The manga edition of Otherworld Transmigrator Adventurer goes on sale on 2/14. The bonus manga at the end of the volume features Primera.
I'd love to go check it out at my usual bookstore on release day, but... it's always a two-day delay in my area, which is just depressing.
"Good grief, what is with that guy... Anyway, changing the subject — what are you planning to do tomorrow?"
After dinner, Lion invited me over to his room to play board games. Before I knew it, all the guys — minus gramps — had started a round-robin tournament. As for gramps, he was in his room savoring liquor brewed in the border margraviate.
The game we were currently playing was Othello. It had the same rules and gameplay as the one from my previous life. Nobody knew who had developed it, but a reincarnator had almost certainly been involved.
As for board games, there were plenty beyond Othello — shogi, chess, sugoroku, even something like a Game of Life. Playing those, I learned that among the four of us, I was on the weaker side at shogi and chess. Well, "weaker" wasn't quite right — I was completely outclassed by Albert and Cain, so it was more a case of me and Lion, who were both on a losing streak against the other two, fighting it out for last place...
Still, I was at least somewhat competitive at Othello, so we'd been running an Othello tournament for a while now — though "somewhat" was generous, and my win rate wasn't anything to brag about.
Lion's remark earlier had come during that last-place showdown.
"Well, sightseeing first, I suppose. While I'm at it, I'd like to check out the Adventurer's Guild and see what kind of quests are available in the Haust border margraviate."
The reason I wanted to go to the Adventurer's Guild was to quickly signal that my relationship with the border margraviate household wasn't bad — I had no intention of actively taking on quests. That said, if there were any quests where I could just hand in materials I already had, I was thinking of picking up a few. Not for the money or to help the Adventurer's Guild, but simply because taking a quest would leave my name in the guild records, which would make for a stronger show of goodwill. Well, that alone wouldn't prove my relationship with the border margraviate household was good, but it could at least help demonstrate that it wasn't bad.
"Yes! I win!"
"Damn it! I lost!"
The Othello match we'd been playing while talking ended with my victory. With that, Lion earned the reverse triple crown title, adding Othello to his already impressive collection of losses in shogi and chess.
"Congrats, Lion!"
"Hey! Cain, don't you go scattering garbage all over my room!"
"It's not garbage — it's celebratory confetti!"
"It's garbage as far as I'm concerned!"
I'd noticed Cain quietly crafting something earlier, but I never expected he'd prepared something like this. And quite a lot of it, at that... Honestly, it was a waste of paper.
"I never would have guessed Tenma was bad at shogi and chess."
"Yeah, that's true. I never would've guessed you'd be an even match with Lion."
"Being an even match with me means you're about average, or maybe just a hair above."
"If it were card games, I think the matches would be a little more competitive, though..."
For some reason, I just couldn't read the flow of the game on the board. I could manage to predict one or two moves ahead, but Albert and Cain always read further than that when moving their pieces. My loss rate against the two of them was a perfect one hundred percent, and even in Reversi I still lost eighty percent of the time.
For what it's worth, Lion's loss rate was also a perfect one hundred percent against all of them. His matches against me, though, were pretty much even — we'd slug it out every single time.
"This might be a stretch, but... maybe Tenma just can't handle fighting someone with equal abilities? And spending most of his time as a solo adventurer could be part of the reason, too."
"What do you mean?"
"What I'm saying is, Tenma's own abilities are so high that his command-type skills ended up underdeveloped. Shogi and chess are games soldiers play to sharpen their tactical command skills, right? But Tenma is a solo adventurer, so he has no need for command ability. Even when he forms a party, it's always a small one — and it's either people who are already strong, or people that Tenma could save in a pinch. So his ability to read ahead just never had room to grow."
Cain phrased it as a question, but he clearly had confidence in his theory. There were parts of his reasoning that made sense to me, sure, but there were also parts I couldn't honestly bring myself to agree with. Because,
"If that's the case, then at heart Tenma is basically a musclehead!"
...that's exactly what I expected someone to say next. But getting called that by Lion — the biggest musclehead in the group — would have really ticked me off... or at least, that's what I was thinking, when —
"Well, there's a pretty big gap between a musclehead who defeated an ancient dragon zombie and a musclehead who nearly got killed by a wyvern, so it's not really a fair comparison." Albert said that with a look of exasperation on his face.
"Even if he is a musclehead, he defeated an ancient dragon zombie, so Tenma will absolutely be remembered as a historic hero for generations to come. Meanwhile, Lion, who nearly got killed by a wyvern... at best, people would say, 'Well, he sure tried hard.' At worst,
a hero's
deadweight who held the hero back' — that's the legacy people might pass down."
"Besides, Tenma was never expected to have command-type abilities in the first place, so having them be somewhat low doesn't make him a musclehead."
