Outbreak Company: Volume 2 Read online

  As a result, the government decided to give the relationship a little push by focusing on the traditional Japanese export that the Eldant people had seemed to have the best reaction to: otaku stuff, like anime and manga.

  The two governments agreed to co-sponsor Amutech, the first “general entertainment company” in this alternate world. Tokyo decided to leave running the place to someone who actually knew something about otaku culture. Amutech conducted interviews in the otaku mecca of Akihabara, with the intention of kidnapping some qualified nerd and making them the company’s general manager.

  Enter: me.

  That’s right. The otaku they found, abducted, and dragged bodily to this alternate plane of existence was yours truly, Kanou Shinichi.

  I mean, geez...

  I took the stairs from my bedroom on the second floor down toward the dining area on the first. Sunlight was slathered across the landing through the big picture window, casting everything in the mansion in a sort of high relief. It was pleasantly warm in the sun, and all the parts of the house that were in shadow were just a bit cool. Unlike modern Japan’s well-insulated houses, in brick buildings like this one the same room might be warm in one place and cold in another.

  I hummed tunelessly as I walked along. “Wonder what I’m gonna get today? ♪”

  Myusel was an excellent cook. I was the sort of person who firmly believed that breakfast was rice or it was nothing, but over the course of my time in Eldant, I had found the food she made so delicious that I had even started to consider betraying my own principles. Sometimes she would come up with things that my modern Japanese palate found surprising—such as boiled eggs covered in honey—but if I could let go of my prejudices long enough to try them, I often discovered they were delicious.

  Not to mention, Myusel seemed to be taking close note of my reactions and changing the way she cooked to suit my tastes, so the food had only gotten better and better. If I paid enough attention as I ate, I could tell that even a repeat dish had been changed in subtle ways so that I would like it better.

  That explains why I was so happy as I waltzed on over to the dining area. It also explains why—

  Bloing.

  — I failed to look where I was going and stepped right on the thing.

  Whatever I had stepped on, it definitely didn’t have the same consistency as the floor. I looked down at my feet to find something like a very long feeler stretched out across the hallway. It must have been more than two meters long, maybe even three, from end to end.

  It seemed like... kind of a lump, just hanging out there. Whatever the feeler was attached to, it was hidden in the shadows, so I couldn’t get a good look at it. But its head was obviously too big to be human; it looked like it could probably open its mouth wide enough to swallow a small child.

  I reflexively went stiff and pulled my foot back. “A m-m-m-monster!” But then I made a mystified sound. I thought I remembered something like this happening before.

  The weird thing on the floor didn’t move. I took about three steps back, just for safety, and calmed my pounding heart. Then I took a fresh look at the “feeler.”

  “Brooke?!”

  “Ahh... Mas...ter...?”

  The huge, reptilian head raised itself with a great effort. Standing there was the mansion’s manservant, Brooke Darwin.

  Like Myusel, he was one of the servants who had been brought to work at this mansion when the Holy Eldant Empire lent it to Amutech.

  “Good... mornin’ t’ you,” he said quietly. He sounded out of it—or, well, I guess he was just tired.

  Brooke was a lizardman. Normally, lizardmen walk on two legs, but their skin is covered in blue scales, they have long, narrow faces, and they lack eyelids. And then there’s the tails that snake from their waists, more like something you’d find on a dinosaur than a lizard.

  Admittedly, since Brooke was just lounging around on the floor, his tail didn’t look very threatening, but I would say that made it at least 30% weirder.

  “What’s going on, sir...?”

  “That’s my line!” I put a hand to my chest, where my heart was still going a little fast. I knew now that he was neither hostile nor a monster, but running into a gigantic reptile in a dim hallway was still kind of unsettling.

  In any event, it was his tail I had stepped on.

  “What are you doing, sleeping on the floor?” I asked. “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Ahh... Just fine...” Brooke got slowly to his feet, sounding oddly apologetic. “Please remember, I am... a reptile...”

  “I’m not forgetting, believe me.”

  “At night, and in the morning... my body temperature drops... and I just get so sleepy...”

  “Oh, is that all?” Now that I thought about it, I realized that I often didn’t see much of Brooke in the morning.

  For the most part, Brooke took care of the external appearance of the house, looking after the garden and such, so he wasn’t indoors much. That left me unsure about his daily routine—how exactly he went about life between getting up and going to bed. There had been plenty on my plate the last four months, and I hadn’t really had time to wonder about it...

  “You see, sir...? At night, I’ll... make a fire behind the house and warm myself for a few hours... But sometimes... it’s not enough... The floor by the window warms up in the sunlight nice and early... so sometimes I just find myself... lying here...”

  He was basically trying to absorb as much sun as he could. Lizardmen might have evolved to walk on two legs, but apparently they couldn’t escape their fate as cold-blooded animals.

  “I get it. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to step on your tail.”

  “Aww, ’tis nothin’... Please, step on it all you like...” He sounded like he might go back to sleep at any moment.

  “No, no, no! You know I’m not like that!”

