Nihonkoku Shoukan Chapter 1

First chapter of 日本国召喚, which I am translating as “Summoning j.a.pan.” Yes, I know the “official” English t.i.tle is “j.a.pan Summons.”

Far from the three major civilizations, in the part of the ocean known as the Great East, there was a continent. At half the size of Australia, it was perhaps too small to really be considered a continent, but it was definitely too big to be just an island.

On this continent of Rodenius, there were 3 nations.

Containing fertile land and numerous granaries, the agricultural Princ.i.p.ality of Kua Toine. Full of deserts and fallow land, the poverty-stricken Kingdom of Quira. The human-only country that persecutes elves, dwarves, and beastfolk, intent on uniting Rodenius, the Kingdom of Rowlia.

The Kingdom of Quira and the Princ.i.p.ality of Kua Toine were allied in opposition to the Rowlian Kingdom. Both nations' populations consisted of about one-third elves, dwarves, beastfolk, and other demihumans, so, with Rowlia's doctrine on exterminating demihumans, there was simply no way to have friendly relations.

Chapter 1 – Contact

Central Calendar year 1639, January 24th, 8 AM

Princ.i.p.ality of Kua Toine, 6th dragon squadron

The skies were clear. Riding on a flying dragon known as a wyvern, the dragon rider Marl Patima was on a patrol mission in the northeast region of the princ.i.p.ality. There was nothing in this part of the country. To the east, there was only the ocean, and while adventurers had left to explore for new lands, none ever returned.

Because of recent tensions with the Rowlian Kingdom, patrols were necessary to detect and counter wars.h.i.+ps going off-course for possible surprise attacks, thus explaining why he and his partner were in this empty region.

He spotted something.

"What is that?"

He should have been alone in the skies, but something else was there. In normal situations, anything other than a friendly wyvern was unthinkable. Even by wyvern, the flight distance from Rowlia to here was nothing to sneeze at. The major civilizations apparently had a flying dragon mothers.h.i.+p called the Dragon Mother, but something like that should have nothing to do with this remote area.

The flying object, starting at the size of a grain, steadily approached. As it came closer, he confirmed it was not a friendly wyvern.

"Nothing appears to be flapping…"

He immediately contacted headquarters with a magical communication tool.

"Unidentified object in the sky. Preparing flyby to identify. Current location…"

They were at the same alt.i.tude. Intending to pa.s.s it by, he closed in.

He flew past the unidentified object. It was very large. Nothing was flapping, but what appeared to be the wings had 4 objects spinning around loudly. A light s.h.i.+ned at the tip of the body and the wings, blinking on and off brightly. The flying object was white, with a red circle drawn on the body and wings.

He turned around, his partner flapping its wings fiercely. The wind pressure pushed hard against him, threatening to throw him off.

He kept at a distance… or at least, he intended to, but he couldn't even catch up to it. Wyverns could fly at 235 km/h. Among animals, it could claim almost the top speed, being faster than horses – the cavalry that ruled the skies. (Apparently, the major civilizations were breeding an even faster species of dragon.)

But really, he just couldn't catch up at all. He couldn't even determine if it was a living thing or not.

"Kuh! What the heck is that thing!"

Stupefaction

"HQ! HQ! I'm trying to confirm the object, but it's way too fast! I can't catch it at all! The object is heading towards Myhak. I repeat, it's heading for Myhak!"

Headquarters, after receiving the report, buzzed furiously like an angry beehive. Something that could even outrace a wyvern was headed for the economic center of Kua Toine, Myhak. If it was attacked, that would stain the prestige of the military. Judging from its speed, it probably already entered the mainland's airs.p.a.ce. Orders were relayed via communication magic.

"6th dragon squadron, all wyverns fly! An unidentified object appears to be entering Myhak's airs.p.a.ce! Shoot on sight! Repeat, shoot on sight!"

Wyverns crowded the runway. There were 12 total, all geared up for a sortie. They launched into the clear blue skies and soared up high.

The 6th dragon squadron was luckily right in front of the unidentified object and could confront it directly. From the reports, this opponent was capable of extreme flight speeds. If it was really that fast, they only had a small window of opportunity. The 12 riders in the dragon squadron lined up horizontally, wyverns' mouths gaping open. A simultaneous fire blast - if it hit, no dragon could survive such an attack.

In the wyverns' mouths, b.a.l.l.s of fire began to take shape. But just then, the unidentified object began to ascend. Because the riders were already at the wyverns' maximum alt.i.tude of 4000 meters, this was a completely unexpected situation. It climbed at an alarming rate.

The 6th dragon squadron, lamely outranged by the unidentified object, was left behind.