Albert jumped in to defend me as well, picking up right where Cain left off. Completely outnumbered, Lion was losing steam, but he still managed to protest: "You guys were there too when the wyvern nearly killed me!" To which they both shot back in unison, "We're different from you, Lion — we're strong at shogi and chess." I thought their reply was a bit off-topic, but it completely broke Lion.
"Anyway, let's leave that alone and play something else."
"Yeah, I'm getting tired of board games and they take forever. How about we play some cards?"
And so, since the opportunity was there, we decided to invite Jeanne and the others to join in as well.
"Alright then, Lion. As punishment for the loser, you're going to go hit on the girls."
"It's just Old Maid and other simple games, so there's no punishment — but make sure you actually go through with it!"
Ordered by the two of them to go call over the girls, Lion set off — but the shock from earlier still lingered, and he shuffled along like a zombie with unsteady steps.
The moment Lion left, I asked about the odd feeling I'd gotten from Cain's earlier remark, and
"The truth is, back when Lion and I were students, we invited some girls from our class to a card game, and every single one of them suspected there was some kind of ulterior motive behind it. Not one of them showed up. It was a pretty humiliating experience."
"Back then, Lion must have looked like he had the most lecherous expression on his face. I mean, I can't say we didn't have any impure thoughts of our own, but he's the type where those kinds of feelings show on his face real easy. Plus, he's not exactly the smoothest talker."
That was the gist of it. Hearing that, I felt a flicker of unease — but the two of them assured me that Lion had grown somewhat since then and wouldn't mess up that badly with people he already knew. So I decided to trust their judgment.
However, a few minutes later, who appeared at the door were Jeanne and Aura looking frightened, Chris wearing an expression of pure fury, and Lion and Amour being dragged along by the scruff of their necks by that very Chris.
The instant I saw that scene, "Ah… Lion, that idiot, he did something…" — we immediately regretted sending him out there alone.
"Albert, Cain, Tenma… Care to explain what you mean by enjoying some Old Maid?"
For a moment, we were completely frozen, unable to process what Chris was saying. We only managed to reboot when Chris, still wearing that furious expression and still gripping Lion and Amour by the backs of their necks, took a single step forward.
Sensing that things were about to get dire, we desperately began to explain ourselves. The result…
"Then let's get started! Come on, Cain, deal the cards already!"
We had somehow managed to clear up Chris's misunderstanding. However, it was only a misunderstanding directed at the three of us — Lion and Amour were far from forgiven.
As for the two who weren't forgiven, they were forced to sit seiza in the hallway. And to make matters worse, they were positioned right where they could be seen through the open door, so they couldn't even secretly relax their legs.
Incidentally, the reason Chris was so angry was this: Lion had challenged Amour by saying "Let's settle this with Old Maid!" and Amour had replied "Old Maid… Okay Chris, I'm heading out for a bit," to which Lion burst out laughing and said "Not that kind of old!" It was, frankly, a reason so stupid it defied description.
As it turned out, Old Maid was considered bad luck, so the rules were changed to a game called Grandpa Slap instead.
"There you go… By the way, Senior Chris. You've been getting pretty tough on Amour lately, haven't you?"
Cain had finished dealing the cards and was straightening his hand as he spoke to Chris. It was true — Amour, who could be quite willful, did seem to listen to Chris more than most people. Well, "more than most" was the key phrase, since Amour still ended up causing trouble more often than not, but just being able to get Amour to listen at all was impressive enough. Among those in the Royal Capital, the person Amour listened to the most was actually Grandpa, followed by Maria, and then Chris.
"Oh, that's easy. Whenever Amour starts getting too full of herself, I just whisper one little thing in her ear: 'I'll tell Hana about this.' Hana and I teamed up during the fighting tournament, and we agreed to keep in touch through letters after that. In one of those letters, she told me, 'If Amour ever causes trouble, please let me know. If she gets out of hand, I may have to consider bringing her back to the south.' So, well, I'm not a monster — I never planned to report her unless she actually crossed the line… but if it's something I can't handle on my own, I'll have no choice but to let Hana know, right?"
"I'm sorry, Chris. Please don't tell Mom."
When Chris shot Amour a glance toward the end, Amour immediately dropped to the floor in a full prostration apology. If she hated the idea of being dragged back to the south that much, she really should have just stopped teasing Chris.
"Reflexes are terrifying…"
It seemed like Amour had some kind of gene that forced her to tease Chris no matter what. Chris looked exasperated at the answer, and Amour's kneeling session was extended as a result. For the record, throughout the entire exchange between the two of them, Lion hadn't said a single word. The reason, apparently, was that "her legs had gone numb and she didn't have the energy to open her mouth."
"Well, there's no point worrying about those two. Let's get started."
Chris said this, and the game of Old Maid kicked off — but even during the game, Chris kept her watchful eyes fixed on the pair in the hallway. Lion, oblivious to this, would occasionally try to shift her leg position, only to be glared at by Chris each time. Amour seemed to have more leeway than Lion, but even so, the prolonged kneeling was clearly taking its toll.
"Hey-hey!"