  Brooke could be intimidating at first glance, but he was actually very easygoing, and a hard worker. But he also considered it to be part of the job description of a demi-human servant to accept random acts of physical abuse from their master—usually a noble or someone similarly wealthy. So he didn’t fight back if he was hit. Granted, as a reptile, he may not have felt pain as acutely as some of us more fragile animals.

  “Wait a second... Brooke, are you here because you were on your way to the dining hall?”

  If all he wanted was to collect heat, it seemed like it would’ve been more effective to lie somewhere outdoors. He was probably in the shadows now because the sun had moved, causing the angle of the light to change. I suspected he had been here like this for at least three hours.

  “...Hmm... Now that you mention it, I suppose I was,” he said.

  Normally, a master and his servants would never eat at the same table together. That was considered obvious by people like Brooke and Myusel. Lizardmen, in particular, were seen as even lower than other demi-humans, and also preferred slightly different food, so they often ate at a different place and time from everyone else.

  Then there was me. As general manager of Amutech, I ranked on par with a human noble in the Holy Eldant Empire. That meant that there was a pretty serious difference in social status between me and my maid and manservant.

  For all those reasons, Brooke had simply assumed that he would take his meals alone. I, however, suggested that he join us for breakfast. We all lived in the same house together, after all, and it seemed both inefficient and kind of lonely for everyone to eat separately. I understood that being apart for meals was considered right and proper in this world. But I was born in Japan on the cusp of the twenty-first century. Plus, my parents were a light-novel author and a former ero game writer-designer, making me 110% otaku, plus I was a former shut-in and NEET. I really couldn’t have cared less about differences in social status or class or whatever—in fact, I was actively against them. And as such, I wanted to make sure I spent time with Myusel and Brooke as much as possible.

  Then again, looking at Brooke as he l
ay indolently on the ground, I realized maybe breakfast was a bit of a reach for him. The mornings would only be getting colder, making it all the more difficult for him to get around. Maybe we could have breakfast a little later in the day or something. I’d have to think about it.

  “Okay, Brooke, come on. Get up.”

  “Yessir...” He stood, swaying slightly. He really did look extremely tired, and I felt a little bit bad for him... But at the same time, it was dangerous to have him just splayed out in a random hallway. I didn’t want him to get hurt being stepped on, or anyone else to get hurt stepping on him.

  I took his hand, mindful of his claws, and began to lead him toward the dining room.

  “Good morning,” I said as I came into the dining area.

  Although we were technically renting this house—which was also the home base and main office of General Entertainment Purveyor Amutech—from the Holy Eldant Empire, for practical purposes I was the owner. I would have been within my rights to speak a little less politely. If I had come in and just said “Hey, all,” nobody would have complained. But when the person you’re talking to has a couple years on you, that makes it harder to be too casual.

  “Good morning, Shinichi-kun.” The girl at the table gave me an easy smile. She had well-balanced features, but I’m not sure I would have called her beautiful so much as very cute. She was kind of baby-faced. And there was something very approachable about her, like she had forgotten to keep aging ever since she reached her teens. One glance at the two mountains on her chest, though, made it obvious she was no little girl.

  In fact, she was older than me. Despite her appearance, she was a member of the most powerful military organization in Japan—the Japan Self-Defense Force, or JSDF. She was what you would call a WAC, a female soldier. And she was on active duty, a fact you could tell from the suitcase that was constantly at her feet. It contained a 9mm automatic pistol.

  This was Koganuma Minori-san, and she was the bodyguard the Japanese government had assigned to me.

  “G’... G’mornin’...” Brooke drowsily greeted Minori-san and Myusel, the latter of whom came rushing over, probably aware of what was affecting Brooke. I was grateful; I couldn’t hold the lizardman up on my own much longer.

  “Are you all right, Master?” Myusel asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I grunted, “but it would be great if you could help me out here.”

  “Right!”

  The two of us managed to get Brooke to a chair, then we took our own seats. Myusel had already set breakfast out on the oval table. There was bread piled in a basket in the middle, and a plate of food was waiting for each of us. On Brooke’s plate, and his alone, was raw meat with some salt and pepper on it, along with some unpeeled fruit. This was not, obviously, because Myusel didn’t like Brooke. Nor was it poor cooking on her part. This was just the way the lizardman liked his food.

  “Bon appétit!” I said, clapping my hands together in the Japanese style. Minori-san did the same, then Myusel and Brooke copied us—and then we started to eat.

  Our fellowship consisted of:

  The master of the house (male, human).

  His bodyguard (female, human).

  The maid (female, half-elf).

  And the manservant (male, lizardman).

  To have all of us sitting and eating at one table together made our breakfast perhaps the most unique in the entire Eldant Empire. More than a few people might have raised an eyebrow to see us, but I enjoyed lively meals. During my shut-in days I had eaten each and every meal alone, which gave me a special appreciation for this company.

  What’s more, we’re relatively unguarded when we eat, much like when we sleep. It’s easier to relax. Myusel ate carefully, tasting every bite, while Minori-san couldn’t shovel the food in fast enough. Brooke was sleepily eating his fruit. The sight of them was oddly endearing.

  “By the way, Shinichi-kun,” Minori-san said, grabbing some bread from the basket. It was her fourth piece. She really knew how to eat. Yet she didn’t show any sign of gaining weight. Where did it all go? Were her giant boobs the result of her copious consumption?

