it?!
Which would mean this ship was mass-produced.
— A ship of the gods, huh!
"Ugh… something like that… System all… check complete… yep… the multi-tiered mirage jump motors and dimensional wave armor are… degraded… just as I thought…"
"That. I-Is it okay? Like, is it actually fine?"
"That… at that perverted rabbit's… lab… it can be fixed…"
Either way, it looks like I'll have to head back to Hydrangea.
Still, Riv sure does know a lot about all this. Well, I won't say that out loud.
"So, we can go back right now?"
"Mm… we can… head back…"
Then let's do that right away.
"Please."
I nodded.
Riv spoke up.
"Mm… anyway… I'll have us… waiting… in the airspace above…"
"Huh?"
"…We've arrived…"
The scenery shifted to the same view as when we'd entered, and we were… in the courtyard with my home's watchtower.
No doubt about it. This is Hydrangea. We've come back.
But it happened so fast that I barely felt it at all.
"…Where is this place?"
"My house. Ah—"
Isibara had come along with us.
Oh well.
The house was clean.
It seemed like the maids — Mnieka and the others — were constantly tidying up.
"Nobody's here, it seems."
"Looks that way."
Well, at least nobody was startled.
"Hmm... What should we do..."
"Want to go to Cider-tei?"
"What's that?"
"It's a restaurant."
"Like the Berk cafeteria or something?"
"Well, it's a little different, but it's good."
For the first time in a while, I wanted to order a large butter rice.
Isibara, though... with that appearance, she'd stand out. Can't be helped. I guess we'd rent the second floor.
Leaving the house, we headed for Cider-tei.
I had Isibara wear a hood.
"Something..."
Had the town's atmosphere really changed just from us being away for nearly a month?
"Hmm... Something feels off..."
What had changed were the shops. Stores with blue roofs dotted the streets here and there.
Even the convenience stores in my past-life memories weren't this blatant.
There weren't any like this before.
Isibara seemed to think it was strange too.
"Is this some kind of trend in Hydrangea?"
"I'm not sure."
"............The boy... many shops... Highyarn Trading Company and... yes."
"Seriously?"
Looking closely, every shop with a blue roof had "Highyarn Trading Company" on it.
That rabbit. What's it doing?
"Kind of a shock, huh."
"Yeah... Juicy..."
"Leaving is a bit much, though..."
A group of burly men had gathered, talking about Juicy.
They looked quite dejected.
"Hmm... What's that about...?"
"I don't know. Oh, hey, Riv. There's a building over there!"
"............A blue... building..."
"That's huge."
"Something like that. When did that...?"
At the very least, there was no building that big in my memory.
What on earth happened to Hydrangea?
I'm almost there, but Cider-tei hasn't changed... right?
My heart thumping a little, I turned the corner.
Ah, good. Cider-tei was just as it always was.
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A manga adaptation of this work has started.
It's currently being serialized in Square Enix's Manga Up! and doing well.
The art is by Okata Shirodai.
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