"Unidentified object found. Attempted to engage, but the object ascended out of range and is proceeding to Myhak at a ridiculous alt.i.tude. I repeat―"

The leader of Myhak's defensive order, Captain Inne, received the report from the 6th dragon squadron and looked up at the sky.

Generally speaking, dragons spit fireb.a.l.l.s for air-to-ground attacks. In the past, shooting arrows and dropping rocks were also considered, but flying creatures can't carry heavy things. Against only a single attacker, they would not suffer much damage. In all likelihood, the enemy's objective was reconnaissance and caution.

But, what exactly was it?

Something that's far faster than a dragon. A frightening object that can surpa.s.s the alt.i.tude limits of a dragon would soon appear over the commercial city Myhak.

Captain Inne continued to stare at the sky.

From far away, a sound could be heard. It was an unfamiliar VNNNNN, and, after a short while, it arrived in Myhak's skies. The object descended and turned in the sky. It was a large, white, otherworldly object that emitted strange noises with wings that didn't move and red circles on its wings and body.

It was clearly impinging on Myhak's airs.p.a.ce, but their dragons were in the midst of transit from far away, and, while there were some viable defensive measures, this threat arrived too quickly and none of them were ready to be deployed. In other words, the city was effectively defenseless.

The object circled the air over Myhak a number of times, then sped off to the northeast.

Princ.i.p.ality of Kua Toine, governmental meeting

At this meeting of various heads of state, Prime Minister Kanata was worried. In yesterday's incident, with regards to the defense of Kua Toine, the military reported that an unknown object invaded Myhak's airs.p.a.ce, circled the city numerous times, and then left.

It was so fast a dragon couldn't give chase, and it invaded from a superior alt.i.tude.

Its origin was completely unknown. There were red circles drawn on the craft, but no country in the world had such a national flag.

"Well, what do you all think of this report? How should we interpret it?" he asked the room.

The intelligence representative raised his hand.

"According to our intelligence, Mu, the second largest country in the west and part of a major civilization, has developed a flying device that resembles this unknown object. However, we believe that their latest model only reaches a top speed of 350 km/h, whereas the object from the incident was said to have breached 600 km/h. But…"

"But what?"

"Yes. There are reports of an emerging power to the far west of Mu, outside the major civilizations' regions, subjugating neighboring countries and rampaging about. They've named themselves the Eighth Empire and have declared war on an alliance of countries belonging to the Second Civilization, on the same continent, according to the intelligence in the report we received yesterday. Their weapons are completely unknown to us."

Light laughter rippled across the meeting room. In declaring war with a continent overseen by the Second Civilization, this fledgling new country made enemies of 2 of the 5 great powers within the three major civilizations. The idea was far beyond reckless.

"However, the Eighth Empire is far to the west of Mu. Even just considering the distance from Mu to us, that's already more than twenty thousand kilometers. It's difficult to believe that the object from this incident could have come from there."

The meeting circled back to the fact that they simply knew nothing. In any case, tensions with the Rowlian Kingdom continued, forcing their nation into a constant semi-emergency state. This new incident was just an added headache for the leaders.h.i.+p. If the object were an ally, simply making contact would be sufficient, so to deliberately perform a hostile act like invading their airs.p.a.ce meant that the chances of this being an enemy were quite high.

At that moment, a young official from foreign affairs burst into the meeting, completely out of breath. Normally, such an action would be unthinkable, so clearly something urgent happened.

"What's wrong?"

"Reporting in!" the official exclaimed loudly.

The official gave his report, which was as follows:

This morning, off the north coast of Kua Toine, a giant sea craft 230 meters in length appeared. According to the navy, they met an envoy from a country calling itself "j.a.pan," who communicated that they had no hostile intentions. After thorough investigation, the following was recorded. These are statements from the envoy.

The country known as j.a.pan was suddenly transferred to this world. Having lost all contact with their original world, they sent out a patrol aircraft to scout. On this occasion, this patrol discovered a nearby land ma.s.s. In the course of the patrol, they unlawfully entered your country and invaded our airs.p.a.ce. They offer their most profound apologies. They would like to propose diplomatic talks with Kua Toine.

After hearing this outrageous story, everyone in the meeting room appeared incredulous. However, it was undeniable that yesterday there was an invader in the city's airs.p.a.ce, and they also could not ignore the independently verified report of the unbelievably enormous 230-meter s.h.i.+p off the north coast.

An entire country transferring worlds sounded like something in the realm of mythology; it shouldn't be possible in reality. Regardless, the power held by the country of j.a.pan was already confirmed, so, for starters, we must meet their envoy.

—