The Rising of Tanaka in Another World - Chapter 87

Imperial Princess

Moonlight shone down from the destroyed ceiling. As this gentle light slightly illuminated the room, Tanaka and a single woman continued to face each other without making the slightest movement.

Meanwhile, the princess of this country, Karin, who was thrusting out her sword, was assailed by a pressure she had never experienced before.

It was because the attack she had just struck with all her might, leveraging the opening of her opponent, had been easily evaded. No, in fact, she couldn’t even tell if it really was evaded. It showed that there was such a huge gap in their strength.

In fact, he even had the leeway to express a composed remark of ‘The thrust(moon) sure is beautiful, isn’t it?’. She was so psychologically cornered that she could not even feel anger at that remark anymore.

As someone who had fought countless fierce battles, as someone who stood at the pinnacle of the Imperial Tournament Festival, this reality where she could do nothing weighed heavily on the Imperial Princess herself.

In the meantime, on the other hand, speaking of Tanaka-san, he was deep in thought as he felt the cold sweat running down his back. At this rate, it would be dangerous.

That was only a matter of course. As it was impossible not to feel danger in a situation where a sword was pointed at you. However, that applied strictly only for an amateur. It was different in Tanaka’s case.

There was an order of priority in everything. And then, in an emergency, it was even more so. Speaking of what Tanaka thought in such a situation, it was none other than this.

Having his long-awaited invoked Osare skill easily dodged, at this rate, he would end up missing such a rare event with a beautiful woman without even raising up a flag.

What a calm and accurate judgment. To be able to arrive at this thought in this situation where a sword pointed at him, what a fearsome man. Surely only a powerful, amazing, and cool protagonist or a plain idiot would be able to accomplish such a feat. There didn’t seem to be any need to tell which one Tanaka-san was, so let’s leave this matter at that.

After this and that, this stalemate, which seemed as though it would continue to eternity, was easily broken down by a third party.

「That’s as far as you go. Please pull your sword.」

They must have promptly concealed themselves the moment this raid took place. The one who had been concealing themselves in the corner of the room showed up and approached the two.

「Please stay away. This assailant is no ordinary person.」

「I know full well that he’s no ordinary person. And that you won’t be able to restrain him with your power.」

As light shone down on the disappearing magic tool, their appearance came to light.

「Echigoya-san!」

「Hi there, it’s been a long time. First of all, we can talk about various matters later. For now, we have to come up with a way to gloss over this situation.」

As he was saying that, commotion was taking place beyond the door. It was only a matter of time before a third party intervened.

「In that case, leave it to me. Excuses and deceptions are my field of expertise.」

The way he splendidly brushed off Tanaka, who was spouting something that was unknown whether he was boasting or what, was probably a form of kindness of Echigoya. On the other hand, speaking of Tanaka, he was in an overly high spirit as he was in front of a beautiful woman.

「O earth spirit born from the flame–. Gather around and alter your form–.」

Holding his hand to the broken ceiling, Tanaka began to chant. He also didn’t forget to make an appeal to the beautiful woman by covering his face with one of his hands and sending a sidelong glance to her.

「Supra Natra!」

The debris of the ceiling destroyed by Tanaka lost their shape and reverted into sand. And then, seemingly as if it were alive, the created pile of sand began to move.

Needed no further explanation, it was an application of live-support magic. As a magic that affected the ground, even if it was indeed connected to the ground, it was probably only this man that could still exert its effect at the top floor of a building.

「What do you say about this? If you combine it with the old wreckage that’s left behind, you should be able to make an excuse along the line of ‘looks like it collapsed a bit due to aging, tehe (heart)’ or something, right?」

「Dear me, what a surprise. I feel like I once heard you saying that magic wasn’t your forte, but for something of this level to be not a big deal, isn’t that being too modest?」

「Hmm, no, that’s not the case at all. It can be said that there are things that mayhap not be unable to be left unsaid.」

As he was appealing of his own capability with a smug expression, he made his way to the corner of the room slithery. That awe-inspiring figure of his was exactly reminiscent of the most ominous(strongest) creatures.

Furthermore, Tanaka exhibited his true colors as a little man here. By exerting the aura of a little man he possessed to the fullest, he unleashed his special move of concealing himself by turning his existence into a pebble on the roadside. Truly the little man among little men. It might not be an exaggeration to say that the title of elite little man existed specifically for him.

Having safely avoided the forced termination of the event with the beautiful woman, he managed to connect his wish toward the mufufu development, so Tanaka was in a good mood. The fact that the beautiful woman was looking at Tanaka, who was stealthily concealing himself, with eyes as if she was looking at a G, as far as Tanaka was concerned, he saw it in nothing but a positive light.

「Now then…, looks like she’s fallen for me.」

He was totally getting carried away.