  Anyway. She went on: “What’s your plan for today? Are we sticking to the schedule?”

  “Oh... uh, yeah. No change,” I said, pulling my smartphone out of my pocket and checking the schedule.

  Obviously, there were no cell phone towers around here, so I wasn’t getting any service as such. But the JSDF had set up a series of medium-range antennas at the house and around the castle town so that me, Minori-san and the other JSDF people, and the handful of other Japanese who had come here could keep in touch.

  On that note, even wired communication with Japan had been static-y and inconsistent at first, but the military and the government had tried this and that, and now claimed they would soon be able to get us phone lines and internet.

  That would certainly open up my options. Online games would be available, image collections, sprawling online forums. Granted, there might be some restrictions in the name of secrecy...

  “We’ll pay our usual visit to Her Majesty at the castle,” I said, running my finger along the screen. “Then head over to the school for class.”

  “Got it,” Minori-san said, nodding as she checked her own cell phone. By sheer luck, she and I happened to have the same model. It was a “G”-series “tough phone” that claimed to have military-grade durability. In Minori-san’s case, maybe that made sense. I’d bought mine just to amuse myself.

  “Oh, Myusel,” I said, turning to the maid next to me. “Her Majesty said you should come, too. She wants you to get a checkup.”

  “Oh, okay.” Myusel nodded.

  Almost three months before, Myusel had been badly wounded in a particular series of events—she had been stabbed in the stomach protecting the empress of the Holy Eldant Empire. She had been rushed to the royal hospital for treatment and had recovered, but since her release, she continued to go back once a month or so to make sure she was still doing all right.

  “Okay,” Minori-san said. “We all know what we have to do today, then.”

  We arrived at the imperial castle of the Eldant Empire. It was the single biggest building I had ever seen in my life. Not the tallest, mind you. There were plenty of buildings in Japan that reached higher in the sky. But the presence of this place, the scale—no place I knew gave more of an impression of the soundtrack going ba-buuum! when you saw it.

  I don’t think it was just the sheer size, both inside and outside, that contributed to this impression. It was the way the colors and shape of it practically cried out, An important person lives here! Minori-san told me this used to be a mountain and that the castle was fashioned from it using magic. That might have explained why it seemed to be all one big, single piece.

  Nonetheless, after coming here regularly for four months, I was slowly getting used to it. The armored guards, the opulently appointed hallways—they didn’t exactly feel like my own home, but maybe like the home of a friend. Which, actually, this was.

  By which I mean...

  “Ahem.” There was a cough.

  I stood in front of the thick oak door. The royal guards on either side bowed to me.

  “Kanou Shinichi, general manager of Amutech, and his party including Koganuma Minori and Myusel Fourant, hereby present themselves to offer their morning greetings to Her Majesty and make their customary report. We humbly request to be allowed entrance.”

  I used to stumble my way through this ritual, but now I pretty much had it down.

  In case you’re wondering, the words we were speaking to each other were being helpfully interpreted by magic rings that we each wore, which allowed us to communicate telepathically. I had gone through this routine so many times, though, that I could practically have given my greeting in the Eldant language.

  The two guards announced our arrival in unison. “Kanou Shinichi-sama, Koganuma Minori-sama, and their company have arrived!”

  Minori-san, who was there as
my bodyguard, and I returned the soldiers’ bow. They each pulled on huge metal rings, opening the door.

  For what it’s worth, Minori-san was obviously an outworlder, and therefore outside the local system of ranks and classes; that was why she was treated with the respect due a knight. Myusel, who stood on my other side, however, was just a commoner, and the knights didn’t bother bowing to her.

  It was moments like this that made me acutely aware of how stratified society in the Holy Eldant Empire was. To Myusel, it was just par for the course, and she showed no reaction to being ignored.

  But let’s forget about that for now.

  “Thank you,” I said, bowing to the guards and stepping onto the room’s red carpet.

  There were several audience halls in the Eldant castle. For example, there was one for when all the ministers and ambassadors and dignitaries were present, and another for when Her Majesty was seeing just a few people for a report or a personal greeting. This meant the audience chambers came in different sizes, with the size corresponding to the use.

  We were in the smaller, more private one, of course. But the room was still large enough to comfortably house a tennis court. And at the far end...

  “It is good to see you, Shinichi. Myusel and Minori, as well.” Lounging on the throne was Her Imperial Majesty herself, the owner of this whole giant castle.

  “Your Majesty, how good to see you in fine spirits,” I said with a bow. Minori-san, to my left, and Myusel, to my right, offered their respects, too.

  “Hmph. We see even you’ve managed to learn a thing or two about etiquette,” the ruler said with a smile. No matter how you sliced it, she looked awfully young—not that you could say that to her, unless you wanted to royally tick her off.

  This was Her Imperial Majesty Petralka an Eldant III, and despite how she looked, we were only three years apart. But she looked really young and really adorable. Her elegant dress and the tiara on her head conspired to make her look like a doll. She wouldn’t have seemed out of place sitting in a glass case somewhere.