Chapter 203: Chapter 203 - Soirée of the Hero and the Princess
This was the second time Yumegami Nakata went to the castle where the royal family of Castro resides.
The first time was an official reception by the king, with all pomp and circumstance appropriate to the positions of the people involved.
This time, she was going on a personal visit to the princess. No procession through the streets, no big guard. Just herself on a carriage and a couple of paladins riding alongside.
Without the populace crowding the streets, this time she was even able to actually see what the city looks like.
This is actually her first time outside in a less exposed position ever since she arrived in this world. For a modern woman, who grew accustomed to walking around freely on her own, an opportunity like this is worth its weight in gold.
Though what I really wanted was to walk freely and take a look at those shops and see what everyday life in a fantasy world is like.
At least for this visit she decided to use the kimono she was wearing when she was abducted from Earth. It made her more comfortable, and she felt that she would be able to talk to Urraca without their titles meddling in the way.
:::
Around forty minutes later, she is in a dining room of the castle with the princess.
While Urraca was mesmerized by the other girl’s elegance and the exotic but beautiful clothes she was wearing, she had prepared her own surprise. Milkshakes.
Misinterpreting the surprise in her guest’s face, Urraca smiled gently and explained.
"One of my cooks is a master of ice magic, and he invented a dish he called iced milk, which is delicious. And then he discovered that mixing it with milk produces this drink, milkmix. Despite his horrendous aptitude for naming, his cooking skills are top-notch."
"I see... in the world I’m from, this drink is called a milkshake, and the base iced milk is called ice cream. My surprise was to see it in here. I would never have imagined..."
As Nakata finishes talking, she takes a sip of the milkshake (or milkmix).
"It’s delicious. Even better than the ones back home."
As a military commander now with a war under her belt, Urraca is able to deal with impromptu circumstances better than most people would.
But the fact that she barely blinked at the new revelation is a testimony to how she has given up on trying to make sense of a world that kept turning upside down around her every day.
"I’m glad that you liked it, then. Even if it isn’t a novelty for you. But did I hear you right, talking about another world...?"
"Oh, I’m sorry. I just assumed that it was something people here already knew about heroes. Because of all the commotion in my reception and all..."
"Actually, we know almost nothing. What we know is that heroes are supposedly extremely strong individuals brought by the goddess to fight for humanity in our times of need. And that the last time that happened was more than a thousand years ago."
"A thousand years... yeah, that’s a long time. Well, to put it shortly, we heroes were just regular humans living our lives in our world, and one day we were whisked away onto a weird realm where the goddess basically said something like, ’I messed up, go clean it for me,’ and then she threw us here."
"What?"
And yet, Urraca found herself surprised yet again. Even when she thought she had already seen all the weird stuff possible.
"I mean, it makes sense, and it explains your clothing that I’ve never seen before. But normal humans... just being abducted? Is that right?"
"Yes... This clothing is called a kimono, and it’s a traditional dress of my country. I was getting back home from school when I simply disappeared and then appeared in the goddess’ place."
"Back from school? Weren’t you a renowned fighter or something in your world?"
"No, not by any margin. I mean, I did used to train in the art of the sword since childhood, but it was a sport and philosophy more than anything. Not something intended for use in actual combat."
Urraca’s mouth was gaping. Of all the bad things she had heard about the goddess Juno in the last few days, this was the worst of the worst.
The heroes of the fables of old were never more than just normal teenagers thrown in without a clue? And the hopes of the whole world were then put on their shoulders?
Though something else Nakata said was grabbing her curiosity. So that’s what her next question was about.
"I don’t understand... if you’re going to learn the sword, why bother not to learn it to use for combat?"
"Oh, because in my world swords are useless in combat. I mean, you can still kill the person right in front of you if you manage to hit him. But the thing is, you will be dead before getting even near enough to try to strike someone."
"What? Is magic so developed and powerful there?"
"No. In our world there’s nothing like magic, skills, or system. We’ve never had anything even remotely similar to all that throughout all of our history. So we rely fully on technology."
"Technology?"
Urraca tilted her head, as the very word was weird in her ears, and she wasn’t sure of its meaning.
"Yes. Basically the application of conceptual knowledge about the way the world works to achieve practical goals. In combat, we developed weapons that can pierce any armor and have extreme precision even from hundreds of meters away."
"What? Do you know how to produce those weapons?"
"Not exactly, no... that is very specialized knowledge, and I was just a normal high school student. I have a remote understanding of the principles of it all, and I’m sure that I’ve read about the composition of gunpowder at some point, but I don’t remember it."
"Oh, that sucks..."
A moment of silence befell over the table, as both got lost in their thoughts.
Urraca was obviously thinking of the advantages her country could get from having access to such a weapon.
Nakata, on the other hand, was thinking about how she could use her limited knowledge about technology to leverage added utility for herself now that the war she was supposed to fight had ended.