Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 115: The Mechanic Meets the Warden

Rikuto stares at the empty plot of land overlooking the sea. The route is unchanged, and he made no mistakes. He recognizes all of the surroundings. But, a plot of land where an elegant tree was growing with colorful leaves that reminded the Japanese man of the sakura cherry blossom trees in bloom native to his homeland, is missing, as if it were never there. The same goes for the house that should be housing one of the most powerful mages in the human territories; Senn, the elf.

Rikuto only saw fractions of the elf's powers, which included the ability to share dawnsights with someone like Rikuto.

And now, it's as if Senn never existed. The elven man is nowhere to be found. The only clue is a single stone in the middle of the grassy clearing. Rikuto approaches it, cautiously reaching forward to feel for an invisible solid object.

"Your Majesty," cautions the guard leader with him. "You should use caution. There could be traps."

Rikuto stops, and he nods. "You're right... Search the area. If there are tracks, I want to know where he went."

"As you wish." The guard captain signals with his hands, and some of the guards spread out to begin searching the area while Rikuto returns to his carriage, taking a seat in the cushioned cabin of the vehicle. He grumbles to himself, "I should've known better. He has been a coward all along. The entire world at stake, and all you do is run away, huh?"

The otherworlder king watches the soldiers search. There doesn't seem to be anything other than the stone, but several of the soldiers gather around it to inspect it. One of them directs another to pick it up, and he cautiously obeys. The stone doesn't trigger anything, and the soldiers inspect the rest of its surface. After, they bring it to the carriage.

Rikuto opens the door to lean out. "What is it?"

The captain replies, "It appears to be a message, your Majesty." The soldier holds the stone up, and Rikuto can see scratches in the surface that spell out words.

The words declare a simple message; "I warned you, King Rikuto. You will never see me again."

It's the language that sends a horrified chill down the magically displaced young Japanese man.

He steps down from the carriage to inspect the characters etched perfectly into the stone, done only by magic.

"Does it mean something, your Majesty? It's not a language I'm familiar with."

Rikuto murmurs, "You wouldn't be..."

The characters are perfectly written Japanese kanji.

How? How is this possible? I haven't spoken Japanese since coming here, let alone written it. Did he pull it from my memories when we used the dawnsight spell? Yes, that must be it.

He had half a mind to try to use hypnosis magic to implant suggestion in the elf's mind, but it seems Rikuto may have actually lucked out that he didn't get to try. If Senn could pull his old language out, and even write it with a practiced hand, then one wrong move could add another extremely dangerous enemy to the growing list.

"Should we commence a search, Sire?" asks the Lieutenant, second to the captain.

"No. We need to return and coordinate the counterattack. I was hoping to enlist Senn, but that seems to be impossible."

"It was worth a try. I've heard the elves preserve balance before anything else."

Rikuto ignores the platitude. It's nostalgic to see Japanese, and he is somewhat entranced by seeing it after so long.

He takes a breath and sighs. Patience, Rikuto. Once you get this all squared away, you can just start introducing pieces of Japan here. What I wouldn't give for a proper onsen [Jap: Hot spring] to soak in. Not to mention miso... and dango...