โลกแฟนตาซีแห่งสุนัขกับเวทมนตร์ — Section 1

## Illustrations

## Character Introductions

Titan Gusui. A powerfully built man standing over two hundred limi tall. A third-year student at the Court University in the capital.

Yamega Raikura. Not a classmate of Titan’s, but a member of the university club as an external student.

Rude. One of Titan’s male good-for-nothing friends. A dwarf.

Roel Chototsu. One of Titan’s male good-for-nothing friends. A dark elf, a rarity in the present day.

Yangon. A scion of royalty attending the same university as Titan.

Kenyumo. A middle-aged adventurer. A senior of the adventure club at Titan’s university.

Idia. President of the university adventure club Titan belongs to. Conceited.

Cheri. A new member of Titan’s club. A member of the idol group Elven.

Kuin. A new member of Titan’s club. A member of the idol group Elven.

Little White. A white dog Titan rescued on an adventure.

## Chapter One

The crimson carpet looked as though it had drunk blood. Upon it knelt three young people. All three wore black armor of the same cut. Knights, surely. Judging by that posture of warriors who had given their all in service to the nation, there could be no other possibility.

And yet that was not so. What the young people wore was only business dress derived from plate, cloth sewn with metal plates. In the present age, “armor” means precisely this sort of textile. Such clothing has few uses. One of them—though people usually call it by a more common name—is an audience.

The young people were being received in audience.

Before their eyes sat three men in the prime of life. These three wore plain, practical business clothes that could hardly be called formal dress. That meant their station stood above the young people’s.

“Raise your heads,” one of the men in their prime said.

The young people raised their heads. At such a moment etiquette required the helmet to be cradled under the left arm. It must never be set upon the ground; that would be the height of discourtesy. The gesture was an imitation of knights, and yet these three were not knights. What, then, were they?

The largest of the three men gave his name.

“A—a third-year student of the Faculty of Poetry, Department of Literature, at the Eastern Capital Court University. Eldest son of the house of Gusui. My name is Titan.”

The guess was right. They were university students. Not ordinary university students: university students looking for work. Right after the big man called Titan, the other two each gave their university and their name. In plainer words—a group intervi……

## Chapter Two

To the other five continents, the “New Continent” was the last of the world’s six to be discovered. Its history therefore skipped antiquity and began straight from the Middle Ages.

Even the modern buildings lining the great streets show, here and there, traces of that fact.

Palaces and other buildings with a history are medieval Igni style, and the classical forms so often seen in other countries are almost nowhere to be found.

Another great feature is that a fully mature class system was imported outright.

Chivalry, for example, is one of the cultures brought in from outside.

In ancient society, only the wealthy classes were fortunate enough to obtain a place as cavalry in the army. To win new territory and slaves, they went to war in powerful gear at the head of private troops.

Beyond the “New Continent,” a bloody history of plunder repeated itself without end.

In those days chivalry did not exist at all.

When a war drew to a close, the political center shifted to the palace. Plunder, that tactless word, was either left unspoken or replaced by the word crusade.

Plunder is plunder. Chivalry is chivalry.

That said, the “New Continent” did have indigenous peoples. Each could only be called a minor power, yet those small indigenous peoples had developed cultures of their own. Elves, for instance. Dwarves. Barbarian humans.

Set beside the other five continents of that age, their level of civilization was considerably low. In the blink of an eye those peoples were swallowed up; they became slaves, or they were driven out.

Because territory expanded so sharply, on the continent’s……

## Chapter Three

After that, a week passed.

Never mind the meetings—Yamega did not appear in the club room at all.

There was only one thing about her that Titan could admire.

When it came to choosing the moment to run, there was probably no woman above Yamega.

Elven’s Cheri and Kuin now reigned in the place Yamega had once occupied.

“We’ve explained the circumstances to the university and received permission to use stage names. So, day to day, it would be best if you didn’t call me Cheri, but used the name Despia.”

As you wish.

Everyone fawned.

“Likewise, please call me Benred, not Kuin.”

As you wish.

Everyone flattered.

“But Kuin—no, Benred—even went so far as to set up an identity as an Elven attendant, just in case, and it fell apart at once.”

“That’s probably your fault. This doesn’t count as a disguise at all.”

Kuin seemed to have truly wanted to conceal who she was. Her makeup was a greater change than usual; you could see she had really tried not to stand out.

Cheri, on the other hand, showed no sign of disguise whatsoever.

Even someone who wasn’t Roel could have seen through it easily.

“Ah, my lord—if you are so on guard against having your identity found out, why did you give your name yourself?”

