Nihonkoku Shoukan Volume 1 Prologue Part2

Translator Corner

Minasan Oidemasu! This is Yukkuri demasu!

Let the Mystery Science Theatre begin again!

Also, due to credit card limit, I could only order half the LNs for now. The rest will be purchased at the end of the month.

The LNs are: Jui-san no Os.h.i.+goto in Isekai Volume 1-3, Takarakuji Vol.7, Hiki-NEET Vol. 4, and The Diary of a Raising Child Wiseman.

As always,

DISCLAIMER: There is no guarantee that my translation is 100% correct. Please correct me if I was wrong.

Plus, if you want to thank someone go to the guys at Ainus.h.i.+ Translation who give me the RAW for this LN. They’re the real MVPs.

Author:

みのろう (Minorou)

Translator:

Yukkuri Oniisan!

Editor:

Online Grammar Checker!

Prologue

Contact

Part 2

Qua-Toyne Princ.i.p.ality. Trade City Maihark.

The Qua-Toyne Princ.i.p.ality was a country located at the northeast of Rodenius Continent.

The region that was blessed by the G.o.ddess of the Land, in spite of being fertile, was a hard place for weeds to grow. Even if the edible herbs or grains were neglected and didn’t get any human’s attention, they would grow steadily. A country with food self-sufficiency rate far above 100%, where water and food are free, and where even the livestock could eat delicious food.

At the northeast of this agricultural nation lies the Trade Center City, Maihark. The antiquated shops building lined up at the paved main street at the center of the city where carriages and landbirds hustled and bustled with overflowing liveliness.

With a large bang, a door was opened, where a woman in her mid-20’s rushed out with alarmed expression. The woman was wearing an armor, sword at her waist and bow at her back.

Behind the woman who began to run with such vigor, there were people, who seemed to be her subordinates, following her.

In contrast with the peaceful city scenery, every member was donning their armor and nervousness enveloped their expression.

They were running towards the top of the building located at the corner of Maihark Castle.

「Ha…Ha… Ha…」

These people, who rushed up to the top of the building while heavily clad in armor, started to look at the sky while regaining their breath.

The Captain of Maihark Defense Knight Corps, Ine[1], remembered the report from the 6th Flying Dragon Squadron and ordered her subordinates.

「Before long, the unidentified object will arrive on Maihark’s airs.p.a.ce! According to the 6th Flying Dragon Squadron’s report, the unidentified object will come intruding with speed faster than a wyvern. All hands, take your position!」

Every member of the Knight Corps nocked an arrow at the bow held in their left hand and once again looked towards the sky.

Ine s.h.i.+fted her eyes between the watchtowers at the city’s 4 directions as every Knight had a.s.sumed their position.

She began to rea.s.sess the situation. According to the report, with its speed and alt.i.tude, the unidentified object had shaken off the 6th Flying Dragon Squadron that this country proud of. Typically, the air to ground attack method of a flying dragon was only by firing a breath from its mouth. This was because the flying dragon was surprisingly couldn’t carry any heavy objects. If it was only a single unit that came to this place, then even if it attacked, there wouldn’t be any major damage. She guessed that perhaps the enemy’s objective was to conduct a reconnaissance.

However, what in the world is that object that even couldn’t be pursued even by flying dragons?

To easily fly above the height ceiling of the flying dragon, what a fearsome existence. Then before long, that object will appear in the sky above Trade City Maihark.

Ine was observing the sky really carefully.

「It comes‼」

The Knight at the east building, who was watching the eastern direction, loudly yelled.

Everyone immediately turned towards that direction.

The sand grain like object, before long showed its true nature. While giving out a faint whirring sound that they never heard before, the flying object arrived at Maihark’s sky.

The object slowed down and circling around at the alt.i.tude that no bow could reach.

The whitish object was bigger than wyvern, then the unflapping wings were drawn with a red circle.

「So fast……」

The mysterious object that could fly even faster than the most proficient Wyvern-user Dragon Knights of Qua-Toyne Princ.i.p.ality. That object was clearly had intruded at the city’s airs.p.a.ce, but it didn’t seem to perform any attack.