For this man, who deluded ‘That girl, seems like she’s a crush on me’ merely because the finger of the female clerk at the convenience store slightly touched his hand when she was giving him his change, this level of prediction was a piece of cake.

While Tanaka’s nostrils flared at the expectation of a nihilistic future, the situation moved on. The door was vigorously thrown open, and robust looking soldiers rushed in one after another.

「Are you all right, Your Highness Karin?!」

Along with several soldiers in tow, a man who seemed to be a captain hurriedly rushed into the room.

「… Yes, it seems that this castle is more aged than we thought. Let’s send out instructions for renovations in the near future.」

Imperial Princess Karin replied calmly as such, pointing toward the cause with cold eyes.

There was no small amount of debris-like something that had fallen at the end of her line of sight. Looking at the top of it, it was obvious that a part of the ceiling had been torn off.

「I heard a loud noise, so I rushed over thinking that it was a raid by someone or something. I was relieved that it appeared to be not as bad as I thought. By the way, what should we do? Would you like me to arrange another room for you?」

「There’s no need to. It’s not like there’s a hole or anything, so there should be no inconvenience.」

「All right, then.」

Receiving the gesture to leave from Karin, the guards withdrew. None of these people noticed the pebble on the roadside. That was amazing, Tanaka. Your existence was so worthless, Tanaka.

Thus, the ones left were her and–.

「Good grief, looks like we managed to avoid being exposed. Geez, quite a showy entrance you’ve made, Tanaka-san.」

The one who let out such a sigh was the owner of this room, who didn’t even participate in the conversation between Karin and the guards.

「No, come on…, how should I put it? It’s that, you know? That…. Yes! Getting too worried about my best friend who had gone missing, my chivalrous spirit kind of went out of control, or something? How is that, isn’t that setup pretty cool?」

Tanaka, who had been hiding in the corner of the room, came out while spouting such a random excuse. Seeing that attitude that rubbed the nerve the wrong way as usual, Echigoya could only let out a bitter smile. Karin called out to such Echigoya.

「–So, Elder Brother. Who in the world is that person? I’ve chosen to cover it up for the time being, but depending on your answer, I’ll call the guards back.」

「Even if you did call them back, I don’t think you’d be able to do anything to him, though. As someone who has personally faced him, that should be something you’re well aware of, right?」

Admonished as such by Echigoya, Karin couldn’t answer anything back. Instead, Tanaka made a reaction with all he could.

「Elder Brother… you say….」

「Yes, let me introduce you. This is my little sister, Karin. She’s a first-class knight who even once won the Imperial Tournament Festival. She may be my little sister, but she really is something.」

Karin showed a sardonic expression as she was being introduced by Echigoya, and showed no reaction in the slightest.

「And this is Tanaka-san. Ever since I got to know him through a job I requested in the guild, I’ve been working with him a lot. He’s a very outstanding man.」

Without any particular reason, Tanaka stretched out one hand horizontally and flipped his cloak with a swoosh. He then switched into his signature pose as he was in order to get off to a start in a good mark.

「Nice to meet you, young lady.」

He decided to perform a snappy greeting with two fingers, but as usual, Karin showed no reaction at all. However, Tanaka had seen through everything. At this moment, he had succeeded in stealing her heart.

And then, just as Tanaka thought that his long awaited ‘So cool, embrace me’ line was about to be said….

「I see…, a business associate of Elder Brother, huh. Come to think of it, you used to play a merchant make-believe, didn’t you?」

「How rude of you to call it make-believe. Be that as it may, I managed to attain a considerable accomplishment, after all.」

At the words of his little sister that at a glance seemed to be considerably on the rude side, without showing any sign of displeasure, Echigoya let out a protest while floating a smile. In response, Karin was the one whose expression turned kind of stern.

「At any rate, I’ll pretend that I didn’t see the incident from earlier. However, the next time you cause a problem, I won’t overlook it. This is also true for you, Elder brother. As long as you are in the Imperial Capital, I’ll have you refrain yourself from doing any suspicious behavior. You are no longer a member of the imperial family, after all, Elder brother.」

「Got it, all right?」

「The imperial family… you say….」

Nodding at Echigoya’s reply, Karin moved toward the exit of the room with a firm step. As far as Tanaka was concerned, not only was his expectation betrayed, even the reaction he had mustered up with his everything ended up being ignored, however, Tanaka-san of this day was not the previous him.

「Phew, looks like she’s more of a shy baby than I thought, huh.」

「I’m greatly curious as to what kind of train of thought you ride to reach such a conclusion.」

「Good grief, you sure don’t get it, do you, Brother-in-law-san?」

Echigoya surely wasn’t at fault for getting involuntarily annoyed by this response.