Roel asked it, making no effort to hide the feelings of a fanatic devotee, already half transformed into someone else.

Cheri answered her subjects.

“Only because I wanted to build a relationship of mutual trust with everyone. But given who I am in the entertainment world, I can’t go shouting it about……

## Chapter Four

On the railcar home, he checked his phone.

He had nearly dropped it, and after that so many grave things had happened that he had not looked at it again.

Fortunately it was not broken.

And in Liangyuan, the correspondence magic by which one can exchange short messages, there were already several dozen notes.

Every sender was Yamega.

✝

“Little White threw up.”

Yamega caught him at the station.

The instant he replied through Liangyuan, she asked where he was.

“She’s thrown up so many times. Even when there’s nothing left but stomach fluid she can’t stop. This is bad. She might die. I took her to a vet with Yupu [Translator’s note: a character from Zhongming.], but they still don’t know the cause.”

“Yupu?”

“An acquaintance of Kenyumo’s. The person we left Little White with.”

“Ah. Right……”

A retired adventurer, he had heard.

“What do we do? Even breathing looks painful, and it feels like the symptoms keep getting worse. Poor thing.”

“Is she suffocating?”

Yamega said no.

“But she looks like she’s suffering so much I can’t watch anymore.”

“All we can do is find a famous vet……”

“I can introduce you to one.”

Kenyumo, who had been watching the two of them from behind, cut in.

They had swayed for three hours on the limited express and finally arrived, only to go home empty-handed.

“That’s not how it is!”

It was an elf.

It had bitten its companion to death.

Because the place was so dangerous, the kingdom had designated the land a development-forbidden zone. Citizens could not enter without permission.

“This,” the veterinarian said, his face clouding. “About this disease, there is still a great deal unknown. After all, the ill……

## Chapter Five

The details were as follows.

Up to the North Ridge, the work of establishing the base and the route had gone according to plan.

Twenty students in all, plus Cheri, Kuin, and Yamega—three more—had successfully summited the North Peak. Setting the footholds required to challenge Mistblow Mountain from the North Peak had also gone extremely smoothly.

The party, still with strength to spare, advanced south.

Shouldering the baggage that had been carried to the summit of the North Ridge—four thousand nine hundred mi—they set out along a descent no one had ever walked.

Between peak and peak, at an elevation of three thousand eight hundred mi, there was a broad, nearly level gentle slope. That was their objective. Beyond it, steep mountain country rose again, and a brutal route that could not be called a path continued all the way past five thousand mi to the true summit.

That gentle slope was where the relay camp was to be built.

The work was divided.

A group that simply ferried supplies to the relay camp, going back and forth between the far side of the North Peak and this side.

An advance party that surveyed ahead and laid out the route.

And then the five parties preparing for the attempt. The students were split among the five parties. In each party there were several seasoned adventurers.

There was also the special program-filming unit Cheri and Kuin had brought; the two of them were to record the program while concealing that they were students. Thanks to that, more budget had been added, and the parties were able to use the finest equipment.

To anyone’s eye, the preparations were thorough in every respect.

In the morning, the advance party set out. Three teams in all.

Because, to keep the students from being killed or injured, the best line had to be chosen. It was precisely becau……

## Afterword

……I didn’t make the deadline.

It feels as though I stepped two paces past the range where people could still laugh and forgive me. I broke into a cold sweat. Thinking there was no way this could go on sale on time, I nearly raised the white flag any number of times (I did raise it). And yet, somehow, I finished writing it. Why……?

Anyway, I made it, but the people on site must have taken enormous damage.

“That ○○ (real name)—he really had the nerve!”

—Editor-in-chief, Shogakukan Second Manga Department, COROIC

“○○ (real name) again! Know when to stop!”

—Deputy section chief, Book Sales Section One, Shogakukan Market Strategy Department

“○○ (real name), drop dead!”

—Shogakukan Multimedia Department, Cross-Media Business Center

I may well have been grumbled about like that by the people at the workplace. Terrifying.

At the start I had thought it wouldn’t matter if this book didn’t sell very much, but now, to lighten my own sin, I hope it sells a great deal.

This book is recommended to people who like things that are different from the rest. Not different by a roundabout path, but different in a straight line (that is the only way I can think to put it).

I exhausted myself trying to write a fantasy with as little dream and as little hope in it as possible. On that point I am quite confident. And this time, with a major publisher like Shogakukan at my side, I looked into job-hunting among its employees and among people who had received informal offers, and used that as reference.

While I thank from the bottom of my heart everyone who cooperated with the survey, please also allow me, as all of you grow ever more active……