It was possible to attack the object by using wyverns, but the 6th Flying Dragon Squadron had already sortied and was in the middle of returning. Since the object approached so rapidly, they also couldn’t prepare any additional equipment.

The only counterattack method they had at the present point was only firing with bows from the ground. Even so, it was clear that the arrow won’t reach the object.

The object was circling around several times above Maihark as if aiming for a prey while giving out the eerie whirring sounds.

「W……what the h.e.l.l is that‼?」

「Waaaaaa, monster‼ A monster has come‼」

The citizens’ face was frozen with fear. The people inside the house was so overwhelmed by fear that they began to close windows and doors one after another. It was a chaos as people on the road started to run around searching for a hiding place.

Even the pack animals like horse or landbird began to run of its own accord terrified by the sound from the object and ended caused accidents at many locations.

The object, that had bestowed dread and terror to the peaceful city, didn’t do anything, and after some moment, as if it had satisfied, it flew towards the north.

✦✧✦✧✦

Central Calendar Year 1639, Month 1, Day 27.

Qua-Toyne Princ.i.p.ality. A Port North of Trade City Maihark.

The port that was located north from the Trade City Maihark was somewhat apart from the city, but since it was affiliated with Maihark, it was called 『Port Maihark』

At that Port Maihark, there was a base where the 2nd Fleet of Qua-Toyne Princ.i.p.ality Navy was wrapped with a tension that was above the usual.

The origin of this tension was the event that happened 3 days ago. A large unidentified object had easily crossed the air defense network of the flying dragon squadron that the Princ.i.p.ality’s possessed and circled above Maihark. Since it didn’t perform any attack, it was conjectured conducting a reconnaissance, but the problem was, the unit was clearly not something from Louria Kingdom. Moreover there was no report of the existence of that unit in the Major Power of Three Great Civilized Land, Papardia Empire[2]. In the first place, there is a possibility that it wasn’t affiliated to any country.

Even so, it was a fact that the Princ.i.p.ality had been scouted out by an unidentified existence, which doubled the military’s air of tension.

Because the Qua-Toyne Princ.i.p.ality’s Military was in a state of high alert, every wars.h.i.+p were all out for offsh.o.r.e patrol duty. The 6th Flying Dragon Squadron too was tripling their vigilance of their observation network more than ever.

Patrol situation from every direction was routinely reported to Maihark Defense Control Room .

There was no any particular abnormality and they didn’t detect anything.

「What does Commander Nouka[3] think about the true form of the unidentified object?」

The young officer asked the Commander.

「Hmm…… Since I didn’t see it, I can’t say. It’s just, if it was only seen by one Dragon Knight, then that will end no more than an idle gossip. But every member of 6th Flying Dragon Squadron had witnessed it, furthermore, there were eyewitness reports from the Maihark citizen and the Knight Corps. At the very least, the unidentified object surely exist.」

Nouka continued his deduction as if he was putting his thoughts in order.

「There is no country in the east, and in the northeast, there are a group of islands with settlements, however from the report, none possessed that kind of unit. There is a possibility that it from Louria Kingdom or Papardia Empire in the Three Great Civilized Area on the north, but based on the armaments of both countries that had been recorded until now, there wasn’t anything that had that characteristic. We couldn’t exclude the possibility that it was a newly developed unit, but its shape is radically unusual. My intuition says, it doesn’t belong to either one.」

「I see……」

The inexperienced young officer, couldn’t conceal his uneasiness and dropped his shoulder.

As if instigated by that uneasiness, the communication operator yelled loudly.

「Commander‼ Commander‼」

The commander and the young officer’s expression was dyed with tension and looked together at the communication operator.

「Report from wars.h.i.+p Pima![4] 『Detected unidentified large s.h.i.+p. Current location, 60km north from Port Maihark. Will approach the s.h.i.+p and perform on-s.h.i.+p inspection』. 」

「Large s.h.i.+p……?」

What they discovered was not the unidentified object, so the commander made a doubtful expression. However, it’s a safe bet to say that this party had a connection to the aforementioned matter.