"Lion, shut up!"
She was using Lion as a sacrifice to create moments where she could ease her own legs. The method, in case you were wondering, was for Amour to swat or tickle Lion's feet with her tail. Though she had been caught by Chris and given a good bonk on the head after doing it one too many times.
"Royal Flush!"
After several rounds of Old Maid, they had now moved on to a Grand Daifugou tournament. It all started because the door had been left wide open, letting voices echo into the hallway, which Grandpa heard and came to investigate.
With Grandpa's arrival, Chris suggested they switch away from Old Maid to something else, and they settled on playing with five people and a rule where commoners would rotate out.
"I've risen to Rich!"
Unlike chess or shogi, Daifugou incorporated reversal mechanics like "Revolution" and "Eight Cuts," so even Jeanne and Aura — who had both said they were bad at board games — could aim for the top spots. For the record, Grandpa had been sitting in the Rich or Grand Rich position since the start, and Aura could somehow only manage to be Rich when she was a Commoner, so neither of them had been swapped out even once.
"Um… how much longer do we have to stay kneeling…"
"Oh! Cain, you're too slow with the Revolution!"
"Sorryyy~. Tenma, you're up next."
Something like that — Chris and Cain had been ignoring Lion's question for a while now. Meanwhile, Amour had apparently figured out a way to make the prolonged kneeling more bearable by propping herself up with her tail. At the moment, she was sleeping peacefully right beside the suffering Lion.
"Hmm? I think it might be about time to wrap this up. Jeanne looks like she's at her limit."
Sure enough, just as Grandpa said, Jeanne — who had been waiting for her turn — was rowing the boat.
"Oh, is it already that time? Then let's call it a day. Aura, take Jeanne with you. Amour, wake up."
The women said they'd head back first, so the men agreed to quickly tidy up Lion's room before returning. While they were cleaning, they heard a voice shout, "Amour! Your room is the other way!" — likely because Amour had been pretending to still be half-asleep and trying to sneak into my room.
"Oof — guuh! Albert, Cain... help me up, I can't stand..."
Lion had been freed now that Chris was gone, but his legs were still numb and he couldn't get to his feet. He was making strange noises while pleading with the two of them for help.
"Can't be helped. Cain, grab that side. We'll carry him together."
"Ro~ger~ that."
"Thanks, much appreciated — wait, hold on! Stop dragging me! My legs are done for! Aaagghghh!"
The two grabbed Lion under the arms and hauled him toward the bed with considerable momentum. Lion's still-numb legs kept hitting the threshold of the floor and chairs along the way, and he screamed every single time. He was so loud that Chris, who had supposedly already left, came back and scolded all three of them. It was that side of Chris that had apparently caught Edillia's eye. Sure enough, while Chris was chewing the three of them out, Edillia showed up and kept nodding as she watched Chris quietly berate them.
"Ah! Tenma, let me borrow Shiromaru!"
After scolding the three of them, Chris suddenly remembered and asked to borrow Shiromaru. Shiromaru himself was fond of Chris, so that wasn't an issue, but I wasn't quite sure what she needed him for.
"As a body pillow?"
"That too, but this is also for your sake."
I'd only half-jokingly said body pillow, and she'd confirmed it immediately, which caught me off guard. But what surprised me even more was her saying it was for me — my confusion outweighed my shock.
"Think about it — there's no guarantee Amour won't try to sneak into your room while I'm asleep. I'd like to think she wouldn't go so far as to break the lock to get in, but Amour sometimes does things you'd never expect... So as a precaution, I want to bring Shiromaru to your room."
The reasoning was that even Amour, with her wild movements, wouldn't stand a chance against a real
animal.
Though I was a bit worried about how much of Shiromaru's ability to outmatch Amour in that
feral regard
still remained... But Slarin was in my room too, so even if Shiromaru couldn't live up to expectations, it should be fine.
"Thanks. Alright then, let's go, Shiromaru!"
"Woof."
"Oh? Where are you going, Shiromaru? ...Oh, right. The bathroom. Best to take care of that before bed, huh."
I summoned Shiromaru from my bag, and the moment Chris stepped into the hallway with Shiromaru tagging along behind, the little creature dove straight out the window. Chris let out a startled cry for an instant, but watching Shiromaru's behavior, he quickly understood.
"For now, I'll just dump a bucket of water on it. Shiromaru, keep watch on Amour for me, will you?"
"Woof!"
It was unclear whether Shiromaru truly understood, but after letting out a single bark, the creature obediently followed Chris this time.
"Well then, goodnight."
After saying my goodbyes to the old men, I used the bathroom and then headed back to my room. Now I just had to lock the door properly, ask Slarin to handle Amour, and then I could sleep until morning.
"Solomon. Whatever you do, don't let yourself get lured by treats and open the lock, got it?"
"Kyuu!"
As Solomon let out a protesting cry that clearly said, "How could you even think that of me?," I crawled under the covers.