「If they only detected it, then it still isn’t clear what kind of s.h.i.+p it is…… Wars.h.i.+p Pima is the s.h.i.+p of Captain Midori, correct? Instruct them to report as soon as they distinguished the s.h.i.+p, put plenty attention when inspecting the s.h.i.+p without any incident, any suspicious point must be thoroughly investigated.」

「Yes, Sir!」

The order was then properly delivered to the wars.h.i.+p Pima by the communication operator.

Qua-Toyne Princ.i.p.ality. 60 km North from Port Maihark.

The wars.h.i.+p Pima that belonged to Qua-Toyne Princ.i.p.ality Navy’s 2nd Fleet, was currently heading towards the strange large s.h.i.+p.

The sail was fully hoisted, the caught wind was transformed into kinetic force, while the oars were thrust out from the s.h.i.+p and rowed according to the beat of the drum.

The wars.h.i.+p already switched into combat readiness. All crew was wearing leather armor. The sword-armed crew already standing by on the upper deck and readied their bow. Wooden s.h.i.+elds to ward arrow were lining up at the upper deck, and large ballista was installed at its side. There were also several oil jars placed nearby for fire arrow attack. They were ready to jump into combat at any time.

While keeping this readiness, the s.h.i.+p’s captain Midori turned pale at the unidentified large s.h.i.+p as they drew closer. Perhaps he realized the reason why they hadn’t yet arrived even after they had been approaching it for quite some time.

「Captain, perhaps the unidentified s.h.i.+p noticed that we are approaching so it seemed that they suddenly decreased their speed.」

Midori began to address the Vice Captain who haven’t realized the situation yet.

「That’s true…… Vice Captain, I will lead the inspection party. If something happened, I leave the command to you.」

「Yes, Captain…… Is there something you worried about?」

Since Midori’s stared at the large s.h.i.+p with unchanged expression, the Vice Captain also stared at the large s.h.i.+p.

Before long, finally he too realized the truth why they haven’t arrived at the s.h.i.+p even though they had been approaching since some time ago. Only the s.h.i.+p’s silhouette that gradually became bigger and bigger. Because of it was so big, they had miscalculated the distance between the s.h.i.+ps.

「……Vice Captain. Doesn’t its size has crossed over a normal s.h.i.+p standard?」

「Yes…… I also couldn’t see it other than a floating small island.」

Midori and his vice captain were lost for words, but somehow they able to wrung out words to talk.

「It seems that there is a flag of a red circle on plain white flown atop the s.h.i.+p. Do you recognize that kind of flag?」

「No, I never saw or heard a red circle on white flag before.」

「Then, do you know any country that possesses a s.h.i.+p that big?」

「That is…… I had went to Papardia for training before, even compared to the Empire’s 『100 Cannons-Cla.s.s s.h.i.+p-of-the-Line』[5] which can be called as a superweapon, that unidentified s.h.i.+p is clearly bigger.」

All crew of wars.h.i.+p Pima was overwhelmed by the gigantic size of that large s.h.i.+p as it drew closer.

Then, from the top of the large s.h.i.+p, dozens of people send forth blinking lights towards Pima. The crew was putting their guard thinking that it was some kind of attack, but they looked that the people were waving their hand to communicate that they don’t have any hostile intention.

Captain Midori turned his back to the bow and then address the crew without removing his stern expression.

「We will soon send an inspection party to board that s.h.i.+p. Unless there is an order from me, or the other s.h.i.+p attacked, never attack the other s.h.i.+p. Also, the affiliation of the other s.h.i.+p is still unknown, perhaps it belongs to a new emerging nation. Since it could become an international exchange, I forbid any careless intimidating att.i.tude, do you understand!」

「Yes!」

Captain Midori then guided by the large s.h.i.+p’s crew, boarded the large s.h.i.+p.

☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽

Let the cliff killing you. I purposefully cut the story at this paragraph… LoL.

In case you are wondering, next part will be the rare j.a.panese point of view, as the rest of the novels will be from the native’s POV.

Also, I will release 2 chapter of Takarakuji in 6 hours or so I plan.